In late 2016 I started thinking about applying to a New Year’s event and, even if they were a lot and all really amazing, I did not really need to get through all the options that AEGEE offered this year because I knew from the start that I wanted to go to the one taking place in Skopje. I decided to apply to “Win Up: It’s Snow Time Deluxe Edition” because the programme was incredible, with lots of fun activities, but also because I had heard beautiful stories about it so I wanted to experience it at first hand.  

The event took place in the Macedonian capital city from the 30th of December 2016 to the 5th of January 2017, even if my first day was the 31st of December. In fact, on the 30th of December in the early morning, me and two other girls from AEGEE-Cagliari took the plane from Cagliari to Milan and then from Milan to Sofia. We waited seven hours in a bus station and at midnight finally we found a bus. The bus was really small and the luggage was placed in a small cart trailer, but after this long trip we finally managed to arrive to Skopje in the early morning the next day.

They took us in a wonderful city tour showing Saint Mother Theresa’s House, the Old Bazar of Skopje –  which is the second biggest bazar after Istanbul’s one from the time of the Ottoman empire, the Fortress of Skopje, the Holocaust Museum and the beautiful city centre, where we closed the day ice skating. Afterwards, we suited up for the NYE party, which was really amazing. Before it started the organisers held a workshop about alcohol and during the celebrations in a room close to the dance floor they prepared for us some typical food and chips, pretzels etc.

On the 1st of January, the organisers took us to the wonderful Vodno Mountain, where some of us climbed the mountain to reach the top, while others took the cableway. The view from the top was incredible, and it was one of the greatest experience I have ever had in my life.

Then we joined a workshop about Orthodox Christmas. The organisers offered us some Rakija and a typical cake and showed us some pictures. One of the traditions is a bread which has a coin hidden inside, and the one who finds the coin will have a lucky year. After that, we went to the city centre to play to an alcoholic treasure hunt. We were separated in different teams, each one with a team leader. We had to execute some tasks to have clues and each task earned you some points. Imagine what inhabitants could have been thinking seeing a group of more than 30 AEGEEans running around in the city centre of Skopje. The following day we changed location and we moved to Bulgaria, in Bansko. The journey was quite long so we just had the time to accommodate in our rooms and enjoy the first part of the European Night.

On the 3rd and 4th of January some of us took the chance to ski down the incredible Pirin Mountain, or to enjoy the beautiful Bansko and the Hotel SPA; while part of the group went to Sofia to spend the day there instead. We also enjoyed European Night part 2 and 3, since AEGEE-Skopje’s crew decided to separate the European Night in three different nights. I think that this was a smart decision, because we could appreciate more the alcohol without getting totally drunk and I have noticed that we put more passion in the presentation of our countries. Monika Borovcanska, one of the organisers, told me that the decision to split the European night in three parts was made “so that we would have three special nights. The result was amazing. In this way we avoided food/drinks leftovers and it was more exciting for everyone. Those who were supposed to present their countries put a lot of effort into doing it in the best way. All of them had the possibility to be better heard by everyone, since the whole concept was like a Treasure Hunt. There were five groups and five rooms with different presenters. All of the presenters had around five minutes to present their countries to the groups, that were coming one after another”.

On the last day, the 5th of January the group split in two; some of us went back to Skopje, while the others went to Sofia, because we had our flights back home from there. Organising an event in two different countries might seem difficult, but it was a desire that Monika had for some time now: “Organising an event in another country is always a challenge. However, skiing in Bansko is something that I have been doing for the last ten years, so I can say that it was easy to get in touch with some contacts.

The Bulgarian language is close to the Macedonian, so the communication was not a problem. An event in there has been my wish for some time and finally it happened”.

I have seen a lot of amazing things during this event, like the beautiful monuments in both Skopje and Sofia and, finally, real snow.

