According to Armenians the Van Armenians rebelled because Ottomans were slaughtering Armenians there.

However, the Ottoman side to the story says that the Van Armenians rebelled and held up the city for the purpose of establishing Greater Armenia, and killed all the Turks in Van.

I find the second explanation more logical. Simply because the Ottomans wouldn't simply just go to one of their own cities to slaughter some minority when they have wars on several fronts. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the Hunchakian Socialist Party were established in 1890 and 1887 respectively, and were in Van during that time and all around Eastern Anatolia organizing armed rebellion for a Greater Armenia. It is no surprise to me that they would invade Van and take over.

The Armenians explain very badly that the reason for the "massacre in Van" was because an Ottoman commander demanded 4000 soldiers by conscription from Van and Van supposedly offered 500 and wanted to pay for the rest, the commander furious now, told them he would kill all Christians in Van including children if they don't comply. It sounds like a very far-fetched story to me, since when did the Ottoman Empire massacre its own people if they needed conscriptions so badly, especially after 600 years of peaceful co-existence with Armenians. The source of that explanation comes from Henry Morgenthau, an American ambassador with a personal vendetta against the Ottoman Empire because of disputes with the Sultan on land agreements.

As a historian and demographics expert explains it:

Soon there will be an article on the Van Rebellion in 1915. We already covered the research on the Van Rebellion of 1896.

* Updated 1/10/08 *