Garegin Nschdeh

Garegin Nschdeh in the autumn of 1920

Garegin Arakel Jeghischei Ter-Harutyunyan ( Armenian Գարեգին Առաքել Եղիշեի Տեր-Հարությունյան called Garegin Nschdeh , Armenian Գարեգին Նժդեհ, English Garegin Nzhdeh * 1. January 1886 in the village Güznüt (Kyuznut), the district Nakhchivan province Yerevan , Russian Empire ; † 21 December 1955 in Vladimir , Soviet Union ) was an Armenian statesman and military strategist. He fought as an ultra-nationalist against the Soviet Union in World War II . The adopted name Nschdeh means pilgrims in German , also emigrants .

Life

Nschdeh's father was a village priest of the Armenian Church named Jeghische. He died when Nschdeh was a child. Nschdeh came to a Russian-language school in Nakhchivan and later moved to the high school in Tbilisi in Georgia . In 1902 he enrolled in the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg University . In 1904 he left the university and in the same year joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) (according to another source not until 1908). In 1906 he moved to Bulgaria for the first time, to which he returned frequently in the course of his life. In 1907, with the help of Boris Sarafov, he finished his studies at the Dmitri Nikolov Military College in Sofia . In 1908 he took part in the Iranian constitutional revolution under Yeprem Khan , then returned to the Caucasus and was imprisoned for three years. In any case, he took part in acts of war against the Ottomans as a non-commissioned officer in the Bulgarian army during the First Balkan War in 1912 . During the First World War and the Turkish genocide of the Armenians , Nschdeh was deputy commander of the second Armenian volunteer unit, which fought against the Ottoman Empire in eastern Anatolia together with tsarist troops .

In 1917, after the Russian Revolution, Nschdeh formed the so-called " Armenian National Army ", which carried out ethnic cleansing against the Turkish and Azerbaijani populations , especially in Eastern Anatolia and Nakhichevan . After World War II returned to Armenia Nschdeh back and the violent Armenisierung the region accelerated in September 1919 Zangezur (now the province of Syunik in the southeast of Armenia), the Azerbaijani section of the population completely driven out of the led by him Armenian irregulars. He declared that he had always devoted himself to protecting oppressed Armenians. According to the government secretary of the First Armenian Republic Ohannes Devedschyan , this argument only served as a pretext for Nschdeh to cleanse the Sangesur region of Azerbaijanis . The British journalist and Caucasus researcher Thomas de Waal also confirms the mass displacement .

Nschdeh in 1921 in the Republic of Mountain Menia

After Yerevan was occupied by the Soviets in 1920, Nschdeh sat in Sangesur in 1921 at the head of armed Armenian groups who fought against the Red Army . During military clashes, the Armenian units led by Nscdeh practiced a cruel method of execution against the Red Army soldiers by throwing them alive from the Tatew cliff . In April 1921 he proclaimed the Republic of Bergarmenia in Sangesur and for three months offered violent resistance against the overwhelming Soviet forces. Nschdeh gave up his armed struggle only in July 1921, after the Bolsheviks assured him that Sangesur would not be added to Soviet Azerbaijan , but would be integrated into the territory of Soviet Armenia . After the complete sovietization of Armenia, Nschdeh left the country, lived again in Tabriz in Iran for four months and then settled again in Sofia . Here he married his wife Epime, an Armenian living in Sofia, and started a family with her. In addition, he worked in Bulgaria (especially Plovdiv ), in Bucharest in Romania and Boston in the USA for national-armed organizations. In 1933 he moved to the United States of America for a long time , where he allegedly planned to assassinate the Turkish ambassador in Washington ( Ahmet Mollaoğlu or Münir Ertegün ). In 1937 he returned to Plovdiv in Bulgaria, got involved with Bulgarian Macedonians and kept in close contact with the symbolist poet Teodor Trajanow .

Garegin Nschdeh with other founders of the ultra-national youth organization “Zegakron”, Boston 1933

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Nschdeh began to increasingly seek support for the National Socialists in the Armenian diaspora . After a personal meeting with Hitler in the summer of 1942, Nschdeh, together with Drastamat Kanajan (General Dro) , initiated the formation of Armenian combat units within the Wehrmacht . According to Dewedschjan, Nschdeh made several propaganda speeches in front of Armenian prisoners of war and called on them to take part in an armed struggle against the Soviet Union: "Whoever dies for Germany, dies for Armenia."

While Kanajan, another Armenian general allied with Germany, escaped arrest and thus captivity at the end of the war by fleeing to the USA, his comrade Nschdeh was imprisoned in Bulgaria and transferred to the Soviet military command. Because of counter-revolutionary activities, etc. a. participating in the "anti-Soviet uprising" in the years 1920–1921 Nschdeh was sentenced in 1948 to 25 years in prison. He died on December 21, 1955 in Vladimir Prison (today's Vladimirovka prison camp ) near Moscow .

Nationalist beliefs

The so-called taron eagle as a symbol of zegakronism

After moving to the USA in the summer of 1933, Nschdeh devoted himself to founding an ultra-national youth organization called “ Zegakron ” (in German “racial religion ”, literally: bearer of race , in both a spiritual and biological sense). In constructing his racial ideology in the 1930s, he was inspired by the prevailing racial theories and beliefs of that period. In addition to the liberation of Armenia from Soviet rule, Nschdeh, together with leading figures of the Dashnaks such as Artasches Abeghjan and Wahan Papasjan (members of the Armenian National Committee founded in Berlin in 1942 ) , strived for the racial purity of the Armenians. In the 1930s Nschdeh and Dro tried to convince the NSDAP officials that Armenians are part of the Aryan race. The political scientist Volker Jakobi described the relevant views of Nschdeh as extremely fascist, which was consequently one of the reasons for his exclusion from the ARF. The organization was subsequently renamed the "Armenian Youth Federation". Thomas de Waal is also of the opinion that Nschdeh had aimed at purely fascist goals with the initiation of Zegakron.

