The Council of Europe Ministers’ Deputies maintain the monitoring of the execution of the ECtHR Judgment in the 4th Interstate Case “Cyprus v. Turkey” in relation to the missing persons’ aspect and in the “Varnava and others”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a press release.
The MFA underlines that in the decision taken today by the Ministers’ Deputies, the importance of the humanitarian issues related to the missing persons aspect in Cyprus is highlighted and Turkey is called upon to provide the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) with unhindered access to all areas where the remains of missing persons may be located, and to provide the CMP with all relevant information.
The Ministers’ Deputies also call on Turkey to continue to provide information on any new developments, including any additional investigation that it may have conducted regarding the remaining six missing persons in the Varnava case.
It also strongly insists on Turkey’s unconditional obligation to pay the compensation awarded against it by the ECHR in the cases of “Cyprus v. Turkey” and “Varnavas v. Turkey”, criticizing its lack of compliance with previous interim resolutions on the matter. It urges Turkey to proceed with the above payment of just satisfaction without further delay.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown.
A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.
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Source: CNA
