Radical roots
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 Turkishborn 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 leftwing 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.