Cyprus is building a monument to the women who were sexually abused by Turkish forces during and after the 1974 invasion...

Cyprus is building a monument to the women who were sexually abused by Turkish forces during and after the 1974 invasion, the non-profit organization Zoe vs War Violence announced Friday, June 19, the UN's international day for the elimination of sexual violence in conflict. The announcement was made at a ceremony held at the presidential palace in Nicosia. Cyprus's cabinet approved the construction plans on Wednesday, and Nicosia mayor Charalambos Prountzos offered his support for the monument to be placed in a central location in the capital. European Parliament member Loukas Fourlas of Disy attended the ceremony and described hearing Cypriot women recount their experiences as a turning point for him personally. He said he had covered wars and human tragedies as a journalist and believed he had heard the worst that people could endure, until that day. The translators at the event, he said, had to pause to hold back tears because they were not just translating words, but "half a century of silence." Gender equality commissioner Josie Christodoulou said the stories of 1974 sexual abuse victims had been "left on the sidelines of public discourse" for decades. She said the silence did not protect survivors, it kept them invisible and excluded them from public memory. Women who survived rape, she said, then faced punishment from their own society through exclusion, discrimination, and being barred from marriage. Fourlas also announced that a European Parliament resolution condemning sexual violence in Cyprus in 1974 will soon be brought before a plenary session. Greek MEP Eleonora Meleti of Nea Dimokratia served as rapporteur for the report underpinning the resolution. The UN's most recent report on conflict-related sexual violence documented 9,788 verified cases worldwide, a figure Christodoulou cited to stress that sexual violence in war remains a tool used to terrorize and subjugate civilian populations. #Cyprus #1974Invasion #NeverForget