Andreas Papandreou is the politician who changed the politics of Greece from 1981 onwards, and this change is the subject of the historical research titled "The 'Change' and the Change in the Cyprus Issue."

This research begins from the pre-junta years to determine the foundations upon which Andreas Papandreou's views on Cyprus are based. Andreas Papandreou played a leading role in the rejection of the Acheson Plan, which was presented to Greece and Turkey in various versions. After the fall of the junta, he founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), the first paragraph of whose founding declaration is dedicated to Cyprus.

As the opposition party leader, he followed a tough line on the Cyprus issue and committed to the opening of the "Cyprus File" to investigate the causes of the Cypriot tragedy. Upon taking power in 1981, he changed the way Greece conducts its policy towards Cyprus. He was the first Prime Minister to visit the island, taking a more active role in Cyprus issues, with Athens increasingly involved in Nicosia's decisions, and addressed the declaration of the pseudostate of Rauf Denktaş aggressively, while rejecting the UN's solution plan.

He adopted a policy of casus belli against Turkey and any of its expansionist efforts regarding Cyprus and vetoed Turkey's accession to the EEC unless the Cyprus issue was resolved first. Andreas Papandreou managed to open the path of Europe for Cyprus and to turn the Cyprus issue into a European issue. At the end of his second term as Prime Minister, he changed his policy and agreed to start negotiations with Turkey, for which he would face criticism even from members of PASOK. He himself admitted he was wrong with the phrase "mea culpa."

The reader of this book will understand the basis of Greece's current policies regarding the Cyprus issue, but will also experience a journey through a period full of tensions in which Greece and Turkey came very close to military conflict.