Baha Çakmak

Baha Güneş Çakmak (4 August 1923 - 15 November 2000) was the second President of Vrachiapolis, serving from 1979-2000, and a founding member and longtime head of the Peace & Prosperity Party. First elected in 1979, he was re-elected in 1985, 1990 and 1995, becoming the country's longest-serving president.

Early life
Baha was born in, to Kahraman Munir Çakmak and Akgül Işılay Yazar, both Turkish Cypriots. At the age of 3, the family moved to British Vrachia. He attended in,  and graduated from. Following his graduation from the latter, he worked as a translator in Vrachiapolis and as a grocery boy.

In 1943, Çakmak joined the. A few months after deployment, he was captured by the Germans in France and was imprisoned in. He described that period as the "worst of his life". In April 1945, the Soviets "liberated" the camp, but continued to hold the prisoners in it. Çakmak managed to escape, and fled to, nearly 480 km (298 mi) to the south.

Political career
On 3 November 1962, Çakmak co-founded the Peace & Prosperity Party with Fahir Hamzaoglu, Stylianos Katsanevas and Costas Gavras.

Illness, death and funeral
Baha's health gradually deteriorated throughout the late 1990s. On 5 March 2000, he announced he would not be standing for a sixth term as Vrachiapolian president in the next election. His tenure ended on 2 September 2000 with the election of Aytek Demirören as president. He died on 15 November 2000 from multiple heart failure at the Lucretes Health Centre Hospital in Lucretes. Vrachiapolis declared a weeklong mourning period, and his funeral, which hundreds attended, was held on 17 January 2001. His body was embalmed and put on display in the Baha Çakmak Mausoleum.

Legacy
Çakmak presided over the transformation of Vrachiapolis from simply an "extension" of Cyprus into a developed country and a high-income economy. The unemployment rate decreased from 10.5% in 1974 to 0.9% by 2000. External trade increased from $3.3 billion in 1974 to $155 billion in 2000. The life expectancy for Vrachiapolians grew from 71.1 in 1974 to 78.8 in 2000. Çakmak Division of Vrachiapolis is named after Çakmak.