One of the most interesting chapters of modern Cypriot history is the action of the women's anti-occupation movement "Women return". This is a unique case where individual Cypriots managed to organize, to mobilize their voices, to be heard abroad, to overcome stereotypes and party lines and to bring small but impressive victories to the Occupation. An early, authentic and non-motivated mobilization of "civil society" from nowhere but the "private" initiative.
The first march took place before the end of the Turkish invasion: On April 20, 1975, 30.000 thousands of Cypriots, along with personalities from around the world, with Domnitsa Laniti, Melina Mercouri and Margarita Papandreou best known on our island, held the "Route to Famagusta", which reached the occupied roadblock in Deryneia. The course of 1975 came at the initiative of a small group of women who tried to avoid conventional organizational formations, "presidencies" and "secretariats". Clearly, however, the main leading figure in the informal organizational structure of the initiative was the oncologist Helen Sotiriou (1920-2012). The men were kept away, as was any thought of using force. Besides, the central slogan of the women was "We come in peace", in order to highlight to the international community that the problem in Cyprus was created by the presence of the Turkish army, which prevented the Return.
This was followed by the dynamic re-emergence of the Movement in 1987 with two marches, in Aaron, in June, and in Agios Pavlos, in November. 13 years of Occupation had already passed, and the climate was different, as was the surprise with the impeccable organization of the marches and their repercussions, domestically and internationally. In Aaron, women crossed into the "dead zone" for the first time since 1974, before being violently opposed by peacekeepers. In St. Paul, protesters were confronted by the occupying army, and the lens of photographers and filmmakers captured images of the unequal confrontation of women's peaceful demand for a return with the brutal violence of guns. With the exception of the "usual absentees", most of the public was shocked. A year later, in June 1988, about 100 women symbolically occupied the Acropolis of Athens, on the day of the official visit of Turkish Prime Minister Turkut Ozal, in a highly impressive move.
This was followed, in March 1989, by two marches in Lympia and Achna, which were both the most militant and the most massive. In Lympia, the women were violently stopped on the hill of the chapel of the Holy Cross. In Achna they managed to break the occupation siege and in a unique emotion a large group entered the ruined village and reached the looted church of Agia Marina, where they sang the Standing Hymn. The fruit of the women's marches was the court action of Titina Loizidou from Kyrenia, against Turkey. Disagreements erupted a few months later, and the march to Agios Cassianos in July 1989 was not organized by the original committee. It was, in essence, the end of the Movement.
On Wednesday, November 22, 2017, at 7.30 pm, in the Ceremony Hall, in the Leventi Building, on the New Campus, leading members of the then committee will share with undergraduate and graduate students their memories from the history of the Movement "Women" , on the occasion of the delivery of the archive of the women's anti-occupation team to the Department of History and Archeology of the University of Cyprus. Fortunately, it will be the thirtieth anniversary of the procession to St. Paul (November 22, 1987). An opportunity to discuss how the visions of a different era become "officially" history…
Petros Papapoliviou, Assoc. Professor at the University of Cyprus