About

The AYF-AU

The Armenian Youth Federation of Australia (ՀՅԴ Աւստրալիոյ Երիտասարդական Միութիւն) is a non-profit, youth-led organisation dedicated to promoting Armenian culture, heritage, and values among young people in Australia. 

We strive to provide a space for 16-26-year-old young Armenian-Australians to come together, connect with their heritage, and contribute to the community through educational, cultural, social, political, and athletic initiatives.

AYF Australia’s highest executive body is the Central Executive committee whose role is to oversee the operational and functional procedures of all AYF chapters across Australia. In turn, each chapter has its Executive Committee which guides the chapter’s activities.

Mission

The Armenian Youth Federation of Australia (AYF-AU), as part of the global AYF family, was founded in order to unite Armenian-Australian youth towards the following goals:

  • The establishment of a Free, Independent, and United Armenia.
  • Armenia must be a democratic and socialist independent republic.
  • The Armenian people, including its dispersed masses, must assemble on the territory of Independent Armenia.
  • The still unpunished crime of the Genocide against the Armenian people must be condemned and redressed by the return of the occupied territories and by the just reparation for losses to the Armenian people.
  • The basic laws of the Republic of Armenia shall be decided by the constitutional assembly of Armenia elected on the basis of universal, equal, direct, secret, and proportional representation.

Towards these ends, the AYF is committed to the moral, social and intellectual advancement of Armenian youth so that they gain a better understanding of themselves, and seeks to instil in them a love for the Armenian culture, identity and heritage by promoting activities based on its five pillars: political, educational, cultural, athletic, and social.

Our History

The Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) was founded by Karekin Njteh in 1933 in Boston, the United States, and it serves as the youth organisation of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).

During his 1978 visit to Australia, ARF Bureau Member from Lebanon, Papken Papazian, encouraged and put the foundations in place for an AYF group to be established.

The ARF ‘Tro’ Committee immediately went to work and chose a five-member AYF Central Executive. This body’s duty was to establish chapters within Australia, to create regional elections for Executives, to put into effect internal rules and regulations and to organise educational seminars.

Three chapters were established; Northern Sydney – Willoughby, Western Sydney – Fairfield and Melbourne. Within the first six months, the Armenian Youth Federation of Australia had over 160 members, with the Northern Sydney chapter hosting the majority – approximately 120 members, while Western Sydney and Melbourne had close to 20 members each.

AYF Globally

AYF has Seniors and Juniors chapters across the world with the largest being in the United States’ Eastern and Western Regions with around 30 chapters. AYF chapters also operate across Canada, South America, France, Greece, the UK, Netherlands, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Kuwait, as well as in the homeland, in Armenia and Artsakh.

The AYF is headquartered in Yerevan, Armenia, and is a member of the International Union of Socialist Youth and the Young European Socialists.