Maro and Garo: A Myth Was Born on July 25, 1897

Vahe H. Apelian

Myth or legend: Someone made a remark that the story depicted below is a legend, not myth. I read today that “myths are stories that are passed down about how or why something came to be. Legends are designed to teach a lesson about a real person in history, with a few facts dramatically changed.” A reader may make the choice whether the well-known story is a myth or a legend. The characters are real but no one knew whether anything had transpired between the two. 

A Khoump is austensibly named after Maro and Garo is Lamented 

In the January 20, 2021, issue of the Armenian Weekly there is an article titled “A Photographic Journey Into the Past”. Several pictures are posted in the article among them is a picture that depicts a group of women. The caption reads: “ARF women’s “Maro” Khoump. Photograph taken in Tabriz in 1903.”

The literal translation of Khoump is group. But in the annals of the Armenian revolutionary history a khoump is more a group of men and/or women who have come together to aid the ongoing struggle to assure the sanctity of the lives, the labor, the honor, and the property of the Armenians under Ottoman oppression. These groups were named after a notable revolutionary leader. 

 Who Maro could have been to have a group of Armenian women in Tabriz, Persia name their group after her, I wondered? Among the women, the caption lists a lady named Maro Hovhannisian. But her name does not ring a bell to have had any prominence for the group of the women to name their group after one of them, when the khoumps were named after a martyred hero.

In all likelihood, the group was named after Maro (Mariam) Magarian.

The biographical information about Maro Magarian is sketchy at best. I gathered the following about her from the book titled "ԴՐՈՒԱԳՆԵՐ Հ.Յ. ԴԱՇՆԱԿՑՈՒԹԵԱՆ ԳՈՐԾՈՒՆԷՈՒԹԻՒՆԵՐԻՑ - EPISODES FROM A.R.FEDERATION ACTIVITIES" (1917, "Hairenik" Press, Boston. 

Maro Magarian was born in Caucasus and was caught in the frenzy of the Armenian liberation movement and was involved in the preparation of the expedition of Khanatsor that took place on July 25, 1897. A few months before the military expedition took place, on December 28, 1896, Maro's comrades found her lifeless body with a suicide note next to her addressed to her lover who remained unknown to her comrades. The note urged her lover not to waiver, as she severed their ties for good to liberate him from any other responsibility, but to devote himself to the cause of the Armenian liberation movement.

Garo (Aristakes) Zorian was also involved in the preparation of the Khanasor expedition. He was an expert gunsmith. Although he was not experienced in combat, he insisted on joining the Khanasor expedition. The accounts of the expedition tell that he fought valiantly and fearlessly, if not recklessly, disregarding his safety as if, it is claimed, he was looking forward to be martyred. Garo thus went into the annals of the Armenian revolutionary movement’s history as one of the 26 who gave up their lives in the Khanasor expedition. 

Henceforth, by associating the commitment of the young woman Maro and the young man Garo towards the preparation and the execution of that historic military expedition, the myth or the legend of Maro’s and Garo’s covert love affair was born and passed on from one generation to the next. Their story became Armenian liberation movement’s version of Shakespearean Romeo and Juliet tragedy.

Maro came to denote sacrificing personal feelings for the greater cause for the Armenian liberation. Hence it would not surprise me that a group of ARF affiliated women in Tabriz, in 1903, would name their group Maro. 

 Garo was the brother of ARF founder Rostom Zorian. His legacy also lingers on. Among the 26 fallen combatants in the Khanasor expedition, Garo is singled out and his death is lamented in the song dedicated to the Khanasor expedition.  The song notes:

Չկար Կարոն տխուր պատեց ամենքին, (Garo was no more, sadness overtook everyone)

Երանի է նրա հոգուն, որ զոհ դարձավ այդ կռվին: (Blessed is the person’s soul who fell victim to the fight)

Garo is also alluded in another song called Խանի Երգը - Khani Yerk (The Song of Khan). The song is dedicated to the memory of Yeprem Khan, a leader of the Khanasor Expedition. I am not sure how many realize that whenever they heard or sang that familiar song, Garo's memory is upheld in the following lines of the lyrics: 

Ագուլիսցի քաջ պատանի (Brave lad from Agulis)

Մահուանդ լուրը ո՞վ թող տանի, (Who will break the news of your death?)

Քեզպեսներուն միշտ երանի, (Blessed are those who are like you,)

ուք եք հույսը Հայաստանի: (You are the hope of Armenia.)

Garo, much like his brother Rostom Zorian, hailed from Agulis. Hence the death of the young man from Agulis, Garo, is lamented in that song. At one time Agulis was in Persian Armenia and nowadays it is in Nakhichevan. It was once a vibrant Armenian region but no trace from its one-time Armenian inhabitation has remained.

                                                                        Agulis on the map.