Kitbag Conversations - Kitbag Conversations Episode 16: Armenia

Episode Date: July 4, 2023

The Cognitive Hye, joins the boys in a long discussion about Armenia. In this episode, we discuss the Azerbaijan war, the USSR, and the beating that Armenia has taken to even get where it stands today. In a world of disinformation created by Azerbaijan and Turkey, take some time to learn the truth about Armenia.

Music Father, they have written of the point of no return So just they will come now Oh they come made to burn I'm sick Oh boy, we need your hope to live Oh boy, you have so much to give Oh boy, don't let it get you down Who, maybe who would save the world?

Not you Who, maybe who would save the world? People, yes Too young to die Too young to die Picture of like Alex Jones behind you like do the backdrop and then to be like schizophrenia chronically rant about like Iranian and Aziri positions who mingle with Russians and Turks and Georgians but they don't like each other and then You put a picture stalling behind me or something

All right, so I'll talk to explain to you the ethnic diversity of Christians caucus Christians and then all these soonie fucking Muslims in the mountains because this is a fucking shit show Joe, okay? We kind of get into the shea militants Shit, show, show, okay. We got into the Shia militants too. Shia militants in an Ezra by John are just fucking insane. Are they in a hazbool off shoot? They are. Just pretty cool.

That's what I thought. And they have a very long historic connection to the... So they used to be called the Gizelbush, which means in Gizelbush or something. It means like red-hatted. So, funny enough, they were like sworn enemies of the Ottomans and now they like gargle them. But they were like they hate Armenians. Yeah, but they were like she and militants that helped found the Persian Empire. So hold up because this is this is how I understood it because I just argued with chat GPT for like two hours and try to get it to admit that Azerbaijan was wrong and it wouldn't He wouldn't pick a side because I'm understanding that it's just Sunni Muslims with the Azeri and the Turks just beating up

Christians in Armenia and then I ran there to help because fuck the Sunni but there's Shia Muslims within Azerbaijan that are like we're just here to ball like fucking yeah so most Azeris are Shia but they're yeah they're Shia but they're also non-religious they're kind of a they're a mixed match if there's whatever from the region. And they, so like, they kind of came about as, so we all know atropia, right? Yeah. From all of our army war games and training exercises. Yeah.

So atropia comes from Autropiton, which is like an ancient Iranian kingdom that was centered in that area. And the Turkmen that were in the region that became, that assumed the identity of Aziris, they're actually genetically Iranian Turkmen. That's why Aziris from Iran are pretty chill, but the ones from Azerbaijan are kind of brainwashed and hate Armenians, and all my dad's best friend in Iran was a Osir Turkmen. It's a very funny thing. So they kind of took up this identity because they butchered oxropythans because they couldn't speak forci so they pronounced it Osir by John. Okay. And keep going. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like they're They're a bunch. Yeah. I'll say he's hurt my head. No. They're actually they're only like 5% Turkmen when they do take DNA test most of the time. Yeah. Yeah. And

they kind of they first appeared there when like you know like the Seljuk Empire? No. Okay, so pre-autamin there are were the Celjiks, the different Turkic Empire, and the great Sultans, when it was the great Sultic Empire, Al-Barslan, he like got these 12 tribes of Turkmen nomads and kind of just tossed them there. Got you. And was like, we just killed everyone here, just repopulate. That was in like the last thing. Oh, I was gonna say like, is this before like, you know,

Mech Med II, just like before he ran around with the Ottoman Turks and then went to Constantine to know pull in those things. Okay, okay, gotcha. Yeah, wait before, this is like 11th century before they got to the long stance in the open. Gotcha. Yeah.

And then did you read before this podcast, you son of a bitch? I thought we were going to. No, me? No, Matt just I just complain medieval total war to a lot Like he's out here like having full discussion with you and I'm having to like inform the audience like no I'm dumb too. It's okay What did you call them? Yeah the other before the Ottomans the other Turkmen the Seljuets yeah were they based out of like what is that area areas like northern Syria south south south eastern modern day Turkey like that Anatolia based out of like what used to be Antioch like that area because I want to say like that the 1930s when the Ottoman after the Ottoman Empire collapsed and the Turkish state came around they were like hey there's this area inside a Syria that we need to go get back and it was the old it was the old

