As a result of the Great Game, a diplomatic struggle and "cold war" between the Tsardom of Russia and the British Empire, the Assyrians, Armenians, Arabs and Kurds became involved in the political interference of the Great Powers. All groups sought independence from the aged Ottoman Empire, where the Assyrians and Armenians in particular had suffered centuries persistent ethno-religious oppression and indeed massacres. With the outbreak of the First World War, the Assyrians sided with the British, in the hope of receiving a promised independence.