The Battle of Sardarapat and its Aftermath

The fighting force at Sardarapat had many components: professional military commanders, highly educated in the collapsing Tsarist army, like Gen. Movses Silikian, Tovmas Nazarbekian, Daniel bek-Piroumian (general commander) and General Boghos bek-Piroumian. Also vital were heroes like Dro (Drastamat Kanayan) who rose from the ranks of fedayees, civilian volunteers as well as members of the clergy. A case in point is the participation of the future Catholicos of Cilicia, Bishop Garegin Hovsepian, who was dubbed at the time as Yeghishé, a historic figure in the Battle of Avarayr, 451 AD, for inspiring the warriors through his patriotic fervor.

For a long time, Dro and Aram Manoukian had been depicted as the only true heroes of the battle, sometimes overshadowing the professional military, who were the real architects of the victory, because those military leaders did not have political heirs. Today, they are all on a pedestal for the entire Armenian nation. They were the ones who collectively fought without distinction, saved a piece of historic land from calamity and created an ancestral homeland for posterity.

For a long time, there was also historic injustice when comparing and contrasting the first independent republic to the Soviet-era republic. As we revisit historic facts without prejudices and biases, we realize the three republics complement each other in unity.

As much as the Soviet-era leaders are maligned as corrupt communists, many of them harbored true patriotism and nationalism in their hearts to generate pride in the battle of Sardarapat and inspire respect for our martyrs.

Aghasi Khanjyan, Grigor Haroutunyan (who barely spoke Armenian and who claimed Western Armenian territories), Yakob (Hakob) Zarobyan, Andon Kochinyan and Garen Demirjian, pretending to be devout communists, sometimes more Catholic than the Pope, were the ones who built the monumental edifices at Tsitsernakabert and Sardarapat, contravening the Soviet foreign policy which treated Turkey with kid gloves, hoping to lure that country away from the embrace of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Those leaders took such initiatives at their own peril; Khanjyan was assassinated by Lavrenti Beria and Zarobyan was demoted. Yet they all stand tall before history and their own people.