Cyprus-Forum.com

[Adam3777]

There are 1619 people missing who were from northern Cyprus... Missing. Not pronounced dead, in jail, just missing. When I was in Cyprus, I found this to be horrifying. Imagine your husband, wife, son, daughter or whatever gets taken aways and you never find out what has happened to them... not a word. They could be dead. They could be in a prison somewhere. Heck, they could have escaped and changed their names and be free today. But that feeling of your loved one missing must be terrible.

My question is: Has the Turkish side done anything to give explaination as to of where or what happened to these missing persons?

[Murtaza]

what can turkish side do, If someone just went to England. should we follow him to england than find him?


This is stupidness, why should we hold greeks in our jail?

Are we sadistic.
Or we love to feed people in jail?

If you are looking for killed ones, I think It is not only Turkey who hide them.(If hide)

I am realy curious how many of this is woman and childs?
Can any gc give knowledge about this?

[demetriou_74]

the turkish army has been brutal in the past but good point about them leaving to the UK.

according to one website the number is now 1602

As a result of the 1974 Turkish invasion in Cyprus, 1619 Greek-Cypriots were reported as missing.(The number of the missing has been recently reduced to 1602 after the discovery of the remains of some missing persons, using DNA identification methods). Most of them were soldiers or reservists, captured during the battles by the Turkish invasion force. Among them, however, were many civilians, women and children, arrested by the Turkish invasion troops and Turkish-Cypriot paramilitary groups, within the area controlled by the Turkish army after the cease of the battles and far away from the military front. Although motion pictures and photographs showing these people either being arrested or being transferred to and imprisoned in Turkey do exist, none of them has ever returned.

[RAFAELLA]

The missing persons' list is long. The majority of the missing persons were soldiers who were captured by the the turkish army during the invasion. Civilians, children and women who were arrested by the turkish army are included in this list. Although there were evidence for their arrest, their transfer to TR, they never returned back to their families.
TR's insistence, negativeness and refusal to cooperate and provide any inforamtion regarding their fate, continues up to today.
There were UN resolutions, calls from international organisations regarding the missing persons but again TR refused to respect them.

The missing persons' number reduced from 1.619 to 1.587 after the discovery of the remains of some missing persons, using DNA identification methods.

Summary of testimony given by Andreas Nicodemos from Trimithi, Kyrenia District
He was a reservist. On 29.9.1974 while he was in his village Trimithi he was taken prisoner by Turkish soldiers together with other co-villagers. On 30.7.1974 he was transferred to Turkey to Adana prisons together with many other prisoners. On 20 or 21.8.1974 while the Turks were taking them out in the yard he heard someone call out his name. The person who called him, as he immediately found out, was his co-villager Kyriakos Frixou, who is now missing. He shook hands with him and they spoke about where and how they were arrested. At that moment they were ordered by the Turks to enter their cells. Since then no one has seen the missing.

Summary of testimony given by Lambis Elia from Hartsia village
"On 13.9.1974 the Turks arrested my two sons, Michael, aged 17, and Elia aged 19, and took them to their camp near our village. On the same day I met the Turkish Cypriot, Nazim Ahmet, aged 60, who is a friend of mine and I asked him to take me to the Turkish Army Officer. He did take me and the following day, on 14.9.1974, the Turkish Officer allowed me to see my sons for ten minutes. The next day, 15.9.1974, the Officer allowed me to see them again and this time I was with my wife. We saw them for some time in the Turkish camp where they were being held.
On 16.9.1974 at around 14:00, a party of the International Red Cross came to our village. I told them about the arrest of my sons and I led them to the area of the Turkish camp. Unfortunately, however, the Turkish Army Officer denied that he was holding any prisoners and did not allow the Red Cross to carry out an investigation.
Since then, nothing has become known about the fate of my two sons."

