Dimitri Nicolaou was President of Cyprus during the early 2000s.
Biography[]
Dimitri Nicolaou was born into a Greek Cypriot family, and he later became President of Cyprus. Nicolaou and his Northern Cyprus counterpart, Yasar Yunus, sought to end decades of sectarian corruption between Greeks and Turks on the island. In 2002, the two governments agreed to end a dispute over their maritime borders after an international panel, judged by Clive Watling, arbitrated in favor of the Turks. The two nations agreed to peace, but this led to nationalists in Cyprus rebelling against the government. Their first major attack was their assault on the British High Commission, holding the high commissioner and a number of his staff as hostages. British commandoes rescued them, but the crisis continued. Nicolaou sought Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Francis Urquhart's support in renegotiating the border deal so that Cyprus could also benefit from the oil deposits ceded to Northern Cyprus, but Urquhart told Nicolaou to stand firm and avoid making concessions, instead offering British military support to crush the insurgents. Nicolaou refused to use foreign troops against his own people, and Georgios Theodopoulos and his revolutionary forces held Nicolaou under house arrest after deposing him, with Theodopoulos proclaiming himself President. However, Nicolaou was rescued from confinement by the British, who restored him to office.