Slide 1

Hello. My name is Demet. I’m a Turkish Cypriot field team leader and I’m an archaeologist representing the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus.

Through the presentation you will be informed about the scientific procedure of forensic excavations and exhumations within Cyprus, as a result of the inter-communal fighting between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. I will focus on the techniques which are employed to exhume the graves.

The presentation will impact the forensic community by providing examples of practical methods and techniques employed by the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus and especially the Bi- Communal Forensic Team, in the excavation of burial places across the island.

Slide 2

The entire project is carried out by bi-communal teams of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot scientists. The project works with three members’ decisions and coordination of the five different phases. The first phase is investigation which is the first important ring of the project(phase A). Members of Bi-communal Forensic Team (BCFT) are currently involved in exhumation work all over the island (phase B) and in anthropological analysis (phase C) at the CMP laboratory(CAL) located within the United Nations Protected Area (Old Nicosia Airport).The other 2 phases consists the genetic analysis(Phase D) for the identification and then the return of the remains(Phase E)

Slide 3.

Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot investigators work in collaborator for finding burial places all around of island. Firstly the investigators work on the case of missing persons’ than they get contact with witness or witnesses for the indicate area of burial place.

Slide 4

Today, committee has eight different teams and eight different excavation sites in the archaeological phase. Sazlıköy/Livades, Karaoğlanoğlu- Ayios Georgios, Mia Milla-Haspolat, Atalasa-Nicosia, Dikmen-Digomo, Muratağa-Maratha, Cihangir-Epiho and Taşkent-Sihari.

Slide 5

It has five main excavation types in Cyprus. These are; Open fields, wells and kills, caves, mountains and hills, stream and river beds. once an excavation starts, methods may be modified to take into account the unique characteristics of the specific site but for every site that is visited by the BCFT there are standard operating procedures that must be followed.

Slide 6

Before excavation a number of steps need to be followed:  Information and data are collected and analyzed, and a comparison of aerial photographs and maps of the area of previous years and the time of the excavation is made  Making a Survey to the area  Setting the perimeter of the excavation site and  Making the logistical arrangements before the start of the excavation

Slide 7

The burial places are a complex and confusing mix of bodies, body parts, grave fill, and artifacts. A grave can contain:  Complete bodies in layers  Partial bodies – commingled and  Complete bodies in a single burial feature

Slide 8

After finishing the preparations before the excavation, in order to detect the grave, ground vegetation or debris may need to be cleaned as part of the search process (this is done usually with the use of machinery).

Slide 9

When the grave burial features are encountered for the first time, the excavation proceeds in a manner to define the horizontal and vertical limits of the site grave feature and to expose the evidence in situ. This is particularly the case with sites under threat from development and damage. In these cases, a combination of methods is used.

Slide 10

After setting the boundaries of the mass grave, a perimeter slightly larger than the real margin of the grave is established and the soil removed manually and systematically.

Slide 11

Once remains and artifacts are discovered further removal of soil is performed by using small masonry scoops and wooden sticks. The associated grave fill is sieved in order to recover small bone fragments and unassociated teeth.

Slide 12 When the remains are fully exposed in situ, according to the articulation and the association between them, are categorized to B (bodies), BP (body parts), GBP (general body parts) and A (artifacts).

The remains and the artifacts are labeled and numbered after they are fully cleaned. The grave and the findings, the position and the depth of burial of the remains and the artifacts are recorded by using photographs (with all the details and using board scale and north arrow), and sketching.

Slide 13

Before removing the uncovered remains, all paper bags, boxes, and forms are properly labeled with the appropriate code to ensure that provenience and context is maintained. Taking detailed photographs together with the filling of appropriate documentation during the critical points of cleaning and lifting each different remain, complete or partial skeleton of each different code, and packaging the remains of each code in different paper bags or boxes.

Slide 14

Finally, before the closing of a grave, a sieving of the excavated soil is occurred in order to recover further evidence if any.

Slide 15

Even though that is irrelevant to the subject, is worth mentioning as a conclusion that our Team is growing year by year, and today this Team, a huge family, includes only Cypriot scientists. CMP does a very important work as it tries to give a solution to the main humanitarian issue of the Cyprus problem.

CMP Family knows that there is no meaning of time, religion or nation for missing persons relatives.

Slide 16

The families of all these people that are missing all these years are waiting for an answer regarding the luck of their loved one. And the tears and pains are SAME.