Kapriel Lazian Collection – Athens

Author: Ani Apikian, 29/12/25 (Last modified 29/12/25 ) - Translator: Simon Beugekian

This article focuses primarily on Kapriel Lazian’s diverse and wide-ranging body of work throughout the various stages of his life. The main source of biographical information on Lazian is his autobiography, which he wrote between 1922 and 1923, at a time when he and his wife, Natalia/Natalie Lazian, lived in Greece. Other important sources of information are articles that appeared in newspapers and periodicals, and which included numerous testimonies about Lazian. There is also a video-recorded interview with Natalie Lazian, which provides valuable information on the life and career of her husband. Yet another important source of information on Lazian is the correspondence exchanged prior to the Genocide between the Lazian family, then living in Yerznga/Erzincan, and a relative of theirs living in Italy. Finally, a rich trove of photographs and documents complement and enrich the information provided by these sources.

Kapriel Lazian had an active and productive life as a community/party operative, military officer, and journalist/commentator. After settling down in Greece, he served in various important capacities within his chosen political party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). As a result, Lazian became one of the leading figures of the Greek-Armenian community and made an important contribution to efforts to organize community institutions. He is also closely associated with Armenian journalism, having worked as an editor for Armenian newspapers in both Greece and Egypt.

Kapriel Lazian’s military career was also characteristic of his life. He served in the Ottoman Army, the army of the Republic of Armenia, the Red Army (for a very brief period, as he notes in his autobiography), and finally the Greek Army, in that order. Lazian served in the Ottoman Army as an officer, as a loyal citizen of the Ottoman Empire, but as we will see, after the annihilation of his family during the Armenian Genocide, he chose a different path, initially joining the army of the Republic of Armenia, in which he served until 1922.

Kapriel Lazian’s family hailed from Erzincan. Previously, the family surname had been Gyurdjian. Kapriel Lazian was born on September 10, 1893, in the Syurments neighborhood of Erzincan, into a large and prosperous family. His father, Kourken (son of Kevork) had graduated from the Ungeragan School of the United Society. At the age of 21, Kourken married Zarouhi Djizmedjian. The couple had eight children, four boys and four girls. The first two sons, Kapriel and Mikayel, were twins. They were followed by Rafayel, Kevork, Hripsime, Kayane, Satenig, and Knarig. Zarouhi’s father was Mardiros Djizmedjian.

In 1895-1896, during the Hamidian massacres that targeted Armenians, Kourken Lazian was imprisoned in Erzincan, tried, and sentenced to a lengthy stint in prison. Later, he was pardoned by an edict from the Sultan and returned to Erzincan. After the reinstatement of the Constitution in the Ottoman Empire in 1908, he served as the administrator (mudir) of the Cincike cluster of villages (nahie) of the subdistrict (kaza) of Erzincan in the district (sanjak) of Erzincan. In 1913, he was the secretary of the Trabzon Armenian Prelacy.

Kapriel Lazian lived in Erzincan through his early youth. He received his early education at the kindergarten of the Christinian School, then attended the Yeznigian, Sourp Prgich, and Central schools of Erzincan, eventually returning to the Yeznigian School, from which he graduated in 1910. Soghomon Tehlirian also graduated from this school in Erzincan. Among Kapriel Lazian’s teachers at Yeznigian were Miridjan Ozanian and Kourken Papazian (later a doctor). During his last year at this school, Kapriel Lazian became a member of the ARF. After graduating, he passed the state examination and was accepted into the Idadiye School of Erzincan, which had a military focus. In 1913, he traveled to Constantinople, where he was accepted first into the Çengelköy military academy, then, in 1914, began attending the Harbiye military academy in the same city.

When the First World War began, Kapriel Lazian’s military unit drew lots to determine each soldier’s location of deployment. As a result of this draw, Lazian and his friend Mgrdich Mgrian were deployed first to Bandırma, then to Kilizman (present-day Güzelbahçe) and Menemen in the Izmir area. In the the summer of 1915, their unit received orders to leave for the Suez Front, where the Ottoman armies were fighting the Allied forces stationed in Egypt. It was then that their commander informed Lazian and Mgrian that they would remain in the city of Smyrna, and as officers, would be responsible for training new recruits and preparing them for the front. Thanks to this decision, for the duration of the war, or the following three years, Lazian remained in Smyrna. He served in the Fifth Regiment, stationed at the storage depot of Punta Train Station. The officers lived in rented houses in the immediate area. The regiment’s commander was Colonel Payfir, a German.

