Hunchak Party

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HUNCHAK PARTY

Armenian-oriented Lebanese political party.

The Hunchak Party, organized in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1887, has promoted the dual objective of liberating Turkish Armenia and establishing a socialist regime in a unified Armenian homeland. In Lebanon, the party has advocated a planned economy and a just distribution of national income. In 1972, for the first time in its history, the party fielded a joint slate of candidates for parliament with the Dashnak Party. In the world of Armenian politics in Lebanon, ties of Armenian national solidarity supersede ideological considerations that might divide Armenians. During the Lebanese Civil War, the differences between the Hunchak and the Dashnak became insignificant.

The Hunchak Party achieved a victory in the 1992 election when Yeghya Djerijian, an Armenian (Greek Orthodox, born in 1957) was elected to parliament. He chairs the executive committee of the party.

See also armenians in the middle east; dashnak party; lebanese civil war (19751990).

as'ad abukhalil