The defense of Van ( Vani herosamart) was the armed resistance of the Armenian population of Van against the Ottoman Empire's attempts to massacre the Ottoman Armenian population of the Van Vilayet in the 1915 Armenian genocide. Several contemporaneous observers and later historians have concluded that the Ottoman government deliberately instigated an armed Armenian resistance in the city and then used this insurgency as the main pretext to justify beginning the deportation and slaughter of Armenians throughout the empire. Witness reports agree that the Armenian posture at Van was defensive and an act of resistance to massacre. The self-defense action is frequently cited in Armenian genocide denial literature; it has become "the alpha and omega of the plea of 'military necessity'" to excuse the genocide and portray the persecution of Armenians as justified. Background 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 the overthrow of the Ottoman rule in Eastern Anatolia (Six vilayets), established branches in the city. Throughout 1895–96 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire suffered a wave of violence commonly known as the Hamidian massacres. While Van largely avoided the massacres in 1895, the Ottomans sent a military expedition in June 1896. The Armenians of Van were initially able to defend themselves, but upon agreeing to disarm in exchange for safety, massacres continued, ending in the deaths of over 20,000 Armenians. The pre-war (World War I) demographic statistics of the Van Province, Ottoman Empire had different values based on different sources. In 1914, Armenians lived on the shores of Lake Van. The major Armenian inhabited localities were the city of Van (consisting of three sub-sections which were Havasor (Gürpınar), Timar (Gedikbulak) and Archak (Erçek)). Armenians also lived in the district of Erciş (Artchesh, Akants) which was in the northern part of the province, as well as the districts of Çatak (Shatakh), Başkale (Bashkaleh) and Bahçesaray (Moks) in the southern part of the province. In an 1890 census, there were 79,998 Armenians living in the province. That same census showed the percentage Armenian population located in the city of Van to be 35%, and the