Hamazasp Srvandztyan
Hamazasp Srvandztyan (Armenian: Համազասպ Սրվանձտյան; 1873 – 18 February 1921), commonly known as Hamazasp, was an Armenian fedayee military commander and member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.[1]
Hamazasp Srvandztyan
Hamazasp Srvandztyan
Hamazasp
1873
Van, Ottoman Empire
18 February 1921 (aged 47–48)
Yerevan, Soviet Armenia
Dashnaktsutyun (1890s–1920)
Russian Empire (1914–1917)
Republic of Armenia (1918–1920)
1890s—1920
Early life[edit]
Hamazasp was born in Van in 1873 and was the nephew of the folklorist Garegin Srvandztiants. Hamazasp was first a member of the Armenakan Party and then the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. After finishing school, he began to learn handicraft as a jeweler and a watchmaker. From an early age he was involved in the Armenian national liberation movement. To avoid persecution by the Ottoman government, he moved to Yerevan, then to Shushi from Van.[1]
He participated in the Armenian–Tatar clashes of 1905–07. Hamazasp was especially notable in the Battle of Askeran Ravine on 22 August 1905, defeating a 200-member Turkish detachment of which only 6 survived. He also organized the defense of the Armenian villagers of the Elisabethpol Governorate. In 1908, the Tsarist government arrested Hamazasp and condemned him to death, but this was replaced by a 15 years of exile to Siberia sentence. In 1913 he escaped from prison and went to Europe, then to Constantinople. At the 8th General Assembly of the ARF party that took place in Karin in 1914, he was strongly opposed to any cooperation with the Young Turks,[1] and largely supported an alliance with the Russian Empire.[2]