Turkey must open military files

Ta Nea - Greece

Turkey must open military files

After 35 years the corpses of five Greek Cypriot soldiers considered missing since the Turkish military intervention of 1974 have been exhumed and identified. The daily Ta Nea calls on Ankara to open its military files to make information on other missing persons accessible to the public: "Turkey is stubbornly refusing to obey the UN's decisions and disclose information about the fate of these people. Because evidently it knows full well how they died, and wants to avoid being accused of war crimes. The new data that has now been published confirms what everyone feared: the Turks disregarded all existing conventions and violated the principles of humanity by carrying out mass executions. Even today - 35 years later - information [on those missing] is divulged only bit by bit. Turkey is duty-bound to open all the files so that we can learn the truth about the fate of every single victim." (11/08/2009)