The Armenian massacres of the 1890s were widely reported in the Australian Colonial Press at a time when Australia didn't exist as a nation. The Argus newspaper was very sympathetic to the Armenians and anti-Turkish in its published news articles, editorials, and special stories. It was the leading conservative newspaper in colonial Victorian society providing information to its readers of the suffering of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. As part of a global empire, the Argus supported the role and involvement of Great Britain in Near Eastern affairs.