Reflections on the ARF’s 135th anniversary

Note: These reflections were delivered as the keynote address on March 1, 2025, at the Detroit ARF Azadamard Gomideh’s celebration of the 135th anniversary of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). In the late summer of 1890, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation announced its arrival with its first statement—a short, but powerful, Manifesto urging the Armenians of Western Armenia to rise up and join the ARF’s struggle for social and economic justice and freedom in their homeland. The Manifesto was not directed to the world powers. The Manifesto was not directed to the Ottoman Turkish government. Instead, the Manifesto was directed to the Armenian people. In 1890, those people were our ancestors. To think about it a different way, if the Manifesto were being issued today, its message and call to action would be directed to us. Before the Manifesto was issued in the late summer of 1890—no one knows the exact date—many efforts had been made in both the Ottoman and Russian empires to form Armenian revolutionary groups to challenge and change the Ottoman Turkish government’s discriminatory and oppressive tactics targeting our people. However, those early freedom-fighting groups did not last, because not enough of the Armenian population supported them with their participation, goodwill or money. Something had to change, and that change happened with the urgent establishment of the ARF by Armenian student revolutionaries and others involved in secret revolutionary societies in the Russian and Ottoman empires. I say “urgent establishment” because the ARF’s formation was inspired by fresh uprisings and demonstrations in Erzurum (June 1890) and Constantinople (July 1890). These two events, especially, inspired Armenian revolutionaries. They saw them as signs that the Ottoman Empire was getting weaker and that the time was right for the Armenian people to join forces to fight for the social and economic justice Western Armenians had been promised and denied by the Ottoman government and world powers for too long. The ARF’s founders understood that the new federation needed the people’s support to be able to fight for lasting change. Without the people, there would not be enough power to challenge the Ottoman Empire and force it to stop treating the Armenian people like second-class citizens. The Manifesto is a passionate, inspiring document. It acknowledges the inhumane, discriminatory and dehumanizing conditions that the Armenians of Western Armenia had endured for 600 years. It also acknowledges the Armenians’ past efforts to follow the rules, engage in diplomacy and wait patiently for European diplomatic promises of relief that never came true. After acknowledging the darkness of the people’s current reality, the Manifesto then urges Armenians to envision a brighter future under the ARF’s banner, stating: “Today, Armenians have vowed either to die or to be free. And as Erzurum and Constantinople stand boldly in complaint, Armenians no longer beg, but demand and demand with arms in hand. Today, Europe sees in front of it a complete people, a complete race, which has begun to protect its human rights. This race now understands that its power lies within itself. Yesterday’s patient Armenian is today a revolutionary.” Then the Manifesto, issues a call to action to the people. First, the Manifesto issues a special call to the youth to “unite with your people as defenders of ideology, always and everywhere.” Next, the senior generation is urged to “support and inspire the youth with your wisdom and experience.” Those who have financial resources are urged to “open up your purse and support those who confront the enemy.” Women are urged to provide the inspiration needed to fuel “the holy cause of freedom.” And clergy are urged to bless the freedom fighters. There is a role and a need for everyone. In preparing these remarks, I found an example of a difference the ARF made for the Armenian nation, with the support of the people. I knew about the “after” actions of the party, which take place in the Russian Empire, but I did not know about the “before” story. In 1885, before the ARF was founded, the Russian czar issued an order for all of the Armenian parochial schools in the Russian Empire to be closed in a transparent effort to Russify the empire’s Armenians. Prior to this order, Armenians in the empire had also been denied government jobs, service in the military, and even holding and participating in some Armenian cultural activities. To fight this discriminatory move, a student named Gabriel Mirzoyan and another student named Kristapor Mikaelian—who would, of course, five years later be one of the ARF’s founders, with Stepan Zorian and Simon Zavarian—printed pamphlets to protest this action and urged the Russian Empire’s Armenians to resist the school closures. Unfortunately, not enough of those Armenians responded to this call to action, which resulted in the assimilation of too many Armenians who did not resist and condemn the school closings. Fast forward almost 20 years, and there is a different story to tell. In 1902, the Russian czar issued another order: this time, to close all the Armenian schools and churches