The remains of 15 Turkish Cypriots to be buried at the cemetery in Atlilar on 7 September

The Committee on Missing Persons (KŞK) has completed the identification of the remains of 15 Turkish Cypriots. They will be buried on Monday, 7 September, at 10:00 at an official ceremony at the cemetery of the martyrs in Atlilar, in the Famagusta district.

The burial was initially scheduled for 1 September, but the date was postponed because of the shipwreck off Kyrenia in which people were killed.

The remains were recovered during excavations carried out by the committee from 24 July 2023 to 23 April 2024 at a section of the cemetery in Atlilar.

The list of those identified includes: Tülay Süleyman (28), Hasan Süleyman (10), Kemal Süleyman (6), Okan Süleyman (3), Gürhan Ali Çerkez (12), Ayşe Hasan (56), Narin Hasan (16), Kıymet Hasan (22), Betül Arnavut (16 months), Mualla Ali Osman / Pipalɪ (36), Gülden Ali Osman / Pipalɪ (4), Özlem Ali Osman / Pipalɪ (2), Seldem Ali Osman / Pipalɪ (40 days), Fatma Tahir (46) and Emine Tahir (22).

Nine people on the list were under 18: the youngest, Seldem Ali Osman, was 40 days old, while the oldest of those identified, Ayşe Hasan, was 56.

KŞK is a bicommunal committee that, under the auspices of the United Nations, searches for, exhumates and identifies the remains of people who went missing during the events of 1963–1974. The committee communicates the identification results to the families, after which the remains are buried.