The occupation of Western Armenia by the Russian Empire during World War I began in 1915 and was formally ended by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

This provisional government relied on Armenian volunteer units, forming an administrative structure after the siege of Van around April 1915.

The Ottoman Army, under Pasha Kerim, launched a counterattack in the Lake Van area and defeated the Russians at the Battle of Malazgirt.

[9] During the counterattack, Manoukian and Sampson Aroutiounian, president of the Armenian National Council of Tbilisi, helped refugees from the region to reach Echmiadzin.

[10] On 29 December 1915, the Dragoman of the Vice-Consulate at Van, according to the Armenian Bishop of Erevan and other sources, was able to procure the Caucasus refugees from the region.

[11] During the winter of 1915, the Ottoman forces retreated once again, which enabled Aram Manukian to return to Van and re-establish his post.

Some threshing machines and flour mills resumed work in the district so that bakeries could reopen, and the restoration of buildings commenced in some streets.

In April 1915, Nikolai Yudenich reported the following to Count Illarion Ivanovich Vorontsov-Dashkov:The Armenians intend to occupy by means of their refugees the lands left by the Kurds and Turks, in order to benefit from that territory.

[16]The agricultural possibilities located off the Black Sea coastal districts and the upper reaches of the Euphrates were considered suitable for Russian colonists.

[17] Following the April 1916 Sazonov–Paléologue Agreement, the Rules for the Temporary Administration of Turkish Areas occupied by the Right of War was signed on June 18, 1916, instructing a governorship under the established system of Aram Manukian.

[19] The Viceroyalty of the Caucasus was abolished by the Russian Provisional Government on March 18, 1917, and all authority, except in the zone of the active army, was entrusted to the civil administrative body called the Special Transcaucasian Committee, or Ozakom.

This region was officially identified as "the land of Western Armenia" and transferred to a civilian rule under Zavriev, who oversaw districts Trebizon, Erzurum, Bitlis, and Van.

[23] The front line had three main divisions, led respectively by Movses Silikyan, Andranik Ozanian and Mikhail Areshian.

The ACEA devised policies to direct the war effort as well as the relief and repatriation of refugees, passing a law organizing the defense of the Caucasus against the Ottoman Empire, using supplies and munitions left by the Russian army.

Richard G. Hovannisian explains the conditions of their resistance during March 1918: "In the summer of 1918, the Armenian national councils reluctantly transferred from Tiflis to Yerevan, to take over the leadership of the republic from the popular dictator Aram Manukian and the renowned military commander Drastamat Kanayan.

During the Conference of London, David Lloyd George encouraged American President Woodrow Wilson to accept a mandate for Anatolia, particularly with the support of the Armenian diaspora, for the provinces claimed by the Administration of Western Armenia during its largest occupation in 1916.