Yeprem Khan
{{Short description|Armenian revolutionary (1868–1912)}}
{{More citations needed |date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Yeprem Khan
| native_name =
| image = YepremKhanHistoryofIran.jpg
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| birth_date = 1868
| birth_place = Barsum, Elisabethpol Governorate, Russian Empire
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1912|5|18|1868}}
| death_place = Shurcheh, Kermanshah, Iran
| placeofburial = Holy Mother of God Church, Tehran
| placeofburial_label =
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| nickname = Khan
| birth_name = Yeprem Davidian
| allegiance = {{flagicon image|Armenian Revolutionary Federation logo 1915.png}} Dashnaktsutyun
22px Qajar Iran
| branch =
| serviceyears = 1896–1912
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| battles = Armenian National Liberation Movement
Persian Constitutional Revolution
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}}
Yeprem Khan ({{langx|hy|Եփրեմ Խան}}; 1868–1912), born Yeprem Davidyan ({{langx|hy|Եփրեմ Դավթյան}}, {{langx|fa|یپرمخان داویدیان}}), was an Iranian-Armenian member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), revolutionary leader and a leading figure in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran.
He is considered a national hero in Iran.{{Cite book |last=Chamanara |first=Sohrab |url=https://www.google.am/books/edition/2020/RrtYBwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Yeprem+Khan+is+considered+a+national+hero+in+Iran.&pg=PA123&printsec=frontcover |title=2020: THE FALL OF ISLAMIC STATES & THE RRISE OF A NEW POLITICAL ORDER |date=2015-03-16 |publisher=Ketab.com |isbn=978-1-59584-500-9 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Hosseini |first=S. Behnaz |url=https://www.google.am/books/edition/Religious_Minorities_Migration_from_Iran/i9PPEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Yeprem+Khan+is+considered+a+national+hero+in+Iran.&pg=PA22&printsec=frontcover |title=Religious Minorities' Migration from Iran: A Human Rights Perspective |date=2023-07-19 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-5275-1068-5 |language=en}}
Life
=Early life=
File:Keri Yeprem Khetcho.jpg, Yeprem Khan, and Khetcho]]
Yeprem Khan was born to an Armenian family in the village of Barsum ({{langx|hy|Բարսում}}), located in Elisabethpol Governorate of the Russian Empire{{Cite web |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/eprem-khan |title=Aram Arkun. "Eprem Khan", Encyclopedia Iranica, Online Edition |access-date=2012-09-03 |archive-date=2019-04-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427082954/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/eprem-khan |url-status=live }} (located in present-day Azerbaijan).
In his youth, Yeprem participated in Armenian nationalist groups as well as in partisan activities against the Ottoman Empire. In September 1890, Yeprem was arrested by the Russian Cossacks.{{Cite book |last=Yarshater |first=Ehsan |url=https://www.google.am/books/edition/Encyclopaedia_Iranica_Ebn_%CA%BBAyy%C4%81%C5%A1/Q5m8UeJcPmQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Yeprem+was+arrested+by+the+Russian+Cossacks.&dq=Yeprem+was+arrested+by+the+Russian+Cossacks.&printsec=frontcover |title=Encyclopaedia Iranica: Ebn ʻAyyāš |date=1998 |publisher=Mazda Publishers |isbn=978-1-56859-057-8 |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://www.google.am/books/edition/The_Oriental_World/zYcwAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Yeprem+was+arrested+by+the+Russian+Cossacks.&dq=Yeprem+was+arrested+by+the+Russian+Cossacks.&printsec=frontcover |title=The Oriental World |date=1906 |publisher=Oriental World Publishing Company |volume=3-7 |language=en}} He was exiled to Siberia by 1892, from where he managed to escape to Tabriz in 1896. While in Tabriz, he began working for the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF Dashnaktsutyun), whose activity in Persia was primarily directed against the Ottoman Empire,{{Cite web |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dasnak |title=Aram Arkun. "Dashnak (Armenian Revolutionary Federation)", Encyclopedia Iranica, Online Edition |access-date=2012-09-03 |archive-date=2023-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230815173540/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dasnak |url-status=live }} and established its local branches in Tabriz, Urmia and Rasht.
=Revolutionary=
Yeprem was highly instrumental in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, and, by 1907, convinced ARF to actively participate in it.{{Cite journal |last=Berberian |first=Houri |date=1996 |title=The Dashnaktsutiun and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1905-1911 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4310967 |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=29 |issue=1/2 |pages=7–33 |issn=0021-0862}} After the Persian national parliament was shelled by the Russian Colonel Vladimir Liakhov, Yeprem Khan united with Sattar Khan and other revolutionary leaders in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran against Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar.