and confiscate those properties in another effort to Russify the Armenians of the Russian Empire. But this time, the now-established ARF swung into action, forming a Central Committee of Armenian Self-Defense and issuing a proclamation that declared armed resistance against the czar. In its campaign, the ARF also urged the Armenian people to boycott all of the Russian Empire’s government agencies and instead use a parallel ARF system that had been established. And this time, the people—organized and supported under the ARF’s banner—resisted. After two years of bloody and widespread armed clashes throughout the Caucasus between the Armenians and Tatars (today’s Azeris, who were used by the Russians to fight the Armenians), the ARF declared victory and forced the czar to rescind his order. This is just one example of the difference the ARF has made in the life of the Armenian nation—with the support of the people—during its 135 years. Think about it. One hundred and thirty-five years of serving the Armenian people and defending the total Armenian nation through mostly volunteer efforts: This is an achievement that no one could foresee in 1890. For 135 years, the ARF has created, maintained and expanded organizational, social and media infrastructures throughout the Diaspora and in Armenia—and until September 2023, in Artsakh—to inform and engage thousands of people across generations through its international Hai Tahd work, AYF youth organization and sister organizations ARS, HMEM and Hamazkayin. The ARF touches every facet of our daily experience as Diasporan Armenians. In the upcoming years and decades, the ARF will need the power of the people to build new community centers, establish new programs and create new opportunities to carry us toward and into the 22nd century. Yes, there are chronic problems and pressing issues that must be addressed by the party, which still needs much more people power in Haiastan to fulfill its current top goal of removing and replacing the current Pashinyan regime for the sake of the safety and security of our nation. As we speak, the ARF’s highest body, the World Congress, is in session. We await its decisions and the newly elected ARF Bureau, which will guide the ARF’s course during its term. And here, in the Eastern United States, a regional convention will be held in two weeks to chart the priorities of our own jurisdiction with the election of a new Central Committee to guide the party’s course here at home. Let me share another a quote with you: “The historical mission of the Armenian people and its national forces is to get out of the destructive dilemma of capitulation or war and to establish a real, irreversible and just peace. The renunciation of our irrevocable rights and vital interests will not bring peace, but the loss of Armenian identity and statehood. “To avoid further irreversible losses and to overcome the existential challenges facing Armenia, it is imperative to make a breakthrough in the situation by forming a government of a new quality and establishing a roadmap for the country’s development as a national state.” That is a statement by the ARF Bureau, and it was not issued in 1800-and-something or 1900-and-something. The date of that ARF Bureau statement is January 18, 2025. It is a statement conveying deep concern and alarm about the current government of Armenia and its dangerous policies, priorities and decisions, which are putting Armenia’s continued existence in the crosshairs of Turkey and its “little brother” Azerbaijan. It is a statement urging all who care about the future of the second Republic of Armenia and the return of our Artsakhtsi brothers and sisters to their indigenous land to fight for the security, safety and protection of our people. As it was with the Manifesto 135 years ago, January’s Bureau statement is directed to us, to mobilize in our communities and work toward these ends. And so tonight, when the dinner plates have been taken away, the songs have been sung and this night is a memory, know that tomorrow, there is so much that you can do for your community and your nation with your volunteer and financial support to the ARF. Ask how you can join the local Azadamard Gomidehoutiun or how to become an auxiliary ARF member as a hamagir. Talk to the representatives of our youth organization and sister organizations who were introduced at the beginning of this program to learn how you can be part of a movement that seeks not only to preserve our total Armenian nation but also to fight for its security, expansion and growth. And for the many, many of us in this room who are already ARF members or members of the ARF’s youth or sister organizations, let us use this evening to rededicate ourselves to serve with renewed energy and purpose for the sake of our total Armenian nation. In the words of the 135-year-old ARF Manifesto: “There is no time to wait. Let us unite, Oh Armenians, and let us bravely advance the holy cause of achieving freedom.”

Reflections on the ARF’s 135th anniversary

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Georgi Bargamian

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This story is FREE for you...

Georgi Bargamian

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