Archbishop Makarios
Makarios was the adopted name of Mihail Khristodoulou Mouskos (August 13 1913 - August 3 1977). Makarios was archbishop and primate of the autocephalous Cypriot Orthodox Church from 1950 until his death, a Cypriote patriot always referred to by Cypriotes as "His Beatitude," who first pressed for union with Greece (the enosis movement, then for independence of Cyprus from the UK. As Archbishop, Makarios had the status of ethnarch of the Greek Cypriots. He was elected president of Cyprus in December 1959 and took up official duties August 16, 1960, at the moment of Cypriot independence. He served until his death, except for a brief period in 1974 when he was removed by a military coup from the junta that ruled from Athens.
He was born in the village of Panayia, in the Paphos district. He was bishop of Kition from 1948 and archbishop of Cyprus from 1950. He was an organizer of the Greek Cypriot resistance organization EOKA (?National Organization of Cyprus Fighters?). The British exiled him to the Seychelles in 1956 on charges of collusion acts of terrorism connected with his organization; on his release (with his promise not to return to Cyprus) his public arrival in Athens was an emotional occasion for Hellenic patriotism. When the British agreed on the independence of Cyprus, Makarios was elected president, steering a course between the island's Greek and Turkish communities. Though in March 1961 Cyprus was admitted as member of the British Commonwealth and Makarios represented the island at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers΄ Conference, in September 1961 he participated in the Belgrade Conference of Heads of State of Non-Aligned Countries. When his term of office was about to expire in 1965 it was extended to 1968. Pressures from Greece for policies more favorable to Greece came to a head with the Greek-sponsored coup d'etat of July 1974, when he was ousted and exiled. Turkey, under the treaty of Guarantee intervened in Cyprus in July 1974. In December 1974 Makarios made a triumphal return this time to a divided Cyprus, and resumed the presidency until his death.
