Hamo Ohanjanyan

Hamazasp "Hamo" Ohanjanyan (; 1873 – 31 July 1947) was an Armenian medical doctor, revolutionary, and politician of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF/Dashnaktsutiun).

He served as the third Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia from May 5 to November 23, 1920.

Biography

Hamo Ohanjanyan was born in 1873 in the Armenian-majority town of Akhalkalak (modern-day Akhalkalaki, Georgia) in the Tiflis Governorate of the Russian Empire. He first went to school in his birthplace, then moved to Tiflis (Tbilisi) and graduated from the Tiflis Russian Gymnasium. In 1892 he went to Moscow to continue his studies at the faculty of medicine of Moscow University. However, he was expelled and sent back to Tiflis for participating in revolutionary activities. In 1897, he married Olga Vavilevna, a Russian revolutionary he met in his student days with whom he would have two sons and one daughter. He then traveled to Lausanne, where he graduated from the Lausanne Medical Institute in 1899. It was there that he met Kristapor Mikayelian, one of the founding members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Ohanjanyan's pseudonym within the party was Mher Mherian.

In 1903 he returned to Transcaucasia and worked as a doctor in Tiflis and Baku. He became a member of the eastern Bureau of the ARF in 1905. Ohanjanian was in charge of relations between the ARF and Russian and Georgian revolutionaries during the Armenian–Tatar clashes of 1905–1906. After the outbreak of World War I he was amnestied and returned to Tiflis. He then worked as a doctor on the Caucasian front. Ohanjanyan's government followed a policy of open authoritarianism. Ohanjanyan himself was considered a member of the "intensely anti-Bolshevik" wing of the ARF leadership. In September 1920, Kemalist Turkey invaded Armenia, and after a series of crushing defeats, Ohanjanyan's government resigned on 23 November 1920 to allow another cabinet led by Simon Vratsian to negotiate peace terms.

Exile Following the sovietization of Armenia, Ohanjanyan was arrested by the Bolsheviks on 6 December 1920 near Karakilisa along with other ARF leaders while attempting to flee to Georgia. He was released during the February Uprising of 1921, when Soviet rule was briefly overthrown in Armenia. He fled to Iran after the restoration of Soviet rule and from there went to Egypt. He lived the rest of his life in Cairo, working as a doctor and continuing his activities as a member of the ARF Bureau. He was one of the founders of Hamazkayin, an educational and cultural organization active in the Armenian diaspora to this day. Ohanjanyan died on 31 July 1947.