Despite a year-long buildup, government promotion, and a unanimous vote in the Parliament, only two women applied for voluntary military service. CIReN finds the President’s claim unfounded when weighed against the actual outcome.
Only two women applied for voluntary military service in the National Guard.
President Nicos Christodoulides announced this new policy a year ago, arguing in April 2025 that it would be “an important step towards consolidating the principle of equality and strengthening the defense structure of the Republic of Cyprus.”
Cyprus Investigative Reporting Network (CIReN) examined the President’s claim in relation to the objective and the results achieved, conducted a fact-check, and issued its verdict.
The Claim
President Christodoulides, after the unanimous adoption of the bill by the House of Representatives said this “is an important step towards consolidating the principle of equality and strengthening our defense structure, as it enables every female citizen of the Republic to choose to serve her country if she so wishes.”
(Extract from a written statement by President Christodoulides – 3 April 2025)
The Facts
President Christodoulides announced the introduction of a policy for “voluntary recruitment of women for a six-month term of service” in September 2024 in a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the National Guard.
This was followed by a decision by the Council of Ministers and the submission of an amendment of the “National Guard” law to the House of Representatives, which was approved on April 3.
Two opposition parties abstained while all the other parties in parliament voted in favour of the law.
President Christodoulides welcomed the adoption of the law and announced the “continuation of intensive preparations for the first women’s enlistment.”
He thanked all the parties “that supported the bill,” saying that their stance showed they recognized “the seriousness with which the process was handled.”
In a decree issued on 12 September 2025, the Minister of Defense Vasilis Palmas launched the application process, with a deadline of 24 October 2025.
Four days before the deadline, Palmas admitted before the Parliament’s Defense Committee that the whole effort “had failed.”
Only two women had applied for voluntary military service and only one had actually appeared at the military camp.
Declarations
The introduction of voluntary military service for women in the National Guard was linked by the government to gender equality. The Commissioner for Gender Equality, Jozy Christodoulou, incorporated it into a series of actions as part of the gender environment strategy in the National Guard. It was also linked to the government’s efforts to strengthen defense in an announcement titled “A New Chapter for the National Guard.”
The outcome proved the opposite.
No measurable targets
The policy, as publicly announced, did not include any measurable immediate, medium-term, or long-term targets. During discussions held within the framework of the Parliamentary Defence Committee, the Defence Minister, high ranking civil servants of the ministry and military officers referred to the initial recruitment of several “dozens of women” volunteers.
In the final stage of voting in the House of Representatives, the government did not encounter any outright objection, not so much because there were no serious reservations, but because none of the dissenting parties wanted to be accused of obstructing a policy that was supposedly designed to strengthen defense and promote gender equality, the DISY MP Giorgos Karoulas told CIReN. The result was that the legislation was adopted with the votes of 32 MPs of DISY, DIKO, ELAM, EDEK, DIPA and the Greens, who were present. MPs of two opposition parties, AKEL and VOLT, chose to abstain.
The largest party DISY, which is also in opposition, voted in favor of the legislation despite the fact that Karoulas, who is also Vice President of the party raised serious objections, warning of a lack of adequate work on the issue. When failure became apparent, Karoulas stated that his party “had warned in advance: without strong incentives, a clear institutional framework, and a serious approach, the project was doomed to fail.”
Thus, priority was given to the voluntary enlistment of women, without measurable targets.
Women showed no interest in the incentives offered, nor were they persuaded by the extensive state advertising campaign promising either a professional career in the National Guard or better chances of being hired in the public service.
Gender equality in Cyprus
Independent or other stakeholders monitoring gender equality matters in Cyprus have never set such a priority. Instead, in Cyprus, they’ve been focusing on other key issues of serious concern: discrimination at work, the pay gap, inequalities in career advancement, sexual and gender-based violence, abuse, harassment, and protecting victims.
A notable deviation from the EU average is the fact that women in Cyprus are underrepresented in senior political positions, decision-making institutions, and professional hierarchies. This is particularly evident in the Council of Ministers, for which Nicos Christodoulides promised equal representation of men and women prior to his election.
According to Eurostat statistics for the period 2014-2024, Cyprus ranks third from the bottom in terms of women’s representation in the Council of Ministers. It also ranks worst in terms of the election of members to the national parliament (14%) and is currently the only member state without a female MEP.
When asked why the voluntary enlistment of women in the National Guard failed, the Director of the Mediterranean Institute for Gender Studies, Suzanna Pavlou, told CIReN that “it failed because it was designed as a fragmented, symbolic policy, without first mapping out the needs and obstacles faced by women in the National Guard.”
“Rather than first creating the conditions for meaningful and sustainable inclusion, an attempt was made to present voluntary enlistment as a ‘decisive step’ towards gender equality, without the conditions necessary for it to work in practice,” Pavlou added.
Strengthening the National Guard
Voluntary military service is not in line with the international trend in modern armies. In NATO and EU countries, the trend is to strengthen professional armies, mainly due to technology, training costs, and specialization. Compulsory military service (conscription) of civilians is generally being reduced. Voluntary service is avoided because it requires a huge organizational effort to be effective, and even more effort to attract women.
Last month, during the debate on the Ministry of Defense’s budget for 2026, MPs examined a range of problems caused by understaffing in the National Guard. In particular, they discussed the shortage of contract soldiers, a system for recruiting semi-professionals on annual contracts.
A decade ago, the contract soldier recruitment program enabled a drastic reduction in compulsory military service for conscripted men from 24 to 13 months and a reduction in draft evasion.
The contract soldier scheme is open to women. However, today it does not attract participation from men, and even less so from women. This negative experience in attracting women was also not taken into account, despite the fact that the contract soldier scheme offers greater incentives and benefits.
Verdict: False
President Christodoulides falsely described the program of voluntary enlistment of women as a “significant step” towards gender equality and strengthening defense.
Why?
The only two volunteer applications do not in any way constitute a “significant step” towards gender equality and strengthening Cyprus’ defense, as President Christodoulides claimed. This was so obvious that the Minister of Defense admitted it in parliament saying: “We failed.”
The failure is also evident from the fact that no extension was granted for the submission of applications, nor was it clarified whether the effort would be repeated at a later stage.
Key issues of concern in terms of gender equality in Cyprus remain unaddressed as well as structural issues in the National Guard like the understaffing of contract soldiers remain unresolved.
This project is supported by the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF). The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the authors and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.