Clerides Celebrates 90th Birthday

FRIENDS, family, close colleagues and a host of political personalities will be celebrating the 90th birthday today of former President, Glafcos Clerides.

The celebrations will take place at a hotel in Limassol, where ex-ministers of his government, current DISY head Nicos Anastassiades, and prominent members of the political and economic circles of the island will come together to extol the qualities and notable achievements of the founder of DISY and the fourth President of the Republic, who is considered by many to have been instrumental in creating the apropos political framework upon which any future settlement of the island can be realised.

The unofficial special guest of the event looks set to be Carl Bildt, the Swedish Foreign Minister, who will be on an official sojourn to the island following an invitation by his Cypriot counterpart, Marcos Kyprianou.

Bildt is scheduled to meet with Clerides on the sidelines of the event to convey his best wishes, before proceeding to a list of other appointments scheduled for his one-day visit.

According to a report in Alithia newspaper, sources from Clerides’ inner circle report that his participation ultimately depends on the advice given by his personal doctors, who remain cautious of his health. Nevertheless, the former President, who is currently being cared for at the EOKA veterans’ home in Palodia as a result of health problems he has been facing, remains enthusiastic and determined to take the opportunity to carouse with old friends and celebrate his birthday in style.

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.