Cypriot Women and Peace Negotiations: Perceptions of the Process and Issues of Concern

In Cyprus, women's voices may not be heard by the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. The study aims to investigate how the Cypriot women activists perceive the inclusiveness of the peace negotiation table and the importance of discussing women's victimization of rape incidents during the conflict in 1974. Interviews with the ten female participants who have engaged with civic peace activities on the island were conducted and qualitatively analyzed. As a result , narratives of the women illustrated that the women acutely called for the inclusion of women. However, views on whether or not people in Cyprus deal with the issue of rape incidents were divided. In conclusion, the results share the liberal feminist's concern on women's subordination in the political sphere. The women's narratives cohere with the previous literature on women's participation in negotiations but slightly more ambivalent than the studies on places where people initiated to implement the justice systems in terms of dealing with rape incidents.