For a second the possibility of having the Mediation Commission composed only by one person, Damien Latacz, seemed to be reality. Although it would have been fun to imagine him arguing with himself on the Mediation Commission cases, luckily one more person stepped up. The Mediation Commission 2016-2017 is now composed by Damien Latacz and Petra Burusz. He is a polar bear from AEGEE-Aachen (and also Düsseldorf and Hamburg!). French with an engineering soul, he is in his second term as the President of Mediation Commission and he enjoys cooking, hiking and reading. Petra Burusz is a Sociology and Social Psychology student and she is writing her thesis on AEGEE. Unable to spend more than one week in her home country Hungary (she is a member of AEGEE-Budapest), because she is addicted to travelling. They work closely also with the President of the Juridical Commission, Monika Mojak (AEGEE-Lublin) and CD observer, Maarten de Groot (AEGEE-Amsterdam). What is the Mediation Commission? What do they do? We asked them these questions and much more. 

The AEGEEan: First of all, Damien, why did you decide to run for a second term?
Damien: On a personal level, I really like working in the MedCom. It is challenging, but we take our time to provide convenient help to people. I just like it. And there were still some projects and ideas I wanted to work on.

For Petra, why did you decide to run for the Commission? And why only during the Agora?
Petra: I would say the decisions are the best. Honestly, I climbed up in the ladder at the local level, but I thought I needed more challenge. According to my studies as well, I am pretty interested in solving problems, and there was the Open Call for the MedCom during the Agora. So I just made the puzzle.

Let’s pretend to explain what the Medcom is and what it does to a child. How would you describe your commission?
Damien: When two people are fighting and cannot find a solution alone, they ask us for help. We check that they both respected the rules, we talk to them until we understand them both and we try to make them understand each other. At some point, we have an understanding together and they can both continue working happily, without frustrations. That is basically what we do, at a different level of difficulty! Is that easy enough?
Petra: Imagine there is just one bar of chocolate for five children. These five children are yelling at each other, one becomes aggressive to get the whole bar of chocolate, one of them even hits the other one, a child tells this to the teacher and then the MedCom comes and speaks with all the five children separately and have conversations till they are able to find a solution that is good or acceptable according to their rules as well.

How did the Knowledge Transfer go?

Petra: Right after the elections at the Agora Chisinau we had the last dinner together with the old MedCom and the new MedCom team, and I got to know everything, really everything. First, I thought that there was too much information, but everyone was so kind and helpful to me, and all my doubts flew away. Later on, of course via Skype, we looked up everything step by step. And Damien is there to answer my questions when I need it.

What will the focus of this year be for the Medcom?
Damien: As we are working with only half a team, we had to make choices… So we will continue helping the implementation of the Data Privacy Policy Statement (the Committees are next for Enschede!), we will continue providing support to people asking for our help. We will try to give some workshops and increase the knowledge of the network. But this is already too much for only two people!

How important is the concept of the Mediation, the Conflict Management and the Conflict Resolution in AEGEE?
Damien: I think people underestimate how difficult it can be. Sure, we learn about multicultural communication, etc, but we should go one step further by trying to actively improve ourselves on these topics. I have seen conflict (at least to a small degree) in every team so far in AEGEE. Even if it is not giving damage most of the time, we do not pay enough attention to it in my opinion. It could make us much happier and much better people.
Petra: So many times we are not just able to recognise what the original problem behind is. We can be able to make something differently because the impatient world does not let us stop for a while and think through rationally. Often misunderstanding creates several issues as well and we are just making a mountain out of a molehill. So the mediation and the conflict management lead us to solve the problem and get the point out of it. It is important in AEGEE and in our personal life as well.

What is the typical week for a Medcom Member?

Petra: Our week is from Monday through Sunday. We are both studying and working as well but when we receive a mail, we start dealing with it as soon as possible. But those e-mails are literally unexpected so you never know. Our schedule is also flexible because of it. Furthermore, this year we are trying to attend more events and training so we wake the interest up about this field.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

The scope of conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh

South Caucasus is a historical region between Russia, Iran and Turkey shared by Azerbaijanis, Armenians and Georgians. Situated in its center Nagorno-Karabakh remained for a long time a unique example of common peaceful co-existence of several ethnics that do not have the same language, religion and views of common history, but lots of common cultural artifacts instead. Material and unmaterial things that were created by ethnosis or nation during its development. E.g for ancien Egyptians its papyruses, for Chinese people – porceilan, greeks – pottery. coins, but also poetry and literature as unmaterial items,  for turks – carpets, etc. Specifically in Karabakh there were lots of this things (inc. pottery, carpets, poems ) that were created by significant influences from both armenians and azerbaijanis.

