The Turkish Cypriot Member of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) Hakkı Müftüzade announced that he will not attend the meeting with the Permanent Rapporteur on Missing Persons in Cyprus for the European Parliament, Isabel Santos, in response to Santos’ refusal to meet with Turkish Cypriot officials.

In a written statement issued on Monday, the Turkish Cypriot Member of the Committee on Missing Persons, Hakkı Müftüzade, said that despite intense efforts to include the views of Turkish Cypriot officials, Rapporteur Santos refused to meet with them, while conducting meetings with Greek Cypriot officials, including the Greek Cypriot leader, the Speaker of the Greek Cypriot House of Representatives, and the Greek Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“Justice requires equal opportunities for the relevant parties to present themselves in a dispute,” Müftüzade said.

“I would like to state that I have decided not to participate in the proposed meeting with the Rapporteur due to her attitude of disregarding the Turkish Cypriot side and politicizing a humanitarian issue such as the missing persons. It would be naive to expect an objective report from an approach that even refuses to listen to the primary parties directly involved in any issue” he added.

He pointed out that it will not be possible for the Turkish Cypriot side to contribute to cooperation efforts to achieve stability on the island and region if EU officials continue to refuse to treat the two sides on the island with equal rights

“On the contrary, they will be serving the continuation of the status quo,” Müftüzade noted.