Israel Ori

Ori, Israel 

Born 1658 in the village of Sisian, now Atsavan, Armenian SSR; died 1711 in Astrakhan. Prominent figure in the Armenian liberation movement.

As a member of a delegation seeking support for the Armenian struggle against the Persian and Turkish yoke, Ori visited Constantinople, Venice, Paris, Düsseldorf, and Vienna. In 1699, together with the melik (feudal lord) Safraz, he convoked in Angekhakot (Armenia) a secret conference of 11 meliks from Siunik; they decided to appeal to a number of Western European states for help. Achieving no results in Germany or Austria, Ori arrived in Moscow in 1701. Here he received from Peter I and from the Georgian king Archil II, then living in exile in Moscow, a promise of support for the plan of liberating Armenia. Given the rank of colonel, Ori in 1707 was sent on a Russian diplomatic mission to Persia. He died on the way back to Moscow.

REFERENCE

Armiano-russkie otnosheniia: Sb. dokumentov, vol. 2, part 1: Armianorusskie otnosheniia v pervoi treti XVIII v. Yerevan, 1964.