Shahan Natalie

Shahan Natalie (Armenian: _hy. Շահան Նաթալի) (nom de guerre "Nemesis") (1884-1983) was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's Bureau and the principal organizer of Operation Nemesis on behalf of the A.R.F. wherein the Turkish masterminds of the Armenian Genocide were assassinated. He later became a writer on Armenian national philosophy, and notable for his essay, "The Turks and Us."

Early life

Shahan Natalie was born Hagop der Hagopian in 1884, in the village of Husenik, in the Kharberd province (modern day Elazığ Province) of the Ottoman Empire in Anatolia. He was the only son of a seven-member family, along with four sisters.

He received his primary education in the local Armenian school. At the beginning of the 1895 Hamidian massacres, his father, maternal uncle, and numerous other relatives were killed. Separate from his family during the massacre, Hagop, then 11, was taken in by a neighboring Greek family, who hid him for three days, fearing that he too would be slaughtered. He was later reuinited with the surviving members of his family.

He found his mother over his father's lifeless corpse, which they dragged together and buried under a walnut tree. He would later write about this event, adding, "The living began to bury the dead." The scene of his mother, prostrate on her husband's body, left a deep and indelible impression on the young boy.

He studied for a year at the Euphrates College in Kharberd. Along with other orphans, he was then sent to the St. James Orphanage in Constantinople. There, a wealthy Armenian rug merchant living in New York adopted him. The following year he was admitted to the Berberian Academy, where he studied until 1900.

Youth

In 1901, he returned to Kharberd, where for three years he was a teacher at the Armenian school of the St. Varvara Church. In the meantime, he studied the provincial dialect of Kharberd, earning him special honor in Patriarch Izmirlian's literary competition.

In 1904, he joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in Kharberd, and immigrated to the United States, where he worked for three years as a laborer in a shoe factory.

In 1908, after the proclamation of the Young Turk Revolution, he returned to his home in Husenik. His stay was short-lived, however, as the 1909 Adana massacre drove him into exile in America.

Education and political life

From 1910 to 1912, Shahan attended Boston University, where he studied literature, philosophy, and theater. In 1912, he decided to return home in the Ottoman Empire, but on his way there, he was sent back to the U.S. when Greek authorities would not let him through, considering him a citizen of an enemy nation.

Back in the U.S., Natalie became active within the ranks of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. He was on the editorial staff of the party's "Hairenik" newspaper, and was elected to the party's United States Central Committee. He became a United States citizen on March 23, 1915, assuming "John Mahy" as his official name.

Published works

*

hort stories, verses, and plays

* Օրէնքի եւ Ընկերութեան Զոհերէն ("From the Martyrs of Law and Society"). Boston: Hairenik, 1909. 63 pages. Short stories.
* Ամպեր ("Clouds"). Boston: Hairenik, 1909. Verses
* Քաւութեան երգեր ("Songs of Expiation"). Boston: Hairenik, 1915. 31 pages. Verses
* Սերի եւ ատելութեան երգեր ("Songs of Love and Hate"). Boston: Hairenik, 1915. 165 pages. Verses
* Վրէժի աւետարան ("Gospel of Revenge"). New York: Armenia, 1918. 39 pages. Verses
* Ասլան Բեկ ("Aslan Bek"). Boston: Hairenik, 1918. 62 pages. Tragedy in three acts
* Քեզի ("To You"). Boston: 1920. 116 pages. Verses written beginning in 1904.

National-political works

* Թուրքիզմը Անգորայէն Բագու եւ Թրքական Օրիէնթասիոն ("Turkism from Angora to Baku and Turkish Orientation"). Athens: Nor Or, 1928. 172 pages.
* Թուրքերը եւ Մենք ("The Turks and Us"). Athens: Nor Or, 1928. 70 pages. Second printing, Boston, 1931. 93 pages.
* Ալեքսանդրապօլի Դաշնագրէն 1930-ի Կովկասեան Ապստամբութիւնները ("From the Treaty of Alexandrapol to the 1920 Caucasian Insurgencies"). Volumes 1 and 2. Marseilles: Arabian Publishing, 1934-35.
* Երեւանի Համաձայնագիրը ("The Yerevan Agreement"). Boston: 1941. 112 pages.
* Գիրք Մատուցման եւ Հատուցման ("Book of Dedication and Compensation"). Beirut: Onipar Publishing, 1949 (first printing). 160 pages. Beirut: Azdarar Publishing, 1954 (second printing). 134 pages. Contents:
# Այսպէս Սպաննեցինք ("How We Killed")
# Յաւելուած (Addendum), illustrated.
* Վերստին Յաւելուած -- Ալեքսանդրապօլի Դաշնագրի «Ինչպէ՞սն ու ինչո՞ւն» ("Re-Addendum -- The How and Why of the Treaty of Alexandrapol"). Boston: Baikar, 1955. 144 pages.

External links

* [http://www.snff.org/shahan.html THE SHAHAN NATALIE FAMILY FOUNDATION, INC.]