Latest / The Story of Armenia: Survival Through Empires and Genocide — Fexingo History / The Armenian Fedayee: Guerrillas Who Fought an Empire
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, we’ve talked a lot about the great massacres, the political parties, the Genocide itself. But there’s a figure that keeps popping up in the background of so many episodes — the fedayee. The Armenian guerrilla fighter who took to the mountains long before World War One. Luna: I know the word, but I’ve never really understood who these people were or what they actually did. Lucas: Well, ‘fedayee’ comes from the Arabic fidā’ī — ‘one who sacrifices.’ And that’s exactly what they were. Young men — and sometimes women — who gave up their lives to defend Armenian villages from Kurdish raids and Ottoman oppression. This isn’t just a military story; it’s a cultural archetype that shaped Armenian identity for generations. Luna: It reminds me of the kind of romance around outlaws in other cultures. Lucas: Exactly. The fedayee became folk heroes. But before we go deeper — and I mean this sincerely — if this conversation is adding something useful to your understanding of Armenian history, the way we keep this show ad-free and independent is through listener support. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just know that every little bit helps us keep digging into these stories. Luna: That’s a good reminder. And speaking of digging — when did the fedayee movement really start? Lucas: The roots go back to the 1880s, when Armenian revolutionary parties like the Hunchakian and Dashnaktsutyun were forming. But the real spark was the Hamidian massacres of the 1890s. After thousands were killed, a new generation decided that passive resistance wasn’t enough. They formed small armed bands — khmbers — and began operating in the mountainous regions of Sasun, Mush, and Zeitun. Luna: So they were responding directly to violence against civilians. Lucas: Precisely. The most famous early leader was Aghbiur Serob — Serob the Spring. He was a schoolteacher from the village of Soukias in the region of Alashkert. He abandoned teaching to organize self-defense units. His strategy was to protect villages, not to seek out battle. But he was also a master of ambush. In 1899, he was betrayed, surrounded by Kurdish and Ottoman forces, and killed along with his entire group. His head was displayed in Mush. Luna: That's brutal. And his death didn't stop the movement — it made him a martyr. Lucas: Exactly. And that martyrdom fueled the next generation. The most legendary of all was Andranik Ozanian. You’ve heard his name before — he’s practically a household word among Armenians. Andranik was born in 1865 in the town of Shabin-Karahisar. He joined the fedayee in the 1890s and quickly gained a reputation for discipline and tactical brilliance. He was known for his long hair, his fierce mustache, and his absolute refusal to surrender. Luna: I've seen his pictures — he looks like he stepped out of a legend. Lucas: He lived like one too. In 1904, he led the defense of the Monastery of Surb Arakelots in Sasun against a massive Ottoman-Kurdish force. Outnumbered maybe ten to one, his men held out for weeks, eventually breaking through the siege at night and escaping into the mountains. The monastery was destroyed, but the story spread across the Armenian world. Andranik became a symbol of unbreakable will. Luna: And what about Kevork Chavush? I've seen that name too. Lucas: Kevork Chavush — George the Constable — was another giant of the movement. He operated in the same region as Serob, actually. After Serob’s death, Kevork took over and waged a relentless guerrilla campaign. He was known for his chivalry — there are stories of him returning stolen goods to Kurdish villagers if they promised to stop attacking Armenians. But he could be ruthless too. In 1907, he was killed in a battle at Sulukh, near Mush. His last words, reportedly, were ‘Long live the Armenian people.’ Luna: There’s a pattern here — they all died young, fighting. Lucas: Almost all of them did. The fedayee were a sacrifice generation. They knew their chances of survival were slim. But they also saw themselves as the shield of the nation. After the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, there was a brief period of hope. Many fedayee came down from the mountains, laid down their arms, and even joined Ottoman politics. Andranik himself was elected to the Ottoman parliament. But it didn’t last. Luna: Because the Young Turks turned out to be just as dangerous. Lucas: Worse, in many ways. When World War One broke out, many fedayee reorganized. Andranik actually led Armenian volunteers fighting alongside the Russian army against the Ottomans. But the Genocide that followed — the deportations, the death marches — swept away the civilian population the fedayee had tried to protect. It’s a tragic irony: the fighters survived longer than the communities they defended. Luna: So what happened to the fedayee after the war? Lucas: Some, like Andranik, continued fighting. He led units in the Caucasus, briefly governed a region near Lake Sevan, and even tried to carve out an Armenian autonomous zone. But after the Sovietization of Armenia in 1920, he went into exile and died in California in 1927. Others joined the Soviet Red Army or emigrated. The fedayee spirit, though, lived on in the diaspora, where their songs and stories became a kind of secular scripture. Luna: It’s interesting how they're remembered as heroes even though they didn't 'win' in a military sense. Lucas: That’s the key. Their victory was moral. They showed that Armenians would fight back. That alone was transformative for a people often portrayed as passive victims. The fedayee restored a sense of agency. And their legacy — the idea that you stand up even when you can't win — influenced later Armenian resistance movements, including the struggle for Artsakh in the 1990s. Luna: I hadn't made that connection — the fedayee as a model for later fighters. Lucas: It’s a direct line. When the Karabakh movement began in 1988, fighters in the mountains of Nagorno-Karabakh invoked the names of Andranik and Kevork Chavush. They saw themselves as continuing the same struggle. And there’s a famous photograph from 1992 of a young Armenian volunteer standing at a checkpoint near Stepanakert, an AK-47 in one hand and a picture of Andranik in the other. That image says everything. Luna: So the fedayee aren't just history — they're still a living symbol. Lucas: Absolutely. And that’s why it’s important to understand who they really were, not just the myth. They were farmers, teachers, priests who took up arms. They made hard choices — sometimes killing innocent Kurds in revenge, sometimes turning against other Armenians in factional disputes. The Dashnak-Hunchak rivalry played out even among the fedayee. But overall, they represent a moment when a people decided to fight for their existence. Luna: You mentioned women — were there any female fedayee? Lucas: Yes, though fewer are recorded. One name that stands out is Sose Mayrig — Mother Sose. She was the wife of Aghbiur Serob. After his death, she took up arms and fought alongside her sons. She lived to be 103, dying in 1953 in the United States. Another is Varduhi — a young woman from Sasun who fought in the 1904 monastery defense. There’s also the story of Paytsar — a woman who disguised herself as a man to fight alongside her husband. Their role is often overlooked, but it’s real. Luna: That's powerful — women in a very male-dominated world of guerrilla warfare. Lucas: It speaks to how total the mobilization was. When your entire existence is threatened, everyone fights. And that’s the ultimate lesson of the fedayee: they didn’t win independence, they didn’t stop the Genocide, but they proved that Armenians would not go quietly. And in a way, that defiance is what kept the nation alive through the darkest century of its history. Luna: I think that's a good place to leave it. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thank you, Luna. Until next time.