Cyprus-Forum.com

[repulsewarrior]

Nicosia is stepping up its international efforts to raise awareness about the humanitarian issue of missing persons, while working to improve internal coordination between competent authorities, following the 2019 action plan for fallen and missing persons, which was approved recently by the Cabinet.

https://in-cyprus.com/nicosia-steps-up- ... g-persons/

An interesting article describing the government's Action Plan on this issue.

[repulsewarrior]

The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) is set to confer in the coming week to decide its next step following an announcement on Friday that Turkey has granted access to 30 suspected burial sites in military areas in the occupied north of the island.

https://cyprus-mail.com/2019/06/15/cmp- ... -in-north/

...important news.

[repulsewarrior]

“As a government we believe we have a legal and moral obligation to deliver the identified remains to the families of those killed in the 1964 Tylliria bombing so they can receive a decent burial according to our religion and traditions,” Photiou said.

https://cyprus-mail.com/2019/07/30/exca ... -tylliria/

Rest In Peace

[repulsewarrior]

...the work will finally proceed.

https://in-cyprus.com/excavations-begin ... t-in-1964/

Excavations aiming to locate the remains of Greek Cypriots killed during the Turkish bombardment of Tylliria area in August 1964 began on Wednesday. The search will focus around the location of a makeshift hospital in Pachyammos that was hit with napalm incendiary bombs.

[repulsewarrior]

Sixty participants from more than 27 countries come together in Cyprus for a two-day specialised workshop on missing persons. The workshop is hosted at Ledra Palace Hotel in the buffer zone and is organized by the CMP, Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus and ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The workshop titled “Mechanisms for Missing Persons: Clarifying the fate and supporting families” brings together actors directly involved in the search for missing persons, management of the dead and identification of bodies and support for the families, representatives of the families or family associations and experts and leading institutions on the matter.

https://in-cyprus.com/cyprus-hosts-a-tw ... g-persons/

...and so it is, in these sad affairs, Cyprus helping others.

[repulsewarrior]

Experts in the Cyprus exhumed human remains in the northwest of the island, some 55 years after Turkish planes bombed a Greek Cypriot stronghold in Pachyammos.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, the remains and personal items of possibly Greek Cypriot National Guard soldiers have been unearthed in the latest excavation project in Tylliria, where Turkish planes bombed a former makeshift hospital in 1964.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/246378/arti ... pachyammos

[repulsewarrior]

The Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) managed to visit since last June seven of the thirty military sites for which it was granted permission in the northern, Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, in order to search for missing persons, with no excavations having commenced to date, according to a government memorandum that points out the obstacles put forward by the Turkish occupation forces.

“The Republic of Cyprus would like to have welcomed the development of June 2019, whereby the Turkish authorities granted permission to the CMP to access 30 additional sites in military areas in the occupied areas of Cyprus. However, it cannot do so because the unfortunate reality on the ground is that unhindered access continues to be withheld” says the memorandum of the Republic of Cyprus, submitted late November to the Committee of Minsters of the Council of Europe.

Nicosia notes that the procedures for gaining access to military sites remain “complicated and time consuming.”

It is added that excavation works conducted by the CMP in military areas to which access was eventually granted after pressure by the Committee of Ministers have been repeatedly interrupted by Turkish military forces, as was the case in Dikomo, a village in the Turkish-occupied Kyrenia District.

Nicosia also notes the close and undue monitoring of these areas by Turkish troops, which “constitutes a hindrance to the work of the CMP.” Also unduly hindered, without reasonable explanation, are visits and access of witnesses and CMP staff to such sites, the memorandum goes on.

“Even though the Turkish authorities have previously stated that witnesses and informants can visit known or suspected burial sites in military zones, provided that the military authorities are notified at least three working days in advance and are given the names, identification card numbers and car registration plates of the persons visiting, witnesses and CMP staff have repeatedly been denied access. Such instances include CMP staff and witnesses in the area of Deryneia and Stavros cemetery in the fenced-up area of Varosha” in Famagusta, the government of Cyprus says.

In instances where witnesses were allowed to access a military area, as was the case in Trahonas, they were not allowed freedom of movement, and as a result, lacked orientation to be able to provide exact information on the location of a burial site known to them, the memorandum concludes.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third. Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown.

A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning the remains of missing persons to their relatives.

(Cyprus Newa Agency)

https://in-cyprus.com/no-excavations-by ... osia-says/

[repulsewarrior]

Bicommunal teams searching for missing persons have recovered the remains of one individual in a military area north of Nicosia, it was announced on Thursday.

A statement from the committee on missing persons said the remains were found in Trachonas on Wednesday.

So far this year the CMP has recovered the remains of 28 individuals, the statement said,

The committee appealed to anyone with information regarding potential burial sites to contact: +357 22 400142 (Greek Cypriot Member’s Office) and 181 (Turkish Cypriot Member’s Office).

https://cyprus-mail.com/2019/12/19/rema ... tary-area/

[repulsewarrior]

Georgios Katsanis, the leader of a commando unit, was killed in battle at Ayios Ilarionas Castle in the Pentadaktylos Mountains on July 21, 1974.

His remains were found in January in a mass grave in the north as part of bicommunal project to find and identify individuals who have been missing since the intercommunal strife in the 1960s and the Turkish invasion of 1974.

The remains of the commando leader were handed over to his family following a church service in Nicosia on Thursday morning.

https://greece.greekreporter.com/2020/0 ... -46-years/

[repulsewarrior]

...who is Panagiotis Avraam? Buried today.

R.i.P.