capital of Antioch that old Christian fortress So I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, I look, Is it like a Ford operating base for their guys going into Northern Syria? Did they kind of stage there and like shock and awe, west or east against the Kurds and ISIS? I think so. They have like bases all over that border. Genatchin. All throughout the border they kind of have fobs. I saw a bunch of Turkish fobs when I was in Armenia just taking a train up to Giumri. Really? Yeah. You can see them like patrol and stuff. Interesting. up the giumry. Really? Yeah, you can see them like patrolling and stuff. Interesting. They like to so the Turks are like all the the most competent place on God's green earth that the Turks are active is on the border with the Kurds. Anywhere else, it's a shit show. Just getting out of anything. But the minute you're like, hey, there might be some

Kurds who are in your vicinity, They become like Delta Force level operators. And you're like, where the fuck was this with ISIS? You assholes? And like, it's because they were open. Yeah, I know they were. There was, I won't say names, but there was a intelligence officer within a certain unit that lost his shit at the Turks, because he was like,

hey, could we get some assets for monitoring for the next week over ISIS? We know you have them because you've been using them on the curbs, you mother fucker. And they were like, no, no, he did not have such intel collection. No, and like, he's like, you mother fuckers. It's on the ice cream. Yeah. It's a Turkish ice cream. Yeah.

It's just like, yeah. They're just like, oh, you almost had a drone. Like, if I get it. Yeah. You want ice, are? Yeah. I'm so pretty. I'll do it. Yeah, that just like oh you almost had a drone Yeah, you one is are yeah, I said you Like They were they were using satellites like ground penetrated radar and shit on the currents and like everyone was like you know ISIS is digging tunnels some ground penetrating radar would be nice

No, no, no, no. How do they, uh, when it comes to like, you know, the, the curbs, do they just go to the YPG within like that border region, say like, well, we're going to go attack them at their home says so they don't attack us and like do that same like CIA operation and Vietnam and VATI LOW situation. Is that kind of like the reason it, reasoning for it? Not much.

The moment they step over in the cereal, they become extremely incompetent. So, I don't know what it is, but the moment they step over, they like lose their competence. But when they're in Turkey, like operating against the PKK, they do, I mean, they did bomb their own intelligence agents when they were in the prison.

They're probably one of the worst intelligence agencies out there. So the Kurds had them in this like PKK prison and they bombed it with F-16s and killed all of their agents. I'm just gonna accomplish that, I guess. I can't have a prisoner if I kill it, motherfucker. Yeah, there's no host dress gives us that's the Russian method remember the the Cheshires in the movie theater they're like we have the place around it we demand a

emancipation they're like I got a better idea the bird did that was sad how's that yeah all the FSP guys got a word. They're like a job And seals seals aren't any better than the FSP. They just throw grenades at us to just BTR main gun grenade through the window I'll take that 20 millimeter. I won't feel shit. Yeah, I don't want to be sitting there bleeding out from sharp No, and you know that they're gonna have that conversation over your body like a couple seals are gonna be like Dude, he's gonna ruin the fucking book. We have to kill him and I'm just like No, I can be saved put a turntake on it! We didn't bring any!

You're bringing it, you're too heavy! Just like the fucking sauce! We don't bring light machine guns or medical equipment. What the fuck's wrong with you? Yeah, I'd rather take the main gun. Yeah, I'd rather take a nice like H.E. round, like right behind my head, just to blast my fucking I won't feel it my frontal core text Will be the last thing to leave my body. That'd be perfect This is a 10 minutes in and we're talking about getting our brains blown out. This will be off I guess I want to you don't want to bud to wire yourself in your front lawn just in process You don't want to, you don't want to bud to wire yourself and your front lawn just in process.

You don't want to get, you don't want to get taxed over a cabbage for 2% and set yourself on fire in Tunisia. Start a whole revolution. Now, the best, the best suicide that sticks with me is the, the earnest having way. He ordered a shotgun and one shell from Sears and some guy like processed that order. Like, I don't do. No, he'll be fucking about it. Isn't that like a-

Oh, it's like a slur, it's a russian. Yeah, it's a russian. That's not like first. Yeah. It's just like there. It just floats in the back of my mind. I'm like, there's a word that's like, I'm pretty sure if you say it in the wild,

someone's gonna know what it is. So, hey, motherfucker. What do you know that? So it's a common name actually. Really? Yeah, so it's short for khachatur. Okay, like khachat, like for Jews. I can say that. I can say that. Jesus Christ. I'm Jewish. It's like the end word, it's my pass. It's his only pass, yeah. Get over it. That's awful.

