Tassos Papadopoulos: a life in politics

TASSOS Papadopoulos has had a long and distinguished political career.

Born on January 7, 1934 in Nicosia, he is a UK-trained barrister. He began to play an active role in Cyprus politics at an early age. As sector leader for Nicosia, he was an important figure in the 1955-1959 EOKA struggle against British rule.

Although in the 1960 summit in London he chose to rally against the Zurich-London agreements, Papadopoulos was closely involved in creating the Cyprus Constitution.

Since independence he has held various ministerial posts: Interior Minister (1959-1960), Labour and Social Insurance Minister (1960-1970), Agricultural and Natural Resources Minister (1964-

1967), and Health Minister (1967-1970).

Papadopoulos was also an adviser to Glafcos Clerides when he was intercommunal negotiator during the Cyprus talks until April 1976, when he was himself appointed negotiator. He was in the post until July, 1978, representing Cyprus at many international conferences and taking part in several of the country’s recourses to the United Nations General Assembly.

He was also a member of the Eneao (Unified) Party, a group which no longer exists, and was elected a deputy for Nicosia in 1970. In 1976 Papadopoulos was re-elected as an independent deputy.

In the 1991 and 1996 parliamentary election he was re-elected as a DIKO candidate. He is a member of the National Council and chairs the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign and European Affairs. He is also a member of the committees on Legal Affairs and Financial and Budgetary Affairs.

In addition to running a successful law firm, Papadopoulos also participates in international parliamentary organisations as the Joint Chairman of the Cyprus-EU parliamentary committee and as a member of the Delegation of the House to the Conferences of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

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.