Armenian fedayi Fedayi ( Western " Fedayi " ; Eastern " Fidayi " ) , also known as the Armenian irregular units or Armenian militia , were Armenian civilians who voluntary left their families to form self - defense units and armed bands in reaction to the mass murder of Armenians and the pillage of Armenian villages by criminals , tribal Kurdish forces , and Hamidian guards during the reign of Abdul Hamid II in late 19th and early 20th centuries , know as the Hamidian massacres . Their ultimate goal was always to gain Armenian autonomy ( Armenakans ) or independence ( Dashnak s , Hunchak s ) depending on their ideology and the degree of oppression visited on Armenians . The Armenian term " fedayi " is derived from Arabic fedayeen : " fidā ' īyīn " , literally meaning " those who sacrifice " . Goals and activities . Armenian fedayees ' main goal was to defend Armenian villagers from persecution and at the same time , disrupt the Ottoman Empire ' s activities in Armenian populated regions . Armenian volunteers fight during Hamidian Massacres , Sasun Resistance ( 1894 ) , Zeitun Rebellion ( 1895 – 1896 ) , Defense of Van , and Khanasor Expedition . They were the leaders and members of the Armenian national movement . These bands committed sabotage activities like cutting telegraph lines and raiding army supplies . They also committed assassinations and counter - attacks on Muslim villages . They helped Armenians defend themselves during village purges by Ottoman officials . They were supported by Armenians and quickly gained fame , support and trust by them . Their activities in the Ottoman Empire dissipated after the Second Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire , when the Committee of Union and Progress came into power and , for a time , granted the Empore ' s Armenian citizens the same rights as its Turkish and Kurdish citizens . Most fedayee groups disbanded , their members returning to their families . World War I . Some fedayee groups joined the Ottoman army after the Ottoman government passed a new law to support the war effort that required all enabled adult males up to the age of forty - five to either be recruited in the Ottoman army or to pay special fees ( which would be used in the war effort ) in order to be excluded from service . As a result of this law , most able - bodied men were removed from their homes , leaving only the women , children , and elderly by themselves . Most of the Armenian recruits were later turned into road laborers , and many were executed before the beginning of the Armenian Genocide . The genocide gave way to the return of the fedayees . Apart from thousands of Armenians who were drafted or volunteered in several different armies fighting against the Ottoman empire , and apart from those who were drafted in the Ottoman army prior to World War I , the fedayees fought inside Ottoman borders . During the first year of the new republic , Armenians were flooding from Anatolia to safe havens . Roads were clogged with refugees . Further southeast , in Van , the fedayees helped the local Armenians resist the Turkish army until April 1918 , but eventually were forced to evacuate it and withdraw to Persia . To consider emergency measures , the Western Armenian Administration sponsored a conference which adopted plans to form a twenty - thousand - man militia under Andranik in December 1917 . Civilian commissioner Dr . Hakob Zavriev promoted Adrianik to Major General and he took the command of Armenia within the Ottoman Empire . They fought in numerous successful battles such as the Battle of Kara Killisse , the Battle of Bash Abaran and the Battle of Sardarapat , as fedayees merged with the Armenian army ( Erivan centered ) under the General Tovmas Nazarbekian . The total number of guerrillas in these irregular bands was 40 , 000 – 50 , 000 , according to Boghos Nubar , the president of the " Armenian National Delegation " : Boghos Nubar , as a part of the Armenian Delegation , had the intention to expand the borders of the independent Democratic Republic of Armenia . Thus , he might have elevated the number of Armenian fedayees who were able to fight in order to show that the Armenians are capable of defending an eventually large Ottoman - Armenian border . In reality , their numbers at that time were much lower , considering the fact that there were no more than a few handful of fedayees in most of the confrontations between them and Kurdish irregulars or Turkish soldiers , even according to foreign accounts . Moreover , many of the fedayees were the same and reappeared in various places and battles . One should also note that many Armenian irregular fighters died defending regions of Western Armenia during the genocide .