The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) received 48,811 votes in the recent elections, or 3.89 percent, and did not enter parliament. This is unfortunate because there are many modest and knowledgeable people in this party. It is unnecessary to point out that Dashnak freedom fighters had a huge role to play during the war. So now we will talk about the reason for the ARF’s failure.
The strength of the Dashnaks is in their ideology, and as far as I know, they have never handed out election bribes, made use of administrative levers, and always received honest votes from their supporters. The problem is that there is romanticism, burning eyes, and readiness to give things up in the ideals of the Armenian cause, sea-to-sea Armenia, and turning Istanbul into a bloodbath. This is why a Dashnak minister does not look good in a corrupt government (even if they themselves are not corrupt), a Dashnak oligarch, a Dashnak pragmatic, and a Dashnak… liberal.
The party needed to try and uphold is a positive image, which was created during Ter-Petrossian’s administration. For example, when the Madrid principles were announced in 2007 as a possible solution to the Artsakh conflict, the party needed to be against it in the same was it was against Levon Ter-Petrossian’s “phase-by-phase option,” which was definitely not worse than the Madrid principles.
The ARF, which is now in favor of compromises regarding relations with Artsakh and Turkey, is not the same ARF anymore. Why did the things that were unacceptable during Levon Ter-Petrossian’s administration become acceptable during Kocharyan’s and Sargsyan’s administrations, such as compromises on national issues, corruption, and the liberal nature in economics? The answer to this is also in the pragmatic framework. After 1998, the party’s elite began to take advantage of the authorities’ power and came out of their ideological and anti-compromise character. A particularly socialist party cannot have an economics minister in a non-socialist government. The Dashnaks remembered their socialism during the recent campaigns when they criticized family promotions and the state apparatus cutting back on government plans (which are welcomed, in my opinion), but it is impossible to fix an image that was destroyed in 20 years.
The Dashnaks are a Pan-Armenian structure, and regardless of how we view the ARF’s ideology, it is one of our riches. Whether or not the ARF is represented in the Armenian parliament, it will continue to play an important role in the lives of Armenians. Not having a deputy in parliament may be beneficial to the party so that they can find meaning once more in the path they took and so that they can collaborate with other nationalist parties in Armenia.
Aram Abrahamyan
