Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
March 7 2008
Marios Karoyian: a meteoric rise to influence
By Jean Christou
MARIOS Karoyian, the new House President, has been elected at the
relatively young age 46, an almost meteoric rise by Cypriot standards
given that he only became a member of DIKO’s central committee in
1988.
Prior to yesterday’s coup in securing the second-highest position in
the land, the pinnacle of his career to date had been his election as
DIKO leader in October 2006, when he succeeded then President Tassos
Papadopoulos who resigned from the post in August that year.
The duties of party leader had been conducted by Nicos Cleanthous in
an acting capacity after Papadopoulos was elected President in
February 2003.
The election for new party leader party was acrimonious. Cleanthous
supporters derided Karoyian as an upstart and some even went as far
as picking on his Armenian descent and accusing him of not doing his
military service.
For his part, Karoyian tried hard to portray himself as a link
between the old and new guards inside DIKO and when it came to the
crunch he won the leadership post with 62.6 per cent of the vote,
compared to the 37.4 per cent garnered by Cleanthous.
Karoyian was born in Nicosia in May 1961. He graduated from Terra
Santa College and studied political sciences at the University of
Perugia in Italy.
In 1981, Karoyian was elected the first president of the students
association `Anagenisi’ in Italy and two years later the first
President of the Cypriot Students’ Union of Perugia. He was also a
member of the Pancyprian Federation of Students Unions (POFNE).
>From 1986 until 1992, Karoyian was President of DIKO’s youth section
NEDIK and then elected secretary for trade union issues.
He served as Director of the office of the President of the House
from May 1991 until June 2001, participating in bilateral and
international parliamentary activities in House official delegations.
He became a member of the DIKO Central Committee in 1988 and was
elected member of the Executive Bureau for the third time in 2005.
Karoyian was a close associate of DIKO founder and late Cypriot
President Spyros Kyprianou.
In 2003 Karoyian was appointed Director of the President’s Press
Office under Tassos Papadopoulos and also served as Acting Government
Spokesman. He resigned from that post in 2006 and announced his
intention to run for parliament. He won his deputy seat in the House
that year.
Karoyian has written a number of articles and analysis on the Cyprus
problem and the EU both for the local and international press. He
speaks English, Italian and Spanish and is married with two children.