Why would you name yourself? So Hachik, the shortest Hachik, and then Russians were like, oh, there's a bunch of Hachik Surahs, that was a good slur, they didn't use. The other one that calls black asses, because we're hairy. They're used. The other one that calls black ass is because we're hairy. Just like a bunch of naked Soviet soldiers. It's just like, how does a hairy ass? And yeah, I just got the darkest ass. These are Armenian. Send him to Chernobyl, clean up crew.

I just picture this like group showered. I've got to stand some Armenian with like a gold chain in the VTV like what? This is a man's ass Oh god, that's so funny. My uncles enjoy that guys that they were all drafted. Oh really? Yeah, I read all these like sob stories from like Russian Soviet soldiers and I talked to my godfather and my uncles They're like it it was fun. T-55 modhut code disappear. So they were takers, they weren't like fucking, were they takers or soldiers or like? They were takers, so they were,

couple of them were T-55s, the other two, I think they were in PNP's or PTR, something like. Okay. They trained them in Siberia, and then they're in PNT's or VTR's. So they're like, okay. They train them inside Veria, and then they send them to Afghanistan. That makes a lot of sense, right? Well, it's close enough. Well, I know that when it came to like the Soviets

to throw out their public perception, they would tell their families, like the soldiers families, like, hey, your son's going on station in Mongolia. And so when their sons would, they're like, don't mention Afghanistan. So when their kids were like, the mountains are beautiful, right? They're like, hey, he's not lying. Yeah, they sent them to Siberia. That's sort of like my family thought they were for a while. And then they went next thing during Kabul. That's nice. Yeah, the worst cool.

We're actually reading the pair went over the mountain and the other side of the mountain for book club. And I've read the other side of the mountain and I've heard like Snippets and like they train you with like the other or the bear went over the mountain at the the schoolhouse So I never felt it really felt the need to read it because they always kept mentioning it I'm like I feel like a and I have I've pretty much read it but it Some of it sounds like that if you read like zingay boys It's like a sob story, but then you get the idea that if you were in like a Russian BTR or T55 when they're doing like entire brigade.

Let me go. I have a few like chapters. The one I like really like, oh, it was in the other side of the mountain, which was from like a Mujahad bean fighter. And he's talking about how the Soviets had a single source reporting on like an HVI in like a village. And so they landed. And since the single source reporting on like an HVI and like a village. And so they landed, and since the single source reporting, there was nobody there. So they landed in all the Mujahadis, the guys knew where they were, so they just rocked out.

Yeah. And then the Soviets sent another wave to the exact same position. So they were like, and they were like, how are these guys supposed to be like an empire? They're like a criminally incompetent. And then from there, there're like, they're criminally incompetent. And then, uh, and then from there, and there's like one snippet. It's in both of them. It talks about like a BTR uh, cowboy where the Russians are going, I don't know how the Mujahideen know who the command vehicle is. They keep smoke checking us. They take out their communications immediately.

Mujahideen were like, oh, the command vehicle was always in the middle of the antenna. Yeah, we just knew exactly who they were. Yeah. ago, they were just the way Pantana. Yeah, that's fucking six foot. Yeah, but I mean, when they're doing those like brigade movements, when it's like an entire brigade of VDV with like a company of BTRs and a company or a platoon of T-55s, it's like, yeah, dude, you're gonna just smoke check the whole fucking village. Yeah.

Like, what do you mean? Boo-hoo, like no, bro. This is gonna be the worst day of your mood. Like, it's just not gonna be fun. So I could understand why your uncles were like, I don't know what you're talking about. My boss grew like six feet lower, like, okay. They're having an easy time.

I'm not, yeah. Because I know like myself and Cody have talked about it a lot that the Russians like to use non-ethnic Russians to be like the forefront for like an initial combat and whatnot. How did that work with the Armenians? Because they kind of have that cultural, we're both Christian, we kind of like you guys, but we also need to keep a boot on the back of like the Arabs in that part of the world. So we can't really sacrifice you, but also like you said, Chernobyl, they were the first guys in along with the Central Asians.

