August 1914 he was jailed as a Russian spy but escaped to Transcaucasia, where he became involved with the Armenian volunteer units which fought with the Russian army. After the disbandment of the units, he attended the Moscow state conference, the Armenian National Congress, and was elected a member of the National Council. Hovhannes Katchaznouni asked him to accompany him on his tour of Europe and America in 1919, but he was refused a visa by the British as they saw him as a radical socialist. In the same year he was appointed to the Minister of Labour, Agriculture and State positions in Alexander Khatisian's Cabinet. His positions carried over to the government of Hamo Ohanjanyan; he also assumed responsibilities for information and propaganda. After the resignation of the government and the failure of Hovhannes Katchaznouni to form a coalition, Vratsian accepted post of prime minister on 23 November 1920. On 2 December he surrendered Armenia to the Bolsheviks. He subsequently went into hiding, and later emerged in February 1921 as the chairman of the Committee for the Salvation of the Fatherland, which led the anti-Bolshevik February Uprising that briefly overthrew Soviet rule in Armenia. In April, after the anti-Bolshevik rebels were forced to retreat south to the mountainous region of Zangezur, Vratsian became premier of the Republic of Mountainous Armenia. However, this republic only lasted around 40 days; in July he escaped to Persia with his bodyguards and aides, leaving his wife and child with American Near East Relief worker Dr. Clarence Ussher. He also appealed to Europe and Turkey for assistance against the Bolsheviks. Vratsian then travelled over Europe, settling in Paris to edit the ARF's official newspaper Droshak from 1924 to 1933. In 1939, he returned to the United States and remained there for twelve years due to the outbreak of World War II. In 1945 he presented a petition to the UN General Assembly at San Francisco demanding the restoration of Wilsonian Armenia held by Turkey to Armenia. During his lifetime he edited various now defunct Armenian periodicals and newspapers, including Harach and Horizon. He also traveled extensively, appealing to various European powers to help Armenia regain its independence. He finally settled in Beirut, Lebanon in 1952, where he was principal of and taught courses at the Collège Arménien (Nshan Palandjian Jemaran), one of the main schools of the Armenian diaspora. Among his former students are