The issue of missing persons in Cyprus “must not be politicised”, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said on Tuesday.

Speaking during a visit to the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP), he spoke of the “sensitivity, difficulty, and importance” of the work carried out by the CMP, and congratulated its Turkish Cypriot member Hakki Muftuzade and the committee’s staff for their hard work.

He also said that during October’s informal dinner which he attended alongside United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and President Nikos Christodoulides, “an agreement was reached to continue excavations in line with the information given to the CMP”.

He then reiterated his belief that “the issue of missing persons has a humanitarian dimension and must not be politicised”.

His words echo statements made by Muftuzade on Monday, who said that “Greek Cypriot politicians occasionally use this issue for political purposes”.

“This attitude offends the relatives of the missing and creates distrust between the island’s two communities,” he said.

He also corroborated figures given by the CMP’s Greek Cypriot member Leonidas Pantelides earlier in December, saying that 52 per cent of Cyprus’ missing have now been identified.

A total of 11 missing persons were identified through the CMP’s framework in 2024, nine of whom were Greek Cypriots and two were Turkish Cypriots. Seven of those found were on the CMP’s official list of the missing, while the remaining four were not.

Muftuzade added that excavations have taken place in a total of 108 different locations since they began, and said the Turkish military “regularly renews the permissions given to allow CMP teams to continue their work”.

Looking ahead to 2025, he said the CMP plans to increase its number of excavation teams to eight, and to “accelerate our evacuations by providing new construction equipment”.

Earlier this year, Swiss national Pierre Gentile began his duties as the CMP’s third member, succeeding his compatriot Paul-Henri Arni.