During the Hamidian massacres of 1896 , the monastery was sacked and robbed . Some teachers and students were killed . According to a contemporary report by an American at Van , " Varak , the most famous and historic monastery in all this Van region , which has weathered the storms of centuries is almost certain to go on fire . " On 20 April 1915 some 30 gendarmes arrived at Varagavank and murdered the monastery 's two monks together with four of their servants . The monastery remained under their occupation until 30 April , when , for unknown reasons , the gendarmes withdrew and returned to Van city . This withdrawal coincided with the arrival on Varag mountain of some 3000 Armenian refugees from the Hayatzor valley who had escaped the massacres that had taken place there several days earlier . They were soon joined by some 3000 survivors of massacres elsewhere , and together they found a temporary refuge in the Armenian villages and monasteries on the mountain , including Varagavank . Self-defense units were also set up in an attempt to protect the villages - about 250 men , almost half the force , was stationed at Varag , with most of the remainder based at nearby Shushants monastery . On the order of Van 's Governor Djevdet Bey , Turkish forces returned in strength , with a force of 300 calvarymen , 1000 militia , and three batteries of artillery . According to Kevorkian this was on 8 May . Shushants quickly fell after putting up a feeble defense and was burnt down . Varagavank fell shortly afterwards and was also burnt . The majority of the villagers and the refugees managed to escape to Van at night . The Turkish forces made no attempt to stop them entering the Armenian-controlled sectors of the city ; it is speculated that they were deliberately allowed in so that they would use up the limited food supplies of the defenders . The exact date of the burning of the monastery is not known for certain . On April 27 1915 , a message sent " To Americans , or any Foreign Consul " by Clarence Ussher and Ernest Yarrow , American missionaries in Van , said that " From our window we could plainly see Shushantz afire on its mountain-side and Varak Monastery , with its priceless store of ancient manuscripts , going up in smoke . " However , a fellow missionary , Elizabeth Barrows Ussher , Clarence Ussher 's wife , wrote in her diary that the monastery was attacked by 200 cavalry and foot soldiers on April 30 , but they were repulsed . She gave May 4 as the day the monastery was burned . Another missionary teacher Grace H. Knapp recounted , however , that " On the 8th May we saw the place in flames , and Varak Monastery near by , with its priceless ancient manuscripts , also went up in smoke . " A significant number of the structures surviving the 1915 destruction were destroyed in the 1960s . As of 2006 , the monastery 's remains were used as a barn . According to historian Ara Sarafian , as of 2012 , " good sections have just barely survived until our days . " Dr. Jenny B. White , a scholar on Turkey , wrote in 2013 that , on her visit , the remains of the monastery " consisted of nothing more than a few brick vaults used to house goats amid a clutch of tumbledown Kurdish homes . " The best-preserved section of the monastery is the church of Surb Gevorg ( St. George ) , which is now looked after by a caretaker . The dome is partly collapsed and contains some traces of surviving frescoes . The dome of the church of Surb Nshan is entirely gone
Hamidian massacres
Hamidian massacres
Varagavank