Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

[Alexandros]

Re: Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

ARF Quits Armenia’s Governing Coalition

By Khatchig Mouradian • on April 27, 2009

YEREVAN (A.W.)—On Monday, April 27, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) announced that it is parting ways with Armenia’s ruling coalition, citing “insurmountable” differences in foreign policy issues.

In a statement, the party condemned and deemed unacceptable the joint statement issued on April 22—less than two days before Armenian Genocide commemoration day—by the foreign ministries of Turkey and Armenia. The party also cited serious disagreements on some of the issues that are under discussion between Turkish and Armenian officials.

“Henceforth, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation will work as a new opposition force in Armenia’s political landscape,” said the statement, underlining that the party will present alternatives to the current government’s policies, and will aim at “counterbalancing and restraining” the actions of the authorities.

The ARF stressed that it will be dealing with Turkey-Armenia relations and the Karabagh issue based, exclusively, on national interests.

Road map

On April 22, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Turkey and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs issued a joint statement announcing that a road map of normalizing relations has been identified. The statement, posted on the websites of Armenia’s and Turkey’s Foreign Ministries, read:

“Turkey and Armenia, together with Switzerland as mediator, have been working intensively with a view to normalizing their bilateral relations and developing them in a spirit of good-neighborliness, and mutual respect, and thus to promoting peace, security and stability in the whole region.
“The two parties have achieved tangible progress and mutual understanding in this process and they have agreed on a comprehensive framework for the normalization of their bilateral relations in a mutually satisfactory manner. In this context, a road-map has been identified.
“This agreed basis provides a positive prospect for the on-going process.”

The ARF reacted immediately, threatening to pull out of the coalition. In a statement issued on April 23, the party said, “ Good neighborly relations between the two countries can only be established after the recognition by Turkey of the Armenian Genocide and the restoration of the rights of the Armenian people.” The statement underlined the party’s position that “the lifting of the blockade and the establishment of diplomatic relations, without preconditions, can only serve as first steps on this path. It is absolutely unacceptable for us that relations with Turkey be normalized at the expense of Armenia’s sovereignty, the viability of its existence, or the national and state rights of future Armenian generations.”

Link

[gegev]

Re: Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

Glad to hear this. Good for you ARF.

Regards,

Gegev

[TomServo]

Re: Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

ARF Quits Armenia’s Governing Coalition

I was so happy to read this today.

[Federate]

Re: Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

Here's more on this stunning development.
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Dashnaks Quit Armenia’s Ruling Coalition


Emil Danielyan, Anush Martirosian
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) announced on Monday its decision to pull out of Armenia’s governing coalition, citing “insurmountable fundamental disagreements” with President Serzh Sarkisian over his conciliatory policy toward Turkey. (UPDATED)

The three other parties represented in the government defended that policy.

In a written statement, the Dashnaktsutyun leadership in Armenia reiterated the nationalist party’s condemnation of an agreement on the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations announced by the two governments on Wednesday. “We also have fundamental disagreements with the Armenian authorities’ position on some issues raised during Armenia-Turkey negotiations,” it said.

The dramatic move followed a Saturday meeting between Sarkisian and two Dashnaktsutyun leaders, Hrant Markarian and Armen Rustamian. According to the latter, Sarkisian briefed them on the essence of the still unpublicized “roadmap” for gradually normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations. “The president’s explanations did not satisfy us,” Rustamian said on Monday.

Dashnaktsutyun strongly condemned the roadmap agreement just hours after it was announced by the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministries on the night from April 22-23. Earlier last week, Markarian publicly lambasted Sarkisian’s year-long diplomatic overtures to Turkey, saying that Yerevan has made major concessions to Ankara while failing to secure the lifting the of the Turkish economic blockade of Armenia.

Rustamian echoed that criticism, saying that Armenia has effectively ended its long-standing insistence on an unconditional establishment of diplomatic relations and reopening of the border between the two estranged nations. He claimed that Ankara continues to make that conditional on a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and an end to the decades-long campaign for worldwide recognition of the 1915-1918 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

“The Turks are now trying to turn those preconditions into conditions and include them into a package [deal with Armenia,]” Rustamian told a news conference. “For them the key thing is to exploit the process of normalization and they are doing that very well,” he said. “We must realize that.”

Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian insisted on Monday, however, that the two sides are heading for a far-reaching settlement “without preconditions,” dismissing speculation that Ankara has tricked Yerevan and the international community during year-long dialogue. “If Turkey were to deceive us, it would first of all deceive itself, it would deceive the international community, the United States, Russia, the European Union,” Nalbandian told the Armenpress news agency in an interview. “I think we have the impression that Turkey’s government also has a desire to move forward and normalize relations between the two countries,” he added.

Nalbandian declined to divulge any details of the announced “roadmap,” saying only that it contains “no provisions and principles” and is a mere “time guideline for steps to be taken by the parties.” “Provisions and principles will be contained only in an agreement or agreements that are due to be signed by the two sides,” he said

Artur Baghdasarian, secretary of Armenia’s National Security Council, indicated on Saturday that the roadmap will not be disclosed to the public before the signing of such an agreement. He spoke to journalists after a meeting of the body advising Sarkisian on national security. The latest developments in Turkish-Armenian dealings were high on the meeting’s agenda.

According to Turkish and Western media, one of the key points of the announced deal is the creation of a commission of historians that would look into the 1915 massacres and determine whether they indeed constituted a genocide. The Turkish government has for years been advocating such a study. In an April 22 interview with “The Wall Street Journal,” Sarkisian effectively confirmed that he has agreed to the Turkish proposal.

In a clear reference to this commission, Rustamian said that the Turkish-Armenian understandings could deter more countries of the world from officially recognizing the Armenian genocide. “We must never allow the replacement of the process of international recognition by efforts to force Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide,” he said. “One process should not suspend the other.” “Nobody here doubts that Turkey will do everything to avoid recognizing the Armenian genocide,” added the Dashnaktsutyun leader.

Rustamian, who heads the Armenian parliament’s committee on foreign relations, confirmed that Dashnaktsutyun’s departure from the four-party coalition government means all members of the party holding senior positions in the executive and legislative branches must now tender their resignations. “That process has already begun,” he said.

In accordance its March 2008 power-sharing agreement, Dashnaktsutyun has been represented in Sarkisian’s four-party coalition cabinet by three ministers and several deputy ministers. The influential party also holds 16 seats in the 131-member National Assembly.

Its exit will still leave Sarkisian with a comfortable majority in the parliament. His Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) alone controls at least half of the parliament seats.

In a joint statement released on Monday, the HHK and its two remaining coalition partners, the Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and Orinats Yerkir parties, said they “respect” Dashnaktsutyun’s decision but believe that the rapprochement with Turkey is good for Armenia. “We welcome President Serzh Sarkisian’s steps aimed at the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations without preconditions and within reasonable time frames,” they said. That policy will not undermine efforts at greater international recognition of the genocide or lead to more Armenian concessions to Azerbaijan, added the statement.

Still, the BHK leader, Gagik Tsarukian, was highly skeptical about the success of the Turkish-Armenian dialogue. “My personal view is that this is a game and that Turkey will not open the border,” he told journalists.

Tsarukian, who is believed to be close to the more hardline former President Robert Kocharian, also said that Dashnaktsutyun’s pullout will “weaken” the ruling coalition. “How can we underestimate Dashnaktsutyun?” he said.

But Galust Sahakian, the HHK’s parliamentary leader, disagreed with that assertion. He also denied that Dashnaktsutyun was kept in the dark about all details of Turkish-Armenian negotiations and downplayed the significance of the resulting “roadmap.”

Armen Ashotian, another senior HHK lawmaker, claimed that those negotiations were only a pretext for Dashnaktsutyun to leave the government and try to win more votes in the next presidential and parliamentary elections. “Experience has shown that the pro-government electorate fails to live up to Dashnaktsutyun’s expectations in terms of the number of votes,” he told RFE/RL.

The coalition leaders said they have yet to discuss who will take up the vacant government posts held by Dashnaktsutyun until now. “The president of the republic will decide that,” said Tsarukian.