At the time, Germany was an ally of the Ottoman Empire, and the two countries were fighting together against the Allies. Lazian and Mgrian’s new military assignment played a fateful role in both of their lives, as it came right when the Ottoman authorities began arresting and murdering Armenians serving in the Ottoman armed forces. Lazian and his friend immediately impressed their German colonel, who took them under his protection and gave them the opportunity to continue living in Smyrna and remain safe from arrest and deportation.

In 1916, Lazian received extremely disturbing news about his family from Erzincan. They had all been deported, and he would later learn that his father had been axed to death early during the Genocide, on the banks of the Euphrates, outside the village of Tsorperan. His seven brothers and sisters were killed later. In short, the entire family and clan, about 70 people, had been exterminated. Greatly shaken by this news, Kapriel’s initial plan was to desert from the Ottoman Army and flee to Europe. In fact, he took practical steps to implement this plan. He went to the coast of Smyrna, with the intention of escaping on a boat. But as he wrote in his memoirs, this was “not possible.” It was also during his years in Smyrna that he learned that his uncle Karnig Djizmedjian’s wife, Azkanoush, had survived with her two children and had made her way to Agn, and thereafter Sebastia/Sivas. He made every effort to have them brought to Smyrna, where, as he writes in his memoirs, his mother, Zarouhi, was also living. It is important to note that other sources state that Zarouhi had been killed in Erzincan. In his autobiography, Lazian wrote that throughout the years of war, in Smyrna, he had been “helpful to many Armenian and Greek soldiers.”

In 1917, when Kapriel was still in Smyrna, he made the acquaintance of Natalia/Natalie Ikonomidou. Natalie’s mother hailed from Aydın, and her father from Bitlis. Aside from Natalie, the couple had two daughters and two sons. Natalie’s father had served for 20 years as the director of the Aydın train station. But during the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), a train transporting Ottoman troops to the front had derailed, leading to hundreds of deaths and injuries. Natalie’s father was blamed for this incident and dismissed from his position.

A few months before the end of the First World War, Lazian’s army unit was redeployed to Gelibolu/Gallipoli. Then came the Armistice, and Lazian was sent back to Constantinople. He didn’t stay there long, and made his way to Smyrna, where Natalie and her family continued living. Smyrna was already under Allied occupation. With the help of other Armenian officers who had served in the Ottoman Army, Lazian founded the Officers’ Union. However, Lazian was unemployed. Thanks to financial support from Natalie’s father, he became involved in the transportation of raisins, figs, and oranges from Izmir to Constantinople. But he was not successful. He then began working at a weaving factory.

Kapriel and Natalie married in 1919, in Smyrna. In the summer of 1919, Kalousd Eytanian, a member of the Officer’s Union of Constantinople, informed Lazian that the newly founded Republic of Armenian in the Caucasus was seeking experienced officers. At the time, there were many Armenian officers who had previously served in the Ottoman Army and who wished to move to Armenia and continue their military careers there. Kapriel joined these groups and left for Armenia, taking with him two fellow officers, the brothers Hagop and Kevork Kevorkian. This was a difficult choice for Lazian, as he had married just a few months earlier. Moreover, Natalie’s father had passed away, her brothers were still young, and only her sister worked, in their uncle’s pharmacy. Kapriel left for Armenia, leaving his family behind in Smyrna.

