An Armenian Manifesto Circa 1923: Dashnagtzoutiun Has Nothing to Do Anymore

Abstract

In 1923 Hovhannēs Katchaznouni the first Prime Minister of the Armenian state delivered a report to an Armenian Congress in Bucharest. Referred to as his Manifesto, it was written in Armenian and self-published in the same year. The Manifesto represents a historical document of great significance to a highly charged and contested debate. For many decades its existence was unknown to most scholars. Except for one abridged version, the other versions are inaccessible because they have been willfully removed from the world’s libraries by political partisans and the latest commercially produced edition has yet to make an appearance on library shelves.

Two currently available editions are reviewed in this paper on a per-paragraph basis and shown to be consistent on many matters pertaining to Armenian-Turkish issues. Yet they do differ substantially on other significant points. Irrespective of the edition; scholars, opinion makers, policy makers, and concerned people at large should find the information contained of great value since it comes from a most knowledgeable and credible source.

Keywords: Armenia, Turkey, Armenian Manifesto, Katchaznouni, Dashnagtzoutiun, Dashnag, Armenian History

JEL Classification: B30,B31,P30, N40