EXPLORATORY digging is underway at Alaminos village in the Larnaca district to locate and identify the bodies of Turkish Cypriots killed in a gun battle with the Greek Cypriot National Guard on July 20, 1974.
During the incident, 19 people were reportedly killed, including 14 Turkish Cypriots, and were buried by Greek Cypriot villagers. The Turkish Cypriots’ names are included on the list of 500 Turkish Cypriot missing.
The exhumations are being conducted by the international organisation “Physicians for Human Rights.”
A Foreign Ministry press release said the digging was part of the Cyprus government’s efforts to investigate the fate of the missing persons.
“The whole procedure has a humanitarian nature and aims at respecting the rights of the families to be informed, with credible evidence, of the fate of their loved ones and return the scientifically established remains of each missing for a dignified burial, according to their religious traditions,” the statement said.
A 1997 agreement on the issue of missing persons, signed by President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, provides for the exhumation of remains in the government-controlled southern part of Cyprus and the Republic’s northern areas occupied by Turkish troops since 1974.
In the summer of 1999, the government of Cyprus embarked on a process of exhumation and identification of remains in two local cemeteries.
The process of identification through the DNA method continues with a view to identify, if possible, all exhumed remains.
The Alaminos exhumations are due to be completed on Saturday.
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.
