Children of the missing persons of the 1974 Turkish invasion have recently set up an initiative group which was received Thursday by President Christodoulides. They discussed issues they are faced with, mostly financial and of psychological support and the President gave instructions for these issues to be examined by the Ministries with a positive outcome.

The group will soon be formed as a union with the aim to promote issues the children of the missing and their spouses are faced with.

Head of the office for missing persons and the enclaved Anna Aristotelous told the press that these people are the innocent victims of the Turkish invasion adding that losing a parent, especially the father, at that time, scarred the lives of these children.

She said that the President during the meeting noted that these persons should be granted benefits beyond those to which every vulnerable citizen is entitled and therefore all their requests will be promoted to the competent Ministries and will be examined carefully. Replying to a question she said that the nature of these requests will be examined and the ultimate goal is to have a positive response.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third.

Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown.

A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.