Comments by "William Davis" (@williamdavis9562) on "James Ker-Lindsay" channel.

  1. It's so true what you said about the world attention during a conflict and how the place is completely forgotten post conflict. It is interesting to see how any society would deal with the aftermath which in many ways can be just as difficult as the war itself. I commend you for shedding light on something like this. However I think it would have been a bit more intellectually honest when explaining to origins of the conflict to not ignore the 800lbs elephant in the room. The ethnic cleansing of more than 800,000 Azeris when the Armenians invaded the territory. That was, more than anything else at the center of this conflict. Ignoring that, would be to ignore the major driving factor in this entire war.
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  2. @James Ker-Lindsay, I've been binge watching your videos and I have to say you really have a knack for falling into the really controversial topics. Most things like the Armenian Genocide or anything related to the Balkans such as your video on Kosovo or Bosnia falling apart are extremely difficult videos to do considering how emotionally charged they are. Most people avoid making these videos like the bubonic plague and for good reason. You sir took on the challenge and dove in head first. Perhaps a video on the little known ethnic cleansing campaigns by Russia in the North Caucasus would be a nice topic for you to tackle next.
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  3. To understand France's role in Africa we also need to take into account the economic exploitation of these nations by France. France has been a force for destabilization in every African nation in which it wields influence. Anytime it's economic order is threatened France causes instability, civil strife and in many cases coups to safeguard their interests. This is a terrible situation especially for a region trying to climb out of instability and poverty. This is literally one of my favorite youtube channels and I watch it religiously. But once in a while it really misses the mark like in this video and the Armenia/Azerbaijan conflict. I don't think he does it on purposes as he mainly uses sources and propaganda talking points from the occupying side.
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  4.  @Not_From_Holland  So this is how you rationalize the wholesale ethnic cleansing of nearly 800,000 civilians? Do all ethnic cleansing deniers use the same guidebook or something? Your version of events seems oddly similar to when the Turks blame the Armenians for the Armenian genocide. I see you've been taking lessons from them.
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  5. @Travelmentary TV, out of all the comments I've been reading this is the most rational one. Russia most certainly didn't step in earlier to "teach Armenia a lesson" as Armenia had been looking to get away from Russian influence and forge closer ties with Nato nations. But as another poster on the same thread said, Russia did eventually step in to stop their ally's army from being completely destroyed. In general terms Russia causes these conflicts, then Russia comes in as the saviors. It's very interesting. I'd imagine people in both these nations would be far better off without any sort of Russian influence.
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  6. Personally I don't think anything has changed. Russia pissed him off by backing off some of it's commitments in Syria and Erdo played this gambit. I don't think how they feel about the west in general has changed nor will this be some beginning of a realignment. They will sway one way but not go too far, then sway the other way and not go too far. That is essentially their policy. Quite frankly it's the only real available position to them to play. So they play it.
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  7. There goes Prof James Ker-Linsday again with amazing content covering important topics most media outlets ignore. The topic of the Kuril islands is a rough one. I don't imagine Japan will ever get those islands back unless they take them by force.
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  8.  @jameskan9866  If you want to go at other people with technicalities and calls of bias I can do the same thing to you. You mention the Circassian genocide yet fail to mention the 10s of other ethnic groups who were also slaughtered by the Russians at the same time? What about the Karachay, the Balkar, the Nogay, the Avars and countless others who in ways had it worse than the Circassians from Russian brutality. I'm not saying you're wrong for mentioning what happened to the Circassians but if I were to use the logic you seem to enjoy, I could easily claim you're anti the other groups because you forgot to mention them? Some of these groups got it so much worse than the Circassians that they barely even exist anymore. Some accounts have the Balkar population which used to be a huge community at roughly 40-50 thousand of them left on the planet after the Russians almost exterminated them.
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  9. The other side of the conflict isn't very complex. 30 years ago their internationally recognized territory was invaded by their neighbor and 800,000 of their civilians living there were ethnically cleansed. Their view is simple, we went and took it back. Thank god they only wanted the land and didn't go in for a revenge ethnic cleansing, to their credit only a few dozen civilians died in the fighting this time around. As opposed to 10s of thousands being massacred in the 1990s when Armenia invaded. Credit to the Azeris for showing that level of restraint.
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  10. Peace will come, it will be a long and difficult road but it will come. Syria sadly became a playing field for great power proxy wars. World balances are shifting and the great powers (who are like the eye in Lord of the Rings) will put their gaze elsewhere. Once that happens the Syrians will have to figure out their next steps.
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  11. Yes the EU's strange Cyprus policy has surely left a stain in relations that won't go away for a hundred years.
