I concluded the previous part of a “Tale of an Armenian Hymnal” (1/2) article, as follows: Did he survive? I do not know of any other hymnal from Hmayag Aramiants.” The question pertained to the compiler of the Armenian song book, Hmayag Aramiants. (https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2017/04/tale-of-armenian-hymnal.html).
A few readers, including the well-informed Zaven Zakarian, wondered if the author of the songbook was no other than the infamous Hmayag Aramiants who betrayed the Social-Democrat Hunchakian party causing the well-known tragic event in the recent Armenian history known as “ The 20 Hunchakian Gallows”. The revelation was news for me. I had come to learn about Hmayag Aramiants' name by association with the hymnal he compiled.
In retrospect I believe that the author of the hymnal and the betrayer of the Hunchakian party is one and the same person Zaven Zakarian suspected. That is to say Hmayag Aramiants. I base my affirmation on the following premises.
The songbook Hmayag Aramiants published in 1911 is a collection of the songs that leaned towards socialism, including international brotherhood, the cornerstone of socialism. In his preface he comes across as a true believer in the promise of socialistic order that is meant to transcend race and unite the different races of the Ottoman Empire as a common class in the pursuit of their well-being. He thus comes across as an ardent believer in the new order in the Ottoman Empire trusting in the promise of the Justice, Equality and Liberty the new order was supposed to bring. He had the march of Ittihad included in the hymnal.
Then there is his uncommon personal and family names. It is not likely that the author had his namesake during the same time in Constantinople who turned out to be a traitor. A search in the internet indicated that Hmayag Aramiants had authored at least another book (booklet?) titled “Political and Economic Liberty” which, the front cover indicates, is the lecture he gave during a meeting that took place between Sepember 19-23, 1908, in the Geyeg Pasha neighborhood of Constantinople. He had the book published the same year. It is not likely that there were two persons named Hmayag Aramiants who harbored such political and economic interests. (Note: “Ազատութիւն Քաղաքկան եւՏնտեսական”. Ատենախօսութիւն (Արատասանուծ Կ.Պոլսոյ Կէտիկ Փաշա Թաղը գումարուածմիթինկին մէջ 19/23 Սեպտմեմբեր 1908)
Hmayag Aramiants was a member of the Hunchak Party. In the songbook, he had a full-page picture of a poster of two freedom fighters displaying a flag that reads “Freedom or Death” (Mah gam Azadoutiun). The poster header read: ‘kharperti “Kharbeti Hunchak Martyrs” (Hunchagian Voghpatsial Nahadagner).
Finally, what transpired to the Hunchakian Party at the time could have come about only by a well-placed member of the party who was privy of the inner deliberations of the party at the highest level.
The Committee of Union and Progress, that is to say the Ittihad ve Terakki Cemiyeli party, which appeared to be generally referred to as the Itthihad party, was a movement that led the Young Turk revolution take over the Empire in 1908 and ushered the Empire into a constitutional order with elected representatives giving way to the Armenian Ottoman parliamentarians in the person of Krikor Zohrab and others. The Armenians in general accepted the promise of the new order with enthusiasm. However, the Hunchak party harbored serious reservations about the true intent of the Young Turk movement suspecting that it was racist in its core and that the Young Turks would be detrimental to the Armenians, as the Adana massacre made plainly evident for them. Hence the party positioned itself against the Young Turk leaders, including naturally Talaat Pasha, and intended to assassinate them.
I quote below Wikipedia to note what transpired between the publication of the Hmayag Aramiants collection of songs in 1911 and the fruition of the inner working of the Social Democrat Hnchakian Party, two years later, that is to say in 1913.
The 7th General Convention of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party which was held in Constanta, Romania, in 1913, and adjourned with two main objectives: "As stated in its original program, the party was to move from licit to illicit activities, thus becoming once again a covert organization. II - To plan and assassinate the leaders of the Ittihad (Young Turk) party, the same leaders that carried out the Adana massacres of 1909, and thus the same leaders who at that moment were planning the annihilation of the Armenian people.
However, these secret objectives were passed on to the Ottomans by an agent; consequently, as soon as the delegates arrived in Constantinople, they were arrested. By the end of the year a total of one hundred and forty Hunchak leaders were arrested.
After spending two years in terrible conditions in Ottoman prisons, and undergoing lengthy mock trials, twenty prominent figures were sentenced to death by hanging. A few weeks after the beginning of the Armenian Genocide on June 15, 1915, all twenty men were hanged in the central square of Constantinople, known as Sultan Bayazid Square.”
That agent who passed on those secret party objectives to the Ottoman authorities surely was Hmayag Aramiants, the person who compiled the songbook; the Hnchakian party member and the ardent socialist who was naive enough to claim in the preface of his songbook that the armed resistance of the Armenians waged against the Hamidian regime, a Turkish regime nonetheless, would be understood and even appreciated by the Turkish bearers of the new slogan ostensibly for "Justice, Liberty, and Equality." It is likely that a rift had developed between Hmayag and his Hunchakian Party comrades-in-arms whom he viewed setting themselves in secret against the bearers of the "new" Turkish regime, the purported bearers of the very same ideology the Hunchak Party advocated, socialism and fraternity among the races.
What happened to Hmayag Aramiants ?
Hmayag Aramiants was gunned down in Constantinople in 1920. His assassination was part of the Operation Nemesis that was conceived and carried out by the members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Operation Nemesis brought to justice not only the Turk perpetrators of the Armenian genocide but also treasonous Armenians. Hmayag Aramiants was one of them. His assassin was Arshag Yeztanian (Արշակ Եզդանյան) who, like the rest of avengers, was a member of the ARF. Nothing else appears to be known about Arshag.
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