On Saturday, 26 October, the Labour members of Enfield North will have the chance to listen to four very able candidates and select which one should represent them as the Labour Parliamentary candidate at the next general election. Among the four is Margaret Greer, one of my oldest and dearest friends. Here’s why I feel […]
Galip Ahmet is one of the first Turkish Cypriots to have come and settled in Britain in the early 1950s. Born in Cyprus on 18 April 1929, Galip Bey recently turned 90. I interviewed him earlier this summer about his experiences before and after his move, as part of my work on ‘Turkish heritage in […]
A group of British MPs, who can broadly be described as “the usual suspects”, have all recently fallen over themselves to repeat, parrot fashion, every piece of Greek Cypriot propaganda ever invented since 1974, when the Turkish Army legally intervened in Cyprus under the terms of the Treaty of Guarantee. Balance dictates the necessity to […]
It is very difficult to write an obituary if the person was very dear to you and held a special place in your life. You try to put the words together, but after a while the blank paper in front of you remains just the same as you had started, completely blank. This happened to […]
In 1939, when London was being relentlessly bombed by Nazi Germany, the British Government put into place one of the largest evacuation plans ever seen, moving over 1.5 million children from London to rural locations around the country considered to be safe from bombing. Strangers opened their doors to these children and welcomed them, away […]
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” said Nelson Mandela and indeed the same can be attributed to Kelami Dedezade, who passed away on the 13 July 2018. Dedezade was a huge believer that education is the only tool to make a difference in society. All his […]
This year marks the fifth year in a row I have been lucky enough to visit the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in SW19. And while you may think it gets old, Wimbledon is always full of surprises. 2018 has proved this yet again, with top women’s seeds tumbling and the return of the legend that is […]
As the British High Commission forecasts “tough choices and compromises ahead” if the UN Talks are to succeed, and Secretary General Guterres fails to mention Greek Cypriot obstruction in his latest report, former TRNC Chief Negotiator Ergün Olgun says more than compromise may be needed for success, and that the UN itself is part […]
For the best part of 60 years Greek Cypriot governments have, with ingenious guile and commendable tenacity, persuaded most of the world and international institutions to see Cyprus through their eyes, the widely held view being that Turkey is entirely responsible for the current situation, having taken the north of the island for itself and […]
So Israel has won Eurovision with Netta’s quirky Toy song, which is themed around strong women and features chicken noises. While Netta had been the favourite to win for some time, Cyprus was the unexpected frontrunner after an impressive performance in both the rehearsals and semi-final. For a time it looked like Eurovision was heading to […]
