The assurance that the fight to determine the fate and the last missing person of the Cyprus tragedy will continue until the end, was given on Thursday night by the Head Missing and Imprisoned Humanitarian Affairs Anna Aristotelous, adding that over the last year we have strengthened efforts to ascertain the fate of the missing.
In her greeting at the great celebratory vespers and prayer for ascertaining the fate of the Missing – Memorial of the found Missing who were identified, held in the Holy Church of Agios Alexandros in Kornos, Mrs. Aristotelous said that “today we have gathered to renew our commitment that as a state but also as a society we are not going to forget, we are not going to compromise and we are not going to stop looking for information that will lead us to ascertain the fate and the last missing person”.
He added that “whatever description is given, it does not reflect the magnitude of the tragedy and Turkish brutality. Whatever attempt is made to put into words everything that our refugees, the war wounded, the prisoners, the families of the heroes and the missing of the Turkish invasion, but also more broadly our martyred people were called to face, nothing can describe the pain and destruction caused by the Turkish invasion”.
All this, he continued, “came from a crime in the summer of 1974, a crime that continues half a century later, this is our modern tragedy. Whether we are talking about the occupation and the illegal presence of the Turkish army in our occupied territories, or we are talking about the issue of our missing people,” he said and noted that “what we indicate every time, in every direction, is that time does not heal wounds and our demand remains steadfast no matter how many years pass”.
He also stated that “the fifty years that have passed have not calmed our stubbornness and determination to return, the change of generation has not suppressed our determination to verify the fate of our missing persons. In Cyprus, fifty years after the invasion, today's children belong to the third generation that grew up with the occupation,” he said.
Regarding the issue of the missing persons, Ms. Aristotelous said that “for the last year and a half, the focus of our efforts, based on the governance program of the President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulides, is the verification of the fate of our missing persons and the humane treatment of the issue. In this context, we also developed our approach, we made cuts in the way our office works and it is a fact that we have measurable and tangible results”.
In particular in the last year, he continued, “we managed to proceed with 14 identifications of our missing persons from the program of the Republic of Cyprus and in identifications of additional bones of our fallen and we continue aiming for specific results. By adopting and promoting the human-centered approach of the very important chapter of obtaining information, we have strengthened efforts to ascertain the fate of our missing persons.”
However, he said “we cannot declare ourselves satisfied, if the fate is not ascertained, if we do not find out what really happened to our last missing person. For this to happen, there should be the corresponding cooperation from Turkey, which insists on dealing politically, a purely humanitarian issue, such as that of our missing persons, refuses any form of cooperation and access to files that will shed light on evidence and events related to the fate of the missing”.
At the same time, he sent the message that “we are doing everything possible to carry out the mission we undertook. With sincerity, empathy and a deep sense of our debt, we continue on a difficult and uphill road, accompanied by the relatives of our missing people, who, whether the fate of their own people has been ascertained or not, keep the wound open”.
Ms. Aristotelous expressed her respect “to the relatives of our fallen and missing, and to assure you that the fight to ascertain the fate and the last missing person will continue until end. When our will is great, difficulties are not insurmountable”.
Source: KYPE
