NICOSIA — It wasn't supposed to turn out like this for the Great Peacemaker. Just four years ago, President Dimitris Christofias was the man with a plan to reunify Cyprus. Now, he's a spent force, bearing a legacy of failure over peace talks with rival Turkish Cypriots, a sagging economy in need of an international bailout and a deadly munitions explosion that sparked calls for his resignation. Riding his left-wing credentials, affable ‘man-of-the-people' persona and long-standing ties to rival Turkish Cypriots all the way to the Cypriot Presidential Palace, he became the first leader from Cyprus' communist party to win the presidency. The 66-year-old Soviet-educated Christofias earned plaudits as the leader destined to deliver a peace plan reunifying the tiny, east Mediterranean island where so many of his predecessors have failed, bringing a sliver of stability in a tumultuous corner of the world. Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized, Greek speaking south and a breakaway Turkish speaking north in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Christofias' communist-rooted politics didn't really matter back when he was elected in 2008. They were seen more as an abstraction, grounded in philosophical notions of social justice and equality. Christofias, pundits said, was enough of a realist to know how the game is played in a capitalist world. Fast forward to today: Years of laborious peace talks are all but dead in the water and the economy is in a shambles, amid all-too familiar finger-pointing about who's to blame. With dismal approval ratings and a tattered reputation, the beleaguered Christofias' precipitous fall from grace culminated in his announcement in May that he wouldn't seek another term — a first in Cypriot politics — because he sees no chance of a peace deal until the next presidential elections early next year. “I will leave truly miserable, because what I had promised can't happen given Turkey's intransigence, so from here on end, I'll suffer along with you as a common citizen,” he recently told municipal officials. Even his attempts to shore up his legacy during Cyprus' turn at the helm of the European Union's rotating presidency in the last few months of his presidency have had a rocky start. Christofias has to fend off a barrage questions from foreign journalists about his communist pedigree and whether he's sold the island out to close ally Russia in exchange for a loan to stave off bankruptcy. “You don't need to worry that we'll bring communism to Cyprus because of our relations with Russia. How many times do I have to say that? ... Leave us alone a little bit to solve the economic problems that our country faces right now,” Christofias retorted at a press conference last week. Early on in Europe's financial crisis Christofias tried to sound reassuring that Cyprus would escape the worst. But it was under his watch that the country's credit rating spiraled into junk territory and forced it to seek a bailout from its eurozone partners to prop up its banking sector, which is dangerously exposed to Greece. An acrimonious and very public squabble with former Central Bank Governor Athanasios Orphanides over who was ultimately to blame for the island's faltering economy raised even more questions about Christofias' economic credentials. Christofias blamed Orphanides for not doing enough to prevent Cypriot banks from plunging their cash into debt engulfed Greece. Orphanides accused Christofias of failing to swiftly shore up public finances, which would have forestalled the country's credit rating being pushed into junk. The turning point for Christofias' presidency came during a humid sunrise last July when a 400-ton stash of seized Iranian munitions spontaneously combusted at a naval base, killing 13 people. The disaster was seen by many as the consequence of ineptitude by Christofias' administration. The blast also wrecked the island's main power station and stirred up weeks of street protests calling for Christofias' resignation, which he saw a part of a wider campaign by his right-wing detractors to destroy his presidency. An ensuing inquiry into the blast found Christofias personally responsible for the disaster, something which the president vehemently rejected, insisting that a separate police report vindicated him. “I truly regret the loss of life, but I want to say in all honesty that those lost lives aren't my responsibility,” he said during an interview last month. “There have been many accidents in many countries, but such a war of extermination has never been mounted against any prime minister or president ... I'm easy with my conscience.” — AP
