Who would you have supported in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)?

[Damocles]

I would have supported The Ottoman Empire.

I don't say this out of any love for the Turks, or their mode of government, or anything else. Instead, it would be purely down to strategic interests and geopolitics. For better or for worse, they were the ones somehow able to keep the Balkans and the Middle East from exploding into a series of awful conflicts that just entangled the Great Powers even further.

The Russian Empire, by contrast, sought to actively destabilize the region and force a new status quo that would see it conquer the Turkish Straits. From there, Russian fleets could act with impunity to threaten broader European commerce and trade carried through the Mediterranean Sea. Keeping them bottled up and impotent would restrict their freedom of action, so naturally backing the Turks makes sense.

The best case for me would be if The Ottoman Empire was not necessarily a Great Power, but a Secondary Power, able to bear the cost of policing both of these historically unstable areas, and serving my geopolitical interests, but unable to realistically function without foreign support. Better to send Martini-Henry rifles, telegraphs, and coastal defense guns, rather than the lives of my own men.