Greek Cypriot Women Outwit U.N. Troops, Protest in Turkish Area

Employing various ruses, about 800 Greek Cypriot women outmaneuvered U.N. peacekeeping troops and clambered over barbed wire Sunday to penetrate Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus for the first time in 13 years.

They were blocked from further advance after brief scuffles with Turkish troops. Hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers, hurrying to the scene, placed themselves between the demonstrators and the Turkish soldiers.

The women demonstrators chanted “We come in peace!’ and “We want to return to our homes!” They pushed and shoved in a brief scuffle with the peacekeepers in the buffer zone between Turkish and Greek Cypriot lines.

The protesters waved banners with demands written in Greek, Turkish and English. They sat on the ground, chanting and singing for about three hours before dispersing.

“This peaceful protest will make more people outside Cyprus realize and sympathize with the problem of the war-divided island,” said Kathryn Porter, the wife of Rep. John E. Porter (R-Ill.). She was among the foreign women dignitaries taking part in the action.

Marina Gros, of West Germany’s Greens party, said the protest had been necessary. “Maybe it is the beginning of a new kind of movement and discussion in Europe about Cyprus,” she said.

Rauf Denktash, president of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, called the march “a continuation of efforts to colonize and turn Cyprus into a Greek island.”

The march was organized by the Greek Cypriot Women Walk Home Committee to protest the partition of the island and the refusal of Turkish troops to allow Greek Cypriot refugees to return to their homes in the Turkish-controlled portion of the Mediterranean island.

Turkey invaded Cyprus in July, 1974, after a coup by Greek Cypriot supporters of union with Greece.