March 13, 2002 -- Spyros Kyprianou: Cypriot President who set his face against negotiations with the leadership of the Turkish community
The Times (UK) -- Spyros Kyprianou came to the presidency of Cyprus on the death of his mentor Archbishop Makarios in 1977 and was steward, effectively, of the Greek two-thirds of the island for the next eleven years.
During his tenure of office Cyprus experienced an unprecedented economic boom which enabled it to forge closer links with the European Community with the ultimate object of establishing a Customs Union.
Yet, although Kyprianou was respected for his lifelong devotion to the cause of Cyprus, and admired for the strength of character he had displayed in times of crisis, he remained intransigent on the question of negotiating with the leadership of the Turkish-ruled portion of the island which had come into being as a de facto separate state after the Turkish invasion of 1974. The exigencies of political office as well as an urge to curry the favour of Athens caused him to adopt a doctrinaire inflexibility to that question that his critics openly blamed for the lack of progress.
After he was soundly defeated in the presidential elections of 1988, Kyprianou was never to wield political influence again, and it was left to successor presidents to begin the long road back to the negotiating table and create a climate of greater optimism over the future of relations between the Turkish and Greek communities.
Born in Limassol in 1932, Spyros Kyprianou was educated at the city?s Greek Gymnasium, before coming to Britain where he studied economics at the City of London College before being called to the Bar by Gray?s Inn in 1954. Archbishop Makarios who in 1950 had been elected primate of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus and, thereby, Ethnarch (national leader), appointed him in 1952 to be his secretary in London.
The aim was that Kyprianou should further the cause of Enosis (union with Greece) in any post-independence Cyprus. Kyprianou used the post to develop good relations with a number of British parliamentarians, and he encouraged the creation of a pro-Cyprus lobby in the House of Commons. With the outbreak in Cyprus of an armed campaign by Eoka to prosecute the aim of Enosis, Kyprianou left Britain in 1956, to go to Athens and, later, to New York to promote the cause of Cyprus. He returned to London a year later as the archbishop?s representative and remained there until the signing of the Zurich and London agreements in 1959 which provided for independence for Cyprus. Independence was declared in 1960, with the constitution providing for a Greek President (Makarios) and a Turkish Vice-President.
Kyprianou was appointed first Minister of Justice, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, a post he retained until May 1972, when he was dropped from the cabinet because of friction with the Athens military junta, but also because of American annoyance over his neutralist attitude at the United Nations. He was President Makarios?s right-hand man throughout the vicissitudes that followed the breakdown of the constitutional agreements and the physical separation of the two communities.
Kyprianou returned to private life and practised law, but after the Athens junta?s coup against President Makarios and the subsequent Turkish invasion of the island in July 1974, he joined the archbishop who had fled to London. He headed the Cyprus delegation in the UN General Assembly which debated the Cyprus crisis.
On December 7 he escorted Makarios on his triumphant and emotional return to an island that had been ravaged by war, its rich and fertile north occupied by Turkish troops, and its south flooded with dispossessed refugees living under canvas. In May 1976 he founded the Democratic Party which won, thanks to Makarios?s unstinted support, 21 of the 35 seats in the House of Representatives in the elections that followed. Elected President of the House, he was, under the Constitution, Makarios?s natural successor when the President died on August 3, 1977.
On August 31, he was proclaimed, unopposed President of the Cyprus Republic for the remainder of Makarios?s term. It was in December of that year that Eoka B, a clandestine extremist group, kidnapped his 21-year-old son, threatening to kill him unless jailed fellow terrorists were set free.
Kyprianou showed great courage in refusing their demands. His son was released after a promise of safe conduct for the abductors, and Eoka B was subsequently broken up by police action. This personal ordeal enhanced Kyprianou?s popularity and in February 1978, again unopposed, he was elected President for a full five-year term. Later that month, he had occasion once again to show his mettle during the terrorist attack at Larnaca airport, when he dealt firmly with an unauthorised Egyptian commando operation against Palestinian terrorists on Cypriot soil.
