BY DAVID ARAKELYAN
During Mkrtich Khrimian’s tenure as the Primate of Taron (1862 – 1869), two individuals were born in that region who grew up to embody Hayrik’s ideas on self-defense and epitomize a new “moral model” of a revolutionary Armenian (Dashnak) fedayee.[1] Though the family that they formed was not the kind that the conservative Khrimian would have envisioned, Serob and Sosé Vardanyan did exemplify the moral values and the ideological underpinnings that have been the foundations of a traditional Armenian family and national identity for more than a century.
Together, this couple implemented, on the ground in Taron-Turuberan and Sasun, what Hayrik taught in his sermons and books. Serob and Sosé were instrumental in organizing the self-defense movement in Sasun during the Hamidian massacres (1894 – 1896) and inspiring the Armenians in the region to take up arms to defend their honor and their physical existence. Their hard work and unwavering dedication to the Armenian peasantry of Sasun helped prevent the kind of destruction in the region that was brought to the rest of Western Armenia by the sultan’s murderous Kurdish Hamidiye bands and his pillaging Turkish officials.[2] During his short life, Serob Vardanyan earned a reputation for courage in defending the common people, launched a “new epoch” in the liberation struggle of the Armenian people,[3] and helped formulate the principles of the haytoug movement. His wife and comrade-in-arms, Sosé, became a “source of pride and national identity” through her dedication to her husband, her family, and the Armenian Cause.[4]
Sosé was born in 1868 (or 1865/1869) in the village of Teghut in the Khlat (Akhlat) region of the Bitlis (Baghesh) vilayet (province), located on the northern slopes of mount Nemrut. Her parents – father Margar Dro-Astantur and mother Altuz – had nine children, five sons and four daughters, but the audacious Sosé seems to have been the favorite.[5] At the age of 13, when it was time for her to marry, Sosé defied her parents and rejected a number of suitors, insisting that she would only wed Serob, a young man from a nearby village of Soghort, who had long impressed her with his courage and patriotism. Serob, born in 1864 to an affluent clan in Khlat, was the youngest of his family’s four children (all sons) and was only a few years older than Sosé. The future fedayee did not receive extensive education, and spent most of his time hunting in the areas surrounding mount Nemrut, using the weapons given to him on his 15th birthday by his older brother, the village chief Mkhé. Serob was a tall young man, endowed with natural strength, which he enhanced through hunting, horse-riding, and spending his free time in the countryside. It was during his forays into the villages that Serob witnessed first-hand the injustices faced by Armenians living under the Turkish and Kurdish yoke. Those experiences instilled in him a strong desire to defend his people and fight against its enemies, a desire shared by his young wife, Sosé.[6]
It is not clear when the two got married. In her autobiography, Sosé states (though without much confidence) that their wedding took place in 1881, when she was 13 years old and Serob was 17.[7] Historian Azat Hambartzumian claims that Serob was married when he was 21 years of age, and that would put Sosé and Serob’s wedding date closer to 1885.[8] In either case, their first child, son Hakob, was born two years after the marriage (1883/1887), with the second one, Samson, following about ten years later (sometime after 1895, probably 1896/1897).[9] Soon after the couple’s wedding, Serob’s scholarly uncle, Arakel, returned from Constantinople (ca. 1886) to settle in his native Khlat. Arakel was to have a lasting impact on both Serob and Sosé’s views on national issues. Since day one, Arakel, impressed by Serob’s physical strength and his skill in handling weapons, urged the young man to direct his skill at the enemies of the Armenian people by telling him: “Serob, you are a great hunter, you aim really well, but it is not enough to hunt wild animals. That is actually an easy task. Sometimes, you have to hunt the wild humans.” In future years, Serob would credit his uncle for “the vast majority of revolutionary ideas” held by the courageous haytoug himself.
Serob’s courage did not always serve him well. On one occasion, the young man was hunting in the mountains near Khlat when two Kurds noticed him and, in accordance with their long-standing tradition, decided to plunder the infidel Armenian. Serob, of course, resisted, and having killed one of the Kurds, forced the second one to flee. To avoid persecution by the government, Serob himself had to abscond his native village, leaving behind his wife and son, Hakob. With the help of his brother, Mkhé, the young man found refuge in a house of a relative (another uncle) in Constantinople (1891). Soon enough, the Ottoman authorities were looking for him in the capital, and Serob left Constantinople in search of a safer hiding place. Sometime in 1891, he arrived in the coastal Romanian town of Sulina, which had become a center for Armenian refugees and fedayees who had fled the yerkir. [10] In her husband’s absence, Sosé took the responsibility for the house and her family in Khlat, and personally defended her home from the Kurdish encroachments with weapons in her hands. In fact, on many occasions, she even took charge of Serob’s unit during armed engagements with the local Turks and Kurds.[11] The years spent without Serob (1891 – 1894/1895) strengthened Sosé’s resolve to resist any form of oppression and prepared her for the difficult life of a fedayee.[12]
During his time in Sulina (1891 – 1893), Serob first worked as a cook, but soon opened a small café in the city, which became a gathering spot for the local Armenians. It was in this environment that Serob became exposed to the arguments regarding the liberation of Armenia that were being waged between his customers – the supporters of the two main Armenian revolutionary parties, the Hunchakians and the Dashnaktsutyun (ARF). Among those customers was Hrayr Dzhokhk (Armenak Ghazaryan),[13] an intellectual and a courageous haytoug, who called upon the local Armenians to secure weapons, return to Taron and Sasun, and launch an armed rebellion against the oppressive Ottoman rule. Inspired by the successful struggle of the Balkan people, who had gained independence in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878, Serob, along with fedayees like Andranik and Gevork Chavush, heeded Hrayr’s message and joined the national liberation movement. At the end of 1893, Serob left Romania and went to the Caucasus, where he met the founders of the ARF (Rostom and Kristapor Mikayelian) and joined the ranks of Dashnaktsutyun. Soon after, the young haytoug was back in his native Khlat (1894/1895), preaching the message of self-defense and calling upon the locals to “remain without bread, but not without weapons.”[14]
By the time Serob returned to the yerkir, the persecutions against the Armenians had been intensified by the “Red Sultan,” Abdul Hamid II, who had launched massacres against the Armenian population of his Empire in order to break their spirit and put an end to their national liberation movement. Serob realized that the only way to resist the Ottoman oppression was to arm the populace, but since obtaining weapons in Western Armenia and Cilicia was nearly impossible, he formed a group of 27 fighters from Khlat and crossed the Russo-Turkish border (October 1895) in order to secure arms from the Caucasus. Having accomplished his mission, Serob returned home and dedicated himself to the organization of the self-defense of the local population.[15] The self-defense movement launched in the region of Khlat lasted for about five years (1895 – 1899), but it was one of the most successful and impactful resistance efforts organized during the revolutionary period.[16] During this time, Serob was able to consolidate a number of fighters around him, organize the local haytoug movement, and effectively become the military commander of Sasun Armenians. It was largely due to his efforts that the Armenian population in Khlat did not see the kind of destruction and bloodshed that had enveloped most of the remaining regions of Western Armenia during the Hamidian massacres (1894 – 1896).[17] Beginning in the early days of the self-defense battles and up until Serob’s death five years later, the courageous and audacious Sosé was next to her husband, serving as his key advisor and fighting alongside his haytougs.
