Isaak and Solomou killings: 30 years on, no one has been convicted

Local Cyprus problemhistoryTop Newsturkish invasion Isaak and Solomou killings: 30 years on, no one has been convicted Isaak Solomou Relevant News Isaak and Solomou killings: 30 years on, no one has been convicted 11 August 2026 On this day: U.S. painter Jackson Pollock, leader of the abstract expressionist movement, was killed in a car accident in 1956 11 August 2026 Six Cyprus lyceums to pilot new job-focused school stream 11 August 2026 newsroom 11 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber This year marks 30 years since the killings of Tasos Isaak and, days later, his cousin Solomos Solomou, and those responsible remain unpunished. The 24-year-old Isaak was killed on August 11, 1996, during an anti-occupation demonstration in the dead zone at Deryneia. He had taken part in a motorcyclists’ march that set out from Berlin bound for occupied Kyrenia. When the group of riders reached the dead zone at Deryneia that day, clashes broke out between protesters and Turkish Cypriots and Turkish nationalists, including members of the “Grey Wolves.” During the clashes, Isaak was trying to help another protester who was being beaten by Turkish men when he became trapped in the dead zone and fell to the ground. A group of protesters tried to free him, while men on the other side of the barbed wire beat him with clubs, stones and other objects. The beating continued for some time, while United Nations peacekeepers were present in the area. Isaak suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. According to the case file, the cause of death was strangulation, and the killing was captured in photographs and video, which became key evidence in identifying those responsible. Isaak’s killing caused an intense reaction in Cyprus and internationally. A few days later, on August 14, 1996, Solomou was also killed at Deryneia, when he tried to climb a flagpole to take down a Turkish flag. International arrest warrants and the ECtHR ruling On November 22, 1996, Cyprus Police issued international arrest warrants for five people identified as involved in Tasos Isaak’s killing: Hasim Yilmaz, Neyfel Mustafa Ergun, Polat Fikret Koreli, Mehmet Mustafa Arslan and Erhan Arikli. All five names also appear in the case material examined by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Yilmaz was named as a settler and former MIT officer, Ergun as a settler from Turkey and a “police officer” of the pseudo-state, Koreli as a Turkish Cypriot from Famagusta, Arslan as a Turkish settler and head of the “Grey Wolves” in the occupied areas, and Arikli as a Turkish settler from the former Soviet Union. Arikli was arrested in 2012 in Kyrgyzstan, but was released and not extradited to the Republic of Cyprus. On June 24, 2008, the European Court of Human Rights, in the case of Isaak v. Turkey, ruled that Turkey had violated Article 2 of the European Convention, both in terms of the substantive protection of the right to life and the obligation to carry out an effective investigation into Isaak’s death. The Court found, among other things, that Turkish authorities had failed to investigate the case effectively or ensure that those responsible were punished, and awarded compensation to Isaak’s family. Family testimony: Anastasia Isaak and Stella Solomou Thirty years after the killings of Tasos Isaak and Solomos Solomou, members of their families and eyewitnesses have spoken about the tragic events of August 1996, offering deeply personal accounts of the dramatic days that marked their lives. Speaking to CNA, Tasos Isaak’s daughter, Anastasia Isaak, said: “My father sacrificed himself for our homeland’s freedom. His sacrifice was not the result of a military conflict between armies, but of a peaceful anti-occupation demonstration by motorcyclists demanding something self-evident, the freedom of movement in their own homeland.” She said that “30 years on, the message of his sacrifice remains unchanged. It is a timeless lesson in courage, dignity and selfless struggle for the freedom of our homeland.” Asked what it is like to grow up carrying the name of a man who has become a symbol for Cyprus, she said: “It is an honour to grow up bearing the name of Tasos Isaak, a pure man whose only act was to save the life of a fellow human being.” “If I were born again, I would choose his name again. A name identified with dignity and courage. At the same time, though, I feel a duty to carry on what I learned through his sacrifice, to continue the struggle of remembrance,” she said. Asked about her participation each year in the events of the Isaak-Solomou Memory Initiative, she said she became a member of the Initiative in 2016. “Together with the Initiative, we grew up and, drawing light from their sacrifice, we continue to pass on the message of remembrance, until justice is done,” she said. Asked what would constitute, for her, true vindication of her father’s sacrifice, she said it was not only about punishing the killers, but also about justice being done for all those who continue to live with the consequences of the Turkish invasion and occupation. “Real justice for me would not be only the obvious, that the killers of both my father and Solomos be brought before justice, but that justice be done for all those who have suffered and been affected as a result of the Turkish invasion and occupation,” she said. As she explained, this concerns everyone who continues to suffer the consequences, “whether they are families of missing persons, or victims of the war, or cannot go to their homes, their properties and the places where they grew up.” Anastasia called for justice “for all those who fight a daily battle, still carrying the wounds of the Turkish invasion and occupation.” “The message I want to pass on to the new generation is what our exercise books used to say, ‘I do not forget.’ We must not forget our history, our places, the people we lost, who remind us of the values we must serve,” Anastasia Isaak said in closing, calling on the new generation to keep historical memory alive. Solomos Solomou’s sister, Stella Solomou, told CNA: “Thirty years after my brother’s killing, both I and my family feel indescribable awe and pride in his bravery. His memory remains forever alive in our hearts. He is a beacon that will never go out.” “But we carry an unbearable bitterness and disappointment, because it has still not been possible for the killers of our Solakis and Tassos to be arrested and brought to justice. The fact that the killers move around freely, protected by the occupying power, shows the hypocrisy of those who speak of human rights,” she added. Describing her brother’s character, she said he “was a giving person, full of life, with a pure love for his family, his friends and his homeland. He always had the courage of his convictions and did not bow his head to injustice.” “His thirst for freedom consciously led him to his act. He climbed the pole to right an injustice and restore dignity to our homeland,” she said. Asked about the most vivid memory she has of her brother, she said they met two days before his killing. “I remember he was wearing a very nice black belt he had bought a few days before. When I told him his belt was very nice, despite the pain he was feeling at that moment over Tassos’s death, he looked at me with his bright eyes and, with a smile full of life, gave it to me,” Solomou said. “That was Solakis, a person who wanted to bring joy to the people he loved without asking for anything in return. His look and his smile will remain in my memory forever,” she added. She also revealed that her brother “had told friends he would take down the flag, but avoided telling my brother when they met at the roadblock the day before his killing, because he knew he could talk him out of it.” “He was determined to take down the flag, and that showed in his eyes. His act was not done in the heat of the moment, it was not a spur-of-the-moment act. It was a conscious decision in the face of the injustice of the occupation,” she stressed. Asked what would constitute true vindication of his sacrifice, she made clear the family does not seek revenge, but justice. “The real vindication of my brother’s sacrifice would be for the killers to be brought to justice and for Turkish troops to withdraw from our Cyprus,” she said. “We are not asking for revenge. We are asking for justice and freedom,” she made clear. She added: “We are asking for the justice that was denied to Solomos, to Tasos and to all the heroes who sacrificed themselves for our homeland. The justice that was denied to our family and to all Cypriot citizens, refugees and non-refugees. The right to free movement in our own land without the presence of Turkish troops. Only then will his sacrifice truly be vindicated.” Speaking about the mark her brother’s loss left on the family, she said his absence “left a huge void in our family. But we do not focus on the death, we focus on the courage and the refusal of our Solakis to come to terms with the occupation.” In closing, Solomou thanked the Mayor of Paralimni-Deryneia, the sculptor Filippos Yiapanis and everyone who contributed to creating the memorial in Paralimni, as well as the Isaak-Solomou Memory Initiative for preserving the memory of the two heroes. “No sacrifice is wasted if we do not forget it,” Stella Solomou said in closing. Eyewitness testimony: Yiannis Antoniou and Andreas Pettemeridis “From the first days of August, tension was palpable in the atmosphere, especially after the open threats from the Denktas regime that the Turkish army and the so-called ‘security forces’ would react if the motorcyclists tried to cross into the occupied areas,” Deputy Government Spokesperson Yiannis Antoniou, who was working as a reporter for Phileleftheros at the time, told CNA. “Because of the heightened security measures and the Police’s intention to close roads, I had gone to Deryneia on the evening of Saturday, August 10, together with colleagues Christakis Yiannakou and photojournalist Andreas Manolis,” he said. Continuing his account, he said that “at some point around midday on Sunday, word came through that the leadership of the organised motorcyclists had agreed with the then President of the Republic, Glafkos Clerides, to end the motorcyclists’ march at the Makarios Stadium grounds in Nicosia.” As he said, “when the decision to call off the crossing into the occupied areas was announced, we noticed police forces withdrawing from the Deryneia area and elsewhere along the confrontation line.” “I also remember MPs making sharply critical statements about the decision, accusing the government of backing down under the weight of Denktas’s threats,” he added. However, as he explained, “when the motorcyclists reacted against their leadership’s decision and decided to continue their route as planned from Nicosia towards the occupied areas, people began arriving in the Deryneia area, at Strovilia and at other roadblocks in the wider area.” “From the Deryneia roadblock, where most of the journalists had gathered, from Cyprus, Greece and international news agencies, you could see military forces mobilising in the occupied areas,” he noted. Describing what happened next, he said “when the motorcyclists arrived there, quite a few civilians had already gathered. In the fields to the left of the roadblock, as we look towards the occupied areas, there was a stretch of barbed wire, which