Lazian and his friends arrived in Armenia in September 1919. Lazian was assigned the rank of engineering lieutenant (an expert in military construction). In the winter of the same year, he was dispatched to Ikdir (Surmalu), to build field fortifications. That spring, Lazian and his unit attempted to build a movable bridge spanning the Aras (Arax) River. In July 1920, alongside several fellow engineering officers, Lazian was sent to Shahtakhd (Nakhichevan), which was, at the time, part of the Republic of Armenia, and was the headquarters of General Shelkovnigian’s unit. A train station operated in Shahtakhd, located on the banks of the Aras River. Lazian and his friends were tasked with transporting a small boat from Shahtakhd to Yerevan. The boat was in a ditch near the station, lying on its side. Its name was Sidrisa Nousha, written on the boat in Cyrillic, which translated into “Sister Nousha of Mercy.” At the start of the First World War, when the Tsarist armies were stationed in Van, the boat had been brought to the area and was meant to be transported to Lake Van. But the Russian Revolution had intervened, the Tsarist armies had begun retreating, and the boat had been abandoned in the ditch. Lazian’s team was able to send this boat back to Yerevan on the back of wagons. In his memoirs, Lazian described this scene with ultra-realistic accuracy: his team members sitting in the boat while it lay on the back of the wagons, and while the train cut a path through the Ararat Valley, with Mount Ararat looming in the west. After reaching Yerevan, the boat was rechristened Keghanoush.This story, and its continuation, inspired Gosdan Zarian to write the novel Navu Leran Vra [The Boat on the Mountain], based on these events. [1]

In October 1920, Natalie arrived in Yerevan from Smyrna. She was accompanied by Arshag Arzouyan and his family, who were also moving from Smyrna. Although the reunion of the married couple was a happy occasion, by then, the Armeno-Turkish War had erupted, which would be followed by the establishment of Soviet rule in Armenia. At first, like many of his fellow officers, Lazian continued serving in the Red Army of Soviet Armenia. The couple was able to obtain a visa for Natalie to return to Smyrna. Turkey had given permission to Soviet Armenia to send one train from Alexandropol (Gyumri) to the port of Batumi. Natalie was among the passengers. But when the train reached the Georgian border, Georgian border guards refused to allow Natalie and a group of other Smyrna Armenians and Armenian officers from proceeding. They were forced to spend a month in Sanahin. Then, they headed for Tbilisi on foot. The journey lasted six days, during which the group traversed roads blanketed with snow. Once they arrived in Tbilisi, the Georgian police arrested and jailed them. Natalie, as a Greek citizen, was soon released, and thanks to her intervention, the Armenian officers from Smyrna were also released. The group then boarded a train in Tbilisi and left Georgia just as the Red Army was swarming into the country.

At around the same time, the Soviet authorities in Yerevan arrested all high-ranking officers who had served in the Armenian army, even if they had continued serving in the Red Army. Their number reached 1,000. In the cold of winter, the arrested officers were forced to march, on foot, to the city of Agstafa in Soviet Azerbaijan. From there, they traveled by train to Baku, then to Rostov. The journey lasted a full month. While in Rostov, Lazian and several other Armenian officers – all originally from the Ottoman Empire – escaped, and as fugitives, began working at a hospital in Rostov, where the head doctor was Armenian. Their job was to provide the hospital with its daily supply of fuel. While wandering the streets, they learned that the group of arrested Armenian officers had been exiled from Rostov to Ryazan (south of Moscow). They later learned that stability had been reestablished in Soviet Armenia and acts of violence had virtually ended. After three months in Rostov, they learned that a group of exiled Armenian officers intended to return to Armenia on a train. Lazian and Mgrian joined this group. They first reached Tbilisi, and from there, thanks to the assistance of their friends from Khodorchur (a town in the region of Erzurum), they reached Yerevan.

Lazian and Mgrian did not remain in Yerevan for long. They were determined to leave the Soviet Union. Once again, thanks to the help of friends from Khodorchur, they left for Batumi, and from there, they sailed to Constantinople. Then they made their way to Smyrna, where Natalie was waiting. It was the year 1921. The Greek Army had occupied Smyrna and was advancing into the depths of Anatolia. Kapriel worked as a laborer to eke out a living in Smyrna. But once General Torkom entered Smyrna, Kapriel, as an experienced officer, joined the Armenian Legion that the General led (officially known as Fifth Armenian Battalion of the Greek Army) – first as a member of the military censorship division, and later as a military officer.

By August 1922, the Greek Army had begun retreating across Anatolia, and Turkish forces were preparing to enter Smyrna. Faced with this perilous situation, on August 22, Kapriel and Natalie received permission to leave Smyrna and reached the port of Piraeus, Greece.

