Commander of the fedayi (1899–1904) First lieutenant (Bulgaria) Major-general (Russia) Commander of the Western Armenian division of the Armenian Army Corps (1918) Commander of the Special Striking Division (1919)
Andranik Ozanian, commonly known as General Andranik or simply Andranik (25 February 1865–31 August 1927), was an Armenian military commander and statesman. He was a leader in the Armenian national liberation movement and widely regarded as the preeminent fedayi.
Andranik joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktustyun) party and, along with other fedayi, sought to defend the Armenian peasantry living in their ancestral homeland, an area known as Western (or Turkish) Armenia—at the time part of the Ottoman Empire. He fled the empire after Ottoman forces suppressed the 1904 Sasun uprising. Three years later, he quit the Dashnaktsutyun over its brief political alliance with the Young Turks—the movement that later carried out the Armenian genocide. When the First Balkan War broke out in 1912, he and Garegin Nzhdeh formed an Armenian volunteer unit inside the Bulgarian army to fight Ottoman troops.
During World War I, Andranik took command of the 1st Armenian Volunteer Battalion in the Russian Imperial Army. He took part in the capture of Van, but the Russian Revolution of 1917 and subsequent troop withdrawal left Armenian forces unsupported. Andranik led a desperate defense of Erzurum in early 1918, but retreated due to shortages and the threat of encirclement. As the retreating Armenian defenders withdrew toward the Caucasus, pursuing Ottoman forces advanced into Eastern Armenia, where their progress was ultimately halted by Armenian regulars, militia, and civilians at the Battle of Sardarabad. Despite the victory, Andranik broke ties with the Armenian National Council and refused to recognize the First Republic of Armenia or the Treaty of Batum, viewing the new state’s borders as a surrender of Western Armenia. Andranik, independently from the Republic of Armenia, fought in Zangezur against the Azerbaijani and Turkish armies, and helped to keep it under local control.
Andranik left Armenia in 1919 due to disagreements with the government, spending his remaining years organizing relief for Armenian refugees in Europe and the United States. He settled in Fresno, California, in 1922, where he died in 1927. Andranik is regarded as a national hero among Armenians. Statues of him stand in several countries, and numerous streets, public squares, poems, and songs bear his name.
Early life
Andranik Ozanian was born on February 25, 1865, in Shabin-Karahisar, in the Sivas Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, to Mariam and Toros Ozanian. Andranik is an Armenian name meaning “first-born child”. His paternal ancestors moved to Shabin-Karahisar from the nearby village of Ozan (now Ozanlı) in the early 18th century to avoid persecution, adopting the surname Ozanian after their home village. After his mother died when he was a year old, his elder sister Nazeli raised him. He attended the local Musheghian School from 1875 to 1882, then worked in his father's carpentry shop. At age 17, he married; his wife died a year later during childbirth, and their infant son died shortly after.
The plight of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire worsened under Sultan Abdul Hamid II. In 1882, Andranik was arrested after assaulting a Turkish gendarme for abusing local Armenians, but escaped with help from friends. He lived in Constantinople between 1884 and 1886, working as a carpenter. He turned to revolutionary activity in Sivas Province in 1888 and joined the Hunchak Party in 1891. On 9 February 1892, he took part in the assassination of Constantinople's police chief, Yusuf Mehmed Bey, a figure known for his anti-Armenianism. Arrested once more, Andranik escaped prison a second time and joined the newly formed Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) later that year. During the 1894–1896 Hamidian massacres, which claimed between 80,000 and 300,000 lives, he and fellow fedayi defended Armenian villages in Mush and Sasun against Ottoman troops and Kurdish Hamidiye cavalry.
In 1897, Andranik traveled to Tiflis, the administrative center of the Caucasus and home to the ARF leadership. He returned to Western Armenia "entrusted with extensive powers, and with a large supply of arms" for local fedayi. Joined by several dozen Russian Armenians, he headed to the Mush–Sasun region to link up with Aghbiur Serob. Serob's forces had already expelled local Ottoman officials, establishing semi-autonomous Armenian enclaves in the area.
In 1899, Kurdish chieftain Bushare Khalil Bey killed Aghbiur Serob, the primary fedayi leader in the region. Months later, Bey's forces raided the Sasun village of Talvorik, killing a priest, two men, and twenty-five women and children. Following Serob’s death, Andranik took command of the irregular units in Mush and Sasun, an area inhabited by a “warlike semi-independent Armenian peasantry.” He tracked down and killed Bey in retaliation; according to contemporary accounts, he beheaded the chieftain and took the Ottoman medal Sultan Abdul Hamid II had awarded Bey. This execution consolidated Andranik's leadership among local fedayi groups.
Small fedayi bands continued their skirmishes with Ottoman forces and Kurdish militias as conditions in Western Armenia declined. Under Article 61 of the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, the Ottoman government was obligated to implement reforms and protect Armenians against attacks by Circassians and Kurds. The Great Powers did not enforce the provision. According to Christopher J. Walker, the attention of the European powers was on Macedonia, while Russia was "in no mood for reactivating the Armenian question.”
