Esteemed delegates of the Historical Committee, It is with the utmost pleasure and honor that I welcome you to the sixth annual ZYGMUN conference. Hailing from Turkey, I have moved to Warsaw, Poland 4 years ago. In 2021, I attended ZYGMUN IV in middle school, and since then got the opportunity to serve as the delegate of Germany in 2021, serve as the chair of DISEC in 2022 and now the opportunity to serve as the chair of the Historical Committee in 2023. It has been a great honor to serve in such positions throughout my years attending ZYGMUN.
As a sophomore in highschool, I have attended a variety of conferences all over Europe as well as one in South Africa! Since starting it, MUN has become one of my biggest interests and has significantly increased my awareness of the world as well as the politics of many different countries around the world. I see the Historical Committee as a tool for us to observe major events that have happened in the past and investigate to find out whether things would have played out differently if certain things were different. I hope we get to utilize these investigations as well as observation skills as we go through the topic of this year's Historical Committee.
This year, the topic of our committee will be “The Treaty of Versailles”, a treaty which formally ended the first world war and levied heavy sanctions on Germany which eventually became one of the reasons why 15 years later, German aggression in central as well as the entirety of Europe increased. I hope that throughout this conference, all of you will use the time given in order to discuss ideas as well as solutions to our issue all together and come up with an alternative peace treaty. I really look forward to meeting all of you in person for this year's ZYGMUN conference.
Osman Oktay Cakim Co-Chair of the Historical Committee
Sam Nahmiyas Hisar School
Welcome Delegates, to the Historical Commitee,
It’s of great delight serving in the Historical Committee in this year’s ZYGMUN conference. Firstly, I would like to talk about my interests. I’m Turkish-Spanish, currently living in Istanbul, Turkey. I enjoy playing tennis and skiing. I am currently a junior at Hisar School. I attended my first conference 6 years ago as an Admin. Even though I couldn’t get along with MUN at first, after a 2 year break I’ve continued to be a part of MUNs around the world. Since then I have participated in a variety of conferences, both in Turkey and abroad. I’ve had a lot of memorable conferences in Turkey, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.
I view MUN as not only a simulation of the UN, but also a simulation of life. It requires many important qualities such as good debating skills, together with perseverance, patience, and confidence. MUN not only improves your english skills but also a vast array of skills such as political understanding, writing, speech making, great judgment and discipline. As someone who wants to study political science and economics in the future, I view MUN as one of the best “Pre-college experience” that I could have.
Although ZYGMUN 2023 will be my 6th chairing experience, I’m specifically excited as it would be my first time serving in the Historical Committee, which is an experience vastly different from a regular MUN committee. Your chairs will be more active than ever before as also delegates. This year, the ZYGMUN historical committee will reenact the Treaty of Versailles which is an agreement that has defined modern European diplomacy and power. The Treaty of Versailles is extremely important as it has ended an era of monarchy in Europe and has established a new era of nation states. Vast empires such as Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans have collapsed as an aftermath of WWI which this year’s ZYGMUN delegates would decide the implications of this essential conflict. I believe the partnership and skills that all delegates purvey during this year’s ZYGMUN Historical Committee will create an outstanding experience for everyone.
Sam Nahmiyas, Co-Chair of the Historical Committee