Եսայի կաթողիկոսի «դավաճանության» և «ինքնասպանության» մասին / On the “Betrayal” and “Suicide” of Catholicos Esayi

Despite their historical significance, the life and activities of Yesai Hasan-Jalalyan, Catholicos of Gandzasar (d. 1728), have remained insufficiently studied and at times misinterpreted. Several historians have accused him of betraying the goals and commanders of the Armenian national liberation movement, as well as of committing suicide. Drawing on historical sources, this article refutes both allegations as erroneous and devoid of factual basis. It demonstrates that Catholicos Yesai remained steadfastly loyal to the liberation cause until his death and maintained close cooperation with the military leadership of the Karabakh Sagnaks. His formal acknowledgment of Ottoman suzerainty in 1726 was motivated by a desire to ensure the safety of the Armenian population under his spiritual authority and was accompanied by secret intelligence work in support of the Armenian forces — even from within the headquarters of the Ottoman military command. The claim that he committed suicide arose from a misinterpretation of the expression zhivot svoy okonchal / skonchal (“живот свой окончал / скончал”), which in Old Russian meant “passed away” and never denoted an act of suicide.