For Cyprus, and for women everywhere, this is a moment of vindication. The European Parliament’s resolution, passed by a crushing majority last Wednesday, condemns, among other things, the impact of the invasion on Cyprus’s women and girls, including conflict-related sexual violence, other forms of sexual exploitation, forced displacement, the tearing apart of families, and a string of other violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
The rapes carried out by the Turkish army in 1974 were a war crime then, and they remain a war crime now. For decades, this was a crime that was only met with silence. The Republic of Cyprus did raise it, and it did feature in the inter-state application to the Council of Europe, but for a number of reasons, this was an issue nobody wanted to look at.
The European Parliament’s condemnation obviously doesn’t heal the wounds. But it matters. Fifty-two years on, acts like these are being condemned by an international body. The European Parliament also condemned the continuing occupation of a member state’s territory, calling it a serious violation of international law and an obstacle to peace, stability, and EU-Turkey relations.
The rapporteur on the issue, New Democracy and EPP MEP Eleonora Meleti, noted that the resolution makes clear that the women and girls made victims during the 1974 Turkish invasion weren’t just victims in the moment. They went on to be victims afterwards, through stigma, marginalisation, social condemnation, isolation, and grief.
According to the rapporteur, the resolution aims to help secure institutional recognition of what these victims went through, to restore historical memory, and to address the need for accountability and support for survivors.
Fifty-two years late, but this was still a significant decision, recognising a crime. That matters, and everyone recognises it does. What also deserves recognition is the effort of everyone who worked to get here.
Turkey is a terrorist state. A state built on genocide, ethnic cleansing, occupation. A state with war crimes on its record. A country with that rap sheet should be permanently in the dock. Instead, alas, it walks free. And it doesn’t stop there. It’s being promoted.
