Missing persons

The case of missing persons is a tragic humanitarian repercussion of the Turkish invasion and ongoing occupation of Cyprus.  This extremely sensitive humanitarian issue is of particular importance to Greece – as well as to Cyprus – given that even today there are families in Greece who do not yet know the fate of their loved ones: Greek citizens who have been missing since 1974.

In 2006, the bicommunal investigative Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) –set up in 1981 following an agreement between the two communities under the auspices of the United Nations– began excavation and exhumation works. In addition to missing persons of 1974, the CMP investigates the fate of missing persons from the period 1963-1964. In total, the CMP has received 2,002 files of missing persons, 1,510 Greek Cypriots (including 82 Greeks) and 492 Turkish Cypriots. As of 26 October 2023, 1,211 missing persons have been exhumed, 1,036 of which have been identified (743 Greek Cypriots and 293 Turkish Cypriots).

It is noted that the CMP mandate is limited to the search for and identification of remains, while (at Türkiye's insistence) investigating the conditions under which disappearance and death occurred was ruled out.

The CMP’s expenses are covered by voluntary contributions. The main contributor is the European Union, which covers approximately 80% of its budget, while the remaining sum is covered by other countries such as Cyprus, Türkiye, Germany, the Netherlands, among others. In 2023, Greece made the contribution of 40,000 Euros, while it had contributed 95,000 Euros in 2006, 100,000 Euros in 2008, and 150,000 Euros in 2022.

Additionally, and on its own initiative, the Republic of Cyprus has established its own distinct and unilateral program for the exhumation and identification of remains within the free areas of the island. Part of this effort involved, among others, identifying the remains of the ill-fated Noratlas crew and from the Athalassa Hospital, which had been bombarded by the Turkish Air Force in 1974. There have also been quite a few exhumations across free Cyprus, where the remains of fallen Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots have been located.

Türkiye has a responsibility to investigate the fate of missing persons and inform their families, in accordance with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Judgment on the Interstate Application of Cyprus v. Turkey (2001). Türkiye has ignored the relevant decisions of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, which oversees the implementation of the Court’s Judgments, arguing that only the CMP can provide answers.

In January 2008, the ECtHR condemned Türkiye in its judgment on 9 individual applications by relatives of Greek Cypriot missing persons (the case of Varnava and Others v. Turkey). At Türkiye’s request, the case was referred to the Grand Chamber, which delivered a final judgment on 18 September 2009, awarding each of the families of the missing persons €12,000 in damages for moral suffering.

Also to be noted is the Resolution of the European Parliament Plenary (12 February 2015) regarding mass graves of the missing persons of Ashia at Ornithi village in the occupied part of Cyprus. The resolution condemns the removal of remains of missing persons and calls on Türkiye to allow access to arbitrarily declared “military zones”, where the existence of mass graves has been reported.

As has already been noted (“Humanitarian Parameter”), in May 2014 an ECtHR judgment was issued calling on Türkiye to pay damages in the amount of €30 million to the relatives of missing persons.

As far as more recent developments with regard to the missing, a noteworthy visit in common by the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulidis and the Turkish-Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar was made to the CMP Anthropological Laboratory on 28.7.2023. Both leaders expressed their total support towards the CMP and its mission, highlighting that its work is purely humanitarian, underlining the importance in disconnecting the CMP from political questions. The leaders appealed to anyone who might have information about possible burial sites while recalling that such information could be provided in confidence. Additionally, they emphasized the need for work in locating and identifying the missing to continue. The President of Cyprus suggested to Mr. Tatar the establishment of a “truth and reconciliation committee” to investigate the circumstances under which the missing passed away. The Turkish-Cypriot side seemed quite reticent towards this idea and instead seemed to prefer that such a committee only be established after a resolution of the Cyprus issue.