Tatar pledges maximum effort on missing

By Jean Christou

THE TURKISH Cypriot side’s representative for the missing yesterday pledged to exchange as much information on the issue as possible.

Speaking on London Greek Radio (LGR), Rustem Tatar said the missing issue was a humanitarian one, “and we should keep it to that confine and hopefully resolve it.”

“Our aim is to exchange information a far as possible, and we expect things to be done reciprocally,” Tatar said.

Last week, Tatar and Greek Cypriot representative Takis Christopoulos exchanged information on missing persons.

The exchange was part of an agreement reached last July between President Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash for the exchange of information on the missing from both sides.

Christopoulos handed over information on 200 of 803 Turkish Cypriots missing since between 1963 and 1974 and received files from Tatar on 400 of the 1,619 missing Greek Cypriots.

Further meetings between the two are expected.

UN Permanent Representative Gustave Feissel yesterday said the missing issue would remain a top priority for the UN.

Feissel was speaking after a meeting with President Clerides and Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides.

The UN official refrained from commenting on Thursday’s claims by a former Turkish soldier in Germany that he had seen 100 of the Greek Cypriot missing slaughtered in 1974.

“We will see what information is available. At this stage we cannot say anything,” Feissel said.

The former soldier, a Kurd who now lives in Germany, told the pro-Kurdish daily Oezguer Politika that around 100 Greek Cypriot civilians, mainly elderly men along with some women and children, were slaughtered and buried near Nicosia during the Turkish invasion.

According to the published report, 45-year-old Mustafa Ongan said he was serving in the Turkish army at the time of the invasion and was brought with his regiment to Cyprus.

He said Turkish and Turkish Cypriot army chiefs ordered the killing of fleeing civilians, who were later buried in a mass grave.

The government is taking the matter seriously.

Foreign Minister Yiannakis yesterday again said the matter would be thoroughly investigated.

“We will handle the matter with complete confidentiality and complete secrecy in order to secure the success of our efforts,” Cassoulides said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.