Before the self-defense of Urfa, Mkrtchi’s heroic deeds are as numerous as during the self-defense, for example, the October 10 incident. during one of the battles, when one of the enemy guns was wreaking havoc, Urfa’s self-defense commander devised an amazing and no less daring trick to silence it. He stepped into a large barrel and rolled down the slope toward the cannon position. Before the Turks realized what was happening, Yotnegbayrian jumped out of the barrel, interrupted the gunners, rendered the cannon unusable, and left.

During one of Urfa’s twenty-five days of self-defense, there was a terrible artillery bombardment, and at night Khojan led the attack and soon captured the Catholic church, which, however, was surrounded by Armenian positions. While everyone was confused by this failure, it turned out that Yotnegbayrian was only too happy about it. The crowds that had filled the churchyard and inexplicably excited by the success soon began to die under a barrage of hand grenades thrown from both sides at Mkrtch’s orders, and those who tried to escape were killed by sniper fire from the surrounding positions.