In the beginning of  the 20th century the concept of regional multiculturalism met the raise of nationalism hastened by massacres and deportations of Armenians in neighbor Ottoman Empire. The treaty of Kars (1921) postponed the national tensions putting the whole South Caucasus (except several areas given to new born Turkey) under the Soviet Union dominance; Nagorno-Karabakh therefore was approved in territory of Soviet Azerbaijan Republic.

The multicultural region clashed in the end of 80s, during the disintegration of the USSR. The majority of Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region claimed the rigth of self-determination as they opposed living under the Azerbaijani rule that they considered to be unfair. Pogroms (ed: plunderings/ violent attacks) of Armenians in Sungari and Baki accelerated the sad result – the Karabakh war started. From that moment a diverse land populated either by Azerbaijanis and Armenians met terrible examples of national conflicts: tensions of discrimination by nationalities, deportations, massacres of peasants in Maragi and in Khojaly. Azerbaijan´s population has left the region living now in IDP-camps of Azerbaijan as internally displaced persons. The whole Nagorno-Karabakh region and the surrounding areas were “occupied” (Azerbaijan point of view), “freed” (Armenian point of view).

Till now the tensions remain. The war was frozen in 1994, both sides stand on their positions and moreover the conflict is now often used for political reason to distract the view from ones local problems. National media is used to manipulate the view of locals and to amplify the hate, youth from both sides can’t meet each other except outside their home lands.

The Scope of conflict resolution meeting

The task of building the civil society for Caucasus starts from creating the common history that is impossible without oral histories exchange. Common values, power of personalities, seminars, trainings and workshops, non-formal Education – are effective measures help to deal with long term-conflict on youth level and facilitate the peace building process between two countries. Examples like the co-operation between young people from different cultures and backgrounds in this event are the best proof that it is not only possible but it could be quickly realized for active youth: to live in peace and co-operation in a more and more interconnected world.

In order to create a common base of communication, understanding and ensuring support from the authorities for our Students´ Forum and the locals in Caucasus, President Luis Alvarado Martinez, Projects Director Miguel Gallardo Albajar and Liaison Officer towards OSCE Alin-Florin Calin attended the Conflict Resolution Meeting as AEGEE-Europe’s representatives and took the opportunity to meet with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijan Youth Foundation and Azerbaijan’s Youth Council (NAYORA). Future collaboration for new projects on conflict resolution was discussed, with a special focus on the situation of the region Nagorno-Karabakh.

Subsequently the Conflict Resolution Meeting, organized by AEGEE- Bakı, was officially opened from 7th to 11th of February in Baku. It united more than 30 young peacemakers from Europe, Caucasus and Middle East: from the Netherlands to Turkey or from Finland to Pakistan who met and discussed conflict resolution issues and presented their experiences. The participants enjoyed watching the traditional “1001 night” ballet at Baku Opera and Ballet Theater and the adventurous spirit of six hours travelling by minivan to the second largest city of Azerbaijan and runner for European Youth Capital 2016 – Ganja. The group met there with local NGOs and youth.

A big part of agenda took the topic about the conflict in Caucasus between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Experts from the Baku State University Dr. Altay Goyushov (PhD) and Mr. Azad Garibli (MSc) gave a historical insight into history of Azerbaijan and demonstrated the external influences in the region during the development of Azerbaijani nation that caused the current state of things. The influence of Russia especially was enlightened while discussing the situation in rebel regions of Ossetia and Abkhazia of Georgia. The speakers underlined the necessity of regional identity and common history for the peaceful and economically profitable future.

“There is a necessity of media regulation umbrella over the conflict zones” – told the author of the second workshop devoted to nationalistic media influence esp. on youth in conflict regions. His well accented necessity of bringing the people together in European mediation projects correspond well with AEGEE-strategy positioning youth as a stakeholder in conflicts. As one of the examples an author presented an AEGEE peace building project in Caucasus “Musicians without borders”, applied recently to several European foundations. Groups for each regional conflict worked on potential solutions to improve the situation in conflicts Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia – Abkhazia – Ossetia and Israel-Palestine in order to find a way out from the conflicts. They gave a short introduction into the conflict they were discussing and their conclusions.

In any conflict there are peace-makers, who co-operate together to create a change agency for the societies. Such people arrived to Baku this time, students from Israel and Palestine who brought the idea of common co-existence in their NGO “YbY” to life, shown the presentation of the Israel – Palestine conflict. They did not agree with each other on everything but they have shown how open-minded people are able to understand each other and actively change friends, families and neighborhood attitudes. If each society gets to learn about their neighbors, their dreams, hopes and fears – people will become aware of the humanity of the other side.
Written by Nikolai Kazantsev, AEGEE-Moscow and Alin-Florin Calin, AEGEE-Europe Liaison Office.