Bones of 86 Turkish Cypriots found

Experts have found the remains of 86 Turkish Cypriot civilians buried in a mass grave at the village of Santalaris in Turkish occupied Famagusta, reports said on Tuesday.

According to daily Turkish Cypriot paper Kibris, the remains were found in a mass grave of people murdered by the EOKA B paramilitary organisation in August 1974.

In total 126 were killed.

The victims were from the villages of Santalaris, Maratha, and Aloda, inhabited entirely by Turkish Cypriots, which were located next to each other in the Famagusta district.

The men of the three villages had been rounded up and sent to Limassol on July 20, the day Turkey invaded the island.

Citing the committee on missing persons, Kibris said teams of experts were digging in seven locations in the north and one in the Republic.

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.