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Great Solemn Vespers and Prayer for the discovery of the fate of the Missing - Memorial of the Missing identified
For yet another year we are in this sacred place to pay the required tribute to our missing persons. We gather today to renew our commitment that as a state and as a society we will not forget, we will not compromise and we will not stop seeking information that will lead us to the discovery of the fate of our last missing person.
Most of you here are well aware of what we often describe as the drama of missing persons. You know the pain of the parent who for fifty years has been searching for their child. The agony of the wife who patiently awaits his return, holding their minor child, now middle-aged, in her arms, with the unfulfilled void of the absence of a beloved parent. You have experienced the emptiness of the father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather and friend who has lost their support, you have seen or experienced the vacant stare of children who grew up without a father, the empty chair at the table.
Whatever the description, it does not reflect the magnitude of the tragedy and Turkish brutality. No matter what attempt is made to put into words all that our refugees, the war wounded, the prisoners, the families of the heroes and the missing of the Turkish invasion, but also our martyred people in general, nothing can describe the pain and the devastation caused by the Turkish invasion.
And all this came from one crime, that of the summer of 1974. A crime that half a century later continues. This is our modern tragedy. Whether we are talking about the occupation and the illegal presence of the Turkish army in our occupied territories, or whether we are talking about the issue of our missing persons. What we point out every time, in every direction, is that time does not close the wounds and our demand remains steadfast no matter how many years pass. The fifty years that have passed have not dampened our stubbornness and determination to return. The change of generation has not dampened our determination to ascertain the fate of our missing persons.
According to experts, each generation occupies an average of 20 years. In Cyprus, fifty years after the invasion, today's children belong to the third generation growing up under occupation. The years may be many, many may believe that the hourglass is being emptied. But it is in our hands and it is not our obligation, but our duty, through the timeless ties that have kept us standing over the centuries, to pass on those principles and values that are reflected in Theodosi Pierides' record "A thousand years if they pass - we do not die slaves".
On the issue of our missing persons, I would like to stress that for the last one and a half years, the focus of our efforts, based on the Governance Programme of the President of the Republic Mr. Nikos Christodoulides, has been the determination of the fate of our missing persons and a humane approach to the issue. In this context, we have evolved our approach, we have made changes in the way our office works and it is a fact that we have measurable and tangible results.
In the last year in particular we have been able to proceed with 14 identifications of our missing persons from the Republic of Cyprus programme and additional identifications of our fallen remains and we continue to target specific results. By adopting and promoting a human-centred approach to the very important chapter of information gathering, we have strengthened our efforts to determine the fate of our missing persons. We cannot, however, declare ourselves satisfied if the fate is not discerned, if we do not find out what really happened to our last missing person.
For this to happen, however, we all know that there will have to be corresponding cooperation from Turkey, which insists on dealing politically with a purely humanitarian issue such as that of our missing persons. It refuses any form of cooperation and access to records that would shed light on facts and events relating to the fate of our missing persons.
The message I would like to send today is that we are doing everything possible to carry out the mission we have undertaken. With sincerity, empathy and a deep sense of duty. We continue on a difficult and uphill road, accompanied by the relatives of our missing persons, who, whether or not the fate of their loved ones has been determined, keep the wound open.
After all, the soul of our people can rest with the burial of even a few bones, but this cannot heal the wounds and answer the questions of half a century, five decades.
In closing, I would like to express my respect to all of you who are always here, to the relatives of our fallen and missing, and to assure you that the struggle to determine the fate of our last missing person will continue to the end. When our will is great, difficulties are not insurmountable.
(PM/AS/NZ)
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