Cypriot Journalist, Community Activist Georges der Parthogh Dies

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Born in Harar, Ethiopia on December 18, 1923, der Parthogh came to Cyprus with his family in 1935. He attended the English School in Nicosia after which he served with the Air Ministry. He later joined the Times of Cyprus, where he worked from 1955 to 1959. There he met Lana Matoff, whom he married in 1960.

His career as an international correspondent saw him working for Reuters (1959-1963) and United Press International (1963-1979), covering international and civil wars in Cyprus, Malta, Middle East, Iran and East Africa.

In 1979, he co-founded The Cyprus Weekly with fellow journalists Andreas Hadjipapas and Alex Efthyvoulou. Also, since 1989 he was a special correspondent for Azg newspaper in Yerevan and the Armenian Mirror-Spectatorin Boston.

During the catastrophic earthquake in Armenia and the subsequent war for the liberation of Karabagh, der Parthogh led several humanitarian aid delegations, for which he was awarded the Nagorno Karabagh Gold Medal. He was granted an honorary citizenship of the Republic of Armenia and received the Golden Pen Award of the Union of Armenian Journalists for his 50-year career as a journalist, as well as the Intercollege Media Institute Award as a prominent journalist and photojournalist. He actively supported photography at home and abroad, encouraged young photographers and received several awards as a member of the Cyprus Photographic Society and continued judging competitions until recently.

He served his community as spokesman for two Armenian representatives in parliament, a member of the Board of Governors of the Melkonian Educational Institute and as past president of the Lions Club Nicosia
Cosmopolitan.

In addition to his wife, Lana, he leaves two sons, Yervant der Parthogh, and Masis (and Louise) der Parthough, and two grandchildren.

The funeral was at the Sourp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Church here on Friday, June 6.

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