Anarchism in Armenia emerged as part of the Armenian national liberation movement, with its roots in various heretical Christian sects that practiced in the region. It took on an organized form with the establishment of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in 1890, before being suppressed by the various empires and authoritarian regimes that ruled over Armenia during the 20th century. It eventually re-emerged in the 21st century, as part of the anti-establishment movement that spread throughout the country in the wake of its independence.
History Christianity in Medieval Armenia Until the 3rd century, Armenia was predominantly Zoroastrian, as the ruling Arsacid dynasty had itself been founded by a Zoroastrian priest. Christianity was first brought to Armenia by early Christians fleeing persecution. Monastic communities like Geghard were established by these Christians, who found safe haven in the mountains. But these first Armenian Christians were also persecuted by the Arsacids. This was until 301, when the Kingdom of Armenia became the first country to convert to Christianity, in a process spearheaded by Gregory the Illuminator.
The establishment of the Armenian Apostolic Church as the institutional arm of the new state religion and the construction of the feudal Nakharar system began to concentrate vast amounts of territory in the hands of the clergy and the nobility. As Armenian peasants were subjected to increasingly restricted conditions, there were a number of anti-feudal uprisings by dissident Christian movements in the country, particularly the Borborites, Messalians, Paulicianists and Tondrakians.
With the peace of Acilisene, Western Armenia was conquered by the Byzantine Empire in 387. Eastern Armenia remained an independent kingdom until 428, when the local nobility overthrew king Artaxias IV and the Sasanian Empire installed Veh Mihr Shapur in his place as governor. The nakharars saw their feudal power restricted in Western Armenia, leading to an insurrection against the Byzantine empire. In the East they mostly maintained their rights, until Peroz I attempted to forcibly reconvert the country to Zoroastrianism. This ignited a guerilla war against Sassanid rule, led by Vartan Mamikonian, resulting in the successful ratification of the treaty of Nvarsak, which granted greater autonomy to the nakharar.
The Paulicians
Shortly after the Muslim conquest of Armenia, Constantine-Silvanus was inspired by the gospel and Pauline epistles to found the Paulician movement, an adoptionist Christian sect that rejected feudal land-ownership, social inequality and the superstitions of the church. From 660, workers, low clergy and smallholders throughout Armenia began to convert to Paulician Christianity.Nersessian, Vrej: The Tondrakian Movement, Princeton Theological Monograph Series, Pickwick Publications, Allison Park, Pennsylvania, 1948, p.53. But in 687, Silvanus was arrested by imperial authorities, tried for heresy and stoned to death. The sect continued to grow in Armenian communities throughout the Byzantine Empire, but in the early 9th century they became subject to persecution by the empire. By 843, over 100,000 Paulicians lost their lives and all of their property and lands were confiscated by the empire. The Paulicians then fled to the Emirate of Armenia, where they built the cities of Amara and Tephrike, establishing an independent Paulician territory. However, their power was finally broken at the Battle of Bathys Ryax, where they experienced heavy casualties. Many of the remaining Paulicians were resettled in Thrace, where their ideas spread across the Balkans and into Europe, influencing the formation of Bogomilism and Catharism. Others fled east to Arminiya, where the movement evolved into Tondrakianism.
The Tondrakians and Armenian peasant revolts
In 884, the Emirate of Armenia was disestablished after a successful revolt by Ashot I, who established the independent kingdom of Bagratid Armenia. This allowed for the reinstitution of the feudal Nakharar system and led to the founding of several other Armenian kingdoms and principalities, each with their own feudal hierarchies. Peasants (known as ramiks) formed the lowest class in the economic stratum and largely busied themselves with raising livestock and farming. Many of them did not own land, and lived as tenants and worked as hired hands or even slaves on the lands owned by wealthy feudal magnates. Peasants were forced to pay heavy taxes to the government and the Armenian Apostolic Church in addition to their feudal lords. Ter-Ghevondyan, Aram N. «Բագրատունիների Թագավորություն» (Bagratuni Kingdom). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. ii. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1976, p. 202.
These tensions ultimately culminated in a series of peasant revolts against these new feudal lords and landowners, particularly in Ayrarat and Syunik. These revolts were supported by the Tondrakians, an anti-feudal, heretical Christian sect that had emerged from Paulicianism. They advocated for the abolition of the Church and feudalism, instead supporting the property rights of peasants and equality between men and women. This attracted many of the Armenian lower classes to join the sect, forming their own communities along Tondrakian principles.
The peasant struggle eventually evolved into outright insurrection. When the feudal Tatev Monastery took possession of its surrounding land and villages, the local peasants protested against it, leading to an open revolt against the feudal clergy. In 990, the revolt was put down by the King of Syunik, who razed the peasants' villages and dispersed its population throughout the country. After the suppression of the revolts, the Tondrakians suffered a brief decline, before experiencing a resurgence at the beginning of the 11th century. Tondrakian communities spread throughout Armenia, worrying the various rulers of the country. They experienced another brief resurgence following the fall of the Bagratid state, but were eventually eliminated by the Byzantines.