So like how did that work in like the PR aspect of like the Soviets and the Central or the Caucus. From what I heard from my uncles pretty much, that's one thing was, like, they weren't necessarily the first way. It was mostly like Central Asian and ethnic Russians. I had a feeling. Mostly ethnic Russians, because those were the ones

that were kind of pushed into the more elite conventional infantry guys. They were mostly ethnic Russians because those were the ones that were kind of pushed into the more elite Conventional infantry guys. Yeah, they were mostly ethnic Russians, but the thing with Armenians is most Armenians Have some sort of tie to Iran like my family and others We're like forced to relocate it there. So a lot of us speak farcy So they're like, oh you guys speak farcy or it's easier for you guys to learn farcy Why don't you guys could be translators? And I know a lot of Armenians who were like worked with the GRU who were translators. And they would go in, they would find like a lot of things that isn't at least, I haven't

read a lot in Western sources. They don't talk about Mujahiddin defectors. They don't talk about how many Afghans actually collaborated with the Soviets. At the time, it was the majority. Wow. And that's something that's just not found in Western sources because, you know, we made Rambo and all those things. Yeah. So a lot of them would just go in and talk to these people because they spoke for us see they speak Dari, you can understand most of it, almost all of it. And yeah, so that's a big role that they played. So looking forward into that, right? So, I'll be like, could you speak more to like, so you have Armenia, let's do that. Let's do Armenia in Afghanistan forward. Like, what was that like? Because obviously

Afghanistan happens and you have, you know, the coming home after Afghanistan and the fall of the Soviet Union and then the 90s and then the first conflict with Azerbaijan. So go from there. Like right? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm actually coming back from what I've heard, like pretty much Armenians had it good after the Afghan war. Like not many Armenians would went to like the last mobilizations. So many of them were like early on, like the to the last mobilizations. So many of them were early on, like the early 80s mobilizations that they had. Okay.

Do you think that has something to do with the Soviets as some foresight, like we're gonna lose why do this? Because an empire collapses at the fringes first, they're like, we need these guys on our side. So, I don't know. But maybe like a CSTO operation, like a prelude, I don't know. Maybe like a CSTO operation, like a pre-lude. I don't know. I think it was just to keep people happy. No, I don't. Like, there is a lot of obviously people come to like Soviet Union, wasn't all, you know, some China-Rainbows. But a lot of our

Americans have a very positive outlook on the Soviet Union. Many of them, it was the only period of peace your public of Armenia had. It was the only period of industrial growth, increase of a, it's a called life expectancy, education. We gave them like the most generals and field marshals enrolled or two We're a land-large country we gave them like two admins I always think I always find that really funny Man it was gonna say like if you ever want to feel worthless just remember Mongolia has a navy

They do yeah, I want here give me a second keep going keep going Lakes yeah, what yeah, what was it? Maybe founded in 1921? Yeah, what was that you tried with 2,000 members? Anyways, that Ukrainian parliament member was claiming Arminio is sending like nuclear submarines to the Russians. From where we have we have one alpine lake that's drying up. Oh, yeah, let's see that right there. Yep. Yeah, we got the fucking iPhone class in there.

But yeah, like after Afghanistan, it kind of chilled down. And I mean, you just went into a lot of development that like 70s to early 90s era up until the earthquake, the earthquake that struck in 89, that really messed up our media, destroyed the complete natural gas infrastructure. There was very little running water, destroyed any sort of energy water infrastructure was bad electricity was Just heavily regulated people were burning wood a lot of deforestation happened in Armenia Because people just had to burn trees to stay warm and to cook So imagine a whole country You're good get go ahead go ahead. Oh, yeah, so imagine a whole country just chopping're good, get going ahead, go ahead. Oh yeah. So imagine a whole country just chopping down trees to be able to cook, be able to warm

themselves, all these things. And then after, yeah. Sorry. So have they rebuilt that natural gas and do they export it or is it just for like the national use of energy? So, so a lot of people, so this is a controversial topic, I'm going to get some hate. A lot of people freak out over this because the president at the time sold it to Russia. We sold it to gas prom.

Gas prom came in. They rebuilt the entire gas infrastructure. Again, so they rebuilt all the infrastructure and they put in stable maintenance. So the state itself was not able to maintain the infrastructure, so it was completely sold gasprom, so they could come in and also maintain it. Yeah.

