Chris Elliott and Margaret Sheard are sad to announce that they are no longer sharing cyprusscene.com news and reviews with a local English language newspaper.
Read More →
Spring Clean at Cyprusscene.com
By Chris Elliott……..
Looking back at this past year we have seen an astronomical reading growth of our website and perhaps due to this, and the way in which we publish in a promotional fashion, this brings even more news and reviews to our door by readers who 
seek our help and value the way we give it.
That is great news but we are very conscious of the need to keep cyprusscene looking fresh and positive so we gave it a little spring clean with a new newspaper style layout.
This proved to be a very helpful change as the icon links to many TRNC government websites, many of which are in English, are now in a more prominent position. That means those who wish to seek news or information or even contact the government departments can do so by clicking our links.
We also now have room to place many other news article features within the initial readings zone and for example readers can, if they wish, send their news and reviews contributions for publication on cyprusscene and also northcyprusforum – the friendly forum. Click here for more information
May we take this opportunity of thanking all of our news and reviews contributors, both old and new, who have helped us grow cyprusscene from a small blog to a much sought after news and reviews website about Northern Cyprus which has a worldwide readership.
Cyprusscene brings news of the TRNC Ministry of Health
By Chris Elliott…….
Cyprusscene.com is committed to publishing news and information in English from Northern Cyprus for our local and worldwide readership but as the mother tongue is Turkish and with a lot of official information being published in Turkish, the task is not easy!
I recently came across the website for the TRNC Ministry of Health which is very good especially for those expatriates that live or visit here and want information on healthcare and health issues but sadly it is in Turkish and needs translation.
That’s no problem as there is a Google App that will allow your Android, PC, Iphone or Ipad device to translate a foreign language website if you wish to read it in your own language. Depending on the language chosen some words translated may not be correct but if you can understand the bulk of the page you are reading for information, then that surely is really very helpful especially if in this case you wanted to read about healthcare in the TRNC.
Click here to visit the TRNC Ministry of Health website and click here for information on how to install your Google App for Android, PC, Iphone or Ipad.
As a service to local and worldwide readers we have included a widget click link at the bottom of our cyprusscene home page (shown below) which will allow you to visit many TRNC Government websites most of which are in English but of course you can now translate those that are in the Turkish language as well.
Click Here Click Here Click Here Click Here
Cyprus Today newspaper goes online
By Chris Elliott…..
Today I have been putting the finishing touches to a presentation I will be making to a luncheon group soon about how and why cyprusscene started.
Basically I had the opportunity of writing for two North Cyprus newspapers in the past and I became frustrated with the knowledge that the newspapers could not tell me what articles had been read and by how many people if they published them and eventually wanting to be my own master, I graduated by creating a website cyprusscene.com which is non-commercial and has become the favourite reading of many people around the world which is so important as we can publish news about North Cyprus that others would not publish.
Cyprusscene is now almost 5 years old and we know how many people read our articles and where our readers live. Oddly the most highly all time read article is TRNC Post Codes which has had more than 45.000 readings. The bulk of our readers are in the UK, Turkey, Cyprus, USA, Australia etc.
Now all of this came about through a lot of hard work and education and we thank all of our contributors who have shared their news and reveiws with us.
Today we received some great news that the much beloved newspaper “Cyprus Today” has gone on line with a website and Facebook page and we send them our warmest wishes for a successful future as they now have a lot of news and reviews to start publishing on the internet and will soon start to enjoy the same successes we have achieved.
Cyprusscene.com and the road ahead in 2017
By Chris Elliott…….
The end of 2016 brings cyprusscene.com moving forward into its 5th year and what a fascinating journey it has continued to be.
During this time we have seen many writers and contributors bringing their news and review articles to our pages and long may it continue so that we can share with the community, and the worldwide readership through our sharing partners, websites and forum.
We also have our individual projects and Margaret Sheard has worked very hard and has been very successful in building a network of contacts that have provided so many human interest stories of times gone by including articles about Newman’s Farm, PC Yusuf Ziya, The Suffolk Regiment, The Cyprus Rock and so much more.
Ladies always come first and it was with great delight that we were able to welcome Kathy Martin who, following the sad loss of her husband, took up the challenge to write about him and other subjects and now has found happiness and made so many friends by becoming part of our core team of writers.
Of Arts and Culture we were delighted to have the opportunity of sharing some great articles of events from the website of Heidi Trautmann.
Talking of life in Cyprus, Sermen and his brother Eren Erdogan have written some brilliant accounts of their childhood memories in the Governor’s House in Nicosia and other Cyprus articles and we hope many more article will follow.
