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[halil]

COMMITTEE ON MISSING PERSONS IN CYPRUS
Nicosia, April 2007
Background InformationI. History “The Committee shall look only into cases of persons reported missing in the inter-communal fighting as well as in the events of July 1974 and afterwards.” (Article 7, Terms of Reference of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus). As a result of the violence generated during those times, a total of 502 Turkish Cypriots and 1493 Greek Cypriots were officially reported as missing by both communities to the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP). Following a number of recent identifications, the total number of missing Greek Cypriots currently stands at 1468. II. Origins of the Committee From 1975-1977, a number of inter-communal meetings on the problem of the missing persons were held but made no significant progress. Between 1977 and 1981, negotiations took place in Nicosia, Geneva and New York for the establishment of a Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP). Between 1975 and 1979 the UN General Assembly (GA) adopted three different resolutions on the missing persons in Cyprus, calling for the establishment of an investigatory body to tackle this humanitarian problem. Subsequently, the GA adopted two additional resolutions in 1981 and 1982, respectively, welcoming the establishment of the CMP and urging the CMP to proceed without delay in carrying out its mandate. The CMP was established in April 1981 by agreement between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities under the auspices of the United Nations. It is the only institutionalized, bi-communal committee in Cyprus. III.Structure and Mandate The CMP is composed of a Member appointed by each of the two communities and a Third Member, selected by the International Committee of the Red Cross and appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. CMP decisions are taken by consensus. The chair is rotated monthly. The mandate of the CMP is to establish the fate of missing persons. The Committee does not attempt to establish the cause of death or attribute responsibility for the death of missing persons (Article 11, CMP Terms of Reference).
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Tel + 357 22 61 4362PO Box 21642, Nicosia 1590, CYPRUS Fax +357 22 61 4361 [email protected]e 2 of 3The 31 July 1997 Agreement between the leaders of both communities, provides for the exchange of information regarding known burial sites and the return of remains of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot missing persons. IV. Resumption of the work of the Committee On 30 August 2004 the CMP agreed to consider how to expand the Committee’s scope of activity and responsibility, in accordance with the proposals formulated by the Secretary-General in his two letters to the two leaders of December 2003 and August 2004, calling for the resumption of the work of the CMP, namely: a. To conclude the remaining investigative work on both sides on the basis of an agreed, comprehensive timetable. b. To agree on the modalities for the implementation of the 31 July 1997 Agreement, in accordance with the Terms of Reference of the CMP of April 1981. V. Project on the Exhumation, Identification and Return of Remains of Missing Persons The principal objective of this project is, within the framework of the mandate of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP), to exhume, identify and return remains of people listed as missing as a consequence of the tragic events of 1963-1964 and 1974. This will enable relatives of the victims to recover the remains of their loved ones, arrange for aproper burial and close a long period of anguish and uncertainty. It is hoped that the healing of old wounds will in turn favour the overall process of reconciliation between both communities. The latter will be further encouraged by the bi-communal nature of the project, which involves the important participation of bi-communal scientific teams at all its stages. This project reflects the positive spirit which exists within the CMP since it resumed its activities in 2004, as well as its determination to investigate and establish the fate of some2,000 missing persons – using various scientific disciplines – by locating, exhuming and finally identifying their remains. The project includes an Archaeological Phase (Phase I), related to the exhumation of the remains of missing persons, an Anthropological Phase (Phase II), related to the analyses of the recovered remains in the CMP’s anthropological laboratory, and a Genetic Phase (Phase III), related to the comparison of blood samples collected from the victims’ families with samples from the remains, in order to identify them. It also provides for the Return of Remains (Phase IV), aiming at helping families of both communities cope with the difficult task of coming to terms with their loss. VI. Progress report Collecting blood from relatives of missing personsThe Turkish Cypriot laboratory (Dr. Burhan Nalbantoğlu Hospital) involved in DNA extraction is about to finalise the collection of blood samples from relatives of the Turkish Cypriot missing persons for later identification purposes. The blood samples of the relatives of the Greek Cypriot missing persons were collected a few years ago.
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Tel + 357 22 61 4362PO Box 21642, Nicosia 1590, CYPRUS Fax +357 22 61 4361 [email protected]e 3 of 3ExhumationTo date, the remains of over 250 individuals have been exhumed from different burial sites located all over the island. CMP Anthropological LaboratoryThe building and equipping of the CMP anthropological laboratory within the United Nations Protected Area (Old Nicosia Airport) was finalised by the end of August 2006, when it became operational. Since then, the anthropological laboratory has analysed the remains of over 150 individuals in an attempt to reach presumptive identifications before bone samples are sent to the DNA laboratory. DNA analysisDNA extracted from the skeletal remains will be compared with the DNA of the relatives of the missing persons. The DNA identification process is being carried out by a bi-communal team of geneticists in the Laboratory of Forensic Genetics at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING) in Nicosia. The process began at the beginning of April. Identification processFormal identification is reached when the DNA identification process is conclusive and corroborated by the anthropological analysis. Return of Remains of Missing PersonsIt is hoped that the first positive identifications will be obtained soon and that therefore the first remains of identified individuals will be returned to families of missing persons late this spring. Bi-communal TeamsThe entire project is carried out by bi-communal teams of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot scientists who are playing an important role throughout the project. International archaeologists and anthropologists from Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team(EAAF) are coordinating and training the bi-communal teams of Cypriot scientists involved in the exhumation and anthropological work. Ten Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots are carrying out exhumations on both sides of the Green Line while four others are working at the CMP anthropological laboratory in the UNPA. Another team of both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot geneticists is carrying out the DNA identification process at the Laboratory of Forensic Genetics at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics in Nicosia.

[halil]

Uludağ is one of the very first journalists to research the island's missing. She was born in Nicosia in 1958 and devoted most of her journalistic life to the subject of missing Cypriots from both sides. In her book, first published in Turkish in 2005 and then in Greek and English, Uludağ recorded her interviews with relatives of the missing persons and witnesses. Her in-depth interviews, or "oral history," were first published as a series of stories in northern Cyprus' Yeni Düzen newspaper and southern Cyprus' Alithia. It was not easy to write about all these tragedies, she says.

"At first, it was not easy to find people who were willing to share their stories and have them published. For them to speak and for me to listen meant living once again through the traumas that our country went through. I was not able to sleep at night and was unable to eat during the day. I felt the horror of the events in every bone of my body. While re-listening to the recordings of interviews, I cried, unable to bear the horror of the events," Uludağ writes in the foreword of her book.

"We aged 20 to 30 years overnight," says Yiannos Dimitriu in his interview with Uludağ. He is from Paşaköy, known in Greek as Assia. Dimitriu spoke of his village, home to 84, including his grandfather. Everyone from the village disappeared in August 1974. They were arrested by Turkish soldiers. The book also details the efforts of Assia's survivors to find the missing, publishing a booklet addressing Turkish Cypriots. In it they said:

"We are refugees from the village of Assia and are writing this to request your support with regards to a humanitarian issue. Eighty-three people have gone missing from our village. We truly need your help in order to end this tragedy, a tragedy that has gone on for 30 years. Any assistance you can extend to us will go a long way and we are confident that you understand our pain and agony…"

Cemaliye Şöferel can understand the pain. Her husband and son also disappeared in 1974. They were living in the Dohni village, a mixed village like Assia, but the victims there were 74 Turkish Cypriots. "I want them to have proper graves. If they are alive, we want to know. If not, at least having graves will suffice so we can bury them according to our religion and lay flowers. We are already dead and die every day," says Şöferel.

In addition to the pain, political taboos existing on both sides made writing this book difficult, Uludağ underlines. She says that neither Greek Cypriots nor Turkish Cypriots are fully aware of the tragedies caused by the other side.
"Some politicians accuse me of scratching old wounds, but what I was trying to do was help heal old wounds that are hidden and severely inflamed," Uludağ writes.

Uludağ's in-depth interviews with the relatives of disappeared persons have also encouraged people with information about the missing persons to come forward. They have led authorities to sites of mass graves. For example, one of her very first interviews for the book was with Kutlay Erk, whose father was a prison guard and disappeared in 1963 while in a hospital due to a heart attack he had suffered. In the interview Erk spoke of how he waited and searched for his father for many years and about the pain he felt. His father's grave has since been found and he was reburied last Saturday in Gazimagosa (Famagusta).

"I have searched for my father for 44 years and five months. The search ends today and extinguishes the fire inside. Dad, welcome among us, sleep in peace next to your wife, who waited for you all her life," Erk said at the funeral and added that knowing what happened to the missing is vital.

"The pain felt by the family members of missing Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots is the same. All the missing persons, without politicizing the event, should be found. All these things show us once again that a sustainable peace is needed on the island," Erk said.

Every day Uludağ receives new information about missing persons and writes about her findings three times weekly in the Yeni Düzen. According to her, for reconciliation to be possible and for peaceful coexistence, it is important to shed light on what happened to Cyprus' missing. Most of those missing loved ones agree.

"We were overcome by hatred, but I think this hatred should be removed without losing our national identity," says Özel Pınardan, whose father is among the missing. Şemi Bora, whose father disappeared in 1963, says they cannot forget what happened but that they can forgive. Maria Yeorgiadis, whose father, mother, sister and brother are missing, says she does not hate Turks because of her disappeared relatives, blaming not the people but the conditions of the time. Kostas Kunduris, whose father and two uncles from his mother's side are missing, is of a similar opinion: "There must be a solution so that we can live together in peace. Everyone should respect one another."

Uludağ shares the same view. "Missing persons are actually not missing. Sure, there is someone who knows where they are. We will never be able to reach the magical land of peace unless we heal all our wounds left by this ugly word: war."

