Administration for Western Armenia

Occupation of Turkish Armenia
Provisional Government Under Russian Military occupation
1915–1918
The area of Russian occupation as of September 1917
Capital		Van (de facto)
Languages		Armenian Turkish Kurdish
Religion		Armenian Apostolic Islam
Political structure		Provisional Government Under Russian Military occupation
Governor
•	Apr 1915 – Dec 1917	Aram Manukian
•	Dec 1917 – Mar 1918	Tovmas Nazarbekian
•	Mar 1918 – Apr 1918	Andranik Ozanian
Historical era		World War I
•	Siege of Van	April–May 1915
•	Russian Revolution	8 March – 8 November 1917
•	Treaty of Brest-Litovsk	3 March 1918
•	Turkish recapture Erzurum	12 March 1918
•	Turks recapture Van	6 April 1918
•	Dissolved	April 1918
Preceded by Succeeded by Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire

The occupation of Turkish Armenia by the Russian Empire during World War I began in 1915 formally ended by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. It was sometimes referred to as the "Republic of Van" by Armenians, because the occupation imitated in Van. Aram Manukian of Armenian Revolutionary Federation was the de facto head until July 1915. It was briefly referred to as "Free Vaspurakan". After a setback beginning in August 1915, it was re-established in June 1916. From December 1917, it was under Transcaucasian Commissariat, with Hakob Zavriev as the Commissar, and during the early stages of the establishment of First Republic of Armenia, it was included with other Armenian National Councils in a briefly unified Armenia.

This provisional government relied on Armenian volunteer units, forming an administrative structure after the Siege of Van around April 1915. Dominant representation was from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Aram Manukian, or "Aram of Van," was the administration's most famous governor.

During the Siege of Van, there were between 67,792 (according to the 1914 Ottoman population estimates) and 185,000 Armenians (according to the Armenian Patriarch's 1912 estimate) in the Van Vilayet. In the city of Van itself there were around 30,000 Armenians, but more Armenians from surrounding villages joined them during the Ottoman offensive.

The conflict began on April 20, 1915, with Aram Manukian as the leader of the resistance; it lasted for two months. In May, the Armenian battalions and Russian regulars entered the city and drove the Ottoman army out of Van.