The Armenian Social Democrat Hnchakian Party

This book, based on new research, sheds light on the history of the Social Democrat Hnchakian Party, a major Armenian revolutionary party that operated in the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Persia and throughout the global Armenian diaspora. Divided into sections which cover the origins, ideology, and regional history of the SDHP, the book situates the history of the Hnchaks within debates around socialism, populism, and nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. The SDHP was not only an Armenian party but had a global Marxist outlook, and scholars in this volume bring to bear expertise in a wide range of histories and languages including Russian, Turkish, Persian and Latin American to trace the emergence and role this influential party played from their split with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the events of the Armenian genocide to the formation of the first Armenian Republic and then Soviet Armenia. Putting the Hnchaks in context as one of many nationalist radical groups to emerge in Eurasia in the late 19th century, the book is an important contribution to Armenian historiography as well as that of transnational revolutionary movements in general.

This is the first comprehensive work in English dealing with the nineteenth-century Armenian revolutionary movement and the subsequent rise of Armenian political parties. It covers in details the history of the Armenian revolutionists' armed struggle against the government of the Ottoman Turks beginning with the first major uprising in 1862 and extending to the culmination of the Turkish Armenian massacres in 1896. Incredibly daring yet loosely organized and sporadic uprisings directed by small secret societies characterized the early stage of Armenian political consciousness. But in 1885 the first Armenian political party, the Armenakan, was founded in Turkish Armenia, signaling the beginning of political maturity. Thereafter the leadership of the Armenian revolutionary forces passed into the hands of organized political parties; the Armenakan, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, and the Hunchakian Revolutionary Party. These same parties, with some changes, continue to remain active through 1963. Nalbandian analyzes the actions of the revolutionists within the framework of the political and intellectual history of the Armenians and endeavors to clarify the sources, objectives, and accomplishments of the Armenian political parties. The efforts of these groups were not immediately successful; the revolutionists' fight against the Ottoman regime took place against incredibly sever odds: they lacked sufficient manpower, materials, and economic strength to combat the powerful forces of the Ottoman Turks. They did, however, contribute to the ultimate disintegration of the corrupt Ottoman regime and server to further Armenian nationalism. Because of the concern of most Armenian political leaders with the socio-economic theories of the day lead them to connect their own revolutionary movement with that of international socialism, Nalbandian examines the relationship of the Armenian parties to other nineteenth-century revolutionary movements in Western Europe, Russia, and the Balkans. The author, drawing upon research she has done in Soviet Armenia and in Armenian centers in the United States, Europe, and the Near East, presents an organized survey and interpretation of nineteenth-century Armenian politics as an aid to understanding current international alignments. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1963.

This book, based on new research, sheds light on the history of the Social Democrat Hnchakian Party, a major Armenian revolutionary party that operated in the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Persia and throughout the global Armenian diaspora. Divided into sections which cover the origins, ideology, and regional history of the SDHP, the book situates the history of the Hnchaks within debates around socialism, populism, and nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. The SDHP was not only an Armenian party but had a global Marxist outlook, and scholars in this volume bring to bear expertise in a wide range of histories and languages including Russian, Turkish, Persian and Latin American to trace the emergence and role this influential party played from their split with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the events of the Armenian genocide to the formation of the first Armenian Republic and then Soviet Armenia. Putting the Hnchaks in context as one of many nationalist radical groups to emerge in Eurasia in the late 19th century, the book is an important contribution to Armenian historiography as well as that of transnational revolutionary movements in general.

From genocide, forced displacement, and emigration, to the gradual establishment of sedentary and rooted global communities, how has the Armenian diaspora formed and maintained a sense of collective identity? This book explores the richness and magnitude of the Armenian experience through the 20th century to examine how Armenian diaspora elites and their institutions emerged in the post-genocide period and used “stateless power” to compose forms of social discipline. Historians, cultural theorists, literary critics, sociologists, political scientists, and anthropologists explore how national and transnational institutions were built in far-flung sites from Istanbul, Aleppo, Beirut and Jerusalem to Paris, Los Angeles, and the American mid-west. Exploring literary and cultural production as well as the role of religious institutions, the book probes the history and experience of the Armenian diaspora through the long 20th century, from the role of the fin-de-siècle émigré Armenian press to the experience of Syrian-Armenian asylum seekers in the 21st century. It shows that a diaspora's statelessness can not only be evidence of its power, but also how this “stateless power” acts as an alternative and complement to the nation-state.

Why are certain regions of the world mired in conflict? And how did some regions in Eurasia emerge from the Cold War as peaceful and resilient? Why do conflicts ignite in Bosnia, Donbas, and Damascus—once on the peripheries of mighty empires—yet other postimperial peripheries like the Baltics or Central Europe enjoy quiet stability? Anna Ohanyan argues for the salience of the neighborhood effect: the complex regional connectivity among ethnic-religious communities that can form resilient regions. In an account of Eurasian regional formation that stretches back long before the nation-state, Ohanyan refutes the notion that stable regions are the luxury of prosperous, stable, democratic states. She examines case studies from regions once on the fringes of the Habsburg, Ottoman, and Russian Empires to find the often-overlooked patterns of bonding and bridging, or clustering and isolation of political power and social resources, that are associated with regional resilience or fracture in those regions today. With comparative examples from Latin America and Africa, The Neighborhood Effect offers a new explanation for the conflicts we are likely to see emerge as the unipolar US-led order dissolves, making the fractures in regional neighborhoods painfully evident. And it points the way to the future of peacebuilding: making space for the smaller links and connections that comprise a stable neighborhood.