In November 1901, the fedayi had an engagement with Ottoman forces in the Battle of Holy Apostles Monastery, which would come to be one of the best-known episodes of Andranik's revolutionary activities. In an attempt by the Ottoman government to suppress his activities, a force of over 5,000 soldiers was dispatched to capture him and his Dashnak soldiers. By early November, a regiment of approximately 1,200 men under the command of Ferikh Pasha and Ali Pasha had tracked and encircled Andranik and around two to three dozen of his followers within the fortified walls of the Arakelots Monastery near Mush. Faced with the monastery's defense by the soldiers, the Turkish generals initiated negotiations, demanding the surrender of the fedayi.
After weeks of resistance and negotiations—in which Armenian clergy and the headman of Mush and foreign consuls took part—Andranik and his companions left the monastery and fled in small groups. According to Leon Trotsky, Andranik—dressed in the uniform of a Turkish officer—"went the rounds of the entire guard, talking to them in excellent Turkish," and "at the same time showing the way out to his own men." After breaking through the siege of the monastery, Andranik gained legendary stature among provincial Armenians. He became so popular that the men he led came to refer to him always by his first name. Andranik intended to attract the attention of the foreign consuls at Mush to the plight of the Armenian peasants and to provide hope for the oppressed Armenians of the eastern provinces. According to Trotsky, Andranik's "political thinking took shape in a setting of Carbonarist activity and diplomatic intrigue."
A 1904 map of the Sasun region, where most of the fighting was concentrated
In 1903, Andranik formally petitioned the Ottoman government to cease its systemic harassment of Armenians and to implement the much-belated and long-promised reforms in the Armenian provinces. At the time, the concentration of fedayi forces centered on the rugged terrain of Sasun, an area encompassing approximately 12,000km2 (4,600sqmi). With an overwhelming Armenian majority—consisting of 1,769 Armenian households to 155 Kurdish ones—the region served as an operational base for the uprising. By late 1903, a rebellion began in Sasun after the Armenian populace refused to pay imperial taxes for seven consecutive years.
To coordinate the defense of these villages against Ottoman and Kurdish incursions, Andranik and several dozen fedayi, including leaders such as Hrayr Dzhoghk and Sebouh Nersesian, held a meeting at the village of Gelieguzan. Andranik suggested a widespread uprising of the Armenians of Taron and Vaspurakan; Hrayr opposed his view and suggested a small, local uprising in Sasun, because the Armenian irregulars lacked resources. Hrayr's suggestion was eventually approved by the council and Andranik was chosen as the main commander of the uprising.
The first clashes commenced in January 1904 with skirmishes between the fedayi and state-supported Kurdish irregulars. In early April, the Ottoman government deployed an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 regular soldiers and 7,000 Kurdish irregulars against a force of 100 to 200 fedayi and roughly 1,000 local volunteers. Heavy fighting ensued in which Hrayr was killed, leaving Andranik to fulfill his role as leader and continue the resistance. Despite their efforts, the Armenians were overwhelmed by the superior numbers and heavy artillery of the Ottoman forces. The uprising was suppressed by May 1904, resulting in between 7,000 and 10,000 civilians killed, 9,000 were left homeless, and 4,000 villagers were forced into internal exile.
According to Christopher J. Walker, the fedayi came “near to organising an uprising and shaking Ottoman power in Armenia”, but “even then it was unthinkable that the empire would lose any of her territory, since the idea of intervention was far from Russia.” Trotsky noted that the conflict went largely ignored by the Great Powers, whose attention was then fixed on the Russo-Japanese War. In a final tactical retreat in late 1904, Andranik and his surviving men reached Lake Van, crossing to Aghtamar Island before escaping to Persia via Van. According to Trotsky, this exodus was an effort to prevent further reprisal killings of civilians, whereas Tsatur Aghayan viewed it as a strategic move to “gather new resources” for the next phase of the struggle. According to Walker, the failed uprising left behind "little more than a heroic memory."
Immigration and conflict with the ARF
Following Andranik's departure from Persia, he traveled to the Caucasus, where he discussed with Armenian leadership in Baku and Tiflis. Subsequently, he left Russia for Europe, dedicating himself to international advocacy for the Armenian national liberation struggle. In 1906, during his stay in Geneva, he published a book on military tactics mainly based on his experiences during the 1904 Sasun uprising.
In early 1907, Andranik traveled to Vienna to attend the fourth Congress of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). Since 1902, the ARF had been engaged in collaborations with Turkish émigré political circles in Europe. During the Vienna Congress, the party formally approved negotiations with the Young Turks—the faction that would later orchestrate the Armenian genocide, in hopes to construct a joint struggle to depose Abdul Hamid. Andranik denounced this, viewing any partnership with the Young Turks as a strategic and moral failure. He would formally sever his ties with the party. This departure proved to be permanent; Andranik never returned to the Dashnaktsutyun, and his deep-seated mistrust of the party’s leadership would complicate his relations with the Armenian government during the aftermath of the Caucasus campaign and the short-lived First Republic of Armenia.
