Papadopoulos’ stepson Constantinos Yiorkadjis throws hat into the ring for Nicosia mayor
WITH A promise to clean up Nicosia bringing it out of its current slump by tackling problems such as safety and parking, Constantinos Yiorkadjis announced plans yesterday to stand as candidate for Nicosia mayor in the December municipal elections.
“Nicosia unfortunately does not live up to its role either as a modern city or as a capital city and everyday it is being discredited,” he said.
Yiorkadjis highlighted that his vision for the capital is to have it become a professional and European educational centre for the area. “I want Nicosia to become a capital in deeds and not just on paper,” he said adding that he aims for his plans for Nicosia to be ready by the end of September.
The stepson of former president Tassos Papadopoulos, Yiorkadjis described himself as an ordinary citizen.
“I’m not a professional politician, I’m a citizen, just a citizen, who cares about his city and that understands that if certain unpleasant aspects of it have to be changed, we have to change them,” he said.
Yiorkadjis urged and called on all Nicosia residents to help implement changes that the capital is in need of and one of his main stated aims is to make Nicosia loved by its residents as well as visitors to the capital.
He has already begun speaking to citizens, MPs and parties, presenting his ideas on how to solve Nicosia’s problems, which he stressed are cleanliness, traffic, parking, safety and not enough green areas. “Our historical centre remains downgraded and now fully ghettoised,” he added.
“The current mayor, despite her efforts, has not managed [to modernise the capital] and instead of reversing the negative direction of our city, she limited herself to its management, and that with poor results,” said Yiorkadjis.
Without a clear vision and without managing to attract private investors it was inevitable that Nicosia would fall behind in areas of development, he added.
Yiorkadjis is the son of former Interior Minister Polykarpos Yiorkadjis, who was assassinated in 1970. His mother, Photini Papadopoulou, married Papadopoulos soon after Yiorkadjis’ assassination.
