Quiet deflation of den xehno? Ranges in the Greek Cypriot communal narrative on the missing persons in Cyprus

Cyprus Review

Volumn 20, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 15-33

  Yakinthou, Christalla ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Agnooumenoi; Developments in Cyprus conflict; Missing persons; Public perception of conflict

Indexed keywords

EID: 51449093389     PISSN: 10152881     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (68)

1. While there are also Greek Cypriots who went missing in 1963/4, they are not included in the Republic of Cyprus' official missing persons list.
2. The Annan plan was a federal and consociational blueprint for the government of Cyprus completed in March 2004 under the auspices of the UN and put to the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot people in separate referendums on 25 April 2004. It was designed to reunify the country prior to the admission of Cyprus to the European Union, which was to occur on 1 May 2004. The plan was rejected in the 2004 referendum by a 76 per cent majority of the Greek-Cypriot population; and approved by a majority of 65 per cent of the Turkish-Cypriot population. Without the approval of a majority of both ethnic groups the plan could not be adopted.
3. Sant Cassia, P. (2005) Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus. New York, Berghahn Books, p. 22.
4. See footnote 6.
5. ECHR application no's. 16064/90, 16065/90, 16066/90, 16068/90, 16069/90, 16070/90, 16071/90, 16072/90, and 16073/90.
6. For the strongest of these, see Sant Cassia, P. (2005) Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus;
7. Sant Cassia, P. (2006) 'Guarding Each Other's Dead, Mourning One's Own: The Problem of Missing Persons and Missing Pasts in Cyprus', South European Society and Politics, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 111-128;
8. Papadakis, Y. (2005) Echoes from the Dead Zone, London, IB Tauris;
9. Roussou, M. (1986) 'War in Cyprus: Patriarchy and the Penelope Myth', in Ridd, R., and Callway, H. (eds.), Caught Up in Conflict. Women's Responses to Political Strife, Basingstoke, Macmillan;
10. Loizos, P. (1981) The Heart Grown Bitter: A Chronicle of Cypriot War Refugees, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press;
11. Drousiotis, M. (2000) 1619 Sins, Nicosia, Diaphania Press.
12. While families of the missing people have been used by politicians for political gain, it is not the purpose of this work to explain the web of relationships, networks, interests and psychologies which have contributed to building the missing persons juggernaut. Sant Cassia has produced a magisterial work on the topic in his recent book, Bodies of Evidence (cited above).
13. The two terms 'missing persons' and 'agnooumenoi' each hold different meanings in this paper. The term 'agnooumenoi' is used in this paper to represent Greek-Cypriot missing persons, and to the Greek-Cypriot articulation of the missing persons' issue, while the term 'missing persons' is used to refer to the missing persons issue, or the people, as an inclusive whole.
14. Bryant, R. (2004) Imagining the Modern, the Cultures of Nationalism in Cyprus, London, IB Tauris and Co., p. 243.
15. Interestingly, then-Attorney General of the Republic of Cyprus Michalis Triantafilides made a formal decision to override the state's legal obligation, upon the discovery of human bones, to undertake a criminal investigation. The policy implemented was designed to encourage people to come forward with information about deaths related to 1974 in exchange for immunity from prosecution. This decision supports both the general attitude regarding discovery of the missing people in Cyprus, and the CMP's mandate, of focusing purely on discovery of the fate of the missing people.
16. Yakinthou, C. (2007) 'Between Scylla and Charybdis: Cyprus and the Problem of Engineering Political Settlements for Divided Societies', University of Western Australia, Unpublished PhD manuscript, p. 170.
17. Sant Cassia, P. (2005) Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus, p. 71.
18. This has created a number of complications. Because the Greek-Cypriot missing people have not been declared dead, their estates are not inheritable by law but protected by a custodian, and in order to re-marry, the widows of missing persons have had to divorce their missing husbands first. Effectively, the lives of their families have been frozen in time.
19. Bryant, R. (2004) Imagining the Modern, the Cultures of Nationalism in Cyprus, pp. 241-243.
20. Especially the 'Pancyprian Committee of the Relatives of the Missing Persons', and the Organisation of Relatives of Missing Cypriote'.
