In 1974, the Turks invaded the island in response to a coup by the Greeks. In this conflict, and during the intercommunal clashes of ’63-64, 2002 people went missing. Their families demand answers.
“We are searching for our missing. It doesn’t matter whether they are Greek Cypriots or Turkish Cypriots. “They all belong to Cyprus.” This is spoken by archaeologist Ceren Ceraloglu, who is involved in the search for the bodies of missing persons 50 years after the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974 and the intercommunal unrest of 1963 – 1964.
During these conflicts, 2002 people, 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, went missing, according to the statistics from the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus. Since the start of the searches in 2006, 1,047 bodies have already been identified.
Last May, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides attended a funeral in Nicosia to honor the memory of 15 Greek soldiers before their remains were placed in coffins wrapped in a Greek flag.
Christodoulides said that it was the least the state could do to honor and respect the memory of the dead.
According to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), archaeologists are searching for a mass grave from 1974 on the outskirts of Nicosia. Eyewitnesses have stated that sixteen people were buried there at the time. Archaeologists always conduct the searches in pairs: one Greek Cypriot and one Turkish Cypriot.
The remains they find are then analyzed later to identify the individuals. “The archaeologists have found the bones you see on these tables. They brought us boxes in the laboratory,” explains anthropologist Theodora Eleftheriou.
“Some bones were all mixed together, we tried to synthesize them to create the skeleton of four individuals.”
A Wound That Heals
“For the relatives of the missing persons, it is not time that heals the wounds, but rather the answers,” reads the presentation by the Committee. A statement that is echoed in the words of those directly affected, who say they feel gratified and relieved by the discovery of their loved ones’ bodies.
“We celebrated. It’s wonderful. Because, coming home, it’s like they were born again,” says Andreas Hadjisavvas.
“We are happy that he has finally returned and we will bury him next to our mother,” Kutlay Erk adds.
The reasons and feelings of the families of the missing have also been heard by European institutions: “Families have the right to dignity and the right to memory”, said MEP Isabel Santos in December, the permanent rapporteur for missing persons in Cyprus. During a press conference attended by Cypriot journalists, she emphasized the importance of setting aside politics to focus on the humanitarian dimension of this search.
Coming to Terms with History
Fifty years have passed since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in the summer of 1974. At 5:30 AM on July 20, tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers and hundreds of tanks invaded a portion of the island, now estimated to be around 36%, in response to a Greek coup attempt.
Despite the passage of years and various diplomatic efforts by the United Nations, a definitive solution has yet to be found. Cyprus remains the only member state of the European Union, of which it became a part in 2004, that is de facto divided, despite the fact that its territory is formally part of the Union as a whole. In the northern zone are the separatist Turkish Cypriots, while the Greek Cypriots are in the south.
United Nations peacekeeping forces were sent to Cyprus to quell the clashes between the two communities a decade before the invasion and later, their mandate was expanded to patrol the buffer zone.
Cypriot President Christodoulides pushes for reunification, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, visiting the island on this anniversary, reiterated his opposition to the Annan Plan for the reunification of Cyprus proposed by the United Nations, reaffirming his support for an agreement to create two states that the Greek Cypriots have repeatedly rejected. “The dominant attitude of the unchanging Greek Cypriot mentality has derailed all negotiation processes,” he stated, referring to the stalled talks since 2017.
“If Turkey truly wishes to see security and stability prevail in the region, if it desires to draw closer to the EU, and if it wants to participate in the efforts of the states of the region,” Christodoulides replied, speaking of “human rights violations of the Cypriot people.”