Garegin Nzhdeh

This article is about person. For village, see Nzhdeh, Armenia.

Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan
Portrait of Garegin Nzhdeh
Native name
Գարեգին Առաքել Եղիշեի Տեր-Հարությունյան
Birth nameGaregin Ter-Harutyunyan
Other name(s)Garegin Nzhdeh
Born(1886-01-01)1 January 1886
Kznut, Erivan Governorate, Russian Empire
Died21 December 1955(1955-12-21) (aged 69)
Vladimir Central Prison, Vladimir, Soviet Union
Buried
Spitakavor Monastery
Allegiance ARF Party (1907–1937)
 Kingdom of Bulgaria (1912–1913)
 Russian Empire (1914–1917)
Armenia Republic of Armenia (1918–1920)
Armenia Mountainous Armenia (1921)
RankSparapet
Battles / wars
AwardsOrder of Courage of the Kingdom of Bulgaria
Order of Saint Vladimir 3rd class of the Russian Empire
Order of Saint Anna 4th class of the Russian Empire
Order of Saint George 3rd class of the Russian Empire
Order of Saint George 2nd class of the Russian Empire
Spouse(s)Epimé Sukiassian (m. ?–1955)
Gohar Dadayan
ChildrenVrezh
Lilia Dadayan

Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan,[a] better known by his nom de guerre Garegin Nzhdeh[b] (Armenian: Գարեգին Նժդեհ, IPA: [ɡɑɾɛˈɡin nəʒˈdɛh]; 1 January 1886 – 21 December 1955), was an Armenian statesman, military commander and nationalist revolutionary. As a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, he was involved in the national liberation struggle and revolutionary activities during the First Balkan War and World War I and became one of the key political and military leaders of the First Republic of Armenia (1918–1921). He is widely admired as a charismatic national hero by Armenians.[1][2]

In 1921, he was a key figure in the establishment of the Republic of Mountainous Armenia, an anti-Bolshevik state that became a key factor that led to the inclusion of the province of Syunik into Soviet Armenia.[3][4] During World War II, he cooperated with Nazi Germany, hoping to secure Soviet Armenia's existence in case of Germany's victory over the USSR and a potential Turkish invasion of the Caucasus.[5][6][7][8] Following an abortive attempt to cooperate with the Soviet Union against Turkey, Nzhdeh was arrested in Bulgaria in 1944 and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment in the Soviet Union.[7] He died in Vladimir Central Prison in 1955.[7][8]


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  1. ^ Harutyunyan, Arus (2009). Contesting National Identities in an Ethnically Homogeneous State: The Case of Armenian Democratization (PhD thesis). Western Michigan University. p. 61.
  2. ^ Panossian, Razmik (2006). The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 301. ISBN 9780231139267.
  3. ^ Chorbajian, Levon (1994). The Caucasian Knot: The History & Geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh. London: Zed Books. p. 134. ISBN 9781856492881. But it is undeniable that if Zangezur has since been an integral part of Soviet Armenia, it was Nzhdeh who made it possible.
  4. ^ Panossian, Razmik (2006). The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars. London: Columbia University Press. p. 259. ISBN 9780231511339.
  5. ^ De Waal, Thomas (2015). Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide. Oxford University Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-19-090478-4. OCLC 1085942778. The other general who fought with the Nazis was Dashnak veteran Garegin Njdeh, who had been Dro's comrade-in-arms in the tsarist army.
  6. ^ Smele, Jonathan D. (2015). Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 795. ISBN 978-1442252813.
  7. ^ a b c Stepanian, Ruzanna (22 November 2017). "Armenian Ruling Party Rebuffs Russian Accusation It 'Glorifies Nazism'". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 25 April 2022. Nzhdeh was one of several exiled Armenian leaders who pledged allegiance to Nazi Germany in 1942 with the stated aim of saving Soviet Armenia from a possible Turkish invasion after what they expected to be a Soviet defeat by the Third Reich.
  8. ^ a b "Karekin Njdeh: A Biographical Sketch". Armenian National Committee of America. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2022. In order to be able to influence Nazi policy, Njdeh aligned himself with Germany and offered his services in exchange for putting an end to the anti-Armenian campaign in the German press... Njdeh wanted to make sure that regardless of the turn of events, he could either guarantee the security of Armenia in case of a possible Turkish invasion of the Caucasus or liberate Western Armenia if Germany attacked Turkey.