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- Ελληνικά
It is an honour to be here to report on the latest developments on the major issue of our missing persons that we have to deal with. An issue that is the most tragic and painful consequence of the 1974 Turkish invasion and the ongoing Turkish occupation of our country for half a century now. It is a thoroughly humanitarian and sensitive, but above all a national duty: to work with all our forces to determine the fate of all our missing persons.
Before I refer to the actions of the Service I represent during the last year and the latest developments in the sensitive issue of our missing persons, I would like to congratulate the "Missing Persons' Love Marathon Foundation" and in particular the Pancyprian Missing Persons' Love Marathon Fund for organizing this event, and its action during the 39 consecutive years of the Missing Persons' Love Marathon. It is a foundation that supports the families of our missing persons, who are also victims of the Turkish invasion, acting as a balm to the wounds left by the black summer of 1974.
The disappearance of every person whose fate is still unknown today constitutes multiple violations of basic and fundamental human rights not only for the missing person, but also for his or her relatives, perpetuating their suffering, grief, mental anguish and absolute misery for the fate of their loved ones and the discovery of the truth. The serious violations of the human rights of the missing persons and their families are also recorded in the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the cases of Cyprus against Turkey.
Our main objective is to increase the flow of information to establish the truth about the fate of our missing persons. We are aware of the obstacles from the Turkish military, which prevent new exhumations and thus identifications of our missing persons, especially in areas arbitrarily designated as military zones.
One of the most important changes we have promoted is the strengthening of the ability to secure information. Now contacts and securing information are conducted under humane and friendly conditions, away from the interrogative police profile. This has helped to create a climate of trust and security, prompting informants and/or victims to speak out without fear of what they have kept inside for decades.
By removing investigative statements we are unlocking the prevailing silence and exploiting every possible piece of information. Now, the process of taking reports is conducted by our agency under more friendly and accessible conditions for anyone who possesses any information about our missing persons.
In almost the last year we have had a total of 16 identifications of remains, six of which are related to the Republic of Cyprus Programme, with the number of our missing persons reduced from 792 to 776. These six cases concern Greek soldiers of the ELDYK, whose families I visited together with an official of my Office in various towns and villages in Greece. In personal meetings we held in the homes of their relatives, as part of the people-centred approach of the President's Governance Programme, we informed the families. The families expressed their satisfaction because for the first time a representative of the President of the Republic visited them personally. The repatriation ceremonies of the remains of the six heroes will take place at the end of May 2024 and all due honours will be paid to our heroes.
The personal contact with the relatives of our missing persons, especially in cases where remains have been found, is the result of the new process of informing their relatives, which is now of a humanitarian nature. As a Service, we now follow the process of personal information, showing the necessary respect for human suffering and the sacrifice of their own person, so that until the funeral and afterwards, the family of the deceased is, as far as possible, psychologically prepared.
We emphasized and highlighted unseen aspects of our missing persons such as our missing children, the youngest being 6 months old and the oldest 18 years old, as well as the missing women of the Turkish invasion of 1974, totaling 118. The women victims of the invasion are a special tragic figure in the history of Cyprus and the least we can do is to acknowledge their contribution and sacrifice. And for those who are still alive, we must support them in every way and by every means to ease the pain and the tragic memories they have carried for fifty years.
Further, we have close contact and cooperation with an anthropologist from abroad, who has responded promptly whenever we have needed to call upon him, and we are working to further strengthen our team with additional scientists, anthropologists and archaeologists.
We have developed cooperation with the children of our missing persons, as well as with the Children of Missing Persons Initiative Group, in order to provide them with psychological and all forms of support, especially in cases where bones of their missing parents are found during exhumations and excavations. We started to compile a list of the children of the missing, which did not exist until recently, with the result that these children (now adults) remain neglected without any substantial support.
We provide information to the relatives of our missing persons on issues of concern to them. In our meetings with the relatives of our missing persons, we explain with maps the locations where searches and excavations have been or will be carried out. We are allowed to review the personal files of their own people, giving them a copy of a file and explaining the identification process and any other issues they are concerned about in order to support them.
It was also decided by the President of the Republic Mr. Nikos Christodoulides to grant a care allowance to the spouses of the missing, fallen and parents of the missing and fallen, in exactly the same way as it is granted to the prisoners and hostages of 1974, thus covering the gaps identified in terms of the State's debt to the relatives of our missing persons. This is a sign of recognition of the State's debt to the people who were called upon to carry a heavy and heavy cross which they have carried on their shoulders for 50 years.
In this effort, Your Beatitude, no one can be absent. The Church of Cyprus plays an important role in supporting and strengthening the will and faith of the children, parents and spouses of our missing persons. As a Service we stand ready to work together to further strengthen our actions to highlight the human-centred aspect of the problem as a distinct aspect of the Turkish atrocity of 1974.
The main objective of all of us must remain the determination of the fate of every missing person who perished during the Turkish invasion in 1974 and the intercommunal conflicts of 1963-1964, i.e. to ascertain the fate of all, so that no persons remain missing. It is unacceptable and inhuman for the relatives of our missing persons to be tormented daily for half a century with the unbearable pain of the absence of their loved ones, and for some of them to leave this life with the grief of not having their fate determined and ignorance of the truth of their fate.
Our missing persons are the most tragic aspect of the Turkish invasion. It is our duty, and the least we can do is to continue to make tireless efforts, both to ascertain their fate and to work to keep the memory of our missing persons alive.
Regarding the former, as I have already mentioned, significant steps have been taken with measurable results. However, we all know that we are faced with an occupying force, characterised by a rigid attitude, particularly on the issue of our missing persons. A purely humanitarian issue is, unfortunately, being treated with intransigence by the other side.
As you will know, the President of the Republic himself has raised the issue, not only with the occupying leader but also with leaders of foreign states and governments, in order to exert pressure on Turkey, so that obstacles to research and excavations can be overcome or at least reduced, and that cooperation prevails in order to give access to archives and other data that will help us to determine the fate of our missing persons.
Further, President Nicos Christodoulides decided to increase the financial contribution to the CMP in order to create more teams and more crews in the field of excavations with the sole aim of giving additional impetus to the CMP to become more efficient and have the operational capacity to operate at a faster pace.
Access to the truth to determine the fate of all our missing persons is the least that we as a State, Church and Society can offer to their families, who for 50 years have been stoically waiting to learn about the fate of their loved ones. Time is an enemy, and we know that. It has been 50 long years and answers are owed to these families.
George Seferis' lyrics "Memory, wherever you touch it, hurts" capture the drama of the relatives of our missing persons, for whom time froze for half a century in that black summer of 1974. For the relatives of our missing persons, memory is an unbearable pain, an excruciating agony, an open wound, which can be soothed by the discovery of the fate of each of our missing persons, but not closed.
This is a difficult and uphill road and the assurance that can be given at this moment is that we are determined to climb it and to continue our actions relentlessly and consistently. With stubbornness and humility, with faith and determination, we must reach a complete clarification of their fate and the necessary truth.
(PM/EP/NZ)
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