Categories: History

Sardarapat – The Battle That Prevented the Complete Destruction of Armenians

“It was the greatest battle – Armenians have shown that they are capable of being the best warriors in the world,” Turkish general Vehib Pasha would admit.

The Sardarapat battle occurred on May 21-28, 1918, between the Armenian regular military units and militia on one hand and the Turkish troops invading Eastern Armenia on the other. The battle occurred in the area of the Sardarapat railway station (the city of Hoktemberyan was under the Soviet Union, now Armavir).

Today, Sardarapat is viewed not only as a battle that stopped the Turkish offensive by Armenia but also as a battle that prevented the complete destruction of the Armenian people.

According to British historian Christopher Walker, had the Armenians lost the battle of Sardarapat, “it is entirely possible that the name ‘Armenia’ would have survived only as a term of historical geography.”

Vigen Avetisyan

Recent Posts

Abandoned by an Ally: The French Armenian Legion in Cilicia and the Road to the Smyrna Catastrophe

How a promise made to genocide survivors was traded away for peace with Ankara —…

2 days ago

The Vilgort Cup: A Silver Masterpiece of Cilician Armenia (c. 1150–1159 A.D.)

A Fragment That Traveled Across Continents The gilt-silver medallion shown above — two richly dressed…

4 days ago

Hannibal and Artaxias the Great: The Carthaginian General Who Helped Build the “Armenian Carthage”

Few episodes in ancient Armenian history capture the imagination quite like the tradition that Hannibal…

1 week ago

The Priestess of the Kingdom of Van: A 9th-Century BC Bronze Figurine in the British Museum

Five angles of one small bronze figure — and what emerges is not an abstract…

3 weeks ago

The Winged Sun and the Armenian Tiara: Royal Symbolism of the Orontid (Yervanduni) Kingdom of Commagene, 163 BC – 72 AD

Introduction Among the successor states that emerged from the fragmentation of the Achaemenid-derived Orontid (Armenian:…

3 weeks ago

A Bronze Age Vessel from Gardman: Solar Symbolism, the Sun-Cross, and the Sacred Landscape of Ancient Armenia

Article based on the explanations and interpretive observations of Angela Terian, with additional archaeological and…

3 weeks ago