Women in projects of co-operation for peace: Methodologies of external intervention in Cyprus

SynopsisCyprus experienced three decades of conflict culminating in the partition of the island on an ethnic line in 1974. This article compares and contrasts different approaches to building contact and confidence between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot women in Cyprus. Three distinct experiences of the decade 1993–2002 are described, each characterized by the involvement of a group or an individual external to the country, and each with a distinct methodology. Similarities and differences of methodology and outcome are explored. The third instance, dealt with at a greatest length, is the initiation and development of the women's organization ‘Hands Across the Divide’, in which both authors were actively involved, one as an internal and one as an external actor. They draw conclusions concerning the imperative of a gender analysis both in understanding ethnicized conflict and in working for its resolution.