The remains of a total of 14 children, seven girls and seven boys, between the ages of four months and 16 years from Muratağa and Sandallar Villages, who became martyrs following an attack by EOKA-B terrorists on 14th August 1974 were laid to rest following a military ceremony. The remains of the children had been identified following DNA testing at the excavations executed by the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus.
On 20th July 1974, all men of fighting age were taken away as prisoners of war to prison camps and immediately after the launch of the second peace operation of the Turkish Army on 14th August 1974, EOKA-B, a Greek Cypriot terrorist organisation, killed almost the entire population of three villages, mostly women and children aged between 16 days old to 95 years old.
President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Ersin Tatar attended the ceremony and said that the families of the 14 Martyrs have been in deep sorrow for 46 years. President Tatar also underlined that this event shows that the two people of the island cannot live together and if there will be a sustainable solution in Cyprus it should be under the effective and efficient guarantee of Turkey.