Former Cypriot President George Vassiliou, a successful businessman who helped to energize his divided island’s economy and set it on the road to European Union membership, has died. He was 94. Vassiliou died Wednesday after being hospitalized on Jan. 6 for a respiratory infection. When he became president in 1988, Vassiliou lifted hopes that a peace deal with the island’s breakaway Turkish Cypriots was possible after more than a decade of off-again, on-again talks. He swiftly relaunched stalled reunification negotiations with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, but they ended at an impasse that continues today. But Vassiliou succeeded on many other fronts, using his skills as a successful entrepreneur to modernize and expand his county’s economy.
