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The ARF: Building a Legacy of Service to the Nation
BY ALLEN YEKIKAN
Published in Asbarez.com on January 16, 2009
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118 years ago, three young Armenians came together to plan a revolution.
This was not merely a revolution of politics, but also of ideas. Until the
late 19th century, the thought that Armenians could take charge of their own
national fate seemed as distant as the last Armenian kingdom. Inspired by
their times and the notion that the success of the nation lied not in the
hands of one leader, but the voice of the organized masses, they changed the
course of Armenian history forever.
Over a 1,500 people gathered at Glendale High School’s auditorium on Sunday,
January 11th to recall the founding of that revolution, a political party
called the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). Over the last century
the ARF has grown from its humble roots in both size and geography. Through
its efforts it has earned the respect of the people and the right to
represent them in the service of the Armenian nation.
Founded in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1890, the ARF was "born from the need of the
Armenian people to revolt against centuries of oppression," exclaimed Aram
Kaloustian, a member of the ARF’s Western US Central Committee. This
oppression came from both within and outside of the community. It was the
harsh rule of the Sulanate or the Tsarist regime and the antiquated Armenian
societal constructs which discouraged the individual’s ambition to take
charge of his or her own civic life.
Its founding ideals of self-determination and social justice reflected the
romantic spirit of the European Enlightenment spreading throughout the
Armenian world. While its founders, Christapor Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and
Simon Zavarian were part of a generation of youth educated abroad in a time
of national revival, dreaming of a brighter, freer future.
This generation observed a people divided between empires, ravaged by wars
and plagued by centuries of paralysis and despair. The bleak reality facing
the nation, long ignored by those in the position to affect change had grown
intolerable for them.
The ARF Dashnaktsutyun, Kaloustian explained, was this generations attempt
"to change that which had seemed unchangeable, to consider something new,
something different, something better for the Armenian people."
These ordinary people, no older than today’s university graduate, were
inspired by the literary titans of their day to became revolutionary heroes,
fighting for the liberation of a people whose history had been derailed,
relegated to the footnotes of dominating powers.
At first the ARF was a confederation of smaller groups and organizations
united by common concerns and principles. It soon became the standard bearer
of the Armenian Cause, at the forefront of the struggle for civil rights in
the Ottoman Empire, organizing self-defense units during the Armenian
Genocide, as well as founding an independent democratic republic that would
provide a distinct homeland to balance and compliment the Armenian people’s
worldwide dispersion.
After the genocide and the collapse of the first Armenian Republic in 1921,
The ARF turned its attention to national revival. It built an international
infrastructure to support the development of Armenian communities in exile.
As communities matured and evolved, new generations joined the ARF to serve
the Armenian people with a vision to thrive in their adopted countries, not
merely survive.
An Armenian Red Cross
The building blocks for this enormous project had been laid by the ARF in
the early 1900s, in places like the United States, where Armenians had come
at the turn of the century seeking refuge from Turkish massacres and
repression.
The Hamidian Massacres of the mid 1890s had left over a hundred thousand
dead in the Armenian provinces, triggering a mass exodus of Armenian
refugees to America. In 1910, Khachatour Maloumian (Stepan Agnouni), a
member of the ARF’s governing Bureau, set out to create a relief society in
New York to help the growing refugee population cope with the realities of
immigrant life in the United States.
As the ARF’s Red Cross, the Armenian Relief Society provided the nascent
community with social support. That most of the newcomers were poor and
working as unskilled factory and mill workers made the establishment of a
social safety net for the community all the more essential.
In 1915, the ARS opened its second chapter in Fresno, followed by another in
Hollywood in 1918. After the Genocide, ARS chapters began to emerge wherever
Armenians resettled, establishing orphanages and schools and providing
social services to Armenian refugees in the Middle East, Iran, the Americas,
and other communities where the ARF had an established presence.
Today, the ARS has 223 chapters throughout the world with over 16,000
members. The Western United States alone has 26 chapters, 16 Saturday
schools, 5 social service offices, 2 after school Armenian academies and one
Psychological Counseling Center.
