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    Oman Daily Observer, Sultanate of Oman
    Sun, 15 January 2012

    Radical roots

    By Jeremy Tordjman -


    AT 95, age has not diminished the radical convictions that led Arsene
    Tchakarian to join France's legendary Resistance. Tchakarian, a
    Turkish-born Armenian, is the last survivor of the Manouchian Group,
    mainly foreign Resistance fighters who were initially shunned for
    their communist orientation but later decorated as war heroes and
    feted in poetry, song and film.

    He has worked to keep their legacy alive, belonging to a proud
    tradition of radicals - such as fellow Resistance nonagenarian
    Stephane Hessel, whose 2010 pamphlet Indignez Vous! (Time for
    Outrage!) turned into a surprise best-seller, urging a popular
    movement against finance capitalism.

    The title inspired Spain's Indignados (The Indignant), among masses
    worldwide who have taken to the streets to protest government
    austerity programmes seen as punishing ordinary people for the
    excesses of big business.

    Tchakarian said: `With the crisis, we are destroying countries. ... It
    is here, now, the real dictatorship.'

    Tchakarian, a struggling apprentice tailor when he came to Paris in
    1930, has been showered with decorations for his wartime activities
    including the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest award.

    Though he concedes he lives an easier life these days, Tchakarian says
    he remains a radical `revolted by the capitalist system'. `I'll always
    belong to the working class,' he said.

    Tchakarian was part of a network run by fellow Turkish-born Armenian
    Missak Manouchian. While many comrades, including Manouchian, were
    hunted down and executed, Tchakarian and a handful of others survived
    to tell their story.

    With the death in November of fellow veteran 90-year-old Henry
    Karayan, he sees his mission as all the more important. `In a way, I'm
    the last of the Mohicans,' he joked.

    In February 1934, he was among a group of communists who fought French
    fascists outside parliament during riots that some left-wing
    commentators have described as a coup attempt by the far right. He
    later became active in the left-wing Popular Front alliance.

    Tchakarian fought under the codename `Charles' as the group carried
    out attacks including the September 1943 ambush of S S General Julius
    Ritter, whom they gunned down in a Paris street.


    http://main.omanobserver.om/node/79349



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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