A Brief History of the UAAMUN Program and TIMUN

A Tricennial Legacy

The Uskudar American Academy MUN program was first established in 1991 by Marie Gummersheimer as a club and for a brief time as an elective class. In 1992, UAA became a regular participant of The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN). Over the years UAA has represented a variety of countries at The Hague, ranging from standard delegation countries to countries involved in the Security Council and ECOSOC. The UAA MUN club members have also served as Judges and Advocates in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as well as Deputy Secretaries-General, chairs, co-chairs, and presidents in THIMUN.

Uskudar American Academy started its own Model UN adventure in 1994 by organizing a Model UN conference. The first conference was called the Turkish National Model United Nations, and schools from Istanbul, Izmir, and Tarsus attended. Next year, TIMUN as it came to be known was founded by our director Suzan Oyhon. In TIMUN's first year, schools from Greece, Israel, and Switzerland attended. Two years later, TIMUN was affiliated by the THIMUN Board and was indeed one of the first conferences to be affiliated and the first in all of Asia. The years that followed were marked by an outward expansion, and TIMUN reached its maximum capacity in 2001. Ever since then, TIMUN continued to develop, innovate, and revolutionize what it meant for high school students to organize a Model UN conference. Throughout its first quarter-century, TIMUN spearheaded the international youth's debate on world politics and birthed many ideas intense dialogue. At the height of the ethnic and religious conflict in the Balkans, TIMUN hosted the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew; and when the Turkish economy had its hardest times, gave the podium to Kemal Dervis, the Turkish Minister of Economy and former UNDP chief. Its other speakers included Ambassadors, famous anchorman, and leading experts in international relations. Among those, TIMUN alumni were also present. This exhaustive past can only hint at what the dynamic hub that is TIMUN will bring in the following 3 quarters of a century.

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In 2023, we will celebrate our 30th TIMUN and are proud of how the Model United Nations program continues to have a major impact on so many lives.