NICOSIA: Europe's top human rights body is urging Turkey to immediately pay tens of thousands of euros in damages and costs to relatives of Greek Cypriots who disappeared during its 1974 invasion of Cyprus.
The executive branch of the 47-country Council of Europe said Friday it "deeply deplores" the fact that Turkey still hasn't complied with a 2009 European Court of Human Rights decision ordering it to pay a total 200,000 euros ($270,000) to relatives of nine missing persons.
The court ruled that Turkey failed to carry out an investigation into the fate of the missing and to inform relatives. The case was filed in 1990.
Hundreds disappeared during the invasion which was mounted after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Cyprus has been split along ethnic lines since.