Outstanding antennae organising outstanding events – just a couple of weeks ago, AEGEE-Yerevan organised the Armenia Model European Union (AMEU) for the fourth year in a row! Armenia is one of the countries from the Eastern Partnership (EaP) that aims to strengthen the cooperation with the EU within the next few years, so organising a MEU, with more than 140 members coming from several countries from Europe and beyond, and making it a ‘tradition’ for the past four years is considered a huge achievement and a “cornerstone” for the EU-Armenia relations. The AEGEEan interviewed Armenak Minasyants, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AEGEE-Yerevan and one of the people behind the AMEU’s success.
Armenak Minasyants
The AEGEEan: Armenak, the first AMEU was launched back in 2011. Do you remember how the idea of organizing it came up?
Armenak Minasyants: Yes, of course I remember it! It was one of the craziest days in my life. Actually, back in August 2011, me and Julia Beglaryan (the Co-Founder of MEU in Armenia) were having our usual Saturday coffee meeting and after surfing on Facebook for several minutes, we noticed that there would be simulation conferences organized by the UN and OSCE offices in Armenia, which would simulate the activities of these international organizations. Being members of AEGEE, we automatically had a question: why do we still not have a Model EU Conference in Armenia? The answer was even faster: if we do not have it – LET’S ORGANIZE! Thanks to the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia our initiative got full administrative, financial and institutional support from the European Commission, thus allowing us to establish a project, which has already existed for four years and has proved its full sustainability!
This year is already the fourth edition. Which lessons did you learn from the past ones?
The patience, hard work and dedication are keys for success. If you focus more on the organizational matters rather than on the self-promotion you are always able to succeed and achieve any goal, no matter how non-realistic and ambitious it may look like in the beginning. At least this was the lesson I and my team have learned from the past years.
Which were the topics covered in this year’s MEU?
The suggested topic of AMEU2014 was the “EU Common Foreign and Security Policy in Light of the Ukrainian Crisis”. In our belief each conference should have a message inside, and our message was clear: peace and security are cornerstones to develop a democratic society and sustainable democracy on the European continent. During the activities of AMEU2014 itself, the participants had three plenary sittings, discussed the ongoing political situation in Ukraine, debated about the NATO Wales Summit 2014 and adopted a resolution in regard of the pressure exercised by the Russian government on the Eastern Partnership countries and in particular destabilization of Eastern Ukraine.
The participants also took part in the high level panel discussion titled “Where does the EU EaP Programme Lead to?”, with the participation of the Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia H.E. Mr. Traian Hristea, representatives of the Armenian civil society and the Youth Advisory Council of the Council of Europe.
How many participants did you have? Were there also participants coming from other countries?
This edition was a very special one, as first of all it was the biggest thematic political simulation conference ever organized in Armenia, gathering 140 young people from 16 different countries in Yerevan. The countries geography was huge: from Spain to Kazakhstan. I think this multicultural segment of the project is the most important one, as it allows first of all the local Armenian participants to get to know their future colleagues, as well as to experience something truly European.
You have also cooperated with the EU Delegation to Armenia. Do you think that organizing events such as MEU are meaningful for Armenia’s relations with the EU?
I consider this type of events to be the cornerstone of Armenia-EU relations, as they allow firstly the Armenian young people to get better understanding about the European Union and how its policies impact our country. Whenever we talk about the European integration process of any non-EU member states, it is vital to have a high level of political integration matched with the required level of civic integration.
And talking about it – can you tell us a bit about the current status of these relations (Armenia-EU), and what is expected in the next few years?
Well, one of the foreign policy priorities of Armenia is the integration with the European family, on the basis of the commitments and common values, undertaken within the framework of cooperation with the European Union. In July 2013, Armenia and the EU successfully finalized talks over the Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, which however were not signed due to Armenia’s decision to join the Russian-led and newly formed Eurasian Economic Union. It is worth to mention that in Armenia this decision is mostly considered to be an exclusively economic decision, which also means that Armenia remains totally open to develop and accordingly sign with the European Union the political segment of the Association Agreement.
Currently, after one year of stalemate caused both with the formation of the new European Commission as well as with the finalization of Armenia’s access to the Eurasian Economic Union, it seems that the Armenian and European sides are getting back to talk. Now it is very important to understand what type of cooperation we would have. I personally think and hope that very soon we would have much more material information in this regard and hopefully by the EU-EaP Riga Summit 2015 the sides would agree over a new legal framework of cooperation. I would also like to emphasize the role of the new Erasmus+ programme, which opens up a huge window of opportunities for the Armenian students.
Last but not least – what about AEGEE-Yerevan? How many members does it have, and which activities do you usually organize?
Well, AEGEE-Yerevan is definitely blossoming now! Currently there are around 50 members registered and more than half of them are directly involved in the everyday activities of the organization. We of course organize classical AEGEE events (SUs, LTCs and etc.), but what is much more important is that we are regularly implementing the EU funded local short and long term programs, mostly tackling civic education and youth mobility, which are also included as Focus Areas in the Strategic Plan of AEGEE-Europe for 2014-2017. Accordingly, this leads also to a higher level of professionalism of our board and members. I do not want to say that we perceive AEGEE in a different way, but we are trying to be very professional with any event and hopefully the future boards would keep this good tradition.
Which are the future plans for the antenna?
We always aim as high as it is possible! AEGEE-Yerevan really wants to host one of the upcoming Network Meetings in 2015, and why not? We also want to bring one of the statutory events to Yerevan in the future! At least we surely have both the human resources and professional capacity to make this happen.
Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona