Kıbrıs Media Group staff celebrate New Year at Lord’s Palace Hotel
STAFF at Kıbrıs Media Group are on a “mission” to improve life in the TRNC, the company’s owner, Asil Nadir, said on Saturday.
Mr Nadir, founding chairman of the group, which owns Cyprus Today, said employees at the company were providing guidance to the country and had a “very important duty”.
He made the comments to applause during a speech at the Lord’s Palace Hotel in Girne, where he threw an early New Year’s party for workers in recognition of their efforts during the last 12 months.
“All Kıbrıs Media Group workers are part of a mission,” he said. “We are working towards a mission.
“Have confidence in yourself and with that confidence do, with courage, whatever you can for this country to improve and pull itself together.”
Referring to his absence from the island after he left in 2010 on a quest for justice in the UK over the collapse of his Polly Peck International conglomerate, Mr Nadir said the time spent away, until April 2016, had been a “sacrifice” for North Cyprus.
“I spent five-and-a-half years abroad. I made myself believe that I was in the mountains. It was an interesting period but it was a sacrifice that needed to be done for the country.
“I regarded this as an honour and completed that period. Now I have a feeling that says, ‘Look ahead.’ We have very interesting projects that will bring tranquillity to the country.”
Mr Nadir also paid tribute to the “success and determination” of his wife and company vice-chairman Nur Nadir.
Mrs Nadir also spoke at the event, saying 2017 had been a “beautiful year” that had seen the number of “good-hearted” workers increase, while she had “parted ways” with those who had “failed to adapt to the pace of work”.
“We are continuing on our path for stronger unity and solidarity,” she said, adding that she hoped 2018 would be a “beautiful year for all”.
Mrs Nadir said she and her husband regarded life as a “battle between the good and the evil” and that they wanted “goodness, peace and beauty” to increase.