Women Walk Home: Cyprus' forgotten peace march

Summary

Podcast Summary: “Women Walk Home: Cyprus' Forgotten Peace March”
Podcast: Witness History
Host: Eleanor Angelides
Air Date: June 17, 2026

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Episode Overview

This nine-minute episode of Witness History revisits a pivotal but largely overlooked moment in Cyprus’ recent past: the 1987 “Women Walk Home” peace march. Through the recollections of Nikki Katsoni—one of the organizers—host Eleanor Angelides explores how hundreds of Greek Cypriot women bravely challenged the militarized border dividing Cyprus, risking their safety in a quest to return to their lost homes and advocate for peace.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Historical Context of Cyprus’ Division

• Background [00:53-02:16]:
  • Cyprus, an island with both Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, was split in two after a 1974 Greek military coup and subsequent Turkish invasion.
  • The north became a self-declared Turkish Cypriot state (recognized only by Turkey), while the south remained internationally recognized as Greek Cypriot.
  • United Nations peacekeepers supervised the ceasefire line, separating many families and communities.
• Quote (BBC Archive Reporter, 01:24):

  "Turkey has invaded Cyprus and claims tonight to have taken control of an area in the north of the island. This is the invasion of Cyprus. Large numbers of Turkish helicopters troop carrying helicopters coming in over the Kylia hill..."

2. The Genesis of the Women’s March

• The “Women Return” Movement [00:44-02:16]:
  • “I negeneges Epistrefun” (“The Women Return”) formed nearly 13 years after the island’s division.
  • Many organizers and participants were displaced by the events of 1974, yearning to go home and draw international attention to their plight.
  • The march was meticulously planned and carried deep personal risks.
• Quote (Nikki Katsoni, 00:44):

  “I told my husband at the time, look after our son and if something happens to me, explain what his mother did.”

3. Organizing Under Threat

• Preparation & Anonymity [02:16-04:25]:
  • Organizers deliberately kept details secret to avoid interference from authorities or Turkish troops.
  • Despite intense criticism and accusations they might spark war, their goal was peaceful protest.
  • Quote (Nikki Katsoni, 03:10):

    “But the story leaked out in a big newspaper, so it was no good hiding... How could a peace march of women create a war? We have all the rights to go home.”

4. Evading Authorities and the Day of the March

• Trickery and Determination [04:25-05:20]:
  • The organizers tricked police by sending buses in different directions, ensuring at least one group reached the intended starting point near the ceasefire line.
  • Women wore skirts, held white flags, and carried banners in Greek, Turkish, and English to underline their peaceful intentions.
  • Quote (Nikki Katsoni, 05:37):

    “I love those banners because they express everything we wear. We just come in peace. We want to go home, which was obvious... It was a very colorful crowd... But there was this kind of aura going through us all that makes us going in the same rhythm.”

5. The March’s Dangers: Minefields and Confrontation

• Facing the Minefield [06:26-07:27]:
  • The women unexpectedly encountered a minefield, traversing a narrow, perilous path to continue.
  • Poignant Moment (Nikki Katsoni, 06:32):

    “We didn’t know we had to go through a minefield... So Cleopatra and I got onto the very narrow passage. We look at each other... If something happens to us, this is goodbye.”

• Confrontation with Peacekeepers [07:27-08:32]:
  • United Nations troops physically tried to block the women from advancing further into Turkish-held territory.
  • The women responded with nonviolent resistance, sitting down in the buffer zone.

6. Aftermath and Legacy

• The Movement Persists [08:32-09:41]:
  • Extreme heat, the minefield, and UN intervention made the women turn back that day, but subsequent marches followed, involving thousands.
  • The “Women Walk Home” movement garnered international attention but did not result in an immediate return for those displaced.
  • Bittersweet Humor (Nikki Katsoni, 08:42):

    “It was a very hot day, we were sweating and they had put in my bra, some cigarettes and when I came home they were all melted.”

  • As of the episode’s airing, Nikki Katsoni has not returned to the home she lost in 1974.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Personal Stakes (Nikki Katsoni, 00:44):

  “If something happens to me, explain what his mother did.”

• Defiant Justification (Nikki Katsoni, 03:10):

  “How could a peace march of women create a war? We have all the rights to go home.”

