Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe - AEGEE

The East-West Working Group of AEGEE-Europe, AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca, AEGEE-Iasi and AEGEE-Chisinau

proudly present the:

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Case Study Trip to MOLDAVIA

Ethnic Consciousness in a Period of Transition

from September 10th to 25th, 1997

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THE SCOPE

This Case Study Trip enabled 12 students from all over Europe to acquaint themselves with a half forgotten region in south eastern Europe: Moldavia.

Moldavia is known as the region on both sides of the river Pruth between the Eastern Carpathian mountains and the river Dnestr. The western part now belongs to Romania, whereas the eastern part, also known as Bessarabia, mostly forms the Republic of Moldavia. The south of Bessarabia currently is part of Ukraine. The majority of Moldavia's inhabitants speak Romanian, in their language the region is called "Moldova".

The focus of the two-week study trip was the progress made in the economic, social and political transformation in the visited areas after the fall of the Iron Curtain and the breakdown of the Soviet Union, as well as on student life, minorities and history. Our study focused both on urban and rural areas.

OUR ROUTE

Most of the participants met in Budapest, to travel together to the official starting point of the trip, Cluj-Napoca, situated in the region of Transylvania, Romania. There we learned about the life in this more western part of Romania, in order to compare it later with the regions more eastward.

The next station was Iasi, the old capital of Moldavia, where we heard about Moldavia's history and visited interesting historic sites. From there it was not far to Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldavia, where we spent another few days to explore this former Soviet Republic.

Day trips took us to Comrat, the capital of the Gagauz Autonomous Republic, the home of a Turkish speaking minority, to a village in the north of the republic, and to Tiraspol, the capital of the breakaway Transdnestr Republic (Pridnyestrovskaya Moldavskaya Respublika PMR), which legally belongs to the Republic of Moldavia, but tried to gain its sovereignty for the mostly Russian speaking population in a civil war in 1992. Now it is a state of not being sure where it belongs to really.

Our precise programme can be found here.

OUR RESEARCH

During the Case Study Trip we conducted a survey among students about their lives, their economic situation, and their ethnic identities. We heard lectures on history, minorities, economic transformation and encountered the people's lives, being guests in their homes and student dormitories.

After the conclusion of the trip, some participants took the opportunity to visit the world famous Moldavian Monasteries in the Bucovina.

Before the trip, every participant had to write an essay (in English) on a topic related to Moldavia (Romania). These can be found on this site, too, as well as the results and pictures.

Markus Schönherr

Why this Case Study Trip?

Picture files

The official CST Moldavia song

Click here for some useful topic related hyperlinks.
Please try also this collection of links of AEGEE-Chisinau.

Essays

Essays writen after the Case Study trip

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AEGEE-Hamburg

AEGEE-Europe

The East-West Working Group of AEGEE-Europe

Markus Schönherr