Skipped the morning conference presentations to meet Mustafa, who was waiting for me at the Ledra Street checkpoint, not the one at Ledra Palace (where I was waiting for him). He says that this confusion happens all the time, and that they always have to add in their venue instructions, “(Not at Ledra Street!)”.
Mustafa and I had a good conversation. I learned from him the work of the meetings of the Leaders of the Political Parties in Cyprus (all-party group), organised by the Czech Embassy. Rejoined the conference in the afternoon. I continued to video record some of the presentations. The conference organiser later asked me if I would be willing to share the recording with him. “Of course,” I replied. Indeed, there were several presentations on the launch of the book, “The Cyprus Referendum”, written by Chrysostomos Pericleous:And on the book launch of “Reunifying Cyprus: The Annan Plan and Beyond”, edited by Andrekos Varnava and Hubert Faustmann:
I had some free time before my evening meeting with Tolga, which I used to do some shopping along Ledra Street. Specifically, I was looking for a book for Madame Oui, “The Mistress of the Rock”, a novel written by Myron Edwards, around the Rock of Aphrodite. Only found one bookstore, which didn’t have it. The keeper told me there were no other bookstores nearby. Bummer. Will have to order it online.
For my mom, I bought some coconut Cyprus Delight (same as Turkish Delight, but understandably not called Turkish Delight by the Greek-Cypriots). Hope Mom likes the sweets. Before dinner, Tolga took me to a local bar for a drink. I asked for any local wine, which was promptly produced. Delicious. You can definitely tell local wine; it doesn’t have that chemical process taste to it. Dinner was at a contemporary restaurant situated right next to the Selimiye Mosque. Indeed, there was a call to prayers, played through the loudspeakers in Arabic, during our meal. Another fine meal and productive conversation. Tolga is teaching me much about the Turkish-Cypriot perspective.
