1. George Vassiliou is a Cypriot politician, who served as President of Cyprus from 1988 to 1993.
17 Facts About George Vassiliou
1. 2.
George Vassiliou was the President of United Democrats from 1996 to 2005 and Member of the Cypriot House of Representatives from 1996 to 2001.
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George Vassiliou sought to find a diplomatic solution to the Cyprus Problem, but was unable to do so and ultimately lost re-election.
4.
George Vassiliou's father, Vasos, was a member of the central committee of the Progressive Party of Working People, the Cypriot communist party.
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George Vassiliou was a doctor by profession, and volunteered as a doctor on the side of the Communists in the Greek Civil War.
6.
George Vassiliou himself went to university in Hungary and was a student of Imre Nagy.
7.
George Vassiliou fled Hungary following the Soviet invasion and continued his studies at the University of London.
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George Vassiliou was elected president as an independent candidate with support from AKEL in 1988, succeeding Spyros Kyprianou, who had served two presidential terms.
9.
George Vassiliou worked towards a negotiated solution to the Cyprus dispute based on the Ghali set of ideas, although the dispute remained unresolved by the time he left office in 1993.
10.
George Vassiliou was elected member of the Cypriot Parliamient, while his political party won two seats in the Parliamentary Elections in 1996.
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George Vassiliou was elected president of the United Democrats and remained its leader until 2005.
12.
George Vassiliou was the Chief Negotiator of Cyprus for its accession to the European Union from 1998 to 2003.
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George Vassiliou is a strong supporter of European unity and recently co-signed George Soros' open letter calling for more European unity amidst the currency turmoil surrounding the increased usage of the Euro as a single currency for the continent.
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George Vassiliou takes active part in international political and social organisations and events.
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George Vassiliou is currently a member of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, jointly chaired by Poland's ex-President Aleksander Kwasniewski and President of the European Jewish Congress Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor.
16.
George Vassiliou has three children and is married to Androulla George Vassiliou.
17.
In 2014, George Vassiliou published a book about his life before presidency called 'Odyssey'.