Cyprus women end protest

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 11

Cyprus women end protest

NZPA-Reuter Nicosia Greek-Cypriot women, fearing violence with Turkish forces only metres away, have ended two days of mass protests in the tense buffer zone dividing Cyprus. “The situation could get really dangerous,” an organiser, Nancia Palallaharidi, said after more than 1000 women crammed the zone in passionate demonstrations against the Turkish invasion of July 20, 1974.

They later left the zone, but leaders said they would march to the home of United Nations representative Oscar Camilion last evening to demand freedom for 108 people jailed in Turkish-Cypriot north Cyprus, after storming across the so-called Green Line dividing the island on Wednesday. A judge in the north ordered the 98 women and 10 men remanded for 48 hours pending a possible trial. Marchers who crossed the Green Line earlier this year were

speedily released. f The President of Cyprus, Mr George Vassiliou, currently holding United Nations-sponsored reunification talks with Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Rauf Denktash, said protesters had been brutally attacked during a peaceful march. He told a Nicosia rally that Greek Cypriots should not let what he called the “provocation” sour relations with Turkish Cypriots and said dialogue was the only answer to the island’s communal hostility..