Ismail Veli has developed his love of writing further to produce some fascinating articles on all sorts of subjects to go with his collection of articles about Cyprus and its people, history and culture.
Ralph Kratzer the Secretary of The Foreign Residents in the TRNC (TFR) continues to develop their website and brings us many accounts of their events plus commenting on topical subjects.
For sport loving people we have regular reports on ladies Cricket from Nigel Holman and about the Gentlemen of Girne cricket team from Danish Afridi.
We should not of course forget football with the great reports from Richard Beale about Esentepe KKSK team matches which also have video highlights provided by Graham Brown and we hope we will see sport reports coming from other contributors during 2017.
For my part I had the pleasure of helping both individuals and a number of organisations develop their own websites or blogs who in turn bring their news and reviews for sharing across our media community.
We are also now working with NGO’s and groups interested in helping to make North Cyprus better and where we can, we are talking with government offices and authorities to share thoughts and ideas, as well as offers of help and to establish the vital information that expatriates seek.
Talking of information, thanks also go to Trevor Hughes for his very informative monthly Trevor’s Tips article and Chemist Rota.
Finally I would like to thank Denise Phillips, Can Gazi and Engin Dervisaga, the Radio and TV presenters who provide us with news of the weekly shows on Bayrak Radio and Television many of which are interviews with so many fascinating people in our community.
Despite many technical difficulties we re-launched North Cyprus Forum.net which has a blog section for news shared from other websites in our group plus we have the all important Friendly Forum where members can share their thoughts and news and reviews and in 2017 we plan to expand this feaurure for all of those folk who wish to apply for membership.
So what of the future for 2017, well we are looking to bring a few more people into our hobbyist team who can help with the processing and sharing of your news and reviews and also develop their own passion for writing and creating entertaining reading.
In the meanwhile we send our best wishes for a healthy, prosperous and successful 2017 to all of our readers.
A Happy New Year on board flight 2017 with cyprusscene.com
A Happy New Year on Board
I would like to thank all of those contributors old and new for the news and reviews which we have shared on cyprusscene and other websites and social media pages to a worldwide audience.
We send our wishes to you all for a Happy New Year and hope that this will be full of peace and prosperity for everybody throughout the world.
To you all, thank you and best wishes in the year ahead.
Chris Elliott
‘Happy New Year’
The New Year suddenly appears on the horizon ….
The Boarding on Flight 2017
has been announced…..
Your luggage should only contain the best souvenirs from 2016
the bad and sad moments should be left in the garbage….
The duration of the flight will be 12 months.
The next stop-overs will be :
Health, Love, Joy, Harmony, Well-being and Peace.
The Captain offers you the following menu
which will be served during the flight :
A Cocktail of Friendship
A Supreme of Health
A gratin of prosperity
A Bowl of Excellent News
A Salad of Success
A Cake of Happiness
All accompanied
By bursts of laughter
Wishing You and Yours
An enjoyable trip
On board Flight 2017
May This Be
Your Best Year Ever!!
03-11-16 Main Event Kathy Martin one year on from becoming a widow in TRNC
By Kathy Martin…
On Thursday 3rd November 2016, I joined Denise aka Radio Angel at Bayrak Radio Station in Lefkoşa (Nicosia). We had carried out a radio interview in January 2016, after my filming with Can (pronounced Jan) Gazi for his “Cup of Conversation” show, following my husband Alistair’s death on 1st November 2015.
Read More →
Vox Pop brings a Cyprusscene and North Cyprus Forum Review
By Chris Elliott…….
We all learn by our experiences and if we are smart, we then take experiences good and bad and develop our ideas to maximise their potential and this we have been doing on cyprusscene.com for the past 4 years.
During this period we have had the pleasure of publishing TV and Radio preview articles for Denise Phillips, Can Gazi and Engin Dervişağa from Bayrak Radio and Television Corporation and from time to time they have interviewed us about a number of our projects.
At about this time 12 months ago we took over North Cyprus Forum.net the Friendly Forum which had been owned and run by our dear friend Nigel Watson before he passed away. Like many others, I had published in his forum but on being asked to take it over I soon discovered that it was a system that I did not understand but with help from a number of people we redeveloped it to a point where we 
realized we had made many improvements but it had some serious issues we could not overcome, so about 6 months ago we decided to start from scratch and rebuild it in Nigel’s memory and for all of those folk who had previously followed his forum.
Using the WordPress system which we were very comfortable with, we created a new North Cyprus Forum which would also take full news and reviews articles from cyprusscene and other partner websites.