The haytoug movement (1880’s – 1907) itself had largely developed in Western Armenia in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878, when the Armenian demands for reform were met with recalcitrance and subsequently, massacres, from the sultan’s government. In order to prevent the success of any reforms mandated by the Great Powers and the Congress of Berlin, Abdul Hamid II attempted to dilute the Armenian demographic preponderance in the provinces of Bitlis (Baghesh), Van, and Erzrum (Karin) by changing the local boundaries and merging predominantly Armenian regions with majority Kurdish and Turkish-populated areas.[18] At the same time, the Armenian peasants in the yerkir were encumbered by new taxes while Kurdish chieftains were given carte blanche by the government to demand more hours of unpaid forced labor from them. The Russification policies of tsar Alexander III during the 1880’s only exacerbated the conditions of the Armenian people. The assault on the Armenian schools and church properties created a great deal of resentment against the Russian empire. The Armenian people were now being persecuted on both sides of the Russo-Turkish border.
The oppression suffered at the hands of the two empires that had divided the Armenian lands between themselves led to “profound feelings of not only disenchantment but also a new and more powerful arousal of consciousness.”[19] Influenced by the patriotic novels of Raffi and the powerful message of Khrimian Hayrik, many Armenians in both Western and Eastern Armenia became convinced that only an armed struggle could help them defend themselves and achieve national liberation. As Raffi put it, “the haytoug [movement was] the natural expression of [the grievances of] a people living under the yoke of an oppressive regime, suffering from plunder and deprived of all of its human rights. The haytoug was the serf’s protest against the barbarities of the ruling regime.”[20] Concurrently with the emergence of the haytoug movement, a number of secret societies and revolutionary groups were formed in both Western (Pashtpan Hayrenyats in Karin) and Eastern Armenia (Azgaser in Yerevan, Uzh in Shushi, Yeritasard Hayastan in Tiflis), and these developments soon gave rise to the first Armenian political parties: Armenakan (1885), Hunchak (1887) and the ARF (1890).
The haytougs (or fedayees) were fighters who operated either alone or in small groups from their hiding places in the mountains. They attacked Turkish soldiers and Kurdish bands in order to extract revenge for their crimes against the Armenian peasantry and to warn them against future wrongdoings. Having emerged in the regions of Taron and Vaspurakan after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878, the haytoug (fedayee) movement was largely spontaneous, and the initial attempts by certain leaders to unite the fighters under one banner did not produce tangible results.[21] The movement did, however, succeed in establishing closer ties between the populations of Eastern and Western Armenia and in organizing a transfer of weapons across the Russo-Turkish border. During the 1890’s, two predominant views on the strategy for the liberation of the Armenian people were developed within the movement. One view, held by Hrayr Dzhokhk and his followers, was that victory could be achieved only through a thoroughly planned pan-national armed rebellion.[22] This was a long-term project, however, which required years of educational and ideological preparation of the population as well as alliances with other neighboring people (mainly, the Kurds), who resented the Ottoman rule. The socio-political conditions in Western Armenia at the time were highly unfavorable for these kinds of activities: government spies were inhibiting the efforts of revolutionary propagandists and state officials worked hard to prevent the arming of the populace.[23]
A seemingly more realistic solution applicable during those times was offered by those who believed that armed groups of fedayees should head the national self-defense effort by waging localized battles with the help of the population. According to historian Azat Hambarian, this strategy was meant to “keep the spirit of liberation struggle alive and restrain the plunder and the repression implemented against the Armenians by the aghas and officials until the [ideological] preparation of the masses gave the liberation movement an organized structure.”[24] Serob Pasha was the champion of this point of view, and Andranik Ozanyan along with Gevork Chavush, Murad of Sebastia, and many other renowned fedayees concurred with him.[25] The success of this strategy, of course, was not guaranteed; in fact, the likelihood of a failure was very high. However, given the anti-Armenian policies pursued by the Ottoman government and the existential threat that they posed to the Armenian population, waiting for the time when the Armenian people were prepared for a national rebellion was not an option either. In the view of these courageous young men, in the circumstances that the Armenians had found themselves during the last decades of the 19th century, it was better to die fighting than to be massacred while waiting for the success of the pan-national rebellion.
Serob and Sosé were among the representatives of this latter group of fedayees, who not only embraced the concept of localized battles, but also helped formulate the guiding principles of the haytoug movement. Given the numerical disadvantage of the fedayees, Serob believed that it was best to adopt the tactic of quick and unexpected attacks against the enemy in those situations when danger was imminent and fighting was unavoidable. The fedayees were then supposed to mislead the enemy by using their good knowledge of the topography of Sasun and go into hiding without leaving any tracks. Since the battles with the Kurdish gangs and the Turkish troops were defensive in nature, the haytougs were not generally supposed to initiate them; in fact, one of their principles was to avoid fighting whenever possible. Instead of seeking military action, Serob concentrated his efforts on working to organize the local population, smuggle weapons into Western Armenia, and train the youth in carrying arms. Soon after his return to Khlat (Fall 1895), Serob was able to consolidate the ishkhans and the tanuters of Sasun around his person and ideas, thus becoming the political and the military leader of the Armenian population of the region.[26]
Serob and Sosé’s activities must be viewed within the context of the national liberation movement of the 1890’s. This movement had gained new momentum due to the emergence of revolutionary parties and the efforts of the fieldworkers they sent into the yerkir.[27] The leading political organization of this period, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, had by then entered “a period of maturation, organization, expansion, and consolidation,” and fieldworkers like Serob and Sosé were directed into the yerkir “to establish contact and cooperation with the local revolutionary leaders” and organize “transfer of weapons and ammunition to Western Armenia.”[28] The “pioneers” of this first phase (1892 – 1895) of the revolutionary movement established a tradition of “complete dedication” to the national liberation movement, which became a guiding principle for the future generations of haytougs and fedayees. As expected, they displayed courage during the self-defense battles against the Turkish and Kurdish bands and sacrificed themselves for the sake of their people. These principles were shared by revolutionary fighters like Serob and Sosé. The majority of these courageous fighters did not survive for too long and “most were martyred while carrying out revolutionary activities”; many others spent their lives in exile or in prison.[29] Despite this, their efforts were instrumental in raising the national consciousness of the Armenians, organizing their self-defense efforts, and restraining the anti-Armenian zeal of the Turkish and Kurdish gangs.