Following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, the ARF attempted to reconcile with Andranik, inviting him to Constantinople and stand for election to the Ottoman parliament. He rejected the offer, reportedly stating, "I don't want to sit there and do nothing". Dissatisfied, Andranik distanced himself from active political and military affairs for several years.
Having settled in Sofia, he established ties with the leadership of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, which included the prominent revolutionary Boris Sarafov. The two leaders pledged to cooperate in their shared struggle for the liberation of the oppressed Armenian and Macedonian peoples. During the First Balkan War (1912–1913), Andranik led a company of about 300 Armenian volunteers as part of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps, serving under Aleksandar Protogerov within the Bulgarian army, against the Ottoman army. He shared command of the unit with Garegin Nzhdeh. While Andranik and his Armenian soldiers fought for the Bulgarians, they were simultaneously pitted against an estimated 8,000 Armenians serving on the opposing side, within the Ottoman army.
Andranik, commissioned as a first lieutenant by the Bulgarian government, distinguished himself in several engagements. Most notably, during the Battle of Merhamli, his unit played a vital role in the capture of the Turkish commander Yaver Pasha. For his conduct during the conflict, he was awarded the Order of Bravery by General Protogerov in 1913.
Despite this, Andranik, much like Nzhdeh and the rest of the Armenians under their command, opposed Bulgaria's policies which led to the Second Balkan War. During that war, Andranik viewed the conflict between Bulgaria and its former Serbian and Greek allies as a departure from the First Balkan War's original purpose. He disbanded his company in May 1913 and withdrew from active duty due to an aggravation of his illness. The Armenian soldiers serving under Andranik and Nzhdeh, along with Armenian civilians in Bulgaria, later found out that Tsar Ferdinand had banned Armenian newspapers in Bulgaria because they had criticized Bulgarian policy. Soon after, Andranik "retired to a village near Varna, and lived as a farmer until August 1914".
World War I
Andranik as commander of the 1st Armenian Volunteer Battalion
While fighting continued on the front, Ottoman authorities carried out the Armenian genocide across the empire. The conflict resulted in the destruction of the Armenian population in Western Armenia, with 600,000 to 1.5 million killed and survivors forced into exile. In the spring of 1915, Armenians in Van held out against a month-long Ottoman siege under Aram Manukian until Armenian volunteer battalions arrived to break the blockade. Andranik entered Van on 19 May 1915. Over the following months, his unit supported Russian forces in taking Shatakh, Moks, and Tatvan south of Lake Van.
In 1916, Russian policy toward Western Armenia changed. As the Imperial Army secured the region, the government sought to annex the territory and resettle it with Cossacks and Russian peasants. Imperial authorities ordered the demobilization of Armenian volunteer units and restricted local civic organizations. Historian Richard Hovannisian wrote that once Russian forces held the region, "there was no longer any need to expend niceties upon the Armenians." Seeing the military campaign as imperial expansion rather than Armenian liberation, Andranik resigned his command and left the front in July 1916. Upon his departure, Lieutenant General Theodore G. Chernozubov called him a "brave and experienced chief" who held strong authority over his men.
The February Revolution of 1917 brought an end to Romanov rule and led the Russian Provisional Government to create the Special Transcaucasian Committee to administer the South Caucasus. That same year in Tiflis, Andranik and editor Vahan Totovents launched the nonpartisan newspaper Hayastan (Armenia). He also organized relief efforts for refugees across the South Caucasus. In May 1917, the Provisional Government established a civilian administration in Western Armenia, but Russian military authority dissolved as soldiers deserted the front lines following the revolution.
The situation had a significant shift following the October Revolution. The Armistice of Erzincan, signed on December 5, 1917, officially ended hostilities between Bolshevik Russia and the Ottoman Empire, accelerating the Russian military withdrawal. Although the Soviet government recognized the Armenian right to self-determination in January the next year, the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918 reversed this stance. Under the treaty, Russia formally ceded Western Armenia to the Ottoman Empire to consolidate its resources for the Russian Civil War.
In December 1917, the Transcaucasian Commissariat authorized the formation of an Armenian Army Corps. Under the command of Nazarbekian, the Corps attempted to hold a 300-mile front stretching from Van to Erzincan. The Caucasus Front command appointed Andranik, who had been promoted to major-general, to lead the Corps' Western Armenian division.Hovannisian, Richard G. (1967). Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p.113. ISBN978-0-520-00574-7. Hovannisian made note of the manpower deficit, stating that the only “several thousand men now defended a 300-mile front formerly secured by a half million Russian regulars.” Following an unsuccessful defense of Erzurum against Ottoman forces, Andranik retreated from the city, prompting a general Armenian evacuation.
The advancing Ottoman army dissolved the civilian administration in Western Armenia during its spring 1918 offensive. After the fall of Erzurum, Andranik led a fighting retreat through Kars, Alexandropol, and Jalaloghli, reaching Dsegh on 18 May. Ottoman troops crossed the pre-war border into Russian Armenia by early April. Cut off from central command and unable to coordinate movements, Andranik's unit missed the May battles at Sardarabad, Abaran, and Karakilisa.
First Republic of Armenia
After Ottoman forces were defeated at Sardarabad, the Armenian National Council declared the independence of Russian Armenia on 28 May 1918. Andranik denounced the Dashnaktsutyun-led council and severed ties with the party, choosing instead to maintain alignment with Russia. Rejecting the legitimacy of the new republic, he called it "a pawn in the grip of [Ottoman] Turkey" and viewed the Treaty of Batum—which accepted severe territorial limits—as treason. Historian Christopher Walker notes that many Western Armenians shared this hostility, regarding the Republic of Armenia as "a dusty province" that lacked the historic Armenian homeland in the Ottoman Empire.
In early June 1918, Andranik marched out of Dilijan alongside thousands of refugees. Moving through Sevan, Nor Bayazet, and Vayots Dzor, his column reached Nakhichevan on 17 June. He tried to push south toward Khoy, Iran, to assist refugees from Van and link up with British forces in Mesopotamia, but Ottoman troops turned back his advance, forcing him to retreat to Nakhichevan. On 14 July 1918, he declared Nakhichevan an integral territory of Soviet Russia—a declaration endorsed by Vladimir Lenin and Armenian Bolshevik leader Stepan Shahumyan.
Zangezur
Andranik with the commanders of the Special Striking Division in Zangezur, 1918
When Ottoman troops advanced on Nakhichevan, Andranik moved his Special Striking Division into the mountainous Zangezur region to establish defensive positions. Interethnic conflict between local Armenians and Azerbaijanis had intensified sharply by mid-1918. Arriving with 3,000 to 5,000 fighters and roughly 30,000 refugees, Andranik secured military and administrative control over Zangezur by September. The territory formed a vital strategic corridor linking Turkey and Azerbaijan; under his command, it turned into the principal stronghold of Armenian armed resistance after the Treaty of Batum.
Muslim villages along key transit routes initially isolated Andranik's forces inside Zangezur. Historian Donald Bloxham states that Andranik engaged in ethnic cleansing, destroying Muslim villages to alter the region's demographics and create a homogeneous Armenian territory. By late 1918, Azerbaijan formally accused his forces of massacring Azerbaijani peasants and requested their immediate withdrawal. Conversely, biographer Antranig Chalabian argues that Andranik's military presence protected Zangezur's 60,000 Armenian residents from destruction by Turco-Tatar forces.
Andranik's actions drew a formal condemnation from the Ottoman General Halil Pasha, who threatened the Armenian government with military retaliation. In response, Prime Minister Hovhannes Katchaznouni stated that the central government was not affiliated with and had no authority over Andranik or his forces.
Karabakh
The signing of the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918 triggered an Ottoman withdrawal from the South Caucasus. By late October, Andranik concentrated his Special Striking Division on the border of Zangezur and Karabakh. Seeking local endorsement before advancing, he consulted Karabakh Armenian leaders, who asked him to delay his offensive by ten days to allow negotiations with the region's Muslim inhabitants. Historian Richard Hovannisian writes that this delay "proved crucial" to the campaign's outcome. When Andranik launched his offensive in late November, his troops overcame Kurdish resistance at Abdallyar (Lachin) and advanced toward Shusha, the administrative center of Karabakh.
By early December, Andranik had advanced within 40km (25 miles) of Shusha when General W. M. Thomson, the British commander in Baku, ordered him to halt. Thomson requested an immediate withdrawal, stating that post-armistice hostilities would harm the Armenian cause at the upcoming Paris Peace Conference. Trusting British diplomatic assurances, Andranik halted the advance and returned to Zangezur.
The Armenian Karabakh Council assumed regional administration but quickly clashed with British authority. Upon arriving in December, Thomson ordered the council to limit its work to "local, nonpolitical matters," provoking widespread opposition from the Armenian population. Thomson then named Khosrov bey Sultanov, an "ardent pan-Turkist," governor of Karabakh and Zangezur. Historian Christopher J. Walker writes that Karabakh remained part of Azerbaijan throughout the Soviet era primarily because "Andranik's trust of the word of a British officer" led him to abandon the campaign.
Departure
Andranik with his men and two archbishops in Etchmiadzin Cathedral just before leaving Armenia, April 1919
Heavy snowfalls isolated Zangezur from Karabakh and Yerevan during the winter of 1918–1919. Overcrowding from refugee influxes caused widespread famine, epidemics, and hyperinflation across the district. After withdrawing from Karabakh to Goris in December 1918, Andranik met with British officers who advised him to winter his troops in Zangezur. On 23 December, local Armenian leaders met and determined the region could not support the refugee population through the winter without external aid. They proposed moving over 15,000 refugees back to Nakhichevan, which Ottoman troops had recently evacuated. Major W. D. Gibbon brought financial relief raised by Armenians in Baku, but the funds fell far short of local needs.
Andranik prepared to leave Zangezur by late February 1919. Declining a British offer to travel on the Baku–Tiflis railway, he chose to march on foot. On 22 March 1919, he led his remaining irregulars out of Goris, passing through Sisian and Daralagyaz toward the Ararat plain. After three weeks on the march, his force arrived at the railway station in Davalu, where Drastamat Kanayan and Assistant Minister of Internal AffairsSargis Manasyan met him. Andranik refused their invitation to visit Yerevan, maintaining that the Dashnak leadership had betrayed the Armenian cause and caused the loss of Western Armenia. His departure left Zangezur exposed to Azerbaijani attack, even as local commanders urged the central government for reinforcements.
Andranik arrived in Etchmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church, on 13 April 1919. His division had dwindled from 5,000 men to 1,350. Unable to reconcile his differences with the British military command and the Republic's government, Andranik disbanded his unit and formally surrendered its weapons and equipment to CatholicosGeorge V. Accompanied by fifteen officers, he departed Etchmiadzin by train for Tiflis on 27 April, drawing crowds at stops along the line. In Tiflis, he discussed the recent Armeno-Georgian War with Georgian Foreign Minister Evgeni Gegechkori, using poet Hovhannes Tumanyan as an interpreter. This trip was his final departure from Armenia.
Last years
Between 1919 and 1922, Andranik traveled across Europe and the United States to lobby for Armenian refugees. Visiting Paris and London, he urged Allied leaders to occupy Western Armenia. French President Raymond Poincaré appointed him an Officer of the Legion of Honor during his 1919 visit to Paris. Late that year, Andranik led a delegation to the United States alongside General Yakov Bagratuni and Hovhannes Kajaznuni to rally political support for an American mandate over Armenia and secure funding for the Armenian military. In Fresno, California, he led a fundraising drive that collected US$500,000 for refugee relief.
Upon returning to Europe, Andranik married Nevarte Kurkjian in Paris on 15 May 1922, with Boghos Nubar serving as best man. Later that year, the couple moved to the United States and settled in Fresno. In his 1936 short story "Antranik of Armenia," Armenian–American writer William Saroyan recalled Andranik's arrival at the Southern Pacific depot, noting that "it looked as if all Armenians of California were at the station that day." Saroyan described him as "a man of about fifty in a neat Armenian suit of clothes... a little under six feet tall, very solid and very strong," with a white mustache and a facial expression "both ferocious and kind." In Fresno, Andranik stayed for several months with the family of future economist Armen Alchian. Khachik Dashtents depicted this period in his 1979 novel Call of the Plowmen («Ռանչպարների կանչը»), portraying Andranik—under the name Shapinand—spending his free time crafting small wooden chairs.
Hoping to improve his failing health, Andranik moved from Fresno to San Francisco in February 1926. He died from angina on 31 August 1927 at Richardson Springs, California, according to Butte County, California public records. Thousands gathered on 7 September for his funeral service at Holy Trinity Church, after which the procession moved to Ararat Cemetery. Next month, on 9 October, more than 2,500 Armenians attended a memorial service held in his honor at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
After his first funeral, it was planned to take Andranik's remains to Armenia for final burial; however, when they arrived in France, the Soviet authorities refused permission to allow his remains to enter Soviet Armenia. Instead, they remained in France and, after a second funeral service held in the Armenian Church of Paris, were buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris on 29 January 1928.
In 2000, the Armenian and French governments arranged to transfer Andranik's remains from Paris to Yerevan, an initiative launched by Armenian Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan. Following their arrival on 17 February, his remains lay in state at the Karen Demirchyan Sport and Concert Complex before being moved to Etchmiadzin Cathedral, where Karekin II conducted a funeral service. On 20 February 2000, Andranik was re-interred at the Yerablur military pantheon beside Sargsyan. Speaking at the ceremony, President Robert Kocharyan called Andranik "one of the greatest sons of the Armenian nation." The reburial was attended by Prime Minister Aram Sargsyan, Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, and 102-year-old veteran Grigor Ghazarian, who had served under Andranik. A monument erected over his grave bears the inscription Zoravar Hayots ("General of the Armenians").
Legacy and recognition
Public image
"General Andranik, the great Armenian leader, who is our national hero [...] For many years General Andranik kept alive the courage of all Armenians. He promised them freedom and constantly endangered his life to keep up the spirits of my people."
