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The Armenians were no different from these other nations; the notion that the Armenians scattered because of internal conflicts, and that they were not capable of having their own self-ruling government in a country, simply arises from the fact that they were never given the same opportunities as the afore-mentioned nations. 67 The same issues which the Armenians faced did not prevent the people in the Balkans from creating their governments, administrations which later proved to be much more substantial and creative than the Ottoman Empire itself; as Count Andrasys, the great Hungarian politician, astutely observed "each piece of land which is taken from the Ottoman Empire, achieves civilisation."

One could claim now that the peoples of the Balkans are overly zealous in their nationalism; but with just cause, as an expert in East European questions points out: "The nationalism of the people in the Balkans (which applies also for the people in the Caucasus) was intensified and expanded during their battle against the oppression of the Turkish rule. A national sentiment was ever present in the struggle against the violence and the oppression, and was in fact the only factor which prevented the oppressing masters from forcing these people to change their religion and nationality and to be assimilated into the master race." 69

The sacrifices which these nations made on the journey to independence and freedom, though never reaching the magnitude of the Armenian Genocide, were significant. 300,000 Greeks sacrificed their lives during the battle between 1821 and 1828 to preserve the small country, whose total population numbered 700,000.

However, although freedom from the Turks was won through the will and sacrifice of the Balkan people, it was only made possible through the armed intervention of the European powers, among others Russia. The Bulgarian revolt of 1876 provides the clearest example. This revolt was crushed brutally by the Turks over a couple of days, due to the overpowering advantage of the organised Turkish army; Bulgarians only obtained their freedom after the victories of the Russian army during the years 1877-1878. 70

Many similarities can be drawn between the struggle for freedom of Bulgaria and Armenia, chiefly based on the likeness between the Bulgarian and Armenian peasants. 71

These two peoples were in a far more precarious situation than the Serbs, the Greeks or the Romanians. This was due to the geographical position of the two nations, both situated at inaccessible edges of the Ottoman Empire , the Bulgarians next to Constantinople and the Armenians in the most eastern part of the Asiatic side of the empire. The Turks were determined to prevent, at any price, the creation of an independent Bulgaria, since such a state would mean the loss of the majority of the Ottoman Empire's territory in Europe; moreover, an independent Bulgaria would pose a direct threat to the capital. Similarly, the Turks could not countenance Armenia following the same route as the people in the Balkans, since this would mean great territorial losses in their Asiatic holdings, 72 a region on which the Turks wanted to concentrate to compensate for their losses in Europe.