And they also charge Armenia one of the lowest rates for natural gas in the world. I thought bad. Yeah. So I think people don't, I think they think the average person's gas bill in Armenia is equivalent to the high end, a couple bucks. Yeah. So I mean, I mean, you've got to do what you've got to do in that situation, right? Yeah.

I think rushes the superpower in the region. Yeah. You just went through an earthquake that the safety inspector that was responsible for the Chernobyl cleanup was also responsible for the earthquake. He claimed the earthquake was uglier than Chernobyl. Wow. There's his whole interview with him that he thought the earthquake in Armenia that there's this whole statement was uglier than Chernobyl and it was harder to clean up for him. Obviously, well,

we can't go back to Chernobyl. But like he's just like people were just so mangled on the destruction. I'll look up how many people died in that earthquake Okay, I have friends was entire families was wiped out. This is in the 90s or like the late 80s. I think you said I just was yeah 88 88 dude right killed that Right before the wall fell Jesus Christ. Yeah, is that comparative to that Turkish earthquake that happened a few weeks ago? Probably this killed 50,000 people. Oh Jesus Christ. Yeah, injured, right? Yeah. Jesus. Jesus just immediately killed 50,000 people. I know people whose families were wiped out. Yeah. Like my, when my really good friends, his mom mom's her his dad or his mom survived because they didn't go to school that day

Wow All of her other cousins and family went to school and school collapse and killed all the children and the teachers And injured 130,000 it lasted 20 seconds and 20 seconds killed 50,000 people injured 130,000 That's me. That's, I was gonna say amazing, that's the same. Yeah, but then like the infrastructure, I mean, you've got 180,000 people pretty much taken out and then you've got all the doctors and nurses

that have to treat them. I mean, that's what they're taking out from the rebuilding process. I mean, communism is failing at this point. It's failing, yeah. So it's like, and then, wow, so it's basically kicking kick in the dick and then communism goes away and then the US and the one blanket goes away. Yeah.

A lot of blame goes on to Brezhnev era, Brezhnev era construction. Okay. So buildings built during the Stalin era, Brezhnev era construction. Okay. So buildings built during the Stalin era, the Khrushchev era didn't really fail. Brezhnev was known for bringing people in from the villages and throwing them into these cities. So the thing with Yerevan is a very ancient city.

I think it's like, they love to claim there a few years older than Rome or something. So it's built like that old ancient, just rings of a circle. Got you. Some skits, skits of front of people like to put the, what's that? Alt, right.

Circle thing. Black sun. Yeah, the black sun. Yeah, they put the, they put the black sun overlay on it and I'm like, dude, look at me. Like, like this does they put the black sun overlay on it and I'm like, dude look at me. Like this does not fit the area. Yeah, he's talking about you look perfect. But yeah, so Brezner was he's just trying to get villagers into the cities. He needs workers, he's people so they pull all these cheap buildings and they all just

fucking went to dust the moment the earthquake hit. Jesus Christ. They all just fucking went to dust the moment the earthquake hit. Jesus Christ. And yeah. Was that a like a rapid acceleration of urbanization trying to just get as many people in the city as possible. But like, well, now that everyone's here, guess you need some jobs. So just just getting people in. What was the, what was the economic output in that area?

Like what were they? What was the natural way of making money essentially? What's their factories? Was it like a dire factory or was it something else like that? It doesn't really make sense to throw much people into cities, like figure it out. But I'm not sure. Armenia was very notorious for that.

Yeah. Armenia was known for being like the technological centers of Soviet Union. We gave them anti-radiation missiles. So they invent like who invented? I mean, we gave them the MIG. MIGOYAN was Armenian. Really?

Yeah, MIGOYAN's Armenian. I'm saying it right, it was Typhoon class, right? The largest submarine? Yeah, Typhoon class. Yeah, the Typhoon class, all of the, most of the signals equipment and citing equipment and electronic controls were built in Armenia. They're still a factory in Armenia that builds

old ATGM sites. So all the optics, all the optics, all the communications, all these things, it was called the Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union. We love to be proud about it, but the moment the Soviet Union fell apart, we took all that equipment and then we sold it to Iran for recycling weight. God damn it. That's good.

Yeah. It's like, I was so excited. I was like, Matt, we like Matt. We are going we are going now We're gonna come back with a case and optics. It's gonna be amazing The option to have the optics right now so It's an optics from the 70s Good enough man, it's set of iron sights Hey, it's good enough, man. I said of iron sights.

Now, do you think that direct, uh, what's going to say? Do you think that direct like heritage where it's like, wow, the Soviet Union was the best part in a right Armenian history? You think that's why the Soviets are the modern day Russians and the Armenians are just so close because I want to say that Armenians sent soldiers to Kazakhstan last year and during like a lot of choice. and soldiers to God's stand last year. And during the war, the choice. That's the thing. People look at their media and they're like, they're like, look at this.

And it's like that. They really don't have a choice. Yeah. Well, I mean, look at Cuba, right? Like, I mean, like, that would be our meat. Because like, Cuba, America's right there. Like, they shit on our front porch all the time. And we're like, hey, motherfucker, you want to see something?

So I mean, our lady is the same way. Like, what are they going to do? Take a shit on Russia's front porch. Like, they'll get crushed in a day. Like, and then they'll go through Georgia just to beat them up. And then just like carry like human shields into Arminia. Like, Arminia, we're going to get hate from the Georgia's for it. Yeah.

We always do. Like, yeah, you're just like, look at it in Georgia, your neighbor. Like, what the fuck you want me to do?'re both gonna die I'm not dying with you like the Russian made him in 2008 they're like what the fuck are media yeah what do you want me to do if you met the average George and it fits the personality yeah I mean they make up like for their notoriously some of the worse soldiers in that part of the world. Yeah. I think I told this story, but I got they shared the barracks with me in a pogrom and Anglico was the Anglico, but the Marine J-Tax, you know, J-Tax that are meant.

They were the sponsors for the Georgians in our, was me, a couple, one-harm-first dudes, all of Anglico, and then the Georgians on the bottom floor and like the rest of the top floor. It was like a company of them. And one day I went home like over lunch to get my laundry bag to throw it in the laundry place. And the Georgians were running circles around the building. And I looked at the gunnery and I was like, what the fuck's going on? He's like, oh, they were talking on open comms before we

were trying to step off again and they just had these fucking Georgians run in with their guns over their head and I was like cool I'm gonna get my laundry keep it up gutting he's like well do sir and I was like the fuck's going on but I got I got sick because they wouldn't throw toilet paper down the toilet they just like throw it in the trash can. So they were just like literally a trash can full of shit. And I was like, why am I dying? And then like, uh, yeah. And then I also got, oh, I have a George Wood hairstyle.

Whatever, I'm also hit me with a window. Uh, cheers to that because I got, uh, I got a TBI for that. Yeah. So that the window is opened in not out So when I was in the shower one of these Georgians like grab the window and like through it open and it opened into the shower stall So I was like drying off. I'm like And a glass fucking window hit me and I'm like naked there and I wake up to like three Marines and a bunch of Georgians Like dick out blood coming down my head.

Like what the fuck happened? I like to think the Marine Corps saved my butt for Ginnety that day, but. Yeah. That's all. They saw her real estate, minding the two sides. Sweet American busies. Fuck.

So tight and supple. I thought I was talking about my own ass like that. Anyway. Jesus, okay. This is gonna go there. Cheers. Fucking. Cheers to that.

So, in 89, the whole world is ending for our mania because of an earthquake and then... So the union is collapsing. And then you go to war with Azerbaijan. And we go to war with Azerbaijan. Then we go to war with Azerbaijan. So, go ahead. A little bit before, let's see what, let me link up which month the earthquake was. Who's December I think? December. So, there's already ethnic tension growing with Azerbaijan.

already ethnic tension growing with Azerbaijan. They're starting to, so the popular front, that's why I kind of don't like that news, saying the popular front, because it's the same name as Azerbaijanian movement that ethnically cleansed our audience. It's also the same name as the Republican Spanish who beheaded knowns. So I give it a little bit of a side eye. But so the popular front was already starting to, it's funny saying that I just pictured a British guy going around beheading Armenian. He likes to close your close your eyes and think of England. Well, whatever problems the Persians had with the Russians, like, kind of led to the chain reaction of Bertha Dasurbich on those cousins of British.

They would instigate all the issues with the culture dynasty. But yeah, like it's September before the earthquake. The authorities are already starting to act up and their believe the I don't know if the first one was in so they start doing pogroms in Baku which at the time was a very multi ethnic city. Baku was like this hip city in the Soviet Union. It was oil rich, like early on before the Soviets came in, all the oil was owned by the Armenians in the British. So it's a very wealthy city. Lots of different things. After the holo de moor, lots of Ukrainians moved to Baku. And it's fine, that's where that relation with Ukraine and Azerbaijan actually comes from.

