It’s the closing plenary of Spring Agora Enschede 2017 and the next European Planning Meeting hosting local has been announced: it is AEGEE-Yerevan! We reached out to them and spoke to Armenak Minasyants from the Armenian local to ask them more about their reaction to the good news and some sneak peeks. 

The AEGEEan: Why did you apply to host European Planning Meeting 2018?

Armenak: There are many reasons behind the motivation of our local to apply for hosting the European Planning Meeting 2018. We have a strong belief towards our own institutional and administrative resources to host such a big event in our city. In AEGEE-Yerevan we are people who believe that the objective of life is to hit and not get hit. We are looking to expand our portfolio while we are on top and while we are extremely motivated. In the last seven years, we have set the model for showing to thousands of young people in Armenia how they should be responsible citizens and youth workers in and out of AEGEE. Now, it is high time also to deliver this on the European level!

Another amazing reason and motivation for applying is that practically EPM Yerevan 2018 will become the biggest youth European event ever organised in Armenia and AEGEE, in our perception, shall be the organisation making the history in different corners of Europe! We welcome the approach of the CDs in recent years to grant the locals in non-EU countries an opportunity to host statutory events. Our Network is amazingly diverse and it is great to have these synergies of hosting for instance Agora in Western Europe and afterwards coming to the very South-East of Europe and experiencing ideally a different reality during EPM. This will surely contribute to internal transformations within AEGEE and will boost our sense of being European not just as a matter of geography, as being European is first and foremost caring about the same universal system of values. Hence, we are motivated to have the EPM and allow everyone to discover one of the oldest cradles of European culture.

How did you react when you first heard the news that you were accepted?

Ohhhhh my God! OMG OMG OMG! I mean, this is literally the biggest moment in my life! When it was announced it literally took almost a day from me to calm down, as I have been calling everyone to inform about the news! On the next day, we hosted a board meeting and pumped a bottle of the best local champagne, thus marking the start of our preparations! Yes, we have started it already! The emotions are too hard to describe, this is something you need to go through.

How would you describe AEGEE-Yerevan?

We are young, talented, passionate and very professional local! Our ultimate goal is to always break records and the EPM 2018 is the next milestone for us! Our local now has successfully undergone the period of reconstruction and revival, the generational change has been finalised, the institutional memory of the organisation is better than ever, and the organisational matters are handled in the most professional manner with six board members constantly working. We have extremely experienced board members, who are flavoured with very young newcomers’ enthusiasts striving for experience.

Who will be in the core team of EPM Yerevan?

Let me first of all pass words of thankfulness to Ani, Kalipso, Anna, Nirvana, Izabella, Armine, Davit, Anush, Vika, Suren, Tereza and everyone who has helped us to make this application happen!

The core team of EPM Yerevan has eight members and is indeed amazingly strong! We have decided to bring out the best we have in the wardrobe. We will have former Network Commissioner Tereza “China” as one of the logistics officers working on the preparatory, we will have Ani Khachatryan – our long running and very experienced Secretary General, and surely another 40 local organisers and helpers coming up to help on any matter.

Furthermore, EPM Yerevan will be also special as all the external promotion, PR materials, merchandise will be made by professionals, as we will be working with professional PR and design agencies such as Ktor Designs and Deem Communications. This will help us having qualitatively new branding for such a big and important event.

Last but not the least, I have decided to be the head of the core team and I want to dedicate myself fully to the biggest project of my life, which the EPM is! Probably this will be the best way to end my long European AEGEE journey and retire from the association right at the EPM stage surrounded by my friends, AEGEEans and the organisation, which has given to me so much in past eight years.

Does AEGEE-Yerevan have any past experience in organising an event similar to the EPM?

Every year in Autumn we host a thematic EU-funded conference – Armenia Model EU Conference, which brings to Armenia up to 150 young people, youth workers and civic activists from all over Europe. This four-days project consists not only of a typical simulation conference style activity, but also of almost two days full of encounters, thematic panel discussions and open space discussions with leading European and local experts, mainly focusing on European political agenda matters.

It is worth to mention that in February 2017 we solely organised and hosted a thematic conference attended by Mr. Christian Danielsson, who is the Director General for Enlargement at the European Commission (DG NEAR). This has been a tremendous experience for us: just imagine we hosted a thematic event for 250 students with the attendance of a top EU official.

So, we are looking forward to comprehend our resources, experience and build up on our success stories for making the upcoming EPM really groundbreaking.

