30th anniversary of the murders of Tassos Isaac and Solomos Solomou

August 2026 marks 30 years since the killings of 24-year-old Tassos Isaac and his 26-year-old cousin, Solomos Solomou, in the UN-controlled buffer zone in Deryneia, Cyprus. The two men were killed during anti-occupation protests in August 1996, events which remain a defining and painful chapter in the history of the island. Isaac was beaten to death by a mob on August 11, while Solomou was shot dead three days later while attempting to remove a Turkish flag from a military post during Isaac’s funeral.

Despite the passage of three decades, those responsible remain at large. The Republic of Cyprus continues to pursue justice, maintaining active arrest warrants and Interpol red notices for suspects involved in the attacks. Among the wanted individuals is Erhan Arikli, currently serving as the 'transport minister' in the north, who recently responded to reports of renewed legal efforts against him with derogatory public remarks. Legal experts and officials maintain that the Republic must continue to exhaust all available avenues, including international legal instruments, to ensure accountability for these crimes, as past attempts at extradition, such as the 2012 detention of Arikli in Kyrgyzstan, have been blocked by political intervention.