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AYSOR journalists Tatev Mkrtumyan and Tato Garuchava as well as designer Armen Khudgaryan are glad to present you the journal of the forum on behalf of the media team. The International EYP Forum in Armenia on “Active youth for sustainability: obtaining and rebuilding” (AYSOR) 2015 took place on November 1925 in Yerevan with the support of German Federal Foreign Office, in the scope of BASES (Building a Strong European Society). This journal covers AYSORians’ unforgettable, funny, awaited and precious moments that will always remind of the amazing week spent in Armenia. Wish you an amazing journey through memories of AYSORians with the help of this journal.
Love – Ok Elly – More Love Elly – Oh, Come on! Love.am – I am fine Yes – Me A press – well done! Thank you! Ahhh chick – Girl Q’Art – people who always wear black and listen to low quality music Lol IQ – tomato Sir Bitch – towel How do share chess? – Have you come with bad news? Suit as, as whom – You are lying Eye boob N – Alphabet Damn – Against J Pit – smile Luis – light Sara – mountain Sarah – Cold More queer – Aunt
Can a Mall – womanizer SendIQ – Energetic Iraq – three T Sit – bird, or something awesome Year Gel – to sing Hear a chaos – phone Leaf – bra A miss – month Pay near – cheese Hi – Armenian Sir L – To Love Bud – Duck In chew – Why? Inch – What? Carrot – Missing someone Jam – Hour, Watches, Clock Saw – Hunger Hire - father A peer – mate N’care – friend Car – Stone Ash – donkey
HEAD ORGANISERS OF AYSOR Learning about the Head Organisers of AYSOR 2015 is always a good idea, especially when it is them telling about each other by answering to posed questions. It is fascinating that most of their answers were correct, which means that Vahan and Hayarpy are not only coorganisers, but also good friends. Tatev Mkrtumyan
VAHAN KIRAKOSYAN 1.How did Hayarpy join EYP? She was a delegate at FEEL AYSOR 2014. 2.What is her profession or what has she studied? She received a Master Degree of Business Administration at the American University of Armenia. 3.How many EYP Forums has she attended? She attended 5 EYP forums: FEEL AYSOR 2014, IEFA 2015, AYSOR 2015 and two sessions abroad. 4 .What is her favourite song? Maybe “Tashi�. 5.Is there anything she does not know about you for sure? Probably she does not know that I love wales very much. 6.Which is the most memorable issue that you have argued as Head Organisers of AYSOR? We could not clearly divide the tasks between us, but it took only three days and everything was great later. 7.What object does she always carry with her? A notepad and pen. 8.Describe her in a few words. Good friend and motivational person.
HAYARPY VARDANYAN 1.How did Vahan join EYP? He joint FEEL AYSOR 2014 as a media team member. 2.What is his profession or what has she studied? He is a future linguist currently studying in ArmenianRussian Slavonic University. 3.How many EYP Forums has he attended? More than 10. He is a board member, so he has been present to all EYP forums and sessions in Armenia. 4.What is his favourite song? Pink Today's The Day. 5.Is there anything he does not know about you for sure? He probably does not know that I may be kinder in real life, though I seem strict sometimes. 6.Which is the most memorable issue that you have argued as Head Organisers of AYSOR? I do not recall any memorable or special argument between us. 7.What object does he always carry with him? His iPad with no hate sticker. 8.Describe him in a few words. Active, creative and sociable guy.
