More missing remains identified

THE REMAINS of another 23 Greek Cypriots listed as missing since 1974 have been identified and are being returned to their families for a proper burial.

Elias Georgiades, the Greek Cypriot member of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) told the Cyprus News Agency that the process of exhumation and identification on both sides should be completed within three years.

Georgiades said that notification of the next of kin of the 23 had already begun. This was being done discreetly, he said.
The president of the Cyprus Committee of Relatives of Missing Persons, Nicos Theodosiou, said that so far 300 sets of remains had been exhumed and would have to be identified by the forensic experts from Cyprus and abroad.

“We are trying to speed up the process, as many relatives are very elderly. We are seeing a repetition of the process that took place two to three weeks ago – a new cycle which will last a long time as exhumations and identifications continue,” Theodosiou said, referring to earlier of identifications of victims, whose funerals are ongoing.
Theodosiou said it was a very trying time for the families of missing persons, as feelings were mixed.

“On the one hand, families are faced with the truth that their loved one is actually dead, something that fades away any hope that he or she might have been alive. On the other hand, there is relief and the agony and the waiting come to an end after 33 years, in the knowledge that they have a burial place for their loved one and that they can say a prayer for his soul,” he said.

Another victim recently identified was buried yesterday. Christakis Panayiotou’s funeral was held yesterday evening in Dromolaxia, presided over by Bishop of Kiti Chrysostomos.

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.