21. See for example [http://kypros.org/CyprusPanl/cyprus/missing.html]; [http://www.missing-cy.org] and [http://agrino.org/humrights/].
22. In the broader context of the Cyprus conflict, other court cases, especially those relating to Greek and Turkish property in the European Court of Human Rights and in the Republic of Cyprus' domestic courts, as well as progress being made on the Turkish-Cypriot property commission will also play a role in the public perception of the missing people. However, the impact these and other cases will have on the missing persons issue is necessarily outside of this paper's field of examination. This is an under-explored area which is developing quite quickly. A further article exploring the broader relationship between the property issue and developments in the missing persons' persona in both Cypriot communities would be useful. In addition, an article exploring both Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot reactions to the CMP's progress and related court cases, as well as the way that the changing narratives in both communities are interrelated is being planned by the author.
23. Old wounds are opened from time to time, bringing with them a bitter reminder to Greek Cypriots of their victimhood, and the danger that still emanates from Turkey. In 2007, for example, a story was circulated by a Greek-Cypriot journalist based in the United States that there was evidence to support an old claim that a young boy listed as injured in 1974 was taken to Adana, Turkey after treatment in Cyprus. It was speculated that the boy was raised, unknowingly, as a Turk. Hopes of the boy's family were raised and then dashed when nothing came of the assertion, but it was enough to rekindle Greek-Cypriot public anxiety about the conflict. Shortly after, a similar story arose from a Greek-Cypriot mother who had heard that her missing son might have been raised by a Turkish-Cypriot woman whose husband was a Turkish army officer. For further details see Elias Hazou, 'I Know my Son is Alive', Cyprus Mail, 20 March 2007; Alexia Saoulli, 'Clerides: Denktaş Never Told Me the Child was Dead', Cyprus Mail, 7 March 2007.
24. Sant Cassia, P. (2005) Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus, p. 79.
25. For the relationship between the Turkish occupation and Greek national pride, see Papadakis, Y. (2003) 'Nation, Narrative and Commemoration: Political Ritual in Divided Cyprus', History and Anthropology, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 253-270, and Papadakis, Y. 'Nationalist Imaginings of War in Cyprus', [http://www.cyprus-conflict.net/Papadakis%20-%20nationalism.htm], accessed 16 December 2007.
26. Sant Cassia, P. (2005) Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus, p. 81.
27. Ibid., p. 9.
28. Jean Christou, 'Invasion and Occupation still Core Issues', Cyprus Mail, 24 September 2004.
29. Ibid.
30. Aris Hadjipanayiotou.
31. 'Still Mourning After 30 Years', Cyprus Mail, 20 July 2004.
32. Ibid.
33. See especially Uludaǧ, S. (2006) Oysters with the Missing Pearls, Nicosia, Bilban and IKME, and Andreas Paraskos' articles in Greek-language Politis newspaper.
34. For a summary of Greek-Cypriot historiography, see Papadakis, Y. (1995) 'The Politics of Memory and Forgetting' (Chapter from doctoral dissertation), [http://www.cyprus-conflict.net/papdakis-diss%20-pt2.htm], accessed 12 February 2008.
35. The idea that any Greek Cypriot on the official missing persons' list could have been killed during the coup is a significant taboo in Greek-Cypriot society. In part, this is due to the shame that surrounds the coup - which precipitated the Turkish invasion and occupation of Cyprus - and the idea that Greek Cypriots were killing each other, as well as strong unwillingness to persecute those involved in the coup. But it is also a taboo subject because in the face of Greek-Cypriot calls for information about the agnooumenoi, Turkish-Cypriot officials have frequently claimed that most of the agnooumenoi were not killed by Turks but by Greeks. To acknowledge this idea, then, is to give credit to the Turkish argument, and therefore also discredit their own calls for information from the Turkish government about the fate of the agnooumenoi; it is to play into the enemy's hands. For further analysis and support, see Sant Cassia, P. (2005) Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus, esp. pp. 72-73.
36. Sant Cassia, P. (2005) Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus, p. 220.
