Cypriots twice shy with impostor VIPs
Following revelations that President Glafcos Clerides met a Serbian mayor last month under the impression that he was the country’s deputy prime minister, the Cypriot government has said it will be much more careful with visiting officials. According to Cypriot press reports yesterday, government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou conceded that the February 21 meeting between Clerides and Velimir Ilic, mayor of the central Serbian town of Cacak, had been badly handled. «Mea culpa,» the Cyprus Mail daily quoted him as saying. Papapetrou said that in the future, Nicosia would take care to carry out background checks on visiting foreign dignitaries, particularly if they requested meetings with the president or other senior officials. Clerides and Ilic discussed business relations between Cyprus and Serbia. But Papapetrou insisted that no important issue had been broached He said Ilic’s visit had been of a private nature.
