Cyprus hands over remains of Greek soldiers killed in 1974 fighting

Cyprus on Tuesday handed the remains of 16 soldiers to their relatives for burial, 42 years after they were killed in the crash of a military transport plane that was shot down during the Turkish military action in Cyprus.

The soldiers were part of a commando unit sent from Crete to reinforce the Greek Cypriot National Guard.

The remains of the soldiers were received by Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos at a special ceremony and were transported to Greece on board a military transport plane.

The Cypriot commissioner for humanitarian affairs apologized to the relatives of the killed men for the delay in recovering and delivering the remains of their loved ones for burial.

He said this was made possible after an excavation of the site of the crash in August and the DNA identification of the men.

The remains were recovered from inside the mangled fuselage of a Noratlas transport plane of the Greek Air Force which was shot down by friendly fire as it was approaching Nicosia Airport for landing in the early hours of July 22, 1974.

Rescuers could recover 16 bodies scattered in the area of the crash. But what remained as the main part of the plane and the bodies inside were covered under a mound on top of which a monument was later erected.

The Noratlas plane was one of the 15 aircraft that were sent from Greece to help Cypriot forces defend against a Turkish army that was sent to Cyprus one week after the military rulers of Greece staged a short-lived coup against the island's government.

Two of the planes could not make it to Cyprus because of technical faults and two landed but were unable to take off and returned to base.

Of the 32 people on board the Noratlas, only one survived, Thanasis Zafiriou, aged 20 at the time. He jumped out as the plane was coming down in flames.

He died early in September at the age of 62, from complications resulting from his injuries. Enditem