The Committee of Missing Persons (CMP) has launched work to determine the identities of the remains of 23 people who were buried at the Tekke Bahce martyrs cemetery in 1964.
Nine individuals buried in the area are believed to be victims killed in the Türkeli (Ayios Vasilis) massacre in December 1963 whose bodies had later been moved and reburied at the cemetery located in the northern part of Nicosia walled city between 13th and 14th January 1964.
The remaining 14 individuals are believed to have been martyrs who were killed in Nicosia and surrounding areas.
Speaking to the TAK news agency, Turkish Cypriot Member of the CMP Gulden Plumer Kucuk said that the exhumation at the Tekke Bahce is under way using hand tools instead of heavy equipment. She explained that the bodies of the nine individuals who had been exhumed and brought from Türkeli (Ayios Vasilios) had been reburied in 1964 without properly being identified because they were in an unrecognisable state.
She further said that it was not clear how much time experts would need to complete the exhumation, but stated that all individuals would have a marked grave once the work is completed.
BRT
