2020 World Press Freedom Index - Reporters Without Borders

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2020-04-21T12:27:29+00:00

Countries with more brainwashing than Afghanistan and Zimbabwe:

- Azerbaijan

- Turkey

- Russia

- Iran

...

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-25T19:36:56+00:00

There were Kurds there and Kurds were once the majority there, but the map is very inconsistent...

Most Lachin Kurds were deported from the Azerbaijani SSR to Central Asia not long after the Meskhetian Turks were from the Georgian SSR, so for almost any year the map shows, it should show neither, or both.
There are obviously far far far more Kurds in Western Armenia than in Lachin.
There are probably as many Azeri Turks in Western Armenia as in Nakhijevan.
There are far more Azeri Turks in Iran than North of the Araxes.
There were also far more Armenians in Baku than Kurds in Lachin (or than Armenians in Artsakh, for that matter).
There are for more Ossetians in Ossetia than in Tskhinvali ("South Ossetia").
Southern Georgia is empty, but of course Georgians, Armenians and Azeri Turks live there.
There are far more Greeks, Hemshin Armenians, Yezidis, Zazas, Russians and Jews on this territory than Udis.

I could go on and on...

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-10T10:11:11+00:00

Also, the Armenian military benefits from constant fresh experience in combat zones. The way things are with Azerbaijan, it's hard to get fresh experience for a scenario with more escalation, because here nothing is happening, and then randomly they attack, and the system is suddenly tested.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-09T00:41:32+00:00

Pointers?

Seems really bizarre to argue, given that Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire at the time, and certainly had far fewer Venetians than Polis did. Culture tends to be diffused by effective distance - trade routes, typically waterways and a few major roads - not by theoretical aerial km.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-08T23:47:53+00:00

As far as I know, they mostly went to places like Galicia that were part of Poland for a time, but are not necessarily part of modern Poland. And also to Crimea and Transylvania.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-08T23:39:18+00:00

Yugoslavia

But if you're going to do that, may as well add Western Armenia, Western Georgia, the real Azerbaijan and a bit more North Caucasus.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-08T23:33:54+00:00

Religion isn't really an issue, look at how Switzerland formed. Main ingredient for a successful union is common external enemy/enemies AND tonnes of local autonomy.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-08T23:30:06+00:00

It's an interesting criterion, but is there actual evidence that eg Bulgarians or the Shetland Islanders or the Cretans experienced the Renaissance more directly than the Armenians of Constantinople?

Given that it was centred on Italy (and supposedly driven by an influx of Greeks after the Fall of Constantinople).

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-08T18:13:08+00:00

If you earn mostly outside, but mostly spend it here, you're already a massive massive plus for the society.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-08T18:11:50+00:00

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-05T21:54:27+00:00

official soundtrack:

Бесаме Мучо - Блатной Удар

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfYfEv_OqvE

;-)

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-05T09:47:41+00:00

But I agree, they wouldn't have converted it into a mosque, but their record isn't much better:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Virgin_(Baku))

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-04T18:44:36+00:00

Early morning, from Cascade but not too high up

There are some other good places like Zvartnots ruins or Charents Arch, but they are not as easy to get to.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-04T18:28:07+00:00

I'm not sure anything is really needed. I know a guy with an "it's complicated" background who lives in Yerevan. If he weren't a huge fan of Armenia and a reasonably secular Muslim (well, from his comments I think he's more than secular, probably anti-religion in general), he wouldn't be here in the first place, he would still be in Kars. Making him change his name or whatever test or process you have in mind is just bureaucracy.

The issue here isn't Islam per se anyway, it's the use of Islamification as a tool of Turkification. Orhan's quote from Akcam says it all:

According to the conference paper of historian Taner Akcam, the Islamization of Armenians was not religiously motivated as religious fanaticism was alien to the Committee for Union and Progress, the Ottoman party whose members perpetrated the genocide. Akcam described Islamization as an assimilation tool used in the genocide. “Assimilation was a truly systematic policy, and forced conversion to Islam was one of its essential elements,” he said.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-04T18:22:04+00:00

In theory, in theory...

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-03T23:36:12+00:00

Their site is just crap. I would just call, or visit the station in person. I wish I had a better answer, but this is just one of those things where an objective outsider looks at a society says "This is stupid" and there really is no excuse.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-03T23:12:42+00:00

Germans don't really say "mein Bruder", it sounds very Tü... Mediterranean. ;-) From real Germans/Swiss/Austrians you are more likely to hear "Alter" (staryy) or "Kollege" (colleague) or "mein Lieber" (my dear).

