WOMEN SAY TURK GUARDS BEAT THEM

July 24, 1989 - (AP article in The Toronto Star) Six Greek Cypriot women alleged yesterday they were sexually assaulted and beaten by Turkish-Cypriot prison guards and police after being arrested for taking part in a protest last week.

"They treated us like animals," Georgia Petrou, 19, said after she and the five other women emerged from the Turkish-Cypriot prison where they had been held four days.

All six showed bruises they said were from beatings.

Margarita Michail, 18, sobbed and said: "We were pulled by the hair and our clothes, punched and kicked and the Turkish policemen who arrested us grabbed our breasts and genitals," she said.

Several hundred Greek-Cypriots were in the fourth day of a sit-in outside the headquarters of the 2,300-man United Nations peacekeeping force.

They were demanding freedom for 108 Greek Cypriots arrested by Turkish-Cypriot police Wednesday when they stormed across the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone to protest the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus.