Defense of Van
Defense of Van, Siege of Van, and variants may refer to:
Defense of Van (1915)
The Defense of Van (also known as the Siege of Van or Van Resistance to the Armenians (Armenian: Վանի հերոսամարտ Vani herosamart) and Van Rebellion or Van Revolt to the Turks (Turkish: Van İsyanı/İhtilâli)), was an insurgency against the Ottoman Empire. Armenian forces fought against the attempts to massacre the Armenian population in the Van Vilayet. The insurgency broke out during the Caucasus Campaign, in which the Dashnak militias were supported by the Imperial Russian army to defend the Ottoman Armenian population. The uprising had not been intended or planned by the Armenians. Several contemporaneous observers and later historians have pointed out that the Ottoman government deliberately instigated the armed Armenian resistance by enforcing the conditions on their subjects and then used this insurgency as a main pretext to justify the forced deportations of Armenians from all over the empire. However, the decisions of deportation and extermination were made before the Van resistance.
Defense of Van (1896)
The 1896 Defense of Van or Van Rebellion was an act of self-defense by the Armenian population in Van against the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire in June 1896 during the Hamidian massacres.
Background
The Van region had avoided the earlier stages of the Hamidian massacres in 1895. However, by January 1896 there was increasing violence – a report by the British vice-consul in Van, W. H. Williams, said the many Armenian villages had been looted and "Armenians are everywhere in a state bordering on panic, afraid lest the spring will bring still further disasters". The Ottoman authorities eventually sent an expedition to attack the Armenian population of Van in June 1896.
Defense and massacre
Between 3 and 11 June some six to seven hundred Armenian men defended the Armenian sections of the Aigestan (Garden City) district of the city. After a week of fighting, the sultan sought assistance from the Western powers to end the violence, promising that he would guarantee the lives and safety of the Armenians of Van. After some negotiations, and making clear they had been acting in self-defense in the face of continual massacre, the Armenian defenders agreed to leave for Persia, escorted by Ottoman troops. En route, as nearly 1,000 Armenians marched towards the border, they were massacred by Ottoman troops and Kurdish tribesmen. This was followed by further massacres throughout the Van region. Vice-consul Williams estimated that some 20,000 Armenians had been killed and some 350 Armenian villages destroyed.
Podcasts:
