Garegin Chaschak

Khajag in his youth

Garegin Chaschak , also Garegin Chakalian ( Armenian Գարեգին Խաժակ (Չաքալյան) ; born October 6, 1867 in Alexandropol , Russian Empire ; † June 1915 in Diyarbakır , Ottoman Empire ) was an Armenian journalist, writer, teacher and political activist. As a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation , Chaschak traveled the world to gain support for the Armenian revolutionary movement. Chaschak was imprisoned four times in his life. He became the principal of various Armenian schools. In 1915, Chaschak was arrested in Istanbul and killed in the course of the Armenian genocide .

Life

Garegin Chaschak was born in Alexandropol (today Gyumri, Armenia ) in what was then the Russian Empire in 1867 . He was called Çakaloğlu ( Turkish son of a jackal ), which was later corrupted to Chaschak. In 1883 he continued his higher education at the Gevorkian Seminar after primary school in his birthplace . After graduating from the seminary in 1886 , Chaschak became a teacher and taught for seven years at parish schools in Baku , Akulis and Gjandscha . During his time in Baku, Chaschak joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). Then Chaschak went to Geneva , where he studied social sciences at the university . There he began to write for the newspaper Troshag , the party organ of the ARF.

Shortly after his graduation in 1898, Chaschak was sent to the Balkans by the Troshag editorial team , then to Alexandria . After spending a year in Alexandria, he went to Izmir for six months and finally to Istanbul , where he stayed for two years.

Garegin Chaschak was imprisoned for eight months for his revolutionary activity and was then exiled to the Caucasus , where he continued his work as a teacher. He was the director of the Armenian school in Shushi for two years . After his marriage, Chaschak settled in Tbilisi in 1903 and became one of the editors of the Armenian newspaper Mschak . At the same time he taught at the Nersisjan School . In 1906 he was one of the founding editors of the Haratsch newspaper and worked on the side of Avedis Aharonian and Yeghisheh Topjian.

He was arrested in 1908 and imprisoned for six months. After he was released, Chaschak was arrested again nine months later.

After he was released from prison in 1912, Chaschak returned to Istanbul, where he worked for the Azadamard newspaper and was also director of an Armenian school in the Samatya district .

assassination

Garegin Chaschak was one of the Armenian intellectuals who were deported in the course of the genocide of the Armenians. On the night of April 24, 1915 , Chaschak was arrested and detained in Istanbul, from where he was sent by train to Ayas , a place in the inner provinces of the Ottoman Empire. From Ayas, Chaschak was transferred to Diyarbakır on June 2, 1915 together with Rupen Zartarian , Sarkis Minassian , Chatschatur Malumian , Harutiun Jangülian and Nazaret Daghavarian . They were supposed to appear before a military court in Diyarbakır. Chaschak was killed together with the other intellectuals halfway between Urfa and Siverek in the village of Karacaören . The order to kill was given by Captain Şevket and carried out by Hacı Onbaşı (Tellal Hekimoğlu), the local Cete chief of the special organization .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ara Sarafian: What Happened on April 24, 1915? The Ayash Prisoners. Gomidas Institute, April 22, 2013, accessed March 1, 2014 .