Limassol Avenue in Larnaca, which links the coastal city with Aradippou has been renamed Vassos Lyssarides Avenue in honour of the founder of socialist Edek who died last year aged 100.

The unveiling ceremony took place in the Kamares area of Larnaca in the presence of Larnaca Mayor Andreas Vyras, Edek leader Marinos Sizopoulos, the mayor of Aradippou Evangelos Evangelides.

The blessing was done by Bishop of Kition, Nektarios.

Sizopoulos in his greeting, expressed the party’s thanks to the two mayors and their respective municipal councils who took the decision to preserve the memory of Lyssarides who was “a fighter for democracy and freedom… a pioneering doctor, a poet and painter”, who left his mark on Cypriot history.

Vyras said the life of Vassos Lyssarides was characterised not only with the search for freedom for Cyprus but for all oppressed and struggling peoples in places like Palestine and South Africa.

“The laughing doctor was an honest politician and a cultured man. He was a front line fighter, a poet and a progressive intellectual.”

Evangelides said the renaming of the avenue fulfilled a “very small debt to a genuine democrat and patriot”.