TRNC News Today 28^th August 2015

The remains of İbrahim Nidai and Şevket Kadir have been found

According to the news in Kıbrıs newspaper today, as a result of the research of the Committee on Missing Persons, the remains of two people were located at a horse farm between Karaoğlanoğlu and Alsancak after the denunciation of an elderly Greek man. The remains of the two people were estimated to belong to İbrahim Nidai and Şevket Kadir who were travelling to Girne from Lapta on 24 December 1963.

Murat Soysal, assistant of the Turkish Cypriot member of the Committee on Missing Persons said that accurate identification results of the remains of two male people which were found at a horse farm between Alsancak and Karaoğlanoğlu, and the remains of a Greek Cypriot woman found in Gazimağusa, would be determined after DNA analysis.

Also, the remains of a missing Greek Cypriot have been found during excavation under the garden wall of the Lapta Yavuzlar High School yesterday.

Soysal said that excavations are continuing in nine different locations across the island as a result of denunciations.

According to the Missing Persons List, the Turkish Cypriot missing were all civilian and 25-28 percent were children and women. 12 percent of the Greek Cypriot missing were female and children, and 55 percent consists of Greek Cypriot and Greek soldiers.

Until now remains could not be reached but excavations will continue

It was announced that the Committee on Missing Persons which began excavation work on the 17th of August in the area behind the Central Prison in North Nicosia have not found anything yet but their work will continue.

Turkish Cypriot assistant member of the Committee on Missing Persons Murat Soysal stated that the excavation teams have been doubled in order to speed up the work being carried out. Soysal said, “We know there are mass graves in the region. It is a large region and we guess we will get the results in a few weeks”.

Soysal also explained that they are trying to find the remains of the 40-50 Greek Cypriots who had lost their lives in 1974 and buried en-mass behind the current prison because even though they were taken to Ledra Palace by truck, either Greek authorities or UN authorities did not receive them. Soysal said, “Excavations are continuing and we believe we will get results”.

According to the information of the Missing Persons Committee, 1508 Greek Cypriots and 493 Turkish Cypriots a total of 2,001 people are missing. So far, 451 Greek Cypriots, 144 Turkish Cypriots who were missing where identities were determined have been delivered to their families.

The Committee have found the remains of 969 people on 999 excavation sites.

Foreign Minister Emine Çolak received Koru

Minister of Foreign Affairs Emine Çolak received Naci Koru, the deputy Foreign Minister of Turkey and his accompanying delegations who have been on the island for the purpose of “Strengthening the information technology infrastructure of the TRNC Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, “providing safe and speedy communication”, “transferring the Ministry archive to the digital system”.

During the meeting, Çolak said “Today is an important day for us” adding that the project has been prepared for providing a secure IT infrastructure to the Foreign Ministry of theTRNC. Minister Çolak also said that Turkey is an example for that.

Stating that this project will enable easier access by the foreign representation offices to the documents of the Ministry, Çolak added: “The technical and physical support that we will get is important for using modern technology at the utmost level”. Emphasizing the continuation and improvement of strong relations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Çolak stressed “Taking technical and physical support in the issues where we can experience difficulties in TRNC conditions, is important for us”.

Emphasizing the importance they attached to informatics and security as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Deputy Minister Naci Koru mentioned the importance of IT technologies in daily work.

Furthermore, Naci Koru expressed the purpose of the IT project in TRNC Ministry of Foreign Affairs as, “strengthening the IT infrastructure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, “providing safe and quick communication between centre and foreign representations” and “transferring the Foreign Ministry’s archive to the digital system”.

Akıncı to inform TRNC Assembly of current stage of negotiations on September 17

It was stated that President Akıncı is going to inform the TRNC Assembly about the current stage of negotiations on September 17 at 10:00 am.

The General Council of the Assembly which is taking their summer holiday, will hold an exclusive meeting on the issue of Cyprus.

Özyiğit: “Rotating Presidency is one of the parameters of political equality”

The Leader of Communal Democracy Party Cemal Özyiğit stressed that the rotating presidency issue is one of the basic parameters of political equality in the Cyprus negotiations. Özyiğit made evaluations about continuing negotiations for the settlement of the Cyprus problem in the island to the AA reporter. Özyiğit emphasized that negotiations have been continuing since 1968, although with interruptions, adding that it was a disappointment for the Turkish Cypriots that the Greek Cypriots rejected the Annan Plan in 2004 but it was approved by 65% Turkish Cypriots.

Underlining the joint statement approved by the Sides on February 2014 is essential for determining the form of the settlement, Özyiğit reminded that in the agreement that was signed in 1960, Turkish Cypriots were one of the founding partners.

Furthermore, Özyiğit stressed the importance of ensuring the formation of the Council of Ministers and decision making mechanism.

Burcu: “Negotiators will meet with Eide before the Leaders’ meeting”

Presidential spokesman Barış Burcu stated that UN Secretary General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide will be arriving on the island on the 31st of August and will be holding a short meeting with the negotiators in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot negotiator Özdil Nami and Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyannis are continuing their talks before the Leaders’ meeting to be held on 1st September. The negotiators will be meeting again today to discuss various issues.

“Reaction from Greek opposition parties to Anastasiades”

It is stated that Greek opposition parties showed harsh reaction to the speech of Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades during the opening of the meeting held by POMAK, PSEKA and NEPOMAK, which are organizations of overseas Greeks.

Greek Cypriot daily Politis wrote that the head of Greek political parties turned the Overseas Greeks meeting into a political conflict solving area.

The newspaper noted that, as expected, voices were raised on the day following Anastasiades’ speech and the head of the opposition parties criticized Anastasiades harshly.

The Newspaper also reported that the heads of DİKO, EDEK, Citizens Alliance Ecologists and Environmentalists Movements are criticizing actions of Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades regarding the Cyprus problem and appear as defending the so-called “Republic of Cyprus”. The Newspaper also stated that the heads of DİSİ and AKEL parties talked about the window of opportunity that opened after Mustafa Akıncı was elected as TRNC President and meanwhile they criticize unaware persons of the dangers and cost of lack of a solution to the Cyprus problem.

Gender equality technical committee will study two main subjects

Turkish Cypriot Coordinator of the Gender Equality Technical Committee, Mine Atlı stated that she will study two main subjects. According to her written statement, the two main subjects are “creating peace culture by gender equality perspective” and “studying on constitutional, legal and institutional models after the settlement in Cyprus including the gender equality perspective”.