He noted that the 30 military sites in Cyprus` northern Turkish occupied areas where Ankara has said excavations can take place are not enough, since it is not expected to locate the remains of more than 140 missing persons in the next three years, out of a total of 1032.
Speaking to CNA, Photiou said that 41 years since the Turkish invasion, two thirds of missing persons are still listed as missing, stressing that time is working against us. Unfortunately, Turkey is still not cooperating substantially to help take significant steps in this purely humanitarian issue.
Asked about the Turkish military areas in which excavations will begin soon, Photiou said that although it constitutes a positive step forward, the majority of missing persons are not located in these military areas.
The mass graves are at the battlefields, where the bodies of soldiers killed were collected by the Turkish army, he said, noting that only the Turkish army has knowledge of the location of these mass graves.
The Commissioner welcomed the decision of the leaders of the island`s two communities, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, to call on people to give information anonymously to the authorities regarding the issue of missing persons. Replying to a question, he said that he has received calls and has met with people who wish to provide information about the fate of Turkish Cypriot missing persons.
Photiou pointed out that in the past few years the rate of discovery of remains has been dramatically reduced, and the danger is that in few years the Committee on Missing Persons may run out of work since there will be no remains to identify.
Replying to a question, Photiou said that the remains of seven Greek soldiers which have been exhumed and identified, will be handed over to their families during a ceremony that will take place next week in Nicosia. He clarified, however, that these Greek missing persons are not those who lost their life in NORATLAS, the Greek military plane shot down by friendly fire during the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
As he noted, the remains of the fifteen Greek military officers in NORATLAS were unearthed during excavations carried out in 2015 at the tomb of Makedonitissa and will be handed over later this year to their relatives....
- See more at: http://www.parikiaki.com/2016/01/less-than-140-missing-persons-expected-to-be-exhumed-from-military-areas-in-cyprus/#sthash.4sB7GLsc.dpuf
15/1/16
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