The end of Dashnaktsutyun’s decade-long presence in government was hailed by Zharangutyun party, the hitherto sole opposition force in the National Assembly. “Welcome to the opposition!” its top leader, Raffi Hovannisian, told RFE/RL. He said Zharangutyun is ready to cooperate with Dashnaktsutyun.

The other major opposition force, the Armenian National Congress (HAK) had no comment on the development. Both the HAK and Zharangutyun demanded late last week the immediate disclosure of the Turkish-Armenian roadmap.

The Dashnaktsutyun statement said that the party, which is particularly influential in the worldwide Armenian Diaspora, will now position itself as a “full-fledged alternative” to the country’s leadership and try to “counterbalance and restrain” the Sarkisian administration. Rustamian also made clear that unlike the HAK, Dashnaktsutyun will not seek to topple Sarkisian or force pre-term national elections for the time being.

http://www.armenialiberty.org/content/article/1616799.html

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Dashnaktsutyun entered the Opposition

27.04.2009 19:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ ARF Dashnaktsutyun made a statement about its leaving governmental coalition. The party refused 3 ministerial positions offered by government.

The step was caused by Apr. 22 agreement signed between RA and Turkish Foreign Ministries. The statement issued by the party says that ARF Dashnaktsutyun, as of now acts as an opposition, Dashnaktsutyun representative, RA NA MP Armen Rustamyan told a news conference today.

He also noted that at the moment differences in RA foreign policy between ARFD and Government are insurmountable. The last meeting with RA president became a proof to it.

It was clear even on Apr. 23 that the situation is serious, but as the person responsible for country’s foreign policy, RA President, wasn’t in Armenia, it was incorrect to announce our intention, whithout discussing the issue with him.

“On Apr. 25, during our meting with Serzh Sargsyan, the President assured us that Armenia’s foreign policy line won’t be altered. Armenia will try to normalize ties with Turkey in reasonable time limits, without sacrificing either NKR or Genocide issues to the normalization.” Dashnaktsytyun was not satisfied with the reply RA President gave.
Afterwards the party presented its views and announced its decision.

“The party already decided upon its political line in the oppositional filed. “Most probably, we won’t manage to cooperate with ANC, because of serious differences. We’ll try to establish cooperation with Heritage to form our oppositional field,” Armen Rustamyan concluded.

http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=30994

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Will HAK's proponents join the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun?


The leader of the People's party, Tigran Karapetyan hopes that the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun will withdraw from the coalition.

"The ARF has to leave the coalition otherwise it will disappear as a party," Mr. Karapetyan told a press conference today.

The leader of the People's party condemns an April 22 Armenia-Turkey memorandum and lays the blame on the Armenian Foreign Minister. "I condemn the agreement as it is illegitimate; especially the provision referring to Kars is an absurd. When the agreement of Kars was signed, the Soviet Union was not formed and the parties were not empowered to sign an agreement," says Mr. Karapetyan.

"The Republican Party (HHK) will likely win the upcoming mayoral election. The Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and the Armenian National Congress (HAK) will compete for the second place," says Mr. Karapetyan.

Tigran Karapetyan notes that the electorate of HAK's leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan has considerably reduced after the presidential election of 2008. At the same time, he doesn't exclude that the wave of protest may hot up after the mayoral election.

"The ARF-Dashnaktsutyun will become a moderate opposition. Most likely, HAK adherents will join the ARF," added Mr. Karaptyan.

"The People's party is sure to pass the 7-percent threshold," stated Tigran Karapetyan.

http://www.a1plus.am/en/politics/2009/04/27/tigran-karapetyan

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Will BHK follow the lead of ARF-Dashnaktsutyun?


"If preconditions are laid down for the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) will behave like the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun, i.e. withdraw from the coalition," BHK Leader Gagik Tsarukyan said at the National Assembly today.

The BHK Leader is convinced that no preconditions will be made as "Serzh Sargsyan has dashed away all terms."

With regard to the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun's withdrawal from the coalition, Mr. Tsarukyan said: "The greater and the united the coalition is, the better for our country."