In October 1908, during Tabriz resistance, Yeprem Khan formed a secret Sattar Committee (in honor of Sattar KhanHouri Berberian. Armenians and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1905–1911, Westview Press, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8133-3817-4}}, p. 132) in Rasht, and established contacts with Social Democrats, Social Revolutionaries, and the ARF in the Caucasus.Yeprem Khan. "Memoirs", Ittila'at-i Mahaneh, 2 (July 1948), p. 19-21 Reinforced by 35 Georgians and twenty Armenians from Baku, Yeprem captured Rasht and then planted his red flag on the town hall of Anzali. Further reinforced by Mohammad Vali Sepahdar, the main landed magnate of the Caspian provinces and former Qajar commander,Elton L. Daniel. The History of Iran, Greenwood Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-313-30731-8}}, p. 312 Yeprem Khan marched his forces of Caucasian guerillas and Mazandarani peasants towards Tehran,Ervand Abrahamian. Iran between two revolutions, Princeton University Press, 1982, {{ISBN|0-691-10134-5}}, p. 99 which he entered in July 1909. After the capture of Tehran, Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar fled from his palace to the Russian Embassy. On the same day, the Iranian Parliament set in an extraordinary meeting to replace Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar in favor of his son Ahmad Shah Qajar. On 10 September 1909, Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar left the Russian Embassy and went into exile in Odessa in Russia (today part of Ukraine).
= Police chief in Iran =
On 30 July 1909, the Second National Assembly (Parliament) of Iran, appointed Yeprem Khan as the police chief of Tehran. After becoming the police chief of Tehran, he restored order in the city and made various reforms to the police force. In 1910, he became chief police of all Iran. He further split from revolutionaries, when in 1910, Sattar Khan, a hero of the civil war, refused to obey the government order to disarm. After a brief but violent confrontation at Atabek Park in Tehran, Yeprem Khan, using Shah's army and police forces, disarmed Sattar Khan.Ervand Abrahamian. Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic, I.B. Tauris, 1993, {{ISBN|1-85043-779-3}}, p. 93 In 1911 Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar plotted his return to power from Odessa. He later landed at Astarabad, Iran, but his forces were defeated by Yeprem.{{cite book
| last =Donzel
| first =Emeri "van"
| author-link =
| year =1994
| title =Islamic Desk Reference
| publisher =
| location =
| isbn =90-04-09738-4
| url-access =registration
| url =https://archive.org/details/islamicdeskrefer00donz_0
}} p. 285-286 Mohammad Ali Shah then fled to Russia, then in 1920 to Constantinople and later to San Remo, Italy, where he died five years later in April 1925 (he was buried in Karbala, Iraq).
Yeprem Khan was killed on 19 May 1912 while he was trying to rescue one of his comrades in a battle in Shurcheh in Kermanshahan Province.{{Cite book |last=Yaghoubian |first=David N. |url=https://www.google.am/books/edition/Ethnicity_Identity_and_the_Development_o/K27iAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Yeprem+Khan+was+killed+on+19+May+1912&pg=PA128&printsec=frontcover |title=Ethnicity, Identity, and the Development of Nationalism in Iran |date=2014-07-08 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-5272-4 |language=en}} He was killed by some of Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar's loyal troops who remained in Iran. Arshak Gavafian (Keri) later killed the murderers of Yeprem Khan in revenge.
He is buried in St. Mary Church in downtown Tehran.{{Cite book |last=Barry |first=James |url=https://www.google.am/books/edition/Armenian_Christians_in_Iran/vuVqDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Yeprem+Khan+is+buried+in++Tehran&pg=PA83&printsec=frontcover |title=Armenian Christians in Iran: Ethnicity, Religion, and Identity in the Islamic Republic |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-42904-7 |language=en}}
Legacy
File:Saint Mary Armenian Church (Tehran) 5877.jpg]]
Yeprem Khan is today, along with many important figures like Sattar Khan, considered a national hero of Iran. He is also praised by Iranian historians such as Ahmad Kasravi and by Morgan Shuster, treasurer-general of Persia in that time.Morgan Shuster, The Strangling of Persia. New York 1912. There exists a popular Armenian patriotic song dedicated to the memory and deeds of Yeprem Khan. The Iranian sculptor Lilit Teryan has created a sculpture of Khan. The statue is at St Mary's church in Tehran.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/persian/arts-47491833|title=لیلیت تریان از پیشتازان مجسمهسازی در ایران درگذشت|date=2019-03-08|access-date=2020-01-07|language=en-GB|archive-date=2019-07-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717213513/http://www.bbc.com/persian/arts-47491833|url-status=live}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite journal |last1=Jalali |first1=Seyyed Sa'id |title=Eprem Khan and the Constitutional Failure in Iran: (Some Random Notes) |journal=Iran and the Caucasus |date=2008 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=377–384 |doi=10.1163/157338408X406128}}
External links
{{Commons category|Yeprem Khan}}
{{external media|float = left|video1={{YouTube|5QuiKZBQeAk|Yeprem Khan, a patriotic song performed by Samvel Yeranyan}}}}
- [http://www.iranchamber.com/people/armenians_in_iran2.php Armenians in Iran] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615070031/http://www.iranchamber.com/people/armenians_in_iran2.php |date=2006-06-15 }}
{{Authority control}}
{{Armenian Resistance}}
{{Persian Constitutional Revolution Persions}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Yeprem}}
Category:Armenian nationalists
Category:Politicians from Ganja, Azerbaijan
Category:People of the Persian Constitutional Revolution
Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Iran
Category:Armenian people from the Russian Empire
Category:Iranian revolutionaries