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2 14th National Selection Conference

Editorial

Dear delegates

These four days have been an intense experi-ence. Not only have you met new people from all over Turkey and beyond – with them, you have discussed some of the most urgent and complicated political issues that Europe faces, and come up with a creative and in-depth set of solution proposals. In the process, I hope, you had a lot of fun as well! This final issue of X-ist shares some final perspectives on the session, EYP and gender equality. In the first editorial I said that EYP was one of the friend-liest organisations I know. If you agree with me that our work is not only enriching, but you also had a blast at the session, do read Ege’s article “CJO for dummies” on page 10. Regardless of whether you are selected or not, I hope to see lots of you continue in EYP in many different roles – this is where you can learn about these!Thank you, dear delegates, for sharing your views and personalities so passiontely and sincerely with us for the past few days! And now, enjoy this final issue.

Harm

EditorHarm van Leeuwen (NL)

Video editorLouise van Benschop (NL)

JournalistsClémence Rérolle (FR)

Ege Yücel (TR)Eirini Daliani (GR)Genco Çakır (TR)

Gülşah Özdemir (TR)Konstantinos Andronikidis (GR)

Levent Aslan (TR)Martha Saunders (UK)

Nina Selmer (NO)Yaprak Yıldırım (TR)

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2 14th National Selection Conference European Youth Parliament Turkey 3

Contents

The truth behind the glitter 4

When the physical becomes political 5

Inequality: now, everywhere, forever? 6

Share the game, build the empathy 8

CJO for dummies 10

My Istanbul 11

The men’s world vs. Abigail’s 12

Meet Ms President! 14

The truth behind the glitter

BARBIE is beautiful; she has the perfect figure, long beautiful hair, clear skin, the best clothes and jewelry, and lots of friends. She really has the perfect life. She is married to Ken; the handsome and stylish guy with the seductive smile. Is this entirely true? Let’s have a closer look into their real life.

One would assume that Barbie lives the perfect life. But you know what they say: Money does not buy happiness. And apparently Bar-

bie’s dream house, pink Ferrari and all those fashionable shoes do not guarantee a happy marriage. Do we real-ly know what is hidden behind all this popularity? A photographer has created a blog where she states that there is tension, betrayal, depression and identity cri-sis in their marriage. It is like a soap opera created for children.

At a young age the majority of us tragically wish that we could be someone different; someone more beautiful or handsome. Unfortunately many girls look at figures like Barbie and wish they could have it all, like she has. There are many guys out there who are insecure because of the way they look, how they are built, and they wish they could also have it all. In addition to this, Barbie is many boys’ dream girl, and for many girls Ken seems to be the prince on a white horse that they are waiting for.

Their lives are filled with dream homes, flashy con-vertibles and ever-stylish wardrobes, but Barbie and Ken’s lives might be less than perfect. The promotion of the perfect couple has a negative impact on children’s minds. On the one hand, Barbie is assumed to be a sex object, the woman who has to be always in fashion and goes nowhere without her makeup. On the other hand, Ken is assumed to be a homosexual who is afraid to re-veal his preferences because he has been convinced that his popularity depends on the image of the perfect and always in love couple.

Every single person has the right to be who really wants to be. The key to happiness is to be proud of who

by Eirini Daliani (GR)

we are without caring what the others think. Nobody has the right to criticize us. Barbie and Ken are just dolls, but we should not forget that we have flesh, mind and heart. •


When the physical becomes political

DOMINATED by men, politics are a challenge for women. Beyond the regular issues they have to deal with, they also face male preju-dices concerning the decisions women make on hard topics. That is why they often resort to adopt masculine characteristics.

History has proven that when females decide to join politics, they are pushed indirectly to change their attitude or even their appear-

ance. Instead of being allowed to reveal their feminine body curves if they chose to, women put on more con-servative outfits. Those that dare to wear floral dress-es are being laughed at or even offended by their male counterparts.

The pressure is even bigger when women hold high power positions like head of states or head of Inter-national Organisations. Female leaders like Margaret Thatcher or even Angela Merkel had to adopt a manly attitude to cope with their male-dominated environ-ment. They somehow had to lose one part of their iden-tity so as to be accepted in politics.

Of course there are those stating that women in pol-itics never lost their female part, they are just powerful females who care about the important things and not

by Konstantinos Andronikidis (GR)

just about make-up and fashion. Aida (AL) states that women do not always have to be on high heels and it depends also on personal style or opinion whether they are dressed conservatively or not. Also strong character does not indicate that a female is forced to act like her male counterparts to be heard.

When I asked some delegates whether they think that women are indirectly forced to change some parts of their character or appearance just to fit in a man’s world, the answers were quite interesting. Serkan (FEMM) stated that women might change the way they deliver speeches or communicate because in real life they are too talkative and they tend to analyse even the tiniest details. Naz (CULT) on the other hand believes that women are stressed to change their appearance in fear that they might trigger comments and harm their reputation.

Did Merkel and Thatcher have to lose part of their female identities to be accepted as politicians?

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Inequality: now, everywhere, forever?

HAVE you ever thought that you are unlucky from birth? I have. My brother, who is eleven months older than me, has always been the favourite child in our family. No matter how much I strive to be successful, my grand-parents and relatives never appreciated my efforts as much as they appreciated my broth-er’s. He always got what he wanted easily while I was struggling for everything. Howev-er, it seems like I am not the only one who is affected by gender discrimination. It is good to find some delegates who can understand my situation.

by Gülşah Özdemir (TR)

Ekin Dolgun (LIBE I)“Once we decided to do something exciting and ex-

treme like go-cart as a group of friends. When we went there, the man who is in charge of the path gave the

equipment to the boys but not to me. He told me that it is not a girly thing.”

Berkan Duman (AFET)I have lots of friends who give girls a hard time with

their glances.

Elif Dülger (FEMM)When my brother was 12 years old, he was allowed to do anything he wants. However I still had to get my parents’ permission to go out when I was 15. Because

I am a girl!


Bilal Özcan (SEDE)I think it is unfair that the boys have to ask for date

but not girls. Isn’t it against gender equality?

Zelal Binici (AFCO)Most of the men think that women should not be

involved in traffic, because they cause a lot of problem with their ‘clumsiness’.

Selin Değirmen (CULT)“I am a passionate fan of Galatasaray. I always cheer

for my team during the games. My male friends always tell me that soccer is not for girls and kindly ask me to

shut up.”

Ilgaz Südütemiz (LIBE II)“While I was going to my school with my uniform on,

people in the bus, mostly male ones were staring at my legs. All I could do was to hide my legs behind my

bag. It was so disturbing!”

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Share the game, build the empathySPORT connects people beyond their cultural and national differences by making them share

same feelings. Though it increases the empathy for differences in general, gay athletes in team sports still feel a huge pressure to hide their sexual orientation.

Alexey Sorokin, the chair of FIFA World Cup 2018 which will take place in Russia has been quoted defending Russia’s anti-gay law:

“It is designed against active propaganda of ho-mosexuality, not against homosexuality itself. That is a big difference…Would you like a World Cup where naked people are running around display-

ing their homosexuality? The answer to that is quite obvious.”

Considering that there is a massive crowd who is incapable enough to correlate homosexuals with only pure nudism and sexism just like Sorokhin, it is understandable why homosexual athletes are concerned about the discriminative comments and enormous pressure they would have to deal once their sexual prefer-ence is publicised. In addition, their careers would be threatened or even come to an end. Jason Collins, a 34 years old NBA veteran, did make a public announcement and is still out of contract.

The main reason of homophobia in team sports is the lack of empa-thy and understanding in general. A lot of professional athletes suggested that they would refuse to have a gay teammate because it would affect the locker room atmosphere neg-atively and they would simply feel “uncomfortable”. Failing to accept a

by Levent Aslan (TR)

teammate due to the prejudices and fears indicates the unsettled culture of equality in team sports. According to these athletes, especially sports that include consist-ent physical contacts like hockey, basketball and foot-ball are considered as “macho”; therefore homosexual players are supposedly against the character of those sports.

However, there is one famous German football play-er, Mario Gomez, who claims that sexual preferences should not be hidden by saying “that being honest about their sexuality would improve gay players’ per-

formance”. Another football player, Robbie Rogers from Los Angeles Galaxy, has adopted this approach and became America’s first openly gay sportsman. With the huge sup-port he took both from fans and his teammates he regained his confi-dence and became a pioneer for oth-er athletes. Time will tell whether his example will be followed or not.

Sport is all about sharing and enjoying the game irregardless of any kinds of differences. Hence pro-moting respect for all kinds of sexual orientation in teamsports will be a huge step on realizing the spirit of sport. This step may hopefully create a domino effect on different areas of peoples’ life and build the empathy for different genders everywhere, everytime. •

Footballer Robbie Rogers got huge support when he an-nounced that he was gay

Jason Collins is still out of a countract


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CJO for dummies

Every session consists of different groups of participants: delegates, chairs, journalists and organisers. Being successful in each one of these positions requires a different set of traits and qualities, and mastering a field may require more than a few sessions’ experience. In this series of articles, our correspondent we will be investigating what it takes to be a remarkable member of the chairs, journalists and organisers team, or the so-called CJOs, with the help of those who make up the 14th National Selection Conference’s CJO team.

Chairpersons, or the “C” in the CJO, are the most important body for the facilitation of academic work in the session, besides the dele-

gates. Considering the amount of effort being a devoted delegate requires, it is hard to imagine how hard it is to moderate tens of them. Duties of a chairperson don’t only demand a wide range of academic knowledge re-lating to the topic, but they also demand high social skills. In a nutshell, it is possible to say that a chairper-son is the individual who leads the committee in the right direction while being actively informative within the committee as a mediator.

Coming to the journalists, they feed on raw media materials such as photos and video fragments, process

by Ege Yücel (TR)

them using their creativity and produce entertainment. They are always on their toes for the latest gossips. However, entertainment is not the sole purpose of jour-nalism within the EYP: the journalists also function as impartial observers during the debates, recording every event and providing unbiased consultation on a variety of topics.

Last but not the least, the “O” stands for the organ-isers, upon whose shoulders the session stands. If the chairs and delegates are the organs of a session, whereas the journalists are the soul, then it can be said that the organisers are the bones that keep the session from col-lapsing. Their hard work and devotion is what makes a session possible and being an organiser requires more than simple patience with the other participants’ de-mands. To be an organiser, one has to give their all to make sure the session runs smoothly. In a way, they are the guardian angels of all participants, providing them with food, accommodation and the most importantly parties. To sum up, all of the groups within a session have their own strong traits and equally important du-ties, therefore, it is impossible for one to exist without the others. •

Berk (TR), a typical ex-ample of a hard-working chair

Occasionaly, chairs tend to form hunting parties for survival


My Istanbul

I HAVE never experienced anything like Istan-bul. Beyond being overcrowded with people, and cars, the city is saturated with passion. Is this passion a product of the place in itself or of its people?

I can remember my first taste of Istanbul – back in late July – as clearly as if it were yesterday. As I ar-rived in Beyoglu in the middle of a warm summer

night, thrills grew inside of me. The unfamiliarity of the place and the feeling of insecurity Istanbul conveys were overwhelming. I was out of place, ignorant of this strange environment. Yet I was loving it. I was mesmer-ized by the indescribable magic that fills the air of Is-tanbul.

The ingredients of this magic recipe? A feeling of dis-order and incessant frenzy everywhere you go. A sense of chaos made possible by the extremes characterising Istanbul. It is indeed a city of many contradictions, where the same area can be home to the most elitist of schools as well as to the riskiest side streets. As I rambled around Taksim a lot, I was perpetually confronted to a mixture of divergent sensations, ranging from exhaus-tion and confusion to excitement and tranquillity. As

by Clémence Rérolle (FR)

much as I was a tourist, I felt at home. I was possessed by the passion and intensity of the local life.

Half way between the East and the West, bridging two continents together, finding its roots in the Ro-man, Byzantine and Ottoman traditions, “the City of Gold” is indeed the land of golden opportunity. As a rare cultural hub, Istanbul is a unique opportunity and experience in itself. This place embodies many things at the same time, all of which successfully merge into a single entity. It is a city where all dreams and all realities converge, despite Istanbul’s seemingly eclectic picture.

What gives Istanbul its enchanting powers? What turned it into a beautifully chaotic puzzle? At the meet-ing point of civilisations, Istanbul is rich with diversi-ty, which means it can only breed people who breathe with passion, act on passion and stand for passion. •

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The men’s world vs. Abigail’sLADIES and gentlemen, let me introduce the actors and actress of the Abigail to you!

Elif and Dünya are two lovers who live in a village that is divided into two parts by a river. The only way to go to the other side of the village is to the cross the bridge link-

ing the sides. One day, the bridge collapses unexpectedly, leaving Elif and Dünya on separate sides. To see Dünya, Elif asks a sailor if he could take her to the other side. Deniz, the sailor, says he could if she slept with him first. Elif gets quite confused by the idea and decides to ask her mother what to do. Her mother İpek refuses to give her a certain answer, believing that this is some-thing Elif should decide on her own. Then, Elif ’s desire to see Dünya gets too strong to resist, which causes her to cross the river by sleeping with Deniz. When Deniz finds out about it, he gets furious and breaks up with Elif. Feeling terrible, Elif talks to a friend called Arda. Arda finds Dünya’s action extremely unfair and cannot help but to beat up Deniz.

