STELIOS CYPRUS BICOMMUNAL AWARDS 2018 WINNERS
PARTNERS for a historic friendly football match between North Cyprus’s Mağusa Türk Gücü (MTG) and the South’s Nea Salamina football clubs, a 1974 war veterans’ peace campaign, and research into the hazards of Lefke’s former CMC copper mine stood shoulder to shoulder with young generation innovators this year.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has contributed two million euros to the cause of bicommunal island enterprise since the launch of his annual awards in 2009 and this year received almost 350 partner applications.
MTG FC (“The Crows”) vicechairman Onur Bozkurt said: “It’s our dream for all Turkish Cypriot footballers to play in the international arena. The game will kick off on a date from March 15 to April 4, 2019 in Pile and is supported by the Monaco Peace and Sport organisation.
“Dr Okan Dağlı will represent us at a meeting in Rhodes next week and we hope the Cyprus Football Federation will approve.”
Former 1974 Lefke village guard Fethi Akıncı and the one-time enemy whom he thought he had shot dead, Greek Cypriot radio officer Yianni Maratheftis, were featured in Cyprus Today in 2009.
Reunited as friends after reading a book of Cypriot war memories, they were the subject of a film, visited nine South Cyprus schools as living examples of the folly of war, and still campaign for peace.
The list included 16 “Partners in Life” couples, the most popular category this year, following nine awarded couples last year and the first ever in 2015.
Chrisie Sea and Burak Doluay are one of the 16 mixed couples who won a Stelios Award for their relationship, as Mr Doluay also accepted a business award for his new platform Cyprus Inno.
Winners included nine business and five scientific collaborations alongside eight arts ventures, and three for sport, six nongovernmental organisations and a festival by the community leaders of the mixed village of Pile.
The village hosted its fourth Bicommunal Peace Festival last weekend, featuring a wealth of common tradition and culture.
The village leaders — Greek Cypriot Community Council head Simos Mytides and Turkish Cypriot muhtar Veysal Güden — pledged to repeat the event every year.
Mr Güden, who said the prize money would also go towards an excursion and a veterans’ football match, said: “We have proved to the world that we can live with each other in peace . . . A real and valuable peace has grown in our hearts and we hope it fills our village and our island.”
Lefke’s Environment and Promotion Association head Ahmet Hızlı is finally realising a 10-year dream to research the health effects of the abandoned Cyprus Mines Corporation site at Lefke with the Greek Cypriot Laona Foundation.
“Thanks to Stelios, we are also working with Raziye Kocaismail to analyse cancer statistics in the area and test the site and water for acids and cyanide,” he said.
Young innovators brought upbeat projects like the United Brewers’ “Drink for Peace” bicommunal home-brewed ale project by Costas Siahinian and Orçun Cananoğlu, featured in
Cyprus Today in August last year. Music won out for lead guitarist and vocalist Charis J Anderson, guitarists Tolga Ismail and Hakan Sonya and drummer Mert Güçlü, who have toured the island for the past two years as the rock band Blind Man’s Tale.
The Stelios award-winners said they had a common vision for peaceful co-existence, were fed up with physical and non-physical borders and that the award would help complete their debut album of original songs of unity next year.
Other arts projects include theatre for the deaf, bilingual poetry, photography shows, heritage fashion, art therapy and the short film The Hunt, by Kamil Saldun and Marios Petrondas.
Sir Stelios is also supporting social projects on mental health stigma, special educational needs and academic research projects including intercommunal island history and the archaeologists of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus.
Joint law firms, a digital directory for healthcare services, architectural walking tours and a Mandira Times news website also promise informative cooperation for Cypriots island-wide.