Women's Organizations for Peace: Moving Beyond the Rhetoric of the Cyprus Problem

119 Pages·2021·1.136 MB·English

by  Sophia Papastavrou

Women’s Organizations
for Peace
Moving Beyond the Rhetoric
of the Cyprus Problem
Sophia Papastavrou
Women’s Organizations for Peace
Sophia Papastavrou
Women’s
Organizations
for Peace
Moving Beyond the Rhetoric
of the Cyprus Problem
Sophia Papastavrou
Women, Peace and Security
Network Canada
Nicosia, Cyprus
ISBN 978-3-030-45945-1 ISBN 978-3-030-45946-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45946-8
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Preface
Herstory
Yιαγια´ (Grandma)standsupfromthekitchentableand,hittingherhand
on the table, begins to explain parts of her life to me:
Life with your grandfather was like being in a sea full of waves…we were
followedbytheBritisheverywherewewent.OnedayaBritishofficercame
tothehouse,heandothersbrokedownthefrontdoorofourhouse.They
searchedthehousefromtoptobottom.Theyalmostdestroyedthehouse.
In the end they found nothing and left. Your grandfather was taken away
shortly afterwards and sent to Seychelles on March 9, 1956. He wrote
letters to me and all our children each week. The letters he wrote to me
wouldarrivealreadyopened.TheBritishgovernmenthadcutoutbitsand
pieces of the letters.
She sits down again and looks at me. It seems that the memories are
hard to say out loud. Then she interrupts my thoughts:
You know, I supported your grandfather through everything, and I knelt
next to him during the war, praying to keep your dad and uncles safe.
I raised all five children, during this difficult time, and through all of it
your grandfather was full of love, grace and above all faith. Faith for our
country, faith in our people, faith in our children but also faith in God.
v
vi PREFACE
Mygrandmotherstops.Shegetsbackupfromthekitchenchairagain,
the one my grandfather once used, and she says,
I grew up with no mother, I didn’t know my mother. I was an orphan. I
met your grandfather and he became my world and I was his world. He
usedtotellme,“myangelallweneedareolivesandbread.Nothingelse.”
Indeed, we lived in the hands of the Creator and surrendered our lives to
Him.
She stops again, and looks me straight in the eye, skipping chapters of
her life as if she is resisting sharing them. Or perhaps her hesitation lies
in the mere fact that in Cypriot culture it is common for women to not
sharethedifficulties,challenges,andtraumasoftheirlives.Thiswouldbe
taboo,especiallywhenitcomestome,hergranddaughter.Buthesitantly,
she explains,
We [our family] suffered a lot during the EOKA period and during the
[anti-colonial]struggle,butalwaysaskedyourgrandfather,Isaid,“Stavros,
thesearefamilies;theyoungmenthataregoingtofight,theyarejustboys.
Thesearemother’ssons.”Andheusedtolistentomeandassuredmethat
to fight for freedom was indeed a blessing.
Therearegreatpricestopayforfreedom,andmygrandmother,along
with the rest of our family, was on the British Colonial Administra-
tion watch lists. My grandmother recalls the almost daily raids of British
soldiers, who would knock down the front door to search their home for
material that would enable them to arrest my grandfather on charges of
treason against the British Crown (for being a leader in the anti-colonial
movement). My grandmother’s memories and oral history of this period
in her life, living side-by-side with the unrest and trauma of surveillance
and gendered violence, are ones that haunt me to this day.
During my preliminary archival research in Cyprus in 2012–2013, she
passedawayattheageofeighty-sixinOctober2012.Iwasindeedfortu-
nate to be able to speak with my grandmother about her life experiences
during British colonial rule and the EOKA period, which she recounted
as the most important in her life, before she passed on. Herein lies not
justthestoriesofheroism,butalsostoriesofthecomplexities,intricacies,
and lived experiences of war and the power conflict itself has to change
the direction of our lives.
Nicosia, Cyprus Sophia Papastavrou
Acknowledgments
Thisbookwouldnothavebeenpossiblewithoutthemanygifted,talented
and brave individuals who opened their hearts and minds to make sure
I could provide the best piece of work possible. My intention to study
women’s organizing for peace in Cyprus was engrained in the need to
go back to my roots. I am honoured to have been allowed to enter the
spacesofwomen’speacebuilding,andIamgratefultowritethestoriesof
activism featured in this text. The women in this research tell their expe-
riences of resilience and courage. Featured here are the pioneers in their