"Everybody knows that the border will be opened without any prerequisites. Suppose the main roads are opened, it won't hinder the Genocide recognition on an international level. Coalition forces needn't have the same approach to all issues. Both the authorities and the opposition should jointly decide the issue in favour of our country and our people," added Mr. Tsarukyan who thinks Turkey will not open the border and it simply plays a trick on Armenia.

http://www.a1plus.am/en/politics/2009/04/27/gagik-tsarukyan

[Anoush]

Re: Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

One thing for sure, the Sargsyan gov't better not secede one inch of land from the NKR's borders or accept the illegal borders of turkey or azerbaijan. Turkey can be very political (and deceitful). As far as politics we are never what the turks can be. I don't think Sargsyan knows what the heck he is doing. And why did they kept Tashnagtsoutyoun in dark in regards to the road maps? How could Sargsyan's cabinet agree to have the historians check out whether the 1915 massacres were a Genocide? Where are their heads? How could they agree to such deceitfulness and indignity to the memory of our martyrs?

I am glad that ARF left the coalition and I say it one more time.... I hope Armenia would vote Tashnagtsoutyoun as their head of state and soon!!!!!!

[Gavur]

Re: Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

We're all hoping, but no one knows,Tashnaksutyun is playing it safe which can't be bad.




Vardan Oskanyan: Willingness to open border with uncompromising neighbor is a concession in itself
27.04.2009 19:57 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “If the Armenian and Turkish Foreign Ministries’ joint statement was not really induced by foreign powers, then Armenian authorities are indifferent towards our general feelings. If the statement was calculated to impose certain concession on us, then the issue of Genocide recognition has become a subject of bartering, and this is impermissible,” RA ex-Foreign Minister V. Oskanyan said.

“Since gaining independence, Armenia has expressed willingness to re-establish ties with Turkey without preconditions. However, the official Ankara did not respond to our proposal on overcoming our past with joint efforts. Willingness to open border with uncompromising neighbor is a concession in itself. To shake hands with a Government denying the Armenian Genocide is a very serious concession which may have a security impact,” former RA FM says in his statement.

Denying its own history, Turkey in the meantime is abusing the Armenian government's good will. “I don’t want any of us to have doubts about sincerity of our authorities’ desires. However, after expression of such good will, the situation has changed to so much and so many preconditions have been advanced that the process is now in a state of uncertainty,” V. Oskanyan stresses.

According to ex-Foreign Minister, RA authorities have always managed to resist the Turkish and Azerbaijani efforts towards provoking Armenia into concessions. “I hope present-day authorities will be as sensible and determined as their predecessors,” Mr. Oskanyan said.

http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=31001

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

Gulbenkian Foundation Donates $50,000 to ARF Archives Institute

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Archives Institute announced Thursday that it has received a $50,000 grant from the Lisbon-based world-renowned Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The grant will fund the upgrading and advancing of the institute’s technological capabilities.

In thanking the Armenian division of the Gulbenkian Foundation, ARF Archives Institute director Vatche Proodian and publications director Yervant Pamboukian have welcomed the grant, emphasizing the important role Gulbenkian Armenian division director Zaven Yegavian has played in the preservation of Armenian culture and national ideals.

The archives institute leaders have singled out Yegavian’s important role in garnering financial assistance to Armenian national and cultural institutions, expressing hope that similar programs will continue in the future.

Proudian stated that the Gulbenkian grant will be allocated for upgrading and advancing the Archives Institute’s technological capabilities, which will greatly enhance the activities of the organization.

The ARF Archives Institute was founded in July 2008 with a mission to categorize and process the archives through technologically advanced methods, prepare them for publication as well as to make them available for academic research in an internationally accepted manner. Currently, the archives are being digitized.

[Eddo211]

Re: Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

I am surprised this hasn’t been posted here as of yet. I have highlighted the parts that I/we have been talking about lately.

Finally the ARF Has Resumed Its Traditional Role

http://www.arf1890.com/ArchivesNews2009/May2009/may11.htm

For close to a century, Armenians have lived with the psychological and emotional trauma caused by the genocide. In addition, Armenians have suffered the indignity of having their centuries-long occupation of historic Armenia not only challenged, but their physical imprint upon the land destroyed by their oppressors, and their right to justice ignored or questioned.
The genocide took the lives of over 1.5 million innocent Armenian men, women, and children. It caused the forced abandonment of Armenian homes and lands, and the confiscation and destruction of Armenian churches and the sacred lands where their deceased ancestors had rested for centuries. The genocide stole the birthright of thousands of young Armenian women who only survived by being forced to serve alien masters. Today, Yerevan is on a path that seeks the normalization of relations with a government that has maintained a century-long policy of denying, rewriting, and obfuscating these horrific events that have been recorded in the archives of history.