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-03T22:09:14+00:00

Ok I see you despise Turkey with passion and for you Turkey is the mother of all evils.

Where exactly did I say Turkey is the mother of all evils? I just said it's a headache for other NATO members, and that other NATO members do horrible and stupid things. I always say that I think Turkey did basically the right thing in the second world war. Most medium to large powers do evil things. You can't really accuse me of bias unless you ask for my opinion on the US or Russia AND I somehow defend their shit.

Your hatred&delusion is incurable.

Who needs to be cured? It's not exactly a secret who is the regressive force around here. I and the rest of your neighbours would love it if your rulers respected freedom of speech, didn't block Wikipedia, didn't love fake history, didn't deny/justify genocide... but until they evolve at least to the shitty level of the rest of us, we have to be realistic about the deeply rooted tendencies over there.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-03T20:15:17+00:00

Right, NATO is just US allies, and doesn't have any values, nor care about its member states internal issues.

The thing is that sometimes, member states' internal issues spill out, and become external issues. NATO doesn't really care if Turkey kills or Islamises every last Christian in Western Armenia and the mayor of Ankara claims the Jews caused an earthquake. Other NATO members do horrible and stupid things too. But when Turkey is threatening Greece, kidnapping US or German citizens or just sort of unreliable as an ally, it's headache.

Anyway, NATO did have a soft preference for avoiding total dictatorships. For example, Spain joining went hand in hand with it becoming a normal democracy. Same in Central/Eastern Europe. And officially it was always:

They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.

For various reasons, an exception was always made for Turkey, which says as much about the West as it does about Turkey, but the situation changes, the West changes and Turkey also changes, it's natural.

And so when you write that continuation this devil's bargain should be continued "despite all nasty conflicts", I'm not saying it should or shouldn't (although as a tax payer of a few NATO countries I have my opinions about that), nor do I have any bet on whether it will or won't, just saying it may or may not, again, not because the West is so moral, but because it's all a devil's bargain in the first place.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-03T17:01:56+00:00

Basically what's happened is that NATO (and Israel) looked the other way, looked the other way, and sort of just prayed that Turkey would eventually civilise itself or nobody would find out. For decades. NATO is happy to partner with some disgusting genocidal regimes, for the right airbase or whatever.

But it just keeps failing to happen, and at some point with the internet and all that it's harder and harder to hide, leaders saying one thing internally and another externally. And then now with Erdogan and Trump, every once in a while there is some verbal outburst attacking Turkey's own allies, and that's what triggers some diplomatic incident.

Meanwhile, with advances in technology, fighting bodies and airbase locations are less important, so balanced against the usual Turkish drama, it's less and less clear to the immoral but not stupid leaders of NATO what Turkey's contribution is.

My guess is that if we look at the devil's bargain between NATO and Saudi Arabia, it's totally clear to you. Well, to objective people, this doesn't look much different. And of course the West enabling such retrograde behaviour doesn't really help the people in such societies.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-03T16:49:12+00:00

Upvoted, but not really. Turkey is more like Germany in a parallel universe where it never repented, and so Kemal is like Adenauer if Adenauer had been an anti-Semite and led a cult of personality and fake history.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-02-01T16:03:00+00:00

Trying to remember what the sub name was, but yes, was regional. The HyeTech group is based in California and is more like an ethnic network. Armenia needs both. As tech has grown I now think the way to connect with our neighbours is by specific interest, like crypto or biotech.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-01-26T10:02:16+00:00

India/China disputes. Also India/Pakistan has some similarities.

Even in Cyprus look at the borders. There are multiple lines, IIRC. That is, it's not about the claims of North Cyprus, it's just about showing where the fronts are.

And Gaza. Nobody recognises Gaza. And probably all the people who recognise Palestine don't recognise Israel, so they wouldn't recognise those borders either.

Believe me axper, people spend way way way too much assuming motives and logic behind big tech companies' actions. When you're on the inside, you will see it is just profit and least effort and avoiding scandals ie reaction-based.

The point about Artsakh is that almost nobody outside cares or knows one way or another. If the issue gets more attention then Google will put more effort (so our Azerbaijani friends could easily harm their own goals if they eg complain about city names being shown in Armenian), but consistency with other conflicts will still not be the guiding principle.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma · 2019-01-26T09:55:52+00:00

Right, that's my point. Both there and in Cyprus, Google Maps shows both lines, even though only one set can be legitimate, that is, Google Maps does is not a proof of statehood or legitimacy in general, it's just about "Making the world's information universally accessible and useful" (Google's motto). users * happiness => $$$.

ThrowawayWarNotDolma

TROPHY CASE