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- Ελληνικά
Wednesday, 29 November 2023
A delegation of the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons and Victims, consisting of the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Mr. Nikos Kettiros (Head) and the Members Mr. Nikos Georgiou, Christos Seneki, Sotiris Ioannou, Michalis Yakoomi and Costis Efstathiou, paid a visit to the European Parliament (EP) yesterday, 28 November 2023.
The delegation participated in a meeting of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) of the EP, where the EP's Permanent Rapporteur on the missing persons of Cyprus, Ms. Isabel Santos, presented her work and activities on the issue. The President of the Committee on Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons and Missing Persons Mr. Ketteros also presented the state of play on the issue of missing persons in Cyprus, followed by an exchange of views with the Members of the Committee. Kettereros expressed his gratitude for the financial contribution of the European Union (EU) to the budget of the Missing Persons' Committee (MMP) and stated that the issue of the missing persons in Cyprus was recognised as a humanitarian issue and should be resolved as a priority, regardless of the negotiation efforts to solve the Cyprus problem. He informed about the important work carried out by the ICRC towards establishing the fate of all missing persons in Cyprus and stressed the importance of Turkey's cooperation with the ICRC in this direction. Turkey's refusal to provide information from its military archives, as well as information on the places where the occupying army moved the remains, is the most important problem in the effort to determine the fate of the missing persons, Kettereros stressed.
The President of the Commission informed that Turkey has designated about 60% of the occupied areas as a military zone or military area and stressed the need to declassify them in order to allow ICRC crews access to these areas. In light of this, Ketteros pointed out, the ICRC is working against the clock and such restrictions are an obstacle to its work. With regard to access to open areas which the occupation regime has granted for use, the President of the Commission referred to the fact that the access of the ICRC crews to these areas depends on the consent of the users, which creates a chain of delays in the Commission's work.
In the framework of its visit, the Parliament's delegation also held separate bilateral meetings with Cypriot MEPs Mr. Mr. Loukas Fourlas, Mr. Dimitris Papadakis, Mr. Kostas Mavridis, Mr. George Georgiou and Mr. Niyazi Kiziljirek, with the EP's Permanent Rapporteur on Missing Persons in Cyprus, Ms. Isabel Santos, as well as with the coordinator of the European People's Party in the LIBE Committee, Mr. Isabel Santos. During the meetings, members of the delegation stressed the importance of resolving the humanitarian issue of the missing persons in Cyprus and the need to put pressure on Turkey to cooperate with the ICRC.
MEP Mr. Nikos Georgiou condemned Turkey's criminal and inhumane attitude on the issue of the missing persons of Cyprus and called on the EP and especially the LIBE Committee to take a more active role and action for a more effective management of the issue, exerting the appropriate political pressure on occupying Turkey.
MEP Mr. Christos Senekis stressed that access to the Turkish military archives is of capital importance, because it has been established that during the 1990s there were movements of bones with the apparent aim of disappearing evidence that may have documented war crimes by the Turkish occupying army.
MEP Sotiris Ioannou pointed out Turkey's unacceptable attitude to the drama of the missing persons and the degrading treatment of their relatives. He wondered how we can have confidence in Turkey in the event of a Cyprus settlement, in light of its stance on a highly humanitarian issue.
MEP Michalis Yiakoumi said that pressure should be put on Turkey to cooperate with the ICRC on the issue of the missing persons in Cyprus and pointed out that this issue should be linked to Turkey's European perspective and its interests in general. More specifically, he denounced the obstruction and manipulation observed by Attila, since 2017, in the case of the mass grave of the executed Assyrians in Ornithi, where there is a complete picture from the execution to the movement of the remains to Dikomo. The efforts to find the missing persons, he said, are the minimum obligation to their relatives.
MP Kostis Efstathiou said that the rhetoric about "Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot missing persons", which perpetuates the division of Cyprus and on this humanitarian issue, should stop. There are, Efstathiou stressed, Missing Persons, regardless of religion, language or national origin, since the drama they are experiencing is the same. Therefore, he pointed out, efforts must be joint which will make the whole project more efficient.
(Text as sent by the House of Representatives)
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