Social Democrat Hunchakian Party
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Social Democrat Hunchakian Party
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| Leader | Harry Hampartzoum Sarafian |
| Founders | Avetis Nazarbekian, Mariam Vardanian, Gevorg Gharadjian, Ruben Khan-Azat, Christopher Ohanian, Gabriel Kafian and Manuel Manuelian |
| Founded | 1887 |
| Headquarters | Yerevan, Armenia |
| Newspaper | see Party Publications / Organs |
| Youth wing | Gaidz Youth Organization |
| Paramilitary Wing | Armenian Revolutionary Army (1983-1985) |
| Membership | 4,300 (in Armenia) |
| Ideology |
Social democracy Democratic socialism |
| Political position |
Centre-left to Left-wing |
| National affiliation | March 14 alliance |
| International affiliation | None, formerly Second International |
| Parliament of Lebanon |
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| Website | |
| http://www.hunchak.org | |
The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP) (Armenian: Սոցիալ Դեմոկրատ Հնչակյան Կուսակցություն; ՍԴՀԿ), is the second oldest Armenian political party, founded in 1887 by a group of college students in Geneva, Switzerland. It was the first socialist party to operate in the Ottoman Empire and in Persia. Among its founders were Avetis Nazarbekian, Mariam Vardanian, Gevorg Gharadjian, Ruben Khan-Azat, Christophor Ohanian, Gabriel Kafian and Manuel Manuelian. Its original goal was attaining Armenia's independence from the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian national liberation movement.
The party is also known as Hentchak, Henchak, Social-Democratic Hentchaks, Huntchakians, Hnchakian, Henchags, its name is taken from its newspaper Hunchak, meaning "Clarion" or "Bell", and is taken by party members to represent "a call or awakening, for enlightenment and freedom."
All seven founders of the party were Russian Armenian Marxist students who had left Russian Armenia to further their education in various universities of Western Europe. They were young, in their twenties, and supported by their affluent bourgeois families. They were influenced by social-democratic revolutionary ideology, contacted Frederick Engels, Georgi Plekhanov and later Vladimir Lenin. Mariam Vardanian had worked with Russian revolutionaries in Saint Petersburg. For the purpose of furthering revolutionary activity in Turkish Armenia, they formed the Hunchakian Revolutionary Party in August, 1887. The party's manifesto, printed in the first issue of Hunchak journal, contained this slogan: "Those who cannot attain freedom through revolutionary armed struggle are unworthy of it".
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