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  12.  @AxmedMorgan  That was quite brutal. How can you blame a person living in America for not fighting when people living in Armenia did anything they could do to avoid this fight? They broke covid records in Armenia because so many people were getting fake doctor notes for 200 dollars claiming they had covid to avoid fighting. Yet you're going to blast someone who lives all the way in America? Seriously?
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  13. He isn't as notorious as you'd be led to believe.
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  14. @Milky T, I didn't know much about this conflict until the war broke out and I went into full blown research mode to figure out what was going on. As an earlier poster said a lot of it was complacency. You'd be shocked how many times I came across Armenians calling the Azeris "Azerbaboons." There seemed to be a serious sense of ethnic superiority. The idea being who cares what weapons they have, we're superior to them and that will carry the day. It must be a rough thing when reality meets cognitive dissonance.
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  15.  @chohani47  Obviously Pakistan shares absolutely nothing with the Turkic world. But if Azerbaijan gets closer ties with Turkey, it will be default be getting closer ties with Pakistan due to Turkey's close relationship with the latter.
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  16.  @sinabagherisarvestani8924  Pakistani is actually India in a sense. They're the same exact people only difference being which religion they choose to follow. Not sure how Pakistan is Turkey in a sense. Aside from central Asian tribes invading Pakistan and India hundreds of years ago, not sure how that applies. Yea some people they might be related to slapped around some Indians and Pakistanis a thousand year is ago, is that your point? Genetically speaking Greeks, Turks and Mongols have literally nothing in common with Indians and Pakistani people. First off those groups aren't highly genetically damaged from thousands of years of inbreeding.
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  17.  @supaturk97  The guy seemed to work pretty damned hard to be objective. The video was essentially about how Armenians feel and he did a good job of conveying that. I would have liked his explanation of the origins of this conflict to be a tad bit more in line with reality but overall I think he did a very good job presenting an extremely sensitive topic.
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  18. @Francis Freyre, I'm quite shocked with your comment. So you back the side to keep the fruits of their ethnic cleansing labor? Seriously? Who else do you back? Are you sad the Germans lost in WW2?
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  19.  @travelmentaryTV  Georgia is in that region and no one is trying to "break their back" aside from Russia itself. I'd imagine when Armenia stops making territorial claims on 3 of it's 4 neighbors they'll be just fine, not to mention all the trade opportunities that come with it. As far as Russia causing these conflicts it's no secret that Russia to keep influence in different regions had a policy to ferment divisions in different ethnic groups, it's a policy they've been pretty open about since Soviet days. In fact the borders of Nagorno Karabakh were actually drawn to keep the town sides in conflict by the USSR. Not to mention that in the 1990s Russia armed Armenia to the teeth to invade Azerbaijan which is what is causing this current conflict. Russian influence in this region will lead to nothing but misery for the people. As far as geopolitical strategy being "no worse" than other nations I beg to differ. All large nations do horrible things, my nation has done some of the most horrible things on the planet in the last 50 years. With that said you won't find one group of people under Russian influence who didn't suffer massively from it and will curse Russian influence to the ends of the world. I get why Russia does it, it's their defense strategy to keep influence outside their borders as their heartland would be difficult to defend without that buffer, considering how aggressive Nato has been on the Russians even after the breakup of the USSR, I can again understand why Russia does this. But understanding why they do it and to simply ignore the horrible consequences on these ethnic groups under their thumb are two different things. Russia will at the end of the day do anything in their power to make sure these two nations are in constant tension, it's the only way to ensure they stay within the Russian orbit and keep Nato out. From the Russian point of view just imagine what would happen of Armenia had great relations with her neighbors. First their economy would take off, their trade with the outside world via the ports of Armenia's neighbors would open Armenia up to the world, it's living standards would go up and it would be a lot closely aligned with Nato and the west in general. Big win for your average Armenian in the street but a HUGEE loss for Russia. So my original point still stands, Russia does not in any way, shape or form want Armenia and Azerbaijan to not have tension. Good for Russia, bad for Azerbaijan much worse for Armenia. Yes I understand the "great game" and I don't blame Russia for playing it. But I won't sit here and paint a rosy picture of what is done in the great game either. If I did, I'd sound like those idiots who claimed invading Iraq was going to be a good thing for the people who live there.
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  20. @Legiion513. This is 100 percent true. The idea of Turkey being a staunch ally of the west is not really possible, that ship sailed a while ago. This relationship reminds me of domestic violence. You can only beat your partner an X amount of times before she decides look for other avenues. That is essentially what Turkey is in it's relationship with the west. The batter partnered who isn't going to forget so easily.
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  21.  @VerGuut222  Being the victims of genocide over 100 years ago doesn't give you the right to invade and ethnically cleanse someone else. That would be like me beating my neighbor to death because some other guy killed my great great grandfather. You do see the insanity in this line of thinking no?
