The Foreign Residents in the TRNC (TFR)
TFR Board Members at the Reception
for the German Foreign Minister
By Ralph Kratzer
So it came about that Mr. von Schoepff and his wife, Mrs. Rita Lansley, were delighted about an invitation to our authentic Bavarian Oktoberfest at the beginning of last month, and in return, the embassy invited TFR-members to the official reception on the occasion of the Day of German Unity.
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About one hundred high-ranking representatives from politics and economy in Cyprus, leaders of both religious communities and other public figures from both sides of the divided island, met last Tuesday in the Chateau Status in the UN buffer zone in order to do honour to the visit of the well-known German polititian.
TFR Chairman Heinz Nauroth took the opportunity to introduce himself inter alia to Mr. Steinmeier and to the President of South Cyprus, Mr. Anastasiades, and exchanged thoughts with both.
I personally had the pleasure to have a few words with the former President of Northern Cyprus, Mr. Talat, and then joined with our treasurer Horst Gutowski who had, together with his wife, an obviously enjoyable conversation with officers of the German UNIFIL contingent. For explanation, the German Navy docks their warships in the Cypriot port of Limassol and their main task, as part of the UN deployment in the Eastern Mediterranean, is to protect the sea lanes off the coast of Lebanon against gun smugglers and to train the Lebanese Navy.
The evening passed quicklier than expected and the German Foreign Minister had, accompanied by the Ambassador, already made his way to the airport to return to Berlin.
But to our pleasure, we recognized that the wife of the Ambassador, Mrs. Rita Lansley, was also still on site. With a last drink we had an interesting chat with her, in which it turned out that not only her husband, but she as well can look back on a long career in the foreign service of the German Government and, accordingly, had been to a lot of different places around the world. She assured us once more how much they enjoyed their visit to our club´s Oktoberfest at the beginning of last month and promised to keep in regular contact with the TFR.