InTouch Magazine Articles Archive

Issue 21, August 2008

Solomos Solomou

By Gina Coleman.

Twelve years of pain, but no bitterness. We all know we’re not immortal. But most of us have the basic expectation that our children will outlive us. To lose a younger family member to illness is tragic. To lose them to senseless violence could all too easily lead to bitterness and calls for revenge. But there are people who can rise above that. And who continue to abhor inter-communal or intra-communal strife. Who look to reconciliation and what’s best for the future. Even when the long-term effects on the family and the community have been immense.

In June 2008, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg handed down its verdict in the case of Cypriots Spyros, Adonis, Panayiotis, Maria, Costas, Niki and Paraskevi Solomou against Turkey, in respect of the death of their son and brother, Solomos Solomou.
For the Solomou family, the ‘Guilty’ verdicts in ‘Application 36832/97’ finally represented some kind of justice. The judgements didn’t – and won’t - make the pain go away. The court has awarded them compensation – which they doubt they will ever see. But money was never the issue here. And August 14th 2008 marks the 12th anniversary of the death – no, let’s be honest here, the unjustified and un-lawful killing – of a young man in the prime of life.

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