MELBOURNE: An Armenian National Committee of Australia Melbourne (ANC Melbourne) Young Leadership Seminar held on Sunday October 2nd at the Melbourne Armenian Cultural Centre, capped off a weekend of ANC Melbourne activities aimed at bringing greater attention to the issue of Armenian Genocide recognition in Victoria while building grassroots support for the organisation.

The daylong private seminar gave the newly appointed ANC Melbourne Representatives an opportunity to discuss methods of Armenian-Australian advocacy with ANC Australia Executive Director Varant Meguerditchian, to exchange ideas concerning community interaction with ANC Australia activities and to formulate new techniques for relaying Armenian issues to the mainstream public.

ANC Melbourne Representative Hovig Melkonian suggested that the seminar was informative and important.

“We paid great attention to the issues facing our community here in Melbourne and together developed strategies to place these issues, including Armenian Genocide recognition, under the public spotlight,” he said.

Melkonian concluded: “I’m excited by the prospect of implementing these strategies and furthering our cause.”

Commenting on the ANC Melbourne Young Leadership Seminar, Executive Director Meguerditchian said: “I’m very pleased by the high level of open discussion at the seminar and keenly look forward to witnessing the upcoming activities scheduled by ANC Melbourne.”

The ANC Melbourne Young Leadership Seminar closed out a concentrated weekend of ANC Australia advocacy in Melbourne which included a series of meetings with parliamentarians, the screening of the film ‘My Son Shall be Armenian’ (place link to second media release), and a presentation of the history of the Armenian Relief Fund at Return to Anatolia’s ‘Near East Relief’ exhibition (http://anc.org.au/news/ANC+Australia+to+present+at+Near+East+Relief+Exhibition+in+Victoria).