After Armenia gained independence in 1991, the ARS set up offices throughout
the homeland, running schools and orphanages throughout Armenia and
Karabakh. The primary mission of the ARS now, just as it was a century ago,
is the "preservation of our communal health and social welfare," according
to Rima Poghosian who serves on the Western ARS’s Central Executive. Through
its social services, she explained, the ARS works to "ensure the needs of
the community are met in order to provide the foundation for a strong and
growing diaspora."
"Elevate Yourself and Others With You"
A similar vision inspired the creation of the Armenian General Athletic and
Scouting Union, better known as Homenetmen in Constantinople. By the turn of
the century the capital city of the Ottoman Empire had become a politicized
hotbed of Armenian activity focused on national unity.
In 1911, Shavarsh Krissian, a prominent coach and member of the ARF in
Constantinople, wrote of the need to promote community unity through the
cooperation of its athletics organizations. Though the Genocide cut
Krissian’s life short and halted his plans for unifying Armenian athletics,
his dream lived on. At the end of World War I, a new group of Armenians set
out to continue Krissian’s work, establishing Homenetmen in 1918.
With "strong mind, strong body" as its creed, Homenetmen set out to inspire
the national spirit of a new generation of Armenian youth, scattered and
scarred by the genocide. Since its establishment, it has played an essential
role in shaping the discipline and leadership capabilities of generations of
Armenian youth. Through its scouting, athletics and principles of
sportsmanship, Homenetmen sought to instill in youth an awareness of
national duty, fraternity, and patriotism.
Today, Homenetmen has over 25,000 members internationally, with
approximately 8,000 members in the Western U.S. alone. The organization
"serves our community, serves everybody at every age level, whether you’re
seven years old or 90 years old, there’s something for you in Homenetmen,"
stressed its Western US Chairman Steve Artinian. "And everything that we do,
all promotes one thing, becoming a better Armenian."
Preserving the Soul of a Nation
The essence of a people can be seen in its culture–such as its literature,
art, and music. The Genocide put an abrupt and brutal end to an era of
cultural revival for the Armenian people, while the collapse of the first
Armenian Republic made refugees out of the Armenian people.
In 1928 the ARF in Cairo set out to establish an organization that would
work to undo the damage of the genocide and preserve the cultural existence
of the Armenian people as they sought to reconstitute their world.
The Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society was established on
May 28 that year to "to preserve and grow the cultural wealth of the
Armenian people in the Diaspora," according to Anita Hawatian, a member of
the Hamazkayin Regional Executive in the Western US.
In the years that followed, Hamazkayin chapters began to form throughout the
Middle East, Europe, the United States, Canada, South America, Australia,
and after 1991, the Republic of Armenia.
For more than 80 years now the organization has given generations of
Armenians in the Diaspora an opportunity to experience the rich heritage of
Armenian culture. Its schools preserved and developed the Armenian literary
tradition, while local dance groups refined and modernized the traditional
dances of the Armenian villages.
"Today, Hamazkayin has chapters worldwide in Canada, USA, Buenos Aires,
England, France, Greece, Lebanon, Syria, Australia and Armenia," said
Hawatian. This organization, founded by a generation of refugees, has over
the decades "established schools (Jemarans) in Aleppo, Beirut, Marseilles,
and Australia. It also has a college for Armenian studies still functioning
in Aleppo. The graduates of which are writing our Armenian books and
newspapers and teaching in Armenian schools throughout the Diaspora."
In its formative years, Hamazkayin established the Kaspar Ipekian Theatrical
group to perform Armenian theatrical pieces. Thirty years later it began
publishing what is even today an internationally renowned monthly cultural
magazine, called Pakin.
"A generation saw the importance of reorganization and unity in order to
survive in foreign lands with language and culture intact," she added.
Fighting in the Halls of Congress
While the ARF were rallying volunteers to hold off the advancing Turkish
armies intent on completing the genocide of the Armenian people at
Sardarabad, an Armenian lawyer was recruiting American public support for
the Armenian cause, fighting for congressional support for the independence
of Armenia. Working alongside Armenia’s ambassador, Armen Garo, Vahan
Cardashian rallied countless prominent American officials and public figures
in support of the American Committee for the Independence of Armenia. The
ACIA’s efforts led to an official recognition of the Armenian Republic by
the United States in 1919 and secured President Woodrow Wilson’s support for
a viable Armenian state as outlined in the Treaty of Sevres.
