Defense of Van (apr 19, 1915 – may 17, 1915)

Description:

The Defense of Van (also known as the Siege of Van or Van Resistance to the Armenians was a self-defensive measure by the Armenian population of Van against the Ottoman Empire. Armenian forces fought against the attempts to massacre the Armenian population in the Van Vilayet. The resistance broke out during the Caucasus Campaign, in which the Dashnak militias were supported by the Imperial Russian army to defend the Ottoman Armenian population. Such measures had not been intended or planned by the Armenians. Several contemporaneous observers and later historians have concluded that the Ottoman government deliberately instigated the armed Armenian resistance by enforcing the conditions on their subjects and then used this insurgency as the 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.