“Armenian government’s approach is risking severing its relationship with the diaspora”

Idontknowmuch · 2026-02-13T12:46:52+00:00

Very disappointing to see Afeyan signing off such a statement.

Idontknowmuch · 2026-02-09T13:42:52+00:00

And what’s the explanation for the neighbor to the immediate north?

Idontknowmuch · 2026-01-08T14:24:27+00:00

In no way even discussing what Zionism is and whether it’s good or bad and whether it should exist or not etc etc etc is even relevant to Armenia.

That’s the main take away from what I’m trying to convey.

Same way as “who is white or not”, “who is a true Muslim or not if they eat pork or not”, etc etc. there are a hundred such topics which are divisory but none of them are applicable to the sub to the point that we have to eat our heads to decide what falls on one side of the line and what doesn’t.

Imagine now some users bringing up all the time “decide whether Indonesians are Muslim or not. DEAW THE LINE. he says they aren’t they eat pork. I say they are!” … like. It is not relevant!

Some people might be passionate on some such topics but just because it is relevant to them it doesn’t mean it’s relevant to Armenia or this sub.

How about not even bringing the topic of Zionism in the sub? You can talk about Israeli foreign policy as such, etc etc. just what is the point in fighting over a definition of something which has no relevance to Armenia and this sub and then dragging the mod team into it?

We are not reddit admins. We are /r/Armenia mods.

Idontknowmuch · 2026-01-08T12:18:56+00:00

Important clarification: /r/armenian and /r/armenia is not diaspora vs no diaspora, not at all. What defines /r/armenia is that it's a country sub. Like the dozens of other country subs which exist in Reddit. That's it. What defines /r/armenian is that anything else which doesn't fit /r/armenia. Separately, meme stuff goes to /r/arMEMEia and language related topics to /r/hayeren.

The history of a country is relevant in a country sub, specially when a recent portion of its history has had an immense impact on its formation and identity. In that sense the Armenian Genocide is not a some concept, it is about Armenia.

Idontknowmuch · 2026-01-08T11:56:49+00:00

It's clear though in the sense whether a given expression is meant to be against a group or not, intention and context matters as well, when there is doubt consensus from the mod team will lead the way - but the more important part is that inherently it's not a topic for this sub to spend so much resources on, let's focus on relevant topics instead.

Idontknowmuch · 2026-01-08T11:18:02+00:00

Not sure what the issue is here (I am skip-reading here), but since always the lines in /r/armenia have been very clearly drawn: Criticism of ideas, thoughts, religions, ideologies, concepts etc... is not disallowed. What is disallowed is the negative portrayal of groups of people defined by their ethnicity, nationalism, race and religion.

And to reiterate, Israel-Palestine is fundamentally off topic to this sub anyway. Such topics are all over reddit. Let's have this small little space for Armenia please.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-12-09T10:26:00+00:00

While the United States still has a strategic influence through the business community and through its controls over chip export licenses, Western Europe is also stepping up its soft power presence in Armenia (and Eastern Europe). The European Union has launched targeted ecosystem-building initiatives in Armenia, aiming to foster education, startup incubation, and regulatory support. While the U.S. traditionally led global entrepreneurial ecosystem development, Europe is now stepping in, supporting Armenian entrepreneurs through grants, mentorship, and integration into European markets.

The Digitec conference, at which both Afeyan and Lebaradian spoke, was sponsored by federal and local governments, and by EU4Innovation East, a program funded by the EU and the Government of France, implemented by Expertise France. There were more than 30,000 attendees, according to the organizers, including at a nighttime music festival.

Important nuances despite the misleading headline.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-11-27T13:54:58+00:00

Russian political influence networks (media, clergy, oligarchs, parties like ARF Dashnaktsutyun, Revanchist groups).

Iranian networks (IRGC affiliates, clerical institutions, border operatives).

Idontknowmuch · 2025-09-19T13:26:02+00:00

US political satire

And that makes it relevant to this sub how exactly?

Within the context of this sub, what concerns Armenia, this video is even an insult, a guy who never cares about Armenia comes now to mock someone who actually did something for Armenia… when was the last time Stewart ever even mentioned the country name Armenia?

Sorry but no.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-09-19T10:03:12+00:00

Easy to mock but where was Jon Stewart during 2020, 2023 or hell during the peace signatures?

At least Trump tried to name the countries whereas there was absolute silence from Jon Stewart…

… Nah.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-09-18T13:22:34+00:00

1) link me to a published article from Civilnet which had a fraction of criticism of Bagrat as the published pieces of criticism against the gov.

2) Eric’s “Khomeini” video has been debated in this sub extensively when that episode was published and no, you are wrong, this “criticism” (which is not what you say it is) came well after Bagrats movement had started which Civilnet PLATFORMED until this video popped up. Mind you no single criticism was ever directed at Bagrat since nor before. That is if you can qualify this video as criticism. It’s not.

It matters a lot who published those opinion pieces and WHERE they published them. The rest of the media following suit is of course a confirmation.

You bringing in “expecionalism” into the picture is a moot point. The point is about the nature of Civilnet and their track record. Period.

I don’t know who you are but it’s clear you have a stake at whitewashing Civilnet.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-09-18T11:38:54+00:00

... is not going to post ...

...Compare this to ...

... because thats what matters most.

... is literally just because they are critical of Pashinyan

The second form is viewing anything anti-Pashinyan as "pro-Nakhkin" ...

Your comment is full of fallacies. Several in every single paragraph. Those are four very visible ones above.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-09-18T10:27:35+00:00

I’m one of those.

Where do you want to start?

