|
METU European Society was founded in 1993 and accepted by AEGEE network as AEGEE-Ankara by an Agora decision taken in Autumn Agora '95. Later on, AEGEE-Ankara became an active contact antenna. The first international event of AEGEE contact Ankara was the '95 Summer University "Turkish Culture and Language". "Understanding Europe" conference was the first European Event of AEGEE-Ankara, which made a small contact to be a leading antenna. Integration of Ankara and AEGEE is accepted as a revolution because AEGEE decided to break dogmas about modern European borders and brought a new conception to "Europe of values".
In August 1995, a summer university was held. The participants studied Turkish language and culture. "Understanding Europe", the international student symposium was held in April 1996. This has lead AEGEE-Ankara to become an antenna in November 1996. During July 1996, AEGEE-Ankara organized a summer university held in Ankara and Antalya about Turkish Culture. In November 1996, AEGEE-Ankara organized an introduction meeting to gain new members. In August 1997, traditional summer university was held. In February 1997, 7 of our members went to Eskisehir in order to strengthen regional cooperation and enlarge the network for the ones who wanted to join AEGEE, by providing an internal education. In April 1997, AEGEE-Ankara invited Prof. Andrea Gattini to give a conference on "Inter-governmental Conference - European Union in Perspective" at METU. In May 1997, AEGEE-Ankara organized the "European Monetary Union" conference in which Alber Maes attended as a speaker. Again in May 1997, together with AEGEE members from Blagoevrad, Eskisehir, Istanbul and the European Team and the president of AEGEE-Europe, an "AEGEE Regional Meeting" was organized. The main points of the discussions included 'Socrates', 'Youth for Habitat' and 'Greek-Turkish Relations' In November 1997, AEGEE-Ankara organized AGORA in cooperation with AEGEE-Europe. In July 1998, Summer University - Anatolia: The Cradle of Civilizations' was organized by the participation of 22 students from 14 different cities. In November 1998, in the 50th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, AEGEE-Ankara organized the conference "Universality of Human Rights" in order to discuss if we need a new conceptualization on Human Rights. In 1998, Conferences and a series of cultural events on the issue of " German Culture". In 1998, AEGEE-Ankara organized "One European Night" online with 40 cities by satellite. In November 1998, AEGEE-Ankara organized an event called "Socrates Action Day". In February 1999, a conference named "Universality of Human Rights" was organized with the official partnership of AEGEE-Istanbul. In May 1999, a series of events were organized concerning the issue of "European Days". Again in May 1999,traditional party of AEGEE-Ankara "One European Night II" was organized on the European day, which is the 9th of May. In July-August, 45 European students have come together and enjoyed the summer university of AEGEE-Ankara; "Wars: Destiny of Anatolia" of which route was 6.000 km. Around In July 2000 during the traditional summer university of AEGEE-Ankara, hundreds of students from various cities of Europe came together to understand the "Black Sea" Culture. During August 2000 in Kuşadası, AEGEE-Ankara succeeded to organize the flagship event of UNESCO with the official partnership of AEGEE-Athina. 200 students from different continents came together in order to have an education about "Conflict Resolution". After the researches of a group of students who were AEGEE-Ankara members, they came up with the result that Hungary is one of the countries in the area which show a great deal of similarity with Turkey and the Turkish people. This group, went to Budapest in order to evaluate the results and after witnessing the lives of the Hungarian people and examining the reflections of the Turkish culture they gathered a lot interesting information. As a result of these researches, in July 2001, the group came out with a cultural Exchange Project called “ Cebimde Elma Var” This project aimed to make the young people of these two countries which have a lot in common to see the similarities and improve the relationships by one to one friendships. In October 2001 AEGEE-Ankara organized the event named Sinepol. During sine-pol event, the effects of politics on film industry and the role of films in shaping people’s lives and creating prejudices, were discussed. Sinepol was the first pre-event of AEGEE-Europe’s general assembly, Fall-Agora 2001. In October 2001 the second pre-event of Fall Agora 2001 was organized. The event called “Euroscepticism – Is it a sin” questioned the degree, the candidate countries wish to join EU and the reasons why they want to become a member state. It also examined the position of these countries and EU countries during the enlargement process. In October 2001, the most important statutory event of AEGEE -Europe, Fall Agora was successfully held in METU with the participants of 400 AEGEE members from all over Europe. In July 2002 AEGEE-Ankara organized the second “Olympicreation” summer university that was successfully followed in the August of the same year by another summer university named “BecomEast” South East Anatolian summer university. In march 2003, in Sakarya university, AEGEE -Ankara in collaboration with AEGEE -Sakarya organized within the Turkish Greek Civic Dialogue Project framework, the event “Rebuilding Communication”. In may 2003 AEGEE -Ankara in collaboration with METU European Studies Center on account of “9 May- European Day” celebrations organized “European days” event. During this event conferences, panel discussions and several simulations on European topics were held. In July 2003 AEGEE -Ankara with the collaboration of AEGEE -Athens and other NGOs organized in Fethiye Kayakoy the youth festival with the participation of thousands of young people from Greece and Turkey . The festival was organized within the framework of Turkish Greek Civic Dialogue Project. Between 2-4 April 2004 the Final Conference of Turkish Greek Civic Dialogue Project was held in METU. This conference marked the end of the Turkish Greek Civic Dialogue Project. The Project, financially supported by European Commission was one of the most important projects of AEGEE -Europe. In August 2004 AEGEE -Ankara organized “Touch the Untouched” summer university. This summer university aimed in introducing and promoting the natural beauties and culture of the Black Sea Region. Between 1-6 October 2004 the international event “Islam and Europe – Eyecontact” was held in METU. More than 70 participants from middle east and Europe attended the conferences, panel discussions and workshops led by distinguished academics such as Prof.Dr John Esposito from Georgetown University, Dr. İbrahim Al Marashi from Sabancı University, Zeynep Arıkanlı from Galatasaray University, Prof. Dr Fuat Keyman from Koc University, Assoc. Prof Dr. Nuri Yurdusev from METU and distinguished journalist and writer Etyen Mahcupyan. In December 2004 AEGEE-Ankara Human Rights Working Group organized “Human Rights and Activism” event. Many distinguished Turkish and international NGO’s operating in human rights field such as Amnesty International Turkey, Human Rights Association attended this event. During “Human Rights and Activism” event participants discussed the actual situation of human rights and problems faced in Turkey. They also shared their valuable experience and opinions on the issue. In April 2005 AEGEE – Ankara Erasmus Working Group in collaboration with Italian Cultural Center in Ankara organized in METU and Hacettepe university the event named “Magellano Project”. This event aimed promoting and further developing Erasmus education Program in Turkey. In May 2005 members of AEGEE-Ankara together with alumni members of AEGEE-Ankara joined in, the Abant Bolu trip to celebrate the 10th anniversary of AEGEE-Ankara. In August 2005 AEGEE-Ankara organized its 11th summer university named “Dreameast”. For about 2 weeks, 35 AEGEEans from all over Europe were introduced to south eastern Anatolian culture and its mystic Islamic civilization. In September 2005, AEGEE-Europe’s most advanced training course, European School II was held in METU. This event that was organized by AEGEE-Ankara in collaboration with AEGEE-Academy and AEGEE-Europe, aimed in training AEGEE members to work at European level, in advanced Project management within the framework of NGO’s and so on... |
