The debate I will never forget

Vaհe H Apelian

The Ottoman Bank, those who took part in the occupation, Papken Siuni, Armen Garo

The debate I will never forget is the debate we had in my youth about the occupation of the Ottoman Bank led by Papken Siuni. According to Wikipedia “on Wednesday, 26 August 1896, 13:00 o'clock, 26 Armenians from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, armed with pistols and grenades and led by Papken Siuni, attacked and occupied the Ottoman Bank of Constantinople.” However, Tatul Hakobyan, in ANI Armenian Research Center, posted about this historical event on August 14, 2025 headlining it “ARF’seizure of the Ottoman Bank: August 14, 1896” («ՀՅԴ-ի կողմից Օսմանյան բանկի գրավումը. 14 օգոստոս, 1896». When I brought the date to his attention, he said it is because of the old Armenian calendar that differs from the standard calendar by 13 days.

My father enrolled me in the Papken Siuni Badanegan (Youth) Myoutyoun (Association), early in my youth. We held our meetings on Wednesday and Saturdy afternoons in the Beirut's ARF  Community Center that remained central in our lives until the unset of the Lebanese Civial War in 1975, when Ara  Yerevanian community came about in 1972. 

Every year we debated, maybe more than once, whether Papken Siuni led occupation of the Ottoman Bank was justified or it was a reckless act. None of us wanted to be in the team that debated against the occupation. A representative from the ARF Zavarian Student Association oversaw the Badanegan (Youth) Myoutyoun (Association). He took the matters into his hand and assigned a few  of us to the team that would argue against the occupation. 

Over sixty years have come and gone by from my youthful days as a member of Papken Siuni Badanegan (Youth) Myoutyoun (Association). I have vivid recollection of not only the debate but also of the room we had our meetings and held the debates. That corner room became the Central Committee's office in late 1960s or early 1970s. And for the very first time we were stunned to know that the CC had an executive secretary, who was once the principal of Sourp Nshan School, Hagop Iskenderian. 

I also remember the debate for the uneasiness to be in the team debating as the rest of the members remained seated in the room and watched us take turn to present our case. In 1972, Badanegan (Youth) Myoutyoun (Association) came to an end and the Lebanese youth Association came about as part of YOARF (Youth Organization of ARF). 

The occupation of the Ottoman Bank took place some 130 years ago. . This blog is not about rendering a judgement. It is about the encouraging the young to think for themselves and be critical, as we were invited in our youthful days to do so. Honestly, I wonder if members of YOARF nowadays are encouraged to question history and are urged to debate historical events without being concerned for backlash or the ridicule they may face. Of course in my days there was not the social media we have nowadays. But I can attest that the social circle we had, was as all-encompassing and as wide as social media is nowadays. It was the world we knew.

The Bank of Ottoman occupation's leader Papken, who was killed during the mayhem, beame an idol. It would not surprise me that Catholicos Coadjutor Papken Gulesserian was named in honor of Papken Siuni, much like Catholicos Aram I is most likely named in honor of Aram Manougian. My childhood friend Papken (Apelian) Bedirian is surely named after Papken Siuni.

Over the years, here and there, I have come across about the Ottoman Bank, its occupation. Here are some tidbits about the bank

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The Ottoman Bank was a European conglomerate. It was Ottoman by name only. Greeks and Armenians used it as a metaphor, being Ottoman by name only but otherwise disfranchised. 

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The Ottoman Bank put an end to the glorious era of the Armenian Amiras, the Rothschilds of the Ottoman Empire who for almost two centuries became trusted financiers of the Sultan and functionaries of the Ottoman Empire.

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Protestant missionaries wrote about the occupation of the Ottoman Bank. I quote the following: “Who originated this plot I do not know, but it is certain that the Turkish government knew all about it many days before, even to the exact time when the bank was to be entered; and the Minister of Police had made elaborate arrangements, not to arrest these men or prevent the attack on the bank, but to facilitate it and make it the occasion of a massacre of the Armenian population of the city. This was to be the crown of all the massacres of the year, one worthy of the capitol and the seat of the Sultan, a final defiance to the Christian world. Not many minutes after the attack on the bank the bands of Turks, who had been organized by the Minister of Police in Stamboul and Galata, commenced the work of killing every Armenian they could find, protected by large bodies of troops, who in some cases took part in the slaughter.” (Fifty Years in Constantinople and Recollections of Robert College. Front Cover. George Washburn. Houghton Mifflin, 1909 – Turkey – 316 pages)

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“The Ottoman government again unleashed the mob. Softas and thugs started attacking Armenians in Haskoy, Tophane and Galata. The army and the police stood by, or assisted. Most people shut themselves up in their houses or behind the heavy iron doors.

An official of the Ottoman Bank, Louis Rambert, wrote in his diary: 'All Armenian houses are attacked and their little shops, people enter and pillage everything. It happens almost without a sound [since the killers used clubs, not guns]. Every Armenian found in the street is killed' - even on the Grande Rue de Pera. Carts took the corpses away. With his own eyes he saw the murder of rowers of a kayik, watched with visible pleasure by a large crowd on Galata bridge.” — Philip Mansel