Since April 1983 the members of the Organisation of Relatives of Missing Cypriots in the UK (ORMC) have been doing their bit in trying to discover the fate of their loved ones, missing for 40 years now, ever since the Turkish invasion of the island.
The Organisation’s declared objectives include lobbying the people and institutions which, directly or indirectly, are in a position to influence a resolution of the Cypriot missing persons problem, to inform public opinion in the UK about the issue and the humanitarian tragedy it represents, and also to coordinate the efforts of the relatives of the missing and all those that work towards the solution of the problem in the UK.
Neoklis Neokleous, President of the Organisation, has told Cyprus News Agency that the missing persons’ relatives are doing what they can, as British nationals and voters, to put pressure on the UK government so it exercises its influence over Turkey, in order for it to cooperate on resolving this thorny issue. “Turkey must be forced to abide by the relevant verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights, to provide all the information it possesses about the missing ones and to permit excavations in the so-called military zones,” stressed Neokleous.
Over the last three decades the Organisation has been lobbying British MPs, European Parliament Members, the Council of Europe and other bodies. “Here in the UK we have the support of some MPs. Those ones do care and we are satisfied with their support. But with no sufficient government support things are difficult,” said the ORMC President.
Referring to the Committee of Missing Persons, which enables relatives of missing persons to recover the remains of their loved ones, he noted that it is performing an important task; however progress is being achieved “very slowly”. According to Neokleous, “the CMP must and can become more demanding of those responsible for the perpetuation of this problem to provide it with vital information. That way we won’t be wasting so much time and money on excavating areas where no bones are to be found.”
The ORMC President also asked for a more active engagement by international organisations such the Council of Europe and the European Union in convincing Turkey to cooperate. “People and many politicians may believe that this is a humanitarian issue. But things remain stagnant without a meaningful change of stance from the Turkish side,” lamented Neoklis Neokleous. “Unfortunately, due to economic and other interests, no real pressure is being put upon Turkey by the planet’s powerful ones,” he added.
On a more personal note, also conveying the feelings of the relatives of missing persons in Cyprus, Neokleous said that under these circumstances life is torturous: “Unfortunately, time makes this torture worse. It is so when you know that many of the missing ones that were taken alive, as undeclared prisoners, were later executed in cold blood.
“We would like first of all to find our beloved ones. Then those responsible should be prosecuted, thus conveying the message that such crimes against humanity are not be tolerated,” said Neoklis Neokleous, President of the Organisation of Relatives of Missing Persons in the UK.