Christmas Celebration in Çatalköy
By Margaret Sheard….
Many of the Municipalities throughout North Cyprus have been encouraging the various nationalities in their community to come together to celebrate all types of festivals and Christmas was another festival where the local Mayors threw parties for all of the residents of their areas.
We went along to the Çatalköy “party” which was held in the car park area alongside the Belediyesi office where the Mayor, Mehmet Hulusioĝlu was greeting those who had come to join him to celebrate Christmas for the expatriates and the New Year for everyone. 
There were the usual high tables which were nicely decorated and with lots of nibbles as well as another long table with more nibbles and ladies serving wine and soft drinks.
This was a lovely gesture from the Mayor of Çatalköy and although there was a fair number of people attending, it was a bit disappointing that there were not more, where were all the local expatriates and 
locals? There were some familiar faces including the Chief Architect – Ahmet Rençber, Derman Atik, Valeriy and Svetlana Krupovich with some of their Russian friends, and a few English people we also know. We also spotted some of the ladies from Creditwest Bank.
While people were mingling and chatting there was music from a local trio with guitar, keyboard and violin which made the occasion very jolly and at one point there were even some people who decided to dance to the music.
During the afternoon the Mayor gave a speech which was translated into English by Ahmet and he welcomed everyone 
to the party. He said he wants to bring all of the community of Çatalköy together to enjoy many events in the village and he suggested that perhaps there might be some expatriate people who would like to form a committee and bring their ideas to the Municipaiity to make next year’s party a bigger and better event which can continue to be a tradition for the village.
A young lady came around with tickets to be taken for a draw of some gifts from the Mayor but unfortunately we had to leave before the draw was made and left our tickets with the Krupovich family. Maybe they were lucky?
Although we do not live in Çatalköy, as some of the other guests, we live in nearby villages and feel support should be given to our neighbours, bringing all communities together, so thank you Mr Mayor for your foresight and kind wishes to all nationalities.
