Battle of Holy Apostles Monastery

File:Convent Seized by Armenians.png

The New York Times report on the battle

The Battle of Holy Apostles Monastery (Armenian: Առաքելոց վանքի կռիվը Ařak'elots vank'i křivë) was an armed conflict between Ottoman Empire's forces and the Armenian militia in Holy Apostles Monastery near Mush, Ottoman Empire 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.

Background

See also: Armenian national movement and Armenian Question

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.

The Battle

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. According to Leon Trotsky, Andranik dressed in the uniform of a Turkish officer, "he went the rounds of the entire quard, talking to them in excellent Turkish", and "at the same time showing the way out to his own men".

Aftermath

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

Bibliography

• The Battle of Holy Apostles' Monastery by Gen. Andranik, wr. Lewon K. Liwlēchean - London, 2008, ISBN 9781903656808, 59 pages
• General Andranik and the Armenian Revolutionary Movement, by Antranig Chalabian - Southfield, 1988, ISBN 9780962274114, 588 pages