in 1861 Mikayel Nalbandian, a reformist and secular writer, wrote against the idea that Armenians have preserved their identity because of the church. Indeed, he argued the only reason we haven't assimilated is that we live(d) among Muslims/under Muslim rule

this is an excerpt from his work Երկու տող (Two lines), published in Paris in 1861. It's available online ( http://greenstone.flib.sci.am/gsdl/collect/haygirq/book/erku_tox1861_index.html). Here's the relevant part from the original publication:

to back up his argument, Nalbandian brings the example of Ani Armenians, who ended up in Christian Poland and Muslim Tatar-ruled Crimea and how the former converted to Catholicism and assimilated, while the latter did not. Nalbandian's descendants came from Crimea btw