Serob had returned to his native Khlat in the Fall of 1895, just in time to organize the efforts of the local population against the attempts of Kurdish and Circassian bands to penetrate the region. Khlat consisted of 35 mostly Armenian-populated villages, which were surrounded by Lake Van on one side, and the mountains of Nemrut and Grgur on the other. Together, these natural barriers served as reliable defenses against external invasions. These geographic and demographic advantages prevented the settlement of Turkish and Kurdish elements in this region, and the local Muslim population was not large enough for the Ottoman authorities to safely station troops in the area or organize massacres of the Armenians.[30] Thus, the conditions in the region were beneficial for the activities of the fedayees and the organization of the self-defense of the local Armenian population. During the massacres of 1894 to 1896, the sultan’s government directed Kurdish and Circassian bands from Baghesh (the areas of Sipan, Manzikert, Khut, etc.) to attack Khlat. In order to resist the enemy, Serob divided his core group of 27 fighters into smaller units and sent them to various parts of the region to organize the efforts at protecting the peaceful Armenian population.[31] When the 600 Kurdish and Circassian invaders attacked Serob’s native village of Soghort, the courageous fedayee, along with the 10 fighters who had remained by his side, successfully repelled them from his hiding place in the nearby valley, captured 40 prisoners, and forced the attackers to flee. The first military engagement of the fearless commander ended with a stellar victory against the numerically superior enemy.
Serob’s fighters became the only real force of resistance in the region of Khlat, ensuring the safety of the local population at the time when the rest of Western Armenia was being drowned in blood by Abdul Hamid II. During the subsequent days and weeks, Serob and his fedayees waged battles against the Turkish and Kurdish bands in numerous villages (Tapavank, Prkhus, Urtap, Khndzorkin) throughout Khlat, subjecting their enemies to defeat and driving them out of the region. These battles once again convinced the Armenian masses that self-defense was the only salvation against the policies of the Ottoman authorities and their Kurdish allies. Due to the efforts of Serob and his fighters – among whom were well-known haytougs such as Palabekh Karapet, Mushegh, Aryutz Avag, Zulamat, Arakel, Simon, Nado, Tchartar – the Armenians of Khlat rose to defend themselves, and the region was consequently spared the massacres that were visited upon the rest of Western Armenia.[32] Serob earned the love and the admiration of the locals, who gave him the nickname that reflected the role he played in the lives of the people of Khlat – Aghbyur (Source), a source of hope and inspiration for the Armenian population. Serob came to be viewed as a heroic figure from the past so vividly described in the folklore of Sasun, and the Armenians in Khlat swore by him, saying “there is God above, and there is Serob below.”[33]
After the successful self-defense battles during the Hamidian massacres, Serob focused on establishing a rule of law in the region. He expended significant effort on organizing the peaceful life of the region’s population and assumed responsibility for the political administration of the Armenians of Khlat. Serob authorized the activities of rudimentary local courts, which were supposed to settle disputes between the villagers. Serob himself served as the ultimate arbiter on issues that could not be addressed through this “court” system. At the same time, he continued to form secret fedayee groups in order to ensure the safety of the Armenian population in the face of possible future attacks.[34] In pursuing this important endeavor, Serob partnered with Hrayr Dzhokhk, who was tasked with visiting villages throughout Taron and Sasun, preaching the message of self-defense and uniting the populace under the banner of the ARF. This marked a tactical shift in Serob’s strategy, which reflected the new position adopted by the ARF in 1897: to focus on the long-term preparation of the population for a pan-national rebellion against the Ottoman Empire.[35]
Serob’s and Hrayr’s activities in Taron could not have escaped the attention of Ottoman authorities, who used their loyal spies and Armenian informers to gather information about the movements of the fedayees.[36] On January 28 (February 9), 1897, more than 2,000 Turkish troops entered the village of Soghort, where Serob and Sosé were hiding at the time. Sosé was the first one to notice the enemy troops, and she warned Serob about them. In order to avoid bloodshed and protect the local population against massacres, Serob decided to find refuge in the mountains. Having put on his skis, he climbed Mount Nemrut, managing to evade the bullets of the Ottoman troops sent to catch him. Though everyone was convinced that Serob would not survive the cold and cruel winter in the mountains, the courageous haytoug soon returned to the nearby village of Shushanik (or Shamiram), surprising the locals, who began to call him Nemruti Aslan (the Lion of Nemrut). Serob had come back determined to start the next phase of his activities – punishing the Armenian traitors and their Turkish and Kurdish patrons, who were spreading terror among the population of Khlat, Taron, and Baghesh.
One such traitor, a man named Khacho from the region of Baghesh, was the first to fall from the vengeful sword of Serob’s fedayees. After doling out the deserved punishment to Khacho, Serob moved into the village of Gyuzaldaré and destroyed a group of local Armenian collaborators, who had assisted the Turkish authorities during the Hamidian massacres.[37] In Serob’s native village of Soghort, the fedayees eliminated a spy named Grigori and his brother, Poghos,[38] who had divulged information about Serob’s whereabouts to the sultan’s bureaucrats. Upon settling the scores with Armenian traitors, Serob’s fighters went on to destroy a number of Turkish officials and Kurdish chiefs, who had shed the blood of innocent Armenians. These activities kept the fedayees preoccupied during most of 1897. In the summer of that year, Serob and his four fighters found themselves surrounded by 100 Kurdish horsemen, who had stolen herds of animals in Teghut. In an unequal battle, where Serob demonstrated his excellent aiming skills, the Kurds were forced to surrender their loot and retreat. The activities of Serob and his fighters served to convince the locals that “wherever there was Serob, there was also God assisting him.”
