Lympia.com

The first of the 13 missing Lympianous from 1974 was identified and finally laid to rest in our village on 31/01/10, after he went missing nearly 36 years ago during the Turkish invasion.

Costas Kapsokartis – the son of Nikoli and Melpomeni Kapsokartis - went missing on August 6, 1974 in Lapithos, Kyrenia when the armoured vehicle that he and three other Greek Cypriot soldiers were in was surrounded by Turkish troops. Other soldiers who managed to escape did not see what happened to him and the other three, and his fate was unknown until recent excavations in Lapithos (in the Turkish occupied north) uncovered the remains of missing soldiers, one of whom was identified as Costas through DNA tests.

A funeral was held in Lympia on 31/01/10 and was attended by many fellow villagers as well as politicians and other dignitaries. Costas was given military honours and declared a hero. He is the second Lympia hero of 1974 to be buried so far; the first was his first cousin Theodoros Papacostanti who was killed in action on July 20, 1974.

The funeral was a very emotional and solemn affair and speeches were given by the Minister of Defence – Costas Papacostas - and the President of the Lympia Community Council, Sophoklis Savvas. Wreaths were laid by local organisations, political parties and on behalf of the Lympia Association by Petros Manoli.

Costas was born in 1956 and single at the time of his disappearance. Sadly, his parents did not live to see him finally laid to rest in the village he was born but his sisters and brothers were present at the funeral.