37. Kudret Özersay's letter to Sevgül Uludag̈ in Turkish-language Yenidüzen newspaper highlights the painful process that surrounds the exhumations for families of 'missing' loved ones. In the letter, he outlines his reasons for not wanting the CMP to exhume his father and uncles, who were killed near their village of Alaminos. See [http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/%durduran/hamambocu/authors/svg/svg7_12_2004.html], accessed 4 May 2008.
38. I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this insight and for the comments upon which this paragraph has been built.
39. As of April 2008.
40. Christophe Girod, CMP third member. Interview with author, 8 January 2008.
41. In 1999 and again in 2001 the Clerides government began unilateral exhumations of Turkish-Cypriot mass graves. See 'Cyprus to Dig up Graves in Check on Missing People', Reuters News, 17 August 1998; 'Republic of Cyprus: Kassolides - Exhumation Process May End the Drama of the Families of Missing', M2 Presswire, 4 June 1999; 'Cyprus Exhumations End, Identification to Start', Reuters News, 12 July 1999; 'Cyprus May Open Turkish Cypriot Graves for Checks', Reuters News, 21 June 2001. However, they stopped when the Turkish-Cypriot administration did not reciprocate the gesture.
42. Phase I: Archaeological Phase Phase II: Anthropological Phase Phase III: Genetic Phase Phase IV: Return of Remains
43. See [www.cmp-cyprus.org].
44. The CMP reconvened on 30 August 2004 after five years of inactivity.
45. Christophe Girod. The CMP is composed of three members: one Greek Cypriot, one Turkish Cypriot, and one UN representative, who is called the 'third member', but who acts unofficially as the committee head.
46. Christophe Girod, CMP third member. Interview with author, 11 October 2006.
47. See figures 1 and 2, appendix 1.
48. ECHR decision, 10 May 2001. Application no. 25781/94.
49. Confidential interview with UN diplomat based in Cyprus.
50. Restrictions on freedom of movement between north and south Cyprus were partially lifted by the 2003 unilateral decision by then-president of the internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)', Rauf Denktaç, to open two checkpoints, allowing Turkish and Greek Cypriote to cross to the other side for the first time since 1975.
51. Achilleas Demetriades. Interview with author, 21 December 2007.
52. Private correspondence with author, January 2008.
53. For a deeper study of the Shamishi and Palma cases, see Sant Cassia, P. (2005) Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus, and Sant Cassia, P., 'Recognition and Emotion: Exhumations of Missing Persons in Cyprus' in Papadakis et. al., (2006) Divided Cyprus: Modernity, History and an Island in Conflict, Indiana, Indiana University Press.
54. 'State "neglected duty" to Look into Missing Evidence', The Cyprus Weekly, 7-13 July 2006.
55. 'Family Demands Compensation for Trauma over Missing Person', Cyprus Mail, 15 July 2001.
56. 'State "neglected duty" to Look into Missing Evidence', The Cyprus Weekly, 7-13 July 2006.
57. Christophe Girod, CMP third member. Interview with author, January 2008.
58. Stefanos Evripidou, 'Burying our Sins along with our Sons', Cyprus Mail, 10 February 2008.
59. On 28 March 2008 Turkey applied for a referral to the Grand Chamber of the ECHR. If Turkey is successful, the case will essentially be re-tried. If not, the judgement will become final.
60. ECHR Press Release issued by the Registrar of chamber judgement in Varnavas a.o. v Turkey.
61. Ibid.
62. Analysis conducted of Greek-language newspapers Politis, and Phileleftheros, as well as English-language daily Cyprus Mail in the period 2005-2008.
63. In confidential interviews with author, October and November 2006.
64. Ibid.
65. In confidential interviews with the author, December 2007 and January 2008.
66. Stories such as the following are representative of the way that burials of the agnooumenoi are treated in the Greek-Cypriot press: 'Mass Graves in North to be Exhumed in Search for Missing', Cyprus Mail, 23 December 2004; Simon Bahcheli, 'Digging in the Wrong Place?', Cyprus Mail, 12 January 2005; Jean Christou, 'We Dumped them in the Well', Cyprus Mail, 14 January 2005; Simon Bahceli and Michele Kambas, 'Cyprus Families Grieve Missing Loved Ones at Last', Reuters News, 8 July 2007.
67. Sevgül Uludaǧ, comment in electronic forum 'Reunification in Cyprus Starts with Truth and Reconciliation', in blogged discussion Top Lawyer Calls for Truth Commission'. [www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid= 22758546720&topic=4274], accessed 20 February 2008.
68. Sant Cassia, P. (2005) Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus, p. 22.