Гарегин Нжде: Жизнь и борьба армянского национального героя.

Armenian revolutionary active during the early 20th century
person

Garegin Ter Harutyunyan, better known by his nom de guerre Garegin Nzhdeh (, ; 1 January 1886 – 21 December 1955), was an Armenian statesman, military commander and nationalist political thinker. As a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, he was involved in the national liberation struggle and revolutionary activities during the First Balkan War and World War I and became one of the key political and military leaders of the First Republic of Armenia (1918–1921). He is widely admired as a charismatic national hero by Armenians. In 1921, he was a key figure in the establishment of the Republic of Mountainous Armenia, an anti Bolshevik state that became a key factor that led to the inclusion of the province of Syunik into Soviet Armenia. During World War II, he cooperated with Nazi Germany, hoping to secure Soviet Armenia's existence in case of Germany's victory over USSR and a potential Turkish invasion of the Caucasus. Following an abortive attempt to cooperate with the Soviet Union against Turkey, Nzhdeh was arrested in Bulgaria in 1944 and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment in the Soviet Union.

Prior to World War I, after an amnesty granted by the Russian authorities in 1914, Nzhdeh returned to the Caucasus to participate in the formation of Armenian volunteer units within the Russian army to fight against the Ottoman Empire. In the early stages of the war, in 1915, he was appointed a deputy commander to Drastamat Kanayan (Dro), who led the 2nd Volunteer Battalion. Later on, in 1916, he commanded a special Armenian Yezidi military unit. After the Russian Revolution and the withdrawal of the Russian army, Nzhdeh's unit fought in the skirmishes at Alaja (near Ani, spring 1918), allowing secure passage for retreating Armenian forces into Alexandropol (modern day Gyumri).

After clashing with Ottoman forces in Alexandropol, the Armenian fighters led by Nzhdeh dug in and built fortifications in Karakilisa (moder day Vanadzor). Nzhdeh played a key role in organizing the troops for the defense of Karakilisa in May 1918. He managed to mobilize a population of demoralized locals and refugees for the coming fight through his inspiring speech in the Dilijan church courtyard, where he called on the Armenians to wage a sacred battle: "Straight to the frontline, our salvation is there". Nzhdeh was wounded in the ensuing clash and, after a violent battle of four 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. In April 1920, Nzhdeh led his troops from Kapan to Mountainous Karabakh's southern district of Dizak, soon after the massacre of the Armenian population of Shushi. Dro's forces also marched to Karabakh from Yerevan. Their intervention, along with pressure on the Azerbaijani authorities from the Entente powers, brought an end to the massacres of the Armenian population of Mountainous Karabakh. However, following the Soviet takeover of Azerbaijan and the arrival of the Red Army, the Armenian forces were severely outnumbered. On 24 May 1920, Dro, Nzhdeh, Colonel Dmitri Mirimanyan and ARF representative Arsen Mikayelyan agreed to withdraw from Karabakh and hand over power in the region to local Armenian Bolsheviks led by Sargis Hambardzumyan. While stationed in southern Armenia, Nzhdeh expelled the Turkic speaking inhabitants of several settlements. He was again wounded in fighting near Goris. At the 10th ARF World Congress, Nzhdeh's case was reviewed and he was restored to the party.

During World War II, Nzhdeh suggested supporting the Axis powers if the latter would make a decision to attack Turkey. Operation Gertrud, a joint German Bulgarian project about attacking Turkey in the event that Ankara joined the allies, was discussed in Berlin. In 1942, Nzhdeh was invited by Artashes Abeghyan to serve on the Armenian National Council (Armenischen Nationalen Gremiums) in Berlin, a collaborationist body created by Nazi Germany to coerce Armenian POWs into joining to avoid imprisonment in concentration camps. That year the Nazis created the Armenische Legion, composed mostly of captured Soviet Armenian prisoners of war, and placed it under the command of veteran ARF leader Drastamat Kanayan. The Armenian battalions were sent to the Crimean peninsula on the Eastern Front in 1943. During the war, Nzhdeh went with Dro to Nazi occupied Crimea and then to the North Caucasus, but returned to Bulgaria in 1944. The Soviet military commanders told Nzhdeh that the idea of collaboration was interesting but in order to be able to discuss it in more details, Nzhdeh would have needed to travel to Moscow. He was transferred to Bucharest and later to Moscow, where he was arrested and held in the Lubyanka prison. According to another account, Nzhdeh went into hiding after the Communist takeover in Bulgaria in 1944, before turning himself in to the authorities some months later, after which he was transferred to Moscow.

