Insight Investigators: Background Report
Andreas Constantinou: Born March 18th 1956 to Nikoleta Constantinou and Stephanos Constantinou. He was born and raised in the small town of Lefka (now Lefke) in what is now the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. His father died in a terrorist bomb attack on a café in Nicosia in 1973. Like many Greek Cypriots, Andreas and his mother fled south when the Turkish army invaded in 1974 and settled in Kakopetria, a village in the Troodos Mountains thirteen miles away from Pure Heart. (This is the closest village to the community and it’s where the members go for basic supplies etc.)
Andreas worked at the Pure Heart property when it was still a hotel. After the community moved in, they kept him on as a handyman. He lived in Kakopetria but did have a room at the community so he could stay over when necessary.
He often drank in the bars and cafés of Kakopetria and, like many, was still bitter about the invasion and the violence that preceded it. Not only did he lose his father, but his elder brother, Giorgos, stayed in the north to fight when the Turkish army invaded and went missing, like thousands of Cypriots on both sides of the conflict.
Andreas was often in touch with the Committee on Missing Persons, who do incredible work finding the remains of those who went missing in the conflict. It seems he always hoped his brother’s body would be discovered, but this never happened. I think it’s fair to describe him as a man with a lot of sorrow and anger in his heart.