By Heidi Trautmann

It is so good to say thank you once in a while, thank you for the daily meals, for one's family and friends, for peace and friendship. You may say it softly to yourself or you may celebrate it as they do it in some countries with all their heart. It is one of the important national holidays celebrated in North America and Canada, although in Germany we have a similar festivity but more religiously oriented. It is celebrated in the last days of November each year and I know that the occasion is a must for all family to return home to give thanks over a turkey roast.

This year in 2014 the US Ambassador John M. Koenig and his wife invited a crowd of friends to celebrate the occasion and have at their table some immigrant American friends with whom they shared the traditional turkey, among them our Debbie, the girl from Oklahoma and her husband Mehmet Mustafaoğlu who is the Honorary Representative of the TRNC in Los Angeles.

A couple of days later – and I am sure the event was organised over the delicious turkey roast – Debbie – Demetra George – was invited to present a concert for honoured guests among them ambassadors from various countries under the motto ONE WORLD and HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. Judging from the enthusiastic letter Debbie sent, it must have been a wonderful evening…. ‘I sang 20 songs in eight different languages for the guests,  songs from opera, Broadway and for Christmas which is just around the corner, accompanied by our Maestro Rauf Kasimov.  With me was my husband Mehmet and other guests from the North were Fikri Toros and Beril Oztunali, Hatice Kerimgil, Rauf Kasimov’s wife Ayla, and Desi Bastas, music teacher of the English School in Kyrenia, and her husband Ahmet a cousin of Mehmet….’

I can vividly imagine the scene, apart from the photos I saw and which I am posting here, that Debbie was again acting as the big entertainer, she is so cool and knowledgeable, so involved with what she does, and everybody was certainly carried away by not only her music and her soprano voice but by getting people involved…. ‘Heidi, you cannot imagine, how our TC friends were supporting me as chorus and soon everybody joined in….and I invited the Austrian Ambassador to waltz with me while I sang along in German.  I had standing ovations and also the TC Chorus when we sang Memleketim, and I grabbed Fikri Toros to play for us Gounod’s Ave Maria.  My thanks go to all of them and especially to Rauf Kasimov who accompanied me on the piano.’

Yes, I agree with Debbie, we are citizens of one world, the only one we have, although for decades now they are desperately trying to find another planet. Only when we communicate and get together and learn about the other, there will be a peaceful ONE WORLD.