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. Armenian critics of the Armenian for federation (ARF) have often made the accusation that the party's strategy was driven by a lust for power and the desire to gain influence and parliamentary seats through cooperation with the CUP. The Adana massacres created the first major test for ARF-CUP relations. ARF bodies overseas, especially in the United States, sent funds for the arms effort, and the Western Bureau maintained its own arms cache. The lands issue truly was the make or break issue for the ARF because the overwhelming majority of the Armenian population were peasants. The status of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as second-class subjects was the critical factor in allowing forced dispossession.
