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Social Democrat Hunchakian Party Program - 1887*
The program of Social
Democrat Hunchakian Party (1887), may be summarised as follows:
I.
The ideological impact of the times led to a new view of society.
The Party could penetrate into current world conditions and see
the inequalities that existed everywhere. The vast majority of the
people were being oppressed and exploited by a small minority, who
by virtue of their privileged positions were able to control and
rule the impoverished masses.
To achieve full and real freedom for this large majority, it was
imperative to establish a new order based on humanitarian and
socialistic principles. The present state of affairs had to be
destroyed by means of a revolution. Then, on the ashes of the old
society, a new one might be built, based upon "economic truths"
and "socialistic justice".
II. The immediate objective of
the party was the political and national independence of Turkish
Armenia. The conditions of the Armenians in Asiatic Turkey were
described and the need to concentrate Hunchak activities in this
area was explained. Here was set forth also the exploitation of
the Armenians by the government, the aristocracy, and the
capitalists through high taxes, land seizure, and the deprivation
of the fruits of labour. Besides these injustices, the people were
shorn of their political rights and were forced to remain silent
in their position as slaves of their parasitic overlord. They were
not free to worship as they pleased and lived forever in fear of
marauding tribesmen. In order to save the Armenians from slavery,
the S.D. Hunchakian Party proposed to direct them on the road to
socialism and to work toward their immediate objective, the
Freedom of Turkish Armenia.
After the immediate objective had been realised, certain political
and economic aims were to be put into operation.
The political aims of Social Democrat Hunchakian
Party:
1. A perpetual
popular Legislative Assembly elected in free elections by
universal and direct suffrage. The voters were to have full
powers in regard to all national administrative questions.
a. The
peoples' representatives
are
to be
elected from all ranks of society.
b. The seat
of the Legislative Assembly
is to be in one of the important
cities of Armenia.
2. Extensive provincial autonomy.
3. Extensive communal autonomy.
a.
Concerning points two and three
‑
the people
are to have the authority to elect all public administrators.
4. Every individual, without distinction of position or wealth,
is to have the right to hold office.
5. Complete freedom of press, speech, conscience, assembly,
organizations, and electoral agitation.
6. The person and home of every individual
is to be inviolable.
7. Universal military service.
The economic aims of the party was determined after careful
investigation into the needs and desires of the people. Two
economic objectives are described in the program. These are the
establishment of a progressive system of taxation above a certain
income bracket and a system of universal compulsory education.
III. The Hunchakian program
advocated revolution as the only means of reaching the immediate
objective. The arena of revolutionary activity was designed as
Turkish Armenia. The Party believed that the existing social
organisation in Turkish Armenia could be changed by violence
against the Turkish government and described the following
methods. Propaganda, Agitation, Terror, Organisation, and Peasant
and Worker Activities.
Propaganda was to be directed to the people to educate them toward
two goals: The basic reasons and the proper time for revolution
against the government; The social order that was to be
established after the successful revolution.
Agitation and Terror were needed to "elevate the spirit of the
people". Demonstrations against the government, refusal to pay
taxes, demands for reforms, and hatred of the aristocracy were
part of the party's agitation campaign. Terror was to be used as a
method of protecting the people and winning their confidence in
the Hunchak program.
The Organisation of the party was to be centralised system
directed by a central executive committee. The revolution could
not be won by the participation of the party organisation alone.
It was absolutely essential to win the active support of the
peasants and workers. The peasants and workers were to protect the
gains and interests of the people, and were to take the reins of
government and rule according to democratic principles.
IV. The most opportune time to
institute the general rebellion for carrying out the immediate
objective was when Turkey was engaged in war.
The non-Armenians of Turkish Armenia were not overlooked. The
party declared that in order to better the condition of the
non-Armenians, it was necessary to get the sympathy of other
minorities, such as the Assyrians and Kurds, for the revolutionary
cause.
V. The final part of the
program pointed out that the greatest number of Armenians lived in
Turkish Armenia, and that the area also comprised the largest part
of historic Armenia. Here the majority of the Armenian people were
living under the impossible conditions imposed by their Ottoman
rulers, as the Great Powers had recognised when they sanctioned
reform in Turkish Armenia in Article LXI (61) of the Treaty of
Berlin.
These considerations led the Party to demand that all
revolutionary forces devote themselves to winning the independence
of Turkish Armenia. The Party cautioned its followers against the
selfish interests of other powers in regard to this region, and
predicted that, after the fall of already bankrupt Ottoman regime,
the European Powers would systematically carve up the empire,
including Turkish Armenia, for themselves. Hence the Party again
restated its "immediate objective" - the political independence of
Turkish Armenia.
After the independence of Turkish Armenia, the revolution would
then be extended into the Russian and Persian dominated areas of
Armenia, with the purpose of establishing a politically
independent Armenian federative democratic republic composed of
Turkish, Russian, and Persian Armenia.
The
independent country would then lead the Armenians in the homeland
and abroad toward the
Party's
"future objective" ‑ a socialistic society for all humanity.
Two predominant objectives were revealed in the program. The
immediate objective was the independence of Turkish Armenia; the
future objective was Socialism. These two objectives were
complimentary. The S.D. Hunchakian Party was the first and only
Armenian political party in the nineteenth century whose program
unambiguously demanded an independent and unified Armenian
Republic, and beyond this, a socialistic order for all the peoples
of the world. The program of the Social Democrat Hunchakian
Party was both socialistic and nationalistic.
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