The claims of a Turkish citizen that he might be Greek Cypriot who was transferred to Turkey following the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island, are proven incorrect based on genetic tests, Cyprus Foreign Ministry has announced.
According to the announcement issued Monday, after a written consent of the Turkish citizen, genetic material was taken last week which was then analyzed and compared with samples in the data bank of the Institute of Neurology and Genetics in Nicosia.
The FM says that the genetic profile of that person was first compared with the genetic profile of relatives of 30 missing persons aged from 6 months to 16 years during the Turkish invasion. Then it was compared with all entries at the Forensic Genetics Laboratory of the Institute of Neurology and Genetics.
According to the announcement, from the results of all of the aforementioned comparisons, no correlation was observed between the genetic profile of the Turkish citizen and any of the genetic profiles that are registered to date in the electronic Data Base of the Genetic Profile of relatives of missing / deceased in the Republic of Cyprus.
The Foreign Ministry reiterates that the humanitarian issue of missing persons is a matter of the utmost priority of the Republic and it is handled with due seriousness and responsibility, having always in mind the imperative necessity to end the ongoing tragedy experienced daily by the families of missing persons.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. The fate of hundreds of people remains unknown. UN-backed talks, aiming to reunite the island under a federal roof, resumed on May 15, this year.
The Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning the remains of missing persons to their relatives.