February 17, Commemoration Day of Bolshevik Atrocities in Armenia

On the night of February 17, 1921, Bolshevik executioners committed a hitherto unprecedented atrocity in the prison of Yerevan. Through a Turkish butcher, they eliminated a group of Armenian intellectuals and commanders, most of whom had become heroes of the Battle of Sardarapat. 21 Armenians were killed in total.

A day earlier, on February 16, 50 individuals were shot, whose bodies were then thrown in specially prepared pits. To conceal the crime from the locals living in the vicinity of the prison, Bolshevik executioners ordered to fill the prison street with automobiles and honk to cover the sounds of shooting and the screams of the victims.

Among those killed on February 17 were Hamazasp Srvandztyan known as the hero of Van and Askeran, Nikolay Ghorghanyan, Yeranos Tarverdyan, Kamsar Kocharyan, Levon Yengibaryan, Vardan Tamrazyan, and others.

They committed no crime and were killed only because the Bolsheviks considered them extremely dangerous for their regime. Of course they have been a threat for the Bolsheviks because they didn’t want to see their country enslaved again and give up their scarcely liberated homeland. The heroism of those Armenian activists shall be forever remembered!

By Աիդա Ներսիսյան