• Shared Courage and Humanity (Nikki Katsoni, 05:37):

  “There was this kind of aura going through us all that makes us going in the same rhythm.”

• Facing Death Side by Side (Nikki Katsoni, 06:32):

  “If something happens to us, this is goodbye. And she told me afterwards that she felt cut the same. I remember that look in her face as I talked to you today.”

• Bittersweet Humor (Nikki Katsoni, 08:42):

  “They had put in my bra, some cigarettes and when I came home they were all melted.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:44 – Nikki Katsoni recounts preparing her family for possible tragedy
• 01:24-02:16 – BBC archive describes the 1974 invasion and mass displacement
• 03:10 – Nikki reflects on criticism and press coverage
• 04:50 – The police-evading logistics of the march
• 05:37 – Description of participants, banners, and the atmosphere
• 06:32 – The minefield crossing and moment of mortality
• 07:34 – UN troops confront the marchers
• 08:32-09:41 – The march’s conclusion, its legacy, and Nikki’s personal aftermath

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Tone and Language

The episode’s tone is intimate, courageous, and reflective. With Nikki Katsoni’s memories at its heart, the story is both deeply personal and emblematic of wider historical currents—imbued with resilience, humor (even in adversity), and a stubborn hope for peace.

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Further Listening

Listeners are encouraged to explore Witness History’s weeklong series on Cyprus, particularly the episode “Cyprus 2003: Crossing the Ceasefire Line,” which chronicles the eventual opening of checkpoints decades after the events described.

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This summary is intended to serve those curious about Cyprus’ past, women’s roles in peace movements, and the ongoing human consequences of unresolved conflicts—without needing to hear the original episode.

Transcript

[Various Historical Witnesses]

Foreign.

[Eleanor Angelides]

This is Witness History from the BBC World Service. I'm Eleanor Angelides. We're the podcast that takes you back to a key moment in history and we bring it all to life through incredible archive and the amazing memories of one key Witness episodes are just nine minutes long and come out every weekday. If that sounds like your thing, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts and turn on your push notifications so you never miss a show. For today's episode, I'm taking you back to June 1987 when hundreds of Greek Cypriot women marched towards a ceasefire line that split the island of Cyprus in two. At the time, trying to cross the country's divide was seen as an unthinkable, potentially life threatening act.

[Nikki Katsoni]

I told my husband at the time, look after our son and if something happens to me, explain what his mother did.

[Eleanor Angelides]

That's Nikki Katsoni, a member of 20 or so women who organised the march. They called themselves I negeneges Epistrefun, meaning the women return because they hoped to return to be on the ceasefire line. But why was Cyprus divided when Greek and Turkish Cypriots had long lived side by side on the eastern Mediterranean island? In July 1974, a military coup from Greece arrived in Cyprus, aiming to overthrow the island's elected government. Days later Turkey sent troops to the island saying it was aiming to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority.

[BBC Archive Reporter]

Turkey has invaded Cyprus and claims tonight to have taken control of an area in the north of the island. This is the invasion of Cyprus. Large numbers of Turkish helicopters troop carrying helicopters coming in over the Kylia hill

[Eleanor Angelides]

from the direction of Turkey under attack. Around 180,000 Greek Cypriots fled their homes thinking they would be able to return days later. But Turkey went on to control around a third of the island, resulting in a self proclaimed Turkish north and an internationally recognised Greek Cypriot south. United nations troops took on the role of supervising an 180 kilometer ceasefire line along the divide. Many of the women who marched in the summer of 1987 had been displaced by the 1974 conflict and wanted to draw attention from the international community on the division of Cyprus and return to the homes they had lost more than a decade earlier.

[BBC Archive Reporter]

300 Greek Cypriot women and a handful of supporters from overseas had planned their demonstration under the slogan Women Return like a military operation, keeping the exact spot where they were going to try and breach the ceasefire line between the Greek and Turkish parts of Cyprus a secret until the last minute. And their aim today was to cross the ceasefire line, then perhaps return to their homes.

[Eleanor Angelides]

Nikki Katsoni was in her 30s when she said goodbye to her family to help plan the women return march.

[Nikki Katsoni]

Because our aim was to reach a hill Arrones, that has a garth of Turkish troops. So we wanted to go to the other side. This was the whole idea of breaking the military line with white flags, with peace. Nobody knew where we would break the line because we were going to do it in a clandestine way.

