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Armenian National Liberation Movement (1860-1922)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armeni...ation_movement







Armenian national liberation movement was the first act to liberate Armenia since 1045 when Armenia was lost and Armenian kingdom of Cilicia in 1375.
















Date: circa 17th Century – 1922 (~60 years)

Location: Ottoman Empire (Western Armenia, Cilicia) Russian Empire (mostly the Caucasus)

Result: Partial and temporary Armenian success



-Internalization of the Armenian Question by 1878
-Armenian Genocide in 1915
-Establishment of the Republic of Armenia in 1918
-Turkish Armenia given to Armenia by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 Western Armenia given to Turkey in 1921
-Sovietization of Armenia from 1920–22





Influenced by the Age of Enlightenment and the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire, the Armenian national movement developed in the early 1860s. The factors contributing to its emergence made the movement similar to that of the Balkan nations, especially the Greeks.The Armenian élite and various militant groups sought to improve and defend the mostly rural Armenian population of the eastern Ottoman Empire from the Muslims, but the ultimate goal was to push for reforms in the Six Vilayets at first and after this failed, the creation of an Armenian state in the Armenian-populated areas controlled at the time by the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire.

Since the late 1880s, the movement turned into an armed conflict (guerrilla warfare) with the Ottoman government and the Kurdish irregulars in the eastern regions of the empire, led by the three Armenian political parties named Hnchak, Armenakan and Dashnak. Armenians generally saw Russia as their natural ally in the fight against Turks, however, Russians as well maintained an oppressive policy in the Caucasus. Only after losing its presence in Europe after the Balkan Wars, the Ottoman government was forced to sign the Armenian reform package in early 1914, pushed by European power and Russia, however, World War I disrupted it.

During World War I, the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were systematically exterminated by the government in the Armenian Genocide. According to some estimates, from 1894 to 1923, about 1,500,000—2,000,000 Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire. After the decision to exterminate the Armenians was taken by the Ottoman Ministry of Interior and first implemented with the Directive 8682 on February 25, 1915, tens of thousands of Russian Armenians joined the Russian army as Armenian volunteer units with a Russian promise for autonomy. By 1917, Russia controlled many Armenian-populated areas of the Ottoman Empire. After the October Revolution, however, the Russian troops retreated and left the Armenians irregulars one on one with the Turks. The Armenian National Council proclaimed the Republic of Armenia on May 28, 1918, thus establishing an Armenian state in the Armenian-populated parts of the Southern Caucasus.

By 1920, the Bolshevik Government in Russia and Ankara Government had successfully came to power in their respective countries. The Turkish revolutionaries successfully occupied western half of Armenia, while the Red Army invaded and annexed the Republic of Armenia in December 1920. A friendship treaty was signed between Bolshevik Russia and Kemalist Turkey in 1921. The formerly Russian-controlled parts of Armenia were mostly annexed by the Soviet Union, in parts of which the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was established. Hundreds of thousands of genocide refugees found themselves in the Middle East, Greece, France and the US giving start to a new era of the Armenian diaspora. Soviet Armenia existed until 1991, when the Soviet Union disintegrated and the current (Third) Republic of Armenia was established.











Up-Coming: Zeitun Rebellion (1895–96)

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Zeitun Rebellion (1895–96)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitun...lion_(1895–96)










The Zeitun Rebellion or Second Zeitun Resistance (Զեյթունի երկրորդ գոյամարտը), took place in the winter of 1895–1896, during the Hamidian massacres(Համիդյան ջարդեր), when the Armenians of Zeitun (modern Süleymanlı), fearing the prospect of massacre, took up arms to defend themselves from Ottoman troops.











Date: October 1895 – January 1896
Location: Zeitun, Aleppo Vilayet
Result: Armenian victory


Belligerents:
Hunchak Party(Սոցիալ Դեմոկրատ Հնչակյան Կուսակցություն)
Vs
Ottoman Empire


Commanders and leaders:
Armenians
Aghasi (Karapet Ter-Sargsian)
Ghazar Shovroian
Vs
Ottoman Empire
Ali Bey
Mustafa Remzi Pasha
Edhem Pasha



Strength:
Armenians
1,500 - 6,000 armed militia

Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Fifth Army Corps
28,000 Turkish troops, 30,000 Muslim irregulars, 12 cannons.
Total of 58,000 soldiers.


