1889 Bashkale clash

The Bashkale Resistance (Armenian: 1889 թվականի Բաշկալեի բախում) was the bloody encounter between three revolutionaries of Armenakan and some Ottoman officials in May 1889.^[1] It is named after the town of Başkale in the Van Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, today in Van Province of Turkey. 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.^[2]

Bashkale Resistance
Date May, 1889 Location Başkale, Van Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire	Armenakan Party
Strength
4 zaptiyes^[1]	3 revolutionaries^[1]
Casualties and losses
none	2 killed.

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.^[1] 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.^[3]

References

1. Louise Nalbandian (1963). The Armenian Revolutionary Movement: The Development of Armenian Political Parties Through the Nineteenth Century. University of California Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-520-00914-1.
2. Aram-Ruben, Hai Heghapokhakani Me Hishataknere [Memoirs of an Armenian Revolutionary] (Los Angeles, 1952), II, 268–269.
3. 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.