Macabre bureaucracy with the remains of missing persons

Michalis Giagkou, a refugee from Agios Pavlos, found the body of his brother, Kostas, along with five other missing Greek soldiers, on a Pentadaktylos mountain in the summer of 2009. Their mother, Chrystallou, died in 89 years old, in November 2011, without fulfilling her last wish, to bury the remains of her son's hero, who, as Michalis characteristically says, is now "trapped" in a carton in the Anthropological Laboratory of the Commission of Inquiry for the Missing Persons (CMP). "Captive" in another DEA carton is also his brother Vassilis Pantazis from Famagusta, whose remains were found in Syghari in December 2010 with the golden ID on his neck with his name and date of birth: "Filippos - 29/08 / 1951 »τους Their father, Achilles, died at the age of 85, on October 17, 2011, without claiming to bury his child, who fell in favor of homeland.

Michalis Giagkou and Vassilis Pantazis, having nothing else to do, since the analgesia of the "untouchables" of the CMP, the bureaucracy and the absence of any accountability aggravate the tragedy experienced by their families, now resort to justice, placing their last hopes to her.

The six who paid the price in Pileri
Costas Giagou, 23 years old in 1974, a plumber by profession, on July 20 left behind his 19-year-old wife, Nitsa, and his three-month-old daughter, Maria, and together with the 301st Infantry Battalion, with captain Costas Papakostas, left. for the forehead. On July 22, with an attack from Agios Ermolaos, they occupied an inaccessible hill in Pentadaktylos, above the village of Pileri. On July 26, they were attacked by paratroopers and armored from the direction of St. Hilarion. The battalion retreated, under the cover of fire of six soldiers, who, huddled in a natural fortress on the hill, with a bren, a narrow and four rifles, gave their comrades the opportunity to retreat and be saved. When the 301 T.P. arrived in Kontemenos, only six were absent from the report: Costas Savva Giagkou - Agios Pavlos, Costas Petrou Konstantinou - Evrychou, Charalambos Potamitis - Morfou, Dimitris Theocharidis - Nicosia, Christos Chrysostomos Ne Paloumitou, Palouriou.

In 2008, Costas Yagos' brother, Michalis, seeing that the exhumations were proceeding at a very slow pace, decided to take matters into his own hands. He went to Costas Papakostas, who made him a rough map of the hill in Pileri, and in August he began searching in those rugged areas, but to no avail. He then sought the help of Turkish journalist Sevgiul Uludag, who began gathering information. In August 2009, one morning while Michalis was searching the area, he was approached by an 80-year-old T / C shepherd, who told him: "They have already started asking about you, you will find your trouble. Tell me what you have been looking for so long, maybe I can help you ". Michalis explained to him and the shepherd told him that he knew where the six were. In fact, he told him that days after the battles on the hill, when he passed by that point with the herd, he saw wild dogs gathered there, chased them and because the ground is stony, he covered the area with stones. The next day, the shepherd drove Michalis up to a point on the mountain with his tractor and from there Michalis on foot climbed to the top. He found the spot, moved some stones and began to find human bones. It took him a whole year, but it was worth it. He then went to Nicosia and informed Ilias Georgiadis of the CMP about it and of course he also informed his relatives. The process of collecting the bones was completed in November 2009. Chrystallou asked Michalis every day "when will they give us Kostas my son?". And Michalis answered "patience mother, patience a little more". Chrystallous's patience was finally exhausted on November 13, 2011, when she closed her eyes forever…

I feel defeated
The last excerpt of our conversation with Michalis Giagkou is extremely interesting: "As a result of my frequent requests to show me what they found in Pileri, Mr. Georgiadis called me and asked me if I was ready to see what they found. I replied that in 1974 I saw many dead and wounded and nothing could stop me. He showed me step by step the process of collecting the remains in Pileri. I told him that I wanted to go to the Anthropology Laboratory to see what they found and he replied: "Look at what I am showing you here and do not say anything to anyone." A few days before Elias Georgiadis resigned, he called me to his office because he learned that I had something to do with the Christofias family and told me: I do not know what happened or what they told him. However, if it is because I am old and retired, let them put someone else in my place and let me help him here because I know the job ". I replied that I had no idea about the President's intentions and he told me "if you know anything, let me know".
Clearly disappointed, Michalis Giagou concluded: "I feel defeated. The bureaucrats succeeded and defeated me. He is an opponent who is not caught anywhere. One refers you to the other, no one is to blame, and when the responsibility is obvious, no one takes it. And there you feel that you were defeated without ever being given the opportunity to fight "…

They found him with the ID but did not give him to the family
23-year-old Filippos Pantazis from Famagusta, a student in Athens, in 1974 was found with the 181st Artillery Squadron in Syghari. On that plateau, betrayed and abandoned, they fought an unequal battle with the Turkish army that had surrounded them from everywhere. Half were killed and the other half were taken prisoner. In recent years, his brother, Vassilis, began to gather information from Philip's comrades-in-arms and to visit the area. He met his brother's comrades-in-arms and got information. He connected with the Turkish journalist Sevgiul Uludag, who helped him to the best of his ability. However, the help of the president of the Pancyprian Association of Artillery Reserves, Costas Drakos, was very essential, who patiently and persistently compiled an entire study, with data and photos, for the mass graves of the missing in the battle of Syghari. He says specifically: "The 181 MP. had 56 prisoners and 40 missing. We presented our study in 2007 to President Papadopoulos and in 2008 to President Christofias, as well as to Mr. El. Georgiadis of the CMP ".

