These Armenians were so trustworthy within the Ottoman Empire, they became known as loyal communities of the sultan. The sultan recognized their Christian religion and gave them rights and liberties. However, as the Ottoman Empire began to decline, some Armenian leaders ignored all the sultans had done for their people throughout the Ottoman period. These newly disloyal Armenians began intrigues with Europeans in the attempt to take Ottoman lands for free while being under the protection of European powers. Russia was the first major power with which these few Armenian leaders began to deal. These same Armenians leaders pretended to be loyal to the sultans while they aided in taking Ottoman lands.

Czar Peter the Great (1689-1725) made good use of the Armenian disloyalty to invade the Caucasus. The Armenians continued to help the Russians under Catherine II (1762 - 1796). Both Peter and Catherine failed to keep their promises to the Armenians, who nevertheless continued their disloyalty to the Ottomans and continued their help to the Russians, dreaming of free lands and a state of their own. Both the secular and religious Armenian leaders supported the Russian invasion of Muslim lands in the Caucasus.

The Russians laid siege to the city of Derkend in 1796. The Armenian residents, pretending to be loyal to the Ottomans, sent information about the town’s water supply, which allowed the Russians to win the battle. The Armenian archbishop, Argutinskii Dolgorukov, made a public statement in the 1790s that he hoped and believed the Russians would "free the Armenians from Muslim rule» (2) There are many more stunning examples of Armenian Church support for Russians and its involvement and cooperation with the Russians in the early 1800s, which continues to this very day.

In 1808 Czar Alexander I (1801 - 1825) presented Daniel, the Catholicos of the Armenian Church with the order of St. Anne, first class, for his espionage work helping the Russians. In the years that followed, the Russians pushed ever westward into Ottoman lands, always with the help of the Armenian Church, which repeatedly called on the Russians to save them from so-called “Muslim oppression”. (3)

The hatred that developed between the Christian Armenians and the Muslim Ottomans had its roots in the work and efforts of the Armenian Church. After all, once the Russians captured Ottoman lands they removed the Muslim population with no compensation, and working with the Church, moved Armenian Christians into the former Muslim owned homes and lands. Much is written today about the unprovoked attack the Armenians, with a billion dollars` worth of Russian military arms and supplies, made in 1992 upon Karabagh, which is a part of neighboring Azerbaijan. In the early 1800s this land was populated by a large number of Muslims. After the Russians took this land from the Ottomans, Armenians moved into Muslim homes. Today, the Armenians claim Karabagh as a part of their "ancient" homeland. The Armenian definition of "ancient" in this case is barely two hundred years old.

The Armenians sought to establish an independent homeland by acts of rebellion just as the Greeks did in 1821. There was one basic difference, however, as well as a practical problem for the Armenians. The Greeks were a majority population in the lands they sought to obtain whereas the Armenians were always a minority population. The Armenians quickly realized that for them to establish an independent government, dictatorial or otherwise, they had to have foreign intervention to help and protect them(4).