Kevork Chavush

Kevork Ghazarian Aroyi or Gevorg Rasarjan (Armenian Գէորգ Արոյի Ղազարեան, * 1870 or 1871 in Bsanats, Bitlis Vilayet, Ottoman Empire, † May 27 1907 in Bitlis ), also known as Çavuş ( Գէորգ Չաւուշ, Gevorg Tschawusch ) or " The Lion of mountains " was an Armenian Fedai who tried to stop the massacre of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1894-1896.

Early life

Kevork Çavuş was born into a hunting family in the village Batnats in Sasun. He received his education in Musch at the Arakeloz convent school. After graduation, he joined Arabo on, a leading Fedai. After Arabo was arrested without due process of law, Kevork Çavuş made ​​the traitors of Arabo found and killed him. From 1885 to 1888 he traveled to Aleppo. He returned in 1890 back to Taron to join a group of Armenian freedom fighters to Hampartsoum Boyadjian, with the aim of defending the villages.

Resistance of Sasun

In 1894 he took part against the persecutions of the Armenians by Sultan Abdulhamid II on resistance of Sason. During his struggle Kevork Çavuş was captured and sentenced to 15 years. After two years, he fled to the mountains of Sason, where he joined the political party Dashnagzoutiun and strove for a revolutionary movement against Turkish officials. In 1896, he met General Andranik Sorawar Ozanian and participated in the Battle of the Holy Apostles Monastery in 1901 and the Second Sasun Resistance 1904. Together with Andranik he led the defense of the village Geliegusan, into which 20,000 people had fled. This failed, however, as the Armenian fighters ran out of ammunition. During his career as a freedom fighter, he came under the command of Serob Pasha. During this time he killed his uncle, who had kidnapped a woman, which caused a severe depression in it.

Kevork Çavuş was during a firefight with the Ottoman Army on May 25, 1907 seriously injured in Muş, which forced him to retreat. Two days later, on May 27, his body was found in Kyosabin - Bashin under a bridge. Kevork Çavuş was buried in the Armenian cemetery of Kogh.