Casualties and losses:
Armenians
Very light

Ottoman Empire
5,000-20,000 soldiers








In the first half of the nineteenth century, the central government decided to bring this region of the empire under tighter control and attempted to do this by settling Muslims in the villages around Zeitun. This strategy ultimately proved ineffective and in the summer of 1862 the Ottomans sent a military contingent of 12,000 men to Zeitun to reassert government control. The force, however, was held at bay by the Armenians and, through French mediation, the first Zeitun resistance was brought to a close.

The Ottoman government was nevertheless upset with the results of the mediation. In the following decades, it once more resolved to bring the area under control by provoking Zeitun's Armenians: newly stationed government troops harassed the population and frequent calls for their massacre were issued by a number of Turks. Between the years 1891 and 1895, activists from the Armenian Social Democrat Hunchakian Party visited Cilicia and established a new branch in Zeitun and encouraged the Armenians to resist the oppressive measures of the Ottoman government. It was also at this time that the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, decided finally to eliminate one of the only strongholds of Armenian autonomy during the Armenian massacres of 1895–1896.

As the governor of the province was removed and replaced by Avni Bey, a man who held a deep-seated hatred for Armenians, orders were given on October 24, 1895, by Ottoman authorities to use the troops to begin razing several of the Armenians villages near Zeitun.





Զեյթունի երկրորդ գոյամարտը:


The Armenian citizens of Zeitun, under the leadership of the Hunchakian Party, heard of the ongoing massacres in nearby regions, and thus prepared themselves for armed resistance. Between 1,500 to 6,000 men, armed with flintlock guns and Martini-Henry rifles, were sent to the battlefield and sixteen Armenians were selected to head an administrative body during the siege. With this, the Ottoman military commander sent a wire to Abdul Hamid and told him that the Armenians had started an uprising and were proceeding to massacre Muslims. The Ottoman forces possessed an overwhelming numerical and technological advantage: the entire force consisted of 24 battalions (20,000 troops), twelve cannons, 8,000 men from the Zeibek Division from Smyrna, and 30,000 Kurdish and Circassian irregulars.

The Armenians started by conquering the nearby Ottoman garrison, taking 600 Ottoman soldiers and officers as prisoners and placing them under the surveillance of Armenian women. At one point, the prisoners attempted to escape, but failed and were executed. Ottoman troops were repeatedly defeated in their engagements with the Armenian militia. During the negotiations that later settled the conflict, an Ottoman military commander expressed his admiration to Aghasi, one of the leaders of the resistance, for the Armenians' accurate marksmanship and their determination to resist.









Monument to Zeitun resistance at the Surp Kevork Church, Aleppo, Syria.

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Battle of Holy Apostles Monastery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle...tles_Monastery











The Battle of Holy Apostles Monastery (Առաքելոց վանքի կռիվը) was an armed conflict between Ottoman Empire's forces and the Armenian militia in Holy Apostles Monastery near Mush, in November 1901. Andranik Ozanian's intentions 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.








Early 20th century photograph of Holy Apostles Monastery, where the battle took place.






Date: November 3–27, 1901
Location: Holy Apostles Monastery Mush, Ottoman Empire
Result: Armenian victory



Belligerents:
Armenian fedayi
Vs
Ottoman Empire


Commanders and leaders:
Andranik Ozanian
Kevork Chavush
Vs
Ferikh pasha
Ali pasha



Strength:
Armenian fedayi
30–38

Ottoman Empire
6,000



Casualties and losses:
Armenian fedayi
3

Ottoman Empire
1,800




The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party and Armenian Revolutionary Federation were two Armenian organizations of Armenian national movement active in the region. In 1894, Sultan Abdul Hamid II began to target the Armenian people in a precursor of the Hamidian massacres. This persecution strengthened nationalistic sentiment among Armenians.

