QA-3, 14 February 2015

The Resolution on mass graves in the Ekmekçiler district, which contain the remains of missing persons with origins from Paşaköy in Cyprus, adopted at the European Parliament (EP) Plenary of 12 February 2015, is entirely a unilateral decision and undermines the reputation of the EP.

The issue of missing persons in Cyprus, which is a human tragedy, has sensitive aspects involving not only the Greeks but also the Turkish Cypriots on the Island. Indeed, there are many Turkish Cypriots who are still missing since the 1963-1974 period. Although the European Commission has already recognized this fact, it is unacceptable that there are no references to the missing Turkish Cypriots in the resolution. It has been an extremely unfortunate development that the EP ignored the losses of Turkish Cypriots and adopted a biased resolution on such a sensitive issue that should have been addressed by staying away from political polemics.

We do not believe that the above-mentioned resolution will make any positive contribution to “the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus”, which is continuing its works between the parties and supported financially by Turkey. We will not accept this unilateral resolution in any way.

What needs to be done is to provide more support to the “the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus” rather than making such futile statements.