Within three minutes, officers were on the scene. Four hours later, the gunmen released all hostages and surrendered[6] – they tossed out their weapons and came out of the building with their hands up, asking only that they not be shot by police.[2][3] Earlier, in telephone conversations with reporters, they demanded, in exchange for releasing their hostages, that Turkey acknowledge the 1915 Armenian holocaust and "return Armenian lands confiscated by Turkey". The gunmen, who said they were members of the Armenian Revolutionary Army[4] told Ottawa police they blasted their way into the Turkish embassy "to make Turkey pay for the Armenian genocide" of 1915.[4]