Andranik was considered a hero during his lifetime. The Literary Digest described Andranik in 1920 as "the Armenian's Robin Hood, Garibaldi, and Washington, all in one." The Independent wrote that he is "worshipped by his countrymen for his heroic fighting in their defense against the Turks." Andranik was praised by Armenian writer Hovhannes Tumanyan, while Armenian Bolshevik Anastas Mikoyan once wrote that "the name of Andranik was surrounded by an aura of glory."
During the Soviet era, Andranik's legacy and those of other Armenian national heroes were diminished and "any reference to them would be dangerous since they represented the strive for independence." However, during the Khrushchev thaw, Soviet Armenian authorities began a limited "rehabilitation" of Andranik. The initiative was supported by Mikoyan and Marshal Ivan Bagramyan, both of whom had served under Andranik's command at one point. In 1963, Soviet Armenian poet Paruyr Sevak wrote an essay about Andranik after reading one of his soldier's notes. Sevak wrote that his generation knew "little about Andranik, almost nothing." He continued, "knowing nothing about Andranik means to know nothing about modern Armenian history."
In 1965, Soviet Armenia marked the centenary of Andranik's birth. Soviet historians highlighted his break with the ARF and his pledge of allegiance to Stepan Shaumian's Baku Commune. However, his official rehabilitation faced opposition in Soviet Azerbaijan, where critics accused him of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijani civilians during the 1918–1919 conflicts in Transcaucasia. Marshal Ivan Bagramyan defended Andranik against these claims, arguing that Azerbaijani nationalists had "misled the Azerbaijani public." Consequently, as historian Arsène Saparov notes, Andranik occupied an ambiguous place in late Soviet memory: "it was no longer taboo to mention him but neither was he officially celebrated."
Today, Andranik is considered a national hero among Armenians worldwide. He is also seen as a legendary figure in Armenian culture. In a series of polls in Armenia from 2006 to 2008, Andranik consistently placed second after Vazgen Sargsyan in the list of Armenian national heroes and leaders.
Andranik's activities have also attracted occasional criticism. He has generally been seen as a pro-Russian and pro-Soviet figure; prompting the scholar-turned-political activist Rafael Ishkhanyan to criticize him for constant reliance on Russia. Ishkhanyan characterized Andranik and Hakob Zavriev as leaders of the stream within Armenian political thought unconditionally reliant on Russia. He contrasted them with Aram Manukian and his self-reliant stance. Ruben Angaladyan voiced his opposition to the erection of a statue of Andranik in Yerevan, arguing that he does not deserve one in the national capital because he did not contribute substantially to the First Republic and ultimately left Armenia. While Angaladyan acknowledges Andranik as a popular hero, he considers it inappropriate to call him a national hero.
Memorials
Statues and memorials of Andranik have been erected around the world, including in Bucharest, Romania (1936), Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris (1945), Melkonian Educational Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus (1990), Le Plessis-Robinson, Paris (2005), Varna, Bulgaria (2011), and Armavir, Russia. A memorial exists in Richardson Springs, California, where Andranik died. In May 2011, a statue of Andranik was erected in Volonka village near Sochi, Russia; however, it was removed the same day, apparently under pressure from Turkey, which earlier announced that they would boycott the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics if the statue remained standing.
The first statue of Andranik in Armenia was erected in 1967 in the village of Ujan. Another early statue in Armenia was erected in Voskehask, near Gyumri, in 1969. More statues have been erected after Armenia's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991; three of which can be found in the Armenian capital of Yerevan—in Malatia-Sebastia district (2000); near the St. Gregory Cathedral (by Ara Shiraz, 2002); and outside the Fedayi Movement Museum (2006) in the Armenian capital Yerevan. Elsewhere in Armenia, Andranik's statues stand in Voskevan and Navur villages of Tavush, in Gyumri's Victory Park (1994), Arteni, and Angeghakot, among other places.
Numerous streets and squares both inside and outside Armenia, including in Córdoba, Argentina, Plovdiv and Varna in Bulgaria, Meudon, Paris and a section of Connecticut Route 314 state highway running entirely within Wethersfield, Connecticut are named after Andranik. General Andranik Station of the Yerevan Metro was opened in 1989 as Hoktemberyan Station and was renamed for Andranik in 1992. In 1995, General Andranik's Museum was founded in Komitas Park of Yerevan, but was soon closed because the building was privatized. It was reopened on 16 September 2006, by Ilyich Beglarian as the Museum of Armenian Fedayi Movement, named after Andranik.
According to Patrick Wilson, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War Andranik "inspired a new generation of Armenians." A volunteer regiment from Masis named "General Andranik" operated in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh during the conflict.
Many organizations and groups in the Armenian diaspora are named after Andranik. On 11 September 2012, during the Bulgaria vs. Armenia football match in Sofia's Levski National Stadium, Armenian fans brought a giant poster with pictures of General Andranik and Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan, who was murdered in 2004 by Azerbaijani lieutenant Ramil Safarov. The text on the poster read, "Andranik's children are also heroes... The work will be done." In the Armenian Youth Federation Eastern Region, the Granite City chapter is named "Antranig" in Andranik's honor.