The incident with the Kurds also proved the necessity of bringing additional forces into Khlat, and by July of 1897, a small group headed by a renowned fedayee Gurgen (Baghdasar Maliants) arrived in the region to assist Serob. Like Hrayr Dzhokhk, Gurgen shared the view that the revolutionaries had to commit themselves to organizing the population on the ground and arming it so that it could participate in the future rebellion and defend itself from Turkish and Kurdish encroachments.[39] Gurgen knew that a fedayee could be killed any minute, and it was necessary to put the revolutionary struggle on a more reliable foundation rather than make it dependent on individual fighters.[40] Serob did not share all of Gurgen’s views, but the two haytougs did work together to help the people of Khlat and achieved rather impressive results in a short period of time. Towards the end of 1897, Serob and Gurgen decided to hand the self-defense of Khlat and Baghesh into the hands of the local ARF Gomideh and move into the valley of Mush to continue their activities. However, after a secret meeting of fedayees (Serob, Gurgen, Hrayr, Gevork Chavush, etc.) at Mount Berdak, Serob returned to Khlat: it was deemed too dangerous for him to remain in Mush since his presence could have had a negative impact on local Armenians.[41]
The relative peace that prevailed in Western Armenia in the aftermath of the Hamidian massacres was rather elusive. In fact, the Turkish officials and the Kurdish chiefs made no secret of their intentions to resume the atrocities against the Armenians when the next opportunity presented itself.[42] They also realized that in order to put an end to the rising tide of revolution that had engulfed Van, Karin, Baghesh, and other regions of Western Armenia, the sultan’s regime had to station more troops throughout Sasun and Taron.[43] With that in mind, the Ottoman government increased the presence of its spies and police forces in the Armenian provinces. These forces arrested scores of notables, who had shown resistance to the government, which also included Serob’s brother, Mkhé.[44] In early 1898, Serob and Gurgen decided that it was time to free these political prisoners, and in February of that year, they organized the assassination of Himli bey, the chief of Khlat’s police.[45] Two weeks later, the fedayees stormed the prison of Baghesh and freed its 17 Armenian inmates. After a three-hour long battle with the police, Serob, his fighters, and the escapees managed to retreat into safety in the mountains.[46] At the same time, the fedayees realized that they had to prepare the population for the possible resumption of massacres. That realization took Hrayr and Serob from village to village, where the two renowned haytougs worked tirelessly to organize the Armenian peasantry and preach the life-saving message of self-defense.[47]
While in Khlat, Serob also organized the effort to smuggle weapons from Vaspurakan and the Caucasus into Baghesh and Sasun. He was assisted by his cousin, Tchartar (Hakob), whose unit of 66 fedayees had successfully brought arms and ammunition to Khlat in 1897 and had already gained experience in that endeavor. After Serob returned to his native region, he instructed Tchartar to go on a second expedition to Eastern Armenia in search of armaments.[48] Tchartar and his fedayees returned to the areas of Kazvan and Kars and having secured a large cache of weapons for the self-defense forces of Khlat, crossed the border into Western Armenia in September of 1898. Unfortunately, their movements did not go undetected, and they were soon surrounded by Kurdish bands. In the ensuing skirmishes with the Kurds near Ghelej Ketik, Mount Khatavin, and Keoshk (Baghesh province), Tchartar lost more than two-thirds of his unit and reached Khlat (Nemrut) with only 23 men. Though Tchartar’s men had inflicted heavy casualties on the Kurds – the latter had suffered between 200 to 300 casualties – Serob was of the opinion that Tchartar did not properly carry out his responsibility to protect the fighters entrusted to him. As a result, Serob stripped his cousin of a position of a commander.[49]
Despite this setback, the activities of the fedayees made the Kurds realize that they could no longer plunder and kill Armenians without punishment, and that, to some degree, restrained them and even forced them to try to find ways to cooperate with Armenians.[50] At the same time, these skirmishes clearly demonstrated Serob’s concern for the lives of his fedayees and the safety of the Armenian populace. On many occasions, Serob chose to seek refuge in the mountains instead of engaging with the Turks and the Kurds and giving them a reason to enter the Armenian villages and commit atrocities against the peaceful population. A famous fedayi and Serob’s friend, Smbat was correct in pointing out that “Serob never picked a fight. He had worked to organize [the people] in the regions [of Khlat and Baghesh]. Serob only took up arms in order to defend the populace against [Turkish and Kurdish] barabarity.” Indeed, the accusations leveled against the fedayee movement that it instigated massacres of Armenians in the yerkir fall apart when one considers the fact that the movement was in its essence a self-defense effort. It had emerged in the face of growing Turkish and Kurdish oppression and aimed to protect the unarmed Armenian populace in the yerkir. The Turks were committing atrocities against the Christian Armenian peasantry long before the fedayees appeared in the Armenian Highland, and the emergence of the revolutionary movement was a response to the intolerable conditions and the incessant violence against the peaceful population in the Ottoman-controlled Armenian territories.
During his active years (1895 – 1899), Serob was constantly under the close watch of Ottoman authorities. The scope of his activities and the respect that he enjoyed among the population in Sasun and Mush had reached such proportions that the government was becoming concerned about the possible consequences of his actions.[51] By the Fall of 1898, the Turkish officials had managed to track him down with the help of their spies. Serob, along with his 16 fedayees, was in the village of Babshen (near Baghesh), when the Turkish troops under the command of Liva Pasha attacked them (October 20, 1898). Serob ordered his fedayees to take up positions in the hills outside of the village and meet the enemy with fire and sounds of their trumpets. Despite the Turkish advantage in manpower and weapons and the constant bombardment of fedayee positions with cannons, Serob was able to inspire his men to fight and repel multiple attacks by government troops.[52] When the angered Muslim mobs, who had been shown the bodies of dead Turkish soldiers, arrived in Babshen, Serob threw himself into the battle and led his fedayees out of encirclement into safety in the mountains of Grgur. The Turks suffered more than 30 casualties during the battle of Babshen, which entered the annals of history as one of the most heroic pages of the Armenian revolutionary movement. Only one of Serob’s men was killed (Sargis) in this battle while another one (Zulumat) was seriously wounded. In a beautiful display of fedayee ethos, Palabekh Karapet did not obey Serob’s order to kill his suffering friend and carried Zulumat to one of the local villages, where a peasant family cared for the wounded fedayee. Instead of punishing Palabekh for insubordination, Serob thanked him for his devotion and kissed his forehead.[53]
The inability of a large Turkish contingent to capture a group of 17 Armenian fedayees was a major irritant for the Ottoman government. In fact, it was a rather embarrassing situation. As a result of the failure of the Turks to defeat the Armenian freedom fighters, Serob and his forces continued to spread fear among the Muslim population of Baghesh and (at least, temporarily) compelled the local government to soften its anti-Armenian policies. The governor of Baghesh even sent a representative to Serob in order to invite him to a meeting and discuss his demands. Serob unequivocally rejected the idea of a meeting and summed up his position in one phrase: “Let us live peacefully.” That phrase reflected the aspirations of the Armenian people, who had been languishing under Turkish yoke for centuries, as well as the goal of the fedayees, who had taken up arms in order to ensure the physical security and the peaceful life of the Armenian populace on its ancestral lands.
Instead of fostering peace, however, the officials in Baghesh unleashed a campaign of terror against Serob’s family. Mkhé (Serob’s brother) and his wife (Tato) were arrested, and Serob’s property was confiscated. Serob’s other brothers (including Zakar), his wife Sosé, and the children managed to escape the authorities and reunited with Serob in his hideout.[54] Given the mounting persecution against Serob and his family, staying in Khlat would have led to unpredictable and tragic consequences. Leaving behind a contingent of committed fighters, Serob decided to move out of Khlat and join forces with the fedayees under the leadership of Gurgen in Mush and Sasun (November 1898). Upon arrival in the region, Serob worked hand-in-hand with Gevork Chavush and Andranik in order to maintain harmony among the fedayees and promote peace in Sasun.[55] That peace did not last long, however. In April of 1899, Gurgen lost his life in the village of Tsronk (Taron) due to the treachery of a local Armenian. Gurgen’s death was a major setback for the fedayee movement in Taron and Sasun, which lost its unity and effectiveness in the aftermath of its leader’s demise. Serob lost a friend and a key ally, and that could not have had a positive impact on his work.
