By Margaret Sheard ….
As many people will have heard, our “star reporter” Kathy Martin is incapacitated due to a fall resulting in a very painful bruised back so she was unable to attend the Tulips Grand Handbag 
Auction at the Colony Hotel, Girne on Saturday 4th February. Chris and I assured her not to worry as we would cover the event for her.
There were many people in the Colony rooftop room looking forward to the auction which was being conducted by Adolf Kohn of Iain’s Auctions in Ozanköy. The Colony Hotel had laid on refreshments and food for the attendees of which there was a nice selection.
The event was organised by Ayşe Green and Seda Djemal from Tulips/HTWCA. Hatice Salih Kerimgil did a great job as compere for the occasion and when we arrived Hatice was giving a welcome speech in both Turkish and English with some information about the wonderful auction which was to take place.
The event started at 11am and before the auction commenced we were entertained by Koray Alper Ibrahim who sang and played guitar – Koray is a student at the English School of Kyrenia.
Following this Adolf Kohn started the auction. There were some wonderful handbags which had been donated by well-known TRNC ladies, and also included
was a donation from Sally Reilly who gave a beautiful leather Loewe £2,000 handbag bought for her in Dubai by her late husband Mike.. Sally said she is sure her husband would have been delighted that she had donated the handbag to such a worthy cause which would help others.
Donations of handbags were made by:-
Lot 1 Narin Ferdi Şefik – Supreme Court Judge
Lot 2 Emine Dizdarlı – Ombudsman
Lot 3 Nur Asil Nadir – wife of Asil Nadir
Lot 4 Sally Reilly – see above paragraph
Lot 5 – Sibel Siber – Speaker of the TRNC Assembly
Lot 6 Meral Akıncı – First Lady
Lot 7 Hazar Ergűçlű – TRNC Actress.
In addition to the handbags which were to be auctioned, there was a 
stall with a nice selection of handbags which were also for sale.
After the auction there was some lovely violin music played by Ammar Dadizadeh. Ammar is from Azerbaijan and he and 3 others belong to a group made up of violin, cello and double bass.
Ammar also accompanied the delightful Peri Sualp who entranced the audience with songs from the shows which also involved some quick changes of headgear etc. Peri is also a student at the English School of Kyrenia and studies voice with Demetra George Mustafoğlu, US Soprano and Grammy award nominee.
Ömer Alaçam of Acoustic Music was on hand with his sound system to also accompany Peri and we understand that he gives a lot of support at Tulips’ events where music is required.
There then followed the raffle which consisted of some very nice prizes.
A fantastic total of 5,385TL was raised from the auction, raffle and sale of handbags from the stall. Well done to everyone who contributed to this event and the supporters of Tulips who attended.
Ayse Green admires a bag bought by Adolf Kohn
The last event of the day was the “thank you” which was conducted by Hatice Salih Kerimgil with the awarding of Tulips plaques to Koray Alper Ibrahim, Ammar Dadizadeh, Peri Sualp and Ömer Alaçam who had so wonderfully entertained us, Ayşe Green and Seda Djemal who had organised the event, Adolf Kohn the auctioneer, the Colony Hotel Assistant Food & Beverage Manager – Alper Onan for providing refreshments, Pam Conway for her help with the organisation, and also a thank you was given to Hatice herself.
