Government urges pressure put on Turkey to pay missing debt

The government has sent a memo to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe asking it to exert pressure on Turkey to meet its obligation to ensure that no interference with burial sites takes place in the future in the north of Cyprus, by employing practical and effective means, it was reported on Tuesday.

According to Nicosia, it has been established that the intentional relocation of remains belonging to missing persons has occurred in four sites in the north.

In a memorandum submitted on Monday to the Committee of Ministers, ahead of a meeting in Strasbourg to discuss, inter alia, the issue of missing persons, Nicosia stresses that “the respondent state is under an obligation to urgently take positive measures for the protection of such sites”.

Furthermore, the Republic of Cyprus said that Turkey must immediately pay the €30m awarded by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to the surviving relatives of the missing persons.

According to the government, “Turkey’s persistent refusal to comply with its unconditional obligation to pay the sum awarded is not only a flagrant display of its overall dismissive attitude” but “also undermines the credibility of the Court itself”.

Therefore, it said, Turkey “must immediately pay the amount of just satisfaction awarded by the Court”.

According to the government memorandum, in its forthcoming meeting the Committee of Ministers should call on Turkey to adopt a genuine and proactive approach for effective investigation of the fate, whereabouts and circumstances of disappearance of all missing persons.

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