Dashnaktsutiun
(ARF,
Armenian Revolutionary Federation) Armenian Socialist Party, founded
in Tiflis, Georgia in 1890 by Christofor Mikaelian, Rostom Zarian and
Simon Zavarian. Initially, the objective of Dashnaktsutiun was attaining
political and economic freedom of Western Armenia by means of insurrection,
but later, the leaders of ARF collaborated with the Young Turks. After
the Genocide of 1915, the ARF played the leading role in the establishment
of the First Republic of Armenia. In the Soviet period, Dashnaktsutiun
was a banned party. The ARF resumed its activities in Armenia after
the proclamation of sovereignty in 1990, then was banned again in 1994
by Levon Ter-Petrossian an finally rehabilitated in 1998 by Robert Kocharyan.
www.ArmenianHistory.info