Karolos Papoulias

Karolos Papoulias
Κάρολος Παπούλιας
President of Greece
In office
12 March 2005 – 13 March 2015
Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis
George Papandreou
Lucas Papademos
Panagiotis Pikrammenos
Antonis Samaras
Alexis Tsipras
Preceded by Konstantinos Stephanopoulos
Succeeded by Prokopis Pavlopoulos
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
13 October 1993 – 22 January 1996
Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou
Preceded by Michalis Papakonstantinou
Succeeded by Theodoros Pangalos
In office
26 July 1985 – 2 July 1989
Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou
Preceded by Ioannis Charalambopoulos
Succeeded by Tzannis Tzannetakis
Personal details
Born (1929-06-04) 4 June 1929
Ioannina, Greece
Political party Panhellenic Socialist Movement
Spouse(s) Mary Panou
Children Fani
Vicky
Anna
Alma mater University of Athens
University of Milan
University of Cologne
Religion Greek Orthodoxy
Signature

Karolos Papoulias (Greek: Κάρολος Παπούλιας [ˈkarolos paˈpuʎas]; born 4 June 1929) was the President of Greece from 2005 to 2015. He was previously the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1985 to 1989 and from 1993 to 1996.

Personal life

Karolos Papoulias was born in Ioannina and is the son of Major general Gregorios Papoulias.[1][2] He obtained a Law degree from the University of Athens, a master's degree in Public International Law and International Relations from the University of Milan, and a doctorate in Private International Law from the University of Cologne. He is an associate of the Munich Institute for Southeast Europe. Apart from his native Greek, he also speaks French, German and Italian. A former pole-vault and volleyball champion, Papoulias has been chairman of the National Sports Association since 1985. He is also a founding member and until recently president of the Association for the Greek Linguistic Heritage.[3]

Karolos Papoulias is married to Mary Panou and has three daughters.[3]

Role in PASOK, parliamentary and government offices

Papoulias was a founding member of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and a close associate of its leader Andreas Papandreou. Since December 1974 he was continually elected to the PASOK Central Committee. He was also member of the Coordination Council, the Executive Bureau and the Political Secretariat, as well as Secretary of the PASOK International Relations Committee from April 1975 to 1985. For a number of years he was also a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Socialist and Progressive Parties of the Mediterranean.[3]

He was first elected to the Greek Parliament in 1977 for Ioannina, and held his seat continuously through the subsequent legislative elections until his 2004 election as President of the Republic. He held several high offices during the PASOK cabinets:[3]

Papoulias as Minister for Foreign Affairs

In the 1980s Papoulias played a key role in trying to reach a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He mediated a safe departure of trapped Palestinian militants and Yasser Arafat from Lebanon on board Greek vessels in 1983.

He created diplomatic relations with the Arab world and achieved, among other things, the normalization of relations between Greece and Egypt and the establishment of tripartite cooperation between Iran, Armenia and Greece. He held talks with a total of 12 Turkish Foreign Ministers to normalize Greco-Turkish relations. This resulted in the signing of the Papoulias-Yılmaz memorandum in 1988.

He supported Turkey's European aspirations conditional on their respect for international law and European Union values.

In the period 1993–1996 and particularly at the crucial Essen Summit he played an important role in starting accession talks between the Republic of Cyprus and the European Union.

President Karolos Papoulias with Prime Minister George Papandreou in November 2011

As president-in-office of the European Union and member of the contact group for the former Yugoslavia he worked to bring about a resolution of the crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He signed the Interim Agreement with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, aiming at the establishment of better relations between that country and Greece.

He was very interested in relations between Greece and the Balkan states and it was upon his initiative that the first meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Balkans was organized in Belgrade in 1988. There, he began talks with Bulgaria and the then Soviet Union on the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline.

He was responsible for the signing of the protocol of mutual civil and military assistance with Bulgaria in the 1980s. He restored friendly and neighbourly relations with Albania by ending the state of war between that country and Greece.

Papoulias has been supportive of any step towards détente, peace and disarmament e.g. the "Initiative of the Six" for peace and disarmament, the participation of Greece in the Conference on Disarmament and Peace in Europe and in the Conference for the Abolition of Chemical Weapons, his proposals to create a nuclear-free zone in the Balkans and the promotion of the idea of making the Mediterranean a sea of peace and cooperation. The JANNINA 1 tripartite cooperation conference, between Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, was his idea and he was a strong supporter of the Black Sea Conference, which he also chaired.

With his visit to Washington in 1985 and the return visit of Secretary of State George Shultz, he revitalized Greek-American relations which had gone through a delicate phase during the previous years.

Election to the Presidency

On 12 December 2004, Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, leader of the governing New Democracy party, and George Papandreou, leader of the PASOK opposition, nominated Papoulias for the presidency, which is chosen by the Parliament. On 8 February 2005, he was elected by 279 of 300 votes to a five-year term. He was sworn in as the 7th President of the Third Hellenic Republic on 12 March 2005, succeeding Konstantinos Stephanopoulos. After securing the support of the two major political parties, he was re-elected to a second and final term on 3 February 2010 with a parliamentary majority of 266 votes.[4] His presidential term ended in March 2015 and was replaced by Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who was elected Greece’s new president in a parliamentary vote in February 2015.[5]

Honours

References

  1. ↑ Robert I. C. Fisher (2012). Fodor's Greece: With Great Cruises and the Best Island Getaways. Fodor's Travel Publications. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-307-92916-7.
  2. ↑ Europa Publications (2003). The International Who's Who 2004. Psychology Press. p. 1284. ISBN 978-1-85743-217-6.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "President". Greek Government. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  4. ↑ Ζήτησε συναίνεση, κέρασε κρασί. To Vima (in Greek). Lambrakis Press Group. 4 February 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  5. ↑ http://www.euronews.com/2015/02/18/prokopis-pavlopoulos-is-elected-next-president-of-greece/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ "Reply to a parliamentary question about the Decoration of Honour" (pdf) (in German). p. 1923. Retrieved 2013-01-13.

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Political offices
Preceded by
Ioannis Charalambopoulos		 Minister of Foreign Affairs
1985–1989 		Succeeded by
Tzannis Tzannetakis
Preceded by
Michalis Papakonstantinou		 Minister of Foreign Affairs
1993–1996 		Succeeded by
Theodoros Pangalos
Preceded by
Konstantinos Stephanopoulos		 President of Greece
2005–2015 		Succeeded by
Prokopis Pavlopoulos
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