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E. J. Dillon, having conducted extensive research in this area, quotes the following interesting statement by one of the Kurdish clan leaders: "The Turks hate the Armenians, while we Kurds do not hate them. What we want is money and the plundering of their property while the Turks want to deprive them of their lives." 208
There was a group of Turks who stood up courageously and honourably to this hard fanaticism. 209 Certain officials also refused to participate in the planning of the Armenian genocide.
Lord Salisbury, who, meanwhile had replaced Lord Rosebery as the prime minister of Great Britain, invited the major powers to join in forcing the sultan to put an end to these crimes against humanity and implement the promised reforms, but his proposal received a cold reception from the governments in Russia and Germany. Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky-Rostovski, the foreign minister of Russia, opposed the notion of the intervention of the major powers which, according to him, would mean the end of the rule of the Ottoman government. 210 This view, which was shared by the Ottoman government, is described by Henri Firot thus: "The Turkish government, which has been forced to recognize these committed crimes only to continue with new massacres, has been compelled to turn itself to the international laws." 212
Gladstone and several other liberal Englishmen, demanded the direct intervention of the British government, as an answer to the helpless indifference of the other countries towards these events, even if it meant that Great Britain was forced to intervene on its own. Sadly, Lord Salisbury was unwilling to go that far, fearing that the intervention of England on its own would end with the unification of the other major powers against Great Britain, and that Russia, under the cover of these events, would gain control over the Bosporus.
The Occupation of Bank Ottoman
Though subsiding in quantity, the massacres continued in 1896, with Van, Moush and Kilis Vajin becoming the scenes of dreadful events. 213
In response, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party, Dashnaktsoutyoun (ARF), stepped forward and, in an attempt to compel the major powers to intervene, boldly occupied Bank Ottoman in Constantinople, which was one of the most important international trade institutions in the Orient.
Victor Berard writes: "After six months of constant massacres, while Europe pretended that the Armenian Question was already solved, the Armenians decided to show Europe that the Armenian Question still existed but that there was no Ottoman government any more." 214
On Wednesday, August 26, 1896, 13:00 o'clock, 26 Armenians from the Dashnak party, led by Babgen Siuni, having shot the guards, occupied the Bank Ottoman building in Constantinople. Babgen Siuni died during the initial attack on the bank and Armen Garo Pasdermadjian 215 took over the leadership of the group in defending the building against the government forces, who tried to gain control of the building. 216
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