Cyprus-Forum.com

[cannedmoose]

I know that Loucas Charalambous is hardly TPap's biggest fan, but this article is a little concerning. I know that all politician's lie, it's part of the job description after all, but to be licentious with the truth on personal issues unrelated to government policy seems a little extreme. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is TPap just creative with the truth, or is there a deeper problem?

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Comment - Our president cannot distinguish myth from reality
By Loucas Charalambous

IN THE PAST, I had referred to President Papadopoulos’ tendency to be economical with the truth. I had also urged senior officials to take a serious interest in investigating this worrying tendency, because if there is something wrong with the president it is not just a personal matter.

This is the President of Republic we are talking about. His thoughts, actions, decisions, omissions and mistakes have a direct effect on the future of all the citizens of this country. The problem he appears to have is not just personal. It is our problem. Unfortunately, House President Christofias, to whom this column had appealed at the time, did not take the matter seriously enough, and made no attempt to get to the bottom of this sad phenomenon.

I must confess feeling a bit bad about dealing with this issue yet again, but the two incidents which took place in the previous week do not permit anyone to stay quiet. A couple of weeks ago, the President went to Limassol to open a museum in honour of the Cypriot composer Solon Michaelides. And there he started to tell a fairy tale about how the honoured composer had been his teacher at the Pancyprian gymnasium and was very fond of him, despite the fact he did not have a good singing voice.

It was later revealed that Michaelides had never been a teacher at Papadopoulos’ school. Some said that he may have confused Solon with a certain Yiangos Michaelides, who was the music teacher at the Pancyprian gymnasium. Then again, as we saw on the television coverage of the event, while Papadopoulos was making his speech, right in front of him was a picture of Solon. It would be stupid to suggest that he had not recognised that the man being honoured was not his teacher. Did Solon also look like Papadopoulos’ teacher who shared his surname?

If this was the only such incident, it could have been dismissed as a result of confusion, but there is a long catalogue of similar gaffes by the president. A few days after the Limassol incident, last Sunday, we witnessed another. Papadopoulos spoke about a new initiative on Cyprus that was supposedly in progress. This was an audacious lie, coming only a few days after the UN Secretariat had made it emphatically clear that there would be no peace initiative in view of the “chasm” separating the positions of the two sides.

Restricted space does not allow me to go through the countless similar examples, but here is a selection. He told the President of Poland, who was visiting Cyprus, that he had asked the UN to undertake a new Cyprus initiative, a claim flatly denied by the UN. Another lie was his claim that he had secret dinners with Serdar Denktash at Plaka tavern in Engomi, which was denied by the tavern owner. He even went as far as to deny having ever said that the Annan plan “legitimised the Turkish invasion”, despite all Cyprus hearing him say this at a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace in July 2003.

Then there were all the lies he had said back in 2002, regarding his links with the Cyprus-based offshore companies of Slobodan Milosevic. He had repeatedly claimed that his law office was just providing legal advice. The fact is that the companies had been established and run by members of the Papadopoulos law office, who had made sworn statements in Nicosia district court about this role. Incidentally, I am informed that the Serbian authorities now have in their possession hundreds of documents showing that transactions, worth many millions of pounds, had been conducted by these companies and bore the signatures of lawyers – from the president’s law office – who acted as administrators of the accounts.

I repeat that the president’s problem is not as much his problem as it is ours. Christofias, who put him in the Presidential Palace, has an obligation to investigate what is happening and take the necessary action. After all, he is responsible for the fact that the country is being run by a man who seems incapable of distinguishing between myth and reality.

Cyprus Mail 10.7.05

[brother]

So we have a man who is a compulsive liar, but you all knew this when he made that ludricous statement that no tc were killed in cyprus, how can we achieve peace if the ROC president is either a compulsive liar or is suffering from serious memory disorder.

[Saint Jimmy]

I don't believe he lied on purpose. I don't like him either, and I generally enjoy LC's articles ( ), but I think he's just throwing mud here.
This music dude wasn't T-Pap's teacher. This has been proven. But T-Pap did have another music teacher with the same surname (although a different first name). It's quite likely that the Pres is not scum. What credible reason would he have to lie about something like this?

So, this guy never taught him music... Big deal!
I don't see the motive.

And brother, I respectfully disagree on this specific incident. Sure, the 'no TC killed from 63-74' thing is just nuts, but not remembering a teacher's full name from nearly 60 years ago is hardly proof of serious memory problems...

