The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Tuesday was elected to the vice-presidency of Socialist International, with Armenia’s ARF Women’s Organization leader Maria Titizian filling the position.
The ARF, which has been a full-fledged member of SI since the 2003, will fill one of 37 vice-presidencies of the organization. Titizian’s position will oversee a vast region, which includes Armenia.
The SI convention also re-elected Yorgho Papandreou as its president and Luis Ayala as its Secretary General.
The meeting convened Monday in Athens with the ARF participating with nine representatives. Aside from Titizian, the organization was represented by ARF Bureau members Mario Nalbandian and Levon Mkrtchyan, ARF Central Committee of Greece members Kevork Kolanian, Alice Papazian, Kaspar Garabedian, Vahan Bzdigian and Ricardo Yerganian, as well as the ARF Lebanon Central Committee chairman Benjo Bdjakdjian and the “Azad Or” newspaper representative editor Hripsime Harutunian.
In discussing the possible membership of the Socialist party of Turkish-occupied Cyprus, Nalbandian, echoed the sentiments of the Socialist Party of Cyprus and voiced his opposition to the proposal.
In his remarks, Nalbandian said that any party that wishes to join SI, must adhere to its principles of fraternalism, equality, justice and peace. As long as Turkey continues to occupy a portion of Cyprus and abuses the people’s rights, it cannot be allowed to be a part of Socialist International.
The ARF delegation, led by its Bureau members, held several meetings, including one with SI president Papandreou, who expressed interest in visiting Armenia as one of his priorities.
Participating at the SI convention were dignitaries from throughout the world, including Paraguay president Fernando Luco, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abaas, Israeli defense minister Ehoud Barak, Russian Duma president Sergei Muronov and Cyprus Foreign Minister Yanakis Omirou.
The convention also voted to expel the Socialist Party of Fiji, since it recently joined a coalition government led by the country’s military junta.
Since its full-fledged membership in SI in 2003 and advisory status membership in 1999, the ARF has been represented in numerous SI conventions and regional meetings, including participation in SI Women’s Organization and the International Union of Socialist Youth (SI’s youth organization).
Founded in 1951, the present Socialist International is the successor to the Socialist International established in the late Nineteenth Century, to which the ARF became a member in 1907. In the 1960s, the ARF’s membership in SI was terminated because of changes in SI’s regulations. At SI’s 1996 Congress in New York, the ARF joined the new SI as an observer. The decision to grant the ARF full membership was made in the SI Council’s meeting in Casablanca in June 2002. The decision was reinstated by the 22nd Congress in San Paolo.
The Socialist International presently includes 150 socialist’ssocial democratic’sand labor parties from throughout 100 countries. Fifty-two of these parties actively participate in their respective governments.
or 
, you too can participate in controling what appears on the front page of Khosq for hundreds of daily readers to see.It's free, fast and anyone can join. 
Sometimes I get the feeling
Կարեն Կարապետյան 1 year 36 weeks ago
Sometimes I get the feeling that Socialist International (SI) is a club of Lost Souls -- a club of corrupt parties that are united under the pretense of "Socialism" only by name and the forgotten princinple of the "Internationalle" (which recognises that the Working Man has no country and belongs to no nation). In reality, they all pursue their nationalist agendas and within the framefork of Statism -- a far cry from everything the achievenets of the Socialist political thought. What unites these parties today? Each one of these parties (UK's Labour, Greece's PASOK, and many others and now Armenian ARFD) kept their red flags from the good old days when "Socialism" meant something real as a set of principles of anti-nationalism, anti-war, anti-FAscism, anti-imperialism. Yet today, each one of these parties have gone so much astray from the Socialist strugle that "Socialist International" is nothing but an empty name for a club of empty parties.
If SI would stick to it's principles, then contemporary-ARFD would be the first one to be kicked out. But the very fact that ARFD was admitted with it's National-Socialist agenda, says something profound about the SI itself.