Translation of article from the turksih newspaper MILLIYET(23.6.76)
In this issue of the Istanbul daily, MILLIYET of 23 June, 1976 (page 5) Mr Mehmet Ali Birand, the Turkish journalist who visited Cyprus, writes under the heading ALLOW US TO SEARCH FOR THE MISSING PERSONS:
"One of the problems created after the war is the missing Greek Cypriots" question. In order to find the missing persons the Greeks have formed a Committee. Formed after the pattern of similar committees during the British administration of Cyprus, the Committee is working very efficiently.
The President of the Committee, Mr. Fysentzides, has appealed to Turkey and to the Turkish community in Cyprus to help them locate these missing persons.
Mr. Fysentzides has said in his appeal: "Relying on the pictures published in the Turkish press and on documents and lists submitted by the UN and Turkish authorities, we have established that 2,000 of our compatriots are missing after the Turkish military operation. They are our fathers and sons. As families we are in distress. We want to know whether or not they are dead. If they are, we will try to remedy our grief.
However, the Turkish leadership is refusing to answer our call. This has nothing to do with propaganda. If the Turkish authorities agree, we will send four or five people and under the Turkish army’s supervision, we will search for them, because we have established from the list submitted to us that they are alive. Try to understand our suffering and help us.
The Pancyprian Committee of Parents and Relatives of Undeclared Prisoners of War and Missing Persons bases its arguments on pictures published in the Turkish press and on UN name-lists of prisoners to be returned. The Committee believes that the missing persons are still alive and perhaps it could locate and find some of them. "We are ready to obey all your orders", says the Committee’s President.
Under this interview a picture is published in which four Greek National Guardsmen are shown surrendering to the Turkish forces. Mr. Birand writes:
"The Greeks are continuing their propaganda, especially on missing persons and POWs. People visiting Cyprus are handed brochures, in which this above picture is included. The following is printed under the picture: The picture was taken by a Turkish war corespondent captured by Greek National Guardsmen."
When I returned to Turkey, Mr. Ergun Konuksever saw the picture by chance and quickly recognized it and said: "It was I who took this picture when I was wounded in Kuchuk Kaimakli (Omorphita) and taken prisoner by Greeks. They seized my three cameras and films. In spite of the UN’s decision, they did not return them to me when I was freed. I remember very well taking this picture in Serdarli (Chattos village) during the tank operation. These are the Greek POWs captured by the tank crew MERIC I and the soldier in the foreground is Corporal Mustafa from SAMSUN offering cigarettes to the POWs".

For more information:
http://www.missing-cy.org/

[cannedmoose]

In the interests of balance, let's also remember that there remain TCs missing also.

[demetriou_74]

In the interests of balance, let's also remember that there remain TCs missing also.

has any info been given to turkey/trnc about these people? how many? cyprus prisons are not big enough to hold loads of people.

[cannedmoose]

In the interests of balance, let's also remember that there remain TCs missing also.

has any info been given to turkey/trnc about these people? how many? cyprus prisons are not big enough to hold loads of people.

None of these individuals are still alive or held in RoC prisons, the likelihood is that they were murdered and disposed of somewhere, so it's unlikely that the RoC knows of many of their whereabouts. The list of TC missing can be found at

http://www.mfa.gov.cy/mfa/mfa.nsf/46119 ... issing.pdf

RAFAELLA is correct that the list of missing now stands at 1587 as some of them were 'found' in recent years. One of those was my wife's uncle (whose memorial we commemorate on Friday) whose body was 'discovered' three years ago and is now interred in the military cemetary at Makedonitissa. It transpired that the RoC government knew of the shallow grave in which he had been buried with some of his comrades, but didn't reveal this to the family, why, we don't know, but we can surmise that he was far more useful in propaganda terms to be 'missing' than simply 'dead'.

So, on this day, let us not forget that all have suffered and continue to suffer, on both sides.

[erolz]

In the interests of balance, let's also remember that there remain TCs missing also.

has any info been given to turkey/trnc about these people? how many? cyprus prisons are not big enough to hold loads of people.

My uncle went 'missing' in 64 (actually he was taken by a gang of GC and murdered). My aunt has recieved no information as to the fate of her husband, where his remains may lie (though there must be those in the south that know this information) or any offical stamement of regret from the RoC - not in the 60's when the event happened or today.

My point is that this is not an issue that only affects GC or one that is only a result of the events of 74 and this should not be forgotten either imo.

[turkcyp]

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