President Tufan Erhürman attended the state funeral ceremony held on Friday at the Atlılar Martyrs’ Cemetery for 15 Turkish Cypriot martyrs whose identities had been established by the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP). Following the ceremony, President Erhürman took part in the opening of the Muratağa, Atlılar and Sandallar Martyrs’ Museum.

 

The ceremony began with a minute’s silence and a ceremonial gun salute.

 

Gürsel Benan, Chairman of the Association of Martyrs’ and Disabled Veterans’ Families, delivered an address on behalf of the martyrs’ families that was followed by funeral prayers for the martyrs.

 

After the funeral prayers, the coffins, draped in the flags of the TRNC and Türkiye and accompanied by photographs of the martyrs, were carried to their graves. The Turkish and TRNC flags draped over the coffins, along with the martyrs’ photographs, were then kissed by officials and presented to the martyrs’ families.

Prayers were recited following the burials.

The identities of the 15 martyrs laid to rest were established through the examination of remains exhumed during excavations carried out by the CMP at the Atlılar Martyrdom between 24 July 2023 and 23 April 2024.

 

According to the list released by the CMP, the names of the martyrs and their ages at the time of their deaths are as follows:

 

Tülay Süleyman (28), Hasan Süleyman (10), Kemal Süleyman (6), Okan Süleyman (3), Gürhan Ali Çerkez (12), Ayşe Hasan (56), Narin Hasan (16), Kıymet Hasan (22), Betül Arnavut (16 months), Mualla Ali Osman (Pipalı) (36), Gülden Ali Osman (Pipalı) (4), Özlem Ali Osman (Pipalı) (2), Seldem Ali Osman (Pipalı) (40 days), Fatma Tahir (46) and Emine Tahir (22).

 

Following the burial ceremony, the programme continued with the opening of the Muratağa-Atlılar-Sandallar Martyrs’ Museum, constructed by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA).

 

President Erhürman delivered an address at the opening ceremony of the Muratağa – Atlılar - Sandallar Martyrs’ Museum.

 

Describing the Muratağa–Atlılar–Sandallar Martyrs’ Museum as an “extremely important museum that would keep alive the memory of the martyrs”, President Erhürman said that the museum would serve as an “important place for conveying to future generations the suffering endured by the Turkish Cypriot people and their struggle for existence”.

 

Emphasising that the issue of missing persons should not be politicised, President Erhürman described the European Parliament resolutions on the issue as “biased and wholly unacceptable”.

 

President Erhürman said: “The Turkish Cypriot people will never relinquish their rights to equality and security on the island. We are working day and night to ensure that the children of the country enjoy the same rights as children in the rest of the world.”

 

In his speech at the opening ceremony, President Erhürman began by reading out the names of the 15 martyrs who had been laid to rest and their ages at the time of their deaths, the youngest of whom was just 40 days old.

“Those who massacred our people did not only massacre our people,” President Erhürman said. “They massacred humanity. They massacred humaneness. They massacred civilisation.”

 

Stating that, 52 years later, they had “laid to rest the remains of 15 innocent and defenceless people, with the pain still as fresh as it had been on the first day”, President Erhürman stressed that “what happened in Atlılar would never be erased from the memory of the Turkish Cypriot people”.

 

President Erhürman said that the Turkish Cypriot people had reached the present day having endured great suffering, paid a heavy price and waged a difficult struggle for existence. He said that a profound debt was owed both to the martyrs laid to rest and to all those who had laid down their lives for the existence of the people.

 

Paying tribute to the Committee on Missing Persons for its meticulous and sensitive work over many years, President Erhürman said that Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot politicians bore a responsibility to exercise the utmost care to ensure that neither the issue of missing persons nor the Committee’s work was politicised.

 

Stating that Greek Cypriot Members of the European Parliament were working to use the institution to adopt resolutions against the Turkish Cypriots, despite the Turkish Cypriot people being entitled to two seats there, President Erhürman drew attention to two recent resolutions, describing them as “biased and wholly unacceptable” and saying they had been adopted following initiatives pursued “as though there were only Greek Cypriot missing persons”.

 

President Erhürman continued: “These are matters that we have never politicised because we are a people who know what human suffering means, who know what the suffering of a child means. We may not currently be recognised by states other than the Republic of Türkiye. However, there is something else that we know, and that we explain to our interlocutors: recognition is one thing. Being civilised is another. And recognition is not a prerequisite for being civilised.”

 

Stressing that the struggle for existence of the Turkish Cypriot people and the suffering they had endured could neither be ignored nor denied, President Erhürman said that the Turkish Cypriot people, who had been struggling for their existence under the most difficult circumstances since 1878, had always existed on the island and would continue to do so.

 

“No one who has not experienced suffering on the scale endured by the families of the martyrs could fully understand their pain,” President Erhürman said. “It is our duty to safeguard the memory of the martyrs and to leave future generations a safer, more peaceful and more prosperous life on these lands.” 

 

President Erhürman reiterated that the Muratağa-Atlılar-Sandallar Martyrs’ Museum was an extremely important museum that would keep alive the memory of the martyrs, whilst also serving as an important place through which the suffering endured by the Turkish Cypriot people and their struggle for existence would be passed on to future generations.

 

“Through this museum, we will safeguard the memory of our martyrs and ensure that their names live on forever,” President Erhürman said, expressing his belief that the museum would become an important part of the collective memory of the Turkish Cypriot people.

 

“It is our shared responsibility to build our future without forgetting our past, to safeguard the memory of our martyrs and to leave our children a safer and more peaceful future,” President Erhürman said.

 

Emphasising that the children of the country must be able to enjoy the same rights as children elsewhere in the world, President Erhürman said that they must work day and night towards this goal and redouble their efforts to explain the realities on the island to the world with ever greater determination.

 

President Erhürman expressed his gratitude to Cevdet Yılmaz, Vice President of the Republic of Türkiye, who attended the ceremony, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Türkiye, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), the Association for Preserving the Memory of the Muratağa, Atlılar and Sandallar Martyrs, the Embassy of the Republic of Türkiye in Lefkoşa, and all those who contributed to the construction and the establishment of the museum for the Turkish Cypriot people.

 

Wishing the surviving veterans health, peace and long life, President Erhürman commemorated with mercy and gratitude all the martyrs, including the Turkish Cypriot mujahideen and Turkish soldiers who lost their lives in the struggle for existence of the Turkish Cypriot people, and in particular those who lost their lives in Muratağa, Sandallar and Atlılar.

President Erhürman said that, in the spiritual presence of the martyrs, he once again made the following pledge: “The Turkish Cypriot people will never relinquish their rights to equality and security on this island. The Turkish Cypriot people will never become a minority.”