The Constantinople-born diplomat, honorary ambassador Alexandros Alexandris, who had extensive knowledge of Greek-Turkish relations and specialized in minority issues, has passed away.

Alexandros Alexandros was born in Pera, Constantinople, and completed his education at the Great School of the Nation in Phanar.

He studied Modern History, Political Science, and International Relations at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He earned his Ph.D. in 1979 from King’s College, University of London, specializing in Greek-Turkish relations and minority issues.

He taught at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, from 1980 to 1982, and in 1983, he published his work “The Greeks of Constantinople and Greek-Turkish Relations” in English. His studies on Greek-Turkish relations, the Greek community of Constantinople, Imbros and Tenedos, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the Muslim minority of Thrace have been published in academic journals.

He joined the diplomatic corps in 1982 and served in Cyprus, at Greece’s Permanent Mission to ICAO, and at the United Nations in New York. He also served as the Consul General in Toronto from 1999 to 2003 and Constantinople from 2003 to 2008. From September 2008 to January 2013, he was the director of the Political Affairs Service of Thrace, based in Xanthi.

From then until his retirement in 2016, he served as an ambassador and Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva.

From 2015-2017, he served as honorary dean of the Geneva School of Diplomacy, associated with the United Nations. In 2018, he was appointed interim president of the Hellenic Red Cross.

He was a member of the Supervisory Committee of the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice. He was honored by the President of the Republic with the medal of Senior Commander of the Order of the Phoenix and, during his tenure in Cyprus, received the medal of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Cyprus.

On August 31, 2016, he was bestowed the title of Archon Megas Rhetor of the Great Church of Christ by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.