Defense of Van (1915) 1915
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 19 April 1915 – 17 May 1915 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1915 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | Turkey | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Caucasus campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Armenian fedayees, Armenian volunteer units, Imperial Russian Army, Modern Ottoman Army | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 38.4942, 43.3800 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The defense of Van (Armenian: Վանի հերոսամարտ, romanized: Vani herosamart) and in Russian Van operation (Russian: Ванская операция, romanized: Vanskaya operatsia) was the armed resistance of the Armenian population of Van and Russian army 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.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Defense of Van (1915) (revision 1371446088), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Van (1548) 1548 · 3 km
- Defense of Van (1896) 1896 · 3 km
- Battle of Qara Darra 1336 · 75 km
- Battle of Manzikert 1071 · 96 km
- Battle of Manzikert (1915) 1915 · 103 km
- Battle of Chaldiran 1514 · 105 km
Other battles of the Caucasus campaign
- Battle of Ardahan 1914
- Battle of Kara Killisse (1915) 1915
- Battle of Manzikert (1915) 1915
- Battle of Abaran 1918
- Battle of Choloki (1918) 1918
- Battle of Goychay 1918
- Battle of Karakilisa 1918
- Battle of Kurdamir 1918
- Capture of Erzurum (1918) 1918
All 10 battles of the Caucasus campaign →
Browse more: battles in Turkey · Asia · World War I era battles