Spyros Theotokis; Greek Foreign Minister

Spyros Theotokis, 80, a former foreign minister who founded a right-wing party and whose father and grandfather were both premiers of Greece. Theotokis was born on the Ionian island of Corfu and studied law in Switzerland and France. Elected to Parliament in 1934 with the Popular Party, Theotokis became public order minister in 1946. He held a string of Cabinet posts in conservative governments of the 1950s. He was appointed foreign minister by Premier Constantine Caramanlis in 1955 but resigned the following year in a dispute with Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus over the Mediterranean island’s efforts for independence from British rule. Theotokis, a lifelong royalist, resigned his seat in Parliament in 1974 after the Greek monarchy was abolished in a referendum. Together with Stefanos Stefanopoulos, also a former foreign minister, he founded the right-wing National Front Party in 1977. Theotokis’ father, Yannis (also known as John) was prime minister of a short-lived caretaker government in 1935. Theotokis’ grandfather, Georgios, was prime minister intermittently between 1899 and 1909. In Athens on Tuesday of a heart attack.