Cyprus apologizes to Greece for 1974 friendly fire deaths

Cyprus formally apologized to Greece on Tuesday as it handed over the remains of 16 Greek commandos who were killed by "friendly fire" during Turkey's 1974 invasion of the island.

The soldiers were on board a French-built Noratlas transport aircraft that was headed to Nicosia airport to reinforce the Greek Cypriot National Guard when it was mistaken for a Turkish bomber and shot down.

Of the 32 people on board, just one survived.

Amid the chaos of the invasion, during which Turkish troops occupied a third of the island, the bodies of 15 of the dead were hastily buried in a mass grave still inside the wreckage of the downed aircraft.

The Cyprus government launched a search for the gravesite in February 2014 after the families of two of the dead appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

It was located in August last year and a painstaking 14...