AYSOR
2015 Is a Reality Now!
The Opening Ceremony of International EYP Forum in Armenia on “Active youth for sustainability: obtaining and rebuilding” (AYSOR) 2015 took place on 21st of November at the Komitas Museum-Institute. The guests and the participants were greeted by the Founders of EYP Armenia, Hovsep Patvakanyan and Suzanna Shamakhyan, the Head Organizers of the forum, Vahan Kirakosyan and Hayarpy Vardanyan, the President of AYSOR, Maximilian Kiehn, and of course Dr. h.c. André SchmitzSchwarzkopf, the Chairman of the Board of Schwarzkopf Foundation, which is the umbrella organization of European Youth Parliament. Afterwards, a panel discussion was held on “Challenges of sustainable development in the EU and Eastern Partnership countries” moderated by Hovsep Patvakanyan. Later on, when everyone was relieved and excited about a new start with AYSOR, the officials expressed their feelings as the President of AYSOR, as the President of EYP Armenia, who has launched many other forums and sessions of EYP Armenia, and of course as the Head Organizations of the forum, who used to be alumni of FEEL AYSOR forum in 2014. Tatev Mkrtumyan
MAXIMILIAN KIEHN
President of AYSOR
The Opening Ceremony is a symbolic bridge between the preparations and trainings conducted before the forum and the results that are upcoming. Of course, it is also a prestigious moment to hear the hymns on the board as a president of the forum and to officially launch the forum.My expectations from the forum are not all about passed resolutions, but more about satisfied delegates, whose hard work and huge discussion may draw a concrete political direction in their resolutions, whether they are passed or not. Only after that I will feel relieved that our hard work with all the chairs were worth it.
HOVSEP PATVAKANYAN President of EYP Armenia
In different times, during different forums we feel different, but at AYSOR forum you see that people are living with this day with this moment, so the name AYSOR (“today” in Armenian) says for itself. We have one of the best organizing teams, they are so confident meantime being so busy doing their best for participants and for creating an amazing forum.
HAYARPY VARDANYAN Head Organiser
At first it is a great responsibility for me to manage and finally to launch such an event that had its prototype last year, to which I have participated as a delegate. When I look back now I see a huge development, a massive improvement of my skills, lifelong experiencewith many new good friends some of who are involved in AYSOR with me and Vahan as organizers and make our team a cosy family. Recalling my delegate times in FEEL AYSOR 2014 helps me to see everything through delegates’ eyes, to understand their feelings and to do everything to satisfy their expectations.
VAHAN KIRAKOSYAN Head Organiser
My strong belief is that it is not about being a Head Organiser, or a delegate, but being an EYPer. Of course being a headorganiser requires much more patience, willingness, devotion and not only, but I am happy to work with an amazing coorganiser and with an enthusiastic organising team. I hope that AYSOR will be a life changing experience for many people and I hope that I will see most of AYSORians later involved in EYP Armenia.
BUT FIRST, LET ME LEARN
ARMENIAN
What does a common Armenian do when meeting a foreigner? Of course, teaches him/her Armenian words. Expecting the same from AYSORian Armenians, I asked some of the internationals to recall the first Armenian word they have learnt during AYSOR that stayed in their memory from the first moment, and here is what they answered. Tatev Mkrtumyan
Maximilian Kiehn (DE), President of AYSOR “I used ‘bari aravot’ (good morning) for teambuilding so it was the first Armenian expression I needed to remember, and the evening before I tried to say thank you but it was much harder to pronounce ‘shnorhakalutyun’, which was not very doable for me in one evening.” Anna Galkina (RU), VisePresident of AYSOR “I love an Armenian expression that says ‘tsaved tanem’, which means ‘let me take your pain away’. I really like the meaning and the fact that there is a kindhearted expression like that.” William Heinz, (LU), AFET I Chairperson “The Armenian word that I memorised very well is ‘lavash’, the traditional Armenian bread, which I love very much. Lavash is also one of the reasons that brought me to Armenia, I like it very much, so I remember it very well.” Tatiana Kovacova (SL), AFET I “The Armenian expression that loved says ‘Yes kez sirum em’, meaning ‘I love you’. This was our group shout in the committee.” Tatiana Pimenova (RU), REGI “I remember the word ‘Tsaghadzori’, which I learnt during Team Building activities. It was one of the tasks. It also is a beautiful dance.”
ARMENIAN HABITS THROUGH EYES OF
INTERNATIONALS Spending a whole week in Armenia it is impossible not to grasp some eye catching Armenian habits that may seem weird at first, funny next and usual or normal in the end. Here we are presenting you some them grasped by our international AYSORians. Tatev Mkrtumyan
Maximilian Kiehn (DE), President of AYSOR
Tomas Petrauskas (LT), JURY
“In Armenia people stare on their phones constantly. I have never experienced anything alike. They use their phones naturally and that is really eyecatching.”
