"BOMB" of Turkey for missing persons - To close the surveillance

Ankara is talking about "effective general measures" that are enough to end the monitoring by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) in the cases of missing persons tried by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

In a memo sent to the CoE last week, Turkey says the surveillance could be completed, both in relation to the part of the ECtHR decision on the Fourth Transnational Action "Cyprus v. Turkey", which concerns the missing, and on the general measures in the judgment "Barnabas and Others v. Turkey".

"Taking into account the rulings of the Court as a point of reference for monitoring the execution of judgments, we have effective mechanisms, which have been yielding tangible results for some years now," the Turkish memorandum, submitted after the meeting of the Committee of Ministers on 9- March 11, in Strasbourg, where the cases of missing persons were examined.

In the decision issued after the meeting, the Committee of Ministers stated that it insists on Turkey's unconditional obligation to pay without further delay the compensation awarded by the ECtHR in the decisions "Cyprus v. Turkey" on 12 May 2014 and "Barnabas v. Turkey". on 18 September 2009. He also asked the Secretariat of the House, in case the situation remains unchanged, to prepare a draft of interim resolutions for the next consideration of each of these cases. The issue of the missing was decided to be re-examined together with the individual measures of the "Barnabas" case in March 2022.

The Turkish memorandum refers to the repetition of "the same misleading information and the distortion of the facts by the Greek Cypriot side" which, as he says, prevent the Committee of Ministers from making the necessary assessment, on the basis of facts.

"If we look at the facts, the steps taken in relation to the missing are concrete and clear. "Three of the nine missing in the Barnabas case have been identified by the CMP, with the help of the Turkish side," Ankara said.

He also says that in all three cases the "criminal investigations" have been completed by the office of the "Attorney General" and there are "tangible results" due to the "effective mechanisms" in the occupied territories.

The case of Savva Apostolidis

The Turkish memo mentions the case of one of the nine missing, Savvas Apostolidis, saying that the case file has been completed. According to the Turkish side, the "claim in the Request that a witness saw the deceased in a Turkish prison can not be confirmed" while according to the conclusions of the "Attorney General", Apostolidis was transferred to Nicosia as part of the agreement for exchange of prisoners . They may have been among those who chose to return to their village instead of going south "- as the free zones of the Republic are reported.

In the decision of the Committee of Ministers, which preceded the Turkish memorandum, the Permanent Representatives asked Turkey to continue to keep the House informed of the progress and the result of the investigations into the cases of Savvas Apostolidis.

Prior to the start of the meeting in Strasbourg, the NGO "Truth Now" had also sent a memorandum, expressing the view that the investigations carried out in connection with the Barnabas case and the measures taken by the Turkish authorities are ineffective. A memorandum was also sent by the Panhellenic Committee of Parents and Relatives of Unidentified Prisoners and Missing Persons of the Cyprus Tragedy, noting that the results of the CMP in relation to the search for missing persons are constantly decreasing, including due to Turkey's failure to provide access to information. belts.