First Turkish Cypriot in the House of Lords

A TURKISH Cypriot woman has been appointed to Britain’s House of Lords for the first time, the country’s Liberal Democratic party announced.
“I feel honoured and humbled to be appointed to the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat Working Peer,” Meral Hussein Ece OBE said. “It is a huge privilege for someone from my background.”
Baroness Ece was announced as a working peer late last month after being awarded the OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours in 2009.
Ece has been politically active for more than 20 years, serving as a councillor from 1994 to 2002, in Hackney Council and, councillor for Islington between 2002 and 2010.
Ece had appointed as a Commissioner to the Equality and Human Rights Commission in November, 2009.
Born in Islington, she was one of the first women from Britain’s Turkish Cypriot community to be elected as councillor.
“I look forward to carry on the work that I have done all my life, to stand up for equality, promote tolerance, and be a voice for the disadvantaged in our communities,” Ece said. 
“I am conscious of the historic nature of my appointment as the first ever Peer from a Turkish-Cypriot background. I will do whatever I can to ensure people from all ethnic minority backgrounds, are encouraged to become involved in public life in the UK,” she added.
Ece’s family came from the Larnaca district, arriving in the UK in the early 1950’s.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.