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Death of Simon Vratzian - May 21, 1969
BY STAFF
- POSTED ON MAY 24, 2014
The last Prime Minister of the first Republic of Armenia, Simon
Vratzian, was born in 1882, in the village of Medz Sala, near
Nakhichevan-on-the-Don (today Rostov-on Don, in the northern
Caucasus). He studied in the local Armenian and Russian schools, and
in 1900 he was admitted in the Kevorkian Lyceum of Etchmiadzin, of
which he was a brilliant graduate in 1906. By that time, he was
already a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. He had
participated in the protests against the confiscation of the
properties of the Armenian Church by the imperial regime (1903-1905),
in the first Russian Revolution (1905), and in the Armenian
self-defense during the Armeno-Tatar conflict of 1905-1906.
He was a representative of the A.R.F. Student Union to the fourth
General Assembly of the party (Vienna, 1907), which would have a
decisive importance in its ideological orientation. He later went to
St. Petersburg, where he studied law, agronomy, and pedagogy at the
university. In 1910, when the persecution against the A.R.F. had
peaked in the Russian Empire, he went to Karin (Erzerum), where
Rostom, one of the founders of the party, had settled, gathering
around him many experienced and promising members in order to dedicate
himself to the development of Western Armenians in the country itself.
Vratzian edited the A.R.F. organ Harach in Karin for a year
(1910-1911), and then, by Rostom's recommendation, he was sent to
Boston, where he edited Hairenik, then a biweekly, until 1914. He
returned to Karin and participated in the crucial eighth General
Assembly of the A.R.F., where he was elected a member of the Bureau
and left for Tiflis, in the Caucasus. There, he took the editorship of
the party daily Horizon and was elected member of the Armenian
National Council, which dedicated itself to the organization of the
volunteer movement.
After the independence of Armenia, Vratzian moved to Yerevan, where he
was elected member of the Parliament and collaborated with the
governments of Hovhannes Kachaznuni and Alexander Khatisian. In May
1920, when Hamo Ohanjanian became prime minister, Vratzian took the
position of Minister of Labor and Agriculture, until the fall of the
government in November 1920. As prime minister from November 24 to
December 2, 1920, he would become the witness of the final agony of
the independence after the defeat in the Armeno-Turkish war, which
would force the sovietization of the country to escape destruction. He
signed the agreement to transfer power to the Revolutionary Committee
of the Bolsheviks, and he also became the president of the Committee
of Salvation of the Homeland, which led Armenia after the rebellion of
February 18, 1921.
After the re-establishment of Soviet power in April 1921, Vratzian
took the road of exile and settled in Paris, where in 1924 he became
the editor of Droshak, the A.R.F. central organ, until its demise in
1933. He wrote his monumental work, The Republic of Armenia, which he
published in 1928, with a second, revised edition published in 1958.
He was a prolific writer on political, historical, and literary
subjects, and published and edited a journal of history and
culture,Vem, between 1933 and 1939.
During the war, he moved to the United States, where he was one of the
founders of the Armenian National Committee in 1945 and participated
in the lobbying for the Armenian Cause during the founding meetings of
the United Nations in San Francisco. In 1952, after the death of
writer Levon Shant, Vratzian succeeded him as principal of the Nshan
Palandjian Lyceum of Hamazkayin in Beirut, a position that he
maintained until his death. He worked actively to consolidate the
economic foundations of the Lyceum and continued the publishing of
books, including a revised edition of The Republic of Armenia in 1958
and his memoirs in six volumes, "On the Path of Life."
He had written: "The regimes are a temporary phenomenon. The leaders
are temporary. Nations and fatherlands, the people sitting in their
homeland, are eternal. The freedom-loving Armenian people, which had
trampled death with death, forged the independence of the fatherland.
