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Sarkis Torosyan
Torosyan as commander of Arab forces in Damascus during the World War I
Born	1891 Everek, Ottoman Turkey
Died	October 17, 1954(1954-10-17) (aged 63) Bronx, New York
Resting place	Arlington Cemetery
Nationality	Turkish

Sarkis Torosyan (1891 - August 17, 1954) was a decorated Ottoman Turkish captain of Armenian descent who fought in the Gallipoli Campaign and is considered the first person to sink a British battleship. After the Armenian Genocide however, when most of his family was massacred, he switched sides and joined the fight against Ottoman Turkey.

Life

Sarkis Torosyan was born in the Armenian populated village of Everek near Kayseri in 1891. He attended the local Armenian Parochial School. At an early age, Sarkis Torosyan wanted to become a soldier, however Ottoman Turkish law forbid any non-Muslim to become soldiers until the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. Torosyan continued his education in Edirne where he befriended an Arab named Muharrem whose father was a Brigadier General in Constantinople. Through the help of Muharrem's father, Torosyan was secured a position in the Military College and graduated in 1914 with the rank of Second Lieutenant of the Artillary. During his frequent visits to his father, Torosyan began to develop a passion for his daughter (Muharrems sister) Jemileh.

Gallipoli Campaign

Upon graduation of the military academy, Torosyan was sent to Germany where he remained for 3 months. After the start of World War I, Torosyan returned to Ottoman Turkey where he was appointed to commander of Cape Helles. Early in 1915 when the battle of Gallipoli Campaign was in its early stages, Torosyan sunk the first British battleship. In his memoirs, Sarkis Torosyan also claimed that he sunk a total of three English battle cruisers in the fighting between February 19 and March 18 as well as one submarine in April, which might possibly have been, according to him, the HMS E15 of the British Royal Navy. General Commander Cevat Pasha praised Torosyans efforts in the battle and pointed out that the forts under his command were the most effective in sinking British ships. When Minister of War Enver Pasha heard of Torosyans deeds during the battle, he congratulated him and introduced him to high ranking German officers such as Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz and Liman von Sanders. In the morning of September 29, 1915, Torosyan received word that Muharrem was gravely injured during battle and rushed to see him. Just before Muharrem died, he made a confession about his sister Jemileh. The confession is writen in Torosyan's diary as follows:

During the Armenian massacres of 1896 my father was commander of an army brigade stationed near Mush. Even at that time he was deeply aggrieved over Turkish excesses in dealing with their Christian subjects. One day, while passing through an Armenian village, he picked up a little girl, hardly more than two years old, whom he found wandering aimlessly about the deserted streets. No trace of her parents was found, and out of pity, or love, or sorrow my father took her home with him. Eventually she was accepted into the family. My mother, however, objected to a cross tattooed on her upper left arm and applied an acid solution to destroy the Christian emblem; it left a queer shaped scar.

After hearing the confession, Sarkis Torosyan engages with Jemileh.

Armenian Genocide

During the initial stages of the Armenian Genocide when Armenians were forced to be deported, Sarkis Torosyan received assurances from Enver Pasha that his family will not be deported. However, the governor of the Kayseri province Salih Zeki Bey, ignored Enver Pasha orders and continued with the deportation of Torosyan's family. Torosyan's father Ohannes and mother Vartuhi were murdered and only his sister Bayzar survived. To save his sister, Torosyan went to Macedonia then Romania and finally to the Arabian deserts where he successfully found his sister in the Tel Halaf concentration camp. Soon thereafter however, both his sister Bayzar and Jemileh died from diseases.

Jemileh happened to die in his arms and is quoted in the memoirs as saying, "I raised Jemileh in my arms, the pain and terror in her eyes melted until they were bright as stars again, stars in an oriental night...and so she died, as a dream passing". Upon hearing the stories of his sister and having lost his father, mother, sister, and fiancée, Torosyan vowed for "revenge" against the Turkish government.

Arab Campaign

In September of 1918, during the Battle of Nablus, Sarkis Torosyan joins the British and fights along with Arab rebels against the Ottoman Turkish army. In his memoirs, Torosyan writes "I wanted to break the waist of the Turkish Army". Sarkis Torosyan soon led a platoon of Arab soldiers in Palestine and was in charge of 6,000 Arab horsemen in Damascus. For his bravery and leadership in Palestine, the British decorated him with medals.

French Armenian Legion

The French Armenian Legion, established with the French-Armenian Agreement of 1916, was a foreign legion unit within French Army. The Armenian legion was established under the goals of the Armenian national liberation movement and was an armed unit besides the Armenian volunteer units and Armenian militia during World War I which fought against the Ottoman Empire. Sarkis Torosyan used the opportunity of the French Armenian Legions to fight against the Turkish army. The Turkish guerrillas under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal forces pushed back much of the French and Armenian forces in Cilicia and gain control of the region. Torosyan suspects in his diary that the French forces gave weapons and ammunition to the Kemalists to allow the French army safe passage out of Cilicia. Having felt betrayed, Torosyan emigrated to the United States where he met his relatives. The French however decorated Torosyan with medals as well.

Later Life in America

Sarkis Torosyan emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1927, he published his memoirs in Boston called From Dardanelles to Palestine: a true story of five battle fronts of Turkey which describes his life and achievements in detail. His memoir has been used by historians to further analyze and research about World War I and the Armenian Genocide. Sarkis Torosyan died on October 17, 1954 in Bronx, New York at the age of 63 and is buried at the Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.

Legacy

According to author Ayhan Aktar, who edited and published Torosyan’s memoirs into Turkish, the Turkish official history erased Torosyan’s name from records and ignored his successes in the Gallipoli Campaign due to his Armenian origin.

References

1. Finkel, Andrew. Turkey: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199939107.
2. Belikci, Mehmet. The Ottoman Mobilization of Manpower in the First World War: Between Voluntarism and Resistance. BRILL. ISBN 9789004225206.
3. ^ Torossian, Sarkis (1947). From Dardanelles to Palestine: a true story of five battle fronts of Turkey and her allies and a harem romance. Boston: Meador Pub. Co. p. 219. {{cite book}}: |format= requires |url= (help)
4. ^ "Sarkis Torossian: an Armenian hero of Dardanelle". Armenian Genocide Museum. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
5. ^ Aktar, Ayhan (2012). Yüzbaşı Sarkis Torosyan – Çanakkale’den Filistin Cephesi’ne (in Turkish). Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
6. ^ "Sarkis Torosian". Findagrave. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
7. Pierce, James Wilson (1896). James Wilson Pierce (ed.). Story of Turkey and Armenia. R.H. Woodward Company. p. 26. Indeed, the government goes so far as to prohibit Armenians from possessing arms of any kind.
8. ^ "Çanakkale'nin unutturulan kahramanı Sarkis Torosyan". Agos (in Turkish). August 10, 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
9. ^ "Torosyan neden ihanet etti?". Radikal (in Turkish). 8/17/2012. Retrieved 3 January 2013. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. ^ "Robert Fisk: The forgotten holocaust". The Independent. 28 August 2007. Retrieved 3 January 2013.

• Turkish Armenians
• Armenian soldiers
• Gallipoli Campaign
• World War I
• Armenian expatriates in the United States
• Ottoman Armenians
• 1891 births
• 1954 deaths