In 1899 several Armenian fedayee commanders were killed, and Andranik Ozanian was charged with the leadership of all the partisan sources in Sasun district, in Bitlis Vilayet. His name became famous. Under Andranik's command were thirty-eight villages




While the Turkish forces relentlessly pursued the fedayeen 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.

An entire regiment of 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.





After breaking out of the Arakelots Monastery, Andranik gained legendary stature among provincial Armenians. "Andranik is not a human being, he is a ghost", Turks used to say after he disappeared. The Kurds believed that when at night Andranik took off his coat, many bullets fell from it. Andranik commanded during 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. Andranik published his memoirs, The Battle of Holy Apostles' Monastery, in 1924 in Boston.




<<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, 1924




The New York Times report on the battle

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Khanasor Expedition (1897)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khanasor_Expedition









The Khanasor Expedition ( Խանասորի արշավանքը) was an offensive of Armenian fedayees against the Kurdish Mazrik tribe on July 25, 1897. In 1896, in the aftermath of the Defense of Van, the Mazrik tribe had ambushed and slaughtered many of the Armenian defenders of Van as they were retreating into Persia. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation decided to retaliate for that atrocity, resulting in the Khanasor Expedition.







Date: July 25 to July 27, 1897
Location: Plain of Khanasor Van Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Result: Armenian victory


Belligerents:
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
assisted by Hunchaks and Armenakans
Vs
Mazrik tribe of Khanasor


Commanders and leaders:
Sargis Mehrabyan
Nikol Duman
Nikoghayos Mikaelian
Vs
Sharaf Beg



Strength:
250 fedayees
Vs
The entire tribe




About a year after the events of the Ottoman Bank takeover, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation decided to retaliate and "punish" the Kurdish Mazrik tribe for its role in the Hamidian massacres and its ambush on the defenders of Van. The Mazrik tribe were camped in the fields of Khanasor, near Avarayr. The ARF, with the support of the Hunchakians and the Armenakans, organized an attack on the tribe. The operation was the brainchild of Nikol Duman alongside "Khanasora" Vartan Mehrpanian and Ishkhan Arghoutian, all of whom participated as commanders of the operation. Among the Armenian soldiers also there were disagreements. For their settlement the party sent in Tavriz Harutiun Shahrigian and as a result they come to conclusion of holding an action. On 25 July 1897, at dawn, 250 Armenian fedayees attacked the Mazrik tribe, killing all the men and sparing only the women and children. The Mazrik chief, Sharaf Beg, managed to escape by wearing women's clothing. The attack ended on 27 July 1897.




The Khanasor expedition was a small triumph for the Armenians, both militarily and morally. As a result, Armenians built up their self-confidence; their belief in their ability to defend themselves was now reinforced. To this day, the ARF remembers the event in commemorative ceremonies honouring the expedition as an important event in the history of the Armenian struggle for freedom.

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For those who are interested in such matters.

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Historical Battles: Battle of Sardarabad (1918)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sardarabad










The battle of Sardarabad holds a special place in Armenian historical memory and is often compared to the 451 A.D. Battle of Avarayr. Leaders of the First Republic frequently invoked the name of the battle, exhorting their people to aspire to the example of those who had fought and participated in it.

The battle was seldom mentioned or given little significance in Soviet historiography until after the death of Joseph Stalin. In the mid-1960s, a number of Soviet historians began to highlight its importance, as well as that of Bash Abaran and Karakilisa.The Soviet military historian Evgenii F. Ludshuvet, for example, emphasized that these battles, fought by the "Armenian Dashnak forces", helped slow down the Turkish advance on Baku and helped relieve some pressure against that city. Notable Soviet Armenian literary figures such as Hovhannes Shiraz and Paruyr Sevak, whose work "Sardarapat" was turned into a popular song, composed songs and wrote poems that lionized the Armenian fighters.







