Thank you, Izmir!

Three guys from Izmir, three presidents, and, most importantly, three very good friends were eager and motivated to organise an EBM that would go down in history due to its greatness. My personal judgement: Mission completed! Right from arriving in Bornova, Turkey, where the EBM took place,  I could easily see that everything went smoothly and that the EBM was going to be as successful as the organisers had promised. I myself arrived in the middle of the night with other participants from AEGEE-Çanakkale, AEGEE-Istanbul, and loads of other Europeans after participating in the Pre-EBM. After very few hours of sleep, as always in AEGEE events, it was ready – set – go and four days of craziness, learning, and hard work began.

The EBM took place at Ege University where every meeting point for breakfast, lunch, dinner, gym, plenary halls, workshop rooms etc. were placed within close distance and there were absolutely no excuse not to show up for the things planned in the programme. Another reason to be actively participating at the whole event was that the program was packed with skilled speakers for panel discussions such as Dr. James Skelly, professor of peace studies Magee College, University of Ulster, Peter Matjasic, president of European Youth Forum, Prof. Dr. H. Gül Turan, president of EMI Turkey and much more. Furthermore, there were workshops about social inclusion, Where Does Economy End? & “An undefined adventure of direction: Turkey” concerning Turkey’s application to become part of the European Union- and the list goes on.

For me, AEGEE is the best possibility to learn firsthand about culture and politics, because you learn much more hearing it from the people themselves than reading a book. To be honest, few people around me knew that I was in Turkey, not because I was ashamed, but mostly because the sad truth is that Turkey does not have a perfect image in my country: Denmark. For that reason what I value the most out of going to the EBM was getting to create my own opinion on the country, through getting new friends, and learning about their opinion about important matters such as Turkey’s application to become part of the European Union and how Turkey is portrayed in other countries, such as Denmark. The outcome was that I fell absolutely in love with Turkey and will try my best to work against the sad stereotype that people may have.

I would say that one of the main reasons for me enjoying İzmir so much was that it was impossible not being affected by the energy that came from the participants and organisers. The whole event started with music, laughter, and dancing in the opening ceremony in which the participants had a difficult time staying seated – all they wanted was to laugh and enjoy the opening entertainment which was filled with Turkish music and dancing. Throughout the event the organisers were visible 24/7 with their red organiser sweatshirts and with their huge smiles. They never showed any sign of exhaustion, even though they probably did not get much sleep, they were always there to wake up the participants, answer any question, and provide coffee, chocolate, Red Bull and much more (for free!).

Turkey may not be part of the European Union but their antennae do play a huge part of our network and in many of our hearts, as the headline says, “Teşekkürler İzmir!”