It's from this kind of connection they have with Baku. And so, even before the earthquake, they're starting to pogrom cities. Just kill anyone that looks somewhat Armenian. Jews get caught in the crossfire because we look like. And so it's like Jews, Armenians, mostly Armenians, just that was the main target. And anyone Christian in the area basically. They let alone Russians and Ukrainians, but anyone that looked Armenian, that thing. And so they started acting up. They started, and the funny thing is, any big historical timeline for Azerbaijan in history,

coincides with the ethnic cleansing of Armenians. So in 1919, it was like the big, augulese massacre. They like completely massacred whatever was left of us in Akhichabang. In 1921, the war between them over Shushi, they completely ethnically clenched the Armenian population. The whole population of Shushi. Isn't that really? Yeah, wasn't the reason something like the Turkish front against the Russians failed and they didn't gain any

grounds. They blamed Armenia. They're like, Hey, you're the reason we lost. That was one of the excuses for the genocide. Oh, okay. Yeah. So that was this was sort of drawing or something, but this was Armenia. That was like, massacres happening on the western side, whereas Turkey and their massacres happening

at the same time on the eastern side with the Turkmens who became Osiris. They're looking at Wikipedia right here, and that was not a credible source, but it seems like no one was ever really on the side of the Armenians. It looked like the Assyrians usually got mostly the international support,

even from Israel who is also attacked from all sides. It seems to be, there seems to have supported as you're by John. I wonder if there's a political or arms deal between the two of them, because you would think something like Armenia those guys would be. It's a hopping base for Israel.

So they just want to go to Iran. And Israel sees anyone that like, it's funny. Israel sees anyone that cooperates with Iran as like their mortal enemy, right? But Azerbaijan is one of the biggest partners of Iran. But at the same time allows Israel to operate out of it. And they kind of both give each other like, you just have semi-saltive relations, you're on the Azerbaijan.

Is that coming to, I mean, we were talking earlier, I don't wanna, I don't know, I like to disrupt the flow of the timeline here, but going into something like you were talking about how there's a Hasbala offshoot inside Azerbaijan, which are Shia Islam who are like the back of the Iranians, would that just make sense for, it would just make sense for Israel to go into Azerbaijan

to be like, hey, let me take care of these guys, they're shooting rockets into the golden heights. Like, let me just take care of these guys real quick, but I don't know. I mean, the part of the world is like, I'm like 15% educated on stuff. It's a mess No one knows if the Azerbaijani Puzzbola off-shoots real or not

That's also what it's not been confirmed It's kind of like this boogie man That they like to talk about to whenever they like whenever relations get kind of sour with Iran They immediately point at this spooky man and they haven't been able to arrest anyone and find anyone and Kind of say like hey, this is the organized cell that operates in Azerbaijan We've been looking at like the territorial founders of who supported who and 88 to 94 in the first war Soviet Union supports Ezra by John.

The only people that support Armenia are the Georgian territories who had volunteers who were recently in Oate and expy the Russians. I wonder if you guys have a payback move from them, but that just kind of hurts my head in the terms of like, oh, again, Israel and Turkey supporting Ezra by John. It's like, that's just kind of hurts my head in the terms of like, oh, again, Israel and Turkey supporting Asia by John. It was like, that's just kind of hurts my head in terms of like geopolitics. Like, if you were an American bastard to that part of the world, how would you just come back to Washington and be like, here's the situation.

Yeah, it's a big mess when it comes to that. And a lot of the problem is it's not so simple of seeing you like, hey, these guys are here. This George and Offshoots are helping them. And when you look at the first store, like Gorbachev Greenlit Operation Ring. It's not so simple of seeing you like, hey, these guys are here. This George and Offshoots are helping them. And when you look at the first war, like Gorbachev Greenlit Operation Rink, which was Russian, I guess Soviet forces at the time, Soviet Garrisons.

So this is also leading up to the war, after the earthquake leading up to the war, Operation Rink. If you want to pull that up on Wikipedia, Soviet Garrisons start cooperating with Azerbaijania, Oloan, like internal forces. And you study. All right, here it is. You wanna read it?

