InternationalFostering democracy, social justice, and cultural progress
Hunchakian Party continues to fight for the downtrodden
Published: Saturday September 20, 2008
Pasadena, Calif. - Editor's note: Ahead of the Armenian Independence Day festivities, set to take place on September 21 at Verdugo Park in Glendale, California, the Armenian Reporter profiled the event organizers, the Nor Serount Cultural Association, last week, and presents the association's umbrella organization, the Social Democratic Hunchakian Party, this week.
The ideology upon which the bricks of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party were laid sought a full-scale revolution that would demolish the chains of Armenian bondage in Turkish Armenia and establish a new socialist state. That goal my not have been fully realized, but the fight for a free and democratic Armenia continues to be waged by the venerable party.
The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP) was established in August 1887 in Geneva, Switzerland, by a group of seven university students. The founders, led by Avetis Nazarbekian, included Mariam Vardanian, Gevorg Gharadjian, Christopher Ohanian, Ruben Khan-Azat, Gabriel Kafian, and Levon Stepanian, would leave a lasting imprint on Armenian history.
The Hunchakians were "the first to think about having a general uprising in Turkey and throughout Western Armenia, and the first party that realized that we needed to have an independent Armenia," says Vasken Khodanian, chairman of the Armenian Council of America.
According to the Plan (Dzrakir) of the Hunchakian Party, "the present state of affairs had to be destroyed by means of a revolution. Then on the ashes of the old society a new one might be built, based upon economic truths and social justice."
The SDHP hoped to achieve its revolution through a multi-tiered plan involving propaganda, terrorism, and organization of the working class. The strategy was designed to garner support from peasants, workers, and rebels alike, and the call to action was spread mainly through the party's organ, Hunchak, first published in November 1887 in Geneva.
The party faced a great deal of opposition, not the least from the Turks. Russian-Armenians of the bourgeois class and wealthy Armenians residing in Turkey balked at the party's cause because they felt its socialist program ran counter to their own interests.
Nonetheless, the SDHP managed to recruit hundreds of young Armenians in Turkey, Russia, Persia, the U.S., and Europe, and in 1890 designated Constantinople as its headquarters.
The succeeding years of 1892 and 1893 saw an escalation in the party's revolutionary activities through propaganda, demonstrations, and insurrections.
Engaging in battle
The Demonstration of Kum Kapu in Constantinople, on July 15, 1890, would serve as a precedent in the Armenian fight for independence because it would be the first time since the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks that Christians dared resist soldiers in Istanbul, according to Louise Nalbandian's book The Armenian Revolutionary Movement.
The purpose of the demonstration was to raise awareness among the Armenian public of Ottoman Turkey's oppressive policies.
What started as an exercise in free speech by party member Haruthiun Tjankulian - who read, at the Armenian cathedral in the Armenian quarter of Kum Kapu, a declaration that called for reforms - turned into a riot, causing the death or imprisonment of several party leaders. Tjankulian himself received a life sentence.
The years following Kum Kapu saw a string of Hunchakian-led actions that included the August 1894 Sassun Insurrection, when the Armenians rose against the Ottoman army and Kurdish irregulars but succumbed to superior numbers. The Turkish and Kurdish atrocities committed during and prior to the battles drew the attention of the day's superpowers - Great Britain, Russia, and France - which issued strong protests and sent an investigative committee to the region. On May 11, 1895, the three powers sent a joint memorandum to Sultan Abdul Hamid II, calling for reforms in the six provinces of Western Armenia.
The sultan never carried out the reforms, in large part because the Great Powers, with their shifting geopolitical priorities, failed to exert adequate pressure on the Ottomans. At the same time, Turkey found a new European ally, Germany, a fact that emboldened the Ottomans to further carry out their policy of ethnic cleansing.
Continued violence led to the Bab Ali Demonstration in Constantinople in September 1895 and, ultimately, the Zeitun Resurrection on October 12 of the same year. The rebellion raged on for four bloody months, until February 1, 1896. Under the guidance of Hunchakian-Party leaders, the Armenian population of Zeitun and neighboring communities held their ground before being overwhelmed by the Turkish forces.
Throughout these events and in 1915, the year of the Genocide, the Hunchakian Party gave many martyrs to the Armenian cause - including Hampartsoum Boyadjian, Sarkis Dkhrouni, Matteos Sarkissian, and Kegham Vanigian. On June 15, 1915, the Ottoman authorities hanged 20 Hunchakian activists, including the renowned fedayee Paramaz, in Constantinople. The tragic event came to be known as The 20 Hunchakian Gallows.
The Hunchakian Party today
The party line may have shifted slightly since its inception in the late 19th century, but the establishment of a democratic Armenia is still at the heart of the SDHP's philosophy.
"Right now our main goal is to have a democratic and stable Armenia. The main purpose to having a democratic Armenia is social justice," says Khodanian.
Stability has been hard to come by for Armenia, especially in the wake of the political turmoil during the March elections.
Active in Armenia since 1991, the SDHP (which was dissolved in 1923 as Armenia was Sovietized) is now in the opposition block, which supports Levon Ter-Petrossian.
"As an ideology we are not that close to Ter-Petrossian because he is a liberal thinker and we are social democrats, but our main objective is to have a democratic country and to have free and fair elections," Khodanian explains. "Whoever gets elected in a free and fair election, we don't have a problem with them. Our party is for democracy in Armenia. We want to fight corruption."
