New Volume Edited by Prof. Der Matossian Focuses on Social Democrat Hnchakian Party

Ronald Grigor Suny, Professor, The University of Michigan, said, “This unique collection of articles is not only a major contribution to Armenian studies, adding to our knowledge of one of the most dedicated revolutionary parties in the Armenian world, but also a work that fills a lacuna in late Ottoman history and the history of the international Left. Bringing together Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, and other scholars, the editor Bedross Der Matossian’s volume illuminates the activities, ideologies, achievements, and frustrations of Marxist revolutionaries in the Ottoman world.”

Dogan Çetinkaya, Professor, Istanbul University, Turkey, added, “For quite a while the Ottoman Empire was considered as a preliminary stage in the history of nation-states that followed it. However, the communities consisted of people with different class positions and did not live in isolation from each other. The Hnchakian Party was not only a political party but also a social movement that cannot, therefore, be reduced to just one stage in the history of a nation. Thus, analyzing different aspects of this movement, this outstanding book offers a unique treasure to understand not only the Hnchaks but also the last decades of the Empire as a whole.”

The list of contributors in the order of their contribution are Der Matossian, “Introduction: The Social Democrat Hnchakian Party in the Course of History”; Abel Manoukian, “The History of a Group Picture and the Foundation Date of a “Revolutionary Society” in Geneva”; Garabet K. Moumdjian †, “ The Hnchakian “Nay” to Young Turk Overtures, 1895-1908”; Yeghig Jeredjian, “A Newly Discovered Letter of Sabah-Gulian to Paramaz”; Richard G. Hovannisian†, “The Hnchakian Party and the First Republic of Armenia (1918-1920)”;  Toygun Altıntaş “Armenians, Muslims, Citizens: Hnchak Pamphleteering in Central Anatolia”; Varak Ketsemanian, “Peasants, Pastoralists, and Revolutionaries: Hnchakians and Armeno-Kurdish Relations in Late Ottoman Eastern Anatolia”; Ümit Kurt, “The Hnchakian Revolutionary Party in Aintab: Founders, Ideology and Structure”; Vahram Shemmassian, “Absolute Monarchy: The Social Democrat Hnchakian Revolutionary Episode in Armenian Musa Dagh during the 1890s”; Vartan Matiossian, “The Hnchakian Party in the Armenian Communities of South America: An Outline of its Early History”; Gerard J. Libaridian, “Ideology and Reality: Hnchakian Paradoxes at Birth”; Gaïdz Minassian, “The Social Democrat Hnchakian Party and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Fraternal Twins or Semi-Identical Twins?”; Yaşar Tolga Cora, “The Istanbul Students’ Union of the Social Democrat Hnchakian Party and its Periodical Kaytz (1911-1914)”; and Kadir Akin, “In the Footsteps of Hidden History: The Roots of Socialism in the Ottoman Empire.”

Copies of The Armenian Social Democrat Hnchakian Party: Politics, Ideology and Transnational History, are available for purchase from the Bloomsbury Press website. Use code: GLR AQ4 to receive a 35-percent discount.

Der Matossian is the vice-chair, professor of Modern Middle East History and Hymen Rosenberg Professor in Judaic Studies at the Department of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). He is the past president of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS). He is the author, co-editor and editor of seven volumes including his latest, Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century published by University of Nebraska Press in 2023.