UN Spokesman Stephan Dujarric has said a few words about Maria Zoupaniotis, who passed away last Thursday, noting that she was “a true professional and someone who passionately loved her country.”

Dujarric, who was addressing a daily briefing yesterday, at UN headquarters, in New York, said that “for almost 30 years, Maria Zoupaniotis was the press counsellor at the Mission of the Republic of Cyprus.”

“I think”, he added, “if we kept track of these things, she would have been the dean of the spokespeople at the Missions.”
“Over the years, I had the privilege of working with her preparing quite a few Cyprus talks, whether in Geneva, Buergenstock, Greentree or right here in the Secretariat,” he said, pointing out that “Maria was a true professional and someone who passionately loved her country and always a pleasure to work with.”
In fact, the UN Spokesman continued, “no one could deliver a demarche quite like Maria.”

“Whenever we sometimes strayed from the agreed vocabulary on the Cyprus issue, we often had a message to call her back at the Mission. She would make her point with tact, precision and good manners,” he noted.

Maria, Dujarric said, “will be remembered and missed in these halls.”
He extended “our deepest sympathies and most sincere condolences” to her husband, and journalist, Apostolos Zoupaniotis.

Maria Zoupaniotis, Director of the Press and Advisory Office at the Permanent Representation of Cyprus to the United Nations, passed away last Thursday, after a brief battle with cancer. She was 58 years old.

Parikiaki Newspaper would like to express their condolences to the family