President Nicos Anastasiades has welcomed the UN decision to put the archives of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at the disposal of the Committee on Missing Persons, to expedite and render more effective the effort to establish the fate of the missing persons.
“The President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades welcomes the decision by the United Nations – as it was announced by the UN Secretary General in New York during his meeting with the members of the Committee on the Missing Persons (CMP), – to place the archives of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at the disposal of CMP, so as to expedite and render more effective the effort for the ascertainment of the fate of the missing persons” a written statement issued on Saturday by the Deputy Government Spokesman Viktoras Papadopoulos said.
Papadopoulos added that the President was satisfied because the decision of the United Nations is a result of the representations and the request made by the current Cypriot Government.
“President Anastasiades expects that there will be a similar response to the request addressed to Turkey, so that Turkey will cooperate and place the archives of the Turkish army at the disposal of the CMP, so that the agony and the drama experienced by the relatives of the missing persons come to an end”.
Members of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus, Turkish Cypriot Gülden Plümer Küçük, Greek Cypriot Nestoras Nestoros and Paul-Henri Arni met on Wednesday with the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon whom they briefed on progress made and challenges faced by the CMP.
According to a press release issued by UNFICYP on the Thursday, the Secretary-General reaffirmed his support to the Members and expressed the United Nations` commitment to provide access to all relevant archives for the purpose of helping the CMP find information on possible burial sites of missing persons. He further expressed hope that a pragmatic way would be found to obtain information from all other relevant archives.
The Republic of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. As a result of the invasion, many Greek Cypriots were listed as missing, most of whom soldiers or reservists, who were captured in the battlefield. Turkish Cypriots are also listed as missing.
CMP was 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.