In the Bulgarian city of Pazardzhik located on the railway line from Istanbul to Western Europe, there is a street named after one Hovhannes Sevadjian.
This Sevadjian was a local chief of the railway station and a cryptographer during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 which liberated the Bulgarian people from the Turkish yoke.
When the Russian troops approached, the Turkish commander-in-chief ordered the military commander of Pazardzhik: “Set the city on fire and expel the population.”
The ciphered order arrived at the railway station telegraph when there were Turkish military leaders in the office of Sevadjian. Putting his life to risk, Sevadjian interpreted the telegram in the opposite sense. Namely, that the city and its inhabitants should be spared.
To avoid any checking, Sevadjian swallowed the printed text of the original message. After some time, the Russian troops entered the city saved from destruction by the courage and resourcefulness of an Armenian.
An excerpt from the book of David Lang “Armenians: Creator People”
On a rocky promontory above the southwestern shore of Lake Sevan, at an elevation of…
Among the most arresting objects to survive from the Early Iron Age Near East are…
How a promise made to genocide survivors was traded away for peace with Ankara —…
A Fragment That Traveled Across Continents The gilt-silver medallion shown above — two richly dressed…
Few episodes in ancient Armenian history capture the imagination quite like the tradition that Hannibal…
Five angles of one small bronze figure — and what emerges is not an abstract…