[Eleanor Angelides]

I see.

[Nikki Katsoni]

But the story leaked out in a big newspaper, so it was no good hiding. I have the photograph of our first press conference and we say we are going to march home, but we are not going to say when or where. The government, women's organizations, most of them were against. They said, don't do that. And before our first walk, there were some very bitter comments in newspapers saying, these mad women are going to start a war between Cyprus and Turkey. How could a peace march of women create a war? We have all the rights to go home. We hadn't done anything. We didn't have any animosity towards anybody. So we decided to show to the world what was happening in Cyprus.

[Eleanor Angelides]

The press said the women, many of them housewives who had never engaged in politics before, were provoking geopolitical tensions capable of reigniting the conflict. On the day, Greek Cypriot police tried to stop the march, concerned the women were putting their lives at risk by trying to cross into dangerous territory. So the march organizers tricked their own police force by telling women from all over Cyprus to meet in the capital, Nicosia.

[Nikki Katsoni]

We said to people, our buses will be there to take us to where we are going to break the line. So some buses went one direction and you had all the police in Nicosia running after them, and some buses went onto another direction. So the police didn't know where we were going. When we arrived at Arunaz, there was no police there chasing us.

[Eleanor Angelides]

Once the buses made it to the secret starting point, the women began to walk to protect themselves. They all wore skirts, as they thought the Turkish army might interpret them as Greek soldiers and open fire if they wore trousers. The women also held white flags and banners.

[Nikki Katsoni]

I love those banners because they express everything we wear. We just come in peace. We want to go home, which was obvious. And it was in English, in Greek and in Turkish. And in that march, there were women from all walks of life. You could see that from what they were wearing. It was a very colorful crowd, very young and very old, very foreign looking and very familiar people we knew and people we didn't know. But there was this kind of aura going through us all that makes us going in the same rhythm.

[Eleanor Angelides]

But that rhythm would be forced to stop in its tracks. By Nikki's side was her friend Cleopatra.

[Nikki Katsoni]

We didn't know we had to go through a minefield. The whole field was spread with these small notices saying mines and we had to get another side. We were scared, all of us, because we had to walk on a very narrow elevated passage of the soil. It fell to fall in the mines. So Cleopatra and I got onto the very narrow passage. We look at each other and I think we thought of the same thing. If something happens to us, this is goodbye. And she told me afterwards that she felt cut the same. I remember that look in her face as I talked to you today. Maybe we wouldn't come out of the

[Eleanor Angelides]

life, but the group do make it through the minefield hoping to pass UN troops in the buffer zone and enter the occupied area.

[Nikki Katsoni]

And then the peace force of the United nations try to hold us back, not to go up to the hill where the Turkish troops were. We could see them from afar. So there was a kind of running and grabbing.

[News Reporter]

There have been scuffles between Greek Cypriot women and United nations troops in the security zone which separates the Greek part of Cyprus from the Turkish controlled north of the island. The clashes took place as the women who were demonstrating against the partition of Cyprus tried to cross the mile wide zone to confront Turkish soldiers near Nicosia.

[Eleanor Angelides]

The women sat on the ground forming a line between the UN and the

[Nikki Katsoni]

Turkish army which was really an anti climax. We were thinking there what to do because if we ventured again they were really there, ready to prevent us.

[Eleanor Angelides]

At sundown they turned back.

[BBC Archive Reporter]

They were thwarted by a combination of United nations peacekeeping forces, the extreme heat and an old minefield.

[Nikki Katsoni]

It was a very hot day, we were sweating and they had put in my bra, some cigarettes and when I came home they were all melted.

[Eleanor Angelides]

Nikki's secret stash might have melted, but the spirit of the marches reignited. Thousands took part in two more demonstrations with later attempts crossing into the Turkish controlled north of the country. The marches became known internationally as the Women Walk Home movement. Cyprus remains divided and Nikki has never returned to the home she lost in 1974. Nikki Katsoni was speaking to me, Elena Angelides for witness history from the BBC World Service. For more first hand stories about Cyprus, you can find a week's worth of witness history podcasts in our July 2024 archives, including Cyprus 2003 Crossing the Ceasefire Line about the opening of the first checkpoints along the divide. After 29 years. And if you want to hear more from Witness History, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

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