Left-Wing Nationalism: Difference between revisions

Left-Wing Nationalists have played a crucial role in Armenian history. The first main Armenian Left-Wing Nationalist group was the Armenian Revolutionary Federation also known as Dashnaks. It was founded by 3 Armenians in the Russian Empire (Stepan Zorian, Christapor Mikaelian, and Simon Zavarian) with the goal of gaining autonomy in Armenian areas of the Ottoman Empire through means of violent rebellion. They had adopted a program that included socialism and agrarian reform as well as freedom of speech, press, and religion. They enjoyed support from the Tsarist government of Russia and participated in many clashes with Azeri (then known as Caucasian Tatar) nationalists. They then blamed many of the anti-Armenian massacres committed by Azeris on the Tsarist government for refusing to take action to stop them. They organized Fedayi{{Refn|armed Armenian groups for self defense|group = Note}} groups in which they would clash with Kurdish tribes over land. After the [[File:Ittihad.png]] [[İttihadism|Young Turks]] overthrew the Sultan, Dashnaks became a legal party and some Armenians got seats in parliment, but they didn't get the reforms they were hoping for and cut ties with the Young Turks in 1912. During the Armenian genocide in 1915, many leaders of Dashnaks were killed by the Ottoman military and many lead resistance against the genocide by the Ottomans, specifically in Van. After the genocide, many Dashnaks member vowed to take revenge by killing the perpetrators of the genocide as well as the perpetrators of the 1918 massacre of Armenians in Baku. These assassinations (now known as Operation Nemesis) took place between 1920 and 1922 and assassinated many major Turkish and Azerbaijani officials involved in the genocide and massacres. Some of the most notable assassinated include: Talaat Pasha (one of the 3 rulers of the Ottoman empire at the time of the genocide and considered to be an architect of it), Fatali Khan Khoyski (first prime minister of Azerbaijan), and Cemal Pasha (another one of the 3 rulers of the Ottoman empire at the time of the genocide and like Talaat is widely considered to be an architect of it along with Enver Pasha). Dashnaks held important government positions in the short lived First Republic of Armenia and fought to take Shushi from Azerbaijan. After the Soviets invaded Armenia and Azerbaijan, the ARF was banned and its leaders were exiled to primarily Lebanon where they participated in conflicts there. During World War 2, many exiled Dashnaks members decided to side with the [[File:Nazi.png]] [[Nazism|Nazis]] in the Armenian Legion because they promised an independent Armenia. In 1975, the 60 anniversary of the Armenian genocide, a group of Armenians in Beirut, Lebanon formed a group known as the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia or ASALA. Its ideology was based on a fusion of [[File:ML.png]] [[Marxism–Leninism]] and Armenian nationalism, seeking to unite the Armenian SSR with Artsakh, Nakhichevan, and all of former western Armenia into a single Armenian state under the Armenian SSR. Most of their attacks were aimed at Turkish diplomats and their attacks resulted in the deaths of around 46 people. They developed ties with other leftist minority groups in Lebanon such as the [[File:PKK-icon-pcb.png]] [[Democratic Confederalism|Kurdistan Workers' Party]] and the [[File:Habash.png]] [[Marxism–Leninism|Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]]. After an attack on [removed] airport near Paris in 1983, the group split between those who agreed with it and those who disagreed with it leading to 2 separate groups, ASALA-Militant lead by Hagop Hagopian and ASALA-Revolutionary Movement lead by Armenian-American Monte Melkonian. They started to slowly fall apart after this split and the last attack claim by ASALA was in 1997. Monte Melkonian went on to command the Artsakhi army in the First Nagorno-Karabakh war and became the national hero of Armenia after his death.