Republic’s first defence minister Osman Orek dies

PRESIDENT Glafcos Clerides yesterday offered his condolences to the family of Turkish Cypriot politician Osman Orek, the first Defence Minister of the Republic of Cyprus.

“President Clerides was saddened by the news of Orek’s death, and expresses his sincere condolences to his family,” Government Spokesman Costas Serezis said.

Orek, who died en route to London, was born in Nicosia in 1925.

He took part in the London Conference, where representatives of Greece, Turkey, Britain and the island’s two communities signed an agreement for the final settlement of the Cyprus dispute, establishing the independent Republic of Cyprus.

From 1960 to 1963 he was the Republic’s first Defence Minister, one of its three Turkish Cypriot ministers under the Cyprus Constitution, imposed on Cyprus by the Zurich and London Agreements in 1959.

The Constitution was described by UN Mediator on Cyprus, Galo Plaza, in his report to the UN Secretary-general in 1965 as “a constitutional oddity”.

Difficulties implementing it led the Republic’s first president, Archbishop Makarios, to suggest 13 amendments in November 1963.

The Turkish government called the amendments “unacceptable” and the island’s Turkish Cypriots withdrew from the government.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.