Hovsep Arghutian

Hovsep Arghutian (Armenian: Յովսէփ Արղութեան; 1863 – 1925), also known as Khanasori Ishkhan and Ishkhan Arghutian, was an Armenian military commander and political activist.

Biography

Hovsep Arghutian was born in Sanahin, Elisabethpol Governorate, Russian Empire in an aristocratic family. His family was descended from the Armenian noble family Argutinsky-Dolgorukov. Arghutian graduated from the Nersisian School in Tiflis and was a school teacher in the village of Jalaloghly (now Stepanavan, Armenia).

He joined the Armenian national liberation movement in the late 1880s. In 1889, he went to Western Armenia, where he co-operated with the fedayee groups and Arabo. He participated in the 1897 Khanasor Expedition. Afterward, he was arrested a Russian citizen by Persian authorities and sent to Vologda (Russia), but was soon released. He became one of the organizers of Armenian self-defension during the Armenian-Tatar massacres 1905-1907. Arghutian was also one of the leading Armenian volunteer commanders during World War I. An ARF Dashnaktsutiun activist, he became a member of Armenian parliament in 1919, then became the Ambassador of the First Republic of Armenia to Persia.

In 1922, he moved to France. He died in Paris three years later.