LONDON — To call Tassos Papadopoulos a dinosaur is a slur on the entire Cretaceous era, but at least the age of the dinosaurs has ended in Cyprus. Running for re-election as president last Sunday, Papadopoulos, the man who almost single-handedly scuttled a peace settlement in Cyprus four years ago, came third and was eliminated from the race.
Both the remaining candidates want to reopen negotiations for a peace deal.
The Greek-Cypriot newspaper Simerini was slightly more generous about the 74-year-old Papadopoulos, calling him "the last of the Mohicans," but the sense that his defeat marks a turning point in the affairs of Cyprus is widespread.