Brussels, 19/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - Cyprus has said goodbye to its former President Glafcos Clerides, to whom many countries, including Turkey, paid tribute at his state funeral on Tuesday 19 November, which was declared a national holiday for the occasion. Hundreds of people took part in the ceremony in Nicosia, including Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic.
Clerides, who died on Tuesday at the age of 94, became a member of parliament at the time of Cyprus' independence in 1960, and then served as president twice between 1993 and 2003. He created the Democratic Rally (DISY, Conservative), the party of the current Cypriot president, Nicos Anastasiades, who also attended the funeral service.
Glafcos Clerides, a lawyer by training and Second World War veteran, is considered to be one of the main architects of the country's accession to the European Union in 2004. However, despite his support for reunification efforts, the island entered the EU divided following the Greek Cypriots' rejection of a reunification agreement with the Turkish Cypriots. The UN is currently attempting to relaunch negotiations which have been at deadlock for some 20 months, to reunify the island which has been divided since Turkey's invasion of its northern part in 1974, following a coup d'état fomented by Greek Cypriot nationalists wishing to bring the country under Greek rule. (LC/transl.fl)