In 1924, Kapriel Lazian’s only daughter, Ayda, was born. Early during their marriage, Natalie knew absolutely no Armenian. She and Kapriel communicated in French. But she made every effort to learn the language. She would write down new Armenian words she heard and would ask her husband what they meant. Eventually, she began speaking Armenian fluently.

In Athens, the second stage of Kapriel Lazian’s life began, entirely devoted to journalism/public commentating and the party. From 1922 to 1939, he lived and worked in Athens; and from 1939 to 1959, in Cairo.

In Athens, the family’s first address was on Evripidou Street, where they rented a room in a hotel. At the time, after the mass arrival of Armenian refugees in Greece, Armenian community life was just beginning to take shape, and the community was unorganized. Lazian and his ARF comrades created party entities in Athens and its environs. To achieve this, a founding summit was convened by the party on December 7, 1922, and took place in a café on Koumoundourou Square in Athens. The attendees included Andon Gazel, Karekin Markarian, Aram Shirinian, and Reverend Haroutyun Adjemian. In 1923, the party also launched its own official Greek gazette, Nor Or [New Day]. The members of the paper’s inaugural editorial team were Kapriel Lazian, Andon Gazel, Aram Shirinian, and Boghos Svadjian. Initially, Nor Or was a weekly paper.

The newspaper’s first address was on Perikleous Street in Athens. The management of the newspaper rented a corner in the printing house of Paraskevas Leonis, which effectively became the paper’s first editorial and typesetting office. Natalie was not a passive actor in Lazian’s new life and career. It was she who asked Greek friends to intervene to secure Greek citizenship for her husband, which was a rare occurrence among Armenian refugees in Greece. The great majority of them would only become citizens in the 1960s, while Kapriel became one in the early 1930s. After becoming a Greek citizen, Kapriel also became the official licensee of Nor Or. The paper’s chief editor was Andon Gazel, and its chief typesetter was Aharon Sdepanian. The paper’s founders were able to bring two boxes of Armenian types to Athens from the editorial offices of the ARF-affiliated Djagadamard [Battle] newspaper, previously published in Constantinople. The first issue of Nor Or (two pages) appeared on Sunday, 25 March 1923, on the anniversary of the independence of Greece. 

Natalie oversaw the paper’s administrative affairs. It was she who accomplished the difficult task of obtaining an official license for the paper from the authorities. At a time when none of the editorial staff of Nor Or could speak Greek, it was Natalie who translated news items that appeared in local newspapers, in Greek, into French. These articles would then be translated into Armenian and would appear in Nor Or.From her small hotel room in Athens, she sent appeals to the offices of Armenian newspapers in Constantinople, providing the names of Armenians who were seeking loved ones who had survived, and these notices were published by the Armenian press of Constantinople.

Nor Or quickly found success in the Armenian community of Greece. After a short time, the paper became a bidaily, then, beginning on January 1, 1924, a daily newspaper. Its publication continued, without interruptions, until the outbreak of the Second World War. The Nor Or office was an important meeting place in the center of Athens. Especially in the evenings, it was the gathering place of intellectuals and like-minded comrades, who would discuss the day’s most important questions.

Aram Shirinian and Boghos Svadjian did not stay long in Greece and emigrated abroad. Thereafter, the leadership of the newspaper was entrusted entirely to Kapriel Lazian and Andon Gazel. It was only in 1940 that the government of Ioannis Metaxas, who had established an autocratic rule, decided to shutter all non-Greek newspapers in the country.As a result, Nor Or, after a history of 17 uninterrupted years, was forced to shut down.After the end of the Second World War, the newspaper was reopened under the name of Azad Or [Free Day], initially as a bidaily, then as a daily newspaper. The newspaper officially became the property of the ARF, and to this day, it continues to be published as the only Armenian daily newspaper in Greece.

Kapriel Lazian and the Nor Or team were instrumental in helping Armenians, who were scattered across the globe, find each other. On a daily basis, the newspaper published lists of names of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, as well as names of Armenians who had been imprisoned in Turkey but had since been released and were searching for their loved ones. Nor Or also published numerous Armenian books – works of poetry, novels, memoirs, translated literature, etc.

