High Commissioner hosts launch of English-Speaking Union Cyprus

BRITISH HIGH Commissioner, Peter Millett, hosted the launch of the English-Speaking Union Cyprus on Monday night. The event was attended by over 100 guests from both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.

According to a press release, in launching the event, the organisation’s patron, First Lady Elsie Christofias, expressed her happiness at Cyprus joining “a family of over 50 countries” and said that the English language has an important role to play in Cyprus’ education system.

She stressed the importance of language in “building bridges”, saying that “the world needs understanding and English provides a way of achieving it.”

The High Commissioner underlined the importance of English as a way to build reconciliation and friendship. The ESU could therefore play an important role in Cyprus.

Garo Keheyan, Chairman of the English-Speaking Union Cyprus, described the ESU as a “community of kindred spirits” and said this was as “a wonderful opportunity for Cypriots to interact with people from all over the world.”

In handing over the ESU flag, the organisation’s chairman, the Lord Watson highlighted the motto “Global understanding through English.”

This was not, he said, about the domination of English over other languages but about using English to give people the means and encouragement to express ideas.

The English-Speaking Union is an international charity founded in 1918 to promote international understanding and friendship through the use of the English language.

The organisation is present in over 51 overseas countries and has branches as well as 40 within the UK.

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.