An anniversary that was not meant to be – 2026

Vaհe H Apelian

Courtesy Horizon Weekly

 A few days ago, I read, in the in Horizon Weekly  in translation that, “On Sunday, March 1, 2026, at 6:00 PM, a solemn celebration dedicated to the 135th anniversary of the ARF took place in the “Aharonian” Hall of the Armenian Center of Montreal, under the slogan “Unity for Statehood,” 

When I wrote this blog in 2023, I had fore worded it as follows: “Lately it has become common place to come across on the Armenian social media, announcements of the ARF Day celebrations with most of them, if not all of them, noting ARF’s anniversary celebration. For example, on January 25, 2023, Sossi Essajanian reported in the Armenian Weekly that the Detroit Armenian community celebrated 132 years of the ARF. The poster for ARF Day in Lebanon also noted the 132nd anniversary.”

I am not sure at what point noting the ARF-Day turned into anniversary celebration. But historically the decision to denote a day in a year to ARF came about during the 10th ARF World Congress that took place in Paris, France on November 17, 1924, and lasted until January 17, 1925.

The ARF had held the previous 9th World Congress in Armenia for the very first time. The 9th World Congress had lasted from September 27, to October 30, 1919, in Yerevan.  A year and a few months later, the short-lived Republic of Armenia lost its independence. Many of the principals that had founded the first republic, had fled to Diaspora escaping the communist retribution. They were formally getting together for first time at the 10th World Congress. A few months after concluding the congress, on July 25, 1925, Simon Vratsian reflected upon the 10th World Congress in the ARF organ “Troshag” and wrote: “This World Congress was not just an ordinary convention of a political party, but a kind of parliament.” Surely Simon Vratsian meant to say a parliament in exile. 

 It is that World Congress that ruled that once a year, preferably in the month of November, ARF presented itself to the public and addressed the issues the Armenian nation faced and elaborated to the public the contributions the ARF made to meet the challenges of the day.

The first ARF Day likely took place the following year, in 1926. The eminent editor of the “Haratch Daily”in Paris, Shavarsh Missakian, in a 1926 editorial wrote “The ARF Day is not an anniversary in the literal sense of the word, nor a commemoration of this or that great event, but the condensation of the history of an entire period, with its victories and upheaval. The ARF, established for itself a special day in a year, not only to look at its past 35 years with just pride, as the most powerful impetus to the Armenian liberation struggle, but also to renew itself, to strengthen itself.”

The ARF Day is celebrated regionally, because each region has its own challenges for the ARF to respond. Quoting Shavarsh Missakian, ARF Day is not meant to be “an anniversary celebration in the literal sense of the word.” The number of years since its founding, surely can be noted, but is incidental. 

The ARF Day is simply an annual public report to the stakeholder, who naturally is the Armenian people. More than anything else, I liken it to a State of the Armenians, addressed to the local community. Did ARF, through the services it rendered to the local community, better serve the challenges Armenians face? Surely the challenges the Diaspora faces are different than the challenges of Armenia faces.  

It appears the once-a-year ARF address to its local community has turned more into an anniversary celebration of sort. It also appears that the attendees and the participants wearing an ARF scarf over their shoulders has also become fashionable. 

ARF day is simply a day of accounting and reflection to renew itself, and to strengthen itself to better serve the Armenian nation through the services it rendered regionally.