Rauf Denktash, the former Turkish Cypriot leader whose determined pursuit of a separate state for his people and strong opposition to the divided island’s reunification defined a political career spanning six decades, died at 87.
Dr. Charles Canver, who treated Denktash for his heart condition, says he died late Friday of multiple organ failure at Near East University Hospital in the Turkish Cypriot section north of Nicosia. He had been in poor health since suffering a stroke last May.
Denktash’s death comes in the midst of yet another diplomatic drive to reunify Cyprus, which has been split along ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkey invaded the island in the aftermath of a short-lived coup by supporters of a union with Greece.
Denktash maintained that the Turkish Cypriots needed a separate state to preserve peace and avoid a return to what he called massacres of Turkish Cypriots at the hands of the majority Greek Cypriots.
(source: AP)
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