CYPRUS WOMEN END PROTEST AGAINST TURKS

July 21, 1989 - (AP-CP article in The Toronto Star) About 1,000 Greek Cypriot women declared victory yesterday and left a stretch of the island's ethnic dividing line after two days of protesting in which five Canadian U.N. peacekeepers were slightly injured.

"We have achieved our purpose of emphasizing the Greek-Cypriots' right of return" to their homes in the Turkish-held north, said Athena Violari, a protest organizer.

The protest against the 15-year-old Turkish occupation threatened to wreck 11 months of U.N.-sponsored talks aimed at reuniting the Mediterranean island.

The protesters had said they would remain in the streets near the buffer zone that is patrolled by United Nations peacekeeping forces until more than 100 demonstrators arrested in a scuffle with Turkish authorities on Wednesday were released.

The protesters penetrated a boundary, called the Green Line, on Wednesday after scuffling with Canadian soldiers who patrol it. Five Canadian soldiers received "minor injuries, mostly cuts and bruises," a U.N. spokesman said.