1974 POWs kept rape by Turkish captors secret for 50 years, association says

Local 1974Cyprus problemsexual abuseTop Newswar 1974 POWs kept rape by Turkish captors secret for 50 years, association says 1974 Pows Kept Rape By Turkish Captors Secret For 50 Years, Association Says Relevant News 1974 POWs kept rape by Turkish captors secret for 50 years, association says 11 September 2026 From Nazi bonfires to Russian bombs: burning books, erasing a nation 11 September 2026 Cabinet approves five tourism grants, including €1.5m for Kato Pyrgos 11 September 2026 Newsroom 11 September 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber More than one prisoner of war from 1974 has disclosed, under strict confidentiality, being raped while held in Turkish prisons in Adana, according to Vasos Christou, president of the Association of 1974 Prisoners of War. The victims have kept the abuse a closely guarded secret for more than 50 years, carrying both the trauma itself and the stigma of what Christou described as a closed, suspicious and equally traumatised society. According to Christou, the former POWs have hesitated to speak in an effort to shield their families and those around them from pain and from the social stigma they felt immediately after their release — based purely on suspicion of sexual abuse. Developmental and social psychologist Antonis Androulidakis said keeping such crimes hidden for decades reflects not only unbearable personal trauma but a “social inability to testify,” a concept he returned to later in the discussion. Deputy Welfare Minister Tina Pavlou said meetings have already been scheduled with victims’ associations and relevant state services to examine proposals that would open what she called “a window” for anyone wishing to come forward with their testimony. Christou told the parliamentary Refugees Committee on September 1 that the widow of a deceased POW had told him her husband confided to her, shortly before he died, that he was raped during his captivity in Turkey. He also referred to a second, still-living former POW who handed him a written account of his own rape, with instructions not to release it until after his death. “I hope he lives another 20-30 years, and that I die before it becomes public,” Christou said. He compared the accounts to scenes depicted in the film “Midnight Express.” Asked whether he knew of further such cases, Christou said he had no specific knowledge of others. He argued, however, that even if more POWs had suffered rape, it was unlikely they would speak of it openly. Among former POWs who have shared accounts in books or documentaries, he said, the way some describe their experiences leads him to believe — without being certain — that they too were sexually abused. Asked what led him to that view, Christou pointed to what he called “the silent crying that comes from someone’s soul.” He described survivors who, recounting their suffering in captivity, say they have never told even their own children what they endured. He was careful not to present this as proof of sexual abuse specifically, saying it could equally reflect the broader weight of war and captivity — but he did not rule out the possibility. Christou said fear of social stigma has followed 1974 POWs since their release in September and October of that year, and identified it as the main reason many chose silence. “Since 1974, after our release, people pointed fingers at us and mocked us,” he said, recalling that rumours the Turkish military had raped women fed suspicion that male POWs “hadn’t escaped unscathed” either. He said he doubted the government’s intention to formally record cases of sexual abuse among POWs would be easy to carry out. When the second former POW asked him, after the parliamentary hearing, whether he should speak openly about his experience, Christou advised him not to make it public. Efforts under way to support victims, deputy minister says Pavlou told the committee the government intends to support victims and record cases of sexual abuse. Simply being able to recount the experience, she said, can be therapeutic for survivors of such trauma. “It’s important to let anyone who wants to be heard and receive psychological support have that choice,” she said, adding that the aim is to do so in a way that protects the confidentiality of testimonies. Citing research literature, Pavlou said no war has been free of sexual violence, and that any country with victims has a duty to provide them with proper care and support. Deep trauma, she said, can affect a victim’s quality of life and psychological state, with effects that remain visible even when they cannot be traced to their cause. The trauma, she added, can also indirectly affect people close to the victim. Asked whether victims of sexual abuse were handled appropriately in the period just after the war, Pavlou said today’s standards cannot be used to judge decisions made at the time. She confirmed, however, that the treatment received back then by women who had been raped was itself a traumatic experience, layered on top of the abuse. Christou also addressed the rape of women during the Turkish military’s assault, describing them as horrific war crimes. The rape of an estimated 1,500 women aged 13 to 80, he said, has only recently come to public attention. He said the worst crimes were committed during Turkey’s advance in the second invasion, when, in his words, there was effectively no resistance and therefore no actual fighting taking place. Very few women spoke about it at the time, Christou said, though it was widely known they had been raped. “During their captivity, they were even sent contraceptive pills to take so they wouldn’t get pregnant,” he said. Once women reached the free areas, he added, those who had become pregnant were transferred to the British Bases for abortions. Christou said there are also victims of sexual abuse who fall outside the categories of POWs, families of missing persons, or any other recognised victim group, and are therefore excluded from state benefits such as home care support. “Who has thought of these women? Don’t they want home care, benefits?” he asked. He voiced the association’s frustration over a Cabinet decision last July that removed mothers and wives of missing persons from the financial-criteria exemption for the home care benefit — criteria that cap eligibility at €20,000 in savings and €23,000 in annual household income per household. The benefit, Christou said, should apply without means-testing to all categories of victims, without exception. “Hidden trauma is not harmless — what isn’t spoken doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist” Androulidakis, a developmental and social psychologist and author who studies collective trauma, said hidden trauma isn’t harmless, “because what isn’t spoken doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” Asked why some rape victims — particularly men — only disclose the experience confidentially, shortly before death, believing silence protects their family, Androulidakis said this pattern is especially common among men of older generations, from whom society expected the role of protector. “They often protect others at a very heavy psychological cost to themselves,” he said. Carrying such a secret, he said, can mean a lifetime marked by nightmares, hypervigilance, anger, isolation, physical symptoms, or difficulty with closeness and relationships. “Sometimes it affects the family without them even knowing its source,” he added, explaining that individual trauma can take on a transgenerational dimension: not the event itself, but the silence, fear, defence mechanisms and relational difficulties can be passed down. Asked whether social stigma can amount to a double victimisation, Androulidakis said the way a family, community or society receives — or fails to receive — a victim’s experience can cause a second trauma. “Distrust, blame, shame, even an awkward silence can act as a secondary trauma,” he said. Stigma, he explained, can gradually become internalised, with victims coming to see themselves through the judgment they fear others hold of them. Society bears a collective responsibility, he said, since it can either deepen a trauma or help heal it. A society that states clearly that shame belongs only to the perpetrator, he added, restores the dignity of the person who suffered it. Androulidakis extended the point to the collective level, describing “a social inability to testify” — the idea that there are things a society is not yet ready to hear, and when it cannot hear them, the people who lived them learn they cannot speak of them. Sexual violence in war, he said, can function as an act of humiliation and domination not only over the individual but symbolically over the group they belong to, so that “the shame constructed by the perpetrator can go on operating within the victim’s society for decades.” “These testimonies aren’t only about the people who carried them; they concern Cyprus itself,” he said, adding that collective memory cannot include only what has been recounted so far — it must also make room for what remained unspoken, not to rewrite history, but to make it fuller and more human. Asked what conditions are needed for victims to come forward, Androulidakis stressed the need for a sense of safety, so that anyone carrying a traumatic account knows “they’ll be believed, not judged or interrogated,” and that their manhood or dignity won’t be questioned. Above all, he said, they must retain control of their own story: who they tell, how much, and when. This requires safe, confidential spaces and properly trained professionals, he added. “Breaking a fifty-year personal silence may need a fifty-year collective silence to break first,” Androulidakis said, adding that this means publicly acknowledging that these things happened, that wartime sexual violence affects men too, and that no victim has any reason to feel ashamed. Read more: Up to 70 people wrongly claim 1974 POW benefits, association says Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News From Nazi bonfires to Russian bombs: burning books, erasing a nation Cabinet approves five tourism grants, including €1.5m for Kato Pyrgos Philippine firefighters enter charred ferry as search continues for dozens missing Trump declines Saudi crown prince’s call for US strikes on Houthis, Axios reports On this day: Four hijacked planes crashed into New York’s twin World Trade Center towers in 2001 Doctors face court today over singer Mazonakis’s death DISY praises President on GSI, AKEL presses for exit details Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.