Stirred largely due to the inaction of the European powers in regard to Hamidian massacres started by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation members saw its seizure as a means to bring full attention to their plight.

Armed with pistols, grenades, dynamite and hand-held bombs, the seizure of the bank lasted for 14 hours, resulting in the deaths of ten of the Armenian men and Ottoman soldiers.

[2] Nevertheless, aside from issuing a note condemning the pogroms in the city, the European powers did not act on their promises to enforce reforms in the country as future massacres of Armenians continued to take place.

The plan to occupy the Ottoman Bank was masterminded by Bedros Parian, better known by his nom de guerre Papken Siuni, who would lead the operation along with his head assistant, Haig (Hrach) Tiriakian.

When Garegin Pastermadjian, better known by his nom de guerre, Armen Garo accepted to take part in the act in February 1896, the arrangements to raid the bank started.

On the other the bridge opens up to the Galata (now Karaköy) financial district, from which narrow streets wind up other hills to the fashionable Pera (now Beyoğlu) area and finally Taksim Square at the top.

[5] An Ottoman mob, mainly made up of bashibazouks and softas (students from the theological seminaries), took over a hotel in the city of Constantinople and bombs and shots and missiles fairly rained upon the heads of the passersby, wounding many persons.

[5] The ulemas and softas," most of whom resided in Constantinople, rushed across the bridge towards Pera and Galata but were met by squads of cavalry who forced them back, thus confining their efforts at massacre to the Armenians in the close region.

The following manifesto was issued to the Ottoman public: For centuries our forbears have been living with you in peace and harmony...but recently your government, conceived in crimes, began to sow discord among us in order to strangle us and you with greater ease.

[10] Sir Edgar's secretary told the revolutionaries that their action would alienate the European powers and cause a 'fearful massacre of Armenians' but they replied that if they died they would do so as martyrs and patriots.

[11] According to the foreign diplomats in Constantinople, Ottoman central authorities instructed the mob "to start killing Armenians, irrespective of age and gender, for the duration of 48 hours."

[15] United States President Grover Cleveland, responding to widespread support for the Armenian cause galvanized by American missionaries stationed in the Ottoman Empire,[16] condemned "the rage of mad bigotry and cruel fanaticism," the "not infrequent reports of the wanton destruction of homes and the bloody butchery of men, women, and children, made martyrs to their profession of Christian faith."

It so mars the humane and enlightened civilization that belongs to the close of the 19th century that it seems hardly possible that the earnest demand of good peoples throughout the Christian world for its corrective treatment will remain unanswered.

[17]Cleveland rejected the possibility of asserting American military force to protect Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, offering accommodation to "those who seek to avoid the perils which threaten them in Turkish dominions."