“Armenians in general are very warm and hospitable, they are always ready every moment for help. Especially during AYSOR people are very kind towards us and always answer to our questions patiently. “
Anna Galkina (RU), VicePresident of AYSOR
Michael Stern (CH), AFET I
“I have noticed that Armenians speak up frequently, laugh out loud during the conversations, which actually is nice, because I like emotional behaviour when you are with your friends and you see that they are open towards you.”
“Armenians are very good listeners. They take a time and listen to you carefully. Another thing that I have noticed is that the car drivers seem aggressive, they are always beeping, but if you cross over the street at red, they will stop for you without hawking or beeping as usual.”
Tatiana Pimenova (RU), REGI “A habit or a behaviour that I find a bit strange or even funny is when men kiss each other while greeting here.”
Sepp Vogel (DE), EMPL “I have noticed that Armenian use ’jan’ and ‘ha jan’ very much, almost in every conversation.”
NEWIES OF EYP ARMENIA EYP Armenia is always ready to open its doors towards new smart and enthusiastic youngsters. For many of such young people AYSOR is the first ever international forum in their EYP history. Here is how Tatev Mkrtumyan
Elen Simonyan (JURY) “Before AYSOR I had a doubt on seriousness and professionalism of EYP, since it is a youth parliament handled and organized by young people. But right after the first moment spent here it feel completely different, I saw the hard work of the organizers, and most importantly, I understood that EYP gives a huge place to our ideas. It is very important that we are given a voice to express our opinion on various issues and feel that we really are changing something in our society.”
Lusine Harutyunyan (DROI) “I wonder why have not I joint EYP earlier. But I am glad that I am already in EYP thanks to AYSOR amazing forum. Actually, I did not clearly know what EYP is before AYSOR, I just saw my friends talking about it enthusiastically every time and everywhere, so I wanted to learn about that. I came out of my comfort zone for going into something new, for getting new impressions, new feeling, meeting new people, and I succeeded, for which I am very glad.”
Ruzanna Hanesyan (DEVE) “Previously I thought that EYP forums are too formal and serious, but it turned to be different. During AYSOR I understood that alongside the academic work we have time for fun, cultural events, etc. I also want to mention that I am on my last grade at high school and joining EYP right at this time is vital for me, because it helped me to get many new connections, friends and of course knowledge and huge experience for this serious period in my life.” Erik Aleksanyan (DROI) “I really like the warm atmosphere in AYSOR, everyone being close and kind to each other. Team building activities contributed to it by elaborating on the communication among the participants. And of course, I love the committee works and how we discuss, find out problems and suggest solutions to them.”
Erik Davtyan (EMPL) “EYP exceeded my expectations in every possible aspect. I was not that motivated and enthusiastic when coming here, but now I am ready to recommend my friends and family to join it as well. Thanks to the professionalism of organisers, chairpersons and all the other officials this forum became a very important experience Narine Hayrapetyan (EMPL) “It all felt very crazy and exhausting for the first day, even though we did not do any academic work, it was just the overload of positive energy and emotions, but then, I got used to it, and understood that this is the nature and spirit of EYP. From the teambuilding activities I loved the “Find the leader” and “To sell the monkey”, which was very awkward, to be honest.”
COMMITTEES OF AYSOR
AYSOR forum had pleasure to have seven committees and delegates from 11 countries. This session was mostly signified with a lot of newcomers eager to make their participation memorable. It is natural that at the start it seems rather awkward to be assigned for a particular committee and solve problems Europe facing nowadays, but after having spent with them some time I understood that they managed to defeat the tension. They say that you’ll feel happiness if you smile to 10 people each day and get smiles from them as well. I guess I’m more than happy to have experienced so many warm greetings from more than 100 people. Without further gilding the lily and no more ado here are the things which were mostly recognizable while committees were working. Tato Garuchava
DROI
You might have already noticed bracelets of this committee, which our lovely vice president Anna made for her delegates and they were wearing it for the whole session. But not only bracelets describe how these individuals love their committee but also how friendly atmosphere they have created within it.
