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- Ελληνικά
Wednesday, 19 July 2023, 20.00 p.m.
Panorama of the Missing, Kornos
Your Excellency Mr. President of the Republic of Cyprus,
Your Beatitude Archbishop of New Justinian and All Cyprus,
Your Excellency Mr. First Vice President of the Hellenic Parliament,
Honourable representatives of parliamentary parties,
Honorable Deputy Minister of National Defence of Greece,
Honorable Deputy Minister of Social Welfare,
Honorable Ambassador of Greece,
Dear Fellow Members of Parliament,
Honorable Mayors and Presidents of Communities,
Honorable Chief of the General Staff of National Defence,
Honorable Mr. Deputy Chief of the National Guard,
Honorable Mr. Commander of the ELDYK,
Honorable gentlemen and ladies former deputies,
Dear Mr. Representative of the Committee of Inquiry on Missing Persons,
Dear Mr. President of the Pancyprian Organization of Relatives of Captured and Missing Persons,
Dear Madam President of the Panhellenic Committee of Parents and Relatives of Captured and Missing Persons of the Cyprus Tragedy,
Respected members of families of captured and missing persons,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is truly inconceivable! Almost half a century later, in the year 2023, European Cyprus is still counting missing persons... It has not yet buried its dead, honouring them as they deserve.
It is inconceivable that there are still people who remain for 49 years trapped in ignorance.
Trapped in the guilty and timid silences of those who know...
Immersed in the darkness of the most tragic aspect of a horrible war crime.
People whose lives were suspended... For them, time froze in 1974 when they lost track of their loved ones... Waiting patiently... Witnessing in their own silent mourning.
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is with great sorrow and a heavy sense of duty that we are here today in this memorial site of the Panorama of the Missing. And we are all here!
Here where the perseverance and the vigilant spirit of the relatives of our missing are embodied, keeping the memory unquenched, to reaffirm in practice, not only in words, that their struggle is also ours.
It is the struggle of all, until vindication. Until the fate of each and every one of our missing persons is determined.
Forty-nine years after the treacherous coup and the brutal Turkish invasion that led to the partition of our homeland, the wound remains open. Seven hundred and sixty-nine people out of the original one thousand six hundred and nineteen are still missing. Among them, soldiers, reservists, civilians, elderly civilians, women and children. Behind each number a son, a brother, a wife, a mother, a father, one of our own.
It is, ladies and gentlemen, an unquestionable fundamental right of relatives to receive answers about the fate of their loved ones. And it is our obligation, as a state and as the international community, to exert pressure to ensure its implementation.
The issue of the missing persons was recognized by all sides as a major humanitarian issue, which should and could be resolved, regardless of the negotiation efforts for the resolution of the Cyprus problem and the reunification of the island.
Humanitarian for both sides, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, as human suffering knows no borders and barbed wire. Unfortunately, however, Turkey's attitude on this issue has also been extremely disappointing and provocative.
Systematically ignoring fundamental principles of international law, turning a deaf ear to resolutions, court decisions, declarations and appeals, Ankara continues to stubbornly refuse to provide evidence to determine the fate of our missing persons, avoiding to assume its heavy responsibilities for this crime, which continues to this day. Instead, it takes every opportunity to instrumentalize human suffering by withholding essential information.
Ladies and gentlemen,
As the House of Representatives, we will continue to support, in every way and by every means, the work of the Commission of Inquiry. At the same time, through parliamentary diplomacy, we maintain and intensify the pressure on Turkey to comply with the decisions of the ICTY.
At this point, after welcoming the presence of representatives of the Greek Government, as well as the Greek Parliament, allow me to make special mention of the intention of the Greek Parliament to establish 29 October as the "National Day of the Missing of Cyprus". It is our constant aim, through concerted efforts, with the support of the parliaments of the permanent and non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, as well as international organizations, to exert all possible influence on Turkey to allow access to military records and exhumations in the so-called "military zones", in order to put an end to a deeply humanitarian issue, which is a source of anguish and a dream for the modern world.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Turkey's criminal attitude does not, however, absolve us of our own errors or omissions as a state. It is commonly accepted that we have lost valuable time. We therefore owe it to ourselves not only to publicly apologise for the moral satisfaction of the relatives, but to make every effort to rectify tragic mistakes of the past. We must be able to look these people in the eye, who for years have lived and endured with the most painful wound of war bleeding wide open.
Friends,
Unfortunately, we cannot change the past or erase the horror and devastation it conceals. But we can do everything in our power to illuminate its darker aspects through truth and justice, the minimum justice under the circumstances. Respect for human life and human rights is a universal human value. We ought to join forces.
And we hope wholeheartedly, Mr. President, that the positive response of the Turkish Cypriot leader to your invitation for a meeting at the ICRC's anthropological workshop, as you announced, will create new dynamics at least on this humanitarian issue.
It would be a good thing to see substantial developments in the Cyprus problem as well. To pave the way for the resumption of talks from where they left off in Crans-Montana, for a solution within the framework of UN resolutions and resolutions, compatible with European principles and values.
Only in this way can we hope for a common future, a free reunited homeland without occupying troops, where peace, security, prosperity and respect for the human rights of all its inhabitants without exception will be guaranteed.
Respected Relatives of our Missing,
I would like to close by sending once again a clear message: You are not alone. Your struggle is our struggle. We are at your side, and we will fight together, until the fate of our last missing person is determined.
