Writer, director and publisher Vasos Ftochopoulos, who was associated with ‘Aegeon’ publications and owned Aegeon tavern in Nicosia – a meeting point for artists and intellectuals – has died at the age of 76.

Ftochopoulos was born in 1950 in Karpasia, moved to London with his parents at a young age and later settled in Salonica, where he developed political and social activity.

Bookshop and restaurant To Erma said in a post on social media that Ftochopoulos was “not just a friend, but its foundation”.

“For his newspapers and magazines, Enosis newspaper, for the old Aegeon tavern, for the publications, the plays, the books he leaves behind as a rolling stone of Hellenism and his Yialousa. For all this and much, much more, Vasos Ftochopoullos, who entered life as a stranger and leaves again as a stranger, is not for biographies,” To Erma wrote.

The establishment remembers sitting with Ftochopoulos as “crying with laughter, pranks and satire without limits, and the most beautiful fairy tales for the children who grew up in his arms”.