Defense of Van ( also known as the Siege of Van or Van Resistance to the Armenians ( '' Vani herosamard '' ) was a battle between forces of the Ottoman army against the inhabitants of the strategically located city of Van . The resistance broke out during the Caucasus Campaign , in which the Dashnak militias were supported by the Imperial Russian army to oppose the Ottomans . 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
deportations of Armenians
Armenian Genocide
Defense of Van (1915)