Nschdeh in the mid-1930s

At the core of the zegakronism propagated by Nschdeh was the “nation”, without which the complete existence of an individual would not be possible. He basically divided Armenians into three groups: a) Zechamard (the best part of the Armenian nation); b) Chokhovurd (hesitant and indecisive part); c) Takank (internal enemies, the so-called "anti-national devil forces ")

With Zegakronism, Nschdeh also laid the foundation stone for the theory of "Armenism", according to Abramjan, whose motto was: "Armenia only for the Armenians".

Worship in Armenia

Garegin Nschdeh's tomb is in the Spitakawor Monastery . In the Soviet era he was considered a Nazi collaborator and war criminal. In today's Armenia, however, he enjoys cult status as a hero of the national liberation movement. In May 2016, a monument was erected in his honor in the center of the Armenian capital Yerevan. Among other things, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan took part in the ceremony and paid tribute to the services of the "great statesman".

The glorification of Nschdeh led to resentment between Armenia and Russia. At a press conference, Maria Sakharova , spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, expressed her lack of understanding of this step on the part of the Armenians: "Everyone knows our attitude towards the advances aimed at glorifying any manifestation of Nazism, neo-Nazism and extremism."

A monument to Garagin Nschdeh will soon be erected in the Bulgarian town of Pliska.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Рафаэл Амбарцумян: Гарегин Нжде (Краткая биография и летопись жизни). Retrieved December 25, 2017 (Russian). 
2. ↑ Гарегин Нжде. Краткая биография. Художественный фильм . In: Центр поддержки русско-армянских стратегических и общественных инициатив . January 3, 2014 ( russia-armenia.info [accessed December 24, 2017]).
3. ↑ Сергей Веремеев: Идолы со свастикой. В России героизируют нацистских преступников? May 23, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2017 (Russian). 
4. ↑ Ваче Овсепян: Гарегин Нжде и КГБ. Воспоминания Разведчика . «Нораванк» Научно-образовательный Фонд, Ереван 2007, ISBN 978-9939-9000-0-1 , p. 21 .
5. ↑ Томас Де Ваал: Противоречия. Сюжет двадцатого века. Главы из русского издания книги "Черный сад". 2005, Retrieved December 25, 2017 (Russian). 
6. ↑ Ваче Овсепян: Гарегин Нжде и КГБ. Воспоминания Разведчика . «Нораванк» Научно-образовательный Фонд, Ереван 2007, ISBN 978-9939-9000-0-1 , p. 22 .
7. ↑ Razmik Panossian: The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars . Hurst & Company, London 2006, ISBN 1-85065-788-2 , pp. 259 .
8. ↑ Сергей Веремеев: Идолы со свастикой. В России героизируют нацистских преступников? May 23, 2015. Retrieved December 24, 2017 (Russian). 
9. ↑ Ваче Овсепян: Гарегин Нжде и КГБ. Воспоминания Разведчика . «Нораванк» Научно-образовательный Фонд, Ереван 2007, ISBN 978-9939-9000-0-1 , p. 24 .
10. ↑ Сергей Веремеев: Идолы со свастикой. В России героизируют нацистских преступников? May 23, 2015. Retrieved December 24, 2017 (Russian). 
11. ^ Vahe Sahakyan: Between Host-Countries and Homeland: Institutions, Politics and Identities in the Post-Genocide Armenian Diaspora (1920s to 1980s). University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2015, pp. 255, 271 .
12. ↑ Antranig Chalabian: Dro (Drastamat Kanayan): Armenia's first defense minister of the modern era . Indo-European Publishing, Los-Angeles 2009, ISBN 978-1-60444-078-2 , pp. 243 .
13. ↑ Volker Jacoby: contours of the internal conflicts in Armenia . Ed .: Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main 1998, p. 148 .
14. ↑ Thomas de Waal: Great Catastrophe. Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, pp. 112 .
15. ↑ Kaarina Aitamurto / Scott Simpson: Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe . Acumen Pub, Durham 2013, ISBN 978-1-84465-662-2 .
16. ↑ Владимир Розетти: Имеем ли мы право судить? (No longer available online.) June 23, 2016, formerly in the original ; Retrieved December 24, 2017 (Russian).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
17. ↑ Абрамян Э. А .: Взаимоотношения армянских эмигрантских организаций с аналогичными объединениями из–1924 Кавказа в 1924. (PDF) Retrieved December 24, 2017 (Russian). 
18. ↑ Вартан Давидян: Памятник герою Армении, обвиняемому Россией в связях с нацистами, рассорилв Мос Еку. June 20, 2016, Retrieved December 24, 2017 (Russian). 
19. ↑ Артур Папян: России « непонятно », почему в Армении установлен памятник Гарегину Нжде . In: Радио Свобода . ( azatutyun.am [accessed December 24, 2017]).
20. ↑ Between hero commemoration and mockery of victims - On the monument building for the Armenian nationalist Garegin Nzdeh (Garegin Ter-Arutyunyan) in Pliska / Bulgaria. In: Alumniportal Azerbaijan. November 13, 2019, accessed November 14, 2019 .