ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

Nationalism Spreads From the Church to Secular Organizations
A rm enakan, H unchaks and D ashnaktsutiun:
Revolutionary Parties; T error as Method
The first political party o f the Armenian minority to attain
any significance was the "Armenakan" Party. Founded in
Van in the autumn o f 1885, the party was organized along
European lines and had its own publication. The mastermind
behind this thoroughly revolutionary organization
was the son o f a tremendously wealthy banker from
Constantinople. His name was Mekertich Portuka-lian.
After running into many difficulties with schools that he
had established in Van, he emigrated to Marseilles, and
from then on he directed his party from there. He also
published a periodical in Marseilles, called "Armenia".
His objective was to rouse enthusiasm for an Armenian
state among the Armenians who were scattered across
Europe. The response came in the form o f an "Armenian
Patriotic Society", which raised money and bought arms
and munitions.
Their aim was to "win for the Armenians the right to rule
over themselves, through revolution." The members o f
the Armenakan in Van and the surrounding area were
equipped with the most modem weapons and trained in
the art o f guerilla warfare and in "preparing the people for
a general movement" with due consideration given to the
support "o f friendly great powers". Soon, the Armenakan
had revolutionary cells in Trabzon and Constantinople, as
well as cadres in Russia, Persia, and the United States.
According to the pro-Armenian historian Christopher
Walker, the "enlightenment developed by Portukalian"
was soon lost in the "sterile brutality" o f the Armenian
terrorist scene.
In 1887, Armenians in Geneva founded the first
Armenian party emphasizing Marxist principles. Their
symbol was the bell ("hnshak" = bell). The Hunchaks
drew their membership almost entirely from Russian
Armenians, who gave the party the militant-revolutionary
spirit that com es from the Caucasus (the young
Dzhugashvili, commonly known as Stalin, also came
from this world.) The party organ was called Hunchak,
and in 1890 the group adopted the name "Hunchakian
Revolutionary Party", or "Hunchaks" for short. Their
leader was the fanatical revolutionary Avetis
Nazarbekian. He was reportedly "dark, slender, very
handsome in an oriental style, and played the violin
excellently". He also saw "revolutionary terror" as the
natural consequence o f rejecting "capitalist" legislation.
Finally, the "Federation o f Armenian Revolutionaries",
the "Hai Hegapokhakanneri Dashnaktsutiun", appeared
as a result o f the need for an umbrella organization for all
the little terrorist groups and revolutionary cells. The goal
o f the organization was (and is) to win Armenian independence
by means o f a people's war.
Theater curtain from an Armenian school in eastern Anatolia
showing the revolutionary Hunchaks, Habete Tavekelian and
К а-lust Andrassian. Terrorists such as these prepared the ambitious,
carefully planned "rebellion o f Van", which was supposed
to rouse world opinion once again against the "atrocities
o f the Turks".
Money was needed for this purpose, lots o f money, and the
abbot o f the monastery o f Aghtamar in Lake Van was expected
to contribute his share. He refused to pay tribute to the terrorists
because he felt that the Armenians had a good life within
the Ottoman Empire. Consequently, he and his secretary were
murdered. The terrorists quartered their bodies and threw them
into the lake. Abbot Boghos' successor willingly paid the sum
demanded.
One year later, in June o f 1896, the revolt o f Van erupted. It
was a bloody preview o f the tragedy o f 1915, when the terrorists
wiped out the entire population o f the Islam ic part o f town.
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