The Republic of Armenia continues to live in the heart of the Armenian
people as a burning reminder of the past and a lively hope of the
future." He was far from imagining that Armenia would become an
independent country less than a quarter of a century after his death
in Beirut on May 21, 1969.
http://www.armenianlife.com/2014/05/24/death-of-simon-vratzian-may-21-1969/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
BY STAFF
- POSTED ON MAY 24, 2014
The last Prime Minister of the first Republic of Armenia, Simon
Vratzian, was born in 1882, in the village of Medz Sala, near
Nakhichevan-on-the-Don (today Rostov-on Don, in the northern
Caucasus). He studied in the local Armenian and Russian schools, and
in 1900 he was admitted in the Kevorkian Lyceum of Etchmiadzin, of
which he was a brilliant graduate in 1906. By that time, he was
already a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. He had
participated in the protests against the confiscation of the
properties of the Armenian Church by the imperial regime (1903-1905),
in the first Russian Revolution (1905), and in the Armenian
self-defense during the Armeno-Tatar conflict of 1905-1906.
He was a representative of the A.R.F. Student Union to the fourth
General Assembly of the party (Vienna, 1907), which would have a
decisive importance in its ideological orientation. He later went to
St. Petersburg, where he studied law, agronomy, and pedagogy at the
university. In 1910, when the persecution against the A.R.F. had
peaked in the Russian Empire, he went to Karin (Erzerum), where
Rostom, one of the founders of the party, had settled, gathering
around him many experienced and promising members in order to dedicate
himself to the development of Western Armenians in the country itself.
Vratzian edited the A.R.F. organ Harach in Karin for a year
(1910-1911), and then, by Rostom's recommendation, he was sent to
Boston, where he edited Hairenik, then a biweekly, until 1914. He
returned to Karin and participated in the crucial eighth General
Assembly of the A.R.F., where he was elected a member of the Bureau
and left for Tiflis, in the Caucasus. There, he took the editorship of
the party daily Horizon and was elected member of the Armenian
National Council, which dedicated itself to the organization of the
volunteer movement.
After the independence of Armenia, Vratzian moved to Yerevan, where he
was elected member of the Parliament and collaborated with the
governments of Hovhannes Kachaznuni and Alexander Khatisian. In May
1920, when Hamo Ohanjanian became prime minister, Vratzian took the
position of Minister of Labor and Agriculture, until the fall of the
government in November 1920. As prime minister from November 24 to
December 2, 1920, he would become the witness of the final agony of
the independence after the defeat in the Armeno-Turkish war, which
would force the sovietization of the country to escape destruction. He
signed the agreement to transfer power to the Revolutionary Committee
of the Bolsheviks, and he also became the president of the Committee
of Salvation of the Homeland, which led Armenia after the rebellion of
February 18, 1921.
After the re-establishment of Soviet power in April 1921, Vratzian
took the road of exile and settled in Paris, where in 1924 he became
the editor of Droshak, the A.R.F. central organ, until its demise in
1933. He wrote his monumental work, The Republic of Armenia, which he
published in 1928, with a second, revised edition published in 1958.
He was a prolific writer on political, historical, and literary
subjects, and published and edited a journal of history and
culture,Vem, between 1933 and 1939.
During the war, he moved to the United States, where he was one of the
founders of the Armenian National Committee in 1945 and participated
in the lobbying for the Armenian Cause during the founding meetings of
the United Nations in San Francisco. In 1952, after the death of
writer Levon Shant, Vratzian succeeded him as principal of the Nshan
Palandjian Lyceum of Hamazkayin in Beirut, a position that he
maintained until his death. He worked actively to consolidate the
economic foundations of the Lyceum and continued the publishing of
books, including a revised edition of The Republic of Armenia in 1958
and his memoirs in six volumes, "On the Path of Life."
He had written: "The regimes are a temporary phenomenon. The leaders
are temporary. Nations and fatherlands, the people sitting in their
homeland, are eternal. The freedom-loving Armenian people, which had
trampled death with death, forged the independence of the fatherland.
The Republic of Armenia continues to live in the heart of the Armenian
people as a burning reminder of the past and a lively hope of the
future." He was far from imagining that Armenia would become an
independent country less than a quarter of a century after his death
in Beirut on May 21, 1969.
http://www.armenianlife.com/2014/05/24/death-of-simon-vratzian-may-21-1969/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress