{{Short description|Armenian resistance during the Hamidian massacres}} {{one source|date=June 2011}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Defense of Van | partof = [[Hamidian massacres]] and [[Armenian resistance during the Armenian genocide]] | image = | caption = | date = 3–11 June 1896 | place = City of [[Van, Turkey|Van]], [[Van Vilayet]] | result = Armenians agree to disarm, defenders and additional civilian population massacred. | combatant1 = {{Flag|Ottoman Empire}} <br>{{flagicon|Kurdistan}} [[Kurds]] | combatant2 = * [[Armenakan Party]] * Armenians of [[Van, Turkey|Van]] | commander1 = | commander2 = | strength1 = Unknown | strength2 = Unknown | casualties1 = Unknown | casualties2 = 20,000 massacred<ref name="Balakian60"/><br>350 hamlets or villages destroyed<ref name="Balakian60"/>| }}
The 1896 '''defense of Van''' or '''Van rebellion''' was an act of self-defense by the Armenian population in [[Van, Turkey|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 that 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".<ref name="Balakian60">{{cite book | last = Balakian | first = Peter | authorlink = Peter Balakian | title = [[The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response]] | publisher = [[HarperCollins]] | year = 2004 | location = New York | isbn = 0-06-055870-9 | page = [https://archive.org/details/burningtigris00pete/page/61 61] }}</ref> 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.{{Cn|date=August 2023}} 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.<ref name="Balakian60"/>
==Aftermath== In July 1897, an [[Armenian fedayi|Armenian Fedayee]] group undertook a revenge attack, known as the [[Khanasor Expedition]], against the Kurdish Mazrig tribe that had been responsible for the massacre of the defenders of Van when they were moving towards the Persian border.{{Cn|date=August 2023}}
==See also== *[[Defense of Van (1915)]]
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Van, Turkey}} {{Armenian Resistance}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van 1896}} [[Category:1896 in the Ottoman Empire]] [[Category:Armenian national liberation movement]] [[Category:Van vilayet]] [[Category:Military history of Van, Turkey]] [[Category:Hamidian massacres]] [[Category:June 1896 in Asia]] [[Category:Perfidy incidents]] [[Category:19th-century prisoner-of-war massacres]] [[Category:Conflicts in 1896]] [[Category:Massacres in 1896]] [[Category:Battles involving the Ottoman Empire]]