AKEL, DIKO have a reason more to celebrate

CENTRIST democratic party DIKO celebrated its 40th anniversary on Thursday, while communist party AKEL marks its 90th anniversary with a concert on Monday, May 16.

Thursday’s event honoured the memory of party founder and former president Spyros Kyprianou, as well as Tassos Papadopoulos who was the fifth president of the Republic from 2003 to 2008.

Key speaker at the event, which took place at the Filoxenia Conference centre, was current party leader Nicos Papadopoulos. After his tribute to the former presidents, he also “honoured the memory of our comrades who died fighting for democracy and freedom of Cyprus.”

In his speech, he stressed that the party left behind a strong and prosperous economy after his father, Tassos Papadopoulos’ presidency, during which the “threat of imposing the Annan plan” also had to be faced.

However, he continued, 40 years after its foundation, the reasons for its establishment still exist in times where people are suffering from the consequences of the economic crisis. One of the aims of the party is to restore prosperity to society.

“As the leaders of the centrist area, we have an obligation towards our history and to the people to continue to take Cyprus forward,” he concluded.

This year also marks the 90th anniversary of AKEL. To commemorate this, the party is organising a big cultural concert on Monday. Thanos Mikroutsikos is the artistic director of the concert which will take place at the Eleftheria-Tassos Papadopoulos stadium in Engomi at 8pm. Thimios Papadopoulos is responsible for the orchestration of the event.

Gerasimos Andreatos, Rita Andonopoulou, Glykeria, Koulis Theodorou, Demetris Basis, Natasha Bofiliou, Giorgos Dalaras, Umut Albayrak and Miltos Paschalides will take part in the concert, and AKEL General Secretary Andros Kyprianou will address the event.

Admission is free and all are invited, the party announced, adding that “all the artists are participating in the concert at no cost, and in doing so honouring, together with the common people, our party’s glorious history.”

AKEL was founded in 1926 as the Communist Party of Cyprus.

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.