Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 09-08-14

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] SPOKESMAN MISSING PERSONS

[02] CYPRUS - 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF TURKEY`S SECOND OFFENSIVE

[01] SPOKESMAN MISSING PERSONS

In statements to the press, on the sidelines of the burial of the remains of Greek Cypriot Yiannis Papayiannis one of the five Greek Cypriot National Guardsmen killed in August 1974 in Chiaos village and whose remains were identified recently through DNA tests, Stephanou said that the Cypriot government continues its struggle and effort for the implementation by Turkey of the European Court of Human Rights decision regarding the provision of all information with a view to facilitate the ascertainment of the missing persons fate.

Stephanou, who represented Cyprus President Demetris Christofias at the funeral, said that the CMP Project on the Exhumation, Identification and Return of Remains of Missing Persons in Cyprus must be safeguarded.

He also noted that President Christofias and the government fully share the pain of the missing persons relatives.

Stephanou said the funerals of missing persons remains always remind the atrocities and the crimes committed during the Turkish invasion and which even violated the Law of War.

The Spokesman said the government unreservedly denounces the crimes committed against prisoners and non-combatants during the Turkish invasion by the Turkish troops.

It also denounces the crimes committed by Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot chauvinists, as result of bigotry and fanaticism, he added.

Stephanou noted that these crimes caused huge pain and harm to the country and underlined the need to stop stirring up hatred.

He assured that the government, in cooperation with the missing persons relatives will continue to work and make efforts so that Turkey fully fulfills its obligation deriving from the ECHR decision on the 4th Inter State Application of the Republic of Cyprus and cooperate with a view to ascertain the conditions under which these persons went missing.

The government will continue to make every possible effort so that the work of the CPM is supported and the project of the exhumations and identifications is completed the soonest possible, he added.

In its decision in the fourth Interstate Application of Cyprus against Turkey, the Court demanded that Ankara cooperates and gives all the information it has in connection with missing Greek Cypriots, to help establish the circumstances under which these people disappeared during the 1974 invasion.

Since July 2007, CMP began returning remains of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot individuals to their families.

The primary objective of this project is to enable relatives of missing persons to recover the remains of their loved ones, arrange for a proper burial and close a long period of anguish and uncertainty. Most Cypriot families have been directly or indirectly affected and it is hoped that the healing of old wounds will in turn favour the overall process of reconciliation between the two communities. To this end, the project is of a bi-communal nature with teams of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot scientists involved at every stage of the exhumation and identification processes.

The project includes an Archaeological Phase (Phase I), related to the exhumation of the remains of missing persons, an Anthropological Phase (Phase II), related to the analysis of the recovered remains in the CMP anthropological laboratory, and a Genetic Phase (Phase III), related to the DNA identification process. Lastly, the Return of Remains (Phase IV) aims to help the families of both communities cope with the difficult task of coming to terms with their loss.

[02] CYPRUS - 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF TURKEY`S SECOND OFFENSIVE

On August 14, 2005, an Helios Boeing 737 aircraft flying from Larnaca to Prague via Athens crashed into the mountain side of Grammatiko, north of the Greek capital. All passengers and crew on board were killed. Most of the victims were Cypriots.

Memorials on Friday took place in Grammatiko, Greece, and the chapel of Agia Thekli in Mosfiloti, Cyprus.

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