JURI
It’s more than certain that just stepping into their committee room is enough to feel high level of energy and positivity that these youngsters posses. If you were eager to have fun and laugh a lot, you should've definitely approached them. I can’t say anything better than the thing that one of their golden rule says that “chocolate is a safe word”, which totally made me their fan.
DEVE
You really understand what international forum means when you look at poster where “development” is written on ten different languages. These people truly strive into getting best out of everything, once they even created a melody, which started from one delegate pressing pen’s button every second followed by clapping.
AFET I REGI
It all started with hatred. You will not believe but William Heinz, chairperson of the committee, made delegates play tough team building games in order to make them hate him and bond ties with each other. But as one delegate explained to me it was partially unsuccessful, because they still don’t hate him. This room is always full of laughter, especially when they lay down at the end of the day for meditation and start to sing.
These people are more individualistic than you can imagine. It is easily recognizable that all of them posses leader skills which sometimes makes their discussion noisy, not to mention their posing skills while taking a picture.
AFET II EMPL Their room is always quite because they don’t really need to write in golden rules “listen to each other”. Still chairperson has mostly repeated phrase: “if you hear me clap once”. I believe that their hard work will be paid off at the end because they truly deserve it.
These people make everything to have organized committee. Sticking into time, listening to each other, being confident… They truly know how to make best out of everything. To have more organized conversations they have rule of putting a hand up showing one finger.
THE OFFICIALS OF
EYP in AYSORians’ Words You really understand what international forum means when you look at poster where “development” is written on ten different languages. These people truly strive into getting best out of everything, once they even created a melody, which started from one delegate pressing pen’s button every second followed by clapping. Tatev Mkrtumyan
Maximilian Kiehn, (DE), President of AYSOR E- Enthusiastic: This is because I believe that one needs to be very motivated here in EYP, Y- Yoga: Concentrating on a specific topic or problem, of course, is not as enjoyable as a yoga course, but you really dive into something that you never do in your everyday life, P- Progress: Finally, in order to change something in society we William Heinz, (LU), AFET I Chairperson Extremely Yippee People Tatiana Pimenova (RU), REGI Exciting Youth Play Antoine Huber (CH), EMPL Express Your Position Heghine Ghazaryan (AM), REGI Entertainment Youth Prosperity Michael Stern (CH), AFET I Extremely Young Politicians Ruzanna Hanesyan (AM), DEVE Empowering Young People
SVETLANA ZAKARYAN Organiser By being an organiser I could see a whole new level of EYP forums, from a different perspective, which also requires much more responsibility. I am glad to have such an amazing team, who became my friends and together we succeeded coming to this day, to AYSOR.
ALEXANDER YEGHIAZARYAN Organiser It was an honour to listen to all those wonderful people perform so amazingly during Euroconcert, it was just pure pleasure. Although I was one of the performers, I did not give as much attention to my own performance as much as I should have. I was really attentive towards what others were doing, what amazing performances they had.
SUE AVETYAN Organiser For three months already I am living with AYSOR, with today, and I cannot imagine what I will do when this all is over, when I’ll have only tomorrows, or even todays but no more AYSOR.
DUE TO THESE PEOPLE
AYSOR
IS REALITY
PRESIDENT OF THE FORUM Maximilian Kiehn ORGANISING TEAM Vahan Kirakosyan Hayarpy Vardanyan Areg Amirkhanian Rafo Martirosyan Dawid Arakelyan Syuzanna Martirosyan Alexandra Banna Alexander Yeghiazaryan Diana Ghabuzyan Sue Avetyan Satineh Harutyunyan Bryan Rapheal Inessa Karapetyan Svetlana Zakaryan MEDIA TEAM Shushan Stepanian Gevorg Vardanyan Armen Khudgaryan Tatev Mkrtumyan Tato Garuchava Tasja Karapetian Tsov Sirekanyan Marko Nedeljkovic Mane Nersesyan CHAIRS TEAM Anna Galkina Nune Hayrapetyan Ani Babayan Nane Hovanessian Varvara Tyurina William Heinz Avnik Melikian Inessa Manukyan Taguhi Mesropyan Ashot Khudgaryan