The memorial dedicated to the Armenian victory at the Battle of Sardarabad near Araks, Armavir, Armenia





The Armenians attempted to stall the Ottoman advance as they created a small Armenian army to take up the positions the Russians had abandoned. General Tovmas Nazarbekian was selected as its commanding officer and Drastamat Kanayan was appointed as civilian commissar.





Date: May 21–29, 1918

Location: Near Sardarapat, Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (present-day Armavir, Armenia)

Result: Decisive Armenian victory
and Establishment of the First Republic of Armenia
Treaty of Batum: recognition of Armenia by the Ottoman Empire




Belligerents:
Armenian National Council
Armenian Army Corps

Vs.
Ottoman Empire




Commanders and leaders:
Daniel Bek-Pirumyan
Movses Silikyan
Tovmas Nazarbekian
Aram Manukian

Vs.
Wehib Pasha
Kâzım Karabekir
Rüştü Bey
Zihni Bey



Strength:
Armenian Army
9,000

Vs.
Ottoman Empire
10-13,000



Casualties and losses:
Armenian Army
light

Vs.
Ottoman Empire
3,500 dead alone from May 22 to May 26












The officers of the 5th Infantry Regiment, heroes of Sardarabad. The Battle of Sardarabad prevented the complete annihilation of the Armenian nation.





General Movses Silikyan, commander of the Armenian forces.







Armenian general Movses Silikyan ordered elements of the 5th Armenian Regiment under Poghos Bek-Pirumyan, a reserve guerrilla unit, and a special cavalry regiment to check the advance of the Ottoman army.

An offensive was launched on May 22 and the Armenian forces were successful in halting the Ottomans in their tracks and forcing Yakub Shevki Pasha's forces into a general rout (retreating nearly 15-20 kilometers in a westerly direction).

The Ottoman command, however, was able to recuperate from its losses and reorganized its forces near the mountain heights on the north-west bank of the Araks river. Repeated attempts to cross the river were met with fierce resistance by the 5th Armenian Regiment.


On May 24, several more skirmishes took place between the Armenian and Ottoman forces. However, attempts to dislodge the Ottomans from their well-entrenched positions the following day by Poghos Bek-Pirumyan's and other commanders' forces were met with failure. On May 27, an Armenian force commanded by Colonel Karapet Hasan-Pashayan performed a flanking maneuver and struck the Ottoman positions from the rear while the rest of the Armenian forces pounded the main Ottoman positions. An Ottoman force based in Talin was sent to alleviate it by attacking the Armenian rear, but was unable to change the outcome of the battle. Suffering heavy losses, Ottoman commanders ordered a general retreat as the surviving elements of the Ottoman army were put to flight.



The Ottoman defeats at Sardarabad, Bash Abaran, and Karakilisa staved off the annihilation of the Armenian nation, and the victories here were instrumental in allowing the Armenian National Council to declare the independence of the First Republic of Armenia on May 30 (retroactive to May 28). Though the terms that Armenia agreed to in the Treaty of Batum (June 4, 1918) were excessively harsh, the little republic was able to hold out until the Ottomans were forced to withdraw from the region with the end of World War I in late 1918.




Ivan Bagramyan, a Marshal of the Soviet Union and himself a participant of the battle, described its importance in the following manner:

(The significance of the battle of Sardarapat is great... If they [the Armenian forces] did not defeat the Ottomans there, they would have proceeded to Echmiadzin and Yerevan—nothing would have remained of Armenia, nothing would have been saved... The Armenians won and, thanks to them, our people preserved their physical existence within the current borders of Armenia)






New York Times article headlines from May-June 1918

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http://www.toptenz.net/10-important-...ght-school.php


It’s easy to dismiss World War I as a pointless conflict, but Armenians fighting for their very survival against the genocidal Ottoman Empire would probably disagree with that assessment. As many as 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated by the Ottomans, but total defeat was staved off at Sardarabad.

