Shahan Natali

Shahan Natali

Shahan Natali , Armenian Շահան Նաթալի , born Hagop Der-Hagopian (* 1884 in the village of Husenik near Harput , † April 19, 1983 in Watertown , Massachusetts ) was an Armenian revolutionary, head of Operation Nemesis after the First World War and a writer. He was called Nemesis by his followers .

Life

Hagop Der-Hagopian attended the local Armenian elementary school. He lost his father and an uncle on his mother's side in the pogroms under Sultan Abdülhamid II. Hagop Der-Hagopian was taken in by a neighboring Greek family for three days during the massacres. He attended the famous Euphrates College in Harput for a year . Then the half -orphan was sent to the Surp Hagop orphanage in Istanbul . He was adopted by a wealthy Armenian carpet dealer in New York . 1897-1900 he attended the Berberian School in Istanbul. Retheos Berberian was one of his teachers . In his home village he taught as a teacher (1901–1904) at the school of the St. Varvara Church. His work on the dialect of the Harputer Armenians was by Matheos III. Izmirlian excellent. In 1904 he joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). In the same year he emigrated to the United States . He worked in a shoe factory for three years. In 1908, after the restoration of the Ottoman constitution , he returned to Husenik. The Adana massacres of 1909 caused him to leave the country again. 1910–1912 he studied literature, philosophy and theater at Boston University . In 1912 he tried in vain to return to his homeland. In Greece he was sent back to the USA as a citizen of an enemy state during the Balkan War .

In Boston, Shahan Natali wrote for the Armenian monthly newspaper Hairenik . His pen name was derived from Shah (pers. "King") and natalis ( latin "born" ), and meant king born . He was elected to the Central Committee of the US Armenian Revolutionary Federation. On March 23, 1915, Shahan Natali with the official name "John Mahy" received US citizenship. Shahan Natali took part in the 9th General Congress of the ARF in Yerevan from September 27 to the end of October 1919 . The Congress decided against the votes of the Eastern Armenian representatives on the reconciliation with Turkey . Shahan Natali and Grigor Merdschanow planned in the greatest secrecy with the "Operation Nemesis" to liquidate the young Turkish people responsible for the genocide of the Armenians . This happened against the will of the ARF office members ( Simon Wrazjan , Ruben Ter Minasian and Ruben Darbinian ). Due to a “black list” of 200 people, some attacks were carried out. "Number 1" on the list is Talât Pascha , who was primarily responsible for the Armenian genocide. After his murder by Soghomon Tehlirian on March 15, 1921 in Berlin, the ARF wanted to adorn itself with the success of the action planned by Shahan Natalies. In Tehlirian's memoirs she had a. a. delete the two chapters on the planning by Shahan Natali.

The following people also fell victim to "Operation Nemesis": Pipit Dschiwanschir Chan, then Interior Minister of Azerbaijan and organizer of the Baku pogroms against Armenians in 1918 (murdered by Misak Torlakian on July 18, 1921 in Istanbul), Said Halim Pasha , former Ottoman Prime Minister ( murdered by Aram Yerganian on December 5, 1921 in Berlin ), Ghasik Bekow (murdered by Aram Yerganian in Tbilisi in 1919 ), Sarafov and Chan Chujsk (murdered by Aram Yerganian in Tbilisi in 1920), Behaeddine Schakir Bey , leader of the Teşkilât- ışusa special unit (murdered by Aram Yerganian on April 17, 1922 in Berlin), Dschemal Asmi , known under the name “the monster of Trabzon” (murdered on April 17, 1922 in Berlin) and Cemal Pascha (Young Turkish Defense Minister, murdered by Stepan Dzaghigian and Bedros D. Boghosian on July 25, 1922 in Tbilisi).

The anti-Soviet ARF leadership disapproved of these executions, as it was deemed necessary to bring Armenia closer to Turkey. Several Armenian collaborators in the genocide were also killed.

In 1924, Shahan Natali was elected an office member at the 10th General Congress of the ARF in Paris, together with Schawarsch Misakian, Ruben Der Minasian and Aram Dschamalian. Compared to the three Turkish-friendly votes in the office, Natali was in the minority. In 1925, nationalist revolutionaries asked the ARF leadership to establish relations with the Soviet government and thereby support Soviet Armenia. The leadership delayed examining the question and making a decision.

On December 29, 1926, the ARF office decided by four to one (Shahan Natali) votes to regard Turkey as the defender of the Caucasian peoples.

In 1928 tensions in the ARF leadership came to a head. At the 11th General Congress of the ARF (March 27 - May 2, 1929) in Paris , Shahan Natali was expelled from the party along with a number of companions. The dissidents founded the magazine Mardgots ("Bastion") in Paris . In order to minimize the influence of the dissidents on the ARF, the ARF leadership moved the party's headquarters from Paris to Cairo . Secret services as well as the ARF tried to weaken the movement with attacks on the pro-Soviet dissidents.

Before the outbreak of World War II , Shahan Natali returned to the United States and headed the New England section of the Armenian General Charity Union from 1943 to 1953 .

Works

Short stories, poetry and dramas

• Օրէնքի եւ Ընկերութեան Զոհերէն (“Of the victims of the law and society”). Boston : Hairenik, 1909. 63 pages. Short stories.
• Ամպեր ("clouds"). Poetry. Hairenik, Boston 1909.
• Քաւութեան երգեր ("Busslieder"). Poetry. Hairenik, Boston 1915.
• Սերի եւ ատելութեան երգեր ("love and hate songs"). Poetry. Hairenik, Boston 1915.
• Վրէժի աւետարան ("The Gospel of Vengeance"). Poetry. New York: Armenia, 1918.
• Ասլան Բեկ ("Aslan Beg"). Tragedy in three acts. Hairenik, Boston 1918.
• Քեզի ("you"). Poetry. Boston 1920. (started 1904)

Political Writings

• Թուրքիզմը Անգորայէն Բագու եւ Թրքական Օրիէնթասիոն ("Turkishism from Angora to Baku and the Turkish orientation"). Nor Or, Athens 1928.
• Թուրքերը եւ Մենք (“The Turks and Us”). Nor Or, Athens 1928.
• Ալեքսանդրապօլի Դաշնագրէն 1920-ի Կովկասեան Ապստամբութիւնները ("From the Treaty of Alexandrapol to the 1920s uprisings in the Caucasus"). Part 1 and 2. Arabian Publishing, Marseille 1934–35.
• Երեւանի Համաձայնագիրը (“The Yerevan Accords”). Boston 1941.
• Գիրք Մատուցման եւ Հատուցման ("Book of Devotion and Compensation"). Onipar Publishing, Beirut 1949.

in this:

• Այսպէս Սպաննեցինք ("So we killed")
• Յաւելուած ("supplement")

• Վերստին Յաւելուած - Ալեքսանդրապօլի Դաշնագրի «Ինչպէ՞սն ու ինչո՞ւն» (Further addendum - “The how and why of the Treaty of Alexandropol”). Baikar, Boston 1955.

literature

• Kevork B. Bardakjian: A Reference Guide to Modern Armenian Literature, 1500-1920 . Editor: Wayne State University Press. Detroit 2000 (English).
• Antranig Chalabian: General Andranik and the Armenian Revolutionary Movement . Ed .: Antranig Chalabian. Southfield, Michigan 1988, p. 513 .
• Joseph T. Shipley: Encyclopedia of Literature. Vol. 1, 2007, p. 62.

Web links

Commons : Shahan Natalie  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Shahan Natali