Nikos Sampson
Nikos Sampson , actually Nikolaos Georgiades , Greek Νικόλαος Γεωργιάδης (born December 16, 1935 in Famagusta ; † May 9, 2001 in Nicosia ) was a Cypriot politician who represented extreme Greek nationalist positions. During the coup attempt that sparked the Cyprus conflict , he claimed the office of President of the Republic of Cyprus for a few days in 1974 .
Life
Nikos Sampson was born to Sampson Georgiadis and Theano Liasidou. He took his father's first name as his surname, which was not uncommon in Cyprus until the 20th century. As a football player he played as an amateur for the second team of Anorthosis Famagusta , professionally he worked as a journalist for the English-language Cyprus Times . As a so-called picture reporter, he joined the Greek-Cypriot guerrilla organization EOKA in 1955 . He was arrested in 1956 for murderous activities and sentenced to death for illegally possessing weapons . He was later pardoned to life imprisonment and released in 1960 as part of a general amnesty.
Sampson became politically active in 1969 when he founded his own party, the Progress Party . In the absence of a percentage hurdle, he could easily move into the Cypriot House of Representatives as a member of parliament. His political concept was based solely on holding the Turkish minority and the political left responsible for grievances in the country. He presented himself as a political hardliner with the radical slogan "Death to the Turks". According to the newspaper Die Zeit , Sampson even boasted that he had murdered 200 Turkish women and children.
When the colonels of the Greek military dictatorship wanted to implement their expansionist plans for Cyprus, they saw Sampson as a suitable representative. After officers of the Cyprus National Guard had put in a coup on July 15, 1974 , the junta made him President of the Republic of Cyprus. When his supporter in the junta regime Dimitrios Ioannides resigned, he lost his support and had to resign on July 23, 1974.
After the events in Cyprus and the fall of the junta, Sampson was finally arrested in 1976 and sentenced to twenty years in prison for "harming the national interests of Cyprus". After three years he was able to leave the prison due to his cancer illness on parole, but had to go into exile. Long hospital stays abroad followed. In 1990 he was allowed to return to Cyprus and died in the early summer of 2001.
See also
literature
- Cyprus's new president . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1974, p. 54 ( online - 22 July 1974 ).
- You have to be able to die with your people. SPIEGEL interview with Cyprus' coup president Nikos Sampson . In: Der Spiegel . No. 31 , 1974, p. 44-45 ( online - 29 July 1974 ).
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sampson, Nikos |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Georgiades, Nikolaos (real name); Γεωργιάδης, Νικόλαος |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Cypriot politician, President of the Republic of Cyprus |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 16, 1935 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Famagusta |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 9, 2001 |
| Place of death | Nicosia |