On August 14, 2005, 121 people were killed when a Cyprus-flagged aircraft crashed. No member of Tassos Papadopoulos’ government assumed political responsibility, least of all the then transport minister, Charis Thrasou. Neither public outrage over the mass loss of life nor the documented failures of the Civil Aviation Department proved sufficient to move anyone. The criminal and disciplinary responsibilities identified in the Kallis report were never enforced. Tassos Papadopoulos and Thrasou showed not even the slightest sensitivity to offer so much as an apology.
On July 11, 2011, 13 people were killed in the explosion at Mari. Only the then defence minister, Costas Papacostas, resigned, citing personal responsibility. He was later sentenced to five years in prison, while two technocrats received two-year sentences. The President at the time, Demetris Christofias, despite bearing institutional and political responsibility under the Polyviou report, as did the then foreign minister Markos Kyprianou, and despite the public fury of the so-called “indignant” protests, never found the sensitivity to utter even a single apology.
In October 2019, an aircraft carrying Nicos Anastasiades struck a flock of birds. The incident brought to light his practice of travelling on private jets owned by friends, either free of charge or at nominal cost. One such ultra-luxury jet belonged to a Saudi national who had acquired Cypriot citizenship along with 41 members of his family. The former president admitted that he had accepted from the same individual not only the use of the aircraft but also a personal trip to the Seychelles. Despite being seriously exposed before the investigative committee on the “golden passports” scandal, Anastasiades made it clear that he saw no issue of political ethics arising from the free use of private aircraft provided by business associates he described as close friends.
Then, on Thursday, January 8, 2026, a video emerged featuring two close associates of President Nikos Christodoulides, Charalambos Charalambous and Giorgos Lakkotrypis, alongside businessman Giorgos Chrysochos. The footage links investments and donations to the First Lady’s fund, campaign revenues, and influence over the President himself. Days later, largely under pressure from coalition partners, the President’s chief of staff resigned, as did his wife from the presidency of the Fund.
“I will not allow anyone to accuse me of corruption,” the President said, opting to invoke hybrid threats rather than address the substance of the allegations. None of the three, the President, the First Lady, or Charalambous, admitted defeat or acknowledged wrongdoing.
It is painfully evident that in Cyprus, the standards of political ethics are light-years away from those of developed democracies. The prevailing sense of accountability resembles that of third-world states and regimes where the thick-skinned beneficiaries of power thrive on the absence of scrutiny, on entanglement, corruption and impunity. Institutions are trampled, rights eroded, human lives devalued, and democracy itself held in contempt.