Aghasi Khanjian

Who was Aghasi Khanjian?

Aghasi Khanjian, also Aghasi Khanchian or Agasi Khandzhan, was First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia from May 1930 to July 1936.

Khanjian was born in the city of Van, Ottoman Empire. With the onslaught of the Armenian Genocide, his family emigrated from the city in 1915 and settled in Russian Armenia. In 1917-19, he was one of the organizers of Spartak, the Marxist student's union of Armenia. He later served as the secretary of the Armenian Bolshevik underground committee.

In 1920, Khanjian became secretary of the Yerevan city committee and in 1930, the first secretary of the Armenian Communist Party. He proved to be a charismatic Soviet politician and was very popular among the Armenian populace. He was a friend and supporter of many Armenian intellectuals, including Yeghishe Charents, Axel Bakunts and Gurgen Mahari. Khanjian also tried unsuccessfully to have Moscow reunite Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. He was arrested in 1936 and died while being interrogated. Richard G. Hovannisian describes the circumstances of his death as follows: