and eleven days later the 1st Expeditionary Force was ordered there as well. The Van Gendarmerie Regiment (police force) under the command of Staff Major Köprülü Kâzım Bey (Özalp), who would become the Minister of National Defence and Speaker of Grand National Assembly of Turkey, was the only force available to the Persian frontier. Earlier, on 14 December 1914, Van Mobile Gendarmerie Division had assumed the role of securing the road to Persia through the Qotur valley (Qotur Pass). This paramilitary formation was lightly equipped with artillery and machine guns, being primarily suited for internal security functions rather than for the invasion of a neighboring country. In addition to these military activities, during the period of 1914–1915 American and German missionaries present in the area reported occurrences of massacres of the Armenian population. Such massacres intensified immediately prior to the uprising. According to one source, all of the 52 Armenian villages near Beyazit and Eleşkirt were raided, pillaged and destroyed by the Hamidiye cavalry regiments. Forces After the disastrous depletion of the 3rd Army in the Battle of Sarikamish, the gendarmerie, originally charged with police duties among civilian populations, was transferred to the 3rd Army in an attempt to restore combat effectiveness of the Ottoman Army's operational military forces. On 24 February 1915, the Ottomans were forced to send the Harput, Diyarbakir, and Bitlis gendarmerie units to the city of Van. There were 52,000 Ottoman troops in the Caucasus war zone during this period, with 75% located at the northern war zone, beyond the province of Van. The Ottoman units in the Van province consisted of Van Gendarmerie subdivisions that remained under the control of the Governor. The Van Gendarmerie Division also contained the artillery unit under Rafael de Nogale. The 36th Infantry Division was assembled from Mesopotamia under orders to control the southern part, near Lake Van. The 1st Expeditory Force held the front to the south of Lake Van. One battalion, dubbed "the butcher battalion ()" numbered some 5,000 men. The Armenian population in the city had taken measures as well. The city management had established a unified authority ("The Military Defense Authority") consisting of Armenak Ekarian, Aram Manukian, Kaytsak Arakel, Bulgaratsi Gregory, Gabriel Semerjian, Hrant Galikian and Panos Terlemezian. Support services were set up and distribution of food, medical aid, and arms shop (an established manufacture of gunpowder and arms that was capable of casting two guns),