Update on the Missing Persons of Cyprus from the 1974 Turkish Invasion

Abstract

The paper aims to give up-to-date information on the situation of the missing persons of Cyprus from the 1974 illegal Turkish invasion of the island Republic. It is simply an overview of the situation and how it has evolved as a humanitarian issue over more than three decades. The Cyprus humanitarian issue of missing persons refers to about 1,464 Greek Cypriot missing persons and 502 cases of Turkish Cypriot missing persons - both military personnel and civilians, including women and children. Following relevant United Nations General Assembly resolutions, a Committee on missing persons (CMP) was established in 1981, which operates under the United Nations (UN). The CMP officially began its program for exhumations and identification of the missing persons on 30 June 2005 — By June 2009 the remains of 196 individuals have been identified from more than 600 exhumed — 145 of these remains belong to Greek-Cypriot and 51 Turkish-Cypriot missing persons.