The ARF advocates socialism and is a member of the Socialist International. It possesses the largest number of members from the political parties present in the Armenian diaspora, having established affiliates in more than 200 countries.
1920s to 1950s
The party had advocates in Lebanon with Armenian university students registering in Beirut colleges and universities. The party also gained many members with the increasing waves of Armenian immigrants flooding into Lebanon in the early 1920s fleeing the Armenian Genocide during World War I.
From 1923 to 1958, conflicts erupted among the three traditional Armenian political parties struggling to dominate and organize the diaspora. In 1926, a struggle between committees of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Tashnags) and the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (the Hunchaks) for control of the newly established shanty-town of Bourj Hammoud in Lebanon led to the assassination of ARF member Vahan Vartabedian.
As retaliation for the murder, Hunchakian members Mihran Aghazarian and S. Dekhrouhi were assassinated in 1929 and 1931 respectively.[2]
The Aztag daily started publication on March 5, 1927 in Beirut, Lebanon. It is the official party organ of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's Lebanese Central Committee.
The official ARF party journal Droshak resumed publication in Beirut during the period 1969 to 1985 before moving to Athens because of the security situation in Lebanon.
Prior to the Lebanese Civil War of 1975–90, the party was closely allied to the Phalangist Party of Pierre Gemayel and generally ran joint tickets with the Phalangists, especially in Beirut constituencies with large Armenian populations.[3]
1975 Lebanese Civil War until 2000
The refusal of the ARF (Tashnag), along with most Armenian groups, to play an active role in the Lebanese Civil War, and declaring what became to be known as "positive neutrality" (in Arabic الحياد الإيجابي) between the various warring Lebanese factions however, soured relations between the two parties, and the Lebanese Forces (a militia dominated by Phalangists and commanded by Bachir Gemayel, Pierre Gemayel's son), responded by attacking the Armenian quarters of many Lebanese towns, including Bourj Hammoud.[3] The statue of the Armenian Genocide in Bikfaya was also tragetted by a bombing by pro-Lebanese Forces elements. Many Armenians affiliated with the ARF took up arms voluntarily to defend their quarters.
In the midst of the Lebanese civil war, and in a surge of Armenian violence against Turkish targets worldwide led by the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), another shadowy guerrilla organization called Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide (JCAG) emerged and carried out a string of its own assassinations and operations from 1975 to 1983. The guerrilla organization has sometimes been linked to the Tashnags.[4]
21st century
A major change occurred in the parliamentary election of 2000. Negotiations to form a joint ticket between the ARF and the Karama (Dignity) party of Rafik Hariri broke down over Hariri's insistence that all candidates elected on his list, including ARF candidates, would have to form a unified parliamentary block subsequently—a rarity in Lebanese politics. This would make the Armenian vote in the Chamber subservient to Hariri's wishes.[5] In addition, Hariri refused the ARF proposal to choose an Armenian candidate for the sole seat allocated to Lebanon's Evangelical community (many of whom are ethnically Armenian), insisting that the seat should go to an ally of his.[5] The ARF decided to go it alone, although other Armenian parties joined Hariri's list. In an unprecedented sweep, the Dignity movement and its allies captured 13 of Beirut's 19 seats, and the ARF was left with only one parliamentary seat, its worst result in many decades.[5] The ARF called for a boycott of the 2005 Beirut elections, disturbed that the four seats normally reserved for Beirut's large Armenian community had gone unopposed to Hariri's candidates.[6]
Speculation arose that the Lebanese branch of the ARF had broken away from the main party's political ideology of socialism and embraced capitalism.[3] Davit Lokian, a prominent ARF member and Minister of Agriculture of Armenia, denied these claims.[7] The Dashnaktsutiun has an official newspaper in Lebanon known as the Aztag Daily Newspaper.
Ethnic Armenians are allocated six seats in Lebanon's 128-member National Assembly. The Lebanese branch of the ARF has usually controlled a majority of the Armenian vote and won most of the ethnic Armenian seats in the National Assembly, although it currently holds two seats: Hagop Pakradounian from Metn area and Mr. George Kasarji from Beqaa Valley area. It has generally avoided entanglement in sensitive domestic issues, usually supporting whichever government has been in power. However, the ARF harshly criticized the Lebanese government's decision in 2006 to invite the deployment of Turkish troops as part of the multilateral United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping force.[8]
On August 5, 2007, a by-election took place in the Metn district, which includes the predominantly Armenian area of Bourj Hammoud, to replace the slain anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel. The ARF decided to support Camille Khoury, the candidate backed by opposition leader Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement. Camille Khoury faced off against Phalangist leader Amine Gemayel and subsequently won the seat.[9] Government supporters blamed Gemayel's loss on the Armenians. Amine Gemayel accused the ARF of cheating and called for the ballot in Bourj Hammoud to be cancelled. Gemayel said that he had fared better "among Christians" and accused the Dashnaktsutyun of trying to "impose its will on the people of Metn", implying that the Armenians were neither proper Lebanese nor true Christians.[10] Lebanese politician Gabriel Murr accused the ARF of rigging the vote as "they always do". Murr pointed out that Aoun didn't win the Maronite vote but that he had won the Armenian vote, which was included in the Metn district to manipulate the electoral results.[11]Hagop Pakradounian, a leader of the ARF in Lebanon, and the Armenian Deputies Bloc asked for a public apology.[12] Pakradounian and the Armenian Deputies Bloc called comments made by Amine Gemayel and Gabriel Murr over the Armenian community's support for the Free Patriotic Movement racist and condemned them.
The current ARF Central Committee Chairperson in Lebanon is Mr. Hovig Mkhitarian. The ARF Lebanon branch is headquartered in Bourj Hammoud in the Shaghzoian Centre, along with the ARF Lebanon Central Committee's Aztag Daily newspaper and "Voice Of Van" 24-hour radio station.[12]
