| Armenakan Party Armenakan Kusaktsutyun Արմենական Կուսակցութիւն |
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| Leader | Mekertich Portukalian |
| Founded | 1885 |
| Headquarters | Van, Ottoman Empire |
| Ideology | Capitalism |
| International affiliation | ? |
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Merged with Armenian Democratic Liberal Party in 1921 |
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The Armenakan Party (in Armenian Արմենական Կուսակցութիւն) was established in Van in 1885 by Mekertich Portukalian as an underground organization against the ruling system. It was classified as a party based on the fact that it developed a platform, a central body, and an official publication.
The founder of the Armenakan party, Mekertich Portukalian (from Marseilles) kept in touch with the leaders, and published a journal of political and social enlightenment, "The Armenia". Portukalian is also cited as the father of the Armenian Patriotic Society of Europe.
After Mekertich Portukalian, the Armenians of Van continued to develop the political principles behind Armenian nationalism, in secrecy. The party's aim soon became to win for the Armenians the right to rule over themselves through revolution. The party's view on how to liberate Armenia from the Ottoman Empire was through armed struggle. Its concept of revolution was distinctly low-keyed, compared with that of succeeding organisations; terror, agitation and militant demonstrations were viewed with disfavour. They wanted to use trained Armenians with arms, as guerrilla fighters, against the Ottoman Empire.
The party's main misconception was that enemies of the Ottoman Empire would intervene and rescue the Armenian people throughout the period 1885–1918.
With the turn of the century, Armenakans had cells outside Van, in other towns in the province, as well as in Trabzon and Istanbul. The military structure was developed in Russian Transcaucasia, in Persia and in the United States.
Activities in the Ottoman Empire:
After the Armenian Genocide, the remnants of the Armenakans in 1921, joining forces with other reformed splinter factions splitting from the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party and the "Sahmanadir Ramgavars" (Constitutional Democrats) and formed together the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (also known as (Armenian: Ռամկավար Ազատական Կուսակցություն (ՌԱԿ) ) (English: Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (ADL)) or Ramgavar Party). The majority of the membership of the Armenakan Party was absorbed into the new party. The party went on to become one of the three traditional Armenian diaspora political groupings alongside the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party.
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