I come from an island settled in the Mediterranean sea, so for me it was surreal to be in a winter wonderland. But I have also learned a lot through the workshops and talking with people who have different cultures than mine. In the end, I can say that this event was really deluxe, they treated us like princes and princesses, we slept in real beds during the whole event -and for an AEGEE event is not that bad-, we ate a lot of delicious typical things and the social programme was insane. We definitely perceived the passion and committment that the organiser put into this event.

Written by Paola Letizia Murru, AEGEE-Cagliari

This week a photo featuring a crying girl and a policeman during the protests in Sofia has gone viral on social media. Until that picture was shown, not many people had been aware of the protests. As today is already the 156th day of the protests, it is high time to show the world what is going on in Bulgaria. The AEGEEan asked Atanas Nachkov from AEGEE-Sofia about it.

Can you tell me the facts behind the protests that are going on in Bulgaria right now?  When did it all start?

Atanas: In May we got a new government after a temporary one, because the previous one had resigned in February after relatively big protests from mostly poor people, who were unable to pay their electricity bills for January. So, as a result of the earlier elections, they remained the biggest party in the Parliament, but couldn’t form a government due to the lack of majority. After that, all the trouble started.

The new government, led by Plamen Oresharski and consisting of some ministers who are not linked to a political party, was supported by the Socialist party (BSP), a movement for freedom and rights (DPS), and a xenophobic party called “Ataka” (attack). On June 14th, the leader of the socialist party proposed to the Parliament a media tycoon to be the chairperson of the State security agency (DANS). He is 33 and has never been active at all: his mother is the actual businessperson. That same day an open call for a protest was initiated on Facebook.

What happened then?

The protest was scheduled at 18:30, after working time. Basically, the candidature was withdrawn the day after that first rally, but the protests continued for every day at the same time. Most of the people who started to gather were young and middle-working-class people, chanting for transparency, accountability, responsibility and other democratic values, behind the word ‘ostavka’, which means ‘resignation’. The protests looked more like street performances, but the whole nation was following what was going on. The amount of people went from 500 to 30,000 only in Sofia, depending on the weekday, which is kind of a lot for here.

A lot of new democratic initiatives emerged, e.g. electronic discussion for bills. However, the government did not respond and some deputies brought out some arrogant words to the protesters. But, as I said before, even though these were huge protests for Bulgaria, the Parliament’s support still is less than 10%. By the way, a lot of stories like the one with the crying girl and policeman were true, like the one from people giving flowers to policewomen and water and food to all guards. The French and the German ambassadors made a common statement, where they declared that they supported the protestors. The Belgian and the Dutch made it only orally and on interviews. The British also responded against the appointment.

For how long did the protests go on?

In Summer it declined and eventually only a few people went to protest. But now, when the school year started a bunch of young students decided to occupy the biggest auditorium in the University of Sofia. A lot of other students supported them almost immediately, as well as some well-known lecturers. After one week, the one before the Agora, they occupied the whole university and this rushed a wave of occupations of other rooms in other universities. They formed an alliance altogether and have the support of the university of Sofia’s authority and some of the student councils. They have made their own parliament and make decisions how to continue with the protests. They demand more moral, less corrupted and transparent government as well as the ostavka of the current one. They protest during work hours till night time almost each day.

On Tuesday there was a protest, but there were a lot of policemen, I’ve never seen so many. But if it wasn’t for them, the deputies would never be able to go out from the Parliament safely. Some students got hurt, either because they were rioting too harshly or because the police was already too arrogant. On Wednesday there were protests against the violence from the police.

What are the reasons behind the protests? What are the Bulgarians fighting for?

Bulgaria is the poorest EU member, a semi-consolidated democracy, has a corrupted media and partially banking system, but most importantly – very insolent politicians. The last election results showed that the people’s trust in the political system is below zero. The economy is comparatively growing slowly, but the fiscal discipline is too harsh. We cover 4/5 of the Maastricht criteria, but we don’t expect to get in the Eurozone in the next 10 years.

