Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bananiot]

Mehmet Birinci, 53, and Andri Charalambous, 51, fell in love while discussing vacuum cleaners. It has proved to be an enduring relationship that recently won them a 50,000 euro prize from the Stelios Foundation for their bi-communal business, Achaco Cleaning systems. The award, by entrepreneur and Easy Jet founder Sir Stelios Hadji-ioannou, rewards bi-communal business co-operations which could benefit the island as whole.

Mehmet’s and Andri’s professional and romantic relationship started with an interview and was sealed with a bet over six years ago. At their first meeting in 2005, they were instantly fascinated with each other when Mehmet interviewed Andri for the position of a salesperson for his company distributing Kirby vacuum cleaners. The interview was meant to last for seven minutes sharp but went on for 2.5 hours, says Mehmet adding that on the sixth minute he asked Andri if she had any questions and it turned that she had many.

Mehmet was smitten with Andri who had even impressed his secretary when she called the previous day to set up the interview. “I think you found what you were looking for,” his secretary told him “but I was used to such talk and waited to see,” he says. “Andri came in for the interview and I cancelled all other appointments because the interview lasted so long. I understood I had found someone very special,” Mehmet says. Andri soon proved to be very capable and in time became a distributor herself. But part of the reason the initial interview took so long was that Andri was intrigued. “My interest was piqued by this man. He had the strength to open up a business in the south and one that involved direct contact with people as well!” Andri says. Andri admired Mehmet’s “courage” to start a business in the south when as a Turkish-Cypriot he was bound to receive a lot of discrimination.

Mehmet, who grew up in Ayios Nicolaos village in Paphos and speaks Greek, was 16 in 1974 and admits that things have not always been easy. “Some people would tell me that had they realised I was a Turkish Cypriot they would not have let me in their home. A woman once saw my ‘TRNC’ number plates and told me to leave,” Mehmet says. When he was setting up business, Mehmet even received a visit from an undercover policeman who was checking him out – “he saw it was all legitimate and that was the end of that.” “Setting up the business was easy. The problem is trust,” Mehmet and Andri say. But although some people have been suspicious, Mehmet’s Paphos origin helped him close a sale and win a bet: the bet “where (our relationship) started proper,” Andri says.

It was a Good Friday and Andri thought no one would open their doors to salespeople. Mehmet disagreed thinking that because everyone would be at home, it would be a good day to make sales. They decided to bet on who would be right. “It was a smart bet. I told her that if she won I would take her out to eat and if I won she would take me out to eat. For me, it was a win-win situation,” Mehmet says. After a month of knowing Andri, Mehmet realised he had feelings for her and was looking for a way to make them known. “The bet was an excuse,” Mehmet says. In the end, Mehmet won the bet because they knocked on the door of a Greek Cypriot man from Salamiou which is close to Mehmet’s home village. The man welcomed them in and he bought a Kirby vacuum cleaner as well.

They went to Lofou in Limassol which “was a bit romantic,” Mehmet says. Both Andri and Mehmet have children from previous marriages but when they met they had both been single for a while. They haven’t looked back since that initial date. “We have been together for six years and have a great time together,” Mehmet says. The couple even survived 17 months of a long-distance stint. Andri says excitedly that they are planning to get married on December 12, 2012.

They admire and respect each other as much as they are excited over their business and the product they sell. Mehmet for example says that he considers himself to be a good salesman but “Andri is easily among the best sales people in the world. She’s much better at it than I am and deserves her position as official Kirby distributor for Cyprus.” Mehmet froze his own company in 2006 and the couple started distributing Kirby vacuum cleaners using Andri’s company who by then was also a certified distributor.

He jokes that now no one can use the excuse that the products are being sold by a Turkish Cypriot. “Now the representative is Greek Cypriot and her husband happens to be a Turkish Cypriot,” he says. As much as Mehmet supports Andri so does she also support Mehmet. “I knew this man was remarkable when we met,” she says. Mehmet for example says that he used to be swayed by nationalist arguments and as a teenager longed for the day to fight for what he thought was his ethnicity as a Turk. He grew out of it, as he thinks most young people do, and has since then been involved in numerous peace-building projects. Instead of talking about difficulties, Mehmet would rather talk about love. He seems to be the romantic one in the relationship and Andri seems to share his enthusiasm and romanticism but tempers it with practicality.

Mehmet for example thinks that love above business may be the way to solve the Cyprus problem. “We should encourage young people to meet. We should encourage bi-communal marriages. If someone is half Turkish Cypriot and half Greek Cypriot they will not be Greek or Turkish, they will be Cypriots proper. And then if in 50 years someone gives you a weapon to go to war, who are you going to shoot, those from the mother’s side or those from the father’s side?” Mehmet says. Business arrangements can go sour and then people may end up blaming each other, Mehmet says. “Love is different.”

Andri is not so sure. “Encouraging inter-communal business relationships has to be the way forward. People are driven by common interests and goals,” she says. Andri and Mehmet do share common goals and they plan to use the money they earned from the Stelios Foundation to recruit more people and advertise.

The financial crisis has made things difficult and they suffered after taking out a big loan in 2008 to expand their business only to discover that the bank was not lending money to people or even creditable business associates. Be that as it may, they believe strongly in the quality of their vacuum cleaners. So much so that they give free in-house carpet cleaning demonstrations “to show it really works”.

[kurupetos]

...fell in love while discussing vacuum cleaners.

[B25]

Another case of a desperate housewife. Jesus, I mean, with a mug like that he can have her

Kirby vacuum cleaners are over rated and well over priced. the demos are hard sales and when they show you the crap from your bed, you say wow.

Then they give you a price and when you grumble it, they call the office and pretend to speak to the boss, who suddenly gives you a discount if you close there and then, still over priced.

I had one of these demos, they entered under false pretences, eventually 2.5 hours later I showed them the door. i was much younger and greener then.

Kirby my foot.

[Get Real!]

Women are always the most likely to commit treason... that's why I don't trust Oracle!