Following Gurgen’s death, Serob’s leadership of the self-defense movement was challenged by a number of fedayees, including Makar, Hambartzum, and a young but courageous fighter, Andranik.[56] Andranik and Makar, in particular, demanded that Serob separate from his family since the presence of Sosé and the children impeded the fedayees’ ability to maneuver quickly when the enemies attacked.[57] Given the dangers associated with the lifestyle of a fedayee and the conservative mindset prevalent among the haytougs, it was not customary for them to be married, nor was it expected that women would be participating in the national struggle with weapons in their hands.[58] The haytougs had other grievances as well. Not long ago, Serob had ordered Gevork Chavush to kill his uncle, who had stolen a bride – a practice that had been forbidden among the fedayees. Chavush obeyed Serob’s directives, slaying both his uncle and the woman he had captured, but that led to a rift between the two comrades. Gevork Chavush left Serob’s group and found refuge in the forests near the village of Ghezelghatch (Mush). These events also led to disagreements between Serob and Andranik. In order to restore discipline in the ranks and prevent further disintegration of his group, Serob ordered Andranik to disarm and prepare to depart from the yerkir.[59] Serob’s actions, however, did not have the desired effect. Though he was a natural leader, who possessed enviable courage and enjoyed the respect of the population, Serob did not have the diplomatic skills that could have been used to address the growing discontent. As a result, the fedayee movement fell into disarray by the middle of 1899, and Serob’s enemies did not waste time in taking advantage of that situation.
In the Fall of 1899, the Ottoman government ordered the governor of Baghesh, Tahsin Pasha, to destroy Serob and put an end to the fedayee movement in Sasun. The governor, in turn, handed the responsibility for capturing Serob to one of the Kurdish chiefs, Bshare Khalil, who had fought Serob and his haytougs on multiple occasions in the past[60] and, according to some sources, even spoke Armenian.[61] When Serob learned about the Turkish plot, he took his family and 25 of his fighters into the mountains of Andok[62] and made preparations for the unavoidable confrontation with his enemies. The government troops and the Kurdish irregulars surrounded Andok but did not dare to attack the courageous fedayee. Instead, Bshare Khalil and his advisors devised a plot to poison Serob. Once again, an Armenian traitor came to their aid. A res (chief) from a local village of Geghashen named Avé agreed to use his existing relationship with Serob to infiltrate his inner circle and kill him. While visiting the fedayee, who was hiding in Gelieguzan, at the home of the local priest, Ter Kaj, Avé gave Serob poisoned tobacco. At the same time, the Turkish government diverted the attention of the Armenians from its actions by announcing that the troops that it was moving in the direction of Gelieguzan were actually meant for putting down a Kurdish rebellion in the nearby region of Khut-Brnashen. Within hours, more than 2,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish irregulars surrounded Gelieguzan.
By the time the Turkish and Kurdish bands arrived in Gelieguzan, the poison had had its effect. Serob was no longer the formidable lion his enemies feared. As Sosé later remarked, “by the time the sun rose, he was not the rough and peppy Serob we knew. We could see the signs of approaching death on his face. He had lost weight and had become pale overnight; his facial expressions had been distorted, and if it were not for his lightning eyes, no one could have said that this was the undefeated spirit of our mountains, Serob.” [63]
Four of Serob’s fighters were also poisoned by the Turks.[64] The remaining four soldiers tried to take their commander to a nearby village and save his life, but the courageous fedayee knew that death was imminent. Serob urged his fighters to leave him and save their own lives. Sensing the disarray among the Armenians caused by Serob’s condition, the government forces attacked the positions where Sosé and the rest of the fedayees were situated. During the ensuing unequal battles, Serob, his son Hakob, and his two brothers, Mkhé and Zakar, were killed while Sosé was wounded. Despite witnessing the deaths of her loved ones, Sosé continued to fight the attackers until she herself was wounded and rendered unconscious. At that point, she was captured by the forces of Bshare Khalil and taken prisoner while Serob was beheaded (posthumously).[65] The gruesome affair took only about half-an-hour.[66] Serob’s body was subsequently interred in Gelieguzan. The Ottoman officials paraded his head throughout Sasun and Baghesh in order to instill fear in the local Armenian population before handing it to the spiritual leader of Baghesh, Bishop Yeghishé Chilingaryan, who buried it at the church in the village of Karmrak (Baghesh).[67] Serob’s courage was later immortalized in a beautiful poem by Avetik Isahakyan:
Mount Nemrut has a thousand springs, All of which flow down the plain of Mush. It is only the spring of Serob’s heart That flows into the poor people’s hearts. People whose souls are thirsty People whose souls are thirsty.
Serob lived a short life, but he left an indelible mark on the fedayee movement and entered the consciousness of his people as the defender of the Armenians and an uncompromising champion of their right to live freely and peacefully on their lands. His legacy also included the formulation of the moral principles that served as the foundations of the fedayee movement. Serob and his wife Sosé lived in accordance with those principles. They were ready to sacrifice their lives for their people, always spoke the truth, upheld the highest moral values, and restrained from drinking and cursing.[69] By accepting his wife as a fully-fledged fighter and a partner-in-arms, Serob Aghbyur was far ahead of his time in acknowledging the right of women to bear arms and participate in the national life on an equal footing with men.[70] Arshak Chobanian was right when he wrote in “Anahit” that “Serob deserves not only respect, but also admiration. He was an architype of a Baghesh Armenian, a rebel [with] a courageous spirit. He was the embodiment of Raffi’s Sahrat.”[71] Serob believed wholeheartedly that the liberation of the Armenian people was possible through revolution, and he dedicated his entire life to that cause. Serob Aghbyur lived an exemplary life, and while he was very demanding towards his friends and fighters, he was also a man of integrity, immense courage, and unmatched patriotism. He was indeed a “moral model” for all Armenians to emulate.
Sosé was Serob’s equal. She was her husband’s comrade-in-arms, outspoken and courageous in her own right. At a time when Armenian women were expected to largely remain in the shadow of their husbands, Sosé earned a reputation for being a fedayee and a role model for the freedom-loving people of Sasun. She shared many similarities with the heroines from the pagan epic of Sasna Tsrer, and just like them, she understood her important role in defending her homeland and preserving the honor of her family.[72] Sosé epitomized the noble traits that have described an Armenian woman for centuries – devotion to family, commitment to the Armenian culture, and a high moral standing. Sosé was also a living proof that even centuries of foreign yoke had not succeeded in eliminating those traits among the Armenians. It was not by accident that the Armenian women stood next to their husbands and sons during the liberation movement of the late 19th century. As academic Minasyan correctly points out, these women had “turned the Armenian family into the focal point of resistance [against foreign oppression]. Here is where the centuries-old desire for revenge had turned into a fist. The Armenian women, having fought alongside the men, inspired in them the will to live freely and a belief towards the ultimate victory of freedom and independence [of Armenia].”[73]
Sosé Mayrik acted in the long-standing tradition of countless Armenian women, who played a key role in the national liberation struggle and the maintenance of traditional Armenian values long before the revolutionary movement of the 19th century. During the pre-Christian times, the importance of women as the protectors of family and the Armenian people was reflected in the roles assigned to the female goddesses of the pagan Armenian pantheon, the three sisters – Anahit (fertility, and war in earlier times), Astghik (beauty and maternity), and Nané (motherhood and wisdom). Like goddess Anahit, who was entrusted with the duty of preserving the hearth, the Armenian woman was viewed as the defender of traditional family and the guarantor of the physical existence of the Armenian people. [74] Given the importance of their responsibilities to the well-being of the society, the pagan Armenian women enjoyed rights equal to those of men and played a key role as advisors to their husbands.[75] The egalitarianism of the pre-Christian Armenian mores went as far as to allow the girls to freely choose whom they married, something that Sosé would insist on doing when she was just a teenager.[76]
Despite the limitations imposed on women by the Christian religion and the Armenian Apostolic Church, the women from the royal and nakharar families continued to exert a great deal of influence on the socio-political life of the country even after Armenia’s conversion in 301A.D. Yeghishé and Ghazar Parbetsi, for example, mention the more than 500 Armenian noblewomen, who had lost their husbands during Vardanank (451A.D.), but met their fate with great courage and devoted themselves to the upbringing of their children and the orphans of the war. Dzvik Tikin, the wife of Vardan Mamikonyan’s brother Hmayak, played a particularly prominent part in this endeavor, taking charge of the upbringing of her three boys – Vahan, Vasak, and Artashes – all of whom ended up becoming key military figures during the 5th century struggle of the Armenian people against Persian (Parthian) yoke.[77] Another scion of the Mamikonyan family, Vardan’s oldest daughter, Shushanik (real name – Varduhi or Vardanuhi), became an epitome of the kind of courage and patriotism that are associated with the Mamikonyan family. Shushanik, along with her four sons, was subjected to torture for six long years by her apostate husband, the ally of the Parthian shah Yazgert II, Vazgen of Gugark, but refused to give up the religion of her ancestors. She died a martyr’s death, but like Sosé Mayrik centuries later, she did not waver in her commitment to her family and her principles.[78]
In the subsequent centuries, Armenian women continued to sacrifice in the name of their country and their Christian faith. During the Mongol-Tatar invasions of the 13th century, the daughter of the melik of Khachen (Artsakh), Ruzan, agreed to marry a Tatar khan to prevent the destruction of her father’s lands. Despite the objections of her family and fiancé, Ruzan entered the khan’s harem, but drank poison and died with dignity instead of surrendering to the infidel. She is credited for saving Khachen from plunder and carnage through her courageous act. In the Bagratuni capital of Ani, another courageous woman, Aytsyam (Aytsemnik), fought alongside men during the 1126 Arab invasion. She died on the city walls while running from one position to another to encourage the defenders of the city. Six centuries later, in 1724, women in the future Armenian capital of Erevan took up arms and stood next to their husbands, defending the city against the invading Ottoman armies numbering 60,000. These women not only fought the enemy with weapons in their hands, but also maintained the traditions and customs of our people after Armenia’s subjugation by various Muslim empires. It was due to their efforts throughout the centuries of foreign occupation that the Armenians resisted assimilation and acculturation by Turks, Mongols, Persians, and the Kurds.
These efforts were particularly successful in the mountainous regions of Sasun, Taron, Vaspurakan, and Artsakh, where the influence of foreign invaders and their mores was the least pronounced[79] and where the national liberation struggle of the Armenian people emerged in the 19th century. The women in these regions also played a pivotal role in that struggle waged by the Armenian people against their Turkish and Kurdish oppressors. Historian Karo Sasuni writes the following lines about the Armenian women of Sasun, who “have always been known for their courage, ability to stand for themselves, their dignity, love of freedom, and ideological commitment [to national liberation]. It is impossible to quell the spirit of a Sasun woman, who wants to live in freedom. Even during times of tragedy, instead of crying and wailing, she picks up arms and fights against the enemy.”[80]
This was the legacy that was inherited by Sosé’s generation of courageous mountaineer women, who devoted their lives to the betterment of the conditions of their people. Sosé Mayrik’s life was in many ways the continuation of the centuries-old collective struggle of Armenian women for their honor, their families, and the physical existence of the Armenian people.