You may compare us with Turkey’s GeziPark riots (striving for democratic values), but economy also plays a big role in our protests and we don’t have problems with secularism. Except that in the fact that here’s a strong frustration with their and Egypt’s protests, because the world news agencies, showed mostly them and wrote just a few posts about us during the summer. We felt neglected, because the lack of blood (something that we were proud of) and the vivid performances were skipped. Unfortunately, on Tuesday some people got harmed.

There is a strong need for further implementation of democratic principles in the political system, but people start to realise about it just now and that’s why they are fighting for them, with very vague labels. Ostavka means only resignation, but here and now it also means that there is something really wrong with us, it can’t go on like that and it’s high time we find a solution. After the fall of the communism, it is obvious that we still haven’t found the proper way to set a prosperous state and we’re making circles in the same place, which we call “transition”. We are still learning what is active citizenship and open-mindedness.

What is your opinion about the protests? Do you believe in a change? Are you doing anything yourself?

I support them. I’m active on Facebook and sometimes I go to the protests, but at the same time I have to study for the state exams. If you check closely the Agora Zaragoza pictures of the Chair Team, you’ll see #ostavka on my laptop.

Roger Waters playing “Another Brick in the Wall” in Sofia and displaying “ostavka” on the screen

I don’t think that our politicians will change their minds, we need a whole new generation to come on stage. Even if they resign, it’s likely that the same parties will be back on the floor and this will continue. I think this will last for long time. The police are actually really scared because they are in favour of the protestors, but they don’t want to lose their jobs.

I was thinking to write to the mailing list “AEGEE-L”, but later I thought that lighting a candle is not very attractive. Moreover, the EU institutions did not react as we presumed they would.

Find more background information and a chronology of the protests here, and Atanas’ favourite opinion article about the protests here.

Pictures on the courtesy of Atanas Nachkov

Written by Marije Arentze, AEGEE-Leiden

Every day we are bumping into news about violence… And they somehow pass by us. Hundreds of dead people in Syria, plane crash in Nigeria or army beating protesting people in Egypt. We are so used to hear them that somehow we have stopped realising what they mean.

We have stopped till the moment it happens in our “home.” As a journalist I have written many times

For young people like us religion or origin are not important

about terroristic bomb attacks. It has never been as close as Bourgas though. Actually Bourgas is just 400 kilometres from Sofia. It is a city on the Bulgarian “Riviera” and its airport is not even opened during the whole year. But today (18^th of July) it was opened.

In the summer it is even crowded because of many tourists. A plane from Tel Aviv just landed and the people took the bus from the plane. BANG. And for at least six Jewish tourists this was the last day among us. For 30 more in the crowded bus this will be a nightmare till the end of their lives.

A terroristic attack happened here. Not over the Adriatic sea, not over the Ocean… but just by the Black sea. Just in Bulgaria.

Working for news is not an easy job. It might seem so but sometimes there are news that don’t let you sleep, don’t let you stay aside and forget them after crossing the front door. But when I was starting to do it I was shocked how news were chosen.  Maybe sticking to main rules of the journalism we were covering news that are concerning many people (as the elections in the US) or are close geographically (European Union, your neighbours, etc.) but sometimes the death of 10 people in Doha or Nigeria were ‘minor news’ that “do not concern too many people.”

Maybe for most of you  a bomb attack in an unknown city on the Black Sea coast would also be such a news. But for me it is more than shocking… Not only because it happened in MY country. But also because it happened to a flight with Jewish people from Tel Aviv. On all the Balkans Bulgaria is famous for its hospitality. Once foreign people come here they often find their way back much later.  But we are not only friendly to foreigners but also tolerant to people we live with. In Bulgaria there is a big Turkish minority that even has their own party in the government. And Jewish people and people of Armenian origin are so accepted and positively assimilated that the only way to find out their origin is when they tell you.

So that is why an anti-Jewish terrorist attack in such a country makes the act even more scary and shocking… So let’s hear carefully the news next time and do not try to pass by reports about massacre in some parts of the world our geographic knowledge does not cover and do not underestimate it. Because no matter how scary it sounds – something like this can happen closer than we think even tomorrow.

Written by Liliya Buyukliyska, AEGEE-Sofia