In the chaos and disorder that followed the barbaric Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the authotities’ primary concern was to provide assistance to the displaced. Some 150,000 people were forced to flee their homes and found shelter in tents and fields.
The drama of the missing, which remains unsolved, half a century later, began to surface a few weeks later.
Nikos Sergides, Chairman of the organisation of relatives of undeclared prisoners and missing persons told the Cyprus News Agency that those first weeks the International Red Cross began to publish the lists of prisoners and a large number of soldiers, as well as civilians, were not among them, even though there were testimonies and evidence for many of them that they were arrested and held prisoners by the Turks.
“The relatives contacted an International Red Cross team that came to Cyprus and declared their disappearance. The anxiety peaked at the end of October 1974, when the exchange of prisoners was completed and many of the missing did not return,” he tells CNA.
Their families began seeking information but this information was confusing and often contradictory. They then began to get organized and formed the organization as we know it today. “A group of fathers of missing led by Priest Christoforos, Lazaros Skalistis, Aristides Constantinou and others created the organization demanding that Turkey provide information and explanations about the fate of those missing”, he said.
Sergides told the Cyprus News Agency that marches and demonstrations were organized, exerting pressure in Cyprus and abroad for the fate of the missing.
The Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) was established in 1981.But as Sergides says, it remained inactive until 2006, due to the Turkish stance. As a result of this intransigence 51 years later, we are still searching for approximately 800 missing persons, he noted.
Elias Georgiades was appointed representative of the Greek Cypriot side to the CMP in 1985. He remained in this position until 2011, when he resigned.
He tells the Cyprus News Agency that Committee was ineffective for many years, because of disagreements and tactics. He praised the dynamic struggle of the relatives n Cyprus and abroad, the contribution of the diaspora, adding that finally, in 2004, a positive change occurred which resulted to beginning of the exhumation program.
Although there was an agreement in 1997 by the then leaders of the two communities Glafkos Clerides and Rauf Denktash, this was never activated due to the Turkish stance. However, Georgiades said, contributed to a small change in the situation, since for the first time Denktash accepted references to possible burial sites of proven dead missing persons.
He further said that a series of conditions also assisted , namely Ankara’s EU aspirations, ECHR decision in 2001 and developments in DNA technology.
He also told the CNA that Turkish Cypriot relatives of missing were mobilized to participate in the Government’s program to search for missing persons and recalls the statement of Rustem Tatar, father of the current leader of the Turkish Cypriots, Ersin Tatar, who was a member of the CMP at the time, that he would accept the search for burial sites of missing persons in the occupied areas.
But how were the first archives and database got organized?
The first weeks and months the authorities began searching for information in the archives of the police, the Cyprus Intelligence Service and the National Guard which were eventually gathered in the Government Service for Missing Persons which was then formed. There were individual files for each missing person. Information was also available in the archives of the States that maintained military in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus and the International Red Cross.
CMP got their hands on this information 2-3 years ago, Sergides said. The first lists of missing persons were prepared by a team of the International Red Cross, based on the statements of their relatives and were handed over to both sides at the Ledra Palace talks in June 1975. These lists included approximately 2,500 people, many of whom were describhed as ‘closed’ cases. There were also hundreds of duplicates,, Sergides said.
The final list of missing persons was drawn up, which included 1,619 people. In 1995 the Cyprus Government removed 126 people who are considered dead. The list of the remaining 1,493 people was published in the official government newspaper , the Gazette, on July 10, 2000.
The list of the dead, which was also published includes 1,009 people, both conscripts and civilians.
The most important work in terms of information was done by the families of the missing, Leonidas Pantelides, current representative of the Greek Cypriot side in the CMP, tells the Cyprus News Agency.
Pantelides took office in 2019.
The information in those first weeks, he tells us, came from various sources and statements were also taken from survivors and the enclaved in 1975 and 1976. But the families were an important source.
Pantelides explains that the records from the UN and the Red Cross became known to CMP the last few years. There were visits to Switzerland and New York city where an essential work and the systematic reading of confidential files were done, between 2016 and 2020.
UNFICYP records became also availablee but Pantelides noted that unfortunately, between 1974-2016, no systematic research had been done in New York and Switzerland.
All the different sources, archives, documents etc are now gathered in one database. This database contains also all the information, the reports of archaeologists and photographs.
The visualization of all this information, which was in text form, was done during the coronavirus lockdown.
He also said that the establishment of the CMP was the result of pressure from relatives.
Back then in 1981 when it was founded, there was not even a list of missing persons and distrust prevailed. The meetings were held with tension and for many years, there was no disclosure of these lists that both sides had.
Then discussions began for a single list that included 1,619 persons and was reduced to 1,510.
Pantelides recalls that no excavations were taking place at that time which finally took place in 2006.
In 2004-2005, the excavations began by the Greek Cypriot side and this gave an impetus, Pantelides said. Finally bicommunal teams were formed for joint excavations. So far from 2006 until now, a total of 1,700 excavations were conducted.
The first excavations were assisted by teams of experts from Argentina.
Pantelided, having sometimes accompanied witnesses to excavations, was asked to describe his experiences.
“It’s difficult to single out a case. How can you possibly do that? How do you distinguish a case of a soldier who fought alone from a case of a mass execution of forty people? Each case is tragic, dramatic and you get attached,” he tells us.
He also mentions that the door of the CMP is always open daily to all relatives, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
Based on the information provided to CNA on July 8, CMP teams are currently conducting investigations in 9 locations in the occupied areas and in the Republic. In five cases, the information refers to burials of up to at least 6 people. Excavations were done in some of these locations in the past and remains that belong to a total of 59 poeple were exhumed.
According to a report by the CMP with updated data, the Commission exhumed 1,704 remains by early May 2025. In total, out of the 2,002 missing persons, 1,054 missing persons were identified.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown.
A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.
