Balabekh Karapet

That MUSTACHE! It’s a built-in bulletproof vest for the upper lip. Pretty sure it doubles as a storage unit for emergency xorovats snacks

Amazing guys! Thank him for being brave

Karapet had an extremely strict and tyrannical character, was always alert and suspicious, slept in his clothes, on the ground, ate little, and demanded iron discipline from his soldiers…

One of his soldiers, Rasho, had gone to Sevastopol on a partisan assignment and bravely killed a murderer, but when he returned, Karapet considered Rasho a criminal because he had not informed him before leaving.
– I will not kill you, Rasho, because you have tarnished the name of Serob Pasha and me with your revenge and bravery. “But I will cut off your ears, because you have forgotten the rules and regulations,” he said and cut off Rasho’s ears.

Karapet was a fanatical party member. For him, the two most sacred things were the seal of his own party and the memory of Aghbyur Serob. Once he declared that members of other parties were traitors and deserved the death penalty. For this reason, the party elite tried to disarm him and take him from Kars to the Caucasus, but Karapet resorted to arms. When they showed him the seal of the party and read the order demanding that he surrender his weapons, cut off his long mustache (**the mustache was so long that it was braided on the back of his neck. They demanded that he cut it off because in the Caucasus it would have given the Russian authorities reason to suspect that he was a Jew**) and cross to the Caucasus, Karapet cried and groaned like a child.
-Oh, the stick turned me into a stick…

Karapet was extremely friendly. During one of the fights, Zulumat was seriously wounded. Serob ordered Karapet to kill him and join them, but instead of killing him, Karapet bandaged the wounded Zulumat and, transporting him to a safe place, saved his life. Serob, instead of punishing him in front of everyone, kissed Karapet on the forehead.

In 1895-98 he acted in Aghbyur Serob’s group,
In 1895 he organized the self-defense of Urtap.
In 1897-98 he transported weapons to Khlat in a skilled armed group, participated in a number of battles (Kyosk village, Khatavin, etc.), especially distinguished himself in the battle of Babsheev (1898).
He was a loyal follower of Aghbyur Serob’s understandings of the liberation struggle.
He also acted in Van, then moved to Kars.

In 1905-1906, this fidayi participated in the Armenian-Tatar clashes in the Caucasus, distinguished himself with courage, but after the 1908 Young Turk revolution, he returned to Akhlat and lived a peaceful life.

After the Young Turk coup (1908), until 1915, he lived and acted in Khlat.

In 1915, through the betrayal of an Armenian, Karapet was arrested, tortured and finally hanged in Bitlis.

Page 101 for some info on an operation that Karapet was a part off, the story of Zulumat being wounded https://tert.nla.am/archive/NLA%20AMSAGIR/Hayreniq%20Boston/1923(11)_ocr.pdf