With an overwhelming majority of 575 votes in favour and only 33 against, the European Parliament adopted the FEMM Committee’s resolution, drafted by Greek MEP Eleonora Meleti, officially recognising, for the first time, the women and girls of Cyprus who fell victims of sexual violence committed by Turkish soldiers during the 1974 Turkish invasion.
A chapter of history that had remained in the shadows for more than fifty years, now becomes an integral part of Europe’s official historical memory.
Hundreds of cases of systematic sexual violence were officially recorded after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, and a few of those victims accepted to recount their traumatizing experiences once again in front of a committee of MEPs in closed session in Nicosia in May 2025, responding to an initiative launched by Cypriot MEP Loukas Fourlas with the aim to finally have the women’s voices heard and justice claimed for them.
The resolution condemns the Turkish invasion and the ongoing occupation of Cyprus, recognises conflict-related sexual violence as a weapon of war, calls for the full recognition and rehabilitation of the victims, urges appropriate reparations, stronger support for survivors, and demands that Turkey assumes responsibility in accordance with international law.
Addressing the plenary session in Strasbourg, Meleti, who was the Parliament’s rapporteur on the resolution, delivered a speech, recounting the testimonies of the women she met during the FEMM Committee’s fact-finding mission to Cyprus.
“We made a promise that these women’s pain, the collective trauma of the Cypriot people, would no longer remain silent or invisible. Because the violence they suffered did not end then. It continued through stigma, isolation, marginalisation, rejection and loneliness.”
Today’s adoption of the resolution represents a landmark political and moral recognition for the women of Cyprus. It also marks a significant parliamentary achievement for Meleti, who succeeded in bringing, for the first time, a long-overlooked dimension of the Cypriot tragedy onto the European agenda and in securing broad cross-party support within the European Parliament for recognition, remembrance and justice.