We then added a forum section and have slowly but surely been growing its friendly membership despite massive registration attempts by undesirable and dangerous individuals and I can only thank our security system and expert moderator who deals with these issues.
The questions we are always asked are “why do you share news so widely?” Our activities are still very much an all consuming hobby and we just love to share community news and reviews for people in as many places as possible to give the news provider with the greatest gain possible.
For us to try to publish exclusive news and reviews in one internet media source simply restricts the news to a smaller readership which does not help the provider.
People often say to me “why place the news in more than one place” and my reply is we all have a preference for everything we consume including where we read the news and may become brand loyal, so if the news is duplicated in many locations then the maximum number of people may be reached.
I invite you to watch the following Vox Pop interview by Engin Dervişağa for BRT2 Television when we talked to him and he asked many questions which we hope will tell you more of our efforts to bring your news and reviews to a worldwide readership through cyprusscene.com and North Cyprus Forum.net the Friendly Forum.
For those readers who would like to join North Cyprus Forum the Friendly Forum please click here
Vox Pop on BRT Television 19/06/2016 with Cyprusscene and North Cyprus Forum
By Engin Dervişağa…..
Here at BRTK, our team contribute many weekly articles to promote our TV and Radio shows thorough cyprusscene.com and by popular demand we are repeating our Vox Pop show when we visited the home of Chris Elliott and Margaret Sheard again to discover how our articles are received by their world wide audience.
Chris reflected on how over the past 4 years since they moved away from writing in local english language newspapers, how the many articles and reviews that are sent to them, have now gained a far larger outreach on the internet which in turn has encouraged many more people and organisations to seek their help and support.
Not bad for two retired people with an all consuming hobby which is proving so successful in sharing news that it has even outlived other commercial online news media and newspapers.
If that was not enough to tax anyone’s time and patience, Chris told me he was asked to take over North Cyprus Forum.net during the latter part of last year following the death of his friend and mentor, Nigel Watson in 2014 and this has proved to be an incredible project to rebuild the forum alongside a blogging system into which cyprusscene.com and other websites and writers share their articles.
Chris said, we have tried to maintain Nigel’s dream of a friendly forum and it is still early days with a small sweet forum membership developing and for every 1 member registering, we have turned away 3 undesirable or suspicious applications with the use of a very effective security system and great help from one of the forum’s original moderators..
I asked Chris again as I have asked so many times before, why does he do it and he said “We are just the bearer of news and reviews of others which we want to share widely for the benefit of those it is about and also for the enjoyment of our readers no matter what website or social media page the articles are placed in. Many people say to me, is your operation a commercial one and I say no, we do not take money and to consider starting a company just to earn money through advertising and promotional activities is not worth the efforts as others have proved who are no longer publishing.
Many of our readers and BRT2 viewers will have seen many of the fine promotional articles and reviews written by Margaret Sheard and she told me about their desire to make available as much helpful information as possible to their worldwide readers and that both she and Chris have contacts with a number of TRNC ministries from which they gain and publish information.
One of Margaret’s current projects is writing promotional articles about the Cyprus Rock project which is almost a one man task by David Littlemore to have a 3 ton piece of Cyprus Rock which has been shipped from Cyprus to the UK and will be used as the central feature of a memorial in the National Memorial Arboretum to all of the British Servicemen and also UK Cyprus Police who lost their lives during the Cyprus Emergency. To read more of this project please click here.
Margaret also compiles and maintains a weekly events calendar which is shared on websites and social media pages.
I have met a number of the writers for cyprusscene.com in the past and I was delighted to meet Steven Roberts who moved to the TRNC during the latter part of last year and has already written a number of very interesting and successful articles about local events and reviews.
One of his projects was a series of articles over a few weeks recording how parts of Iskele town centre were being turned into a film set. The Turkish film director Ali Avci was in the TRNC making a new film called ‘Reis’ (Leader) documenting the life of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Iskele was being transformed to look like the Kasimpasa district of Istanbul, where Erdogan spent his life in the 1950’s. The film could not be made in Istanbul because so much development has taken place in the last couple of decades.
He also wrote a series of articles about driving from the UK to the TRNC with a lot of very helpful information for others who may wish to do the same and is looking long term to write more and also try to raise readers’ awareness and promote the Karpaz region in which he lives.
Please tune in to my Vox Pop show on BRT2 Television on Sunday 19th June at 15.00pm to learn all about cyprusscene.com and North Cyprus Forum.net and this show will be repeated on Wednesday 22nd June at 11.00am.