What do you have in mind for the facilities and the programme?

Even though it is a bit early now to discuss the facilities, it has been agreed preliminarily that the event will take place at the auspices of one of the best universities in Yerevan, which has the highest quality of technical equipment and facilities, which will be surely available to any EPM participant. We want participants not to face any technical problem during their activities. More notably, we want to suggest participants the most comfortable ever conditions of stay during an AEGEE statutory event. I really do not want to fold all our cards now, let’s keep it still as a surprise, but we will try to set up ideally a new benchmark in project quality and fundraising in AEGEE.

The programme will be amazingly packed, and not only because of the sessions, as we want every participant to feel the magic and spirit of our city, which will be marking its 2800th birthday in 2018!

Hence, everyone will have a chance to climb over the heights of the Cascade Stairs of Yerevan and admire the city panorama view, we will have an AEGEE flashmob on the longest pedestrian avenue, we will taste the best of our local wines and just enjoy the hospitality of any ordinary Yerevan resident, suggesting participants classical Armenian coffee and pastries.  

What will be your biggest challenges in hosting the EPM?

We treat every challenge as a new opportunity to develop our skills and grow stronger as an organization. Hence there are no challenges for us to host the EPM – it is all about opportunities – ain’t no boundaries, ain’t no limits. However, focusing more on the technical ground, I think the biggest challenge will be in supporting every participant with the travelling matters. Basically, we are going to help as much as possible in any transportation related matter. They are four ways for travelling to Yerevan (counting also Tbilisi and Kutaisi) and we are going to work at maximum to help each participant to reach Yerevan in the most cost effective and budgetary way.

What makes Yerevan attractive to visit?

 Yerevan is all about people! The hospitality and friendly attitude are probably the most common features of any Armenian and you can feel that hospitality on every step in Yerevan! Yerevan is rocking Europe since 786 BC! For millennia Yerevan has been at the crossroads of cultural trends, intellectual thought, groundbreaking research, and incredible inventions. Now it is bursting with a rocking nightlife and a buzzing restaurant scene. The city center is full of great wine houses and our city is owning the title of one of the world’s top 10 safest cities. Yerevan is an incredibly walkable city. As one of the safest cities in Europe, you will never find yourself in trouble, no matter how shabby the neighborhood appearance may be and how much drunk you might be. Around 82% of Yerevan residents feel quite safe walking home alone at night. So yes, life in Yerevan goes on in a safe, tiny, and sunny spot. The day of Yerevan residents starts with the bright sun greeting them in the morning, as we have sunny weather almost 300 days per year! The smell of “Armenian” coffee is spreading everywhere since the morning, and everyone from schoolchildren to officials doing their everyday work feel safe about their lives. Truly, if you are top AEGEE talent wanting to change the world, our organisation and enjoy yourself while doing it all, there is no better place to come and join than EPM Yerevan 2018!

Written by Federica Soro, AEGEE-Cagliari and Maria Zwartkruis, AEGEE-Utrecht

Spring is right in front of us and Spring Network Meetings follow closely. The Network is once again presented with ten amazing opportunities to grow stronger together, create fruitful alliances and share best practices. Here you can find AEGEE-Bamberg, AEGEE-Gdansk, AEGEE-Novi Sad, AEGEE-Torino and AEGEE-Yerevan. For the previous five, click here. 

NWM Bamberg: We’ll be Royals [upgrade yourself]!

Royals – Lorde AEGEE-Bamberg

And we’ll never be royals.

It don’t run in our blood,

That kind of lux just ain’t is for us.

We crave a different royal kind of buzz.

Let me be your ruler, you can call me Queen  Sir Heinrich II

And baby I’ll rule (I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule)

Let me live that fantasy.

My AEGEE friends,

Your majesty Sir Heinrich II invites his imperial followership to an accolade and induction of his most faithful supporters to receive a knighthood in his beautiful city of residence, Bamberg!

“Upgrade yourself by attending this gathering of 25 members of the noble AEGEE-family that will take place between the 20th and 23rd of April. You will not only be offered inspiring workshops, discussion panels and debates in a royal city flair, but plenty of extras that will constitute the royal flair of this event!”

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/735094903322354/

NWM Gdansk: The Greatest ones Do Now! 