The 65 page manuscripts of General Andranik, the only known memoir written by him, were returned to Armenia in May 2014 and sent to the History Museum of Armenia through Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosyan, almost a century after Andranik had parted with them.
Andranik has been figured prominently in the Armenian literature, sometimes as a fictional character. The Western Armenian writer Siamanto wrote a poem entitled "Andranik", which was published in Geneva in 1905. The first book about Andranik was published during his lifetime. In 1920, Vahan Totovents, under the pen name Arsen Marmarian, published the book Gen. Andranik and His Wars (Զոր. Անդրանիկ և իր պատերազմները) in Entente-occupied Constantinople. The famed Armenian-American writer William Saroyan wrote a short story titled Antranik of Armenia, which was included in his collection of short stories Inhale and Exhale (1936). Another US-based Armenian writer Hamastegh's novel The White Horseman (Սպիտակ Ձիավորը, 1952) was based on Andranik and other fedayi. Hovhannes Shiraz, one of the most prominent Armenian poets of the 20th century, wrote at least two poems about Andranik; one in 1963 and another in 1967. The latter one, titled Statue to Andranik (Արձան Անդրանիկին), was published in 1991 after Shiraz's death. Sero Khanzadyan's novel Andranik was suppressed for years and was published in 1989 when the tight Soviet control over publications was relaxed. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, author Suren Sahakyan collected folk stories and completed a novel, "Story about Andranik" (Ասք Անդրանիկի մասին). It was first published in Yerevan in 2008.
Andranik's name has been memorialized in numerous songs. In 1913, Leon Trotsky described Andranik as "a hero of song and legend." Italian diplomat and historian Luigi Villari wrote in 1906 that he met a priest from Turkish Armenia in Erivan who "sang the war-song of Antranik, the leader of Armenian revolutionary bands in Turkey." Andranik is one of the main figures featured in Armenian patriotic songs, performed by Nersik Ispiryan, Harout Pamboukjian and others. There are dozens of songs dedicated to him, including Like an Eagle by gusanSheram, 1904 and Andranik pasha by gusan Hayrik. Andranik also features in the popular song The Bravehearts of the Caucasus (Կովկասի քաջեր) and other pieces of Armenian patriotic folklore.
Several documentaries about Andranik have been produced; these include Andranik (1929) by Armena-Film in France, directed by Asho Shakhatuni, who also played the main role; General Andranik (1990) directed by Levon Mkrtchyan, narrated by Khoren Abrahamyan; and Andranik Ozanian, a 53-minute-long documentary by the Public Television of Armenia.
Awards
Through his military career, Andranik was awarded with a number of medals and orders by governments of four countries. Andranik's medals and sword were moved to Armenia and given to the History Museum of Armenia in 2006.
Առաքելոց վանքին կռիւը (Հայ յեղափոխութենէն դրուագ մը) [The Battle of Arakelots (An Episode of Armenian Revolution)]. Boston: Baikar. 1924. Memoirs of Andranik written down by Levon K. Lyulejian.
References
Notes
↑Andranik was given the rank of a major-general by the command of the Caucasus Front, a formation of the army of the dissolved Russian Republic.
↑Զօրավար Անդրանիկ in classical spelling, Զորավար Անդրանիկ in reformed, Zoravar Andranik.
↑Armenian: Անդրանիկ. Also spelled Antranik or Antranig
↑Some sources mistakenly indicate 1866 as Andranik's date of birth. 1866 is also engraved on his grave in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Some sources also erroneously indicate 1928 as his date of death, perhaps because Andranik's body was moved to France and reburied there in 1928.
↑From the Arabic word fedayeen (فدائيون, fidā'īyūn), literally meaning “those who sacrifice”, fedayi refers to Armenian volunteer irregular militia members who fought to defend their villages and national interests during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
12Libaridian, Gerard J. (1991). Armenia at the Crossroads: Democracy and Nationhood in the Post-Soviet Era. Watertown, Massachusetts: Blue Crane Books. p.20. ISBN978-0-9628715-1-1.
↑Sarkisyanz, Manuel (1975). A Modern History of Transcaucasian Armenia: Social, Cultural, and Political. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill. p.140. OCLC8305411.
↑Nalbandian, Louise (2018). The Armenian Revolutionary Movement: The Development of Armenian Political Parties Through the Nineteenth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press. p.116. ISBN978-0-520-30385-0.
↑Vardanian, Mikayel (1931). Մուրատ (Սեբաստացի ռազմիկին կյանքն ու գործը) [Murad (The Sebastatsi Fighter's Life and Case] (in Armenian). Boston: Hairenik Association. p.96.
12Chalabian, Antranig (June 1995). "Bold and fiercely determined, Andranik Ozanian spent most of his life as a revolutionary for his fellow Armenians". Military History Monthly. 12 (2): 10.
