Cypriot journalist Alex Efthyvoulou, the owner of English-language newspaper Cyprus Weekly, died aged 97 on Monday.

Reacting to news of his death, President Nikos Christodoulides described Efthyvoulou as a “pioneering journalist and publisher, who was an eyewitness to and recorder of events which marked the modern history both of Cyprus and our neighbouring countries”.

“The name Alex Efthyvoulou was synonymous with validity and credibility,” he added.

The Cyprus Union of Journalists said Efthyvoulou’s journalistic achievements “stretch far beyond the borders of our small homeland”, and pointed out that so early was Efthyvoulou on Cyprus’ journalistic scene that the serial number on his union membership card was “9”.

Born in Nicosia in 1927, Efthyvoulou enlisted in the British army in 1944, and served in both Egypt and Palestine, before being discharged with the rank of sergeant.

He began working as a journalist in 1950, and with the beginning of his career coinciding with Eoka’s insurgency against Cyprus’ British rulers, he began sending reports of the violence to British newspapers including The Times and the Daily Telegraph.

He became a correspondent for the American news agency the Associated Press in 1955, and covered developments both in Cyprus and other countries in the Middle East, while also reporting on Cypriot radio about the Middle East.

In 1957, he was an eyewitness to the Battle of Macheras, during which Eoka fighter Grigoris Afxentiou was killed when British forces were informed of his location and poured petrol into his hideout before lighting it.

He received recognition from the International Human Rights Association in the 1980s and was honoured by the Cyprus Union of Journalists in 2015 for his contributions to Cypriot media, after having retired from journalism in 2002.

The Cyprus Weekly was founded in 1979, and operated as an independent weekly newspaper until the print issue was discontinued in 2017. It was bought by the Phileleftheros Media Group in 2008, with the group’s English language online title since having been renamed as in-Cyprus.

Efthyvoulou’s funeral will take place on January 3 at 10.30am at the Church of Saints Constantinos and Eleni in Nicosia.