Kevork Çavuş

Lion of the Mountains 1904 on Akdamar .

Statue near Chor Virap

Kevork Aroyi Ghazarian or Geworg Rasarjan ( Armenian Գէորգ Արոյի Ղազարեան Georg Aroji Ghasarean , * 1870 or 1871 in Bsanats, Vilâyet Bitlis , Ottoman Empire ; † May 27, 1907 near Bitlis ), also known as Çavuş ( Armenian Գէորգ Չաւուշ Georg Tschawusch ) or " The Lion of the Mountains “was an Armenian Fedai who tried to stop the massacres of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1894–1896 .

Early life

Kevork Çavuş was born into a family of hunters in the village of Batnats near Sasun . He received his education in Musch at the Arakeloz monastery school . Upon graduation, he joined Arabo , a leading fedai. After Arabo was arrested without due process, Kevork Çavuş tracked down Arabo's traitor and killed him. From 1885 to 1888 he traveled to Aleppo . He returned to Taron in 1890 to join a group of Armenian freedom fighters around Hampartsoum Boyadjian with the aim of defending the villages.

Resistance from Sasun

In 1894 he took part in the resistance of Sason against the persecution of the Armenians by Sultan Abdülhamid II . During his fight, Kevork Çavuş was captured and sentenced to 15 years. After two years he fled to the mountains of Sason , where he joined the Daschnakzutjun political party and sought a revolutionary movement against Turkish officials. In 1896 he met General Sorawar Andranik Ozanian and took part in the Battle of the Holy Apostles Monastery in 1901 and in the Second Sasun Resistance in 1904. Together with Andranik, he led the defense of the village of Geliegusan, to which 20,000 people had fled. However, this failed when the Armenian fighters ran out of ammunition. During his career as a freedom fighter, he came under the command of Serob Paşa . During this time he killed his uncle who had kidnapped a woman, which caused him to become very depressed.

Kevork Çavuş was seriously injured during a firefight with the Ottoman army on May 25, 1907 near Muş, which forced him to retreat. Two days later, on May 27, his body was found under a bridge in Kyosabin-Bashin. Kevork Çavuş was buried in the Armenian cemetery of Kogh.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Tessa Hofmann : Approaching Armenia. History and present. 2nd edition, CH Beck, Munich 2006, p. 90.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Armenian : Mihran Kurdoghlian: Armenian History . Hradaragutiun Azkayin Oosoomnagan Khorhoortee, Athens, Greece 1996, p. 70-71 (Original title: Hayots Badmoutioun .).
3. ↑ Kevork Chavush. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 17, 2007 ; Retrieved November 2, 2007 (Armenian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.