Cardashian dedicated his life to the Armenian Cause. Although he was
ultimately unable to prevent US collaboration with Kemalist Turkey, his
sacrifices paved the way for the future efforts of Armenian advocacy in the
United States.
In the late 1960s, the ARF set out to build on Cardashian’s legacy,
establishing the Armenian National Committee of America to harness the
budding influence of the maturing Armenian-American community. As a vital
component of the ARF family, the ANCA relies on grassroots empowerment "to
represent, defend and promote the interests of the Armenian American
community in the United States," explained Antranig Kzirian, the Executive
Director of the ANCA Western Region.
Relying on the strength of local chapters, he added, the ANCA works today to
"secure justice for the Armenian Genocide, insure the survival of the
Republic of Armenia, protect the right to self-determination for Artsakh,
and ensure that our Diaspora institutions–our schools, our community
centers, our churches–all improve and grow as vital components of the
Armenian nation."
Today, the ANCA oversees a network of more than 50 chapters throughout the
United States all working, individually and in coordination, to promote
Armenian issues in local, state, and federal government. The ARF has also
fostered the growth of an international network of ANC’s throughout South
America, Europe, and the Middle East. Each ANC works to consolidate the
political capital of the diaspora in support of the small and currently
landlocked Republic of Armenia.
Meanwhile, the ARF works on the same goals inside Armenia. Participating in
politics as an active political party to "strengthen Armenian statehood and
establish a socially just and democratic system of government in the
country," said Avedik Izmirlian, the chairman of the Western US Central
Committee, commenting on the importance of being able to help Armenia from
both within and without the country.
A Youth Movement to Drive the Cause
The ARF and the subsequent community organizations it established would not
have come into being if it were not for the dedication of countless young
Armenians determined to serve and work for the community’s wellbeing. The
significance of this fact was not lost on the ARF as it grappled with the
looming threat of assimilation in the United States.
Joining the collection of Armenian youth groups that had emerged in America
by the early 1930s, the ARF sought to create a sustainable movement that
could inspire, earn the respect, and recruit the next generation of its
leaders. What was needed was an entity that could consistently organize
young Armenians and educate them regarding the merits of the ARF ideology.
It was from of this need that the ARF commissioned General Garegin Njdeh to
tour the Armenian communities of the United States and create a national
youth organization, the Armenian Youth Federation. By consolidating smaller
groups and setting up new AYF chapters where none existed, Garegin Njdeh,
ensured that Armenian-American youth would be able to learn tenants and
apply the policies of the ARF throughout the community "at its forefront,
leading it on many levels," said Vache Thomassian, the chairman of the
Armenian Youth Federation’s Western Region.
Established in 1933, the AYF today boasts 31 chapters throughout the United
States and dozens more spread throughout the world. "It organizes young
people to develop and promote ARF policies through political activism,
working for genocide recognition and restitution, and working within the
channels of our federal, local and state government," Thomassian explained.
"There are also many community building activities and programs run annually
by the AYF," Thomassian said, noting, among others, a beautification
campaign to clean up the streets of Little Armenia, and a summer camp where
over 600 Armenian youth spend the week making life long friendships.
As an educational organization, it organizes community lectures and
discussions on a wide range of topics aimed at raising the awareness of not
only the ARF and its approach to addressing the Armenian Cause, but also the
greater human cause. It also publishes a quarterly magazine produced
entirely by young Armenians.
The AYF has also been active in Armenia. In the late 1980s and early 1990s,
as Armenia fought for independence, the AYF raised money in the United
States to supply much-needed funds to the people in Armenia and Karabakh.
Many of its members even traveled to Karabakh to fight alongside the heroes
of the liberation movement. In 1994, the AYF’s Western Region set out to
create a program that would build bridges between Armenians in the Diaspora
and the homeland, sending youth to Armenia and Karabakh in the summers to
help rebuild schools, camps, and churches, devastated by the war and
difficult years after independence.
"Youth Corps has provides a way for Diasporan Armenians to connect with our
homeland, to work and see our country and live as actual residents,"
Thomassian said. In 2008, the Youth Corps established a summer camp in the
Gyumri earthquake recovery zone, where program participants served as
counselors for underprivileged children.
