ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

The Dashnaks changed their name to "Hai Hegapokha-
kan Dashnaktsutiun" - "Armenian Revolutionary Federa­
tion". This name is still used by the Dashnaks today. In
the nineteenth century, some Protestant-Armenian pastors
had fought bitterly with the Gregorian priests over who
the best nationalist shepherds were. Now, two political
groups, the Dashnaks and the Hunchaks were competing
for the favor o f the Armenians in the same way. The
Flunchaks stressed their socialist convictions whereas the
Dasknaks put more emphasis on their nationalist views.
Together, they produce exactly the same fanatically dis­
torted, national-socialist world view as other or­
ganizations with the same ideological persuasions.
The banner o f the Dashnaks with the two legends "Revolutionary
Committee o f the Armenian Dashnaksutiun" and "Freedom
or Death". Heavily armed Dashnaks are seen coming from
Ararat, and the bomb exploding in the foreground symbolizes
the "work" o f the revolutionary groups o f the Ottoman Empire.
This picture was published in Geneva in 1909.
64
July 2 1, 1905: The "Yildiz attempt" on the life o f Sultan Abdul
Hamid.
The Dashnaks in particular used brutal terrorism
again and again as a p olitical m eans to accom plish
their ends. They have been responsible for numerous
attacks, including some very recent ones. Their
activities are financed largely by m eans o f intim idation
and extortion.
One o f the u gliest attacks o f the D ashnak organization
was the assassination attem pt on Sultan Abdul
Flamid.
The A rm enian p olitician K.. Papazian, author o f the
book Patriotism Perverted (B o sto n , 1 9 3 4 ), w rites
that "the attempt on the life o f Abdul Hamid in 1905
constitutes the last episode o f the revolutionary attempts
o f the A. R. Federation" to achieve political goals by
means o f assassinations. Since the attempt failed, its consequences
were merely unpleasant. The bombs went o ff
too soon because the Sultan spent too much time talking
to the Sheik ul Islam after his visit to the Yildiz Mosque.
The Sultan's pardon o f the assailants was futile. The trou-
ble-makers just turned to plotting flashy uprisings in
order to attract European attention.