Pattie Susan Paul - The Armenian legionnaires: sacrifice and betrayal in World War I

Early morning in Adana. American flag flying over Near East Relief building and below, workers going to the vineyards.

John Amar Shishmanian Papers, envelope B, Hoover Institution Archives.

Published in 2018 by

I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd

London New York

www.ibtauris.com

Copyright 2018 Susan Paul Pattie

Copyright 2018 Varak Ketsemanian, Chapter 2

In collaboration with and sponsored by K. George and Carolann S. Najarian

The right of Susan Paul Pattie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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ISBN: 978 1 78831 125 0

eISBN: 978 1 83860 929 0

ePDF: 978 1 83860 930 6

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Contents

K. George Najarian

Varak Ketsemanian

Marc Mamigonian

Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian

Vahe H. Apelian

A s a young boy growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Armenian legionnaires were a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Born in Hyusenig, an Armenian village in Ottoman Turkey, my father Nishan Najarian emigrated to the United States before the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and settled in Cambridge. Despite his comfort and safety in the United States, like hundreds of other young Armenian men, he answered the call to join the Armenian legionnaires. He was 19 years old. At the end of the war he returned home, bringing with him a woman and her daughter, survivors of the Genocide. We dont know where or how he met them. We do know that when he was being discharged from the legionnaires he was told he could stay in the region or get on a boat back to the United States and take one other person with him. He said he wished to return but insisted on taking a mother and a daughter and wouldnt leave without both of them. He obtained the necessary permission, brought them to the United States, and eventually married the daughter, Arshalous, my mother.

The legionnaires who returned became close, lifelong friends whom we would see regularly. I remember going along to the legionnaires picnics at Camp Hayastan in Franklin, Massachusetts, where the families gathered and the men would trade stories. A few times a year the legionnaires would get together and play cards and enjoy one anothers company. Similar groups gathered informally in various cities: Providence, Rhode Island; New Britain, Connecticut; Troy, New York; Worcester, Boston, Cambridge, Springfield, Lawrence, Massachusetts. When talking to non-Armenians about these young fighters, we would use the word legionnaires but in general conversation amongst Armenians they were known as the Gamavors, the Volunteers. These men fascinated me and inspired me: young men who willingly put their lives at risk to go back to their homeland and fight, who were committed to help free Armenia and rescue those in need.

This book is dedicated to the Gamavors, the Armenian legionnaires, the men whose idealism and courage fired their determination as represented in the spirit of my father, Nishan Najarian.

K. George Najarian