Antigoni Papadopoulou

Antigoni Papadopoulou (Greek: Αντιγόνη Παπαδοπούλου; née Pericleous (Greek: Περικλέους); born July 8, 1954) is a Greek Cypriot politician and chemist.

Her father, Andreas Pericleous, and her mother, Georgia Pericleous (née Thrasivoulou), originate from Petra, Kythrea, and Voni villages, all occupied by Turkish Cypriot forces since 1974, as is Morphou.

During her early school years, she attended the Elementary School and the First Gymnasium of Morphou (Science Section).

She then studied Chemistry at Russell Sage College as a Fulbright Scholar.

She continued her academic studies at Lancaster University, first as a Junior Year Abroad (JYA) student, having been selected for the JYA exchange program between the University of Colorado and the University of Lancaster.

She continued as a fourth year undergraduate student, having been granted a scholarship by Lancaster University and the British Council.

Papadopoulou obtained her Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Lancaster University in 1977.

She then enrolled in the postgraduate diploma program in Management at the Mediterranean Institute of Management (1977–1978) and obtained the relevant diploma with distinction.

She was next employed at the Cyprus Carlsberg Brewery, as a Quality Control Manager, where she had a successful career for almost 23 years (1978–2001).

Under this capacity she was responsible for running the Quality Control Department and carrying out the chemical, microbiological and packaging laboratory control of raw materials, semi-finished and final products of the Brewery, as well as table water, fruit juices and other products manufactured by the company.

Throughout her schooling and early years Antigoni Papadopoulou was very active in politics.

In 1978 she became a member of GODIK and served as member of its local and district branches, for Nicosia and occupied Morphou.

In September 1979, Papadopoulou married economist Dr. Stelios Papadopoulos, and later gave birth to two sons, Charis (age 42) and Andreas (age 40).

Papadopoulou enjoys painting, writing, and poetry.

She has also served as Municipal Councilor in Strovolos Municipality from 1991 to 1996.

In the municipality elections of December 1991, Papadopoulou successfully contested a seat as Councilor for the Municipality of Strovolos, where she lives, after becoming a refugee in 1974.

As a Municipality Councilor she held the Chair of the Committee for the Environment and was actively involved in the Committee of Social Protection, working with relevant NGO’s on social issues/programs (1991–1996).

In 1993, while following a professional career in chemistry, she passed the entrance examinations for the University of Athens to study Greek literature and attended the relevant courses for two academic years.

She is the President of GODIK, the Women’s Organization of the Democratic Party since 1994.

Papadopoulou was born in Morphou.

She has two younger brothers, Peter and Xenios.

In 1994 she contested successfully the leadership of GODIK, a post that she holds until today.

She is also a Member of the Democratic Party’s Central Committee and the Executive Bureau, since 1994.

Papadopoulou was the elected Mayor of Morphou from 1996 to 2001.

In May 1996 she ran for the first time as a candidate of the Democratic Party in the parliamentary elections for Nicosia District, where she was first runner-up and failed to be elected by a very narrow margin of 44 votes.

In December 1996, in the municipal elections, Papadopoulou ran for Mayor of Morphou.

She was elected as the first female mayor in the city's political history, defeating her opponent Andreas Shittis.

She has also served as Vice president of DIKO as well as coordinator of the Party's Political Research Groups (1998–2000).

She was an Assembly Member of the Council of Europe from 2001 to 2009 and has also served as Vice Chairperson of the Committee of Economic Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (2003–2009).

She was the first female mayor in the city's history and the only elected female mayor of Morphou so far, as well as the first woman to serve as a national parliamentarian in the District of Nicosia for the Democratic Party (DIKO) for two consecutive terms (2001 & 2006).

At the parliamentary elections of 27 May 2001, she was elected for the first time as Member of the Cypriot House of Representatives, standing as a DIKO candidate in Nicosia, and served as Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committees for Internal Affairs, Employment, Education, the Environment, Refugees-Enclaved-Missing Persons and Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on European Affairs; she was re-elected at the Parliamentary elections of 21 May 2006 and became the Chair of the House Standing Committee on Economic and Budgetary Affairs and member of the Parliamentary Committees of Education, Gender Equality and Refugees-Enclaved–Missing Persons.

She is a former Member of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus and the First Woman to serve as Chair of the House’s Committee of Economic Affairs and Budgeting (2006–2009).

She had her first individual painting exhibition in 2006.

Throughout her undergraduate studies she held occasional jobs as a teaching assistant at the Department of Chemistry at Russell Sage College, Troy, New York.

She also took other occasional jobs during summer vacations.

After the completion of her studies in Chemistry, she worked for almost a year at Francoudi & Stephanou Shipping Company (Limassol) as management Trainee, attending at the same time the MIM post Graduate Management Program.

She was then employed for almost a year as a Quality Control Manager at Vitatrace Nutrition, a local firm manufacturing premixes for animal feedstuffs.

More recently (2007–2009), she followed a post-graduate course of studies at the University of the Aegean (Greece), in Gender studies.

She is fluent in Greek and English.

She was one of the first two Cypriot women to be elected as Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) among six Cypriot MEPs (2009).