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...