Andreas Lordos to run for Famagusta mayor

ARCHITECT Andreas Lordos announced on Saturday he is running for Famagusta mayor as an independent candidate promising to struggle for return to the occupied town.

The refugee town will be choosing a mayor following the sudden death of Alexis Galanos last week. Galanos, who also served as President of the House of Representatives, was serving his third term as mayor after being reelected in 2016.

Lordos, who also ran in the 2016 municipal elections and came in third, said in an announcement that he was running as an independent for the dignity of Famagusta refugees and those who died.

He argued that the closed-off town of Varosha was a slave of the Turks and of political parties, arguing that the town was offered to the Greek Cypriots in 1976 but the political establishment refused to accept it several times.

“To take our town back from the Turks, we first need to take it from the parties,” Lordos said. He added that either parties will support the Famagusta refugees’ struggle or they will be sidelined.

So far, he said, the doors were shut in his face but he is now reaching out to political leaders giving them the opportunity to prove the opposite by backing his candidacy.

“I ask them not to see this as a reproach, but as an appeal of concern by fellow citizens. As a way that will give dignity to everyone and to them,” Lordos said.

Outgoing Fire Service chief Marcos Trangolas also announced on Friday he would be running independently for mayor of Famagusta.

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.