Yo, did you miss Agora? The event when dozens of people have a time of their lives? If the answer is “yes”, or “maybe”, or even “no”, just think for a while if you want to improve yourself and learn something essential by the beautiful Baltic Sea. Baltic Sea, huh, doesn’t it sound exciting? NWM Gdansk is your best option! Or at least, organisers think so! Now imagine: 100 amazing AEGEEans will come together to discover different areas, share their ideas and present themselves! Fantastic trainers from AEGEE and BEST! It is going to be something new, stunning, fabulous, something that AEGEE has not seen before… Well, there are a lot of catchy phrases, so to check all of them out – just apply until the 6th of March! It is your occasion to be the Greatest! #GDN

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/632077763643140/

NWM Novi Sad: European by birth. AEGEEan by choice. In Novi Sad on purpouse. 

The second largest city of Serbia, the industrial and financial center often considered as the co-capital of Belgrade, the European Capital of culture of 2021, European Youth Capital for 2019, the Youthful musical city where the Best Major European award-winning festival EXIT happens ever since 2000- the new era of a new age and… is there more? Oh, there is more. YOU can add more by getting more! And if you are thinking “When would be the right time to go? Does Spring 2017 seem like a good time?”, it is certainly the right time! Visit the Balkans, especially if for the first time. Afterwards, you will always want to come back. Right next to the warm and welcoming spirit of the city together with a lot of rich cultural learning, the total catch is simply to come and see- new FA, AEGEE (huge!) achievements: we know how and where, we know why, we are just missing with whom. Networking and strengthening, blending the joint visions into common missions, it is all about getting better. Acknowledge your European self and… Get to learn, get to lead!

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/209560836180310/

NWM Torino: Not a Waste of Money! 

AEGEE-Torino is a crazy antenna and their events always have to be huuuge. That is why we decided to have 60 participants in our NWM. The sessions are going to be held in an amazing location in the middle of a park, a few minutes away from the main square and on the Po river bank. The programme will be fun and interactive, the social programme will be tremendous (participants will have the opportunity to take part in the famous “use your tongue” aperitif) and it will be also the best season to visit our great city. It is going to be absolutely fantastic and you are going to pay for it (but we promise it will be No Waste of Money). Save the dates!

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1835333460083036/

NWM Yerevan: HAY power! 

NWM Yerevan: HAY power. You are probably wondering what does these 3 letters mean. Sorry, but I am not going to tell you that right now. All I can say is that if you come to Yerevan in May 2017 you will not regret it. Intensive sessions during the afternoon, national dances and music in the evening, an international team and hospitable local organisers, delicious cuisine and a wonderful city, a place for discussion and motivation to be born. Forget about borders in your head and distance on the map. Come and get inspired!

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1439540256344976/

This is part two of a two-parts article. For part one, click here.

Written by the Network Commission of AEGEE-Europe

We wanted our summer to be greener

To meet new friends, to climb the tops, to feel like winners

To ride horses, to hike and swim, to laugh and love, enjoy here dinner

That’s why we chose SU: One step greener

Each of us lives a unique and unforgettable story during AEGEE Summer Universities and after that there are certain phrases, simple words or objects, music and , of course, photos which will always take us back to the special moments of SU.

Our story started like this: The members of AEGEE-Yerevan met a group of 14 young and active participants who arrived in Yerevan on the 1^st of August 2014, full of expectations to spend eleven crazy and “Green” days in Armenia. It was the beginning of a nice story of new experiences, discoveries, adventures and inspirations.

We spent four days in the countryside and a week in Yerevan: in the pinkest city (the capital of Armenia is called “The pink city” because of the color of the stone used for building ed.) of the world which is 2795 years old. The city is old and very young at the same time: only here you can see the beautiful mix of old and modern architecture. Our participants had city tours, visited Museums as well as the famous Ararat Brandy/Wine factory and enjoyed the evenings in the Republic Square near the singing/dancing fountains.

During eleven days we managed a lot together: we did workshops and city games, discussed environmental issues in our countries, had horseback-riding classes, spent a nice day near the lake, tried the traditional Armenian cuisine and spent three days camping in the forest, far away from civilization. Also, we danced in a bus on the way back to Yerevan, we played and laughed together like children, danced and sang our traditional music through which we became very good friends.

Now the SU is over, but the friendships we made and the moments we lived will stay with us forever.

Written by Haykuhi Tang, AEGEE-Yerevan

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

Recently we published the article giving you an insight into the story behind 2^nd place winner of the Events Committee’s (EvC) Facebook competition. Now it is time to reveal the winner which includes not only AEGEE-Oviedo but also AEGEE-Yerevan and the Eastern Partnership Project Team.

