The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party is the oldest political party in Armenia. It was founded in 1887 by Avetis Nazarbekian , Mariam Vardanian , Gevorg Gharadjian , Ruben Khan-Azat , Christopher Ohanian , Gabriel Kafian and Manuel Manuelian , a group of college students in Geneva, Switzerland, with the goal was to gain Armenia's independence from the Ottoman Empire. Its name, taken from its newspaper Hunchak, means "Bell" in English, and is taken by party members to represent "awakening, enlightenment, and freedom." Party members took part in the Battle of Sartarabad , which defended the Armenian capital of Yerevan from Turkish invaders.
In the early 1990s, the party took part in the fight to separate Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijan. The party today forms part of the opposition "Justice" bloc.
This party is also active in Lebanon, where it competes for the six National Assembly seats reserved for ethnic Armenians. The party subscribes to a socialist ideology and advocates a planned economy for Lebanon. In the 1950s, it clashed, sometimes violently, with the Tashnak Party, which it saw as a right-wing party (unlike the international movement, which is committed to socialism, the Lebanese branch of the Tashnak is pro-capitalist). In the midst of increasing sectarian strife in the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, Lebanon's Armenian community began to close ranks, and in 1972, the Hunchakian Party ran a joint ticket with the Tashnaks. In 2000, the Hunchakian Party joined forces with Rafik Hariri's Dignity List , which swept the city of Beirut.
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