So, it’s holiday; you could work a lot to earn some extra money, you could stay at home and be bored all the time, you could book a ticket to a lame, sunny, touristic destination; lying on the beach, eating ice cream and staying in your comfort zone. But for AEGEEans, there is an extra opportunity: Summer University! What else is better than throwing yourself into the deep, going on holiday with a bunch of strangers, eating new food, learning traditional dances, having a lack of sleep? Nothing, am I right?!

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My story starts on the fifteenth of July, when I joined the group in Eskişehir. It seemed a nice group initially, but you can say we had a rough start, because, during this first night, the coup in Istanbul took place. Of course this caused some worries among both participants and organisers, but we were safe and our organisers handled the situation very well!

So the following days consisted of ice-breaking-games, workshops about civic education, lunch breaks, cooking, city activities and dinners. We also met the mayor of Eskisehir. According to Summer University protocol, some partying was included as well. I really loved the pub crawl; it was full of entertainment and nice deals with the pubs. Also, you cannot miss out on a European Night. We played a lot of games and ended with Thirty Seconds (of course my team couldn’t be beaten).

We ended the part of the programme in the city Eskişehir with a night camping in the nature. We crossed dangerous rivers, conquered the highest mountains and fought the wildest animals during our journey to the camp! After setting up the tents, we swam and scared the shit out of some frogs in the river. Then it was game time and we all stripped down for the ‘make the longest clothing line competition’. Furthermore, we created our own Peace-shirts with pencils and paint. Afterwards it was time for a nice campfire-dinner and some singing, dancing and drinking beers. Next morning we played some games spontaneously. ‘Dutch Lions’ was among them, which resulted in everyone covered with bruises and scratches.

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That day we returned to Eskișehir to recover in the Hamam and, in the night, we left Eskişehir and travelled to Pamukkale, where you can find the Travertine (google it!) and Hierapolis. We spent one day there and, in the evening, we reached Datça. Here the story of workshops, traditional dancing, partying and waking up too early continued. We also spent a lot of time at the beaches in the sun. After a game that involved some casual ear licking, French kissing, writing on asses, making a fool of yourself in public and sangria, we exchanged Datça for Fethiye.

In my opinion, the days in Fethiye were the best days. We did a boat tour with a BBQ and a lot of swimming and diving. On the second day, it was time for the thing everyone was looking forward to: Paragliding! I was scared when we had to run from a 2000m high mountain, and my legs were shaking because I don’t usually put my life in the hands of strangers (but it was amazing! A new Facebook profile picture is born here).

The next day we visited Saklıkent, which means hidden city in Turkish. We climbed through the canyon, but had to return when it got too dangerous. In the evening, we dressed up as zombies with make-up and fake blood and hit the club (no shame). The next day, we had some free time and ate our last meal together. Later, at the hostel, this was followed by an award ceremony. I received the award for best kisser; thank you […].

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All good things come to an end. We partied together one last time and, during the night, the first people, sadly, already had to leave. Despite a lot of things are going on in Turkey, I really enjoyed my time in this country! All the issues could not have stopped me from going there. I hope the organisers will stay safe in the future. I am grateful I’ve met all these people. The organisers did a really good job, the board is very kind and the other participants completed this experience! It felt strange waking up to an empty room the first morning at home, without any organisers yelling: ‘GOOOOOOOOOOOODMORNING, BREAKFAST TIME’. I think I speak for everyone else if I say that the After Summer University Depression kicked in immediately after the end.

It is strange that you build up friendships within those two weeks. You start as strangers, only connected to each other by our love for travelling and AEGEE. I would have never thought it would be hard to say goodbye to these bunch of […]. But saying goodbye does not exist. Let us make it a ‘till we meet again’.

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Written by Carlijn Cretier, AEGEE-Nijmegen

On July 15th, a part of the Turkish army took to the streets of primarily Istanbul and Ankara in order to perform, what turned out to be, an unsuccessful coup. Considering that there are almost ten locals in Turkey, of which seven Antennae and two Contact Antennae, and that there were both incoming and outgoing participants for Summer Universities into and out of Turkey on and near this date, things got exciting for a lot of members of AEGEE.

A Brief Run-Down

During the night of Friday, 15 July 2016, a fraction of the Turkish army attempted a coup to overthrow the government of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The militants blocked the Istanbul Ataturk Airport, as well as both bridges over the Bosporus in Istanbul. In Ankara, the Turkish Parliament building was struck by at least one bomb. The coup seemed to proceed relatively peaceful, until protesters, spurred on by Erdoğan’s address to the nation, resisted the attempted coup.
The militants clashed with police officers and civilians, until, on Saturday morning, it turned out that the number of protesters was too big to handle for the tanks, fighter jets and armed helicopters. The BBC and The Guardian reported that the total death toll was 265, 161 civilians and 104 attempters of the coup, and another 1440 wounded. AEGEE-Eskișehir recently reported that the number of fatal casualties has risen to 294.

According to The Guardian, directly during the aftermath, the Turkish government arrested 2,839 members of the army and detained another 2,745 judges and prosecutors. Later, CNN reported that this number had risen to a total of 15,846 people, 10,012 of which are military personnel, but that around 4,000 of these detainees have since then been released. AEGEE-Eskișehir confirmed these numbers in their statement on the 22^nd of July, and added that another 50,000 people have lost their job during the aftermath of the coup.

AEGEEans and the Coup

Two Summer Universities were taking place in Turkey during the coup; one of which was in Istanbul, the other was in Eskişehir. The coup happened during the second night of the Summer University that AEGEE-Istanbul organised, while the organisers and twenty-two participants were in the city at a pre-party.

As Brigita Senkane of AEGEE-Riga recalls: “[Dermanşah Yalın, President of AEGEE-Istanbul] organised AEGEE-Istanbul’s SU under extreme conditions: during the coup in Istanbul. He managed to evacuate everyone safely and fast while we were partying in Istanbul without knowing that the tanks were already in Istanbul. The Summer University continued safely and extremely carefully planned, because the organisers were flexible and re-planned everything to make it as much fun as possible and safe for us.”

After the organisers safely got the participants back to the gym, which was used as their sleeping accommodation, they set up WiFi-hotspots to enable all participants to contact their families and friends. The next day, all participants were kept in the gym for safety, and the organisation improvised an alternative programme for them at the location itself.

The coup also coincided with the first day of the Summer University that was organised by AEGEE- Eskişehir. Although most of the violence of the coup occurred in Istanbul and Ankara, some tensions were notable in this city in north-western Anatolia. Evrim Emiroğlu of AEGEE-Eskişehir reports that, of the many difficulties, the frequent police checks stood out most.

The other side of the coin is that local media picked up on the positive message that this Summer University had during the aftermath of the coup and covered them in an article and in a segment.

Travelling to and from Turkish airports, including the Istanbul Ataturk Airport, normalised by the sixteenth of July, and as far as The AEGEEan could uncover, only a couple of members of AEGEE were hindered to travel directly to and from Turkey to visit or return from one of AEGEE’s events. These included two members of A-Beograd, A-Kragujevac and A-Podgorica’s Summer University: Shake it to the Balkan Remix, who were unable to leave Turkey. Additionally, we have received reports that at least one member of AEGEE was hindered in travelling to her Summer University in Azerbaijan, due to the cancellation of her indirect flight via Istanbul.

Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen