Cyprus was proclaimed an independent State, The Republic of Cyprus, on 16 August 1960, based on the Zurich-London Agreements between United Kingdom, Greece and Turkey, which were signed by the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot Communities.

According to Article 60, Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, a joint Secretariat was established and headed by two Secretaries, who were civil servants, of whom one was a member of the Greek Cypriot and the other of the Turkish Cypriot Community.

Certain provisions of the Zurich-London Agreements, as well as those derived from the Constitution, created functional difficulties for the newly established Republic, and led the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, in November 1963, to propose an amendment of the Constitution to the leaders of the Turkish Cypriot Community. The Government of Turkey rejected the suggestions of Archbishop Makarios, before they were even discussed by Turkish Cypriot leaders.

Subsequently, the Turkish Cypriot Ministers withdrew from the Government of Cyprus, as well as Turkish Cypriot members of the House of Representatives and Turkish Cypriot civil servants from the Public Service. On 30 December 1963, the Vice President of the Republic of Cyprus, Dr. Fazil Kucuk, announced that the Constitution of the Republic was ‘dead’.

Since the middle of 1964, the Secretariat Council of Ministers has been directed by a Greek Cypriot civil servant.


The Secretaries, since the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus, are the following:

S/N	NAME/SURNAME	TIME PERIOD
1	Ali Vehid	1/1/1960 – 30/6/1964
2	Takis E. Marcantonis	1/1/1960 – 28/2/1970
3	Antonis Andronikou	1/3/1970 – 3/12/1973
4	Costas Kleanthous	1/1/1974 – 31/12/1982
5	Aliki Sidera	1/1/1983 – 31/8/1983 *
6	George Achilledis	1/9/1983 – 30/4/1995
7	Chrysostomos A. Sofianos	1/5/1995 – 28/2/2003
8	Andreas Moleskis	1/3/2003 – 29/5/2009
9	George Georgiou	29/5/2009 - 6/3/2013
10	Theodosis A. Tsiolas	7/3/2013 - 24/10/2022
11	Elena Economidou Azina	25/10/2022- 1/3/2023
12	Penelope Papavasiliou	2/3/2023 - present