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:
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.
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.
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.
Why this Case Study Trip?
The official CST Moldavia song
Click here for some useful topic related hyperlinks.
Please try also this collection of links of AEGEE-Chisinau.
The East-West Working Group of
AEGEE-Europe