Shortly after Serob’s death (November 1, 1899), Sosé was released from the Baghesh prison. Her Turkish captors admired Sosé’s courage and determination so much that they spared her life. She was even provided medical treatment at the government’s expense. Sosé visited her husband’s grave in Gelieguzan, and soon settled in Van (1904).[81] In the meantime, the fedayees decided to retaliate for the death of their leader. In April/May of 1900, Gevork Chavush, accompanied by haytougs Manuk and Ghazar, entered traitor Avé’s home[82] and put him to death by releasing thirty bullets into his body. Avé’s brother, who had conspired with the traitor to poison Serob, was also killed while Avé’s young son was wounded during the shooting.[83] The main culprit of Serob’s murder, Bshare Khalil, was still free, however, and his capture was a matter of honor for the haytougs. Six months after Avé’s death, the news of Khalil’s whereabouts reached Gevork and Andranik, who took their group of 25 haytougs and surrounded the Kurdish chief near the Marik gorge in Mush (November, 1900). The Armenian fedayees emerged victorious from a brief encounter with Khalil’s forces, and Andranik beheaded the Kurdish chief in retaliation for his conduct towards Serob. The names of 13 Armenian traitors were found when Khalil was searched by the fedayees. Gevork and Andranik subsequently identified most of those individuals and put them to death.[84]
These two fedayees also played a key role in the Sasun rebellion of 1904, which marked the beginning of the end of the haytoug movement. In the Spring of 1904, more than 10,000 Turkish soldiers, accompanied by irregular Kurdish groups (reaching 5,000), moved towards the villages of Baghesh (Khulp and Khiank) in order to capture the key local fedayees and put an end to the self-defense movement. The invaders came in multiple directions, destroying thousands of unarmed Armenians and plundering their properties, but they soon encountered the units of Hrayr Dzhokhk (Aliank/Shenik), Andranik (Tapik/Geliuguzan), Gevork Chavush (Talvorik/Ishkhanadzor), and Sebastatsi Mourad (Chai). The fedayees battled the Turkish and Kurdish forces for more than a month and inflicted significant losses on the invaders, but the lack of provisions and weaponry forced them into retreat (May 14, 1904). The peaceful Armenian population, which was not exterminated by the Turks, found refuge in the valley of Mush. Despite a few isolated incidents of resistance (Alvarinj battle of 1905 and the battle of Sulukh in 1907), the fedayee movement was significantly weakened as a result of the Sasun rebellion and a change of strategy was soon adopted by the ARF.[85]
Among those who left Baghesh in the aftermath of the Sasun rebellion was Sosé Mayrik. Sosé first moved to Van (1904), where she lived until the exodus of the city’s Armenian population during the Genocide. Even then, Sosé did not want to leave the yerkir since doing that would have meant accepting that she would never see Serob’s grave again. However, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Van Resistance (April 19 – May 6, 1915), the Russian troops and the Armenian volunteer units retreated into the Caucasus (Summer 1915), and Sosé joined the caravans of Western Armenians departing for safety in Russian Armenia.[86] She refused to ride the horse provided to her by Andranik and chose to walk with the rest of the refugee population all the way to Erevan.[87] After the collapse of the First Republic and the ensuing Soviet occupation of Armenia (1920), Sosé Mayrik left the country along with scores of other revolutionaries and ARF supporters. She crossed into Turkey and traveled to Constantinople, finally making her way to Alexandria (Egypt), where she lived in the care of the family of a devoted ARF activist, Hayk Khanamirian.[88]
Having survived the calamity of the Medz Yeghern, Sosé Mayrik was forced to spend the rest of her life in foreign shores. Like thousands of other Armenians, she had lost touch with her only surviving family member, her second son Samson, during the Genocide. Samson had been saved by Serob’s sister-in-law, Tato, during the tragic events of 1899, but there is not a lot of other information that has reached us about his life. According to some sources, Samson had joined Hrayr Dzhokhk’s fedeayees and died during the self-defense battles in Karin in the summer of 1915.[89] It seems that Sosé Mayrik had hopes that her son had managed to survive the Genocide, however, since she continued to search for him during her years in exile. An itinerant passing through Alexandria in the mid-1930’s told her that Samson was being held captive by the Kurds in Mardin (in the Diyarbakir (Tigranakert) vilayet). Sosé immediately set out on a journey to find her son, but her efforts did not yield any results, and she returned to Egypt empty-handed.[90]
The tragic course of Armenian history during the late 19th to early 20th centuries had deprived Sosé of her family, but she became a Mayrik (mother) for the Armenian community of Egypt. During the three decades spent in Alexandria, Sosé turned into an icon for the local community. The youth flocked to her home to hear stories about Serob and his fedayees and listen to Sosé sing revolutionary songs. One of those young people was Vigen Ohanjanyan, the son of Armenia’s third Prime Minister, Hamo (Hamazasp) Ohanajanyan, who left the following description of Sosé Mayrik: “Sosé Mayrik spoke in the dialect of Mush, which was very difficult to understand and which seemed very strange to a little child [like me]. She smoked… She told me about the battles that she and Serob [participated in]. I touched the bullet that had remained in her right arm and which had not been removed [since] the time when she was held as a captive by the Turks. [Sosé] referred to Serob as ‘pasha’… I asked Sosé Mayrik to write a few words in my memoir, [but] she said that she did not know how to write and [so she] put a stamp on one of its pages [instead].”
Sosé outlived her husband by more than half a century. During that entire time, she wore black in memory of Serob and her children, maintaining that tradition until her final days. Sosé Mayrik died in Alexandria on February 9, 1953. Her last words, whispered to her host, Hayk Khanamirian, were as follows: “Serob is calling me, dear Hayk, I am going.”[91]
[1] Dasnabedian, H. History of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutiun, 1890/1924. Published by Oemme Edizioni, Milan (Italy), 1990, p. 53
[2] Ibid, p. 51
[3] Hayagitaran Hayastan. (2014, October 23). Aghbyur Serobi Tsnndyan 150-amyake [The 150th Birthday Anniversary of Serob Aghbyur] [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4d3hzsCMNA
[4] Arakelyan, K. M. Hay Knoj Dere Haydukayin Paykarum [The Role of the Armenian Woman in the Haytoug [Partisan] Struggle]. Herald of Social Sciences, Yerevan, Armenia, Issue 1, 2016, p. 147. 144. http://lraber.asj-oa.am/6519/1/144.pdf. Accessed: May 9, 2017
[5] ‘Sosé Mayrik,’ Radio YAN, Beirut, Lebanon, 2011. http://www.radioyan.com/portfolio/սօսէ-մայրիկ/
[6] Gevorgyan, H. Serob Aghbyur [in Armenian]. Garun Periodical, Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Issue 1, 1989. Published by http://www.anunner.com/news/famous-and-unknown-armenians/Աղբյուր_Սերոբ. Accessed: May 10, 2017
[7] Berberian. N. Sosé Mayrik. Heghapokhakan Hayuhi Dashnaktsakan Tipar [Sosé Mayrik: An Epitome of a Revolutionary Dashnak Armenian Woman]. Azdag Daily, Lebanon, February 16, 2016. http://www.aztagdaily.com/archives/280220. Accessed: May 10, 2017
[8] Hambartzumian, A. Aghbyur Serob (Mah`van 100-amyaki artiv) [Aghbyur Serob (on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death)]. Historical-Philological Journal, Yerevan, Armenia, 1999. Issue 2 –3, p. 74. http://hpj.asj-oa.am/4788/1/1999-2-3(73).pdf. Accessed: May 10, 2017
[9] Berberian, Sosé
[10] Gevorgyan, Serob
[11] Zeitlian, S. Hay Knoj Dere Hay Heghap’okhakan Sharzhman Mej [The Role of an Armenian Woman in the Armenian Revolutionary Movement]. Published by Hraztan Sarkis Zeitlian Publications, Los Angeles, 1992, p. 69
[12] Berberian, Sosé
[13] Hrayr Dzhokhk (1864 – 1904) was one of the leaders of the Armenian national liberation movement at the turn of the century. A native of Sasun, Hrayr studied at the St. Karapet Monastery and the Central Academy of Mush prior to joining the liberation movement. Between 1891 and 1894, he led the self-defense struggle of the locals in Sasun. Originally a member of the Hunchak Party, Hrayr soon joined the ARF and was preparing to launch a popular rebellion in Western Armenia, but was killed during an attack by the Turkish Armies near Geliguzan while trying to save his comrade, haytoug Sepuh (1872 – 1940). He was buried in the yard of the local church, next to Serob Aghbyur and Gevork Chavush (d. 1907) (https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Հրայր_Դժոխք#cite_note-Hrayr_Djoxq-2)
[14] Gevorgyan, Serob
[15] ‘Sosé Mayrik,’ Radio YAN, Beirut, Lebanon, 2011. http://www.radioyan.com/portfolio/սօսէ-մայրիկ/
[16] Hayagitaran Hayastan. (2014, October 23). Aghbyur Serobi Tsnndyan 150-amyake [The 150th Birthday Anniversary of Serob Aghbyur] [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4d3hzsCMNA
[17] ‘Sosé Mayrik,’ Radio YAN, Beirut, Lebanon, 2011. http://www.radioyan.com/portfolio/սօսէ-մայրիկ/
[18] Dasnabedian, p. 18
[19] Ibid, p. 19
[20] Gevorgyan, Serob
[21] Shahbazyan, H. Fedayakan Sharzhumnere 1880 – 1907 tt. [Fedayi Movements in Years 1880 – 1907]. Yerevan State University Press, Yerevan, Armenia, 2016, p. 351 (http://publications.ysu.am/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/35.Haik_Shahbazyan.pdf). Accessed: May 16, 2017.
