A young man from Artsakh, Sargis Mehrabian, also known as Khanasori Vardan (Vardan of Khanasor) or simply Vardan, devoted himself to the Armenian Liberation Movement as early as 1890. Having received the baptism of fire in the campaign headed by Sargis Kukunian, he joined the Armenian Haiduk Movement. From 1894 to 1896, he took part in the self-defense of Van-Vaspurakan and carried out work on organizing resistance groups in Armenian settlements. The Khanasor expedition of 1897 can be considered the apogee of Vardan’s Haiduk activity against the Kurdish Mazrykan tribe. Having returned to the Caucasus ‒ Baku, he started writing his memoirs, which cover the events through 1894 to 1896.

KeywordsSargis Mehrabian Shushi Van Sevkaretsi Sako Khanasor Simon Zavarian Cilicia Rostom Armenian-Tatar clashes First World War volunteer movement genocide Aram Manukian Baku Yerevan.