By Chris Elliott……
Having had ongoing contact with the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Margaret Sheard and I were delighted to be asked by their new Undersecretary, Ismet Esenyel to help facilitate a meeting with representatives of English speaking NGO’s in Northern Cyprus and this meeting took place today at the OTEM Center Girne.
Attending the meeting:
Anglo Turkish Association (ATA) The British Residents Society (BRS)
Pearl Mitchell Stephen Day and Mike Maternaghan
The Foreign Residents in the TRNC (TFR)
Heinz Nauroth, Ralph Kratzer and Naci Kaya
Royal British Legion (RBL) British Cemetery Commission
Brian Thomas BEM Tim Harris.
The purpose of this meeting was for the Ministry of Tourism and Environment to meet and make contact with representatives of English speaking NGOs to learn of the concerns and difficulties of expatriates living in Northern Cyprus so that these issues could be studied and where possible solutions found.
This first meeting today, 7th September 2016, brought forward a number of key issues which Ismet Esenyel said he would look into and come back with answers and proposals.
He further added that he was delighted to have met those present and would like to have further meetings and cyprusscene.com was asked to continue to help by arranging further meetings and keep all delegates informed.
The next meeting is to be arranged and Margaret Ray of Kyrenia Animal Rescue will also be attending and where possible, cyprusscene will help provide progress reports for the media.
Left to Right : Chris Elliott, Margaret Sheard, Mike Maternaghan, Pearl Mitchell, Heinz Nauroth, Stephen Day, Ismet Esenyel, Naci Kaya, Ralph Kratzer and Brian Thomas
Very encouraging move on the part of Ministry of Tourism and Environment ç Lets hope it is continued as all expats that are living in Cyprus should feel they are contributing for the good of the country and benefiting from it as well.
As you say Sermen a very encouraging move on the part of Ministry of Tourism and Environment and in time, lets hope good things develop as a result of this initiative.
Good morning, are there any minutes of the meeting….if so can İ have a copy please….john
Hello John,
No doubt there will be information shared between the NGO groups who in turn will copy to their members so if you are not already a member of one of these groups, now is perhaps the time to consider joining one of them.
The Mınıstry of Tourısm wıth theır new Undersecretary Mr İsmet Esenyel and Expat NGO’s
Once they get together they can do a lot of good thıngs for the Island and also themselves for ınstance the hıstorıcal sıdes need to be prepared and marketed thus they wıll be creatıng employment for those expats who mıght want to work and promotıng Tourısm whıch they are very good at doıng so the government must open the way for all those expats who want to be doıng somethıng to help the country.
Thıs can only benefıt both sıdes Tourism Is The Essence For North Cyprus Economy.
Well done Chrıs and Margaret your efforts mıght bear fruıt
Thank you John for your kind words of appreciation. This is the start of what we hope will be a great and productive initiative.
I would like to more information on joining !
Hello Bill,
Sorry but this is not a group you can join so let me explain a little more about it.
The Ministry of Tourism and Environment originally asked cyprusscene to facilitate a meeting with English speaking expatriates so we helped them arrange a meeting with representatives of NGO’s who are the Anglo Turkish Association, British Residents’ Society, Royal British Legion and The Foreign Residents in the TRNC to learn from them what issues or problems they face.
Naturally issues outside the remit of the Ministry of Tourism and Environment were raisied so an NGO working group was formed to take issues to other ministries and at the moment we are starting to focus on Road Safety and Work Permit issues but it’s going to be a long slog before we can we can give information back to the NGO’s and media for general publication.
Thank you for your interest and desire to support this group.