[3] As the border province of the north-eastern frontier, towards both the Russian Empire and Qajar Iran, it contained a number of garrisons.

During the Caucasus campaign of World War I, the Russians planned to invade the province after the breakdown of the Ottoman Army's offensive into Russia.

[4] At the beginning of the 20th century, Van Vilayet reportedly had an area of 15,440 square miles (40,000 km2), while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 376,297.

[5] Based on the official 1914 Ottoman Census, the population of Van province consisted of 179,422 Muslims and 67,797 Armenians.

The northern sanjak comprised open plateau country N. and E. of the lake (with a large Armenian agricultural population and Kurdish seminomad tribes occupied chiefly in cattle and sheep raising), also of several fertile districts along the south shore of the lake.

[12] The area also produced coal, lead, copper and borax, orpiment, gas, granite, lime, chalk, gypsum, gold, and salt.