856 - Virtual contexts and missing reality

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Vicky Baklessi

The introduction of a small committee which investigates the cases of missing in action in Greece is a response to the anti-occupational action of Turkey. It is of course well understood that the establishment of the first belongs to the context of amendment of its general image regarding the issues of human rights in view of the European Union. Therefore this move is not in itself sufficient evidence of good intention. For the moment we are in an virtual field which mostly concerns the strategy itself than the human rights. Although the existence of such committees is positive. But we mustn’t forget that in Cyprus there exists for years now a similar committee which has conducted significant work for the international recognition of the issue. Without this meaning that there were tangible results. The effectiveness of such committees depends significantly on the strategic objectives of each state and of course from the response of the other which in the case of Cyprus it is well known. The occupational regime never helped significantly and substantially the efforts of the committee. In addition the statement of the factor of the Hellenic Ministry of Defense relating to the committee which will be authorized for the missing persons of Cyprus has multiple concepts and interpretations. “In this issue the role and the contribution of Cyprus will be determinant.” If we correctly exchange the terms we can easily invent the context of Turkey. It will be able to openly say that it does all it can do regarding the mission persons but the occupational regime does not contribute to this effort. So we cannot expect anything from these new introductions on their own and we must take advantage their existence to empower our appeals for the cases of missing persons prompting through the European Court of Human Rights to implement efficiently the virtual contexts of the committees so that the missing reality recurs.