The AYF also works with the ARF Student Associations to promote the ARF and
provide Armenian student groups wherever they exist, with support through "a
continuity of work through its experience, resources and leadership," he
added.
As the numbers of Armenians in the halls of higher education swelled with
the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and their descendents, Armenian
student groups began organizing throughout the United States. AYF members
helped establish many of the nation’s Armenian Student Associations (ASA).
Today, the ARF Shant Student Association works in close collaboration with
the ASAs to advance Armenian issues through America’s university system,
where the Turkish government has been waging a fierce battle to erase the
history of the Armenian Genocide and win over a new generation of American
leadership.
"The young men and women, who once held guns to defend their land and
people, are now a generation of educated students whose weapon of choice is
knowledge. That generation is the ARF Shant Student Association (SSA),"
exclaimed Caspar Jivalagian, one of its members. " The SSA works in close
collaboration with the ASA’s to address Armenian issues."
Organizing leadership seminars, youth rallies, and forums on various topics,
the SSA plays an integral role in equipping new young and educated
generations of Armenians with the ARF perspective and the tools necessary to
become activists for a better future within their campus communities, local
communities, and Armenia.
"23, 24, and 31. Those were the ages of the founders of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation," Thomassian aptly noted.
Truth Be Told: Dreams of Historic Men
BY ANDRE ARZOO
Published: Monday January 19, 2009 at
showarticle=38726_1/20/2009_1
January 19: Today is a day for us to commemorate; we commemorate Martin
Luther King Jr. who struggled throughout his life, ultimately sacrificing it
as an advocate for equality and free speech within the segregated and
tainted streets of America’s past.
Today, however, Armenians and Turks alike also commemorate this day for
another figure of justice, equality, and truth. A figure who also gave his
life in a struggle for human justice, not only of his own ethnic people but
also for the citizens of a nation caught between their past and present
history.
Armenian Genocide Recognition: a controversial issue in many countries
today, in many communities, and in many cities. A true act of terror
committed in 1915 against millions of Armenians and other minorities living
within the Ottoman Empire, today’s Turkey. This is a topic that even when
mentioned or referred to can cause great uproar and commotion, whether it be
discussed among politicians or common men in Washington Yerevan, or Ankara.
These past few years have seen the passion and tragedy this issue can
genuinely stir up, passion that not only continues to take lives and ignite
political battles but also continues to divide a nation.
Hrant Dink, an Armenian news editor, intellectual, and political activist
who was born and raised in Turkey and who stood as an advocate for
individual rights in a country where not only Armenians are silenced by
nationalist and government forces, but also the Turkish population itself.
Dink was the editor and founder of the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos. He
was an academic and political personality among other Turkish nationals such
as Orhan Pamuk, who fell as legal victims to the infamous Turkish penal code
(Article 301) that considers any statement in recognition of the genocide as
illegal–an insult to "Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity, or Turkish government
institutions." Article 301 is as a crime punishable by imprisonment. For
Dink, it was punishable by death.
When asked in a 2005 interview why he founded the controversial Agos
newspaper in a country where such a step, especially as an Armenian, assured
not only the danger of his reputation but also of his own life, Dink
replied: "I was obliged to. I was obliged to because in Turkey the pressure
against Armenians had reached its climax. Everywhere enmity against the
Armenians in TV stations, in the press, in political life, academic life,
everywhere the word %u218Armenian’ had become a swearword."
Dink was gunned down two years later on January 19, 2007 in front of his
Agos newspaper headquarters by a 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist, Ogun
Samast, whom many suspect had links to "deep government and state forces."
Just months prior to his assassination, during a visit in November of 2006
to the largely Armenian populated city of Glendale, California, Dink
predicted, in great foresight, the fate that was to fall upon him and as a
result, the people of Turkey:
"I get threats, of course. But I never asked for protection. And I will not
ask the police, because I don’t know whom to trust more. That is what I
don’t know; If something is going to happen, it’s good to struggle on your
feet, and die on your feet. And not in bed. That way is better."
The immediate public backlash in Turkey and throughout the world was
astonishing. Hundreds of thousands of Turks and Armenians alike gathered in
the streets of Ankara chanting "We are all Hrants! We are all Armenians!"
representing the true role Hrant played in this society as a Turkish citizen
and not just as an ethnic-Armenian minority.