Ankara and Yerevan recently agreed to a “road map” to facilitate negotiations that will lead to a normalization of relations. One wonders how Yerevan can expect to achieve normalcy when it is apparent that the Turkish leadership has no intention of recognizing the Armenian Genocide (see “Why Would Turkey acknowledge the Armenian Genocide,” the Armenian Weekly, Feb. 10, 2006) or of changing its position supporting the territorial integrity of its ally Azerbaijan with respect to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. These are rational assumptions since the Karabakhtsis and the Armenian people, both within Armenia and throughout the Diaspora can only speculate as to the concessions to be given and the benefits to be received as the result of these negotiations.

To date, the political leaders in Yerevan have either been unwilling or unable to understand the potential dangers that are attached to this process of normalization that far exceed the difficulties the country is currently experiencing. One can only surmise the intense external pressures being placed upon Yerevan to seek normalization as it navigates the Machiavellian world of international politics.

Despite the emphasis on genocide recognition in the United States Congress, as well as President Barack Obama’s well-documented personal views on the Armenian Genocide, his administration has turned its back to the plight of the Armenian nation. Contrary to his stated position of not wanting to do anything that may influence ongoing negotiations between Turkey and Armenia, Obama’s comments during his recent visit to Turkey and the policy of his administration send an entirely different message. His long-awaited message on the 94th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was political verbiage at its best. The politically naive leaders of the Diaspora in the United States were deceived once again (see “Caveat Emptor When Shopping for Normalization in the Turkish Marketplace,” the Armenian Weekly, March 25, 2009).

This headlong rush toward normalization since the meeting of President Abdullah Gul and President Serge Sarkisian in Yerevan received its first serious setback on April 27 when the ARF withdrew its participation in Yerevan’s coalition government. Although this was not an unexpected development, it should have occurred months earlier. By withdrawing their support of Sarkisian, the ARF announced that it will “…be guided exclusively by…national interests and goals when addressing the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations and the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict.”

By assuming their role as the loyal opposition, the ARF has injected itself into the normalization process, unfettered by the constraints that hobbled it as a coalition partner. Sarkisian must realize the serious consequences should he present any agreement as a fait accompli. This would be a serious setback for the democratization process in Armenia. The normalization of relations with Turkey is a historic moment in contemporary Armenian history. The ARF, by reassuming its traditional, role takes center stage in this process. It becomes essentially the watchdog, the last line of defense, protecting both the future of the country and of all Armenians. As the only effective counterbalance to the present administration in Yerevan, the ARF has put the administration on notice that it will monitor the government’s actions, propose alternative strategies, and publicly evaluate the national security issues that may be adversely impacted by the direction the negotiations appear to be going.

A baseline for determining the value of normalization is the Turkish leadership’s willingness to engage Armenia in resolving the legitimate issues between the two countries that have existed for nearly a century. One does not expect the slate to be wiped clean by Turkish acquiescence to every issue that Yerevan, prodded by the ARF, might propose. However, it is necessary that Turkey commits itself to a good-faith effort to ameliorate conditions that have festered for nearly a century. Absent that, there is no benefit to be gained by normalizing relations. Presently there is no indication that the leadership or those factions that influence the government, such as the military, are willing to face these issues head-on. There is no need to repeat the issues that must be addressed, but they are summed up in the full meaning of Hai Tahd (Added by Edo: our proper form of Nationalism): recognition, restitution, reparations, and rectification.