The winning photo

The Peace Building in Europe took place in Gijón last year, and the EvC’s competition has granted us the opportunity to get to know more about the event, how it came about, and the significance of exchanges among AEGEE antennae. Several of the participants of the event took their time to contribute to an interesting interview which you can read below.

Congratulations on winning the competition, why did you take part in it?

Tereza Tokmajyan (AEGEE-Yerevan) Thanks! It all begins with checking the dozens of AEGEE-emails in my inbox. I know every AEGEEan feel this every day and every week.  And while I was reading the info about what we need for participating in this great competition, the photo of our crazy event came out. I just wanted everyone to know all the amazing people who have organised this project.

What does it make you feel that you managed to win?

Gerardo García Díaz (AEGEE-Oviedo): I’m really happy and also proud because we managed to win, and because we won just for “being ourselves”.

Panagiotis Barlampas (AEGEE-Athina): Friends from the Network  helped us spread the joy

Tereza: And it was like: HELL YES we did it.

Take us back to the event, who came up with the idea to organize a YiA project between AEGEE-Yerevan and AEGEE-Oviedo?

Tereza: As far as I know, it was not directly the idea of AEGEE-Yerevan or AEGEE-Oviedo. The project was proposed by the AEGEE Eastern Partnership Project Team (EaP) back in summer 2011. Armenak Minasyants, who at that time was member of that team, developed and reshaped the project with the AEGEE EaP Team. Later on AEGEE-Oviedo was approached and to be honest, for the first application in 2011 the guys failed and the project got the rejection and lots of people thought that it was the big ned of a cooperation that had not even really started yet. It was a big disappointment. Amazingly, Armenak,  AEGEE-Yerevan’s ex-president, and Alberto Cuesta Noriega, from AEGEE-Oviedo, with the big support of AEGEE EaP Project Manager Alla Resheten, found totally new motivation and inspiring hope for rechecking the whole application, making plenty new amendments to it, developing a new agenda and concept and of course applying for the EU Youth in Action funding. It took from the both of lots of hard work, patience and dedication but in the end of the day the result you may already see on your own.

When asked why the choice of AEGEE-Yerevan and AEGEE-Oviedo for the project Tereza said with a smile “Maybe we are the marvelous, absolutely fabulous antennae in AEGEE Network?” and continued “But if we talk more seriously, the partnership was firstly based on the big personal trust of our above mentioned main organisers. Additionally it should be mentioned that the participants were not only from AEGEE-Oviedo or AEGEE-Yerevan. The organisers have involved as the partner promoters AEGEE-Athina, AEGEE-Tbilisi, AEGEE-Kyiv, AEGEE-Budapest, and Moldavian National Youth Council. In the end we got totally crazy and motivated participants plus awesome trainers’ team”.

What did you do in Oviedo?

Gerardo: Actually the event took place in Gijón. Oviedo is the Capital of the Principality of Asturias and the University of Asturias is the University of Oviedo. But the largest city on the region and the biggest campus of this University in is Gijón.

Armenak Minasyants (AEGEE-Yerevan): It was a great selection of the location: Atlantic Ocean on your one side, beautiful Asturian forests and nature on the other side… What could be better place for making such a project?

Christos Gkagkas (AEGEE-Patra): We had trainings on conflicts and different stereotypes, we learn how to recognize them and work on them in order to be able and overcome them. I think we manage to see that each culture is important and respectful.

Tereza: Adding to that in spite of this was a YIA project and we had non-AEGEE members we did not forget to show them all what AEGEE Spirit is.

Panagiotis: Which is why in the end, we left everyone speechless by our awesomeness.

What did you like about the event?

Panagiotis: In seven days we made friends from six different countries and learned about their culture, conflicts (internal, external), and language!

Christos: I liked most the conversations we had after the trainings, in which we found out that each culture is sharing something with other cultures and some of them are strongly connected.

Tereza: We had super great trainers. Every session was interesting and unique itself, even the ice-breaking games were amazing.

Gerardo: It was an awesome group of awesome people, and we had a really good time together.

Gerardo from Oviedo

In AEGEE we focus a lot on cultural exchanges and this was indeed one of those. Would you encourage others to take part/organise exchanges?

Tereza: As a person who has directly participated to such type of the project, I would not only encourage but, as the Vice-President and HR of my local, even officially suggest on the behalf of AEGEE-Yerevan to organise such exchanges as much as possible! Through such exchanges we are getting a quite unique chance not only to get familiar with other people’s culture, but also to represent ours.

