The office of the Presidential Commissioner Marios Hartsiotis announced on Wednesday that it will be launching an annual presentation of the efforts to determine the fate of the missing persons in Cyprus.
In a statement the Presidential Commissioner’s office says that transparency, systematic information and briefing are basic prerequisites for the responsible management of such a sensitive and deeply humanitarian issue. The first annual public presentation will take place in January 2027 and will cover the period from January 1 to December 31, 2026.
The announcement says that for families who continue, after so many decades, to await answers about the fate of their loved ones, valid and substantial information is of particular importance. It also adds that is is the state’s obligation to provide clear and responsible information about the actions taken, the results obtained, the difficulties that still exist and the next steps.
The presentation will be taking place in cooperation of the Commissioner’s office with the Committee for Missing Persons (CMP) and the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics.
The presentation will be addressed to the relatives of the missing, their organisations, the competent bodies, the media, as well as to any interested party dealing with the issue of determining the fate of the missing persons.
The information will be provided at three levels, by the Office of the Presidential Commissioner, with a presentation of the initiatives, actions and interventions undertaken during the previous twelve months, as well as the results obtained, by the representative of the Republic of Cyprus to the CMP, with information on the excavations and investigations carried out, their results, as well as the planning for the next period and by the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, with a presentation of the progress and results concerning the identification procedures.
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.
According to statistical data published on the CMP website by June 30, 2026 out of 2002 missing persons 1,719 were exhumed and 1,075 were identified. Out of 1,510 Greek Cypriot missing persons 764 were identified and 746 are still missing. Out of 492 Turkish Cypriot missing persons 311 were identified and 181 are still missing.