ABSTRACT
When examining the strategies and activities of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation under Ottoman Constitutional rule, the most central issue is clearly the party’s relations with the Committee of Union and Progress. Initially cooperation with the CUP was logical as it had been the party’s principal ally in the struggle to overthrow the absolutism of Abdul Hamid. The success of the revolution had also brought with it the restoration of the 1876 Constitution, the single greatest hope for the future of the Ottoman Armenians in the eyes of the ARF leadership. The ARF became the foremost champion of the Constitution as it could conceive of no other viable system of government for the empire that could guarantee reasonable security and deliverance from discrimination and persecution for the Armenian population.
