LETTERS BY ARSHAK CHOPANYAN TO ARPIAR ARPIARYAN – 2015-3

Concerning the capture of the Ottoman Bank and its consequences

Summary

Hovik B. Grigoryan

Key words – liberation struggle, unpublished documents, capture of the Ottoman Bank, Western Armenian writer, Reorganized Hnchakyan party, Western Armenian intellectual, the Armenian issue, Young Turk figures, Paris.

The operation of Ottoman Bank’s capture became the most significant event among offensive tactics of ARF Dashnaktsutyun in 1896-1898, which received a wide response in the international arena, and in inner circles. By publishing three letters of Arshak Chopanyana addressed to Arpiar Arpiaryan, which he wrote under fresh impressions, and without any political intention, we want to present the immediate impact that this operation has made on the international community and some Western Armenian intellectuals who were settled in France at that time. As the whole three letters by A. Chopanyan were written under the immediate impression of capture of Ottoman Bank, they are three parts of a whole in terms of content and continue each other. They are significant also because they reflect the optimism of A. Chopanyan concerning the capture of the Ottoman Bank, who at the time was also in Europe and was close to the reorganized Hnchakyan party.

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