“Who do you think is the guiltiest one in that story?” was my question to the participants, which was answered by two differ-ent points of view. 39% of participants said Elif, while 42% of them went for Arda.

by Yaprak Yıldırım (TR)

Elif (FEMM): Abigail İpek (SEDE): the mother


The poll shows that the way we look at the unap-proved sexual intercourse depends on how we perceive gender roles. We consider women guilty for having sex no matter why they do it. It could be for getting out of a bad situation or simply for the joy of it. As for men, we believe that they are guilty only in case of taking advan-tage of women. Gender roles are everywhere even if we do not see them. After all, this really is a men’s world. •

Dünya (LIBE I): the boyfriend Arda (LIBE I): the friend Deniz (AFET): the sailor

Team Elif: Elif should not have slept with Arda. She had other options. She could have waited until the bridge was recon-structed or until Dünya found a way to come to her. She should have been more committed to the values and morals.

Team Deniz: Deniz could have been more under-standing and helpful. Elif was not going to be any extra burden to him. He could have taken her to the other side without charging her with any-thing. He took advantage of her.

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Ege Yücel: First of all, how do you like the session so far? Does it exceed your expectations particularly from the academic point of view? Are you satisfied with the output of the chairs, delegates and journalists now that the committee work is almost over?

Franziska Maier: I really enjoyed the session so far. It especially exceeds my expectations since the delegates seem very enthusiastic about EYP and seem to be hav-ing a lot of fun. Many delegates have put a lot of effort in it, and it shows in the resolutions, so, I’m very happy. There are very innovative approaches in FEMM, people taking a strong stand in AFET and I think that com-mittees are covering the problems standing behind the topics. Also I think the press team’s issues cover the core theme of the session which I find very nice.

Ege Yücel: We know that GA is an important part of the academic programme. It is where you see the results of your work from other parts of the session. What do you suggest the delegates to do during the GA?

Franziska Maier: I think the most important thing is to

be constructive with what you’re saying. I think it is a good thing to be passionate when delivering your points and clearly point out what the resolution is lacking. It is very easy to criticise the resolutions, but I think it is more important to be constructive since it is the only way we can advance and develop, so I definitely suggest that.

Ege Yücel: Let’s come to your EYP career. What did you do on your journey to presiding a session?

Franziska Maier: I started EYP in 2008, which was long time ago. A friend of mine discovered EYP. I was quite critical at first and didn’t want to go, but I really enjoyed it. Then I got involved mainly with EYP Germany and German sessions where I organised frequently. Then I went to the ISs in Helsinki and Frankfurt at the same time of starting chairing and journoing. I have done a lot of EYP ever since.

Ege Yücel: How did EYP change your life? Did you meet very good friends or changed your bachelors de-gree because of EYP?


Meet Ms President!Franziska is the lady behind it all: she coordi-nates everyone and everything, and makes sure that the academic part of the conference runs smoothly at all times. She supervises everything, and is the key factor on the way to perfection during the session. She might even be watching you. Prepare for the one to rule them all, I present you, Franziska Maier.

by Ege Yücel (TR)

Franziska Maier: I’ve been interested in politics since I first started EYP when I was 17. EYP helped me realise that I only have to be confident to approach this field successfully. I study public management and govern-ance, so I can say that EYP influenced the field of my studies. EYP is also one of the greatest hobbies you can have: you get to travel around Europe and experience new cultures. Also I share my flat with other people that I know from EYP.

Ege Yücel: What do you suggest for delegates to do with their EYP careers? Do you think that they should con-tinue EYP?

Franziska Maier: I think that you only get a good pic-ture of what EYP is once you’ve been to more than one session. Though I love being a delegate very much, I think that it is in many ways very good to be a chair, journo or an organiser too. So I definitely suggest them to continue EYP in different positions.

Ege Yücel: What does it take to be the president? How do you keep up with the intense pressure?

Franziska Maier: I believe there are very different ap-proaches to presiding a session, so there isn’t a gener-al recipe. But for me, presiding means enabling all the teams in the session to be the best they can be. What I did before the session was to draft the topics, together with EYP Turkey and the organisers so that there would be more interesting topics to discuss. I prepared with the board for the training. It is one of my duties to pass on the EYP spirit and experiences to others. I also have the duty to make sure that everyone is happy and the interaction between the teams is running smoothly and also maintain the relaxed atmosphere and keep away from the intense pressure that you’ve mentioned.

Ege Yücel: Thank you very much and good luck with the upcoming GA. •

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