Gerardo: There’s no better way to get to know other cultures and ways of thinking than actually living with people from other places and getting immersed in their stuff. Even that this event was short in time, lessons learnt will last forever.

Christos: I will give you one example. Before the event in Gijon I did not know where Armenia was but I fell in love with my Armenian friends and after this event I wanted to learn more about their ways of living so I applied and went to another YiA in Yerevan.

Panagiotis: For sure when you will come home after an event like this you will be a little different, more open minded.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København

A story of how the sun brought AEGEE-Yerevan and AEGEE-Athina closer thogether and keeps shining on their cooperation.

It all started as a joke between Armenak Minasyants from AEGEE-Yerevan and me, Zoi, more than one year ago. We were in contact with each other for some AEGEE project and I was always finishing my emails with the phrase “Greetings from sunny Athens”. He was always responding “Greetings from sunny Yerevan”. And then a competition started to arise: which is the sunniest? Each one of us claimed that his city is the sunniest and we were “fighting” to defend our opinion in every email! Until one day, just like that, we took the whole matter quite seriously and we decided to cooperate and organise a youth exchange for the members of AEGEE-Athina and AEGEE-Yerevan. We wanted to bring Greeks and Armenians closer and build a stronger relationship because we do have lots in common after all. So, we applied for EU funds (Youth in Action programme) and after a lot of preparation and waiting, the event finally happened in October 2012. 15 Greeks arrived to Yerevan to meet another 15 Armenians and experience a week full of great adventures and unforgettable moments!

Our project was dedicated to the promotion of intercultural dialogue and healthy lifestyle. We wanted to encourage mutual understanding and respect of the history and culture of each other and in addition, we wanted to get people understand the great importance of sports and healthy lifestyle so that they become more active and improve their life quality. The day before the official opening of the project some members of AEGEE-Yerevan and also some of the Greek participants who had already arrived to the city, attended the World Cup 2014 Qualifier Game between the Armenian and Italian football teams. This was a unique chance for a first team-building activity and a good motivational start for the sporty week that would follow!

During the whole week we had many different workshops, team-building activities, ice-breakers, excursions, flashmobs, street celebrations for Yerevan’s birthday and many other creative activities. Αll days combined both theoretical sessions as well as sport activities, including volleyball, basketball and football. We visited the Cafesjian Modern Art Museum, Sergey Parajanov Museum and also some places in the countryside: Garni, Geghard, Lake Sevan, Dilijan, Khor Virap, Etchmiadzin. Surely there is no AEGEE-event, even within the frames of Youth in Action programme, which does not include a European (or Intercultural in this case) Night. Therefore we all presented our national dances, songs, food and drinks and shared one of the best intercultural experiences. The very last day of the project was also very full and emotional: we visited the Memorial of the Armenian Genocide and also the Genocide Museum. After the official closing and evaluation of the project we had farewell dinner in a traditional Armenian restaurant and then of course partied until late!

Without any doubt this programme has been a lifetime experience for all the participants. They learned a lot about a new culture, they broke stereotypes, they discussed common problems, they exhanged ideas, they became even more tolerant and respectful towards different cultures. AEGEE-Athina and AEGEE-Yerevan proved to be great partners and are willing to cooperate again in the future. So, was the question answered after all? Who is the sunniest? Well, I can tell you for sure that Yerevan is pretty sunny, in terms of weather and people as well. After all, everybody may be the same or a bit different but in the end, we are all sunny on our own way!

Written by Zoi, AEGEE-Athina

“Im anune Hayastan e” or in English “My name is Armenia!”

Funny to say, but this short sentence in Armenian, highly promoted by Alberto Lenza from AEGEE-Firenze, has easily become one of the official slogans of AEGEE-Yerevan  Summer University (SU) in 2012, entitled “Discover Undiscovered” and for sure, it will stay in memories of all participants and firstly organisers. There was another official slogan, but let us turn to it a bit later in this article.

This SU was the first ever organised SU in partnership with the AEGEE Eastern Partnership Project, including 17 participants, 10 days of incredible joy and fun, 8 incredible parties, 4 workshops, 4 countryside excursions, 3 people in ambulance, 2 city tours, 1 bowling session, 1 crazy house host, about 500 bottles of drank beer, wine, vodka and of course a wonderful organisational team of 35 people.

Second AEGEE-Yerevan SU

Last year for the first time in its history AEGEE-Yerevan had an experience of organising the Summer University; an extremely helpful and useful experience which gave an additional boost and motivation for making even something more creative and attractive already this year. Just in order not to waste our article lines and also your time on preparatory activities of the event, let’s focus on more practical as well as funny things.

Already by the morning of the 10th of July all the participants were at place and the event kicked off! From the very first day the atmosphere in the house, which was specially rented for the participants, was really hot. Hot discussions in each corner, funny jokes and extremely hot weather in Yerevan (+36 C) did not give a secondfor anybody to relax.

Quirky quotes everywhere

On the very first day of the whole SU, Victor Quintana from AEGEE-Madrid, made a comment on the controversial photo which is below and that comment has become really an epic one!

After entering the main hall of the house, he immediately shouted “Jesus! She is male! This is a photo of transsexual!” From this moment, as Sona Yeghiazaryan and Marina Aghasyan two of main organisers of the SU later told, we understood that we are going to have some kind of crazy event. In general, all the participants were extremely cool personalities and each of them made several of such type of quotes on various things. Some of them were even more creative and made several cool comments and posts to the gossip box of the event. For example, “Armenak is the magic carpet of AEGEE-Yerevan”.

Getting the flag back

During their stay in Yerevan and in accordance with the final agenda of the event, the participants visited the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin/Headquarters of the Armenian Church, Zvartnots Cathedral, Khor Virap, Areni, Noravanq, Lake Sevan, Garni Temple, Geghard Cathedral, Tsitsernakaberd and the Museum of Armenian Genocide of 1915. But for sure the most stressful days both for the participants and organisers were July 14-15, Saturday and Sunday respectively. On Saturday the European Night was taking place and the hosting house was full of people. The preparations were the most important for the participants, but the organisers were mostly thinking about returning the flag of AEGEE-Yerevan which had been stolen by the participants.

So, when the European Night was about to start, the participants presented to the organising team their demands, as a result of which AEGEE-Yerevan members firstly had to kiss all the participants of the SU and after that had to sing some Armenian songs, but this was also not enough and AEGEE-Yerevan was asked to dance like robots! After fulfilling this task as well, the flag was returned and there was no end for the joy of AEGEE-Yerevan members.

On Sunday’s countryside picnic the SU participants already got the second superb quote from Alberto Lenza, which was “KA-TAS-TRO-

FA”, the word which he was pronouncing in each situation on that day. If we translate it from Russian it would mean “disaster”, and to say the truth, that day was a kind of “KA-TAS-TRO-FA” for the organising team, as everything was going on not as it had been planned beforehand.

Of course, it should also not be forgotten to mention about the Water War or in Armenian “Vardavar”, the celebration in which directly took part all the participants of the event, as well as shall be mentioned the special graffiti learning lesson. And, of course, special and extraordinary attention shall be paid to the crazy house host and bombed canalization, but as the lovely Armenian old saying states “this is already absolutely other story”.

Once again taking the possibility, the whole organising team of AEGEE-Yerevan wants to express its deep thankfulness to all participants of the Summer University “Discover Undiscoverd” for making amazing event and wants to remind to everybody “Im anune Hayastan e!“

Written by Armenak Minasyants and 34 Members of Organising Team of AEGEE-Yerevan

Dear Network, if you do not know his name yet than you have already missed out many extraordinary things that the member of this month has done during his membership in AEGEE.

I will give you some tips: he is the Speaker of the International Politics Working Group (IPWG), former coordinator of the Conflict Resolution pillar of the Eastern Partnership project (EaP), in his AEGEE CV we can find such projects as EU Awareness Action Day, Model European Union, YOUTH UnEmployment Action Day, Rio+20+Yerevan, Summer University “Discover Undiscoverd”, Youth in Action Training Course “Peacebuilding in Europe” and if all that hasn’t give you the answer, well, it’s quite simple – meet Armenak Minasyants, the President of AEGEE-Yerevan.

The AEGEEan: First of all congratulations with your new title! Did you expect the nomination?

Armenak: Thanks a lot ! No, absolutely and it has come really a very pleasant and big surprise for me. You know, lots of people used to tell me that I have deserved this nomination for a long time and should not be surprised with it, but anyway, for me it was really some kind of a high pleasure to find out that my recent activities have been so visible that I have managed to snatch a nomination. It also shows that the things I am doing are important for our Network.

Has your attitude changed towards AEGEE after becoming more involved at the European level?

Yes, with no doubt ! The work at the European level of AEGEE has already given me so many things, starting from a big army of friends all over Europe and finishing up with absolutely exclusive professional skills of online distant work. Yes one may argue that having sometimes long-long Skype meetings in the evenings is not the best option of spending your time, but while working at the European level you may really make a good perception what AEGEE is and of course what potential does it have, cause the European level “life” is absolutely different than the local level. Here you shall put much more efforts and commitment to everything you are making. I may just say, that in case an AEGEE member really wants to be real AEGEE member he/she should try this type of involvement.

How do you cope with being president and all the other tasks? In other words, many people complain that with AEGEE they have no real life, can you relate to that?

I may even say more: with AEGEE the life is becoming even more real! I have a well paid permanent job in state sector, where I used to work and cooperate with others in absolutely other atmosphere than AEGEE, but I have never thought that AEGEE may harm my non-AEGEE activities or I may get overloaded with it. Each of us decides on his/her own whether to get involved in AEGEE and if you are answer is “yes”, you shall put your hard work and dedication to it, take the best from it and never complain, always holding your head high.

What is it like being the Speaker of IPWG and has this changed your perspective on how you see Europe?

International Politics WG is something very special for me. It has totally changed and reshaped not only my views of Europe, but it has given me extra big boost for personal and professional self-development. The Speaker’s position is very responsible one, and especially when you are dealing with international politics, cause it is not a secret that politics are very controversial thing. You shall follow each your word and phrase, you shall be able to take a responsibility to make some difficult and complicated decisions. I shall state that I was extremely lucky to have a possibility to hold this position, as I have worked with two perfect and cool boards, in which everyone was an expert of his/her sphere and we have really managed during last 2 years to bring absolutely new spirit, glory and breath to IPWG, which now is one of the strongest and thematic working groups of AEGEE.
Using this opportunity I would like to make the official statement: my dream fairy tale in IPWG has come to the end – as now there is elections period in WGs, I would like to state that I am not going to apply for the next term as the Speaker of IPWG. It was one of the hardest decisions in my life and I have spent a sleepless night in Gijon, Spain, thinking over it, but my decision is final. I would like to thank everybody with whom I had a chance to work during last two years. Thanks to each member of IPWG who has believed in me and my skills and has supported me and the whole WG in the most difficult situations. I would like to wish the new upcoming board even more success.

EaP, an amazing project, where is it heading next?

I have been a member of the Eastern Partnership project since the first day of its activities. The project has incredible strong and experienced staff plus also some new and maybe not so much experienced, but very motivated members. The issues which the project is tackling are really very urgent for the EU’s Eastern Partnership program Members States, as such issues as bigger involvement in Erasmus Mundus, conflict resolution and visa facilitation are really urgent for the youth of those six states. From the beginning of this year I am not as much active in the project as I used to be previously, but with no doubt this project has the biggest potential now. The last Youth in Action training course on conflict resolution in EaP countries, which I have co-organised with AEGEE-Oviedo within the frames of the EaP activites, clearly showed that this Project Team is capable for some big things. Of course I believe that this project shall try to be more dynamic and make some kind of “easy” projects all over the Network which will be a great boost for further development.

Tell us some of AEGEE-Yerevan’s latest achievements and a sneak preview on something that you are planning.

(Laughing) Really, they are so many that it is too hard for me to mention all of them. Anyway, this year we have already managed to organise six big local projects in which have participated more than 700 participants from all over Armenia. We always look for the projects which are important for Armenian youth. The fields might be very different, starting from the very deep discussions with experts on the EU enlargement and integration, and finishing up with non-formal workshops on youth unemployment and sustainable development. This year we also managed to make an extra cool Summer University with 20 participants (last year we had just 12) but the most important we managed to finalize our internal team building. As the most recent achievement I may mention participation of six our members in YiA Project organised by AEGEE-Oviedo, where we were presented with two trainers. All in all the most important achievement for me is the very unique team spirit, as in AEGEE-Yerevan we are working and living as a real family! We have about 90 members and most of them know each other and make good friendship even out of AEGEE. As in all families sometimes we have discussions, disputes, but in the end usually everybody is happy and pleased with everything. As a short preview for upcoming projects, in October we will have two big exchanges directly coming one after the other. Firstly, on October 5-12 we would host about 30 members of les Anciens who will come to participate in the special Autumn University which we are organising for them. And right after this project, on October 13-20 we would host 15 members from AEGEE-Athina within the frames of joint YiA project which will be dedicated to cultural diversity and sport activities. And the last, but not the least, on November 10 we are making the biggest simulation conference in the South Caucasus  “Armenia Model EU 2012” which will gather together 130 participants from all over the world. The project is supported by the EU Delegation to Armenia and I kindly invite AEGEE members to come to Yerevan and participate in this project.
Of course, if after all this we would survive and stay alive, we would think about more actions in the end of the year!

