Andranik Ozanian - Early Life and Revolutionary Activities

Early Life and Revolutionary Activities

Andranik Ozanian was born in Şebinkarahisar, Trebizond Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (today in Giresun Province, Turkey) to Mariam and Toros Ozanian. Andranik (Անդրանիկ) means "firstborn" in Armenian. His father's ancestors came from a nearby village named Ozan. The word ոզնի vozni in Armenian means a hedgehog and ozan is the possessive case of the local Armenian dialect. In the 18th century, villagers of Ozan settled in Şebinkarahisar to avoid persecution from the Turks. Many of them took the surname Ozanian in honor of their hometown. His mother died when he was one year old, so his elder sister Nazeli took care of him. Andranik finished the local Musheghian School and worked in his father's carpentry shop. Andranik got married at the age of 17. A year later his wife died while giving birth to their son, who died days later.

In 1888 young Andranik joined the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (Hunchak) revolutionary groups and became its member in 1891. His activities for the Armenian national liberation movement were soon disrupted he was arrested and sentenced to a year in prison for beating up a Turk gendarme in 1889. He managed to escape from the prison of Mush and moved to Constantinople, but soon he returned to Western Armenia and traveled to Crimea and Caucasus to find weapons for the fedayees. After walking about 400 kilometers from Kars to Sasun, in winter of 1895, Andranik met fedayee commander Aghbiur Serob and joined his group. In 1894, Andranik left the Hunchak Party and joined the newly formed Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which he would later leave twice (from 1907–1914 and eventually in 1917) due to disagreements.

After Aghbiur Serob's death in 1899, Andranik became the leader of Armenian fedayee groups of Vaspurakan and Taron regions (Western Armenia). All his lieutenants accepted that Andranik possessed undisputed authority and superiority in military matters. Such was the popularity of Andranik that he earned among the men he led that they came to refer to him always by his first name – even on a formal basis, when he later held a general's rank in the Imperial Russian Army.

Andranik's first mission as the fedayee leader was to capture and kill Beshara Khalil, a Hamidiye Ottoman Kurd soldier and chief of the Kherzeni tribe who perpetrated Serob's murder. Khalil was supported by the Ottoman government and was notorious for sacking Armenian villages and committing atrocities against the population. Khalil had killed Serob and placed his head on a pole to parade it in the squares of Mush and Bitlis. The aim was to terrorize the Armenian population and demonstrate to the Armenian revolutionaries the consequences of not submitting to the Ottoman and Kurdish aghas. Andranik and his fedayees including Kevork Chavoush captured Khalil after a battle and then killed him.

The most famous battles of Andranik and his fedayees in that period were the Battle of Holy Apostles Monastery of Mush in 1901 and the Second Sasun Resistance in 1904. Andranik's intentions in both cases were to attract the attention of the foreign consuls at Mush to the plight of the Armenian peasants and to provide a glimmer of hope for the oppressed Armenians of the eastern provinces.

While the Turkish forces relentlessly pursued the fedayee on the plain of Mush, on November 20, 1901 Andranik came down from the mountains with 30 fedayees (Kevork Chavush, Hakob Kotoyan and others) and 8-10 peasants from Tsronk village, hardened in constant skirmishes, and barricaded himself in the Holy Apostles Monastery in the southern suburbs of Mush. Five Turkish battalions, commanded by Ferikh and Ali pashas, besieged the well-fortified monastery. The Turkish generals leading the army of twelve hundred men asked the fedayees to negotiate their surrender. During this period the Turkish army had great losses because of cold weather and epidemics.

After the nineteen days' resistance and long negotiations, in which Armenian clergy as well as the headman of Mush and foreign consuls took part, Andranik and his companions succeeded in leaving the Arakelots monastery and fleeing in small groups. According to Leon Trotsky, Andranik, dressed in the uniform of a Turkish officer, "went the rounds of the entire quard, talking to them in excellent Turkish", and "at the same time showing the way out to his own men." Fellow revolutionaries that participated with Andranik during the Battle of Holy Apostles Monastery included Kevork Chavush, Seydo Boghos, Haji Hagop, Haroutiun, and Ghazar. After breaking through the siege of the monastery Andranik gained legendary stature among provincial Armenians. In 1924 Andranik would write in his memoirs that "it was necessary to show to the Turkish and Kurdish peoples, that an Armenian can undertake a gun, that an Armenian heart can fight and protect his rights."

Andranik participated in the Second Sasun Resistance in 1904, then retreated with his men into Iran, resigned from the Dashnaktsutyun and thereafter traveled to Europe, where he participated in the First Balkan War. The outnumbered Armenian fedayees and their victory against the superior Ottoman army resulted in a boost of moral for all Armenians across the empire.

In 1904, after the Second Sasun Resistance, Andranik and his fedayees were forced into exile by local Armenian authorities, and pressured from Armenian leaders to allow temporary peace in the highly volatile eastern vilâyets. He moved to the Caucasus through Iran, where he met leading Armenian intellectuals in Baku and Tiflis. After leaving Russian Caucasus, he traveled in France, Switzerland, Belgium and England, where he was engaged in advocacy in support of the national liberation struggle of the Ottoman Armenians. In 1906, he published a book on military tactics in Geneva.