NICOSIA – Some 41 years after Turkey unlawfully invaded, Cypriot officials are demanding Ankara help find missing persons who were war victims.

A bipartisan committee representing both sides has been working, with some progress, to find and identify remains and help relatives find some peace.

The Cypriot government has called on Turkey to do more to cooperate over an issue that is central to the lagging reunification talks and to submit more information over missing Cypriots with lingering reports many were taken to Turkey and imprisoned decades ago.

In an official press release issued on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared, the government called on anyone who has information about burial sites to come forward, the newspaper Neos Kosmos said.

“Such an act constitutes the best contribution to the issue of missing persons and their relatives in order to close a long-standing open wound,” the government said.

Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs Fotis Fotiou said he’s unhappy that so many missing haven’t been found and that more isn’t being done about it.

A Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus was established in April 1981 by agreement between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities under the auspices of the United Nations.