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CANBERRA: Fourteen young Armenian-Australians spent two days in the nation's capital Canberra, rallying support for #RecognizeArtsakh in the Federal Parliament as part of the third annual Armenian National Committee of Australia's (ANC-AU) Youth Advocates Program, which was a major feature of ANC-AU Advocacy Week 2020.

These young Armenian-Australians – from Sydney and Canberra – learned and practiced the art of political debate and advocacy, met political, media and thought leaders in a Program that once again had the support of the ANC-AU Internship Program's Hagop Kortian Scholarship. While the Scholarship is to help facilitate the placement of Armenian-Australian students into political and other offices of influence, the Kortian family dedicated part of their 2020 commitment of $10,000 to ensure the ANC-AU Youth Advocates Program was accessible to as many youth as possible, some of whom may be future applicants to the Scholarship.

ANC-AU's Haig Kayserian, Vache Kahramanian and Khajaque Kortian took the group through advocacy training at Hyatt Hotel Canberra, where former Chief of Staff to Government Minister Michaelia Cash, Gisele Kapterian took the Youth Advocates through a typical day as a political staffer and shared her experiences during a detailed discussion. Kapterian has also served as an adviser to former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and former Trade Minister Steve Ciobo.

The delegation, which numbered at 25 in total, then meet with Australia's Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, the Hon. Paul Fletcher MP at Parliament House, who took them through a day in the life of a government minister. The Youth Advocates thanked Fletcher for his long-standing advocacy for Artsakh's right to self-determination.

The ANC-AU Youth Advocates were then split into smaller groups to practice their advocacy skills by presenting the rights to self-determination of the largely displaced indigenous Armenians of the invaded Republic of Artsakh after 44 days of war crimes by the combined forces of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Islamist jihadi terrorists bullied Armenia into a treacherous deal negotiated by the Russian Federation.

They met Members of Parliament, including Mike Freelander, Tim Wilson, Trent Zimmerman, John Alexander, Susan Templeman, Chris Bowen, Joel Fitzgibbon, Josh Burns, Jason Falinski and Julian Leeser.



The second day featured the ANC-AU Youth Advocates being hosted by broadcaster Tim Shaw at the National Press Club, where they learned about the inner workings of the Canberra press gallery and discussed their frustrations at the media's coverage of the attacks on the Republic of Artsakh.

They also met Climate & Energy Director, Richie Merzian and his colleagues at think tank, The Australia Institute. In this meeting, they became better acquainted by the workings of think tanks in policy formation and advocacy.

"We thank the ANC-AU Youth Advocates of 2020 for taking time from their tertiary schedules to take part in a program which is more important now more than ever, with the Armenian homeland facing invasion and ethnic cleansing," said ANC-AU Executive Director, Haig Kayserian. "This program gave these young Armenian-Australians a first-hand insight into the inner workings of public affairs in Canberra, from the point of view of politicians, staffers, media, thought leaders and those lobbying for issues of importance to voters."

"We thank the Kortian family, who have generously helped make this a possibility in memory of their late husband and father, Mr. Hagop Kortian, who was a founding force of Hai Tad in Australia."