Mariana Dimitrakopoulou

Oddysseas Drosos

Elinda Staikopoulou

Stella Kyranopoulou

Stella Banou

Stella Tsantekidou

Lazaros-Marios-Konstantinos Chalkias

Thanos Petkakis

Zacharias Papazachariou

Amalia Moula

Iliana Magra

Vaso Papadopoulou

Eva Kasapaki

Marialena Saraidari

Aliki Petsiava

Christiana Avarli

Christoforos Siakkas

Marina Moschoviti

But the journey never ends...

Their farewell MUN - Class of 2012

Achilleas Vrantzas

     It all began some years ago. Many ambitious students who wanted to start their MUN career. They served as delegates, chairs, directors, moderators and now as the organizing committee of the whole Anatolia College Model United Nations. Almost 20 people involved in the whole procedure will say goodbye to the school MUN editions as they are now graduating from Anatolia. Students from both Anatolia High Schools but from the IB program as well were also involved in the ACMUN for many years and we couldn’t help but wonder: what is it going to happen when they all leave?

     Certain students take part in the annual ACMUN leaving their own sign in it. For many years they have helped a lot in the procedure and now we have to say goodbye to them….

General Assembly <3

 by: Celia Tsapalou, Anny Miliara, Axilleas Vrantzas

        
         While the ACMUN draws to an end, the press team went to the General Assembly, which was held in Tracy Hall. All the country representatives gathered outside Tracy waiting to get inside in order to take their seats to begin the process. After a while, when the Administrative staff ushered them to their places, the General Assembly started. The secretariat prepared a resolution on the “Reconstruction of the UN”, which was addressed to all delegates of all the GA committees.

       Firstly, the president of the General Assembly read out the resolution and they proceeded to formal debate. A list of 15 ambassadors picked randomly to talk about the topic had been prepared and took some of the delegates by surprise! The delegation of DR of Congo took the floor to present their amendment, which proposed to strike clause 18, and it passed. Several similar opinions were heard by the numerous countries who took the floor. Afterwards, there was another motion to present an amendment which was overruled by the deputy director and they proceeded to moderated caucus.

      In general, the first hour was not a really active one, as the delegates were being rather noisy and not very eager to make points of information. We couldn’t help but notice that there were many inappropriate notes which contained flirty messages and compliments from one delegate to another!

   In the second hour, the amendments started to pullulate, as a lot of countries, such as Pakistan and Brazil, introduced one. It has to be mentioned that especially the ambassador of Brazil was really talkative, and he was eager to take the floor and express his points of view a number of times! Generally, the procedure was conducted harmonically and the delegates were really willing to make a fruitful debate and find far-reaching solutions to the issue.

     In the last hours, something really unexpected took place! The ambassador of Pakistan stated that they would actually resign from the UN, unless they were given a permanent seat in the Security Council. What is more, they also requested to expand their nuclear weaponry. Their demands were denied, and as a result, Pakistan declared its withdrawal from the UN. Negotiations between Pakistan and the secretary general will be made, in order for Pakistan to rejoin the UN on some conditions. Let’s hope for the best for the hours that remain! 

Awards yeahhhhh!!!

by Dimitris Giannopoulos

Many amendments,  a lot of debating and finally a bunch of clashes. The main submitter today was the delegation of China. This delegation was mainly referring to and arguing about the right that the citizens of Kosovo are free to decide whether they want to be independent or not, whether they want to belong to Serbia or not. But is this the main topic of the committee or not? Will the countries conclude somewhere? There are many possible solutions, but the countries don’t seem to agree on anything common. The Russian Federation though declares that it is upset with all the speeches. As you understand, it is not going to be an easy one. As the chairs mentioned, it was a committee that consisted of active delegates of which some were new and others had already experienced MUNs before. We can now move to the final part, which can somehow describe the last day in a MUN event; yes, I am talking about the funny awards each committee gives to the delegates. So here we have the awards of the Administrative and Budgetary committee:

1)      Hottest Male: Delegate of Spain

2)      Hottest Female: Delegate of Nigeria

3)      Mr & Mrs Committee: Delegates of Brazil & Canada

4)      Most Annoying Delegate: Delegate of Brazil

5)      Most likely to end up in prison: Delegate of Malta

6)      Most likely to end up in the UN: Delegate of Brazil

7)      Funniest Delegate: Delegate of Malta

8)      Best Dressed Delegate: Delegate of Poland

Tensions are high in the Security council!