Today, the population in Turkey continues to live under constant censorship
and oppression by the state, not just in terms of the genocide, but also in
terms of free speech and individual expression. To the Turkish people, Hrant
served as a leader and a hero who fought along side other compatriots to
bring this oppression against individual rights and the Turkish people to an
end.
The genocide issue, however, has not only affected the citizens of Turkey or
the Armenian nation independently. This is an issue that has affected
Turkish-Armenian relations as well, both on the level of state diplomacy and
more importantly between two historically divided peoples. Armenians in the
United States and abroad have invested countless man-hours, political
resources, and financial assets to assure the international recognition of
the Armenian Genocide, an effort which the state of Turkey has invested
overwhelmingly to prevent.
In the same interview mentioned previously, the reporter comments on
statements Dink made in the past about thousands and millions of Turkish
citizens and youth who know virtually nothing about the genocide against
Armenians that took place in their country almost a hundred years ago.
"Yes, they don’t," Dink acknowledged, noting how Turkish schoolchildren are
taught that Armenians massacred Turks. "When a young man is bred on this,
his identity has been mixed with this. This is very clear. That’s why I say,
%u218do you think the Turks know the truth and they deny it? Or no?’
Whatever they know is what they defend."
Hrant believed that Turkey would eventually come to recognize the truth
about its past. He was an advocate of an approach to genocide recognition
that avoided forcing or pressuring the State of Turkey and the Turkish
people to acknowledge the past. The Turkish people, he said, could not be
forced to acknowledge and accept that their ancestors had committed such a
severe a crime against humanity as genocide.
"This people [the Turkish people] needs neither to admit or deny. It needs
to know, to know the truth. To learn the truth. For this you need free
speech, free knowledge, free education. We must learn. This people has to
learn. After learning the truth it will use its own conscience," Hrant said.
And this is exactly what Hrant Dink stood for–what he saw as his
responsibility, not just as an Armenian, but as a Turkish citizen and as a
human being. When asked what it is that ties him to Turkey, Dink simply
answered: "This is my country, it is the country of my grandparents, my
roots are here. Why is the Diaspora [Armenians] always looking here? It is
here that we have schools and churches."
And when asked about the destruction of an Armenian church in the Turkish
city of Diyarbekir, Dink replied with resolve, saying "they will destroy and
we will rebuild."
Since Hrant Dink’s assassination, many events in Turkey and the Armenian
Diaspora have come to fruition in regards to Turkish-Armenian relations and
the genocide issue.
In 2007, Armenian political organizations were successful in their campaign
to garner support in the United States Congress to pass a resolution
formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the U.S. Foreign Affairs
Committee, however, the resolution was never brought to a vote by the full
House of Representatives, as Turkey’s lobby had effectively tied it with US
security in Iraq.
In 2008, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian formerly invited Turkish
President Abdullah Gul to Armenia for a World Cup qualifying soccer match
between the two nations. Gul became the first Turkish President to step foot
in independent Armenia.
The most important event, however, which Hrant Dink himself would be proud
to see was one that took place in Turkey and the Turkish parliament itself
late last year. Turkish academics and intellectuals came together and
established an internet-campaign to apologize to the Armenians.
The campaign, titled "We apologize to Armenians," brought thousands of
Turkish citizens to its website to sign a petition condemning what they
called "the Great Catastrophe" of 1915. This apology was unprecedented in
Turkey’s history. The campaign sparked mass controversy in Turkey, to the
point where the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, publicly
condemned the campaign as damaging to the State of Turkey and Turkish
identity. The campaign also sparked a verbal bout in the Turkish Parliament
between parliamentarians when a group of politicians demanded an apology by
the government for the crime against humanity.
The Turkish President has scheduled a meeting of parliament for April 13th
to discuss "actions against the statements about the so-called Armenian
Genocide."
But with the Turkish government struggling harder than ever to keep a lid on
the truth, it seems that Hrant Dink’s efforts were not in vain and that
justice for both the Armenian and Turkish people is within reach. Members of
Turkey’s government are now begining to question the state’s version of
history within the very institutions that have denied the Armenian Genocide
for so many decades. This is an unprecedented development.