field who have played a pivotal role in shaping gender issues, and peace
andreconciliationactivisminCyprus.Iamhumbledtohavemeteachand
every one of you. I am thankful for your willingness to speak to me and
foropeningyourheartsinwaysbeyondmyexpectations.Women’sstories
matter. It is my hope that this text will bring about the belief, ownership
and agency women have when asked to share their lives with the world.
Nicosia
2018
vii
Contents
1 Introduction: Women Organizing for Peace 1
2 Review of the Literature 29
3 Theoretical Framework 51
4 Women’s Voices, Women’s Wisdom 67
5 Conclusion: Fumbling Towards Sustainable Peace 99
Index 111
ix
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Women Organizing for Peace
Abstract This chapter has introduced the study and provided some
important background and context on Cyprus laying the foundation for
why this book is important to peacebuilding and the wider conversation
around women, peace and security.
Keywords Women’s civil society · Social movements · Cyprus Problem ·
United Nations Resolution 1325
Introduction
The long-term consequence of the Cyprus conflict, referred to by the
internationalcommunityastheCyprusProblem,hasforthepast44years
taken precedence over women’s rights and gender equality on the island.
The Cyprus Problem refers to the inter-ethnic conflict that led to the
island’s division since 1974. In relation to the feminist literature on anti-
warandpeaceactivism,Cyprusisasiteinwhichwomenareinvolvedina
peace process in a “frozen conflict”.1 This book examines three women’s
organizations that have been working within the bicommunal peace
1I use the term frozen conflict in two ways. First to identify that the conflict is frozen
in time and second that its people live in a state of waiting for the Cyprus Problem to
be solved. Cyprus as a place where most people live in the in-between.
© The Author(s) 2021 1
S. Papastavrou, Women’s Organizations for Peace,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45946-8_1
2 S. PAPASTAVROU
movement in Cyprus. The organizations’ roles have included: mobilizing
tocreateawarenessforpeaceduringsignificantperiodsinCypriothistory,
such as the opening of the Green Line in 2003 when Turkey began
allowingbordercrossingsintheoldestdividedcityintheworld(Nicosia);
the final Annan Plan of 2004; and women’s groups’ campaigns in 2014
to demand that women be included in the working groups on both the
GreekandTurkishCypriotpeacenegotiatingteams.Theresearchcentral-
izes women’s civil society organizations and their multilayered methods
of protest, as well as the ways in which multigenerational women have
sought to make their voices heard during peace negotiations. Women’s
groups have organized to fight against the continuing absence of rule of
law and human rights that has resulted in the island becoming a base for
traffickingwomenforforcedsexualexploitationandviolencethroughout
Europe and the Middle East.
To explore women’s activism on the island, I chose to focus on
three of the longstanding groups: Hands Across the Divide (HAD);
the Gender Advisory Team (GAT) and the Mediterranean Institute for
Gender Studies (MIGS). The central research questions for this study
are: (1) How have women’s groups organized for peace? (2) What have
been their key issues and organizing strategies? (3) What have been their
organizing successes and challenges?
HAD was established in 2001, with its mission being to bring women
from both the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities to work together
on bicommunal activities to promote peace. The women are comprised
of academics, grassroots activists and journalists committed to bringing
women’s issues and participation to the forefront of peacebuilding. In
2011, Hands Across the Divide (HAD) registered as an NGO in the
Republic of Cyprus, thus making it the first bicommunal organization to
do so. HAD was the first bicommunal women’s organization in Cyprus,
which is significant because it includes both Greek and Turkish Cypriot
women who share a vision of a peaceful, non-divided, non-militarized,
non-patriarchal Cyprus.
In2009,aGenderAdvisoryTeam(GAT)wasformedbyasmallgroup
of women, including members of Hands Across the Divide (HAD), with
the hope was that gender equality would be integrated into the peace
negotiations.GAT’soverarchingmissionistomainstreamgenderequality
inthepeaceprocess,byensuringwomen’sactiveparticipationinallphases
of the process and by gender-proofing the content and basis of future
peace agreements. The organization’s aim has been to identify ways in