Kapriel Lazian participated actively in efforts to organize the Greek-Armenian community and the ARF structure in Greece. He played a role in the founding of local ARF teen and youth chapters, as well as the scouting and athletic efforts of the Armenian General Athletic Union (HMEM). He was also a member of the Central National Board of the Greek-Armenian community.

In early 1939, Kapriel Lazian and his family left Greece and moved to Cairo, Egypt. Lazian had been elected to the Bureau, the supreme body of the ARF. In Cairo, he joined the editorial team of the Housaper newspaper and became responsible for the administration of the paper.

In an interview conducted in 1995, Natalie Lazian-Ikonomidou stated that she, too, became a member of the ARF in 1948.

While living in Egypt, Kapriel wrote and published the following books:

• Hayasdan yev Hay Tadu Usd Tashnakreru [Armenia and the Armenian Cause According to Treaties] (Cairo, 1942, 264 pages).
• Heghapokhagan Temker [Revolutionary Figures] (Cairo, 1945, 414 pages).
• Hayasdan yev Hay Tadu [Armenia and the Armenian Cause] (Cairo, 1946, 392 pages).
• Temker Haygagan Azadakragan Sharjoumen [Figures from the Armenian Liberation Movement] (Cairo, 1949, 397 pages).
• Hayasdan yev Hay Tadu [Armenia and the Armenian Cause] (Cairo, 1957, 442 pages).
• Hayasdan yev Hay Tadu Hay-Rous Haraperoutyunnerou Luysin Dag [Armenia and the Armenian Cause, From the Perspective of Armenian-Russian Relations] (Cairo, 1957).
• Hayouhin yev Hay Heghapokhoutyunu [The Armenian Woman and the Armenian Revolution] (Cairo, 1959, 23 pages).

Kapriel Lazian participated in six general congresses of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and served as a member of the ARF Bureau from 1938 until his death.

In 1957, Natalie and Kapriel’s daughter, Ayda, married Makhlouf (first name unknown) in Cairo. One of their children, Gabriel Makhlouf, has been the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland since 2019. He previously served as Secretary to the New Zealand Treasury, or in other words, the government’s primary consultant on financial matters.

Kapriel Lazian died suddenly on August 25, 1959, in Cairo. Natalie and her daughter, Ayda, returned to Greece, where they lived until their deaths. Natalie died on March 24, 2005, and is buried at the Nea Smyrni Cemetery in Athens. Ayda died in 2021.

This interview was recorded on 26 November 1995, at Natalie Lazian-Ikonomidou’s house in Nea Smyrni (Athens). The main interviewee was Natalie Lazian-Ikonomidou, but her daughter, Ayda, also participated. The interviewers were Hayganoush Minassian, Haroutyun Manougian, and Kevork Kolanian.

• K. Lazian, “Keghanoush (Navu Leran Vra)” [“Keghanoush (the Boat on the Mountain)”], Harach, 21st year, number 5859, new cycle number 1270, 29 May 1949, Paris.
• Krikor Amirian, “Kapriel Lazian,” Hairenik Monthly, February 1960, volume 39, number 2, Boston, pp. 10-18.
• Kapriel Lazian’s unpublished autobiography, written around 1923.
• Issues of Amenoun Darekirk [Everyone’s Yearbook] by Garo Kevorkian.
• Hairenik Daily, Boston, 5 September 1959, 61st year, number 14,399.
• Video: Interview with Natalie Lazian-Ikonomidou, 26 November 1995, Athens.
• Aramayis Kouyoumdjian, “Under the Guise of a Foreigner Beat the Heart of an Armenian (on the Occasion of the Second Anniversary of K. Lazian’s Death),” Hairenik Daily, Boston (4 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,032), (5 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,033), (6 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,034), (7 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,035), (14 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,040), (17 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,042), (18 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,043), (19 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,044), (22 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,047), (24 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,048), (25 October 1961, 63rd year, number 15,049).

[1] We would like to thank Vartan Madteosian, who provided additional sources and information on the connection between these events and the novel.