[22] Ibid, p. 352
[23] Ibid, p. 354. The author references Ruben Ter-Minassian’s Memoirs as his source (Author’s Note).
[24] Ibid, pp. 353 – 354. The author quotes Azat Hambarian in his work (Author’s Note).
[25] Ibid, p. 353
[26] Poghosyan, S. and K. Indz Bah Tvek… Gevork Chavush [Give Me a Shovel… Gevork Chavush]. NB-Press Publishing, Yerevan, Armenia, 1990, p. 185.
[27] Shahbazyan, p. 354
[28] Dasnabedian, p. 35
[29] Ibid, p. 36
[30] Ter-Minassian, R. Hay Heghap’okhakani mu Hishatakarane [The Memoirs of an Armenian Revolutionary]. Vol. 3. Hamazkayin Vahe Sethian Press, Beirut, Lebanon, 1985, pp. 146 –147
[31] Ibid, p. 149
[32] Gevorgyan, Serob
[33] Ter-Minassian, p. 151
[34] Gevorgyan, Serob
[35] Hayagitaran Hayastan. (2014, October 23). Aghbyur Serobi Tsnndyan 150-amyake [The 150th Birthday Anniversary of Serob Aghbyur] [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4d3hzsCMNA
[36] Ter-Minassian, pp. 152 – 153
[37] Gevorgyan, Serob
[38] Ter-Minassian, p. 154
[39] Ibid, p. 156
[40] Ibid, p. 158
[41] Ibid, p. 161
[42] Ibid, p. 152
[43] Poghosyan, S. and K, p. 182
[44] Gevorgyan, Serob
[45] Ibid, p. 159. Gurgen and three of his friends entered the home of Himli bey’s Armenian lover, hid there and killed him when Himli arrived (same source)
[46] Gevorgyan, Serob
[47] Ter-Minassian, p. 152
[48] Ibid, p. 163
[49] Ibid, pp. 164, 168 – 169
[50] Ibid, p. 168
[51] Poghosyan, S. and K, pp. 183 – 184
[52] Gevorgyan, Serob
[53] Ter-Minassian, pp. 170 – 171
[54] Gevorgyan, Serob
[55] Ter-Minassian, pp. 178 – 179
[56] Ibid, p. 180
[57] Ibid, p. 182
[58] Sosé Mayrik. Heghap’okhakan Hayu yev Dashnaktsakan fedayii kanatsi` mayrakan demke [Sosé Mayrik: the Female-Maternal Image of a Revolutionary Armenia and Dashank fedayee]. Azat Or (February 8, 2003). Published: August 2, 2014 by the ARF Bureau Official website. http://www.arfd.info/hy/?p=6259. Accessed: July 30, 2017
[59] Ibid, pp. 182 – 183
[60] Gevorgyan, Serob
[61] Poghosyan, S. and K, p. 186
[62] Andok is a part of the Taurus mountain chain. The famous Maruta Mountain is a part of the Andok mountain range, also known as Sasun Mountains (Author’s Note).
[63] Gevorgyan, Serob
[64] Chelebyan, A. Zoravar Andranik [General Andranik]. Arevik Publishing, Yerevan, Armenia, 1990, p. 125
[65] Gevorgyan, Serob
[66] Chelebyan, p 125
[67] Gevorgyan, Serob
[68] Houshamatyan of Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF – Dashnaktsutiun). Album – Atlas. Volume I: Epic Battles. Editor: Hagop Manjikian. Published by the ARF Central Committee (Western Region), Glendale, CA, USA, 2006, p. 64
[69] Shahbazyan, p. 352. Ruben Ter-Minassian further elaborates on these principles in his Memoirs (Author’s Note).
[70] Gevorgyan, Serob
[71] Poghosyan, S. and K, p. 193
[72] Minasyan, E. Hay Herosuhi Kanayk [Heroic Armenian Women]. Published by Yerevan State University Press, Yerevan, Armenia, p. 8 (http://publishing.ysu.am/files/Hay_herosuhi_kanayq.pdf). Accessed: July 9, 2017
[73] Ibid, p. 11
[74] Ibid, p. 13
[75] Zeitlian, pp. 8 – 9
[76] Ibid, p. 13
[77] Ibid, pp. 8 – 9
[78] Ibid, p. 11
[79] Ibid, p. 12
[80] Minasyan, p. 43
[81] Ibid, p. 42. The author cites Karo Sasuni and his History of Taron as his source (Author’s Note).
[82] Poghosyan, S. and K, p. 195
[83] 18 Mayis 1900. Aghbyur Serobe glkhatatz dahtchapetin` Bshare Khalili Ahabekume [18 May, 1900. The Killing of Bshare Khalil, the Murderer who had Beheaded Serob Aghbyur]. Azat Or. Published: May 18, 2012 by the ARF Bureau Official website. http://www.arfd.info/hy/?p=4895. Accessed: August 2, 2017. Original source: September 7, 1901 issues of ARF’s official publication, Droshak.
[84] Poghosyan, S. and K, pp. 196 – 197. According to the article on arfd.info website, the murder of Bshare Khalil also took place in May of 1901 (Author’s Note).
[85] Shahbazyan, pp. 356 – 357
[86] Zeitlian, p 71
[87] Houshamatyan, p. 224
[88] http://www.arfd.info/hy/?p=6259
[89] ‘Sosé Mayrik,’ Radio YAN, Beirut, Lebanon, 2011. http://www.radioyan.com/portfolio/սօսէ-մայրիկ/
[90] Zeitlian, p 71
[91] Ibid, p 73. The quote is from a letter written by Vigen Ohanjanyan to the ARS Western US Educational Committee member, Haigoush Keghinian Kohler on October 11, 1990, on the occassion of an event named ‘Revolutionary Armenian [Women],’ dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the ARF (same source).