Armenia was subsequently ruled by a series of foreign powers, eventually leading to another partition of the country. In the 16th century, Western Armenia fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and Eastern Armenia became part of the Safavid Empire.
The Armenian Enlightenment
In the late 17th century, the Age of Enlightenment took hold in Eastern Armenia, with intellectuals spreading anti-feudal, democratic and revolutionary ideologies throughout the country. The most notable of these figures was Shahamir Shahamirian, a philosopher who rejected the monarchical order, considering obedience to rulers to be an insult to human intelligence. Instead he wanted to create a secular democratic system in Armenia, where all official posts (including the judiciary) were freely elected by popular vote. He wrote about his ideas of an independent Armenian nation in the book Snare of Glory:
After the Qajar defeat in the Russo-Persian War, Eastern Armenia was annexed into the Russian Empire and the Armenian national liberation movement began to forge ties with the nascent Russian Revolutionary movement. An influential figure during this period was Mikayel Nalbandian, an advocate of secularism and a vocal critic of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Nalbandian became known for his efforts to create national literature, written in the modern Armenian language, which would reflect the social aspirations of the Armenian people. He was also a staunch advocate of land reform, arguing that "only the equal distribution of land could bring prosperity and happiness to the people." His work also indirectly inspired an uprising in Western Armenia, which successfully forced Ottoman forces to withdraw from the region of Zeitun. During his travels throughout Europe, he became an associate of the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, the anti-serfdom activist Nikolay Ogarev and the "father of Russian socialism" Alexander Herzen, with whom he participated in the foundation of the revolutionary organization Land and Liberty and organized the distribution of the Kolokol. In 1862, Nalbandian returned to Petrograd, where he participated in the activities of Land and Liberty, before being arrested for inciting anti-Tsarist sentiment with his literature. He was subsequently exiled to Kamyshin, where he died from tuberculosis.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Inspired by Nalbandian, the Armenian anarchist Christapor Mikaelian took part in the foundation of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), a political organization made up of a broad coalition of anarchists, socialists and nationalists. The organization itself was decentralized, allowing local branches in the various partitions of Armenia to act independently in accordance with the needs of their locality. Its goal was the establishment of a libertarian socialist society in Armenia, one based on the principles of freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and agrarian reform. Mikaelian himself was a former supporter of Bakunin and defended the ideas of direct action and self-government, encouraging the ARF to put these principles into practice in their activities.
The ARF became a major political force in Armenian life. It was especially active in the Ottoman Empire, where it organized or participated in many revolutionary activities. The influence of the ARF led to the widespread adoption of anarchist ideals among Armenians in the empire, with roughly 70% of Ottoman state surveillance reports on the anarchist movement concentrating on the Armenians. In 1894, the ARF took part in the Sasun Resistance, supplying arms to the local population to help the people of Sasun defend themselves against the Hamidian purges. It was around this time that the Armenian anarcho-communist Alexander Atabekian formed ties with the organization, publishing articles about the ARF's resistance to Ottoman persecution in the Armenian language anarchist periodical Hamayankh.
To raise awareness of the massacres of 1895–96, members of the ARF led by Papken Siuni, occupied the Ottoman Bank on 26 August 1896. The purpose of the raid was to dictate the ARF's demands of reform in the Armenian populated areas of the Ottoman Empire and to attract European attention to their cause since the Europeans had many assets in the bank. The operation caught European attention but at the cost of more massacres by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. For his part, Alexander Atabekian attempted to raise awareness of the massacres by sending a declaration to the Socialist International, arguing that European states were directly participating in the crimes of the Sultan, and that the Armenian libertarians were declaring "the dawn of the social revolution" in response.
On 30 March 1904, the ARF played a major role in the Second Sasun Uprising. The ARF sent arms and fedayi to defend the region for the second time. Among the 500 fedayees participating in the resistance were famed figures such as Kevork Chavush, Sepasdatsi Murad and Hrayr Djoghk. Although they managed to hold off the Ottoman army for several months, despite their lack of fighters and firepower, Ottoman forces captured Sasun and massacred thousands of Armenians.
In 1905, Christapor Mikaelian and other members of the ARF planned an assassination attempt against Sultan Abdul Hamid II, in an act of propaganda of the deed. Mikaelian himself was killed in an explosion during the planning stages, and the attempt itself failed after the explosive missed its target.Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA): Armenakan, Hunchaks and Dashnaktsutiun: Revolutionary Parties; Terror as Method. Nationalism Spreads From the Church to Secular Organizations The Belgian anarchist Edward Joris was among those arrested and convicted for their part in the plot.
The Revolutionary period The 1905 Russian Revolution