We continue to support the countryside with targeted actions, President says

The Government supports the countryside, based on specific policy-led actions, to see it attain the place it deserves, President Nikos Christodoulide has said.

He was speaking on the evening of 3 May as he inaugurated, the Cultural Activities Building and the House of the Missing Persons in the mountainous village of Kyperounta, in Limassol district.

In his address, in the presence of the former President of the Republic, Nicos Anastasiades, President Christodoulides expressed his pleasure for inaugurating the Cultural Activities Building, costing €1.6 million, which is part of the project initiated by the previous administration for the revitalisation of the old neighbourhood of Kyperounta, with a total cost expected to exceed €8 million.

He continued by noting that the project is being implemented using the state development budget, with €500,000 allocated annually until the full completion of works in the old neighbourhood. The next phase, which includes the construction of a Museum of Folk Art and Natural History and guesthouses, has already begun. The President of the Republic noted that an additional €450,000 has been allocated for the project at the end of 2024, aimed at connecting the road network from the Cultural Activities Building to the central square.

The President said that once the accommodation facilities are completed, the site will be suitable for use by the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2026. “I have spoken with the Deputy Minister for European Affairs, and they are already considering which meeting will take place in this venue,” he added.

Referring to the House of the Missing Persons, which he inaugurated afterwards, President Christodoulides said that it was created on the initiative of Androulla Aristodemou, in honour of the struggle of the mothers of the missing.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown.

A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.

According to statistical data published on the CMP website by February 28, 2025 out of 2002 missing persons 1,704 were exhumed and 1,052 were identified. Out of 1,510 Greek Cypriot missing persons 756 were identified and 754 are still missing. Out of 492 Turkish Cypriot missing persons 296 were identified and 196 are still missing.

(Sources: CNA, PIO)