He has been active in AEGEE for many years, managed successful projects and experienced duties in different levels of AEGEE. His ambition for experiencing and exploring seem to not fade away as we saw the announcement that Perçin İmrek (AEGEE-Cannakale) was selected as chair person for Model European Union 2013 in Strasbourg.
AEGEEan: Could you share with us what you have been doing in recent months and a little about your military service for our readers?
Now I am back in Turkey, preparing for my military service that will start December 12th 2012. This month I am in Canakkale, the city where I studied. I am mostly busy meeting my old professors, doing lots of sports and planning my future after the military.
About my military service, I am obliged to do it as a Turkish citizen, where I will most probably be recruited as a private between the months December 2012 to May 2013. It is not that long, but it is still a hunch I need to get rid of. There is also a chance that I will be recruited as a Lieuitenant, but that would mean I will do my service for 11 months. The only good thing about being a Lieuitenant is that I would get paid. But I would much rather choose the short term service. I still think it will be an interesting experience.
Why did you decide to apply for the position of the chair person at Model European Union (MEU) 2013 in the first place?
As you know, I have previous chairing experience in AEGEE, working as the chair person. It is something that I believe I am good at, and I enjoy doing. So I wanted to take it to the next level. This is also something that I would aspire to do professionally in the future (ex: chairing the meetings of the United Nations). Therefore, I believed that the MEU is the perfect place for me to show my skills and get more experience. MEU is an important platform where young professionals work and one can prove himself there.
Perçin with AEGEE-İstanbul members
Can you tell us about Model European Union? How was your previous experience about the event and what are your expectations for the next one?
Model European Union, as you can understand from its name, is an event where young people simulate the sessions in the European Parliament and the Council on a certain topic. There is a made-up topic (when we had the simulation in the college last year, the topic was airport slot allocations) where the exact procedure of the co-decision system in the European Union is being simulated both on the Parliament and the Council level. The participants are divided into MEP’s and Ministers, where they discuss and vote on those topics. The chairperson (either the Parliament or the Council) is responsible for chairing these meetings, managing them on time and keeping a flowing and constructive discussion going on.
My previous experience in MEU is none, so to say. This is because I have never attended an MEU before (I know its bizarre, since most of the chairs are former MEU participants or organisers). But I have simulation experience from my simulation class in the College of Europe last year, where I acted as a Polish MEP from S&D (Social Democrats). And as I told before, I have chairing experience in AEGEE as the chairperson.
How do you see the event in general? As I was trying to gather more knowledge about MEU, I realised the website is not so well updated and some informtation is missing. Are you thinking of doing something about this and make MEU more known?
I know the event proves to be a success every year. I confirm these rumours by the testimony of my friends who attended the MEU in the previous years.
About the website, I can not help you much there, since it is the task of the organisers. They have asked for our info and photos to put on the website, so I can only imagine that it is on process and all the info will be there soon.
How you see your preparation for Model European Union 2013?
I already have a broad knowledge on how the European institutions work (especially the European Parliament, which I will be chairing). Therefore, I will just refresh my knowledge on it, prepare on the topic, learn all the rules by heart and use my previous experience. With the combination of all these, I think everything will go smoothly.
You are experienced in being a chair person for AEGEE’s statutory events, though the content is not the same as MEU. Could you tell what kind of challenges you are expecting?
Since I have never been in an MEU, I cannot compare. But I was in the selection training for the MEU in Berlin, where we held a little simulation. I have seen some differences with AEGEE there.
First of all, the MEU participants have a much better level of English. In AEGEE we have a lot of people who speak very good English, but we also have a lot who do not. In the MEU, all the participants are above a certain level of English. Apart from that, the MEU participants have a very broad knowledge on European topics, while AEGEE is much more heterogeneous than that.
I have seen that in AEGEE I have learned to be more interventionist (or maybe that is because of my character), which means I do not hesitate to intervene when I deem necessary. I have seen that the other MEU chair candidates did not do that. Maybe that’s what got me selected after all.
Therefore, it is certain that AEGEE and MEU are two different worlds. But I have been in an environment similar to MEU before in, as I said, the College of Europe.
Perçin with the chair team in EBM Riga
What are your future plans after the military service especially?
I have a few paths which I drew, and I will sure follow one of them after my military service.
First of all, I will be in Nairobi, Kenya in the summer, working in an organisation that helps children to go to school. I will help with their fundraising activities, plus I will be an English teacher in the public schools.
After that, I will enter the concurrence (selection process) for the ministry of Foreign Affairs in Turkey.
I will also apply for the European Commission and the European Parliament as an intern.
I will apply for a Phd scholarship that is funded by the European Commission, where I can do my Phd in Rome and one year in Boston.
Another plan is that I would like to open a Language School and an Academy in Canakkale, Turkey. I will of course not do all of these, but most probably one of these plans will happen.
Is there anything you want to tell the ones who might want to go for this position in the future,what steps they will need to take and how experienced they should be?
Apart from the typical cliche words (Be disciplined, never give up, take every failure as a lesson, do not listen to everything that people say, trust yourself etc…), I can tell them that they should do what makes them happy. And if they think being the chairperson in the MEU is what makes them happy and that can bring them a step forward in life, there is no reason not to be. If I managed it, anyone can, because there is no difference between me or any other person.
Thank you for your time Percin! The AEGEEan wishes you good luck with your plans!
Written by Deniz Özhan, AEGEE-Eskişehir