the first organisation of armenian native faith, the "order of the children of ari" (or "ara"; "arordineri ukht" in armenian) was established in 1991 by the armenologist slak (eduard, or edik) kakosyan (1936–2005). he belonged to a generation of armenian dissidents and was exiled in the 1970s from soviet armenia; in 1979 he fled to the united states where he became familiar with the ideas of garegin nzhdeh (1886–1955).