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Armenian irregular units, also known as (Armenian: Ֆէտայի, Fedayee or Armenian: կամավոր, Kamavor) are Armenian guerrillas who leave their families to form brigades. The Armenian fighters were volunteers (Kamavor) who are literally "one who is ready to sacrifice his life" (Fedayee fidā'ī,Arabic: فدائيون) for his people[1]). The term Fedayee was first used for Armenian fighters, although used by Arab fighters earlier, in the Ottoman Empire where Armenians in the Ottoman Empire formed guerrilla organizations and bands in reaction to the pillaged Armenian villages and Armenian's murdered by criminals, tribal Kurdish forces and Hamidian guards during the reign of Abdul Hamid II. Most of the fedayees were leaders and members of the Armenian national liberation movement.
[edit] Ottoman Empire
Armenian fedayees main goal was to defend Armenian villagers from persecution and at the same time, disrupt the Ottoman Empire's activities in Armenian populated regions. Armenian volunteers fight during Hamidian Massacres, Sasun Resistance (1894), Zeitun Resistance (1895), Defense of Van, and Khanasor Expedition. They were the leaders and members of the Armenian national movement. Their ultimate goal was always to gain Armenian autonomy (Armenakans) or independence (Dashnaks, Hunchaks) depending on their ideology and degree of oppression received on Armenians. This can be seen in the Dashnak slogan "Azadoutioun gam Mah", which literally translates as "Liberty or Death". These bands committed sabotage activities like cutting telegraph lines and raiding army supplies. They also committed assassinations and counter-attacks on Muslim villages. They helped Armenians defend themselves during village purges by Ottoman officials. They were supported by Armenians and quickly gained fame, support and trust by them. Their activities in the Ottoman Empire dissipated after the Second Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire, Committee of Union and Progress came into power, and for a time granted Armenians the same rights as Turkish and Kurdish citizens of the empire. Most fedayee groups disbanded, returning to their families. Famous Armenian fedayees were Nigol Douman, Hampartsoum Boyadjian, Girayr. [edit] IranArmenian volunteers were also exited among the Armenians in the Persian Empire and they took part in Iranian Constitutional Revolution. [edit] World War I, Armenian Genocide
Some fedayee groups joined the Ottoman army after the Ottoman government passed a new law to support the war effort that required all enabled adult males up to the age of forty-five to either be recruited in the Ottoman army or to pay special fees (which would be used in the war effort) in order to be excluded from service. As a result of this law, most able-bodied men were removed from their homes, leaving only the women, children, and elderly by themselves. Most of the Armenian recruits were later turned into road laborers, and many were executed prior to the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. The genocide gave way to the return of the fedayees. Apart from thousands of Armenians who were drafted or volunteered in several different armies fighting against the Ottoman empire, and apart from those who were drafted in the Ottoman army prior to World War I,[2] the fedayees fought inside Ottoman borders. The total number of guerrillas in these irregular bands was 40,000–50,000, according to Boghos Nubar, the president of the "Armenian National Delegation":
Boghos Nubar, as a part of the Armenian Delegation, had the intention to expand the borders of the independent Democratic Republic of Armenia. Thus, he might have elevated the number of Armenian fedayees who were able to fight in order to show that the Armenians are capable of defending an eventually large Ottoman-Armenian border. In reality, their numbers at that time were much lower, considering the fact that there were no more than a few handful of fedayees in most of the confrontations between them and Kurdish irregulars or Turkish soldiers, even according to foreign accounts. Moreover, many of the fedayees were the same and reappeared in various places and battles. One should also note that many Armenian irregular fighters died defending regions of Western Armenia during the genocide. [edit] Democratic Republic of ArmeniaDuring the first year of the new republic, Armenians were flooding from Anatolia to safe havens. Roads were clogged with refugees. Further southeast, in Van, the fedayees helped the local Armenians resist the Turkish army until April, 1918, but eventually were forced to evacuate it and withdraw to Persia. To consider emergency measures, the Western Armenian Administration sponsored a conference which adopted plans to form a twenty-thousand-man militia under Andranik in December, 1917. Civilian commissioner Dr. Hakob Zavriev promoted Adrianik to Major General and he took the command of Armenia within the Ottoman Empire. They fought in numerous successful battles such as the Battle of Kara Killisse, the Battle of Bash Abaran and the Battle of Sardarapat, as fedayees merged with the Armenian army (Erivan centered) under the General Tovmas Nazarbekian. Drasdamat Kanayan, another well-known fedayee, led the battle in the Georgian-Armenian War. The fedayee bands soon disbanded or left the new Soviet Armenia as Armenia lost its independence to the USSR mostly to Europe and North America. [edit] Nagorno-Karabakh WarThe term fedayee was later used by Armenian irregular forces in the early 1990s when the dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh was turning into the Nagorno-Karabakh War. [edit] Notes
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