There have been many stories in circulation about the 2021 International Congress of Byzantine Studies that was supposed to take place in Istanbul, but instead was moved to Venice-Padua and became ICBS 2022. Melek Delilbaşı, president of the Turkish National Committee of Byzantine Studies and the Turkish organizing committee of ICBS 2021-Istanbul, told her story of the events to Buket Kitapçı Bayrı in an interview published in Turkish in 2022. Sadly, Melek Delilbaşı had by then passed away in September 2022. An English translation has now been made available by Buket Kitapçı Bayrı.

I take this opportunity to express my deepest respect for Melek Delilbaşı and the other members of the Turkish organizing committee of ICBS 2021-Istanbul, for their warm inclusion of me in their community during my years in Istanbul (2019-2021), and for their constant kindness and relentless hard work under circumstances that are more difficult than most of us can imagine.

Ingela Nilsson