Vassos Lyssarides (Greek: Βάσος Λυσσαρίδης; 13 May 1920 – 26 April 2021) was a Cypriot politician and physician who was a central figure in the politics of Cyprus after the island's independence.

[4] Lyssarides' active participation in the EOKA struggle and his collaboration with Grivas against the British led to his expulsion from AKEL, of which he was a member: in its decision to expel him, AKEL accused him of being "the leader of the factionalist spiral" and "an element who deservedly plays the role of an agent of Intelligences Services".

"[6] He was a member of the Greek Cypriot delegation to London in 1959, representing EOKA, where the independence of Cyprus was decided.

Later, after the imposition of the military junta in Greece, Lyssarides was instrumental in assisting Papandreou and his Panhellenic Liberation Movement (PAK) with arms, money and training.

Kostas Tsima [el], it was Vassos Lyssarides who "opened the doors" of the Arabs for the P.A.K., and through his mediation the Palestinians and Yasser Arafat helped the P.A.C.

[2] On 30 August 1974, he was the target of an assassination attempt, during which the organisational secretary of the EDEK youth, Doros Loizou, was killed.

[2] Lyssarides was a candidate in the 1983, 1988 and 1998 presidential elections, supported mainly by his party, each time receiving in the region of 10% of the vote.

[29] Lyssarides' armed men came mainly from the mountainous areas of the Nicosia District and wore red berets.

One of the training officers was the then captain Miltiadis Laskaris, later a lieutenant general and personal friend of Andreas Papandreou.

[30] In the spring of 1963, as Makarios was preparing the 13-point plan (with the possibility of conflict in case the Turkish Cypriots did not accept it), Lyssarides met with the future dictator Georgios Papadopoulos, who visited Cyprus in his official capacity (branch chief of the 2nd Branch of Counterintelligence of the Greek KYP and organiser of the Cypriot KYP).

[30] In 1971–74, Lyssarides' gunmen acted as defenders of Archbishop Makarios against EOKA B, which launched attacks on police stations, kidnappings, theft of weapons, etc.

After the coup on 15 July 1974, Lyssarides' groups took to the streets and became the most important source of resistance along with the Presidential Guard and the Reserve Corps, paying a heavy price in blood.