AKEL MEP George Georgiou sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, on the need to erect a joint monument in the European Parliament for the missing persons of all communities in Cyprus.

Letter from AKEL MEP G. Georgiou to the President of the European Parliament on the erection of a monument to all those missing persons in Cyprus

29 October 2025, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

 

The letter is reproduced below in its entirety.

“Dear Madam President,

I am writing to you within the context of the adoption last week in Strasbourg of an amendment calling on the European Parliament to find resources for the erection of a memorial to the missing persons of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Considering that the European Parliament has repeatedly shown a high level of understanding and sensitivity towards the issue of missing persons in Cyprus, as well as your personal interest, the active commitment and humane approach you have shown to the tragedy of the families of the missing persons of all communities, we ask you to recognize the need to erect a joint monument within the European Parliament in memory of the missing persons and victims of all communities in Cyprus for the period 1963-1974.

The issue of the missing persons is a profoundly humanitarian one and should not be exploited politically by any side. On the contrary, determining the fate of all missing persons in Cyprus should serve as a bridge for reconciliation and strengthen mutual understanding, cooperation, and mutual trust between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

For AKEL, as it has always been for the Republic of Cyprus too, the issue of the missing persons in Cyprus is a deeply humanitarian one and concerns both communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, equally. We demand that the fate of every missing Cypriot who disappeared either during the barbaric Turkish invasion of 1974, or in the massacres of civilians committed by Greek Cypriot fascists in the summer of 1974, or during the intercommunal clashes of 1963-64. This, after all, is the philosophy and mission of the Committee on Missing Persons, which is doing valuable work.

This steadfast determination guides AKEL’s actions both in Cyprus as well as at the level of the European Parliament: on AKEL’s initiative, the issue of the missing persons was included for the first time in the 2009 EU Progress Report on Turkey; we consistently and actively support the work of the Committee on Missing Persons and its funding; we spearheaded the appointment of a special European Parliament rapporteur on missing persons, we organized a series of events in the European Parliament with the participation of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot relatives of missing persons, and again on AKEL’s recommendation, Huseyin Akansoy and Petros Souppouris (2012) and Sevgül Uludağ (2014), a researcher on the issue of missing persons, were awarded the European Citizen’s Prize.

As AKEL, we will continue to support the issue of the missing persons unwaveringly, respecting our common human debt to the families of the victims. At the same time, we support the work of the Committee on Missing Persons and call on all international and European forums to exert real pressure on Turkey to provide information and open the archives of the occupying army.

Honorable Madam President.

We therefore urge you to ensure that the monument to the missing persons unites all Cypriots and highlights the painful experiences of all Cypriots during the tragic moments of Cypriot history.

Thank you in advance for your support and personal contribution to this initiative, which is an act of remembrance, peace, and justice.”