↑Marie-Aude Baronian; Stephan Besser; Yolande Jansen (2007). Diaspora and Memory: Figures of Displacement in Contemporary Literature, Arts and Politics. Rodopi. p.174. ISBN978-90-420-2129-7.
↑Shirinian, Lorne (1992). The Republic of Armenia and the rethinking of the North-American Diaspora in literature. E. Mellen Press. p.ix. ISBN978-0-7734-9613-2.
↑Nichanian, Marc (2002). Writers of Disaster: Armenian Literature in the Twentieth Century. Vol.1. Princeton, New Jersey: Gomidas Institute. p.236. ISBN978-1-903656-09-9.
↑Khanbabyan, Armen (22 February 2000). Перезахоронен прах героя[The remains of the hero were reburied]. Nezavisimaya Gazeta (in Russian). Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
123Saparov, Arsène (2018). "Re-negotiating the Boundaries of the Permissible: The National(ist) Revival in Soviet Armenia and Moscow's Response". Europe-Asia Studies. 70 (6): 873–874.
↑Peterson, Merrill D. (2004). "Starving Armenians": America and the Armenian genocide, 1915–1930 and After. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. p.87. ISBN978-0-8139-2267-6.
↑Dadrian, Vahakn N. (2004). Warrant for Genocide: Key Elements of Turko-Armenian Conflict. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. p.109. ISBN978-1-4128-4119-1.
12First published in English in Ishkhanian, Rafael (1991). "The Law of Excluding the Third Force". In Libaridian, Gerard (ed.). Armenia at the Crossroads: Democracy and Nationhood in the Post-Soviet Era. Watertown, MA: Blue Crane. pp.20–21.
↑"Jumelage avec Arapkir" (in French). City Hall of Plessis Robinson. 26 April 2006. Archived from the original on 24 June 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014. Square des Martyrs, s'élève le buste d'un des grands libérateurs de l'Arménie, le général Andranik.
↑Gore, Patrick Wilson (2008). 'Tis Some Poor Fellow's Skull: Post-Soviet Warfare in the Southern Caucasus. iUniverse. p.17. ISBN978-0-595-60775-4.
↑Arakelyan, Serzh (12–19 January 2011). "Հրեղեն ոգու կանչը [Call of the fiery spirit]" (in Armenian). Hay Zinvor # (806), the Defense Ministry of Armenia. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
Chalabian, Antranig (1988). General Andranik and the Armenian Revolutionary Movement. Southfield, Michigan: Antranig Chalabian.
Chalabian, Antranig (2009). Dro (Drastamat Kanayan): Armenia's First Defense Minister of the Modern Era. Los Angeles: Indo-European Publishing. ISBN978-1-60444-078-2.
Karapetyan, H. (1996). "Անդրանիկ (Andranik)". Հայկական հարց» հանրագիտարան ["Armenian question" Encyclopedia] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Armenian Encyclopedia Publishing. (archived link)
Զօրավար Անդրանիկի կովկասեան ճակատի պատմական օրագրութիւնը 1914–1917 [Historic Timeline of Caucasian Front of General Andranik] (in Armenian). Boston: Baikar. 1924.
Aharonyan, Vardges (1957). Անդրանիկ. մարդը եւ ռազմիկը [Andranik: the man and the soldier] (in Armenian). Boston: Hairenik. OCLC47085812.
Chalabian, Antranig (1986). Զօրավար Անդրանիկ Եւ Հայ Յեղափոխական Շարժումը [General Andranik and the Armenian Revolutionary Movement] (in Armenian). Beirut: Donikian Press.
Antranig, Chalabian (1990). Զօրավար Անդրանիկ Եւ Հայ Յեղափոխական Շարժումը [General Andranik and the Armenian Revolutionary Movement] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Ա. հ.
Garibdzhanian, Gevorg (1990). Ժողովրդական հերոս Անդրանիկ [Andranik the Popular Hero] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Hayastan Publishing. OCLC26596860.
National Archives of Armenia (1991). Андраник Озанян. документы и материалы [Andranik Ozanian: documents and materials] (in Russian). Yerevan: National Archives of Armenia.
Aghayan, Tsatur (1997). Андраник и его эпоха[Andranik and his era] (in Armenian). Moscow: Международный гуманитарный фонд арменоведения им. Ц. П. Агояна. ISBN5-7801-0050-0.
Grigoryan, Ashot (2002–2004). "Անդրանիկագիտական Հանդես Andranikological Review" (Document) (in Armenian). Yerevan: Ashot Grigoryan.
Simonyan, Ruben (2006). Անդրանիկ. Սիբիրական վաշտի ոդիսականը [Andranik: The Siberian company's odyssey] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Voskan Yerevantsi. OCLC76872489.
Andreasyan, Vazken (1982). Անդրանիկ(PDF) (in Armenian). Beirut, Lebanon: Tonikyan.
