10 things about Armenia

Of course not true but they do have a lot of different sounds that make it easier to pronounce other languages. I think they have 3 different Rs, one of them being like the French R and another one being like the Spanish rolled r (or similar). I think the other one is basically gargling.

According to what some people have said. But the percentage has decreased these past few years, mostly due to the influx of Russians and I assume also other expats.

Sorry.

Okay, it has a soul or whatever (the opposite of Milan in that sense, in my opinion). Some very cool places and nice people. But it's not that beautiful, there are very few parks and there's dirt where grass should be, and there's not a whole ton going on. BUT, for some reason, it feels nice. I just had enough of it after a month.

The center is quite small and you run into people all the time, which is something I quite like. I just ran into a friend at a coffee shop the other day and we ended up chatting for thirty minutes.

I've met at least two people (including a 14-year-old girl) who said they wanted to learn Turkish "to know their enemy".

One woman (who happens to be insane) came up to me after a stand up open mic and complained about comedians' supposedly homophobic and antisemitic jokes and added "The only people I hate are Azeris".

I looked into it a bit more. I still feel like I don't know enough about it. But I'm starting to think Armenia might be in the wrong here.

(I say this as I write this list in a coffee shop in Yerevan... good thing no one is looking at my screen)

BUT I also tend to support the concept of any people's self-determination.

What I feel currently is that the whole conflict is stupid, and there are good arguments on both sides.

I hear Armenians talk about atrocities committed by the Azeris, but from what I've read, Armenians also committed atrocities against the Azeris. It seems they're both accusing each other of the same things. At the end of the day, maybe it's a typical retarded ethnic conflict from overly nationalistic people and we shouldn't interfere in their nonsense? I don't know. I also get that Armenians suffered a genocide a century ago and that should probably be taken into account when it comes to their relationship with the Turks and the Azeris.

I feel like some people also tend to simply side with the weaker side, or the most persecuted side. It's easy to empathize with the Armenians. And it's also easy to be against Azerbaijan considering it's ruled by a dictator (or quasi-dictator? I'm just repeating what I heard, I don't actually know much about him).

Technically, the first Nagorno-Karabakh war started when Armenia invaded a sovereign country (Azerbaijan). But is it that simple? Probably not.

It's also interesting to link this to other land disputes. Like, "If I support this country in this land dispute, does it mean I should then also support [other country in unrelated land dispute]?" Israel/Palestine and Russia/Ukraine come to mind.

Even in Yerevan, on a good day you can see Mount Ararat from certain places.

Outside of Yerevan, just being on the road offers some beautiful views. Going from Yerevan to Ijevan was wonderful.

It's probably their main national symbol, and yet it's located OUTSIDE OF ARMENIA. Mount Ararat is in TURKEY. How weird is that? I asked ChatGPT and it couldn't find any other examples of countries with their national symbol located outside their borders. Of course, Armenian irredentists consider that part of Turkey to be part of "Western Armenia".