Our View: George Vassiliou: The president who modernised Cyprus

Everyone speaks well of the dead, but the lavish praise heaped on George Vassiliou, since he passed away on Tuesday night, was both sincere and merited. As the third president of the republic, elected in 1988, Vassiliou ended the 28-year authoritarian rule of the Makarios establishment, which monopolised power and treated the Republic like a family business, and put the country on the path of modernisation and progress.

Vassiliou was a ‘can do’ president, who had a vision for the country, in stark contrast to his predecessors whose sole objective was holding on to power, at any cost. He was regularly criticised during his presidency for supposedly being apolitical, but this was his big advantage, as he introduced a new way of running the country putting an emphasis on growth and expanding and diversifying the economy. It was under Vassiliou that the offshore sector was set up, fueling the expansion of the services industry.

The University of Cyprus was established during his presidency, although this effort met the resistance of the political parties. He also ended the CyBC broadcasting monopoly, with the Church-owned Logos making an appearance. Most importantly, Vassiliou submitted Cyprus’ application for accession to the EU, and subsequently, in the Clerides presidency he was made chief negotiator, responsible for harmonisation with the European Acquis Communautaire and generally preparing the island for membership, a job he performed successfully.

As president, Vassiliou adopted a confident and positive approach on the Cyprus problem, avoiding the paranoid, anti-Western discourse of his predecessor, who saw every peace initiative as a trap or a foreign plot against the Greek Cypriots. Vassiliou displayed no such fear and negativity, having the belief that he could deliver a solution. The main obstacle was the hardline leader of the Turkish Cypriots, Rauf Denktas, who was nevertheless put on the spot like never before by Vassiliou’s flexibility and willingness to negotiate without conditions.

He was viciously attacked by Greek Cypriot parties for pursuing meaningful talks so single-mindedly, but this never deterred him. In fact, for as long as he was involved in politics, Vassiliou unwaveringly supported a settlement, never changing or watering down his position. This commitment was admirable in a country in which so many politicians made successful careers out of defiant posturing and engaging in the Cyprus problem scaremongering that became a national sport.

We are now staring at partition and a hard border with Turkey because the ‘can do’ attitude of George Vassiliou was shunned by all our presidents – with the exception of Glafcos Clerides. None of them possessed the courage, forward-looking optimism and belief George Vassiliou brought to the presidency.