By Margaret Sheard ….
We were invited to attend an event in the garden of Bellapais Abbey on Tuesday 27th July for the launch of a book by Bellapais Inner Wheel Club entitled “Pioneering Turkish Women of Cyprus”.
It was a very warm evening and we were pleased to see so many people attending this event who welcomed the Founding President of Bellapais Inner Wheel Club, First Lady Sibel Tatar, who was accompanied by her husband, President Ersin Tatar.
We were treated to a film show on a large screen which covered many of the 78 women who appear in the book together with their biographies and this was followed with presentations of the book to those women still surviving or others accepting the book in their place. We were pleased to see Raziye Kocaismail of Tulips (Help Those with Cancer Association) at the event and found she is also one of the pioneering women appearing in this very informative book and she was proud to be presented with a copy on stage and made a short speech.
I haven’t had a chance to read all through the biographies yet but having been given a copy of the book, in English, I was able to look up some of the women as they appeared on the screen and establish who they were and what they achieved, which was very helpful.
It was quite a long evening but a very interesting one and I know I will enjoy continuing to read this book to familiarise myself with these pioneering women.
