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The astonishing siege of the Arakelots Monastery began in 1901. During the siege, Andranik and his men withstood the Turks for 19 days before creating a passage and fleeing to the mountains.

But the most important action, however, was the revolt of 1904 in Sasoun, which created two permanent fronts, one in the north towards Moush and one in the south towards Diyarbakir. The leaders of the Armenian warriors gathered in the mountains of Sasoun around Andranik, including great warriors such as Hrayr, Gevork Tchavoush, Keri, Murad, Sepouh, Sèmbat, Kaytzak Arakel and Gayl Vahan.

These heroes formed the front row of the courageous mountaineers in Sasoun and fought against the Turkish forces (ten units on the Moush front, three units on the Diyarbakir front in addition to 1 000 Kurds) throughout the months of March and April. Vahan Mamselian, the representative of the Dashnak party, and Hrayr died as heroes in this war, one of the symbols of the freedom struggle of the Armenian people.

The war in Sasoun made a huge impression on the thought and spirit of the Armenian nation. The confidence finally gained after more than 400 years of submission inspired the Armenians in Transcaucasia, the following year, to repel the attacks of the Tatars, who had been incited to war by the Russian tsarist regime.

These battles initiated a new outlook, awakened by the cries for freedom of the spirit of a nation crushed by centuries of slavery. These battles reawakened the customs and the traditions of warfare of an ancient warrior people, who for several centuries had been unable to fight. The fighting spirit can be awakened in a person only through learning from pioneers and heroes. All armies abide by the old customs and traditions which give rise to the glory of leaders and soldiers. It was these battles of the Armenian revolutionary movement which taught the Armenian people the new customs of warfare, later inherited by Armenian volunteer soldiers during the world war and subsequently by the soldiers in the Armenian national army.

This fighting tradition, however, was achieved at the expense of the loss of the nation's selected heroes. Later, Varandian wrote: "There is no sadder nor more painful history than the history of the awakening of the Armenian nation. Entire generations fell victim to the merciless regime of oppression and were lost. Thousands upon thousands of youths from different social classes threw themselves into the uncertain struggle against a tyrannical regime and died in battles, on the gallows or in prison cells." 55

The Armenian freedom battle happened on two fronts. To begin with, the Armenian movement only aimed to defend the rights of the Armenians in Western Armenia, but even this goal was counteracted by the Russian tsarist rule.

The early measures of the Russian government at the Russian-Ottoman border during the massacres of 1894-1896 was reminiscent of the decisions made by the Prussian government against Russia during the Polish rebellion in 1863. 56