Armen
Garo was an active participant in the Armenian liberation movement, and
a protagonist of some of its more important moments. Leader of the
occupation of the Ottoman Bank, deputy to the Ottoman Parliament,
organizer of the Nemesis Operation, first ambassador of the Republic of
Armenia to the United States; these were just a few highlights of his
public life, which ended prematurely.
He
was born in Karin (Erzerum) on February 1872 as Karekin Pastermadjian.
He was one of the first graduates of the Sanasarian College of his
hometown in 1891. Three years later, he went to France to study at the
Agricultural School of the University of Nancy. In this period, he
became a member of the newly founded Armenian Revolutionary Federation.
His
plan to return to his hometown after graduation was thwarted when
massacres began in Zeitun (Cilicia), and he left his studies to help his
compatriots. He soon found himself in Geneva, and then he was sent to
Egypt to assist the resistance in Zeitun. Afterwards, he returned to the
Ottoman Empire. Around this time, he took the nom de guerre Armen Garo.
He
was one of the organizers of the takeover of the Ottoman Bank in
Constantinople by a group of A.R.F. revolutionaries on August 26, 1896.
When Papken Siuni, the group leader, was killed, Armen Garo took over
for the rest of the standoff.
When
the occupation of the bank ended and the group of revolutionaries was
sent to Marseilles, French Foreign Minister Gabriel Hanotaux declared
them as persona non grata and denied their stay in France. Armen Garo
moved to Switzerland and studied natural sciences at the University of
Geneva.
He
continued his active participation in the A.R.F. and was on the
delegate roster of the second General Assembly of 1898. He graduated in
1900 and received a doctoral degree in physical chemistry. In 1901 he
founded a laboratory in Tiflis for chemical research.
The
scientist could not leave aside the patriot, and Armen Garo organized
the self-defense of the Armenians in Tiflis during the Armeno-Tatar
conflict of 1905-1907 with a group of 500 volunteers.
After
the situation in the Caucasus returned to normalcy, he was able to
create a fairly prosperous life for himself. He secured the right to
develop a copper mine, and worked towards a partnership with a large
company.
After
the Ottoman Revolution of 1908, Armen Garo was elected deputy from
Erzerum to the Ottoman Parliament, representing the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation. During his four-year mandate, he worked
tirelessly for a railroad bill whose main goal was to build railroads in
Western Armenia.
After
he finished his mandate in 1912, he participated actively in the
organization and implementation of the Armenian reforms in the six
Eastern vilayets of the Ottoman Empire in 1913-1914. In the autumn of
1914, a month and a half before the Ottoman Empire entered the war,
Armen Garo went to the Caucasus on a special mission after the A.R.F. 8th
General Assembly at Erzerum. He joined the committee that had been
appointed by the Armenian National Council of the Caucasus to organize
the Armenian volunteer units.
In
November of the same year, Armen Garo accompanied the second battalion
of Armenian volunteers, commanded by Dro (Drastamat Kanayan), as
representative of the executive committee of Tiflis. When Dro was
seriously wounded in combat, Armen Garo replaced him from November
1914-March 1915 until he returned to active duty.
He
went to Van in the summer of 1915, becoming one of the first to enter
the city after the Russian troops and the Armenian volunteer battalions
liberated it following the Van resistance.
After
the Russian Revolution of February 1917, Armen Garo and Dr. Hakob
Zavriev were sent to Petrograd in the spring to negotiate about
Caucasian affairs with the Russian provisional government. In June he
left for America as a representative of the Armenian National Council of
Tiflis, which in May 1918 would declare the independence of Armenia. In
1919 Armen Garo was designated ambassador of Armenia to the United
States.
He settled in Washington D.C., where he engaged in political and diplomatic action. He published three pamphlets in English: Why Armenia Should Be Free (1918), Armenia and Her Claims to Freedom and National Independence (1919), and Armenia a Leading Factor in the Winning of the War (1919).
He
would also engage in covert action, as one of the main leaders of the
Operation Nemesis, along with Shahan Natalie and Aharon Sachaklian,
ensuring the logistics and the organization of the liquidation of
Turkish genociders from 1919-1922.
After
the fall of the Republic of Armenia, Armen Garo returned to Europe in
November 1922, heartbroken and sick. He passed away in Geneva on March
23, 1923. His memoirs, Days that I Lived, were first serialized in the monthly Hairenik (1923-1924) and posthumously published in 1948 (there is an English translation by Haig T. Partizian, published in 1990 as Bank Ottoman).
Several
organizational chapters have been named after him, including the AYF
“Armen Garo” chapter (Racine, Wisconsin), the “Armen Karo” ARF
Student Association of Canada, and the ARF "Armen Garo" committee (New York).
