The Committee on Missing Persons has identified 1,100 people included on the official bicommunal list, Greek Cypriot member Leonidas Pantelides told the House Refugees Committee on Tuesday.
A further 250 fallen persons have also been identified, while six sets of remains were recently located in Kyra Morphou, Lapithos and Lefkoniko.
Excavations continue in occupied areas
Pantelides said 129 excavations were carried out in 2025. Eight excavation teams are currently operating, seven of them in the Turkish-occupied areas.
Two missing persons were recently located in Kyra Morphou, two in Lapithos and two in Lefkoniko, he added.
Greek Cypriot missing persons
Presidential Commissioner Marios Hartsiotis told MPs that, of 1,619 Greek Cypriot missing persons, 859 have been identified, while 760 cases remain unresolved.
Of those identified, 803 were identified through the CMP and 56 by the Republic of Cyprus.
Hartsiotis also said that 40 of 77 missing persons from Greece have been identified. Of the 40 people who went missing during the intercommunal violence of 1963 and 1964, 18 have been identified.
Information becoming increasingly scarce
Hartsiotis said the government was seeking to intensify efforts to determine the fate of all missing persons.
“The information we are receiving has begun to run out, because several people who had information have passed away,” he said.
He also claimed that the Turkish Cypriot side was seeking to limit the information it provides.
New identifications expected
The fifth phase of examinations involving skeletal samples from fallen Greek and Cypriot personnel has been completed, with further identifications expected.
Procedures are also progressing for the establishment of a permanent state anthropological laboratory. Hartsiotis said the Council of Ministers is expected to approve the building that will house the facility at one of its upcoming meetings.
A permanent ossuary will also be created for the remains of both identified and unidentified fallen persons.
Specialised genetic examinations
The government has secured €1 million in state funding for specialised genetic examinations of contaminated remains belonging to 32 people.
The tests will be conducted by the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics. Most of the remains are believed to belong to members of the Hellenic Force in Cyprus, known as ELDYK.
The first samples have already been sent to the institute and the identification process has begun.
CMP figures
The CMP was established by agreement between the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities to exhume, identify and return the remains of people who disappeared during the intercommunal violence of 1963 and 1964 and the events of 1974.
According to figures published by the CMP up to 31 May 2026, 1,717 of the 2,002 people on its official list had been exhumed and 1,069 identified.
Of the 1,510 Greek Cypriots on the list, 764 had been identified and 746 remained missing. Of the 492 Turkish Cypriots, 305 had been identified and 187 remained missing.
Source: CNA
