The international community must pressure Turkey to reveal details of burial sites of Cyprus’ missing persons if there is any hope of ever finding them, presidential commissioner Fotis Fotiou said on Wednesday.

The commissioner was speaking at a memorial service within the framework of the 37th Marathon of Love for Missing Persons, which seeks to determine the fate of Greek and Turkish Cypriots who went missing during the 1974 Turkish invasion and intercommunal violence in the ’60s.

The memorial service was held at the war memorial in Makedonitissa.

“We cannot overlook the significant problems that exist and are an obstacle in efforts to achieve progress,” Fotiou noted, citing the decrease in the number of remains found in recent years in the north.

Out of 1,702 missing persons from the Turkish invasion in 1974, among whom 83 persons from Greece, and the 42 missing persons from the period 1963-1964, 52 people were found and identified in 1999, while 772 more were identified during 2006-2022.

The commissioner stressed that time is running out, as many of the relatives, even children of missing persons, are now dying with unanswered questions.

Fotiou explained that the refusal by the Turkish army to allow access to the archives that hold information about mass graves and the transfer of remains from these mass graves to unknown locations, is causing severe problems in the efforts to verify the fate of all missing persons.

“Unfortunately, without the sincere cooperation of the forces of occupation on the island, we cannot expect any progress,” he said.

Nikos Sergidis, president of the Cyprus Organisation of Undeclared Captives and Missing Persons said that the pain experienced by the people of Cyprus in 1974 is now experienced by the victims of a new war.

“We call on the international community to act towards those who hold the key to the resolution of this matter, towards the Turkish side, to disclose information to the CMP, so that the committee can complete its humanitarian mission,” Sergidis concluded.