The Armenian city of Zeytun resisted the Ottoman Empire for 400 years. At the end of the 19th century, the Turks again try to seize the free Zeytun and place their kaymakam (governor) here. And they fail again. About 2 thousand Armenians then defeated 24 Turkish battalions with 12 artillery pieces. The Ottomans decided to finally resolve the issue with Zeytun in the fiery year of 1915. Then the 10,000th Turkish army of Fahri Pasha was thrown into the city, with German officers as commanders. Despite the fact that only a little more than a thousand defenders remained in Zeytun itself. Many Zeytun fidais fought that year, helping fellow countrymen in Western Armenia. What the Turks knew well … Zeytuns valiantly defended their beloved and native city to the last,
Part of the Zeytuns returned home. But with the return of the city of Turkey, she left it again. In place of the Zeytun Armenians, the new authorities resettled Turkish refugees from the Balkans. The Turks renamed Zeytun after the name of their commander Suleiman, who was neutralized by the Armenians during the storming of the city.
Thus ended for a while the magnificent history of the freedom-loving Armenian city of Zeytun, which for more than 400 years, from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century, alone opposed one of the most powerful empires in the world …
But all the Armenians of the world know and believe: one day they will return to the beautiful and rebellious Zeytun, which has become free again. The defense of Zeytun, along with the defense of Musaler, Van, Artsakh and other glorious places, entered the heroic history of the Armenian people forever. Written by Tigran Chukhadzhyan and Harutyun Chagryan, the “March of the Zeytuns” became one of the most famous hymns of the glorious national liberation struggle of Armenians against the invaders.