First Balkan War
Andranik finally settled in Bulgaria in 1907. During the 4th Congress of Armenian Revolutionary Federation in 1907, Andranik announced about his decision to leave the party, because of the disagreement with management actions aimed at establishing cooperation with the Young Turks.
In Sofia Andranik met revolutionist Boris Sarafov and the two pledged themselves to work jointly for the oppressed peoples of Armenia and Macedonia. Andranik participated in the First Balkan War of 1912–1913, within the Bulgarian army, alongside Garegin Nzhdeh as a Chief Commander of 12th Battalion of Lozengrad Third Brigade of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan militia under the command of Colonel Aleksandar Protogerov. His detachment consisted of 273 Armenian volunteers.
On October 20, 1912 the Bulgarian Second Army, composed of Macedonian-Adrianopolitan militia and Andranik's volunteer detachment, tight circle around Edirne and surrendered Yaver Pasha's forces. On November 4, 1912 the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan militia with the support of Andranik's volunteer detachment defeated numerically exceeding Turks near Momchilgrad. On January 6, 1913, in a small town church in Rodosto, Aleksandar Protogerov awarded all Armenian fighters for bravery. Andranik Ozanyan was honored with the Order of Bravery.
Leon Trotsky in his correspondence from a Balkan battlefield wrote:
... at the head of the Armenian volunteer troops formed in Sofia stood Andranik, the hero of song and legend ... The Armenians were under his command, the Turks were afraid of him, Sultan's troops pursued his footsteps ... He's great in his dark gray khaki suit and high astrakhan hat and soldier boots, which sticks out from the whip, the symbol of informal power. On the side of his glasses and Browning on the chest - a whole bunch of tape with the words: "Freedom or Death", it is - a gift from Armenian women of the Committee of the Red Cross ..."I'm not a nationalist -he says in explanation of his campaign, I only recognize one nation: the nation of the oppressed.
In mid-June 1913, he retired to Galata, Varna, on the Black Sea, where he lived with his sister until 1914, the outbreak of World War I. Foreseeing war between Bulgaria and Serbia, Andranik disbanded his men, for he would only fight against the Turks. He retired to a village in Armenia, living there as a farmer until the World War I began.
Read more about this topic: Andranik Ozanian
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“... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
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