Pain is sometimes not the experience of a single people, but a shared past and memory of many. The anguish of Cyprus and of those missing since 1974 converges with the anguish of the Kurdish people’s long-standing resistance and the culmination of that resistance within the prisons of Amed (Diyarbakır).

Bringing these memories together, the Kurdistan Cultural Foundation “Theophilos” is organizing an event on Sunday, July 12, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. at the PEO building in Limassol, an event dedicated to those missing since 1974, as well as to those who resisted Turkish atrocities in the prisons of Amed until the very end.

According to a related announcement, among the speakers at the event will be Kemal Aktas, a member of parliament for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) during the 24th legislative term of the Turkish Parliament, as well as a resistance fighter for 20 years within the prisons of Amed.

The event will also be attended by Cypriot relatives of missing persons and unaccounted-for prisoners, who will share their own testimonies, and there will be an exhibition of sculptures by a Kurdish artist.

Speaking about the event to AlphaNews.Live, Baran Hebun, director of the Kurdistan Cultural Foundation “Theophilos,” said that the main purpose of the event is not only to remember the suffering of the past, but to share together the collective memory and the human values that this suffering has left behind.

The people of Cyprus, Mr. Hebun said, “are a people who for years have experienced the pain of the missing, of divisions, and of stories left unfinished. “The pain of the mothers waiting for their missing loved ones continues to this day to be an important part of this shared memory,” he noted.

With this event, as he emphasized, “we want to link the memory of Cyprus’s missing persons with the memory of the grave human rights violations that took place in the prisons of Amed and with the memory of the resistance during the Great Hunger Strikeof July 14, because amid the suffering experienced by different peoples in different parts of the world, there is one common thread: the struggle to defend human dignity, memory, and the pursuit of justice.”

Regarding Sunday’s event, Mr. Hebun emphasized that in addition to the speeches, a memorial exhibition will be held, and a special audiovisual tribute will be screened on the July 14 resistance and the events that took place at the Amet prisons, as well as in memory of those missing from Cyprus in 1974. “Through this screening, we will strive to highlight the common elements of human suffering and the struggles for dignity across different historical periods,” he said.

Excerpt from the video to be screened at the event

“With musical interludes and through the power of art and memory that unites people, we will bring this important day to a close. We believe that confronting the past does not mean pitting people’s suffering against one another. It means understanding the pains of the past, seeing one another’s wounds, and working to create a freer and more just future,” he noted.

In closing, the director of the Kurdistan Cultural Foundation “Theophilos” called on the people of Cyprus to participate in this important commemorative event, on Sunday, July 12, at 12:00 p.m., at the PEO building in Limassol, at this “human gathering place,” as he put it, for all those who defend human dignity.

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