Varag/Varak, a mountainous district lying one hour east of Van, containing the monastery of St. Gregory and the villages of Tarman (pop. 482), Gokhbants (pop. 218), Tsorovants (100 Armenians and 240 Kurds), and Shushants (pop. 559), offered a haven to thousands of villagers from both the immediate vicinity and Hayots Tsor in the first days of the massacres in the area.
This mountainous zone was the more important in that it communicated with the nahie of Arjag and the Persian border, while dominating the Khoshap/Hoşab-Başkale road, which the inhabitants of Van regarded as a possible escape route.
This no doubt explains why some 30 gendarmes took up positions in the monastery of Varak at a rather early stage in the fighting. On the evening of 20 April, these gendarmes murdered the monastery’s two monks, Father Aristakes and Father Vrtanes, along with their four servants, and then, oddly enough, abandoned their position and returned to the city.
It was precisely at this moment that 3,000 fugitives from Hayots Tsor, Nor Kiugh (pop. 413), Lim (pop. 143), Zarants (pop. 240), Sevan (pop. 439), Ermants (pop. 24), Bakhezeg/Baghezig (pop. 98), Farugh (pop. 210), and Osgerag/Osgipag (pop. 270) arrived in these heights, defended by 60 men. The 6,000 refugees on Mt. Varak even succeeded in establishing a nighttime link with the city.
Spared by the early fighting, the mountainous area was attacked on 8 May on orders from Vali Cevdet by a substantial force, the “Erzerum Battalion,” which comprised 300 cavalrymen and 1,000 militiamen and çetes, equipped with three batteries of cannons. The Armenian defenders facing them were deployed in three positions: 50 men under Hagop Blgoyan were stationed in Gokhbants; 250, under Toros’s orders, were posted in the monastery at Varak; another 250, commanded by Shirin Hagopian of Arjag, had taken up positions in Shushants.
The first attack was launched against Shushants, which was taken and burned down after putting up a feeble defense. The attackers then turned to Gokhbants and its monastery of St. Gregory, which also gave way; the ancient monastery of Varak and its collections of medieval manuscripts were given over to the flames.
In the space of three days, the 6,000 people who had been concentrated here managed to reach Van, traveling by night. One Armenian source has it that Cevdet made no attempt to hinder the refugees’ flight into the city, “so
that he could starve the population and overcome the obstinacy of the defenders faster and more easily.”
To be continued
Note- this chapter is from Raymond Kévorkian’s book ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: A Complete History, pp. 325-326.
In picture- Varagavank, a view of the main buildings of the monastery, photographed before 1915, source- http://www.virtualani.org/varagavank/