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  22. @daniel halachev "What ethnic cleansing are you talking about" Let me guess, never happend right? Yea those 800,000 people all just magically up and vanished into thin air like a fart in the wind. Nothing to see here right? Just sweep it right under that rug right? lol
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  23.  Nikolay Karlovich  If Russia didn't want tension between these two nations long term why draw the borders that will inevitably lead to tension? Why arm one side so heavily so it can invade the other and slaughter their people? Russia wants and needs nations in their orbit to not get along, its' the only way to retain their influence.
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  24.  Nikolay Karlovich  Putin made sure neither side got a decisive victory and made sure a situation for future tension wasn't lost.
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  25.  @kingjayapala  I'd imagine a strong central state in Syria would probably bring more stability to everyone there when compared to the alternatives. Although I'm not sure what you mean when you say "their religious freedoms are respected (outside Turkey) Turkey has repressed Kurds for a long time but I don't ever recall one instance where their religion was restricted or infringed upon. Considering most of them have the same religion as the rest of the nation. It's an ethnic issue not a religious one. But again I do agree that a strong singular state in Syria is probably best for everyone.
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  26. To be fair the theme of this video is how a society copes with the aftermath of losing a war. But I do see where you're coming from, a lot of what this guy explained that they feel in Armenia makes very little sense to anyone who followed this conflict and why it broke out. It's surreal to invade your neighbors internationally recognized territory and ethnically cleanse over 800,000 people, then refuse to negotiate territorial claims for 30 years and then act like the victim when they comeback to fight. Absolutely surreal the level of delusion (assuming what this guy told us about how Armenians feel is true.) Which I do believe because what reason would this guy have to lie. Either way it was a fascinating video and I'm thankful for people like him doing real journalism work that we rarely see in mainstream media outlets.
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  27.  @vangelisskia214  Cool story, do you have more walls of emotional text for us to read? Also if you're such a humanitarian about ethnic cleansing from over 100 years ago, I'd imagine you're pretty loud about the ethnic cleansing on Cyprus done by the majority group to exterminate a minority group on a small island? That would be intellectual honestly, too much to expect from you?
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  28. The moral of the story in this conflict I'd imagine mirrors the conflict in Cyprus. If you go full Hitler and try to exterminate an entire population in the modern era, there just might be consequences. Unlike in Cyprus in Nagorno Karabakh the consequences came 30 years later. Again the moral of the story is simple, stop trying to exterminate people and I'd imagine these things won't happen.
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  29.  @gencoglu  It's good to speak the truth.
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  30. Interesting post. That is what I love about these videos. We get to see viewpoints from all around the world. Appreciate your input bro. 👍
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  31.  @boomgoesdynamite4177  Not sure what some Bulgarians did decades upon decades ago before this guy was born has anything to do with his view on what is happening in Syria.
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  32.  @travelmentaryTV  I find it interesting that you find my take on the reality of the situation to be "bias." As I said I understand why Russia has to do what it has to do. But to paint what they do in this region in a positive light is disregarding all reality. You are literally coming off like some Americans I know still trying to claim invading Iraq was good for the Iraqis. Reality doesn't jive with what people "want" to believe I guess.
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  33. ​ @FUZZYnow  In this day and age it isn't difficult to get the facts about anything if you aren't lazy. When that many people up and vanish, it's pretty hard to hide no matter how hard you try.
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  34. @Timur Sayfullah Timur for years I've asked myself the same question. Most cases of slaughter and ethnic cleansing around the world are well known and taught quite a bit. Yet what the Russians did in the Caucasus and Central Asia is rarely ever mentioned or talked about. Even though it was one of the worst cases of abuse and ethnic cleansing the world has ever seen. I finally came up with a theory as to why. Take the North Caucasus for example. It is so remote, it is so far out of the way, it is so disconnected with the world that what happens there tends to not spread around the world for a very long time. Russia basically broke the world record for the slaughter of civilians without anyone really noticing. We talk about what America did to the native Indians (which was HORRIBLE.) But I'd imagine Russia holds the world record by a LONG shot in this area. There are more than 100 ethnic groups which literally no longer exist, wiped off the face of this earth and long forgotten. This is the Russian legacy .
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  35.  Nikolay Karlovich  And he got Russian troops into the region which was his main goal. Lets not forget this conflict has roots in Russian policy to draw borders to ferment conflict between ethnic groups so they're easier to control. This specific conflict exists because Russia armed Armenia to the teeth to invade their neighbor and didn't even blink an eye as 800,000 people were ethnically cleansed. So now we're supposed to believe they're the peace makers? Please.... I understand Russian policy, they need influence in these regions to defend their heartland, especially considering how aggressive Nato has been to Russia, I get that I also get that the easiest way to maintain influence is to keep these nations in conflict with each other. But don't paint this situation as Russian influence being a good thing for the native people, they're simply not.
