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Friday, June 21, 2019

Former President of Cyprus and long-time AKEL leader Demetris Christofias dies at 72

Demetris Christofias.
Demetris Christofias, the former President of the Republic of Cyprus and long-time General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL party, has died in Nicosia. He was 72 years old. 

Doctors had said earlier that his health condition was extremely critical and irreversible.

Born in 1946, Christofias studied in Moscow, in the Soviet Union, at the Institute of Social Sciences, Academy of Social Sciences, from which he received a degree in history.  

In 1974 he was elected to the post of the Central Organising Secretary of EDON and in 1977 to the post of General Secretary. 

In July 1986 Christofias was elected as an alternate member of the Political Bureau of AKEL. After the 16th Congress of AKEL, held in November 1986, he was elected as a full member of the Political Bureau, and in 1987 (after terminating his service as General Secretary of EDON) he was elected as a member of the AKEL Secretariat. 

In April 1988, following the death of Ezekias Papaioannou, he was elected as General Secretary of AKEL, a post he held until 2009.

He served as the 6th President of the Republic of Cyprus from 2008 to 2013.