The Kurds, however, were successfully driven off by the armed Armenian villagers. But that success was then seen as a possible threat by the Ottoman authorities. In 1894 the villagers refused to pay taxes unless the Ottoman authorities protected them against more Kurdish attacks and extortions. Instead, the government sent a force of about 3,000 soldiers and Kurdish irregulars to disarm the villagers. This ended in a general massacre of between 900 to 3,000 men, women and children. The "Sasun affair" was d by European Powers. This resulted in demands that Ottoman Turkey initiate reforms in the six "Armenian vilayets". Abdul Hamid II's response to those demands culminated in the anti-Armenian pogroms of 1895 and 1896.