While visiting Brussels to address the European Parliaments Civil Liberties Committee, Famagusta MP Skevi Koukouma Koutra met with British Conservative MEP Marina Yannakoudakis to discuss the issue of missing persons in Cyprus. Ms. Koukouma Koutra is the Chairwoman of the Cypriot House of Representatives Standing Committee on Refugees-Enclaved-Missing-Adversely Affected Persons.
Ms. Koukouma Koutra called on Members of the European Parliament to exert pressure on Turkey to allow access to 30 military sites for exhumations.
Mrs. Yannakoudakis, supports Ms. Koukouma Koutras call for Turkey to give excavating crews access to the military sites.
The London MEP said: I have been told that Turkey has no objection to the opening up of so-called military sites in the north. So lets see some action. We need to see mass graves open in the occupied zone today. Tomorrow may be too late for the relatives of the missing.
Ms. Koukouma Koutra also called for further financial support for the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus. The European Union is the largest donor to the CMP having provided nearly two-thirds of the total funding since 2006 and more than three-quarters of the funding in 2013.
Mrs. Yannakoudakis believes that funding to the CMP should continue, but wants to first see results specifically the opening of three priority sites out of the 30 Turkish military zones before there is any reinforcement of the funding.