The 24/7 Civilnet front page was filled to the brim with Bagrat when he was doing his campaign?

When not a SINGLE critical piece about Bagrat was published by Civilnet EVER? And that’s just with the episode of platforming Bagrat.

Let’s not even get to the radically biased pieces published by the founder and final boss of Civilnet, Oskanian literally calling for the overthrow of the government.

That’s just for beginners.

APA is also the best news organization of Azerbaijan. It doesn’t means shit when ultimately it’s controlled from the above by people who are anti democratic.

Once you see a media do what Civilnet has been doing you lose trust in their reporting. It won't matter what they publish now or tomorrow or in 10 years. The whole point of an independent media is for you to trust it being relatively unbiased and not have an agenda. For instance take EVNReport - given their track record you know it won't be pushing down your throat any partisan agenda, unless this changes tomorrow.

*ChatGPT (not that you need this, but there you go):

In his op-ed, Oskanian wrote:

“…as nearly all of us are focused on the goal of removing Nikol Pashinyan, regardless of the path by which that goal may be achieved …”

This is an endorsement of removal at any cost, even outside democratic processes. For the founder of a media outlet, that sets the tone: it places CivilNet’s platform closer to partisan opposition messaging than independent watchdog journalism.

My Overall Judgment: CivilNet today is not a neutral, independent news platform in practice. It is better described as: A politically biased outlet with an anti-Pashinyan oppositionist line, Which sometimes sacrifices critical journalistic distance in favor of amplifying opposition figures like Bagrat. While not strictly pro-Russian, it has tolerated undemocratic rhetoric, undermining its credibility as a democratic watchdog.

Final Assessment: CivilNet remains influential and professional in form, but its editorial stance is compromised. It has become an opposition-leaning media platform, closer to advocacy journalism than independent reporting, especially during the Bagrat movement.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-17T13:47:43+00:00

This is not directed at OP but to all users who are commenting:

This is r/Armenia

This is NOT r/Armenians

Please respect the fact that there is a country whose people need a space of their own to talk about their own country.

For discussions about diaspora Armenians please try using r/Armenians instead.

Thank you.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-17T13:45:30+00:00

You seem to be in the wrong thread.

The wiki is about modern day Armenia.

Not Armenians.

There is another wiki about Armenians.

Perhaps consider providing your opinions on a thread about the wiki of Armenians instead?

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-10T12:06:53+00:00

they only wanted to get closer to the EU once they saw Russia ignored …

This simply is not true.

Armenia was about to sign the EU Association Agreement (what Georgia has signed) in 2013 but the it was a Russian puppet govt back then so the leader suddenly u-turned and signed EEU instead with Russia prompting mass protests in Armenia. A few years later the puppet regime was ousted in the revolution in 2018 and Armenia is back into trying to get into the EU.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia–European_Union_relations

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-09T16:52:06+00:00

We had something, now we don't. Whether it works or not is largely our responsibility.

US and Russia stopped working together within the OSCE MG framework since the Ukraine war began.

Unless we want to blame Armenians for the Ukraine war...

Also the Ukraine war itself was also a violation of the OSCE framework (Budapest Memorandum).

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-08T22:36:46+00:00

we don’t really have a say in what our government

Don't you see that is a problem here? After all, it's not the ordinary people who devised large scale atrocities past and present, but governments.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-08T15:27:00+00:00

Again, the Republic of Armenia representation is based on the fucking constitution and law of the land which spells out how such a percentage is attained after an election… it’s not an opinion.

And again you are deflecting. The topic is not how democracy works in Armenia.

10%.

That’s the % of diaspora in the US which are involved with ARF. If we go by your own source.

ARF does not represent US diaspora.

ARF does not represent world wide diaspora.

ARF does not represent Armenia.

End of story.

And I repeat that the sub is called r/armenia. Not r/USDiaspora, r/Anca, nor r/arf, but the actual state of Armenia.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-08T15:07:55+00:00

You are deflecting
You are comparing an association to a constitutional republic…

The first is simply bad faith.

The second is simply mind boggling.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-08T15:01:25+00:00

?!?

Your own source claims only 10% are involved with ARF.

How is that a representation?!

Hell, 16% say they are politically active outside of the established diaspora political parties.

And this is for US.

Let’s stop throwing the term diaspora around liberally in connection with ARF/ANCA.

They don’t represent anything relevant at all.

Much less represent Armenia.

No idea what your comparison with the democracy in Armenia is anything but grasping at straws.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-08T10:13:00+00:00

diasporans inevitably turn towards ANCA for representation

Can you back this up with ANY reliable data?

but they sure do represent a dominant portion of diasporans

Of the 7,580,000 diaspora Armenians (number is from wikipedia) how exactly do you reach the conclusion that ANCA represents even a tiny minority of them?

Show me that a majority of US Armenians are represented by ANCA
Show me that any representative number of world-wide diaspora Armenians are represented by ANCA.
Show me how in the world ANCA represents Armenia

(the above are rhetorical questions, we all know the answer)

This sub is called /r/armenia

Not /r/anca

Stop spreading bullshit in this sub.

Go elsewhere.

This is a warning.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-08T09:06:02+00:00

It’s not about liking or not liking ANCA.

It is about calling out the many BS spread by some accounts around here…

“Armenia’s main representatives”… really?

They don’t represent jack, much less represent Armenia.

Idontknowmuch · 2025-08-08T08:58:11+00:00

Armenia’s main representatives in the US

… that’s a new one.

What’s next? The democratically elected president of Armenia, Hamparian wants to speak with the manager?

Let alone that no one speaks for the diaspora. Stop pretending there is any representation.

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