Khanasor Expedition

Khanasor Expedition
	; Armenian fedayis
Date	25–27 July 1897
Location	Plain of Khanasor; Van Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Result	Armenian victory Mazrik tribe's influence on the region nullified;
Belligerents
Armenian Revolutionary Federation fedayis; assisted by Hunchaks and Armenakans	Kurdish Mazrik tribe of Khanasor
Commanders and leaders
Andranik Pasha; Sargis Mehrabyan; Nikol Duman; Nikoghayos Mikaelian	Sharaf Beg
Strength
250 fedayees	The entire tribe
Casualties and losses
26, incl. Garo (Stepan Zorian's brother), Khan and Arisdages Zorian	Unknown; about 200 persons according to contemporary Ottoman claims, almost all of the tribe's fighting-age males according to Armenian sources

The Khanasor Expedition (Armenian: Խանասորի արշավանք, romanized: Xanasori aršavank',) was a punitive raid launched by Armenian fedayis against the Kurdish Mazrik tribe on July 25, 1897. In 1896, in the aftermath of the Defense of Van, the Kurdish Mazrik tribe had ambushed and slaughtered many of the Armenian defenders of Van as they were retreating into Persia. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation decided to retaliate for that atrocity, resulting in the Khanasor Expedition.

^ Claim made by the Vali of Van, as reported in the London Evening News, August 10, 1879, p3.
^ Suny, Ronald Grigor, "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 143.

[1] Claim made by the Vali of Van, as reported in the London Evening News, August 10, 1879, p3.

[2] Suny, Ronald Grigor, "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 143.

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