 In the Caucusus, some 217,000 Circassians remained in 1897.Misha Glenny notes that the settlement of the Circassian deportees played a major role in destabilizing the Ottoman Balkans, especially Bulgaria.Their arrival helped spread starvation and epidemics (including smallpox) in the Balkan territories, and worse, the Porte ordered that Christians be evicted "en masse" from their homes in certain areas in order to accommodate the need to house the deportees.