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Cabinet to discuss next week a proposal for fallen Greek Cypriots

21/08/2019 14:06

Presidential Commissioner Photis Photiou is putting forward a proposal before the Cabinet, providing for the establishment of an investigation mechanism for fallen Greek Cypriots and Greeks, who are still buried in the Turkish occupied areas. The proposal is expected to be discussed next week by the Cabinet. 
 
In statements at the presidential summer residence, in Troodos, Photiou said that the issue of fallen persons, is another tragic aspect of the 1974 Turkish invasion.
 
He noted that there are 500 fallen persons buried in known and unknown locations in the Turkish-occupied areas of Cyprus and lately their relatives demand that the Republic of Cyprus authorities arrange for the transfer of their remains in the free areas of the Republic, in order to bury them properly.
 
The endeavor is, according to the Presidential Commissioner, a difficult one. He gave the example of a father who told him that he knows that his son was buried in their home after being killed by the Turks and that his remains are still there, while asking Photiou to arrange for the transfer of the remains to the free areas.
 
“With the proposal, which is being put forward before the Council of Ministers and will be discussed probably next week, a mechanism is being established, first in order to investigate all these cases, map them out, take DNA from all relatives and other anthropological details and then try to see if, with the help of UNFICYP, we can establish a mechanism to exhume them and transfer them to the free areas,” he added.
 
Photiou also said that a number of the fallen persons, with unknown whereabouts, will be located through the procedure of CMP and that until today, some of them have been located in mass graves belonging to missing persons.
 
We know the location where a large number of fallen persons have been buried and we must do everything possible in order to bring them in the free areas, the Presidential Commissioner said, noting that this is an obligation towards their relatives. The endeavor concerns both Greek Cypriots and Greeks, Photiou concluded.