Today as a dream team (and yes I mean both of us, Elina and Dimitris) we are attending the Security Council committee. The first one was being discussed for more than two hours and it finally passed! So many amendments, so many speeches, so many points of information! China and Russia were going to veto but in the end they seemed to be in a good mood, after yesterday’s exhausting conference. No speech, though, by the beautiful Colombian delegate, but a lot of note passing. Do not let us down! Delegates laugh and seem to enjoy every moment of ACMUN! The delegate of China isn’t satisfied as easily.  Does Germany form an “alliance” with Russia? That’s interesting. In the second clause discussed today the P-5 (the five countries that can veto) look like they are not going to end up with a good conclusion for all the delegations of the committee. Generally, a bunch of amendments passed while others did not. There was a lot of voting as well. The main question about all the clauses, amendments etc. is the following: Is China going to veto? Is the situation going to change tomorrow?

Chaos!!!

by: George Petkakis

This is the last day of the questioning and evidence collecting in the International Court of Justice. The atmosphere is tense and the heat is striking, as are the questions of the judges when addressing the advocates of the two countries. It’s Senegal against Belgium on the case of Hissen Habre, the former president of Chad (1982-1990) who authorized tens of thousands of political and other murders, of which the exact number is unknown. Habre overthrew Oueddei, President of Chad at that period of time, in a coup, while backed by the CIA. For the next 8 years, until his deposition, chaos and disorder ruled the country of Chad, murder was a plain sight and the public was excessively agitated. And after being overthrown twenty-one years ago, Habre hasn’t been put to trial yet. He is accused of several crimes, most of which violate Human Rights, and the trial is more than urgent. This is where the ICJ comes in. Belgium demands that Senegal releases Habre into its custody in order for a more unbiased trial to be conducted. Senegal refuses, as they believe that Habre should be put on trial in Senegal and his extraction is not at all necessary. The International Court of Justice is currently discussing, questioning, investigating and taking sides in order to reach a legitimate verdict on the matter. On the one hand, Senegal wishes to keep Habre and wait for funds in order to carry out the trial properly, funds which will probably come from the African Union or the European Union, or some combination thereof but not necessarily limited thereto. On the other hand, Belgium demands the extraction of Habre into Belgium, the Capital of the European Union in order to conduct the trial there. Senegal, however, refuses to give him in as they are waiting for funds provided either by the UN or the EU. The Judges don’t seem to be biased at all, even though they are asking more questions to Belgium than Senegal, but that is probably coincidental. The Court has had a very heated debate for the past days as the analysis and the thorough investigation of the evidence, the lengthy questioning of the witnesses has sparked and reignited the debate several times and has made the process time consuming but extremely productive and helpful to the final outcome. In general, the Judges, the Advocates and especially the Presidents of the ICJ were excellently dressed, something that promoted the idea of formal and serious debate throughout the conference. The ICJ as a whole showed great interest in the topic and there was mutual respect among the people that the Court consisted of. Apart from the misunderstandings that arose, such as the question of whether the Courts in Belgium have International Jurisdiction, something that the Advocates defending Senegal seemed not to be aware of, the debate was most fruitful and the entire court seemed satisfied and fulfilled just before the judges were about to make their final decision.

Controversial opinions create tension…

By Andriana Bouzaki

While I was walking to go to the top of the building (Art Room), I was scared. But when I got in the classroom, I saw that all delegates were participating and that helped me forget my anxiety and do my work. The social humanitarian and cultural committee calls upon every UN member state to reconsider its policies and privileges that have been given to LGBTs, which are homosexual relationships, marriage, and adopting children in a homosexual marriage. "Any kind of homosexual activity is not only a sin but also a crime against god in every religion and the words of god are stronger than the one’s of humans" , this was the opinion of some delegations as Pakistan. They discussed about adopting children by homosexual couples, some argued that should not exist under any circumstances. Some delegates argued that the nature of every human being is not created to have homosexual activity which might contribute to the transfer of HIV.  Although Italy, Germany, Australia, United States, Russian Federation and Colombia were against this resolution and they all believed that every human is free and homosexuality as an issue is not simple but completely legal to some countries, homosexual  individuals can marry and exist, they are humans with rights and those countries completely disagreed and cannot understand why people kill homosexuals. Estonia and Iceland felt the same way about this issue; they thought it was an interesting and controversial topic that is very important in our days. “We have to be friendly towards LGBT people and all the countries must support their rights as they are human! We have to make LGBT individuals equal with the others!” they both said in the interview. Furthermore, Peru was very headstrong and the only one who participated all the time by making many questions. The Netherlands, Syria, Colombia, Pakistan and Germany spoke a lot too. Although it was the last day, I believe they enjoy it! Hope people will go again to human rights committee and have a great time! *Girls don’t forget to wear flat shoes because walking all the way upstairs to the top of Macedonia Hall is not the easiest thing to do!