Newsroom / CNA
Excavations have begun in the ‘Pente Mili’ area of Karavas in Cyprus' occupied Kyrenia district, for locating the remains of the first victims of the Turkish invasion, approximately 40-70 people, the House Committee on Refugees, heard on Tuesday, as well as that developments were expected regarding the issue of remains that were sprayed with chemicals and could not be identified.
The Parliamentary Committee on Refugees-Enclaved-Missing-Adversely Affected Persons was briefed extensively on Tuesday about developments in the issue of missing persons in Cyprus.
During the meeting, the Head of Humanitarian Affairs for Missing Persons and the Enclaved, Anna Aristotelous, told MPs that more than 49% of the cases of missing persons were still pending to this day and that the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, has decided to increase the Republic of Cyprus' contribution to the Committee on Missing Persons, to set up more teams and excavation crews, with the sole aim of boosting the operational capability of the CMP.
At the same time, she added, emphasis has been placed on invisible aspects of the issue such as women and children who went missing. According to Aristotelous, 118 of the 1619 missing persons were women, of whom 26 have been identified. The missing persons list includes 36 children, 20 of whom were identified. The youngest was six months old and the oldest 18 years old, she said.
She also noted that recently seven cases of missing persons were identified, while seven more identifications were expected, through the programme of the Republic of Cyprus and that their families in Greece have been informed. Remains of nine Greek heroes, that had been stored at the CMP anthropological laboratory were repatriated, while another six people from Greece were buried at the Makedonitissa Tomb military cemetery, in Nicosia.
Aristotelous also noted that there were developments regarding remains that had been sprayed with chemicals years ago. After unsuccessful identification attempts abroad, she said, in collaboration with the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, a massive parallel sequencing testing machine was purchased and the process of examining the chemically impregnated remains has begun. “We are optimistic that we will get results”, she said.
She also noted that the collection of information was ongoing and reiterated her appeal to members of the public to come forward with any information related to missing persons.
Responding to MPs' questions, Aristotelous said that within the past year, the remains of 18 missing persons were located or identified as well as of three persons fallen during the invasion, through the CMP programme, while 14 identifications were made through the Republic of Cyprus programme.
Representatives of the CMP, Maria Achilleos and Andreas Christou, told MPs that excavations were currently being carried out by the CMP in Yeri, in the free areas, and in Karavas (Pente Mili), Templos, Agia, Marathovounos and Galatia, in the occupied areas.
In relation to excavations in military areas, the representatives of the CMP said that the occupation army grants a total of 10 permits per year for excavations in military areas, but these come with many restrictions, especially in relation to the possible expansion of an excavation, but also due to that there is no possibility to visit the military area in advance to demarcate the excavation area.
According to the information provided by CMP, the excavation at Pente Mili has started in one of three sites for which they have been granted permission to excavate, as it is a military area.
The CMP representatives also briefed MPs about another area where it is believed that missing persons have been buried, in Dikomo, which is now a dumpster.
They said that two surveys have been carried out by experts and that, at the moment, permission from the Turkish Cypriot authorities was pending to initially remove excess material to begin excavation at the 1974 street level.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown.
A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.
