First I would like to congratulate the organizers, the Football Academy 1619 and especially the President and founder of the Academy Pambos Hatzipanagis and the Pancyprian Organization of Relatives of POWs and Missing Persons, which expresses all these years the pain and anguish of the relatives and struggles for so many years to determine the fate of all their loved ones.
The clarification of the fate of the missing and fallen with convincing and conclusive evidence as well as the return of the remains to their families for a dignified burial, was and is a matter of the utmost importance and priority of the respective governments of Cyprus and Greece. The President of the Republic Mr. Nicos Anastasiades has repeatedly made public appeals to anyone who possesses evidence that can help in determining the fate of the missing persons to submit it. At the same time, with undiminished interest and tireless efforts, actions and activities are being carried out at all levels to improve the effectiveness of cooperation between the competent bodies dealing with relevant issues. At the same time, at the international level, the problem of the missing and fallen is raised at every opportunity by the President of the Republic and other officials of the Government, both at bilateral and multilateral levels, as well as in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in international forums. At the same time, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Legal Service, our Representative to the Committee of Inquiry on Missing Persons and the Organization of Relatives of Missing Persons, we are making every possible effort within the framework of the Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council of Europe to implement and realize the decisions of the ECHR of 2001 and 2014, concerning the problem of the Greek Cypriot missing persons. It is recalled that the Republic of Cyprus has filed four inter-state applications against Turkey at the Council of Europe, which ruled on the violation of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Efforts to curb Turkish intransigence and make progress are also being made in cooperation with the organized groups of our expatriates, especially in countries and decision-making centers where the Governments of these countries are in a position to exert pressure and influence on the occupying power to cooperate.
I would also like to recall that due to the situation in which the efforts to solve the problem of our missing persons have found themselves, the Council of Ministers had decided in 2019 on an Action Plan for actions and initiatives in Cyprus and abroad aimed at achieving progress in the efforts to resolve the tragedy of the missing and fallen and their families. Most of the provisions of the Action Plan have been implemented.
We always stress that it is unacceptable and inhumane for so many decades that the souls of so many of our compatriots in Cyprus and Greece who continue to climb their personal Golgotha are tormented daily, without receiving the answers they have been seeking for the fate of their loved ones, without having the opportunity to pay their last respects, in accordance with our faith and sacred traditions.
In our contacts and on every occasion we also stress that the decisions of international tribunals established specifically for the protection of human rights cannot be so defiantly disregarded and ignored by the occupying power. The international community cannot continue to tolerate Turkey's contempt for the basic principles and values of civilized humanity.
Turkey has enormous responsibilities and obligations both for the creation of the problem and for its perpetuation to date, which causes untold pain and anguish every day to the suffering families. We wonder when the international community will turn a blind eye to the violations of the human rights of the missing persons and their families. Violations that have been decided and defined by the institutions of the international community such as the European Court of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and so many others.
48 years have passed since the Turkish invasion and about 50% of our missing persons' cases are still pending. At the same time, most families have few or isolated remains delivered for burial, which raises additional questions and questions for the families and does not allow them to move on to close a painful chapter of the loss of their loved ones.
We do not underestimate the work that has been done within the Missing Persons' Committee (MMP). The Government has supported and continues to support in every way the efforts of the ICRC to resolve the humanitarian aspect of the missing persons problem. Unfortunately, the results of the exhumations in the occupied territories have not been as expected. The source of the problems is the refusal of the occupying power to cooperate on the issues that are an obstacle to progress. The occupying power refuses to submit the information available in the records of the Turkish army on the fate of our missing persons, especially the pending cases. It continues to place obstacles and obstructions in the arbitrarily called military zones for both searches and exhumations. It refuses to point to the mass graves created by the Turkish army from the collections of the dead from the battlefields. The same refusal characterizes the occupying power in revealing the new reburial sites of the remains deliberately moved by the Turkish army from the primary burial sites.
With sincerity and goodwill, our side is participating in the relevant efforts by facilitating the investigative work and making available to the Commission all the evidence at its disposal. However, this is not the case with the many more cases of Greek Cypriot and Greek Cypriot missing persons pending before the Commission. We acknowledge the problems that exist, such as construction, the death of witnesses, the fading of memory, etc. that have been raised from time to time, but these are clearly subordinate in importance to those related to the lack of the required will and volition on the part of the party involved in the disappearance of large numbers of persons even after their arrest.
We all understand that it is clear that without the sincere cooperation and assistance of the occupying power we neither expect nor appreciate that progress can be made. It is for this reason that we expect and expect the United Nations, the European Union, and other countries to take humanitarian initiatives and actions, even now, to put pressure on the occupying power to cooperate and finally behave as a member of civilized humanity that respects international law and the principles and values of human rights.
Friends,
Time is inexorable. Most first-degree relatives of our missing persons, especially parents, have passed away in the agony and pain of uncertainty of the fate of their loved ones. It goes against every principle of humanitarianism for families to wait for answers for almost half a century in a small European country like ours. The pain of families is daily and unbearable when families could have had answers about the fate of their loved ones many years ago. Unfortunately, the callous behaviour of the occupying power is perpetuating in the most barbaric and inhumane way the suffering of the waiting families. We have always stood by and will continue to stand by the honest struggle of the families who are asking for the obvious, which unfortunately, in our country, are a luxury. Our support and solidarity are not a balm for the families' festering wounds. But they are our commitment and our debt to the families and our heroes that we will not give up the struggle, we will continue and intensify our efforts until the Turkish intransigence is overcome and the occupying power is forced to cooperate in accordance with the principles and values of international law and human rights. It is the duty and imperative of all of us, state and people, to continue our sacred struggle for those who have perished and whose families are still suffering in Cyprus and Greece, defending universal human values and ideals such as freedom and the territorial integrity of our homeland.
This commitment is not a figure of speech but an obligation and duty of the state towards the heroes and their families.
(PM/MG)
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