After the Hamidian massacres of Armenians from 1894 to 1896 , Nikol entirely devoted himself to the Armenian national liberation movement and organization of self-defense . In 1895 , he moved to Van with a group of 10 people . His house was besieged by the Kurdish Hamidiye cavalry . Although the Kurds had set fire to his house , Nikol managed to escape under the cover of smoke and went to the nearby mountains , where he and his men firing back and killed two Hamidiye . Admiring his courage , the Kurds nicknamed him " Duman " ( " Storm " ) . He was arrested in Van , but soon released . Duman was the initiator of the 1897 Khanasor Expedition , an attack on the Kurdish Mazrik tribe and its commander Sharaf Beg for their role in the Hamidian massacres and ambush at Van , and took part in the campaign as a squad leader . The attack began on 25 July 1897 and ended on 27 July 1897 . All of the men in the tribe were killed and only the women and children were spared , a mercy the Turks and Kurds never gave the Armenians . Sharaf Beg managed to escape . Afterward , Duman moved back to the Russian Empire , in Tiflis . During the 1904 Sasun uprising , he is tried to get his men to Sason , but was unable to . At the beginning of the Armenian-Tatar massacres in February 1905 , he was hastily called by telegram to Baku , where he organized a self-defense and , on 7 February , had successfully arrived to fight against Tatars . Duman was then appointed head of the self-defense of Erivan region . He was an advocate of the liberation of Western Armenia and proposed a general uprising . He took part in the Dashnak party congresses , and in 1910 , was present at the Second Copenhagen International Congress
Hamidian massacres
Hamidian massacres
Nikol Duman