Sevgül Uludağ, the Turkish Cypriot investigative journalist, author and peace activist known internationally for her work tracing the island's missing persons, has died.
Born in Nicosia in 1958, Uludağ entered journalism in 1980 and went on to build a career defined by her determination to uncover the fate of those who disappeared during Cyprus's years of intercommunal conflict and division. Over decades, she gave voice to the relatives of the missing on both sides of the divide, working with Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot families alike to seek answers that had eluded them for generations.
For many years she wrote columns for the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Yenidüzen, while also contributing to Politis, published in the south. Through her work in both communities, she became a rare cross-divide voice, championing dialogue, peace and a culture of reconciliation between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Her investigations into the missing helped lead to the discovery of numerous mass graves and enabled many families to recover and bury the remains of their loved ones — work that carried both personal risk and lasting humanitarian consequence.
Uludağ's reporting earned wide international recognition. In 2008 she became the first Cypriot journalist to receive the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award. In 2014 she was honoured with the European Citizen's Prize, and in 2019 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her contributions to the search for the missing and to peacebuilding on the island.
Alongside her journalism, Uludağ was a respected author. Her books, among them Oysters with the Missing Pearls and Orphans of Nationalism, shed light on Cyprus's recent history and the unresolved question of the missing.
In death, Sevgül Uludağ achieved something that has long eluded the island's politics: she united a divided Cyprus. Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot politicians, activists, media representatives and ordinary citizens alike sent their condolences, mourning together a woman whose life's work had been to bridge the very divide that her passing, for a moment, helped to close.