Row erupts as Muratağa martyrs are laid to rest

by Eoka-B terrorists on August 14, 1974, and dumped in a mass grave.

Their remains had been exhumed by the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus, along with 83 others from the Mesaoria village of Muratağa, who were identified following DNA analysis. They were buried next to Raziye Rüstem Akansoy, the grandmother of the children.

Hüseyin Rüstem Akansoy, who was 17 at the time and who escaped the slaughter because he had been taken to a prison camp along with his father and other males from the area, was present at the funeral. He said prayers for his mother and four siblings.

Mr Akansoy gave an emotional speech at the service, saying: “This is a delayed ritual . . . I am only able to say goodbye to my family today, for events that happened 46 to 47 years ago which tore me away from my family.”

Mr Akansoy continued: “The incidents happened because of a wave of ultra-nationalist, extreme fanaticism, and rotten brains . . . Therefore, what everyone must remember is that this mentality has to be taken out of our schools, our religious places, and all authorities . . . I think this is very important in order for this pain not to be re-lived.

“Today, I also want to say something to my mother, two sisters and two brothers who are going to be buried . . . My dear Mother, my dear siblings, I know what it means to be completely alone in this life after I left you.

“Know that the greatest support given to me has been from [my wife], Tezer. Perhaps I would not have been able to come this far in life, had it not been for her and the support of my friends.

“My dear Mother, we also have a beautiful grandson, named Erbay. You can be proud of him in every way. He and his wife are putting forward a struggle as to how to make this village a better place. . . To those who wanted to extinguish life, the struggle continues that ‘no, life will not be extinguished, life will continue’.”

President Ersin Tatar issued a written statement after the family was said to have wanted an “ordinary civil funeral service” instead of the usual state funeral reserved for “missing” persons.

Mr Tatar, sending his condolences to the “bereaved family of the martyrs” said he “shared the pain felt” and “wished for them to rest in peace”.

“Our whole struggle is for these atrocities never to be experienced again . . . for our mothers and our children never to be dumped in mass graves,” he wrote.

However, the President, stating that “it was the will of the family” to have a private funeral and not a “state ceremony” continued: “But these martyrs are the children of our country and of our people.

“Our obligation is to have a state ceremony for our martyrs . . . to show sensitivity . . . It should be essential that state practices are put before the preference of individuals on such matters.”

The statement was criticised by Republican Turkish Party (CTP) MP

Asım Akansoy, a relative of those who were buried, who said in a written statement: “Aren’t you ashamed to conduct politics based on the pain and tears of others?

“Are you going to play statism over the pain and tears created by you and those who think like you in the South? I invite you to humanity.”

CTP leader Tufan Erhürman also issued a statement, accusing the President of “overstepping the line” and called on him to apologise to the Akansoy family.

The issue sparked a major debate on social media. Some argued that the families of the victims should have a right to decide how they want their loved ones to be buried, while others said that the issue of missing persons and martyrs is “sacred”, and that they should be given the highest state honours for their burial.

No-one has ever been brought to justice for the horrific crimes committed at Muratağa and Sandallar, where the youngest victim was just 16 days old, and the oldest was 95.