The Office of the Presidential Commissioner announced that the process has begun to identify the remains of Greek Cypriot casualties and missing persons from 1974, which had previously been treated with chemicals, a fact that for so many years had prevented their reliable identification using conventional genetic methods. Presidential Commissioner Marios Hartsoti emphasizing that this development represents yet another significant step in the State’s effort to determine the fate of the missing and to pay due tribute to the fallen and those missingof the Cypriot tragedy.

As noted, the use of the Mass Parallel Sequencing method now creates a new scientific possibility for examining and identifying them.

This development was made possible following the decision of the Council of Ministers, dated April 21, 2026, which approved, upon the Commissioner’s recommendation, the allocation of one million euros for the conduct of specialized genetic testing using the aforementioned methodology, it is noted.

It is added that the initiative is being implemented through the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, based on a scientific methodology and protocol agreed upon between the Institute’s geneticists and the anthropologists of the Republic of Cyprus. Procedures have already been set in motion at the Institute, with the analysis of the first samples and the promotion of additional sampling based on the agreed-upon strategy.

As a first step, sampling is focusing on skeletal elements deemed most suitable from an anthropological and genetic perspective.  The process will proceed through continuous collaboration and mutual consultation among the scientific teams involved, with the utmost respect for the humanitarian nature of the issue and for the families of the fallen and missing, it states.

As noted, the launch of this process is a particularly significant development, since, as previously mentioned, it concerns remains that, due to their past exposure to chemical substances, have remained beyond the scope of reliable identification for decades. 

The use of the most advanced scientific methods creates, “with the necessary seriousness and without exaggeration, a new prospect for providing answers to families who have been waiting for decades to learn the fate of their loved ones,” the statement notes.

At the same time, according to the announcement, the fifth phase of the identification of Cypriots is also being carried out as part of the Republic of Cyprus’s program.

It is also emphasized that the Government, with the support of the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, reaffirms that the issue of the missing persons is first and foremost a humanitarian one and “the State has a duty to utilize every available scientific, institutional, and financial resource until answers are provided to even the last family of a missing person.”

Source: CNA