Armenian Resistance | |||||
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Part of World War I | |||||
Conflicts of 1915 (red stars) |
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Belligerents | |||||
Ottoman Empire | Armenian Militia of Armenakans (Ramkavars), Hnchakians (Social Democrat Hunchakian Party), and Dashnaktsutiun (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) |
The Armenian resistance is a name given to the military and political activities of the Armenians under the Armenian political parties of Henchak, Armenakan, Dashnaktsutiun against the Ottoman Empire during World War I, considered a struggle for freedom and resistance to the Armenian Genocide by the Armenian combatants, but high treason by the Ottoman Empire. These Armenian national organizations established Armenian fedayeen (Armenian: Ֆէտայի) generally referred to as Armenian irregular units and the Russian Empire formed Armenian volunteer units, which recruited Ottoman Armenians from behind the Ottoman lines, to help the Russian Caucasus Army against the Ottoman Empire. During this period the Siege of Van on April 20, 1915, and consequent establishment of the Administration for Western Armenia were significant events. The Ottoman Minister of Interior Mehmed Talat Pasha considered the Armenian population a fifth column within the Empire, blaming the rise of the Armenian national liberation movement for the overall unrest inside the Empire in his that ended with arrests in Red Sunday.