FEBRUARY 25 LEGENDARY ARMENIAN HERO ANDRANIK OZANYAN’S BIRTHDAY
Tert.am
25.02.12
Today marks the 147th birthday anniversary of the legendary Armenian
freedom fighter and general, public and political activist Andranik
Ozanyan.
Andranik Ozanyan (was born in the church quarter of Shabin Karahisar,
Ottoman Empire (present-day Å~^ebinkarahisar,Giresun Province, Turkey).
His mother died when he was one year old, so his elder sister Nazeli
took care of him. Antranik finished the local Musheghian school and
became an apprentice in his father’s carpentry shop.
After losing his wife and son at an early age, Andranik joined the
Armenian freedom movement in the Ottoman Empire, and participated
in various political parties, including Armenian Revolutionary
Federation. He met the military commander Aghbiur Serob and joined
his fedayeen. After the death of Serob (1899) he became the common
leader of Armenian fedayee groups of Vaspurakan and Sassoun (Western
Armenia). All of Andranik’s lieutenants accepted that their leader
possessed undisputed authority and superiority in military matters
and that he was “primus inter pares” (the first among equals). Such
was the popularity Andranik earned among the men he led that they
came to refer to him always by his first name – even formally, when
he later held a general’s rank in the Imperial Russian Army.
During World War I, he participated in the Caucasus Campaign and was
appointed as general of the Armenian volunteer units of the Russian
army. He participated in 20 different offensives where he gained fame
due to his courage and the tactics he employed to defeat the opposing
forces. The Russian authorities made Andranik a Major General in 1918
and decorated him six times for gallantry.
He was the commanding officer of the Armenian volunteer units, which
helped the Van Resistance take control of Van on May 6, 1915. He
helped re-capture the city from Ottoman forces during the Battle
of Van. He was also the commander of the battalion that took the
city of Bitlis (see: Battle of Bitlis) from the Ottoman forces that
was under control of Halil Pasha. Between March 1918 – April 1918,
he was the governor of the Administration for Western Armenia (The
Armenian provisional government of a progressive autonomous region
that initially set up around Lake Van). His military leadership was
instrumental in allowing the Armenian population of Van to escape the
Ottoman Army and flee to Eastern Armenia, then controlled by Russia.
The territory later became the Democratic Republic of Armenia.
After the formation of the Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA), he
organized and fought alongside volunteer units to combat the Ottoman
army. Andranik was leading his army in combat against the Ottomans
during the signing of the Treaty of Batum, and refused to accept the
borders stated by the treaty. As the commander of Armenian forces
at Nakhitchevan, he “has protected in the name of the Armenian Army
against the peace treaty with Turkey, and has declared that his army
is determined to continue the war against Turks”.His activities were
concentrated at the link between the Ottoman Empire and the Azerbaijan
Democratic Republic atKarabakh, Zanghezur and Nakhichevan. Ozanian
struck back at the Ottoman Fronts, Army of Islam. He was particularly
prominent in the destruction of Muslim settlements and in the planned
ethnic homogenisation of regions with once mixed population through
populating them with Armenian refugees from Turkey.
Andranik tried several times to seize Shusha. Just before the Armistice
of Mudros was signed, Andranik was on the way from Zangezur to Shusha,
to control the main city of Karabakh. In January 1919 Armenian troops
advancing, the British forces (General William M.
Thomson) ordered Andranik back to Zangezur, and gave him assurances
that a favorable treaty would be reached at the Paris Peace Conference,
of 1919.
In 1919 he left Armenia amid political turmoil and power struggles
and went into exile in Fresno, California, United States. The New York
Times reported, that among the passengers who arrived on November 22,
1919 from Havre on the French liner Savoie to ask US for a mandate
“was General Ozanian Antranik, the hero of Armenia, who held out at
Zangezour with a handful of troops against the Turkish Army until
he was relieved on Dec. 13, 1918, by a British expeditionary force,
more than a month after the armistice was signed, and saved 30,000
starving refugees”.He was accompanied on the Savoie by General Jaques
Bagratuni, Captain Haig Bonapartian, and Lieutenant Ter-Pogossian.
Andranik Ozanian lived in Fresno for 5 years until his death on August
31, 1927 at the age of 62. According to county records, he died at
Richardson Springs, Chico, in Northern California. According to the New
York Times, more than 2500 members of the Armenian community attended
memorial services in Carnegie Hall for General Andranik Ozanian.