Mihnea
miyhnea.bsky.social
Mihnea
@miyhnea.bsky.social
1.9K followers 190 following 990 posts
Politics, history. Europe, MENA.
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Putting portraits of VdL in my house like the old ones still keeping their Franz Joseph portraits well into the 30's
Appreciation post of the HRE-Neo-Habsburgian EU system of "we can't do anything"

In the words of a French Republican in 1900's "I love the 3rd Republic because its the worst system we ever had. It governs us the least"
The possibility of being another Zanzibar was incredible high. Now its largely back to nasty but not exterminationist pre-Baath discrimination
Suweyda is a tragic failure no doubt. But dynamics were different on coast, there was always going to be nastiness in transitioning from minority rule. It was far worse in Baghdad
Suweyda and the Coast should not mixed either. Suweyda was a flop and mishandling by Damascus

On the coast we should see the death toll of the transition as rather low, as the likeliest option on Dec 11 was not 0 dead but full Zanzibar
The SDF is more sustainable than the "2nd time as farce" SLA they hope they'll become
Because its an empty volcano living off Red Cross aid shipments, while 2/3rds of the population lives of bootlegging or smuggling.

Damascus is still with all faults a gov that is supported by GCC/Trump/EU
Nasser was miles ahead of the Shah. The Shah drew on "traditional" Iranian and and institutional Monarchial fealty, even without much personal charisma.

Nasser was a modern political machine that created a mass cult from nothing. Difference between Kaiser Wilhelm and Il Duce
Turks get 2 MPs though because we treat Turks and Crimean Tatars as two different things

Very fun system
Its literally just +20 MPs for the government. They can probably even create more if needed. For example the Czechs and Slovaks are still both getting only 1 Czechoslovak MP bcs nobody bothered updating it since 1991
Italian MP is a full father-son grift and there have been doubts about the Jewishness of the Jewish MP
Thats universal and not even the worst one. Italian/Armenian MPs have like 700-1,400 votes
>Prince Andrew-Assad lobby
I'd bet money that its leader, Costiuc, gets arrested before the next vote
PAS btw is no less erratic and increasingly heavy handed in Chisinau, banning and arresting opponents under the RU threat. It very quickly targeted the new RO unionist, somewhat pro-EU party alligned with AUR in Romania, by cutting its state funding basically day 2 after the vote
Any further Azeri aggression must be countered fully, sadly here the US and Trump are needed as well. But imho, i just don't see an option that does not run through normalizing with Ankara
I fully agree. As mentioned i think these moves towards the EU are not well thought out plans but desperate attempts to bind a voter base to something behind them.

We shouldn't be fully deferential to him in all but when the option is him or basically Dodon style 5th columns
Its the old truth in east Europe, there is Nationalism and Europeanism alone that can act as grand electoral mobilizations. He does it out of electoral pressure as much as from belief
Pashinyan needs a project to offer a population who just saw its nationalist dream implode, who was abandoned by Russia which now demands the entire Armenian nation repent in humiliation that it dared dream of not being run my mafia clans

He can only offer the dream of Europe to the urban classes
Ankara is in one of its schizo multicultural peace moods, it should not be wasted. A normalization border opening with TR would genuinely free AR politically to follow a course besides the RU satrapy it was until now.

Aliyev is bad and unreliable though yes, further aggression must not be tolerated
My position is that nobody in Yerevan desires a revanchist 2nd round besides literal Kremlin 5th columns

We didn't act then but can push a historic victory, and imho a morally right one, in freeing Yerevan and bringing 2/3rds of the S. Caucasus in the EU sphere bsky.app/profile/dov....
i dont think we should do foreign policy on the principle of "haha isn't this literally what you asked for" to the most morally bankrupt people on the planet though
The most hard nosed realist position is that Brussels must keep Baku neutralish and support an allied government in Yerevan to secure that final normalization with Ankara

I would've supported a strong position against AZ pre/during war but its lost now and one should see a historic opportunity here
My most unpopular opinion of the past 3 years is that the EU position on Armenia is the best possible one post-Karrabakh war contrary to some critics

Its exactly that "realist/realpolitik" they demanded but now ignore to yell of moral decadence and lack of high idealist morality they denounce on UA
🇦🇲🇪🇺 It became known when Armenia may apply for EU membership.

Armenian Foreign Minister says that the application depends on a number of factors. But it could happen soon.
In this i'd recommend Richard Pipes books tbh, knowing i'll get dunked on a lot, but while he is biased on October to the point of impacting the research he is imho simply terrific at presenting the weaknesses and political bomb of the Tsarist system

"Russia under the Old regime" is great here