Relatives of missing Cypriots continue search for answers decades later
"You can see how happy I was," said Panayiotis Hadjipantelis. "This happiness was lost in 1974," his voice broke.
Spread out on the table at his large home in Cyprus's capital, Nicosia, are several black and white photos.
One shows Panyiotis's father, Savvas, carrying him on his shoulders. Others show Savvas sitting at a table with friends, or leaning back, relaxed, at his desk in the bank where he worked.
In August 1974, Savvas vanished. For the next 33 years, his family wondered what had happened to him.
"My mother never believed he was dead," he said.
'What happened in 1974 definitely is something that stays in my mind and will stay in my mind until the end of my life,' Panayiotis Hadjipantelis told On Assignment
After over a decade of tension between Turkish and Greek Cypriots, the Cypriot government was overthrown in July 1974. Organisers of that coup wanted to unify the island with Greece.
Five days later, Turkish troops landed on the island, claiming they were there to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority.
By the end of August, Cyprus was split in two, and so it remains 50 years on, a so-called "green line", separating the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Turkey internationally.
Thousands died during the 1960s and 70s, and 2,002 people, both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, were reported missing. Almost half have never been found.
On Nicosia's green line, a no-man's land patrolled by United Nations (UN) peacekeepers, which separates the two parts of Cyprus, I met Şemi Bora, a Turkish Cypriot lecturer in his seventies.
He has strong memories of his father, who disappeared during a period of inter-communal violence in 1963.
He was a boy scout troop leader and a keen footballer, who eventually became secretary general of the Turkish Cypriot FA.
"I missed him all my life," he said. "Going to football matches or going here and there for dinner or whatever without a father was not easy."
Unlike in the case of Panayiotis, the remains of Şemi's father have never been found. He buried his mother in 2018, her life-long wish to lay her husband's remains to rest unfulfilled.
"I wish we had a life together," he said. "We want to learn about his fate. I mean, what happened? Where are the remains?"
"Find them, that will give us relief, at least."
Şemi Bora recalls memories of his father to ITV News Reporter Barnaby Papadopulos
The Committee on Missing Persons
Both men I spoke to have contacted the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP), an effort supported by the UN where teams of investigators, archeologists, and scientists from both communities work to establish the truth of what happened to Cyprus's missing.
After the passage of so many years, it is assumed that most, if not all, are dead. The CMPs job is to find their remains, and reunite those with their relatives.
Investigators speak to witnesses, and take information from people who come forward with stories to tell, in order to determine where to search.
I visited two such sites in northern Cyprus, one next to a main road and the other in some hills. In both locations, archaeologists were watching closely as a digger dug a trench through the earth, looking for any signs that a grave had been uncovered.
In a laboratory near the site of Nicosia's former International Airport, closed since the war, I met Theodora, a scientist who works with the remains uncovered by teams in the field.
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The laboratory where she works is lined with tables on which rest both the human remains and personal belongings dug up by archaeologists. There are full skeletons, partial skeletons, clothes and shoes. On one table lie the remains of a mass grave, at least 30 people discovered in 2023. Investigators believe it could have contained entire families.
"Once you see the remains, you don't actually recognise your loved one," said Theodora of the moment families come to visit.
"But when the cases do have personal belongings, artefacts, clothing that the relatives remember, then this for them is proof."
I asked her about what motivates her to work in such an environment every day.
"I believe that the new generation is able to help to close them, you know, the wounds of the past," she said.
"And maybe make a better future for our kids, for our children."
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A humanitarian mission
The CMP describe its mission as humanitarian. It's website states that the "CMP does not attempt to establish the cause of death or attribute responsibility for the death of missing persons".
Back in the UN buffer zone, I sat down with the three members of the Committee, a Greek Cypriot, a Turkish Cypriot, and a UN member.
I wanted to find out if simply finding the remains of a missing person is enough. Is it not important to deliver a measure of accountability, of justice, for families whose loved ones may well have been unlawfully killed?
"If we are following a judicial process, we believe that we would not be able to secure the kind of information that we need," said Leonidas Pantelides. His Turkish Cypriot colleague Hakki Muftuzade added that "people will not come forward to give information if they know that they'll be prosecuted".
The CMP believe its model of intercommunal working has lessons for other places recovering from conflict around the world.
"The recommendation to other countries is you really need to start speaking, talking and exchanging information as quickly as possible," said UN member Bruce Koepke.
Back in Nicosia, I accompanied Panayiotis Hadjipantelis on his weekly visit to the graves of his parents. His mother never remarried, he said, believing that her husband would one day come home. They are now buried together.
It was sunset, and the cemetery was peaceful as Panayiotis lit an incense candle and prayed for them.
The pain of losing a parent at such a young age, in such unimaginable circumstances, has followed him throughout his life. But, he reflected, at least there is a place now to remember the father he lost, and to mourn him.
The families of hundreds of other missing people are not so lucky.
And, at least 50 years after they disappeared, time is running out to find them.
"It's [about] the dignity of the people and the relatives," he said, as we prepared to leave.
"So that's why it's very important that we try and find the remains of the missing as soon as possible."
You can watch On Assignment at 11.30pm July 30 or catch up later on ITVX.
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