The European Parliament’s Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee on Wednesday adopted a resolution condemning sexual violence committed during the Turkish invasion of 1974, calling for accountability and support for survivors.

The resolution was approved by 28 votes to four, with one abstention, following a committee mission to Cyprus and months of examination of testimony relating to women affected by the conflict.

MEPs drew attention to the “lasting impact of wartime sexual violence on Cypriot women and girls”.

The resolution states that survivors endured “forced displacement, family separation, trauma, social stigma and psychological consequences”, while describing sexual violence as “a weapon of war” and “a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions”.

The committee called for recognition of survivors, accountability for crimes committed and comprehensive support for victims and their families.

It urged the EU to strengthen assistance to the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) and “expand access to trauma counselling, psychological care and intergenerational healing programmes”.

MEPs also backed calls for full reparations for victims and endorsed plans for a monument in Nicosia dedicated to women who suffered sexual violence during the conflict.

The resolution further supports formal recognition of survivors’ testimonies and experiences.

The text renews support for the resumption of UN-led reunification negotiations and calls for “the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Cyprus”.

Greek MEP Eleonora Meleti said the resolution fulfilled a commitment made to survivors during the committee’s visit to Cyprus and ensured that their experiences would be acknowledged at European level.

“The suffering and resilience of Cypriot women and girls must be recognised,” she said, adding that “the Cyprus issue is inseparable from the principles of international law and European values”.

In March, Cypriot MEP Loukas Fourlas delivered a European Parliament report on rape and sexual violence during the 1974 invasion to Antonio Guterres in New York, urging greater recognition and support for survivors.

That report documented testimony from women who suffered abuse during the conflict and called for international action to ensure that such crimes are neither forgotten nor overlooked.

Advocacy groups and researchers have long argued that many survivors remained silent for decades, leaving the full scale of wartime sexual violence difficult to establish.

According to estimates cited in academic research and survivor testimonies, the Turkish armed forces employed sexual violence during Operation Attila as a tactic of war, with figures suggesting that up to 1,500 Greek Cypriot women and children were subjected to rape, gang rape and related abuses.

Researchers have argued that such violence contributed to the forced displacement of civilians and was used to instil fear in local populations, accelerating the Greek Cypriot population’s flight southwards.

The scale of abuse was so significant that the Orthodox Church temporary lifted the ban on abortion in the aftermath of the war.

Scholarly work has also referenced claims that sexual violence was enacted by TMT militants in retaliation to historic intercommunal violence witnessed in the early 1960s.