Funerals for four of the missing

THREE separate funerals took place on Saturday of persons who until recently had been missing since the 1974 Turkish invasion.

Siblings Costas Attas, 40, and Charalambos Attas, 24, were buried in Larnaca after their remains were identified in the village of Sinta in Famagusta. The siblings were tending to their farm in Lysi a few days after the village was captured in August 15, and were spotted by Turkish troops who shot them along with four others. All six were buried in a mass grave.

Andreas Kouroufexis, whose remains had been identified in Kornokipos in Famagusta, was also buried on Saturday. Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou said that the country’s collective consciousness could not forget the acts of sacrifice and selflessness of those who died defending their homes.

The remains of Nicos Demetriou, also found in Kornokipos, were buried at funeral in Nicosia. Both his parents and one of his siblings had died before Demetriou was identified, former government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said in his speech to the mourners.

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.