About Andranik
Andranik Ozanian, commonly known as General Andranik or simply Andranik (25 February 1865 – 31 August 1927), was an Armenian military commander and statesman, widely regarded as the preeminent fedayi and a seminal figure of the Armenian national liberation movement. Andranik entered the armed struggle against the Ottoman government and Kurdish irregulars in the late 1880s. After joining the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), he led various fedayi units in defense of the Armenian peasantry within their ancestral lands in Western Armenia. Following the suppressed Sasun uprising, he went into exile, eventually breaking with the Dashnaktsutyun in 1907 over its brief rapprochement with the Young Turks—the faction that would later orchestrate the Armenian genocide. His military reputation grew during the First Balkan War (1912–1913), where he and Garegin Nzhdeh commanded a volunteer auxiliary within the Bulgarian army against Ottoman forces. At the outbreak of World War I, Andranik was appointed commander of the first Armenian volunteer battalion within the Russian Imperial Army. He played a pivotal role in the capture of the Van region, but the Revolution of 1917 and subsequent Russian withdrawal left Armenian forces isolated. Despite a defense of Erzurum in early 1918, logistical failures and the threat of encirclement forced his retreat. Although the Battle of Sardarabad successfully halted the Turkish advance toward Yerevan, Andranik broke with the newly formed Armenian National Council. He refused to recognize the First Republic of Armenia or the Treaty of Batum, viewing the new state as a truncated capitulation that abandoned Western Armenia. Acting independently, he led a campaign in Zangezur, successfully repelling Azerbaijani and Turkish incursions to keep the region within Armenian control. Andranik left Armenia in 1919 following continued friction with the Republican government, dedicating his remaining years to organizing relief for Armenian refugees across Europe and the United States. He settled in Fresno, California, in 1922 and died there in 1927. In modern Armenia, he is venerated as a national hero; his image is immortalized in numerous monuments, poems, and novels, underscoring his status as a legendary archetype of Armenian resistance. Between 1912 and 1913, together with Garegin Nzhdeh, Andranik led a few hundred Armenian volunteers within the Bulgarian army against the Ottomans during the First Balkan War. Andranik never accepted the existence of the First Republic of Armenia because it included only a small part of the area many Armenians hoped to make independent. From the early stages of World War I, Andranik commanded the first Armenian volunteer battalion within the Russian Imperial army against the Ottoman Empire, capturing and later governing much of the traditional Armenian homeland. Andranik means "firstborn" in Armenian.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.