The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF or ՀՅԴ)
(Armenian:
Հայ Յեղափոխական Դաշնակցութիւն
– Hay Heghapokhakan Dashnaktsutiun, Dashnaktsutiun,
Դաշնակ – Dashnak or
Tashnag)
Armenian
political party founded in
Tiflis
(Tbilisi in modern day
Georgia) in 1890 by
Christapor Mikaelian,
Stepan Zorian, and
Simon Zavarian.
The party operates in
Armenia
and in countries where the
Armenian diaspora is present, notably in
Lebanon
and the ethnically Armenian-dominated
de facto
Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ARF advocates
socialism and is a member of the
Socialist International. It
possesses the largest number of members from the political parties
present in the Armenian diaspora, having established affiliates in over
200 countries. Compared to other Armenian parties which tend to
primarily focus on educational or humanitarian projects, the
Dashnaktsutiun is the most politically oriented of the organizations and
traditionally has been one of the staunchest supporters of Armenian
nationalism.
A member of the ARF is called "Dashnaktsagan" (in
Eastern Armenian) or "Tashnagtsagan" (in
Western Armenian). Other than by calling
each other by name, members would formally address one another as "Comrade"
(Ընկեր -
"Unger" for boys and men, Ընկերուհի -
"Ungerouhi" for girls and women).
The ARF first appeared in the
Ottoman Empire in the early 1890s. It was
created to unify the various small groups in the empire that were
advocating for reform and to defend Armenian villages from Ottoman
massacres that were widely present in Armenian-populated areas of the
empire. ARF members would arm themselves into
fedayee groups which would defend
Armenian civilians through the use of armed resistance. The Dashnaks
also worked to create a "free, independent and unified" Armenia,
although they sometimes subsided this goal in favor of a more realistic
approach such as fighting for autonomy. The party was instrumental in
the creation of the short-lived
Democratic Republic of Armenia which fell
to the
Soviet
communists in 1920.
After its leadership was exiled by the communists, the
ARF established itself in the Armenian diaspora where it helped
Armenians preserve their cultural identity.
After the fall of the
USSR it returned to Armenia where it is
now part of the ruling government coalition
