founder of the First Republic. However, in 2009 an ARF member of parliament noted that he was not widely known to the Armenian public. Scholar-turned-political activist Rafael Ishkhanyan highly praised Aram Manukian in his 1989 essay "The Law of Excluding the Third Force", written at a time of the Soviet Union's disintegration and the national awakening associated with the Karabakh movement. Aram, in Ishkhanyan's words, is the prime example of an individual who ruled out any reliance on foreign powers and founded a new Armenian state without foreign support. His son, Avetik Ishkhanyan, a human rights activist, also highly praised Aram Manukian as the "greatest and most powerful politician of modern Armenian history." Avetik Ishkhanyan also opined that Aram belongs to the Armenian people and not just the ARF. Modern leading ARF politician Vahan Hovhannisyan stated in 2008 that Aram Manukian is the best example in Armenian history of a statesman that "stood by the people." Tributes On July 17, 2018 Aram Manukian's statue was officially unveiled near the Republic Square metro station in attendance of ARF leader Hrant Markarian, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President Armen Sarkissian and Catholicos Karekin II. In his speech, Pashinyan called Aram the "greatest apostle of our modern history." The choice of the statue and location were criticized and both the Ministry of Culture and the Urban Development Committee declared their reservations. Aram Manukian's bust was unveiled before the Armenian police headquarters in 2009 due to the fact that he was Armenia's first Interior Minister, which includes the police department. The ARF-affiliated Yerkir Media criticized the Armenian government, saying: "Find another nation, which pays tribute to the founder of their statehood by a bust, yet alone before the police headquarters, just because Aram Manukian was the Minister of Internal Affairs of the First Republic." Historian Tigran Petrosyants suggested that the Yerevan Municipality erect a statue of Aram in the city. In Kapan, a neighborhood is named after him. In 2009 Aram's bust was unveiled in the city. In May 2018, on the occasion of the centennial of the First Republic of Armenia the busts of Aram Manukian and Nikol Aghbalian were unveiled at the Sardarapat Ethnography and Liberation Movement History Museum, adjacent to the Sardarapat Memorial near Armavir, Armenia. A year later, a monument dedicated to the 140th anniversary of Manukian's birth was unveiled at Sardarapat, where one part of his remains were interred. A