Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades pledged on Tuesday evening that there could be no solution of the Cyprus problem if there is no reciprocation on the part of Turkey to the justified demand by relatives of missing persons to find out what happened to their loved ones.
President Anastasiades was addressing an event, in Kornos, organised by the Pancyprian Organisation of Parents and Relatives of Undeclared Prisoners and Missing Persons and the Panhellenic Committee to mark the anniversaries of the coup d` `état engineered by the Greek military junta in July 1974 and he Turkish invasion of the island which followed.
He welcomed the presence once more of Greeks who have been waiting with the same patience as Greek Cypriots for 42 years to find out under what conditions they lost their loved ones.
The Cypriot President assured missing persons relatives that the state is doing everything humanly possible to stop the Turkish intransigence shown for this particularly sensitive, humanitarian problem which concerns people who are missing because of their duty and love for their country.
We are trying in every way we can to reverse the climate, he said.
He added that together with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci they have visited the workshop of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) and are jointly taking steps to ensure the work done by the CMP is not discontinued. We will not allow this, he pointed out.
Addressing the event House of Representatives President Demetris Syllouris said that the Republic continuous its appeals for anyone who has any information about the fate of missing persons to come forward and reiterated that the more time passes the more finding the remains of missing persons becomes more difficult.
He said Turkey is the greatest obstacle standing in the way of resolving this humanitarian issue once and for all and urged her to assume its responsibilities deriving from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling on the 4th Interstate Application by the Cyprus Government against Turkey, on the basis of which Turkey is required to fully facilitate the effort to identify missing persons, by providing all relevant information related to their fate and allowing access to areas which fall within military zones.
Turkish troops invaded Cyprus on 20 July 1974, following a military coup that toppled the legal government of the Republic which was engineered with the Greek military junta.
In a two-phase invasion and despite repeated calls by the UN Security Council, Turkey occupied 37% of the sovereign territory of the Cyprus. Ankara continues to maintain some 40,000 troops in the northern areas of Cyprus, in complete disregard of appeals for their withdrawal and calls to contribute to a political settlement through peace talks.
The consequences of Turkey’s illegal aggression were devastating and are still felt by the Cypriot people: gross violation of human rights, with hundreds of people still listed as missing, Greek Cypriot refugees in anticipation of a solution that would allow them to return home, enclaved Greek Cypriots being deprived of fundamental rights and the island’s 9,000 year old cultural heritage being pillaged.