Woman’s group calls for war crimes memorial for women

Women’s organisation Pogo called on Wednesday for a monument to be built in the capital to honour females who fell victim to war crimes in 1974.

The statement said the events surrounding the anniversaries of the coup and Turkey’s invasion have stigmatised the country with words like “death, loss, and uprooting.”

And though there has been incredible loss of life, land and trauma surrounding these tragedies, this has seldom come with a proper recognition of how the invasion affected women.

“Due to societal taboos and patriarchal norms, much of the suffering that the women endured in 1974 were silenced.”

Though there were records of the deaths and the missing, “the rapes against women in the hands Turkish soldiers and Greek Cypriot Eoka B fascists have not been recorded in society’s consciousness.

“Few know that in those first few days after the war, hundreds of women had mass abortions to terminate pregnancies that were a result of rape.”

At the same time, there are far too few references on the role of women in rebuilding society, the economy and healing the wounds of displacement and the loss of loved ones, as well as waiting for the fate of the missing to be determined. Women’s role in the resistance, supporting families and those who remained enclaved in their villages have been almost non-existent, Pogo said.

The organisation called for a monument to be built in Nicosia to acknowledge the suffering these women experienced and highlight their contribution to the reconstruction of the country.

“In most cases, war is seen as a purely male task, a violent competition between armies and armaments. This perception arises from the stereotypical oversimplification that men are inherently violent and therefore inclined to war, while women, who are seen as sentimental, maintain, in the prevailing social perception, a passive role.”

In April, Gender Equality Commissioner Josie Christodoulou said she supported the creation of a memorial to Cypriot women that were victims of sexual abuse during the 1974 Turkish invasion and times before the war.