The Turkish offer to normalize relations, which Armenia’s political leaders seem so eager to accept, recasts Faust’s bargain with the devil as a victory. Contrary to Armenia’s oft-stated objections, Turkey still speaks of the preconditions necessary for normalized relations. Ankara is engaged in a very astute diplomatic offensive that began with Gul’s visit to Armenia last year (see “Normalization Can Never Be Worth Turkey’s Asking Price,” the Armenian Weekly, Dec. 6, 2008). Turkey has neither the need, and even less the desire, to normalize relations with Armenia if the cost is genocide recognition or Karabakh’s de jure independence. Ankara’s goal is to carry on negotiations under conditions aided and abetted by the United States that require Armenia to consider difficult choices. It is a diplomatic offensive that, just prior to the announced intervention of the ARF, was close to achieving its objective. For the Turkish leaders it was a win-win situation. If their gambit succeeded Armenia would have been checkmated. If Armenia refused to play the game as Ankara defined it, Turkey would have burnished its image as a country “willing to forget the past” and of reaching out to its intransigent neighbor.

The “interested” nations and the “think tanks” that play academic games solving crises eagerly encourage Armenia to come to terms with Turkey. This was the end-goal of Turkey’s present diplomatic offensive-to pressure Armenia to accept compromises that are inimical to its long-term interests. However, Turkey is no longer free to pursue its diplomatic offensive unchallenged. The ARF has the organizational structure, credibility, and experience gained during the past century as Turkey’s principal adversary in the international arena to augment, redirect, and evaluate strategies that will protect the national security and enhance the future of the Armenian nation.

What effect Russia and Iran have on these negotiations is best known to Yerevan. However, there is no question that Russia would do whatever it can to have Azerbaijani energy resources redirected through its extensive pipeline system that supplies Europe. Fortunately, this runs counter to Turkish-United States interests. For the present at least, the United States is a more reliable ally for Turkey than Russia would be. Also, Armenia is the only military foothold that Russia can depend upon in the south Caucasus. For Russia to support Turkey to bring these negotiations to a successful conclusion at Armenia’s and Karabakh’s expense could be a dangerous game to play. A resurgent Turkey would confront Russia in the south Caucasus supported by the United States, the European Union, and their military component, NATO. Turkey would have the necessary springboard to extend its influence into central Asia where it would also confront Russia’s head-on.

In 1991, the independence of Armenia was heralded by Armenians with joy and expectation that finally their Armenia was on the threshold of a new and promising era. A few years later, Artsakh (Karabakh) won its independence from Azerbaijan in a devastating war for liberation, and just recently Barack Obama, who had stated in no uncertain terms during his presidential campaign that the Armenian Genocide was a fact of history, was elected president. From these once promising beginnings, the Armenian people are witness to bilateral negotiations between Ankara and Yerevan that appear to lack any meaningful quid pro quo for Armenia. Although it is important that Armenia and Turkey normalize relations, it cannot come about by the Sarkisian Administration sacrificing the future security or potential of the Armenian nation. It cannot come about by sacrificing Artsakh. And it cannot come about by sacrificing Hai Tahd. That is the heavy burden that the ARF finally assumed on April 27.

[Federate]

Re: Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

In Lebanon’s Patchwork, a Focus on Armenians’ Political Might


Last month, the main Armenian political bloc decided to support Hezbollah’s alliance in the coming parliamentary elections in Lebanon against the pro-American parliamentary majority. Because of their role as a crucial swing vote, the Armenians could end up deciding who wins and who loses in what is often described as a proxy battle between Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, and the West.

That fact has brought new attention to the Armenians, a distinct and borderless ethnic group that is spread throughout the region much as the xxxs once were. In Lebanon, they have their own schools, hospitals and newspapers. They speak their own language, with its own alphabet. Their main political party, Tashnaq, operates in 35 countries and has a secretive world committee that meets four times a year. Their collective memory of the genocide carried out against them in Turkey from 1915 to 1918 helps maintain their identity in a far-flung diaspora.

“There is a sense of invisible nationhood across borders,” said Paul Haidostian, the president of Haigazian University, the Armenian university in Beirut.

In fact, their political enemies here accuse the Armenians of siding with Hezbollah in order to protect the substantial Armenian populations in Syria and Iran. But the Armenian political leadership says it is fully independent and has no ideological sympathy for either of Lebanon’s two main political camps.

Instead, the Armenians say, they are voting with the opposition for reasons that are entirely local and pragmatic: it offered them full control over the parliamentary seats in Armenian-dominated districts. The other side did not, said Hovig Mekhitarian, the chairman of the Lebanese branch of Tashnaq.

