February 25 - legendary Armenian hero Andranik Ozanyan’s birthday

Today marks the 147^th birthday anniversary of the legendary Armenian freedom fighter and general, public and political activist Andranik Ozanyan.

Andranik Ozanyan (aka Zoravar Andranik) was born in the church quarter of Shabin Karahisar, Ottoman Empire (present-day Şebinkarahisar,Giresun Province, Turkey. His mother died when he was one year old, so his elder sister Nazeli took care of him. Antranik finished the local Musheghian school and became an apprentice in his father's carpentry shop.

After losing his wife and son at an early age, Andranik joined the Armenian freedom movement in the Ottoman Empire, and participated in various political parties, including Armenian Revolutionary Federation. He met the military commander Aghbiur Serob and joined his fedayeen. After the death of Serob (1899) he became the common leader of Armenian fedayee groups of Vaspurakan and Sassoun (Western Armenia). All of Andranik's lieutenants accepted that their leader possessed undisputed authority and superiority in military matters and that he was "primus inter pares" (the first among equals). Such was the popularity Andranik earned among the men he led that they came to refer to him always by his first name - even formally, when he later held a general's rank in the Imperial Russian Army.

During World War I, he participated in the Caucasus Campaign and was appointed as general of the Armenian volunteer units of the Russian army. He participated in 20 different offensives where he gained fame due to his courage and the tactics he employed to defeat the opposing forces. The Russian authorities made Andranik a Major General in 1918 and decorated him six times for gallantry.

He was the commanding officer of the Armenian volunteer units, which helped the Van Resistance take control of Van on May 6, 1915. He helped re-capture the city from Ottoman forces during the Battle of Van. He was also the commander of the battalion that took the city of Bitlis (see: Battle of Bitlis) from the Ottoman forces that was under control of Halil Pasha. Between March 1918 - April 1918, he was the governor of the Administration for Western Armenia (The Armenian provisional government of a progressive autonomous region that initially set up around Lake Van). His military leadership was instrumental in allowing the Armenian population of Van to escape the Ottoman Army and flee to Eastern Armenia, then controlled by Russia. The territory later became the Democratic Republic of Armenia.

After the formation of the Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA), he organized and fought alongside volunteer units to combat the Ottoman army. Andranik was leading his army in combat against the Ottomans during the signing of the Treaty of Batum, and refused to accept the borders stated by the treaty. As the commander of Armenian forces at Nakhitchevan, he "has protected in the name of the Armenian Army against the peace treaty with Turkey, and has declared that his army is determined to continue the war against Turks".His activities were concentrated at the link between the Ottoman Empire and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic atKarabakh, Zanghezur and Nakhichevan. Ozanian struck back at the Ottoman Fronts, Army of Islam. He was particularly prominent in the destruction of Muslim settlements and in the planned ethnic homogenisation of regions with once mixed population through populating them with Armenian refugees from Turkey.

Andranik tried several times to seize Shusha. Just before the Armistice of Mudros was signed, Andranik was on the way from Zangezur to Shusha, to control the main city of Karabakh. In January 1919 Armenian troops advancing, the British forces (General William M. Thomson) ordered Andranik back to Zangezur, and gave him assurances that a favorable treaty would be reached at the Paris Peace Conference, of 1919.

In 1919 he left Armenia amid political turmoil and power struggles and went into exile in Fresno, California, United States. The New York Times reported, that among the passengers who arrived on November 22, 1919 from Havre on the French liner Savoie to ask US for a mandate "was General Ozanian Antranik, the hero of Armenia, who held out at Zangezour with a handful of troops against the Turkish Army until he was relieved on Dec. 13, 1918, by a British expeditionary force, more than a month after the armistice was signed, and saved 30,000 starving refugees".He was accompanied on the Savoie by General Jaques Bagratuni, Captain Haig Bonapartian, and Lieutenant Ter-Pogossian.

Andranik Ozanian lived in Fresno for 5 years until his death on August 31, 1927 at the age of 62. According to county records, he died at Richardson Springs, Chico, in Northern California. According to the New York Times, more than 2500 members of the Armenian community attended memorial services in Carnegie Hall for General Andranik Ozanian.