The Foreign Residents in the TRNC (TFR)
Guests at Bayrak Radio and Television (BRT)
by Ralph Kratzer
On Friday 4th of January 2013, two members of the TFR Committee, Heinz Nauroth (Chairman) and myself (Secretary), were invited to be guests of Can Gazi, TV Presenter, Editor and Interviewer of 
Bayrak Radio and Television at their headquarters in Lefkoşa, North Cyprus. The programme was transmitted on Saturday 5th January at 4.30pm and it is hoped to obtain a copy of the recording to publish for members that were unable to see the programme.
After arriving at BRT about noon time, Can gave us a warm welcome and took us immediately to the recording studio. He told us that we would soon be part of the recording of the talk show “A Cup of Conversation” which is a regular feature of the Bayrak Family program.
To be honest, neither Heinz nor myself had much previous experience in appearing on television until then and we were both slightly nervous.
After having a 
Turkish coffee and been wired with the microphones by the technicians, we were introduced to the cameraman, who was a nice young lady in our case, and so we were getting step by step a bit more relaxed.
Can, our interviewer, began to chat with us in a friendly way and before we realised it we were in the middle of the show.
After a brief presentation about ourselves and the inevitable question why and how we came to live in North Cyprus, we started to talk about the TFR society.
The interviewer was rather astonished when he learned that our 138 members actually come from 15 different nations all over the world!
Regarding the questio
n of what the main reason for the existence of the TFR association was, Heinz had a very nice explanation.
He said in a figurative sense: “In their home countries people have their families, their relatives, school friends, work colleagues, mates at the sports club or whatever as their social and cultural background. When these people, for whatever reason, decide to come to North Cyprus and stay here, either temporarily or permanently, they are faced with a foreign country, a foreign language and culture. Our society tries to give them a new social and cultural background abroad and help for individual problems as well.“
When asked how we do this, we told Can about our organisation, of talk events, travel and short trips to interesting cultural sites, our various regular meetings and celebrations.
We did not forget to mention the TFR participation in the maintenance of the international cemeteries in the TRNC, which was one of the reasons for the establishment of the society in 1998.
Talking about this and that we didn´t realise that we had been already 45 minutes in the show! So we had to come to an end and Heinz and myself stressed that expats in North Cyprus are welcome to join the TFR, no matter what nationality, educational level or profession they have.
Many thanks are extended to Can Gazi and Bayrak Radio and Television for the interest in The Foreign Residents in the TRNC.
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