[brother]

And brother, I respectfully disagree on this specific incident. Sure, the 'no TC killed from 63-74' thing is just nuts, but not remembering a teacher's full name from nearly 60 years ago is hardly proof of serious memory problems...

True but his no tc killed comment does warrent the question of serious memory problems or what, you tell me.

[Agios Amvrosios]

one line response edited

[Saint Jimmy]

And brother, I respectfully disagree on this specific incident. Sure, the 'no TC killed from 63-74' thing is just nuts, but not remembering a teacher's full name from nearly 60 years ago is hardly proof of serious memory problems...

True but his no tc killed comment does warrent the question of serious memory problems or what, you tell me.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, I can't believe that anyone (let alone the President of the RoC) would lie so blatantly. Claiming that no TC has died from 63-74 is so absurd that I don't think he put it forth as a serious argument. I'm more inclined to believe it was a slip of the tongue.

[brother]

Come on jimmy, 'slip of the tongue huh' what about when he lied about sending requests to the u.n's kofi Annan and said he was doing everything possible to resume talks and the s.g came out and publicly called him a liar and confirmed that nothing like that was done, was that a slip of the tongue or outright lies.
I await your response.

[cannedmoose]

To be honest James, I have to say I'm with Bro' on this one. I know that TPap isn't my favourite person anyway, but I do find it disturbing that a head of state can be invited to a commemoration of a famous composer, who happened to share the surname of a previous teacher (which I would think is pretty damn common in Cyprus), and is confused by it. It either shows that he is very badly informed about the events he attends, or that a more serious problem exists.

I'm always slightly suspicious of those reports that say Papadopoulos denied that any TCs were killed. There may have been some issues of translation there, but then again, you have to ask why this article was published without a strong complaint from TPap that he had been misquoted. If, for example, the British Prime Minister was reported to say 'No Irish people died during the Potato Famine', and hadn't said this, there would be immediate condemnation of the article and possibly even a civil suit against the paper involved. Why did this not happen in this case?

For me, the most worrying aspect isn't this article, nor the music teacher incident, it's TPaps recent statements about proposing non-existent plans to the UN. I find it amazing that a leader can escape undamaged from claiming that he is engaged in direct discussions with the UN on substantive issues, when the UN dismisses these claims as untrue. For me that is the real problem and the real danger of TPap's creative licence with the truth. It may well be the product of the Cypriot medias inability to pose harsh questions to the country's leaders. I've never seen an interview in which TPap has really been put under the kosh and subjected to some brutal questioning... maybe we should get Jeremy Paxman to interview him when he visits the UK next week.

[Saint Jimmy]

Come on jimmy, 'slip of the tongue huh'.

Actually, perhaps not... Maybe he thought he could get away with it because he was talking to some Asian reporter (???) who was certainly not likely to know the truth or question what he said.
I don't know.
But you must agree, it's way too much of a long shot for him to have tried to actually claim such a preposterous lie as being true...?

what about when he lied about sending requests to the u.n's kofi Annan and said he was doing everything possible to resume talks and the s.g came out and publicly called him a liar and confirmed that nothing like that was done, was that a slip of the tongue or outright lies.
I await your response.

Hm, yes.
Actually, what I think about that one is that they were sort of hopping around in the 'grey area' of terminology. If I recall correctly, he said he'd asked the U.N. to commence a new initiative. And then, the U.N. came out and said that that wasn't, in fact, true. But on the other hand, he and other GC officials said on numerous occasions that they awaited the U.N.'s new initiative and that they were ready for it (knowing, of course, that this could not happen, if the UN SG's precondition of stating and prioritizing GC demands was not met by... themselves!). So it was a kind of political game (yes, a lie, if you insist. But certainly not a blatant one. Merely a technical one. IMO, it's kind of like Mehmet Ali Talat, saying 'Tassos doesn't want a solution'. It's a lie, technically, because Tassos does want a solution - but one that is unacceptable to TCs. So, it's a technical lie, a political one, if you will, but everyone knows what the guy meant.).

Do you know what I'm saying? I realise I kind of got it all f'd up somewhere along the way...

[brother]

Well jimmy i understand that you do not want your president to be the dubious guy who lies all the time but that is who he is and the exscuses you give is a form of denial about the true character of the man.

Talat says tassos does not want talks, well that is not a lie as tassos refuses to meet with our elected leader hence he can make that assumption and it would not be a lie, as we all know anyone who really wants to find a solution would have met with him by now if only for a cup of coffee and an informal chat imo.