All the data were submitted to the CMP, but the excavations in the area did not start, as Vassilis Pantazis tells "K". We asked El. Georgiadis what was going on and he was making fun of us: "in a month", "in two weeks", "next week" and the time was passing. I asked for and had a meeting with Ms. Gulden Kucuk, a Turkish Cypriot member of the CMP. I asked about the graves in Syghari and he replied that "the issue of Syghari was never raised by the Greek Cypriot side at the CMP table". I informed her that El. Georgiadis assured us 4-5 times that the team is already preparing for the exhumations. Ms. Kyutsuk reiterated that no one has ever raised the issue of Congratulations. I asked to attend the next CMP session that would take place after three days and Ms. Kyutsuk arranged it. I went to the meeting with other members of the Congratulations Initiative Group. We presented our case and Costas Drakos put the relevant study on the table, telling Mr. Girond that we had given it to Mr. Georgiadis a long time ago. The latter intervened saying that he never received the study, so Costas Drakos replied with dates, when he gave him the study in writing and when electronically. Mr Georgiadis said he did not remember such a thing. "Your job is to remember, Mr. Georgiadis", was the answer of Drakos ", says V. Pantazis.

They then asked the CMP for a commitment to start the exhumations and to speed things up, the Initiative Group gave a press conference. And Mr. Pantazis continues: "Next week they started working in the field. It was June 20, 2010. After four weeks, we read in "Phileleftheros" that the relatives of the fallen in Syghari gave wrong information and the exhumations did not work. I got them on the skull. I called the reporter, who told me that he had been informed that we had given the wrong burial sites, but he refused to tell me who had informed him. Understood. I went to Syghari. I asked the archaeologists if they dig in the places we indicated to them through the study and they answered that they dig in the places indicated by Mr. Georgiadis. But those points were very stony and - of course - would hardly be burial points. It was obvious that there was a deliberate obstruction. We went out to the media again and protested. The result was that excavations began at the places we had indicated and the first remains came to light. I continued to go to the excavation site often and found that the archaeologists worked with zeal and respect, for which I thank them from the bottom of my heart. One Monday in early December 2010, I left Limassol to come to Nicosia but my intuition pushed me to go to Syghari. I went. When they saw me, a Turkish archaeologist told me to stay away from that mass grave. They knew my brother was there because they found a gold ID around his neck with his name and date of birth. Since then, every day I waited for them to call me to give me the relic of Philip, since the identity logically made the identification very easy. Eleven months later, on October 17, 2011, our father, Achilleas Pantazis, died at the age of 85. "My anger flared up and I went on the radio again."

How long will the torment last?
"In mid-November 2011, Mr. Georgiadis called me to his office. It was Saturday. He put in front of me a photo with my brother's remains and one with his ID. He spent an hour and a half talking about how much he fought for the missing. When he finished, I asked him if he had anything else to tell me and he replied: "We found some relics, one of which had the identity of the photo and we suspect it is your brother." I asked him why he had to spend an hour and a half to tell me, and what did he answer? "I wanted to find out first what psychological state you are in" (!). When asked when the relics will be given to me, he said: "This also depends on the T / C side, with which we will have to decide together how to handle your case, which is theoretically easy due to the identity". I then asked for my brother's personal belongings, at least the ID, because, as I told him, a month ago I had lost my father and I did not want to lose my mother without even taking Philip's ID. His answer was the same. I went and saw Mrs. Kyuchuk, who told me that she had no objection. Subsequently, Mr. Georgiadis resigned from the CMP. I turned to Mrs Kyuchuk again. He replied that, at the CMP meeting, Mr. Girond refused to give me Filippos' personal belongings, because there was no longer a Greek representative. I sent an e-mail to Mr Girond. His assistant replied that he was against the procedure, which stipulates that personal items are given after identification. I replied that if this would speed up the identification to keep them, if not I wish to receive them and I promise that whenever they ask me I will return them. He replied that something like this was against the protocol. I answered him by asking what the protocol provides. I have not received any response since. "But I ask all the power in this place: If such an obvious case as my brother's is short-circuited for 15 months in the cogs of an uncontrolled CMP, what happens to the other missing and how long will the suffering of us relatives last?", He concludes. Vassilis Pantazis.