He then became a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, joined fedayee bands, and participated in guerrilla activities in response to the Hamidian massacres.

[5] An amnesty following the Young Turk revolution of 1908 allowed Murad to return to the Ottoman Empire, where he worked in Van and in Sivas.

Many Armenians, particularly the elders who did not want to leave their property and home, began to report to the Ottoman authorities about his whereabouts.

Escaping capture, Murad and a small band of compatriots took to the hills and engaged in guerilla warfare against Turkish cavalry and infantry units sent to find him.

In the autumn of 1915 he moved towards the Black Sea coast at Samsun where, joined by some Greek rebels, he captured a sailboat and escaped to the Russian port of Batum.