Veteran diplomat Zacharakis, 84, dies
Retired diplomat and former European Parliament MP Christos Zacharakis has died. He was 84.
During a 35-year career as a diplomat, Zacharakis served as ambassador to Nicosia (1979-86), permanent representative to NATO (1986-89), ambassador to Washington (1989-93), General Secretary of the Foreign Ministry (1993-94), permanent representative to the United Nations (1994-99) and ambassador to London (1999).
Shortly after his appointment to this latest post, Zacharakis resigned in order to run in the European Parliament elections on the list of conservative New Democracy. He served as an MEP for one term (1999-2004), but remarked, in a volume of memoirs published in 2008, that the post of MEP has been “deliberately trivialized in our country.” He served as Vice-Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy from January 2002 to the end of his term.
Zacharakis, trusted by successive conservative and socialist governments with important tasks, was the main negotiator for the 1990-93 Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States and the 1995 Interim Accord between Greece and the then Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), which ended Greece’s embargo on FYROM and led to the latter changing its national flag, replacing the one which had appropriated a symbol from the Ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedonia.
Later in life, Zacharakis opposed the 2018 Prespa Agreement between Greece and its neighbor, which changed its name to North Macedonia. He said the agreement did not make clear the Slavic character of the country and its majority ethnic group.