How is it going your typical day?

Well, wake up at 07:00 AM, morning run about 5 miles, fast coffee or tea at home with sandwich, walk to my workplace for 20 minutes, fast checking of Facebook, Mail, Twitter and etc. before starting the real work at office and then starts the most important – work till lunchtime and after it again work! In the evening I am usually meeting my AEGEE-Yerevan colleagues and friends and after it getting home at 22:00 PM. After this I am starting to work for AEGEE till the time when somebody of my family finds me sleeping near the laptop, usually it is about 03:00-04:00 AM.
Maybe it is too hard from the first sight, but I am living with this regime already for two years and it is absolutely fine for me.

Future plans regarding your AEGEEan life and outside it?

Well, my plans inside AEGEE are very enthusiastic as always. For now I may just say that I have decided to commit the next year mostly to the work at the European level of AEGEE as I am really proud to say that now at the local level we already have developed super cool members who will surely drive AEGEE-Yerevan in the right direction. Anyway, I never exclude anything in my life and who knows what may happen in the end of my term. As for future plans at the local level I am really very enthusiastic on bringing some new quality projects to AEGEE-Yerevan. At the European level, as I have already mentioned above I am resigning from my position of the Speaker of IPWG. My this decision is based on a very important update about which you will hear very soon.
But my most important future plan in AEGEE is of course to bring one of the statutory events to Yerevan and I am very optimistic to make my best for making this idea real!
In my life outside AEGEE I hope that I would have some more free time to dedicate it to my private life, particularly to my family firstly and of course to the girl whom I love. Also I hope to make some kind of non-European travelling tour, maybe to Qatar or Saudi Arabia, but this are just dreams now.

Imagine someone comes up to you and has no idea what our organisation is all about. How would you explain it to them and get them to join?

In AEGEE-Yerevan, we have one great Board member Ani, whom we call “Local”, as she is the Head of our Antenna Local Activities Committee. When we were just making our steps back in 2010 and we were about 10 members she always used to approach unknown youngsters in the streets with a great smile and ask them in this way “Would you like to join AEGEE?”. And this mechanism really works out and we got plenty of new members! So, I would just make a good American smile and will use the mentioned phrase, even without trying to explain what is AEGEE.

Last question, if AEGEE was a paid job would you still do it? Or is it more fun because we are volunteering?

My answer would be clear: yes! I really will to work for AEGEE no matter of the conditions of my work. I have a life motto “Money never sleep” and if it is possible to get some extra finances, why not to get it? Anyway, now I am really pleased that AEGEE is not paid job and we have lots of romantic things in our everyday activities. Usual hunt for some free events, cheap air flights and free hosting: I really could not imagine my AEGEE life without these !

Written by Andra Toma,  AEGEE-Bucuresti

Attention: If you think you know someone, who deserves to be honored as “Member of the Month”, send an email with the person’s name and the reason for nominating him or her to aegeean@aegee.org.

On 24 February 2012 AEGEE-Yerevan together with Erasmus Mundus Association and Yerevan State University within the Mobility Action Days of AEGEE Eastern Partnership Project organised “Starting your Erasmus Mundus Event”.

The aim of the event was to spread information about the Erasmus Mundus Programme around Armenian students and help them with the steps of applying to the programme. The opening ceremony took place in Yerevan State University with around 150 participants which shows a big interest of Armenian students for the programme.

Sharing experience and expertise

Specialists from the British Council in Armenia, American Councils, ARMACAD association and Erasmus Mundus Association presented the structure of various exams that the students need to take for entering the programme, useful websites to receive information about studying abroad, as well as tips on how to write an essay. The programme coordinators presented the structure of Erasmus Mundus programme and in the end Erasmus Mundus Alumni students shared their practical experiences.
Participants emphasised the importance of such an event mentioning that it gives an opportunity to receive practical information about all the aspects of the programme.

 Increasing awareness of mobility programmes in Europe

The Mobility Action Day is an initiative of the AEGEE Eastern Partnership Project that aims to encourage young people to apply to various European mobility programmes. It is planned to organise an action day in all Eastern Partnership Countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine).

Written by Shushan Khachatryan, AEGEE-Yerevan & Eastern Partnership Project