Facts: - natine name lang: el - signature: accession treaty 2011 dimitris christofias signature.svg - native name: - successor: nicos anastasiades marios garoyian andros kyprianou - party: progressive party of working people - spouse: elsie chiratou - predecessor: tassos papadopoulos spyros kyprianou ezekias papaioannou - office: 6th of representatives general secretary of the progressive party of working president people of cyprus 9th president of the house - term end: 28 february 2013 28 february 2008 21 february 2009 - children: marianna christina christos - term start: 28 february 2008 7 june 2001 22 april 1988 - birth date: 29 august 1946 - name: demetris christofias - image: christofias.jpg - birth place: dikomo , cyprus - religion: greek orthodox - alma mater: russian academy of sciences Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of demetris christofias .
demetris christofias , also spelled dimitris christofias -lrb- , also spelled ; born 29 august 1946 -rrb- , is a former cypriot politician who was the sixth president of cyprus from 2008 to 2013 .christofias was the general secretary of akel , the communist party of cyprus , and was the european union 's and cyprus ' first , and so far only , communist head of state .he won the 2008 cypriot presidential elections in the second round of voting .throughout the election campaign , he pledged to restart talks with turkish cypriots in order to find a solution to the cyprus dispute and reunify the island .he has also supported the closure of the british military bases on cyprus .