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  36. @DC Output If you look at Turkey in the past 60 years they always have inflation, even if the inflation got 100x worse they'll still be richer than Iran and Armenia. The idea of Iran and Armenian pressuring Azerbaijan and Turkey into allowing another ethnic cleansing campaign in Nagorno Karabakh is pretty slim.
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  37.  @seedhasaadabhartiya3312  The real question is why he would be unhappy with people getting along? This Turkic union probably won't happen but it if did it would provide India with a huge market to trade with.
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  38. Egypt has very little influence in relation to the other nations you just mentioned. Egypt is essentially a vassal state to the highest bidder. One week America owns Egypt, the next week the UAE so on and so forth. Essentially the highest bidder is ever changing.
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  39. Stability is always preferable to mass violence, a failed state and massive amounts of chaos. Dictator or not. If you ask people if they'd rather be ruled by a dictator or be blown up by insurgents in the middle east, most would pick dictator. I also think it's insanity for one group of people to brow beat another group of people on how they go about deciding their leaders.
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  40. @Vangelis Skia, You really can't put the Armenian genocide on par with what happened to the Greeks. Because by the sheer numbers the Greeks actually slaughtered more Turks on the lands they conquered at the time than the Turks of Greeks. So if anything they'd both have to admit to it with Greece paying out more in reparations. The Armenian genocide sticks out because it was very one sided. It's like a 1000-1 ratio. I find it interesting when the topic of genocide comes up, people feel like it's a party they want to join. Very strange.
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  41.  @SenBonZakura2007  How about trying to tackle what was said instead of simply saying wrong and wrong. You seem far too emotional to be having debates like this.
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  42.  @dwdfusion3138  I've also never been to Ukraine. So I shouldn't ever claim there is a war going on? That is your logic?
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  43.  @QUINTUSMAXIMUS  The issue with the Cyprus policy of the EU wouldn't have changed Turkey's EU bid. But it surely would have changed how Turkey viewed the EU, they might not have gone as strong into transactional mode with them. It's impossible at this point to have good faith relations between Turkey and the EU and Turkey's anger over how Cyprus evolved in 2004 will never go away.
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  44.  @AVV_Beats  I'm fairly sure what sparked the war was when Armenia invaded it's neighbor's territory and ethnically cleansed over 800,000 civilians. Just sayin...
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  45.  @asala2116  I swear it feels like all ethnic cleansing deniers all use the same exact playbook you just used to deny crimes. Is there some sort of seminar you guys all attend or something? I've seen the Turks use the SAME exact tactic as you to deny the Armenian genocide. It's surreal.
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  46.  @asala2116  Oh I see, so when people deny crimes from well over 100 years ago their claims are false. But when you make those same types of crimes denying crimes which took place when I was in middle school and where families of the victims are still alive and the murders still around, well that is just fine right? You are by all rights an evil human being. 800,000 don't simply vanish into thin air, you simply cannot hide that. They lived in the huge surrounding regions Nagorno Karabakh which as you know where illegally invaded and ethnically cleansed. This isn't some story from 100s of years ago, this happened again when I was in middle school. When that many people live in a place and then suddenly not one of them live in that region anymore, again you CANNOT hide that. I do agree the TUrks should recognize the Armenian genocide and have actually been a proponent of that for a very long time, even argued many times on it's behalf in my college days. Yet many people like me, started doing a bit of research about Nagorno Karabakh after this latest war and low and behold we found the Armenians while telling us to back their claims for reparations of crimes from over 100 years ago while denying the reparation claims of an ethnic group they brutally attacked and ethnically cleansed in the early 1990s. Absolutely disgusting my friend. I'd imagine in a perfect world the Turks would pay Armenia reparations for the Armenian genocide, then the Armenians can use that money to pay for their crimes against the Azeris.
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  47.  @asala2116  Also you really have joined that ethnic cleansing denial seminar. One time I read a Turkish historian trying to deny the Armenian genocide by claiming "we gave them free passage to Syria, how is that genocide exactly." You literally copied his defense word for word by changed the word Armenian to Azeri. It's absolutely surreal.
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  48. England owning an Island half way across the world right off the shores of another nation? Hmm that is asking for trouble. Not sure that can be settled until England renounces claims to that island.
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  49.  @grantgerson2492  As technology grows, as knowledge proliferates it will get harder and harder for colonial powers like France to subjugate African nations. There is for obvious reasons more awareness and more access to information in these nations than ever before.
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  50. @Elliott Prats, in a perfect world 800,000 Azeris wouldn't have been ethnically cleansed from that region in the 1990s. Now that the war is over, the question still remains of reparations to the families of those 800,000 people who's farms and homes were illegally seized (by any metric of international law) for over 30 years. I think once they settle the issue of reparations the two sides can finally hammer out a lasting peace.
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