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Garegin Nzhdeh is an Armenian rebel leader, responsible for multiple terror and retaliation acts in Western Azerbaijan and the Ottoman Vilayet of Armenia, like the expulsion of several thousand Azeris out of Zangezur and Karabakh in the late 1910s/early 1920s. As one of the leading resistance members of the Mountainous Republic of Armenia, an unrecognized rebel state on de jure Azerbaijani territory, he is considered a national hero of the Armenian people, fighting for the reestablishment of an Armenian state ever since the Partition of Armenia in late 1919.
History[]
Early Life[]
Garegin Nzhdeh was born as Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan on 1 January 1886 in the village of Kznut, Nakhchivan, the youngest of four children of a local village priest. He got his early education at a Russian school in Nakhchivan City and continued his higher education at the Gymnasium in Tiflis. Already at the age of 17 he joined the Armenian national liberation movement, which aimed to establish an independent Greater Armenian State, consisting of Russian and Ottoman territories. During that time, he changed his surname to nzhdeh, meaning "pilgrim" or "emigrant" in Armenian. Shortly after, he moved to St. Petersburg to continue his education. After two years of studying at the Faculty of Law, he left St. Petersburg and returned to the Caucasus in order to participate in the Armenian national movement against the Ottoman Empire.
Early political and military career[]
After attending a military academy in Bulgaria for a short time, Nhdeh went to Persia in 1907 and participated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution, fighting alongside famous revolutionaries Yeprem Khan and Murad of Sebastia.
In 1909, upon his return to the Caucasus, Nzhdeh was arrested by the Russian authorities and spent 3 years in prison. In 1912, together with legendary General Andranik Ozanian, he formed an Armenian battalion within the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps of the Bulgarian Army to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War and participated in the liberation of Thrace and Macedonia. However, only a few months later, the Second Balkan War kicked off, this time with Bulgaria on the losing side. Nzhdeh was wounded in combat. For the brave and extraordinary performance of the Armenian fighters, Bulgarian military authorities honoured Nzhdeh with the Cross of Bravery.
Nzhdeh during the Weltkrieg
During the Weltkrieg he was a commander of Armenian auxiliary troops in the Russian Army. During the early stages of the war, in 1915, he was appointed as an assistant-commander to Drastamat Kanayan of the 2nd Armenian unit. Later on, in 1916, he commanded the special Armenian-Yezidi military unit. The Russian troops were able to advance deep into Ottoman territory, but on the home front, they were not that lucky; The Russian Civil War plunged the nation into chaos and the Armistice of Erzincan was signed in December 1917. The Russian forces therefore had to retreat back into the Caucasus.
Upon his return to the Caucasus, Nzhdeh was one of the founders of the Armenian National Army, a ruthless paramilitary force. Nzhdeh knew that Russian rule in the Caucasus soon would be history and that he had to strengthen Armenia's position in the region if he wanted his nation to sustain in a future conflict with Ottoman troops, who were already approaching eastwards onto Kars and Ardahan. In December 1917 and early 1918, he and the ANA were responsible for the ethic cleansing of Turks and Azeris in the Nakhchivan region in Southern Transcaucasia. This would later lay the groundworks for the bloody Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and would be a factor for the dissolution of Transcaucasia in May 1918 and the subsequent establishment of independent Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani nations.
Conflict in the Caucasus[]
When he learned that Ottoman troops were marching onto Central Armenia in early 1918, Nzhdeh established defensive lines around Alexandropol, but the Turks managed to break through, now marching directly onto Yerevan. The Armenian fighters retreated, dug-in and built fortifications around the town Karakilisa. Nzhdeh played a key role in organizing the troops for the defense of the city in May 1918. He managed to mobilize a population of despairing and hopeless locals and refugees for the coming fight through his inspiring speech in the Dilijan church yard, where he called the Armenians to a sacred battle: "Straight to the frontline, our salvation is there."
Nzhdeh was wounded in the ensuing clash and, after a violent battle of 4 days, both sides had serious casualties. The Armenians ran out of ammunition and had to withdraw. Although the Ottoman army managed to invade Karakilisa itself, they had no more resources to continue deeper into Armenian territory. Therefore, the Treaty of Batum was signed in early June; Armenia had to surrender many of its Western territories and was demilitarized, but Constantinople officially recognized the Armenian independence and signed an armistice.
The situation in the Caucasus after the Treaty of Batum, June 1918
However, after the armistice, his home region of Nakhchivan was under still under Ottoman control. The Ottomans used Nakhchivan as a springboard for the invasion of Zangezur and Karabakh, a very mountainous region mostly controlled by various Armenian and Azeri rebel groups, but no real central administration. The Ottoman goal was to establish a connection to Azerbaijan, something Armenia had to prevent at all cost. Additionally, the Ottomans were responsible for burning down Armenian villages in Nakhchivan and killing several thousand civilians.
However, as Armenia was politically isolated and bound to the Armistice of Batum, they were not able to directly intervene into the conflict to the south. Therefore, Nzhdeh decided to enter Nakhchivan on his own, trying to take revenge on the Ottoman troops stationed there for killing his Armenian brethren. He became known as the "Armenian vigilante" for burning down Turkish army camps and sabotaging military equipment, which would play a crucial role why the Ottoman advance further east proceeded very slowly and inefficiently, which would give the Armenian rebels in Zangezur some time to breathe.
By 1919, Nzhdeh had returned to Armenia proper. The country was de jure demilitarized since the Treaty of Batum, but he was able to bypass that condition by leading improvised civil defense militias instead of proper military troops. He and his men were patrolling the mountainous border regions near Zangezur and Karabakh when they learned that Ottoman troops were once again marching towards Yerevan; Knowing that they had no chance in defeating them, they instead retreated south into Zangezur, which was controlled by Armenian rebels (independently from the Yerevan government) under the command of Andranik Ozanian.
Mountainous Republic of Armenia[]
Only in the aftermath Nzhdeh was informed about the fact that Armenia had been de facto partitioned between all its neighbors at the Caucasus Conference, and that the Republic of Armenia therefore had officially ceased to exist.
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