Why were the Armenians targeted for abuse by the Turks?

Many Armenians felt abused not only by Turks but also Kurds who would often take land from them. Armenian radicals, many from Russia called for a free independent state from the Turks. This led many Armenians to reject Turkish authority, sometimes refusing to pay oppressive taxes. In response there was brutal and commonplace cruelty from Turkish authorities, where hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in the 1890s. After the First Balkan War where Turkey had lost a humiliating defeat, angry Turkish sentiment towards non-Turks and Christians within their empire grew immense and this eventually leads to the Armenian Genocide