Committee of Ministers Secretariat Du Comite Des Ministres

SECRETARIAT GENERAL SECRETARIAT OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS SECRETARIAT DU COMITE DES MINISTRES Contact: Anna AUSTIN Tel: 03 88 41 22 29 Date: 18/11/2014 DH-DD(2014)1398 Documents distributed at the request of a Representative shall be under the sole responsibility of the said Representative, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. Meeting: 1214 meeting (2-4 December 2014) (DH) Item reference: Communication from a NGO (Ashia Community Council) (10/11/2014) in the case of Cyprus against Turkey (Application No. 25781/94) and reply from the Turkish authorities (18/11/2014) Information made available under Rules 9.2 and 9.3 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments and of the terms of friendly settlements. * * * * * * * * * * * Les documents distribués à la demande d’un/e Représentant/e le sont sous la seule responsabilité dudit/de ladite Représentant/e, sans préjuger de la position juridique ou politique du Comité des Ministres. Réunion : 1214 réunion (2-4 décembre 2014) (DH) Référence du point : Communication d’une ONG (Ashia Community Council) (10/11/2014) dans l’affaire Chypre contre Turquie (Requête n° 25781/94) et réponse des autorités turques (18/11/2014) (anglais uniquement) Informations mises à disposition en vertu des Règles 9.2 et 9.3 des Règles du Comité des Ministres pour la surveillance de l’exécution des arrêts et des termes des règlements amiables. ASHIA COMMUNITY COUNCIL Ashia Community Council Corner Spyrou Kyprianou Avenue & Alexandrou Panagouli Street Yiannos Court, No. 70 PO Box 40964 6308 Larnaca Cyprus Email: [email protected] 7 November 2014 Mr Philippe Boillat Director General of Human Rights and the Rule of Law Department for the Execution of Judgements of the ECHR Council of Europe Dear Mr Boillat, Missing Persons of Ashia {Greek name: Άσσια} village Cyprus since August 1974 Please note that previous letters have been forwarded to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe regarding this matter: Letters addressed to Mr. Gunter Schirmer dated a) 27 November 2008, and b) 25 November 2013. Letter addressed to Philippe Boillat 29 November 2013. We wish to revisit the question of the missing persons from Ashia village, Famagusta District in Cyprus, and inform you on the developments regarding the efforts to resolve their fate. The emphasis of this letter refers to the case of 70 civilians who were prisoners of the Turkish army and disappeared on 21 August 1974. This group was referred to as List A in our letter dated 27 November 2008 (see attachment), and comprises of the biggest subgroup of the total 106 persons – 98 of whom were civilians – who were arrested in Ashia, and subsequently went missing in the days following the capture of our village by the Turkish army on 14 August 1974. The case of the mass murder of missing civilians captured in Ashia on 21 August 1974 Circumstances of Disappearance On 21 August 1974, Turkish soldiers accompanied by Turkish Cypriots, whose names we know, arrested all the men and young boys remaining in the village. On the same day, according to testimonies of eyewitnesses, 107 persons were loaded on 3 lorries and under guard by Turkish soldiers were driven to the Turkish quarter of Nicosia, Pavlides garage – the temporary place of captivity of Greek Cypriot Prisoners of War prior to their transfer to Turkish prisons in mainland Turkey. The Turkish Cypriot police in charge of Pavlides garage selected 37 persons, below the age of 50, who were detained in the said garage. The remaining 70 civilians were not detained and orders were given to their guards to return them to Ashia, apparently due to their advance age. 52 of the said individuals were residents of our village and the remaining 18 residents of neighbouring villages who were also captured in our village. Mass Graves in Ornithi In the Spring of 2009, the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) conducted a search in the Ornithi area on the outskirts of Afania village, situated about 4 km west of Ashia, which lasted for more than a year. Four burial sites were disinterred, two of which were water wells and the sites of mass graves. In those two mass graves all the remains were identified by DNA testing thus far confirming that they belong to the list of 70 civilians who were captured in Ashia on 21 August 1974 as described above. Organised Removal of Remains to Unknown Location Other evidence that emerged from the search in the Ornithi area was that the two mass graves had been previously exhumed. The human remains were removed and transferred elsewhere, apparently in an effort to hide the evidence of a mass murder. The CMP (Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus) managed to recover only seven complete or nearly complete skeletons. For the remaining missing persons in the two mass graves, as we have been officially briefed and also witnessed during our visit to the Anthropological Centre in the Nicosia Airport area last June, only a very small number of bones or bone fragments have been discovered. The role of Turkey The findings from the disinterment conducted by the ICRC gave uncontested evidence that the disappearance of the remains from the mass graves in the Ornithi area was a result of a large scale operation which was conducted in an organised manner that entailed the use of heavy machinery, trucks and most likely many people working for days at a small distance from the village of Afania and the huge army base in Ashia, hosting the headquarters of the 28th Infantry Division of the Turkish Army. Given the nature and scale of the operation, we strongly believe that it was conducted under the initiative or at least with the full knowledge of the Turkish Army. Therefore, they must have clear knowledge of the history and whereabouts of the transferred remains. The CMP’s position and its problematic mandate The CMP mandate is highly restrictive and according to the Terms of Reference and Mandate as stated on its web page, basically stipulates that: Item 11. “The committee will not attempt to attribute responsibility for the deaths of any missing persons or make findings as to the cause of such deaths Item 13. The committee will use its best efforts to draw up comprehensive lists of missing persons of both communities, specifying as appropriate whether they are alive or dead, and in the latter case approximate time of the deaths. In the case of our missing relatives the CMP considers the evidence of DNA, on small bone fragments as ample evidence to reach their key objective and therefore bring any case to a close. This is the reason why the families of the missing persons of Ashia strongly object to the handling by the CMP, which is bound by an agreement established in 1981 which obviously did not foresee that mass graves would be transferred in various hiding places. The families are overwhelmed by feelings of sadness and anger at the same time, and strongly feel that the CMP blatantly ignores their rights and feelings in favour of “statistical progress.” The families are faced with a strong dilemma, and many chose to proceed with the burial of the small bone remains available. At the same time they strongly condemn the insensitivity of the Turkish side which through its actions and lack of cooperation aims to keep the case of the missing persons of our village permanently open in their hearts and minds. It is sad and outrageous at the same time to know that the bulk of the remains of their missing relatives will effectively stay intentionally buried in a hiding place with the full knowledge of the Turkish army and the Turkish Cypriot Authorities. Gross violation of the rights of the families to know The opening of the mass graves and the transport of the remains to an unknown location raises serious questions about the motives of the perpetrators. It is clear that in the case of the missing civilians of Ashia there was a gross violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. The exhumation and disappearance of the remains of these individuals clearly intended to erase the evidence of a war crime. Further, under Resolution 1956 (2013) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, relatives of missing persons have a right of access to information on missing persons which is essential in establishing their identity, location and fate and the circumstances of their disappearance and/or death. Under the same resolution member states are under an obligation to respect the right of families to recover the remains of their missing family members. Our request We strongly request that you exercise your influence to convince Turkey to cooperate fully and to provide detailed information as to the new burial site of our missing relatives. In addition, Turkey must provide the families with information regarding the circumstances they have met their death, the cause of death and those responsible for their death. Further, the CMP must be encouraged to show more respect to the needs of the families of the missing persons and to adopt the spirit rather than the letter of the 1981 Agreement. The CMP must be deterred from simply closing these cases on purely technical grounds, i.e. the finding of DNA. The CMP mandate did not foresee the intentional and organised removal of remains to new locations and therefore their mandate must be expanded to include these cases as a separate category that should remain open until each case is fully resolved.

Load more