In reply to the accusation of the uprising of the Armenians, Gladstone, in a speech during a demonstration in Chester, protested: "Even if this claim had any significance it is obvious that although the Armenians were unarmed, they tried to defend their lives, their properties, their homes and families, women and children." 199
Defenders of the Ottoman Turks in Europe, who had failed to co-ordinate their documents and evidence with the claims of their Turkish friends, instead tried to condemn the Armenians with accusations such as: "Then why did the Armenians not defend themselves with weapons against the Turkish attacks?" This reccurring question is repeatedly posed by the defenders of the Ottoman government to the defenders of the Armenians. The same argument was used against the Bulgarians after the massacres in 1879. MacColl writes: "What the supporters of the Ottomans and ignorant explorers said 18 years ago about Bulgaria is said by them today without the slightest doubt regarding the Armenians, without even noticing that, in case of Bulgaria, critics and involved persons have been forced into silence." 200
The Armenians acted exactly as the Bulgarians had in 1876, namely put up a resistance against the Turks where they were able to do so, even when resistance was ridiculous and the majority of them lost their lives while trying to protect their families and homes. 201
This resistance was especially strong in Shatakh (south of Van), where the Armenian population, who was armed, managed to repel the attacks from the Turks and the Kurds. 202
In Zeytoun, under the leadership of the Hntchak party, the Armenians were organized and managed to defend themselves successfully and take the fortress of the city. They surrendered arms only after their demands, which had been presented by one of the representatives of the major powers to the Sublime Port, had been accepted. 203
In Van, during the massacres in 1896, 800 Armenians managed to shelter themselves for a week in one of the Armenian quarters of the city. 204
In general, however, the unarmed Armenians (Christians within the Ottoman Empire were forbidden to own arms) were not able to withstand the Turkish and Kurdish groups who were supported by the Turkish military forces, even as the Bulgarians, in 1876, had not been able to stand against the planned massacre by a government which was fully equipped ( though the Bulgarians reeked their revenge against the Turks in 1912).
The fallacy of these accusations of cowardice aimed against the Armenians has been clarified by researchers such as Bryce, Buxton, Pears, and Tavasen, who point out that the majority of the victims of these massacres could only save their lives by raising their right hand and exclaiming the word "shahadatin". 205
The Ottoman government, as with the genocide in 1915, tried to blame the Kurds for the massacres, spreading this accusation through its propaganda machine. In fact the Kurds were merely the collaborators in this affair, whereas the planning of the massacres was carried out by the Ottoman Empire and implemented by armed Turkish groups and military units in the Turkish army (for instance in Van and Kharpout, where they even used canons) 206 with the Kurds taking part only in the plundering. 207
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