Bashkaleh Resistance

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Bashkaleh Resistance


caption=
date=May, 1889
place=Van Province
result=Political conflict and armed conflicts over the martyrdom.Fact|date=August 2007
combatant1=Ottoman Empire
combatant2=Comrades of Armenakan party
commander1=
commander2=
strength1=
strength2=
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casualties2=|The Bashkaleh Resistance ( _tr. Başkale çatışması, "Başkale skirmish") was the bloody encounter between the Armenakans and the Ottoman Empire on May 1889. Even though it is named as Bashkaleh Resistance, the event happened in the Van Province. The event was important as it was reflected on main Armenian newspapers as the recovered documents on the Armenakans showed an extensive plot for an uprising. [Aram-Ruben, Hai Heghapokhakani Me Hishataknere [Memoirs of an Armenian Revolutionary] (Los Angeles, 1952), II, 268-269.]

The event

The comrades Karapet Koulaksizian, Hovhannes Agripasian, and Vardan Goloshian, left the village of Haftvan (Salmast district of Persia), for Van on May 16, 1889. They were stopped near Van by Ottoman police. The police demanded that they disarm to protect the accompanying caravan. In the conflict Goloshian and Agripasian died and Koulaksizian escaped. The police recovered two letters (accompanying documents) addressed to Koulaksizian, one from Avetis Patiguian of London and the other from Mekertitch Portugalian in Marseille.

Reflections

Ottoman Empire believed that the men were members of a large revolutionary apparatus and the discussion was reflected on newspapers, (Eastern Express, Oriental Advertiser, Saadet, and Tarik) and the responses were on the Armenian papers. In some Armenian circles, this event was considered as a martyrdom and brought other armed conflicts. [Darbinian, op. cit., p. 123; Adjemian, op. cit., p. 7; Varandian, Dashnaktsuthian Patmuthiun, I, 30; Great Britain, Turkey No. 1 (1889), op. cit., Inclosure in no. 95. Extract from the "Eastern Express" of June 25, 1889, pp. 83-84; ibid., no. 102. Sir W. White to the Marquis of Salisbury-(Received July 15), p. 89; Great Britain, Turkey No. 1 (1890), op. cit., no. 4. Sir W. White to the Marquis of Salisbury-(Received August 9), p. 4; ibid., Inclosure 1 in no. 4, Colonel Chermside to Sir W. White, p. 4; ibid., Inclosure 2 in no. 4. Vice-Consul Devey to Colonel Chermside, pp. 4-7; ibid., Inclosure 3 in no. 4. M. Patiguian to M. Koulaksizian, pp. 7-9; ibid., Inclosure 4 in no.]

ee also

* Musa Dagh Resistance
* First Sasun Resistance
* Second Sasun Resistance
* Shabin-Karahisar Resistance
* Urfa Resistance
* Van Resistance
* Zeitun Resistance
* Armenian Genocide
* Armenian rebellions in the Ottoman Empire

Notes