Former President of the Republic, George Vassiliou, has donated his personal digital archives, referring to his five-year term in office (1988-1993), to the University of Cyprus.

The archives include, among others, the full texts of Vassiliou`s talks on the Cyprus problem with the then Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, under the auspices of the then UN Secretary General Javier FPérez de Cuéllar and his successor Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

Speaking on Thursday at a ceremony during which he signed an agreement for his donation, with the University of Cyprus Rector, Constantinos Christofides, Vassiliou said that dozens of people, among which several students, worked for almost ten years to set up these digital archives, adding that the whole venture costed several hundred thousand euro. He expressed at the same time great satisfaction for the work that has been done.

Vasiliou noted that the archives include all the texts of his negotiations on the Cyprus problem with the then Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, stressing their immense importance for the historians who want to make a research on the history of the Cyprus problem.

It is a complete archive, he noted, expressing the belief that it will be extensively used now that it has been handed over to the University of Cyprus and will contribute to the whole effort for a Cyprus settlement.

On his part, the University Rector thanked Vassiliou and said that the archives will have now their own home, the University`s library which is under construction and will be ready in a few months.

Christofides expressed hope that all the President`s of the Republic of Cyprus will follow Vassiliou`s example, adding that it is very important for the students and the researchers to have access to such archives.