In 1947 Nzhdeh proposed an initiative to the Soviet government that would call for the foundation of a pan Armenian military and political organization in the Armenian diaspora for the seizure of once Armenian populated provinces of the former Ottoman Empire from Turkish control and its unification with Soviet Armenia. Despite the reputed interest of the Communist leadership to this initiative, the proposal was eventually refused. Between 1948 and 1952 Nzhdeh was kept in Vladimir Prison, then until the summer of 1953 in a secret prison in Yerevan. According to his prison fellow Hovhannes Devedjian, Nzhdeh's transfer to Yerevan prison was related to an attempt to mediate between the Dashnaks and the Soviet leaders to create a collaborative atmosphere between the two sides. After long negotiations with the state security service of Soviet Armenia, Nzhdeh and Devedjian prepared a letter in Yerevan prison (1953) addressed to the ARF leader Simon Vratsian, calling on him to cooperate with the Soviets regarding the issue of the Armenian struggle against Turkey. However, the communist leaders in Moscow refused to send the letter. While he was in prison, Nzhdeh was taken several times from Vladimir to Armenia, where, accompanied by a guard of honor, they conducted tours of Soviet Armenia, showing him that Soviet power brought benefits to Armenia. After receiving a telegram from the Soviet authorities announcing his death, Nzhdeh's brother Levon left Yerevan for Vladimir to take care of his burial service. He received Nzhdeh's watch and clothing but was not allowed to take his personal writings, which would only be published in Yerevan several years later. The authorities also did not allow the transfer of his body to Armenia. Levon Ter Harutyunyan conducted Nzhdeh's burial in Vladimir and wrote on his tombstone, in Russian, "Ter Harutyunyan Garegin Eghishevich (1886–1955)".

On 31 August 1983, Nzhdeh's remains were secretly transferred from Vladimir to rest in Soviet Armenia. This was done through the efforts of Pavel Ananyan, the husband of Nzhdeh's granddaughter, with the help of linguistics professor Varag Arakelyan and others, including Gurgen Armaghanyan, Garegin Mkhitaryan, Artsakh Buniatyan, and Zhora Barseghyan. On 7 October 1983, the right hand of Nzhdeh's body was placed on the slopes of Mount Khustup near Kozni fountain, as Nzhdeh had once expressed the wish "when you find me killed, bury my body at the top of Khustup to let me clearly view Kapan, Gndevaz, Goghtan and Geghvadzor ". According to the participants of the funeral, the rest of Nzhdeh's body was kept in the cellar of Varag Arakelyan's house in the village of Kotayk until 9 May 1987, when it was secretly transferred to Vayots Dzor and buried in the churchyard of the 14th century Spitakavor Surb Astvatsatsin Church near Yeghegnadzor. Nzhdeh's gravestone was erected through the efforts of Paruyr Hayrikyan and Movses Gorgisyan on 17 June 1989, a day that later turned into an annual pilgrimage day to the monastery's graveyard. Decades after his death, on 30 March 1992, Nzhdeh was rehabilitated by Prosecutor General's Office of the newly independent Republic of Armenia. In March 2010, Nzhdeh was selected as the "National pride and the most outstanding figure" of Armenians throughout the history by the voters of "We are Armenians" TV project launched by "Hay TV" and broadcast as well by the Public Television of Armenia (H1). In Yerevan, a public square and metro station are named after Nzhdeh. Nzhdeh, Armenia, a village in the Syunik Province of Armenia, is named after Nzhdeh.

CountryAward Year Kingdom of Bulgaria Order of Bravery For Bravery 16 November 1912 Russian Empire Order of St. Vladimir 3rd class1915, 1918 Order of St. Anna 4th class 1915 Cross of St. George 3rd class 1916 Cross of St. George 2nd class 1916

In 1923, while in Bucharest, Romania, Nzhdeh published a series of articles in the local Armenian newspaper Nor Arshaluys ("New Sunrise") entitled "My word Why did I take up arms against the Soviet troops?" Nzhdeh wrote in detail about the history of the wars in Syunik (Zangezour) in an extensive series of articles for the Boston newspaper Hairenik ("Homeland") in 1923 1925. In 1924 1925 he contributed to the ARF newspaper Hayastan ("Armenia") published in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In 1924, separate chapters from his work Ejer im oragren ("Pages from my diary") were published here, which was published in a separate booklet in Cairo, Egypt, the same year. In 1926, Nzhdeh wrote for the newspaper Araks based in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he published a series of articles titled "Open Letters to the Armenian Intellectuals".