The terrorists were captured, tried and convicted, although they were later released. In May 1979 Kyprianou agreed to meet Rauf Denktash, the Turkish-Cypriot leader, under United Nations auspices. A ten-point agreement between them led to the resumption of the stalled inter-communal talks, which, however, broke down again one week later. In the parliamentary elections of 1981, Kyprianou?s Democratic Party was unable to match its 1976 victory, winning only eight seats. In an attempt to safeguard his own position, Kyprianou struck an agreement with the communist Akel which had emerged as the strongest party in the elections.
The deal, however, departed drastically from basic policy lines that Kyprianou had agreed barely one week earlier with Andreas Papandreou, the socialist Prime Minister of Greece, during the latter?s triumphant tour of Cyprus in February 1982. The result was a serious crisis in Athens-Nicosia relations. But thanks to Akel?s support Kyprianou was re-elected President in February 1983, winning 57 per cent of the vote in a three-way contest. He then set about mending his fences with Athens.
Eager to ingratiate himself with the Greek regime which, for domestic reasons, had adopted an inflexible line, Kyprianou resisted a new initiative by the UN Secretary-General, which laid down guidelines for a Cyprus settlement. His attitude prompted the resignation of his Foreign Minister and strong reactions from other political parties. But he was also adamant in rejecting a Turkish-Cypriot proposal for another summit. The unilateral declaration of independence by the Turkish-Cypriots in November 1985, to form the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, was seen as the direct consequence of this intransigence.
The new state was recognised only by Turkey, and was unequivocally condemned by the international community which continued to regard Kyprianou and his administration as the legitimate Government of Cyprus. The Turkish-Cypriot secession elicted from the UN its strongest resolution yet on Cyprus, but one that, like so many others before it, was to have little practical effect. Renewed efforts by the UN for a settlement took Kyprianou and Denktash to New York in January 1985 amid high hopes of an agreement.
However, Kyprianou again rejected the Secretary-General?s package causing the meeting to fail, and thereby evoking open hostility from the other political parties at home, including Akel. In an unprecedented move, the House of Representatives passed a motion censuring the President and inviting him to sign the New York package or resign. He rejected Parliament?s action as unconstitutional and refused to comply; a later constitutional tribunal sustained his position. In retaliation the opposition brought his Government?s legislation to a standstill prompting the dissolution of parliament and the proclamation of elections.
The results of the December 1985 elections were regarded as a vindication of Kyprianou?s position. His Democratic Party which had been expected to lose heavily, won 16 seats in an expanded 56 seat house. Akel won 15 seats, the Socialists six, and the rightwing Democratic Rally of Glafkos Clerides emerged as the largest party with 19 seats. This produced complete deadlock but the President?s authority remained undiminished.
In 1986 Kyprianou rejected yet another UN plan for a federated solution of the Cyprus problem, which the Turkish-Cypriots had accepted. Instead, in an attempt to induce the West to bring pressure to bear on the Turkish side for concessions, he espoused an old Soviet proposal for an international conference to solve the Cyprus problem. The West rejected the offer which would have introduced the Soviet Union as a factor in the Cyprus dispute. By this time Kyprianou was suffering from chronic health problems.
In 1987 he had a severe heart attack which required his coming to London for treatment and militated against a vigorous leadership of his party. In the presidential election held in February 1988, he was knocked out in the first round by the business tycoon George Vassiliou, who then defeated Glafkos Clerides in the run-off. Thereafter his poor health militated against much of a role in politics. There was a suggestion that he might stand for President in 1993, but he publicly ruled himself out of contention. Spyros Kyprianou was married with two sons.
Spyros Kyprianou, President of the Republic of Cyprus, 1977-89, was born in Limassol on October 28, 1932. He died of cancer in Nicosia on March 12, 2002, aged 69.