Ploutis Servas (Πλουτής Σέρβας in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
; 22 May 1907 – 14 February 2001), was a
Cypriot former politician, reporter, and author. Servas was born Ploutarhos Loizou Savvidis (Πλούταρχος Λοΐζου Σαββίδης) and changed his surname to Servas while still a student in secondary education.
Servas was born in
Limassol
Limassol, also known as Lemesos, is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the Limassol district. Limassol is the second-largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population of 195,139 and a district population o ...
in 1907. In 1929–1934, he studied political and social sciences at the
in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. He returned to Cyprus in the 1930s and had to sign a declaration saying he would not be involved in politics in order to be allowed to set foot in the country. He became a member of the Secretariat of the illegal Communist Party of Cyprus (CPC) and founder and first general secretary of
AKEL
The Progressive Party of Working People (, , ΑΚΕΛ or AKEL; ) is a Marxist–LeninistHelena Smith, Cyprus gets ready for a communist 'takeover''The Guardian 2008 communist party in Cyprus.
AKEL is one of the two major parties in Cyprus, and ...
(1941–1945). He was also the first elected Mayor of Limassol 1943–1946 and 1946–1949. As mayor he participated in the consultative assembly and advocated accepting the British plan of self-government for Cyprus in 1948. For that opinion he became isolated within his party and was expelled in 1952.
He supported
Ioannis Clerides
Ioannis Clerides, CBE, QC (Greek: Ιωάννης Κληρίδης, 1887–1961), sometimes known as John Clerides, was a Greek Cypriot lawyer and politician. He served as Mayor of Nicosia and was a candidate for president in Cyprus' first presid ...
in the 1960
elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
, but wasn't an active politician again himself. He worked mainly as a reporter and a writer. He wrote multiple books on political issues.
His death on 14 February 2001 caused controversy in Cyprus, as in his will he had asked to be cremated. There were no crematoria in Cyprus and there was a heated debate between those supporting the availability of cremation as an alternative and those (mainly religious
Orthodox Christians) who disapproved of it.
Publications
* ''Spain on Fire'' (1936)
* ''The Labour Issue'' (1936)
* ''AKEL and Local Issues'' (1942)
* ''Portraits of Palmer's Era'' (1946)
* ''Korea'' (1949)
* ''Prague Spring'' (1973)
* ''How Did We Manage to Get to Zero; The Cypriot Tragedy'' (1975)
* ''Old and New China'' (1977)
* ''Responsibilities'' (first volume 1980, second volume 1984, third volume 1985).
References
1907 births
2001 deaths
Cypriot journalists
Cypriot political writers
Leaders of political parties in Cyprus
Mayors of Limassol
People from Limassol
Progressive Party of Working People politicians
Cypriot atheists
Cypriot communists
Leaders of the Progressive Party of Working People
20th-century Cypriot writers
20th-century journalists
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