To my senses this article is a whitewash and a smokescreen for what ARFD and it's memebers are today -- blinded nationalists who don't understand a thing about what true Socialism means. But still, I'm voting it up, because it's an interesting article.
Giorgos Papandreou planning to visit Armenia -- wow, that's gonna be quite a show.
Also, the article says "Socialist International established in the late Nineteenth Century, to which the ARF became a member in 1907. In the 1960s, the ARF’s membership in SI was terminated because of changes in SI’s regulations." -- This is not entirely acurate -- AFD was kicked out of the SI for Other reasons. I believe a minor historical correction and clarification is necessary here: ARFD was founded as a federation of various (predominantly) Anarchist and Syndicalist groups. [Note: unlike Communists and Bolsheviks, Anarchists don't form political parties, but they form Federations of autonomous groups, thus the name Armenian Revolutionary Federation) That is why in 1907 they were welcomed in the SI (which back then was a proper Socialist International) because there were many prominent and influential Armenian Anarchists active in Europe, Russia, Caucasus and Ottoman Empire. Then ARFD started to expand: Marxists started joining in as well as Nationalists who had little understanding of Socialist thought, but were populist and could appeal to the most basic populistic and Nationalist insticts of the masses -- this period in history is also famous for the birth of nationalism as a revolutionary and progressive (rather than reactionary) ideology, and as we now know, nothing good came out of it). As more nationalist fanatics started pouring into the ranks of ARFD, Socialists themselves became a minority inside their own organization. Marxists soon realised that there is little socialism left in ARF and left the party and formed The Hnchak Party. Anarchist groups were either kicked out by the nationalist majority or dispanded themselves under the persecution of ARF nationalists first and then the Bolsheviks.
By 1950s and 60s there are many advances made in the field of post-Marxist and Socialist thought. SI soon found itself (albeing briefly) returning to it's original principles and agenda of finding new ways to resist and oversthrow the destrcutive effects of global capitalism and imperialism.
And it is precisely because the Socialist International realised that this ideologically deformed ARFD had nothing of a "Socialist" left within it, that it automatically kicked ARFD out.
That's a little bit of a sidenote history for the readers.
Garen, thanks. This explains
nazarian 1 year 36 weeks ago
Garen, thanks. This explains why I haven't seen a Dashnak socialist :)
Dashnaktsutyun is a
Կարեն Կարապետյան 1 year 36 weeks ago
Dashnaktsutyun is a janus-faced party: they speak "Socialism" when they know that there are benefits to be had, but in their core they carry a deeply reactionary nationalist agenda. As far as ARFD iself is concerned, being within the contemporary elitist club of the SI is a publicity stunt -- they want to stand next to the big names, next to some of the rulling political parties in the world, so as to show "Look, ARFD is a real alternative in terms of governance of Armenia".
Yet, the manifesto that highlighted the issues faced by Armenia today in a way that was closest to socialist principles, surprisingly enough came from Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Indeed an unlikely candidate for being a flag-bearer of socialism, but he is a clever and educated man with a deep understanding of what is at stake, and what is necessary. Today we find outselves at a historical crossroad: Global Capitalism is reconfiguring itself, the Capital is shifting gear and chaning it's locations of accumulation, while global financial structures are overstretched and natural resources depleting and being mis-distributed. And any clever political analist (not an average voter) can already see that Socialism is no longer an old-age utopian dream, but a now a neccesity! That socialism, like never before, needs to be re-invented and embraced -- today for many small countries this is a question of survival.
Furthermore, interestingly enough, the closest structure that resemples a political "Federation" or Confederation (as a social and economic forum and a progressive guide) is not the ARFD (which is today just a hierarchical and rigid party), but the Armenian National Congress envisaged by LTP. Another interesting paradox.
If those Dashnaks who still believe in Socialism would wake up, they would actually see that their principles would find a much more fertile ground and potential within the Popular Movement rather than inside the ARFD.