Sevgül Uludağ, "Oysters with the Missing Pearls," İkme Bilban publishing house, 2007, Cyprus, ISBN 9963 9158 6 8

[bill cobbett]

I was travelling from Nicosia to Limassol and saw a hilly area written
FOREST FOR MSSING PERSONS
can anybody explain what it means, who are the missing people, are they buried there. do the land belong to them and if any one is found will he get a piece of land there

Welcome to the Forum Yak.

It's a memorial. I look at it as a memorial to the missing from both communities.

[halil]

Oracles my dear as you have gathered from my previous post I feel strongly about thi matter because my grandmother went to her grave not knowing what happened to her 17 year old son, whom the Turks killled.


But I tell you what it is kind therapeutic having a go at the Turk.

Andrea ,
here is the how wise Turkish Cypriot humanists are thinking .....
not likr Andreas way .... get some lessones from wise Turkish Cypriots ....

The pain felt by the family members of missing Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots is the same. All the missing persons, without politicizing the event, should be found. All these things show us once again that a sustainable peace is needed on the island,"

[humanist]

halil we have gone through this before you are a much more inteligent being than I. That is why I want a fair solution to Cyprus and you want to partition your land. Forgive me for my ill willed acts.

[halil]

halil we have gone through this before you are a much more inteligent being than I. That is why I want a fair solution to Cyprus and you want to partition your land. Forgive me for my ill willed acts.

I want fair solution too Andrea but I am not hiding behind the others . I know Cyprus problem very well . I am in Cyprus problem since 1963 . I am talking by my expriencies . Best solution for Cyprus is BBF . This is my and your difference Andrea .I have respect to your idea but I have no respect that u trying to show all the time , only you were suffer in Cyprus . With this idea u are forcing me to find all the times someting to show u that u are not the only one .
Our people hears all these things everyday from individual like u and others also from your leadership .... than , what they says .... ha haaa ha ... thats what they thinks ....
we never had land , never had homes , never lost our loved ones .... what will happen if we except them come and live with us ? these are the ordinary people thinking in the streets Andrea .
People wants u and others to have respect for their leaders . they are following these lines everyday Andrea ... they can read ....Cyprus is not old Cyprus now almost every houses has got internet connections ... they all reads what u and I thinking ... than they thinks twice .

more treats them more loyalty to motherland and everyday trust is increasing to motherland . they are ears are always on the radios or tv's .

who cares what EU or UN says ..... they want secure and stable life .

[denizaksulu]

halil we have gone through this before you are a much more inteligent being than I. That is why I want a fair solution to Cyprus and you want to partition your land. Forgive me for my ill willed acts.

Humanist, this is the pain we all suffer. Some of us will admit our pain. Others will deny what they feel. They are not cowards though. They fear. Any true Cypriot feels the same pain as yourself.

Why cant we put an end to this tragedy. Why? Because.............

[humanist]

Halil, I am not trying to show anything more than what I have said to Zan below. Whilst I don't think BBF is a real solution I do not opose it under the right conditions either becuase I wan the war to stop. If you really wan to know what I believe read below;


I have never advocated and I do not accept that all that is done is forgoten. I have advocated on this forum for an apology to TC's for the actions of some GC's in the 60"s. I have advocated on this same forum for legal action against the GC's involved in the Tochni massacre, I have advocated for equal right of TC's in Cyprus (that means equal no less no more) and I continue to advocate that TC's have played a major part of the development and evolution of the Cypriot culture and as such deserve equal standing in the Cypriot society (no more no less than any other Cypriot).

Papadopoulos was ousted by the citizens and voters of the RoC including some 1000TC’s because I know that some TC's voted in the elections.

You are not the bad guys what I am simply saying is that (a) Talat is not genuine about unification where he will play a role as vice president in the development and evolution of a United states of Cyprus or something like that. He has lacked foresight in working towards perhaps representing all of Cypriot people not just 18% and, (b) He perhaps is not able to make that pledge because he is not making the decisions because Turkey is making the decisions.

I have to admit I loose my cool on ocassion and go for the eye for an eye responses, and I have done it many times, and probably will do it again. However, my position stands as above. I would like to see your community take an active and participative role in the Cypriot Society and benefit from EU resources (whatever they may be), at one time in our history we have got to stop looking at the past and concentrate on the future if we want to make a better Cyprus for our children. Otherwise we are staying back there and there is nothing we can do to change those events. All the blame to be thrown around, back and forth it will not change the massacre of 63 and it will not change the events of 74. They are done they are history, we need to look to the future and there is an opportunity to make it happen.

[Bubble 'n' squeak]

halil we have gone through this before you are a much more inteligent being than I. That is why I want a fair solution to Cyprus and you want to partition your land. Forgive me for my ill willed acts.

Humanist, this is the pain we all suffer. Some of us will admit our pain. Others will deny what they feel. They are not cowards though. They fear. Any true Cypriot feels the same pain as yourself.

Why cant we put an end to this tragedy. Why? Because.............

.................because the GC's won't admit to their own past and will only focus on Turkey's past! Hi D

[denizaksulu]

Hi B & S