Today marks four years since the death of the late President of the Republic, Glafkos Clerides.
Who is Glafkos Clerides?
Distinguished Cypriot politician and one of the leading personalities of the Right on the mainland. He was President of the Republic of Cyprus (1993-2003) and achieved the accession of Cyprus to the European Union, without a prior solution of the Cyprus problem.
Glafkos Clerides was born in Nicosia on April 24, 1919 and was the eldest son of the eminent lawyer and politician Ioannis Clerides (1887-1961). He attended the Pancyprian High School until the 1937th grade and completed his studies in London in 1939. He then enrolled in the Law School of the University of London, but with the outbreak of World War II in September 24 he dropped out and dropped out. in the British Air Force (RAF). He took part in missions over Germany and on July 1942, 1945 his plane was shot down and he was taken prisoner by the Germans. He remained in captivity until XNUMX and tried three times to escape. During his tenure in the RAF he was awarded medals for distinguished services against the enemy.
Active member of EOKA
Upon his return to England he completed his studies and in 1948 received a license to practice law. He returned to Cyprus and practiced law until 1959. During the liberation struggle (1955-59) he was an active member of EOKA under the pseudonym "Yperides" and at the same time he defended the Cypriot fighters in the courts. One of the most dramatic cases he undertook was that of the defense of Michael Karaolis, during which the public prosecutor was Rauf Dektas, the later leader of the Turkish Cypriots. He also prepared a dossier on many cases of human rights violations by the British, which the Greek Government presented to the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe.
Homeland above all
He took part in the London Conference in 1959 and during the transition period between colonial rule and independence (1959-1960), he served as Minister of Justice under Archbishop Makarios. At the same time he was the head of the Greek Cypriot Delegation to the Joint Committee on the Constitution. In the first presidential election (December 13, 1959) supported the candidacy of Archbishop Makarios instead of his father Ioannis Clerides. When he was accused of violating the Christian commandment "honor your father and your mother", he replied with the ancient Greek saying "father and mother of the other ancestors, the father is more honest and holier".
In the first parliamentary elections (July 31, 1960) he was the leader of the right-wing "Patriotic Front". He was elected Member of Parliament for Nicosia and then Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus. He remained in this position until July 1976. In 1964 he led the Greek Cypriot delegation to the London Conference and in 1968 he was appointed representative of the Greek Cypriot side in the talks on the Cyprus issue which began on the initiative of the Secretary General. of the UN, U Thant. Rauf Dektas, an old acquaintance of the courts, was a representative of the Turkish Cypriots. In 1969 he formed with Polykarpos Georkatzis the "United Party", which emerged as the largest party in Cyprus in the elections of July 5, 1970. Two years earlier he had led the election of Makarios to the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus.
After the coup against Makarios (July 15, 1974) and the ensuing Turkish invasion of Cyprus (July 20), Clerides temporarily assumed the Presidency of the Republic in his capacity as Speaker of Parliament until December 7, 1974, when he returned to Cyprus. President of the Republic, Archbishop Makarios, who had been forced by the coup leaders to leave the mainland. At that time, Clerides returned to his duties and at the same time took over as a representative of the Greek Cypriots in the inter-communal talks. He remained in this position until the Vienna Talks (February 1978), when he resigned because he was accused of exceeding the instructions given to him.
The establishment of DISY
On July 4, 1976, he announced the formation of a new party formation called the "Democratic Alarm", after previously dissolving the "United Party". DISY together with the communist AKEL are today the two major parties in Cyprus. During the parliamentary elections of 1981, 1985 and 1991, he was the leader of the DISY coalition and was elected Member of Parliament for Nicosia. In the House of Representatives, as President of the party, he led the DISY parliamentary group until his election as President of the Republic of Cyprus in 1993.
In February 1988 he ran for the presidency of the Republic for the first time, but was defeated by the independent (with the support of AKEL) George Vassilios. Five years later (February 14, 1993) he prevailed with difficulty over George Vassilios and took over the Presidency of the Republic. He was re-elected on February 15, 1998 against George Iakovou (DIKO-AKEL). A major achievement of his presidency was the accession of Cyprus to the European Union, without a prior solution to the Cyprus problem. In the elections of February 2003, he claimed a third presidential term, but was clearly defeated by Tassos Papadopoulos and left active politics. In the referendum of April 24, 2004, he supported the Annan plan for the solution of the Cyprus problem.
Lifelong member of the Red Cross
Glafkos Clerides served as President of the Cyprus Red Cross from 1961 to 1963 and in recognition of his outstanding services, he was awarded an honorary distinction and was declared a lifelong member. Pope John 23rd awarded him the Gold Medal of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher in recognition of the services he had offered and the understanding he had shown as Head of the Greek Cypriot delegation to the Joint Committee on the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, regarding the religious minority of the Roman Catholics (Latins) of Cyprus. He was also honored by Greece with the Famous of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Savior by the President of the Republic, Konstantinos Karamanlis.
He was married to Lila-Irini (1921-2007) of Indian origin, with whom he had a daughter, Kaiti Cleridou (1949), a leading member of DISY today. His writings include the books "My Deposit" (in four volumes) and "Documents of an Era, 1993 - 2003".
Glafkos Clerides died late in the afternoon of November 15, 2013 at the "Evangelistria" clinic in Nicosia, at the age of 94. The course of his health had deteriorated rapidly in the last few days due to kidney failure caused by diabetes.