The battle came near the end of the Caucasus Campaign, a muddled and complex theater where a Russian advance on the disorganized Ottomans was stopped by the Russian Revolution. With the withdrawal of their strongest allies, the Armenians were suddenly in a disastrous position. The Ottomans made rapid advances, leaving the Armenians with literally no room to retreat. Finally, over the course of nine days near Sardarabad, a numerically inferior force made up of soldiers, guerrilla fighters and inexperienced civilians held off the Ottoman advance and forced their opponents back.

While the Armenians were still in a precarious position, victory at Sardarabad bought them survival until the end of the war and the Ottoman Empire’s subsequent collapse. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this conflict, with

historian Christopher J. Walker noting that had the result gone the other way, “it is perfectly possible that the word Armenia would have henceforth denoted only an antique geographical term.”

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Historic Battles: Battle of Abaran (1918)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Abaran






The Battle of Bash Abaran (Բաշ Աբարանի ճակատամարտ) was a battle of Caucasus Campaign of World War I that took place in the vicinity of Bash Abaran, in 1918. The Armenian victories at Bash Abaran, Sardarabad and Karakilisa, halted the Ottoman invasion of Eastern Armenia and were instrumental in allowing the formation of the short-lived Democratic Republic of Armenia.



Defense Minister of Armenia
In office 24 November 1920 – 2 December 1920









Date: May 21–29, 1918
Location: Bash Abaran, Armenia
Result: Armenian victory


Belligerents:
Armenian National Council

Vs
Ottoman Empire


Commanders and leaders:
Armenian
Drastamat Kanayan


Strength:
Ottoman 3rd Regiment of the 11th Caucasian Division





The Ottoman forces attacked on 21 May, driving towards Yerevan. They were opposed by Armenian forces under the command of Drastamat Kanayan.

One prong of the three-pronged Ottoman attack, consisting of the 3rd Regiment of the 11th Caucasian Division, moved down from Hamamlu. They met an Armenian force of about 1000 riflemen under the command of Movses Silikyan at the defile of Bash Abaran, about a three-hour march from Yerevan. After three days of fierce fighting the Armenians launched a counter-attack against the Ottomans on 25 May. The Ottoman forces then retreated north back to Hamamlu on 29 May.

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Historic Battles: Battle of Karakilisa (1918)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karakilisa







The Battle of Karakilisa (Ղարաքիլիսայի ճակատամարտ) was a battle of Caucasus Campaign of World War I that took place in the vicinity of Karakilisa (now Vanadzor), on May 25-28, 1918.



The outnumbered Armenian defenders managed to turn back the invading Ottoman forces, which broke the armistice, signed on December 1917, with Transcaucasian commissariat entering Western Armenia, conquering Erznka, Erzerum, Sarighamish, Kars and Alexandropol and reaching Karakilisa.

The victory here as well as at Sardarabad and Abaran were instrumental in allowing the First Republic of Armenia to come into existence.







Karakilisa 1920





Date: May 25-28, 1918
Location: Vanadzor, Armenia
Result: Armenian victory


Belligerents:
Armenian National Council

Vs
Ottoman Empire


Commanders and leaders:
Tovmas Nazarbekian
Garegin Nzhdeh

Vs
Vehib Pasha


Strength:
Armenian National Council
6,000

Ottoman Empire
10,000







Գարեգին Նժդեհ




After the declaration of the independent First Republic of Armenia, Nzhdeh was appointed governor of Nakhijevan, and later on, in August 1919, commander of the southern corps of the Armenian army.







Garegin Nzhdeh (with his troops) reached Karakilisa and managed to unite the population for the fight.

The Armenian forces reached the number of 6 thousand, with 70 pieces of artillery and 20 machine-guns. After a violent battle of 4 days, on May 25-28, both sides had serious losses. Although the Ottoman army managed to invade Karakilisa and massacre all its population of 4,000 souls, it had no more forces to intrude farther into Armenian territories.

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The victory at Sardarabad, Abaran and Karakilisa were instrumental in allowing the First Republic of Armenia to come into existence.


Battles on May 21-29, 1918 were Life Important

.Battle of Sardarabad
.Battle of Abaran
.Battle of Karakilisa