Defense of Van (1915)

Defense of Van
Part of the Caucasus Campaign of World War I and the Armenian Genocide
Armenian civilians holding a defense line against Ottoman forces in the walled city of Van in May 1915.
Date 19 April – 17 May 1915 Location Van, Ottoman Empire Result Armenian victory, Ottoman retreat
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire	Armenian civilians
Commanders and leaders
Djevdet Bey Halil Bey Köprülü Kâzım Bey Rafael de Nogales	Aram Manukian
Strength
5,000	1,300
Casualties and losses
unknown	unknown
55,000 Armenian civilians massacred

The Defense of Van (also known as the Siege of Van or Van Resistance to the Armenians (Armenian: Վանի հերոսամարտ Vani herosamart) 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 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.

The assessment of witness reports maintained that the Armenian posture at Van was defensive and an act of resistance to massacre. Based mostly in the city of Van, it was one of the few instances during the Armenian Genocide when Armenians fought against the Ottoman Empire's armed forces.

During the late Ottoman period, Van was an important center of Armenian cultural, social, and economic life. Khrimian Hayrik established a printing press in Van, and thereafter launched Vaspurakan Ardzvi (Eagle of Vaspourakan), which was the first periodical publication in Armenia. In 1885, the Armenakan party was established in the city of Van. Soon after, the Hnchak and Dashnak parties, whose missions were basically the overthrow of the Ottoman rule in Eastern Anatolia (Six vilayets), established branches in the city.

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