To go direct to BRT 2 TV to watch these shows by live streaming on your PC at Cyprus local time click here and if you want to learn more of Bayrak Radio and Television click here
If you wish you can also watch a number of my past Vox Pop shows which can be selected for viewing by clicking here
For Radio Lovers do also tune in and join me on BRT Radio on Saturday at 19.00pm for my programme Top Twenty which is compiled by DJ Bora and this show is repeated on Sunday at 15.00pm. We are transmitting this on 6.150 MH/z. Short-wave, 87.8 and 105 FM Stereo or tune click here
For those local readers who have interesting hobbies or interests who think it could make an interesting subject for a TV show, do please send me a message.
Vox Pop on BRT Television 08/05/2016 with Cyprusscene and North Cyprus Forum
By Engin Dervişağa…..
Here at BRTK, our team contribute many weekly articles to promote our TV and Radio shows thorough cyprusscene.com so I decided to visit the home of Chris Elliott and Margaret Sheard again to discover how our articles are received by their world wide audience
Chris reflected on how over the past 4 years since they moved away from writing in local english language newspapers, how the many articles and reviews that are sent to them, have now gained a far larger outreach on the internet which in turn has encouraged many more people and organisations to seek their help and support.
Not bad for two retired people with an all consuming hobby which is proving so successful in sharing news that it has even outlived other commercial online news media and newspapers.
If that was not enough to tax anyone’s time and patience, Chris told me he was asked to take over North Cyprus Forum.net during the latter part of last year following the death of his friend and mentor, Nigel Watson in 2014 and this has proved to be an incredible project to rebuild the forum alongside a blogging system into which cyprusscene.com and other websites and writers share their articles.
Chris said, we have tried to maintain Nigel’s dream of a friendly forum and it is still early days with a small sweet forum membership developing and for every 1 member registering, we have turned away 3 undesirable or suspicious applications with the use of a very effective security system and great help from one of the forum’s original moderators..
I asked Chris again as I have asked so many times before, why does he do it and he said “We are just the bearer of news and reviews of others which we want to share widely for the benefit of those it is about and also for the enjoyment of our readers no matter what website or social media page the articles are placed in. Many people say to me, is your operation a commercial one and I say no, we do not take money and to consider starting a company just to earn money through advertising and promotional activities is not worth the efforts as others have proved who are no longer publishing.
Many of our readers and BRT2 viewers will have seen many of the fine promotional articles and reviews written by Margaret Sheard and she told me about their desire to make available as much helpful information as possible to their worldwide readers and that both she and Chris have contacts with a number of TRNC ministries from which they gain and publish information.
One of Margaret’s current projects is writing promotional articles about the Cyprus Rock project which is almost a one man task by David Littlemore to have a 3 ton piece of Cyprus Rock which has been shipped from Cyprus to the UK and will be used as the central feature of a memorial in the National Memorial Arboretum to all of the British Servicemen and also UK Cyprus Police who lost their lives during the Cyprus Emergency. To read more of this project please click here.
Margaret also compiles and maintains a weekly events calendar which is shared on websites and social media pages.
I have met a number of the writers for cyprusscene.com in the past and I was delighted to meet Steven Roberts who moved to the TRNC during the latter part of last year and has already written a number of very interesting and successful articles about local events and reviews.
One of his projects was a series of articles over a few weeks recording how parts of Iskele town centre were being turned into a film set. The Turkish film director Ali Avci was in the TRNC making a new film called ‘Reis’ (Leader) documenting the life of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Iskele was being transformed to look like the Kasimpasa district of Istanbul, where Erdogan spent his life in the 1950’s. The film could not be made in Istanbul because so much development has taken place in the last couple of decades.
He also wrote a series of articles about driving from the UK to the TRNC with a lot of very helpful information for others who may wish to do the same and is looking long term to write more and also try to raise readers’ awareness and promote the Karpaz region in which he lives.
Please tune in to my Vox Pop show on BRT2 Television on Sunday 8th May at 15.30pm to learn all about cyprusscene.com and North Cyprus Forum.net and this show will be repeated on Wednesday 11th May at 11.00am.
To go direct to BRT 2 TV to watch these shows by live streaming on your PC at Cyprus local time click here and if you want to learn more of Bayrak Radio and Television click here
If you wish you can also watch a number of my past Vox Pop shows which can be selected for viewing by clicking here
For Radio Lovers do also tune in and join me on BRT Radio on Saturday at 19.00pm for my programme Top Twenty which is compiled by DJ Bora and this show is repeated on Sunday at 15.00pm. We are transmitting this on 6.150 MH/z. Short-wave, 87.8 and 105 FM Stereo or tune click here