AKEL on Missing Persons Day
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 29th October 2020, Nicosia
The House of Representatives has established October 29th, with a decision it has approved, as Missing Persons Day. On this very day 46 years ago, the occupying army released the last prisoners of the Turkish invasion.
Another chapter in the history of our people began to be written for those who were not released, namely the relentless efforts to find all the missing persons in Cyprus. Today is a day to review missing persons issue and the need to intensify the efforts to determine the fate of every one of our missing persons. It is, however, at the same time a timeless reminder of the consequences of the invasion, the ongoing occupation and the chauvinist crimes committed.
Forty-six years onwards, 809 Greek Cypriots and 217 Turkish Cypriots are still missing. The efforts to verify their fate come up against the natural obstacles of the distance of time from the events themselves, but also the need for pressure to be exerted on Turkey and the illegal regime in the occupied areas to provide information from the Turkish Army’s Archives and facilitations for the unhindered continuation of the work of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) in Cyprus.
That is precisely why we believe that the European Parliament’s Permanent Observer on Missing Persons issues must be made use of in order to give the overall Cyprus Missing Persons overall program a boost so that it operates more effective.
AKEL will continue to support the efforts for the verification of the fate of our missing persons and for their relatives to know the circumstances under which their own loved ones went missing.
