Part one. The early years of working in ARF Dashnaktsutyun
Summary
Prepared by Ruben H. Gasparian and Ruben O. Sahakyan
Key words -Mar, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, Simon Zavaryan, Yerevan, Gandzak, dynamite, Jalal-ogli, Cyprus, Armen Garo, Hnchaks, Constantinople, Onnik Derdzakyan, Babken Syuni.
Memoirs of a famous activist of ARF Dashnaktsutyun Michael Ter-Martirosyan (Mar), which will be published in this and subsequent issues of the magazine VEM, begin with a description of the Armenian revival of 1880 and are terminated in 1913, by the events of the First Balkan War. The first part presents the membership of Mar to the party, who was then a teacher in Ganzak and his first steps on the instructions of Simon Zavaryan – acquisition of dynamite from mines of Getabek, then teachers’ and party activities in Jalaloglu. He describes pretty in details the events of the Council and the decisions taken during the meeting in Tbilisi at the beginning of 1896, for the execution of which Michael Ter-Martirosyan visited Geneva. After that, having received an additional assignment from the editor of the magazine “Droshak” – Hovnan Davtyan, he left for Egypt, then – to Cyprus, where he met Armen Garo (Garegin Pastrmadzhyan). After spending some time in Larnaca and visiting the Monastery of St. Makar whose surrounding forests and mountains were regarded by party members as a suitable place to hide weapons and people, Mar sailed to Constantinople, where, after many adventures, he found his party fellows – Onnik Derdzakyan (Vramyan) and Babken Syuni, who were already preparing the operation Bank Ottoman.