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It was the era of the referendum when we met.
I was working for Halkin Sesi and since then we cooperate and work together.
We’ve become friends.
At the beginning our cooperation was purely about the reporting
but later on this evolved into a friendship.
Since then we are often in touch with each other
both for our profession but also in a broader sense, to exchange opinions.
If I am to give an example of our cooperation, I remember a story of a Turkish Cypriot woman from the village of Doğancı.
accidentally, and a Greek Cypriot man saved her life, he took her to hospital.
We cooperated on this subject, we exchanged the stories and their phone numbers of the two sides.
It started when we published the story about this Greek Cypriot and then Aral
was able to find the Turkish Cypriot woman.
At the end we were able to bring together
a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot who had not met since 1974.
Now regarding our cooperation in general,
I found it very helpful to also have ‘the other’ opinion and a different perspective.
This has really helped me in my profession.
The general benefit from our cooperation is that you not only have a different opinion
but you can also get a first hand experience for ‘the pulse’ of the Turkish Cypriots.
I can say this for myself but my guess is that Aral
can also say the same things for the Greek Cypriot community.
This is the main benefit from our cooperation.
Of course what I would like to emphasize is that it’s not just a professional relationship anymore.
It is a friendship and something that has moved on to a different level.
Besides our professional lives, we are very close friends,
we celebrate our religious days,
we congratulate each other on our special days, like marriage
or for example I remember when he became a father, we met and celebrated together.
For me personally it has eliminated different myths
as to what exists on the other side of the division line.
It has helped me see things more clearly.
In general life itself it’s all about cooperation.
Even in your marriage you cooperate with your husband and your wife.
This is the core of life.
Cooperation.