DNA tests have proved that Hakan Kutevu from Adana in Turkey is not missing Christakis Georgiou who was taken to Turkey in 1974 at the age of five after being wounded in the knee with a bullet, Politis said yesterday.
Despite saying that Kutevu was the same age, had scars consistent with Georgiou’s, and also had birthmarks on the small of his back and on his head, just like the missing boy, Politis said the DNA tests has proved negative.
The paper also printed part of a copy of a DNA test result, but without showing names and dates.
In yesterday’s instalment of the serialised reports on the search for Georgiou in Turkey, Politis detailed how Kutevu took two months to agree to a DNA test, which was eventually carried out in London.
In the meantime Georgiou’s older brother Loizos travelled to Adana to meet Kutevu and his family, and according to Politis Kutevu recalled memories of playing on a hill near a house with green walls. The older Georgiou was surprised because he said there was exactly such a house behind their own home in Cyprus.
Loizos Georgiou also made reference to the birthmarks and was convinced that Kutevu was his brother because there were too many coincidences.
They also met Kutevu’s mother in Adana. Her response was: “If Hakan is not my child, where is my child?”
A trip was then arranged for everyone to go to London for the DNA testing at the end of June, including Georgiou’s mother Myrofora. Politis showed a series of photos of her reunification with the person she believed was her son. Georgiou’s sister Niki, who lives in London, also featured in the lengthy article.
However, at the end of the article, and despite all the coincidences that convinced the Georgiou family their missing boy had finally been found, the tests proved negative, putting an end to months of hope.
It was Kutevu who first contacted Politis after a photo of Christakis appeared in a Turkish newspaper. Kutevu’s son Mert, 16 saw the paper and wondered why it contained a picture of his father as a child.
Later, Kutevu revealed that he had recollections of being on a helicopter and of doctors and nurses, but he said no one in his family had even given him a satisfactory explanation of what happened to his leg. There is documentary proof of Christakis Georgiou’s injuries and the fact that he was taken to hospital in Turkey but never returned.
A retried Turkish corporal revealed in March that Georgiou didn’t die in a Turkish hospital, and that he believed he was still alive and living in Turkey.
Kutevu has come under fire in Turkey for co-operating with the Politis search. Hurriyet newspaper on Sunday, under the title “DNA slap to the Greeks”, said Greek psychologists had tried to convince Kutevu’s mother that her child had died and that she had been given Georgiou by a Turkish soldier.
Comments on the online edition of the paper slammed Kutevu for “questioning his Turkishness”.
