Former minister Cleri Angelidou dies age 89 (updated)

Former education minister, MP, and educator Cleri Angelidou has died at the age of 89, it was announced on Thursday.

President Nicos Anastasiades expressed deep sorrow over Angelidou’s death.

“She was not only a gifted personality, but a fighter, an intellectual who selflessly served this country. May she rest in peace,” the president said.

Angelidou had served as education minister between 1993 and 1997 during the Glafcos Clerides administration.

Before that she was elected to parliament with Disy in 1991.

Angelidou was born in Famagusta in 1932, She studied literature in Athens and between 1956 and 1991 she taught in secondary schools.

She had joined the EOKA struggle while a student and was responsible for all the armed organisation’s women’s groups in Karpasia.

Angelidou was married to educator, lawyer, and politician Nicos Angelides and together they had three sons.

Parties also paid tribute to the former minister.

Her party, Disy, said Angelidou was a multifaceted personality, a genuine child of Famagusta, which is deeply loved and extolled as a refugee, through dozens of poetic collections she published.

Details of her funeral will be announced later.