“We want candidates who represent our community,” Mr. Mekhitarian said. “We are not with the opposition, and not with the majority.”

That dynamic is common enough in Lebanon, a checkerboard of mutually suspicious sectarian groups that are usually more concerned with protecting their own interests than with advancing any broader national or regional agenda.

But even in Lebanon, the Armenians stand out for their independence. During the 1975-1990 civil war, the Armenians refused to take sides. Tashnaq discouraged its members from leaving the country (though many Armenians did leave), in deference to Lebanese patriotism. Officially, the party is socialist, but its only real credo is survival.

Mr. Haidostian said: “I remember when I used to get stopped at a checkpoint, they would ask, ‘Are you Christian or Muslim?’ I would say ‘Armenian,’ and it was like a third category. They didn’t know what to do.”

Despite the risks, many Armenians say they find Lebanon a uniquely accommodating place, largely because its weak state allows them to live almost as a separate nation. “There is something tentative about Lebanese identity, and in that questioning Armenians have found a comfortable space,” Mr. Haidostian said.

Although there have been Armenians here for centuries, they first came in large numbers after the genocide. Later wars and crises led to more migration, increasing the size of the Lebanese Armenian community to 240,000 by the 1970s. The creation of the independent state of Armenia in 1918 had provided refuge to some, but its small size and role as a Soviet client state after 1920 set limits on its role as an Armenian homeland.

In Lebanon, the Armenians had an unusual mix of freedom and insecurity, allowing them to practice their religion and culture, but also limiting their assimilation into the general culture. In the United States, Armenians often marry outside their group and are less likely to speak their own language; here, they remain far more distinct.

The Beirut neighborhood of Bourj Hamoud is a kind of miniature Armenia, with shop signs written in Armenian script and a dense, familial culture of working-class shops, homes and restaurants. The Lebanese branch of Tashnaq is based there, flying the party’s distinctive banner bearing a pen, a shovel and a dagger — representing ideology, work and struggle. There is also a rich network of schools, orphanages, retirement homes and hospitals. Schoolchildren learn three languages (and three different alphabets), and start on a fourth language in the fourth grade.

Maintaining this independence requires political skill. During the civil war, Bourj Hamoud was trapped geographically between Christian and Palestinian areas, and its leaders had to work hard to avoid becoming a target for either side.

Recently, that neutrality has been difficult to preserve. Tashnaq has long been a de facto Syrian ally, partly because of Syria’s former military domination of Lebanon. After the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, it remained in the Syrian political camp, mainly because it blamed the other side for an electoral law that divided Armenian districts and reduced its power.

This spring, Saad Hariri, the leader of the pro-American parliamentary majority, tried to mend fences with Tashnaq, which controls the vast majority of Armenian votes. He had good reason: last year the electoral law was revised in a way that restored the Armenians’ power.

Lebanese Christians represent the swing vote in this election, and the 160,000-strong Armenian community is by far the most unified subgroup of those votes. If Mr. Hariri could have persuaded Tashnaq to vote with him, the balance might have tipped in his favor to defeat Hezbollah and its allies.

He did not succeed. Mr. Mekhitarian said Mr. Hariri had not offered enough. “He was really only offering one seat, and he wanted our support in 15 other seats,” Mr. Mekhitarian said.

Members of Mr. Hariri’s party who took part in the negotiations offered a slightly different account. They said Mr. Hariri offered to satisfy Tashnaq’s demands on parliamentary seats, but only if the party would commit firmly to supporting him before and after the elections. It would not do so, they said.

That is not surprising. In a sense, the Armenians cannot afford to make such political commitments. Like the Druse and other minorities in Lebanon, they believe they must subordinate all ideological principles to a nimble defense of their community.

“In politics, you can’t always be neutral,” said Hagop Pakradounian, a Tashnaq member of Parliament. “But we try to maintain links to all sides.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/world/middleeast/26armenians.html?ref=middleeast

[Gavur]

Re: Dashnaktsutyun - Armenian Revolutionary Federation

Good article By ROBERT F. WORTH thanks Federate.