Khanasor Expedition
Khanasor Expedition | |
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Van Vilayet, Ottoman Empire | |
Result |
Armenian victory
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The Khanasor Expedition (Armenian: Խանասորի արշավանք, romanized: Xanasori aršavank',) was a punitive raid launched by Armenian fedayis against the Kurdish Mazrik tribe on July 25, 1897. In 1896, in the aftermath of the Defense of Van, the Kurdish Mazrik tribe had ambushed and slaughtered many of the Armenian defenders of Van as they were retreating into Persia. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation decided to retaliate for that atrocity, resulting in the Khanasor Expedition.
Event
About a year after the events in Van, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation decided to retaliate and "punish" the Kurdish Mazrik tribe for its role in the
Results
Although ARF founder
Gurgen Mahari, as part of a critique of the effectiveness of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, had a character in his novel The Burning Orchards question whether the high moral and strategic significance the Dashnaktsutyun gave to the Khanasor Expedition's results was justified, or whether the expedition, and other acts like the Ottoman Bank siege, were just isolated incidents whose sum total did not relieve the oppression of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.[4]
See also
- Armenian resistance
References
- ^ Claim made by the Vali of Van, as reported in the London Evening News, August 10, 1879, p3.
- "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 143.
- ^ Tasnapetean, Hrach (1990). History of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Dashnaktsutiun, 1890–1924. Oemme Edizioni. p. 50.
On July 25, the Mazrik fighters - nearly all the adult males in the tribe - were annihilated. A Turkish lieutenant visiting Sharaf was also killed; but Sharaf, disguised as a woman, managed to flee. By the strict order of the ARF commanders, all women and children were spared.
- ^ Marc Nushanian, The Flames of Van, in Armenian Van / Vaspurakan, p280.