The line which the Tashnak brotherhood followed was simply this:--to provoke open massacre by deeds that they knew must infuriate the Turk; in the hope that if only the massacre was horrible enough, European intervention would follow. There are perhaps two things that may be said in excuse for this appalling line of action. First, that the Tashnakists did expose themselves pretty freely to those perils which they were deliberately drawing down on their unfortunate fellow countrymen; and second, that they had seen success follow the adoption of very similar methods in Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria. The headquarters of their organization were in the Caucasus, that sink of all that is disorderly in the Russian Empire; but they had their local leaders in Turkey, and Van was one of their most important centres. Their object was the creation of an independent or autonomous Armenia; and they worked on parallel, but by no means on friendly, lines with the "Young Turk" Party.
As to their methods, Armenian sympathizers were expected to support them voluntarily; but blackmail and terrorism were also used freely--particularly on the wealthier merchants, who (having something to lose) were not merely blind opponents of the Turkish régime. Thus in one case a merchant was captured, and simply given the choice between paying £100 to the cause, or forfeiting his ears; when he offered £50, he was told that in that case only one ear would be taken. Under that pressure he paid, and was released; with the warning that immediate death would follow any attempt to obtain redress from the Government.
In like fashion, the Bishop of Akhtamar, near Van, was deliberately murdered; either for not supporting the movement with church funds, or--as some said--for not exerting himself sufficiently to obtain redress from the Government for his oppressed flock.
Sometimes, however, they did execute a sort of irregular justice. One notorious Kurdish oppressor at least was found shot; and information was sent to the Government that this was the justice administered by the Tashnakist organization for what that man had done, and that therefore if any of the dead man's immediate _rayats_ were charged with it, the Government officials would hear more of the matter. Had they confined themselves, under the existing circumstances, to this twentieth-century version of the _Vehm-gericht_, it would not have been difficult to sympathize with them.