Remains of four missing persons found in three excavations

The remains of four missing persons were found this week at three of eight sites currently being excavated by the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP), Greek Cypriot member of the committee Leonidas Pantelides said. Remains belonging to one person were found in the Ayios Georgios Spatharikou area and another in Kalo Chorio Kythreas, while remains belonging to two people were discovered in Lapithos in the occupied north. Speaking at a meeting of the 100-member advisory body of the Pancyprian Organisation of Relatives of Missing Persons, Pantelides said the CMP is currently carrying out excavations at eight sites, in Assia, Lapithos, Exo Metochi, Neo Chorio Kythreas, Livadia Famagusta, Yerolakkos, Ayios Georgios Spatharikou and a military area in Karavas. On excavations in military areas, he said restrictions concerning the 25-metre area had been relaxed following pressure, adding that the issue had also been raised with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during his visit to Cyprus at the end of July. Pantelides also clarified figures surrounding the official list of 2,002 Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot missing persons, saying the number of Greek Cypriots on the list was not 1,619 but 126 fewer. He said this sometimes caused confusion between the number of people whose remains have yet to be found and those who have been identified. Of the 2,002 people on the official list, 1,082 have so far been identified, including 765 Greek Cypriots and 317 Turkish Cypriots. A further 745 Greek Cypriots and 175 Turkish Cypriots remain, he said. Twenty people have been identified so far in 2026, compared with 12 during the whole of 2025. “There are, however, still major cases of mass graves that have not been located. We hope that we are getting closer with every effort,” Pantelides said. He said what was being sought were the records of the Turkish army’s medical service which carried out collective burials in 1974, rather than the army’s operational records. Presidential Commissioner Marios Hartsiotis told the meeting that determining the fate of the missing remained a paramount humanitarian and national obligation for the state. “An obligation that does not expire with the passage of time,” he said. He said President Nikos Christodoulides’ policy was to continue and intensify efforts through initiatives at local, European and international level. “The president systematically raises the issue before the European Union, the United Nations and foreign leaders, seeking substantive cooperation from Turkey, the removal of obstacles to investigations and exhumations, and access to information and Turkish military archives,” Hartsiotis said. Hartsiotis said his office was working around three priorities: proper infrastructure, meaningful and continuous information for relatives, and concrete action on the ground. The cabinet has approved a specific building for the creation of a permanent anthropological laboratory for the Republic, while plans are also under way for an ossuary for the dignified storage of remains of identified and unidentified missing persons and fallen soldiers, as well as an area where relatives can visit and gather. Plans also include a small church and an appropriate space where relatives can gather and pay tribute to their loved ones. An official register of the children of missing persons is also being prepared. Hartsiotis said he holds monthly meetings with organisations representing relatives of missing persons in Cyprus and Greece, while individual files are made available to relatives. Hartsiotis announced that annual public presentations would be held detailing all actions taken to determine the fate of the missing, with the first covering the period from January 1 to December 31, 2026. He also said the cabinet approved €1 million in April for specialised genetic testing on the remains of Greek soldiers and missing persons from 1974 which had previously been treated with chemicals and could not be identified using conventional methods. The process began in June, using the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics and massively parallel sequencing technology. A fifth phase of testing on small skeletal samples belonging to Cypriots and Greeks from the Lakatamia military cemetery has also been handed over to the institute, with hopes that further identifications will result. “We need information. We need access to archives and evidence. We need substantive cooperation from Turkey and the occupying power,” Hartsiotis said. “Every piece of information that is withheld could be the information that deprives a family of the answer it has been waiting for, for 52 years. But the more the difficulties and obstacles increase, the more our determination to continue grows.” He added that his office was open to any relative wishing to see the file concerning their missing family member. .