Simon Zavarian
Thursday, December 3, 2020Simon Zavarian (also known by his nom de guerre Anton, 1866 – 1913) was one of the three founders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and part of Armenian national liberation movement, along Kristapor Mikaelian and Stepan Zorian.
Zavarian was born in Aygehat, Lori. Growing up, he attended college in Moscow, later settling in Tiflis, where he met Kristapor Mikaelian and Stepan Zorian. They co-founded the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) in 1890.
This political party gained public support by demanding reforms and taking up arms to defend Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire. As a cofounder of the party, he participated in the framework of the plans and rules of the Dashnaks and served as a member of the ARF central bureau. As an activist, he did research for the party and performed organizational work during his many travels to different worldwide locations. Zavarian traveled to Mush and Sassoun as a teacher and eventually settled in Istanbul, where he worked on the newspaper Azadamard.
During the 1908 Constitutional revolution in Turkey, he participated in the development of Armenian improvement plans and using the archives of the Archdiocese and scientific researches, he developed a census of the number of Western Armenians.