Rouben Ter Minassian
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Rouben (Minas Ter-Minassian) (Armenian: Ռուբեն Տեր Մինասյան)(1882-1951) was an Armenian revolutionary and former Defense Minister of the Democratic Republic of Armenia.
Rouben Ter-Minassian was born in the Ottoman Empire in 1882. He emigrated to Erzerum which was part of the Russian Empire at the time. In the Russian Empire, he finished his studies at Etchmiadzin in the late 1890s. Returning to the Caucasus, he met up with Hamo Ohanjanyan, compatriot and friend, and became interim executive officer of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.
After an initial training period at Batumi in 1902, Rouben traveled to Kars in late 1903 where he learned and built a friendship with Aram Manougian. In June 1904, he traveled to Van a year later under a disguise of the bearer. He worked with Aram Manougian and with other people of the "Garabaghiotes" Chouchi under fedayee Ichkhan, with whom he shared the tasks of organizing groups around lake Van (especially Taron) mountainous. After the Young Turk Revolution, he took a partial retirement. He regained his post in 1912, still at Taron. In 1915-16 he participates in numerous battles to save the people of Taron during the Van Resistance. They installed a portion of Armenian territory, the Administration for Western Armenia who regained its ethnic homogenety.
In 1917, he become a member of the Armenian National Council and the Parliament of the Democratic Republic of Armenia. As a member, he organized activities that led to national freedom, effectively assisted by Mouchegh Avedissian. Later, he become the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Interior between May and October 1920. In 1920, he worked to crush the Bolshevik insurgency and worked for the settlement of refugees. After the Sovietization imposed by the Red Army, he left Armenia for Europe. During his three decades in exile, Rouben continued his activism in the ARF. He wrote his "Mernoires" in R. Tarpinian, fondateur-directeur de l'organe FRA Tarpinian.