had been flattened in some places.” As he explained, “quite a few people were crossing into the free areas from the occupied areas through there, journalists as well as various others, in civilian clothes.” Continuing his account, he said “at some point, a crowd had gathered opposite us, moving aggressively, shouting, hurling abuse, and using slingshots to throw stones at us. To protect ourselves, we gathered behind a water tanker that had been left in the field. I remember there were several of us journalists there, among them the veteran Alex Efthyvoulou, who made the tragic prediction, ‘today we’ll have deaths.'” “About ten minutes later, when the stone-throwing stopped and we moved away from the water tanker, we saw them beating Tasos Isaak with iron bars, as he was trapped in the barbed wire,” Antoniou said. As he said, “at the same time, four or five people from the crowd attacked a girl wearing a top with the Greek flag on it, and tore off the jewellery she was wearing. I ran to help her, and then they grabbed the camera I was holding and threw it away. A peacekeeper next to me pulled me to safety.” Antoniou continued his account, saying “then I saw my colleague Christakis Yiannakou, together with others, carrying Tasos in their arms, covered in blood, and put him in an open jeep-type vehicle. We left the scene and, after stopping at Paralimni Hospital to report, we headed to Nicosia to develop the photographs we had taken and write up our reports.” “It was one of the hardest reports I ever wrote, because it was difficult to put on paper what I had experienced. It was the first time I had seen a person killed, and with such savagery. It took many years before I could go back to the Deryneia roadblock, and to this day it is extremely painful for me to look at photographs from that terrible day, several of which are my own,” Antoniou said in closing. “After Tasos Isaak’s funeral, people spontaneously poured back onto the streets and we went to the spot where Tasos Isaak had been killed to lay a wreath, where very large numbers of Police forces were lined up,” Andreas Pettemeridis, an eyewitness to the tragic events that unfolded at the Deryneia roadblock on August 14, 1996, told CNA. He said Police had formed a huge cordon of vehicles and officers to stop people getting through, but as he put it, “that was not enough to stop them getting inside.” He said “at some point, we broke through the cordon and found ourselves back inside the dead zone. The UN peacekeepers were trying to stop us, it was chaos. There was very high tension.” Giving his account to CNA, he said “at one point, when we were to the left of the road leading to the Deryneia roadblock, someone rushed forward to go in alone. There, ahead, was the last barrier with the barbed wire. I pulled him back, I didn’t know him. I told him, ‘where are you going, stay here because if you cross there, they’re all lined up,’ he replied ‘no, I’m going in,’ and then I pulled him back.” Continuing his account, Pettemeridis said “at some point, when there was another big surge and confusion broke out again, he left on his own again. That was Solomos Solomou. He pulled at the barbed wire, the UN peacekeepers tried to stop him going in, but he went in.” “When I saw him walking forward and climbing up onto the pole, I felt at that moment that things were about to erupt,” he said. “Suddenly, a great many shots rang out. You could hear bullets striking metal, because bullets also struck the pole. There was a UN soldier next to me who was hit in the buttocks,” he said. “I fell to the ground, people were trying to get away. For a few seconds there was chaos from the gunfire. Solomos fell after the shots,” he noted. As he said, the United Nations forces “were afraid to go in and get Solomos. He was on the ground for ten minutes without anyone going to get him.” “After ten minutes, the UN peacekeepers went in, frightened, picked Solomos up and brought him out,” he said. “There was a very strong smell of blood because he was bleeding heavily. The pathologist, Marios Matsakis, put his hands inside his mouth to clear it, but there was so much blood that no one could tell how much or where the wound was,” he described. “Matsakis was trying to find a pulse but couldn’t detect one at that point. We picked him up and loaded him into a Land Rover to get him out,” Pettemeridis said in closing, noting that after the shots, people pulled back and the tension inside the dead zone subsided. Legal analysis: Nicolas Konstantinidis “The sacrifice of Tassos Isaak and Solomos Solomou is a constant reminder that freedom is never a given, that the rule of law cannot yield to violence and that justice must not be allowed to succumb to forgetting,” Nicolas Konstantinidis, President of the Kyrenia Bar Association, told CNA. “The killings of two unarmed civilians, before the eyes of the international community, constitute a flagrant violation of the most fundamental human right, the right to life,” he said. He noted that “the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) convicted Turkey in a ruling in June 2008, for violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), specifically the right to life.” As Konstantinidis said, “the Court attributed the killings to agents of the Turkish government, a fact that makes Turkey responsible at the international level.” He noted, however, that “this international condemnation, while an important vindication, does not represent the end of the road to justice. State responsibility does not replace or eliminate the individual criminal responsibility of the natural persons who committed or took part in these crimes.” Konstantinidis said “legality cannot be reconciled with impunity. Otherwise, it entrenches the notion that organised violence can, with the passage of time, go without consequences,” adding that “such an outcome would be a defeat, not only for Cyprus, but for the fundamental principles of European and international legal civilisation themselves.” He also said “the obligation of state authorities to pursue the prosecution of those responsible for the killings remains intact, regardless of whatever practical difficulties may arise.” As Konstantinidis explained, the Republic of Cyprus has issued national arrest warrants since 1996 and, subsequently, circulated Red Notices through Interpol. He noted that the then Minister of Justice and Public Order, Marios Hartsiotis, briefed the House of Representatives on the matter in November 2025. “That briefing shows that eight arrest warrants are currently in force for the killing of Tassos Isaak, three of which are accompanied by Interpol Red Notices and five by international Wanted Person Diffusions,” Konstantinidis said. On the killing of Solomos Solomou, he said “five arrest warrants are in force, with Red Notices having been issued for only two of those wanted.” “The competent authorities must use and exhaust all available legal and other tools of judicial assistance and cooperation to locate and arrest those wanted, including the issuing of European Arrest Warrants,” said the President of the Kyrenia Bar Association. As he explained, European Arrest Warrants “are legally binding on all European Union member states, unlike Interpol notices, whose enforcement depends on each country’s cooperation.” He continued, saying that “once European Arrest Warrants are issued, the details of those wanted can also be entered into the Schengen Information System (SIS), and the authorities of member states will be obliged to arrest these individuals and extradite them to the Republic of Cyprus, should they attempt to enter or be located in the territory of an EU member state.” He noted this “is one of the strongest tools of judicial cooperation in the European Union, based on the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions.” Konstantinidis said “the sacrifice of Tassos Isaak and Solomos Solomou is a constant reminder that freedom has a price, that occupation can never be normalised, and that democracy must answer violence with more legality.” In closing, he said “the best tribute to the two murdered men is not only preserving their memory. It is the unceasing pursuit of our homeland’s liberation, persistence in achieving justice and in holding those responsible to account.” “It is the continuous effort for a free Cyprus, without occupying troops, where human life, dignity and fundamental human rights will be protected without compromise and without exception,” he added. “Because freedom without justice is fragile. And justice without accountability is an empty word. Thirty years on, Tassos Isaak and Solomos Solomou still remind us that democracy is not measured by its words, but by its determination never to let impunity defeat justice,” he said in closing. The Isaak-Solomou Memory Initiative: preserving the memory, says Dr Yiangou The Isaak-Solomou Memory Initiative was founded in 2008 by an independent group of young people, with no ties to any political party, Initiative member Dr Kyriakos Yiangou said. As he noted, the Initiative’s main goal is “preserving the memory of the heroes Tasos Isaak and Solomos Solomou and bringing to society the messages that flow from their sacrifice, messages such as dignity, justice and freedom.” Yiangou said the Initiative organises various events every year, including the large march held before each annual memorial for the two heroes. He explained further that the Initiative periodically organises major expeditions outside Cyprus. He said that in 2016, the “Freedom March” set out from Berlin and, after crossing seven European countries, ended in Cyprus. He added that in 2021, marking 25 years since the two heroes’ sacrifice, a major expedition took place in Greece. “We started from Kastanies in Evros, passed through Alexandroupoli, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Missolonghi, Athens and Crete, and ended up in Cyprus,” he said. As he noted, in recent years the Initiative, working with local authorities, has sought to have squares or streets named in honour of Tasos Isaak and Solomos Solomou in the areas the expedition passes through. “This was done in Alexandroupoli and Missolonghi in 2021, in Kyperounta in 2025. This year, namings took place in Zygi, Agios Theodoros and Mari.” “On this year’s expedition, symbolic namings also took place in Kyrenia in Achaea, Karavas in Kythira and Salamina in Attica. We also passed symbolically through Rhodes and Kastellorizo,” Yiangou said. “Mrs Tasoula, Isaak’s mother, and his daughter Anastasia always come with us. On every expedition we are also received by the sitting President of the Hellenic Republic,” Yiangou said in closing, noting that Anastasia’s godparent is the Greek state, since she was baptised by the then Greek Foreign Minister. (Cyprus News Agency) Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News On this day: U.S. painter Jackson Pollock, leader of the abstract expressionist movement, was killed in a car accident in 1956 Six Cyprus lyceums to pilot new job-focused school stream Cyprus schools to get social workers as pilot programme launches in September 5.5 million euro plan to revive Peyia’s historic centre takes shape Kato Paphos harbour upgrade moves forward after first planning talks Elderly employers hit hardest as CY Login shakes up social insurance payments Nicosia dangerous buildings map labels occupied areas in Turkish Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.