Don't go ahead. I'm just looking at like a wave top here. Yeah, and they just like they start deportation of 5,000 Armenians. Yeah that's the thing. So we get an earthquake, we get Jack shit from the Soviet state because it's falling apart and then they start deport deporting us from helping the Azerbaijanis and there's times where like Azerbaijanis will be like, look at Black January, all these things. But Black January was still wasn't only Soviet force, like Russian Soviet forces. It was also the Azerbaijanis, Soviet

forces trying to quell the popular front movement. So all this stuff is kind of going on and this is basically the race to war. Armenians take over Garrison, as the Bajanis take over Soviet Garrison. They start shooting at each other with hunting rifles until like there was this one story like there, like as the Bajanis and Armenians are fighting each other to get to the Russian Garrison so they could rob the weapons. Yeah. And I guess that as of rjani didn't have weapons at the time or something. So these are immediate farmers are just shooting at them with bird shot

until they like get in beat up the Russian guards and then take their weapons. And like it was just the mesh mess like everyone was just. Who declared independence first? Was it like a simultaneous, like 1989? Yeah. And the Gorno Harabah, autonomous oblast from Public Varthach, which became the Republic Varthach, declared independence from the Soviet state

before the state, the Soviet state of Azerbaijan. So they love to point to international law, but if you look at international law, that oblast, which is an autonomous oblast, just like any other Soviet oblast declared independence just like every other Soviet state. So people like, I think, is Armenian diplomats kind of very poor, and I'm like just poorly

skilled. Yeah. I'm not diplomat when it comes down to it, I would just be like, oh Latvia, you declared it depends just like us. Oh, I'm going to say you're the Latvian so good state. Just don't know, throw fuel to the fire because they're not going to recognize this anyway. Just start not recognizing that. Yeah. Yeah. Because the way Republican Varsav came to exist is the same way Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Ukraine, all of these people declared independence

from the Soviet Union. But when it comes to the UN and everything, no one recognized Republican Varsav as its own state. It's almost like a coastosovo situation. Where it's like they're kind of like pinched, they're landlocked, yeah. They're surrounded by like a war-torn region and they're like, I can't really support you because Serbia has a Buddha on your back. So yeah, and I think this Kosovo is never like its own state within, I guess, that thing, like we have more legal, I guess, right to a state, you know, but it just comes down to people not wanting to support it. I was about to say, like you, the whole time in researching this, you pinned it,

it's just that Armenia cannot get a good diplomat to save its life. Like it's just like every time I look at your posts and I look through all your stuff, I'm just like, Jesus Christ, like Armenia kit, just like you guys are always like, fuck that guy, fuck him, fuck you. You're kind of cool, fuck you. It's like, well, who does Armenia like?

And then like Matt said, it's like they have their allies. Azerbaijanis kick them into the corner. I mean, you'd think Israel would be like, yo, it's a Christian nation surrounded by Muslims, getting its dick kicked in, let's help it. But Israel's supporting Azerbaijan, and like you said, it's like the key to this whole thing just seems to be to me.

There's not a diplomat, there's not a nonprofit, there's nobody out there who's like Jesus Christ for the love of God. Somebody look at this situation and say it like it is. It's nobody gave Armenia a chance. Nobody gave them anything to help them. But Azerbaijan just somehow through the Turks are getting allies left, right, front and center,

posting pictures with German chancelers and prime ministers and all these people reading books of Armenian genocide and you're like what? I feel like it's like Zoolander. Am I taking crazy pills? What the fuck is going on? I think it even goes bigger from there because I mean I like to say this a lot like a humanity likes to think it's very advanced You know we have iPhones and all these cool things like that But as push comes to shove ethnic tensions are always at the center of most conflicts. Yeah. Just like Turkey will sacrifice anything to kill Armenians or Kurds. It doesn't matter who they're on, but they also own the boss for a straight.

So it's like, well, what is the US do? Do they walk it until Turkey to cut it out because they're also bullying the Greeks over the Adriatic? Yeah. They also own the boss for a straight because there's oil inside the Black Sea, and they're the ones who let in the Russian Navy who invaded You know Odessa Crimea you're like that. So at what point these like it seems like you know turkeys the problem But you can't say anything because they can turn around and just feel like I'm working with the Russians the Uranians now

We're fuck I just want to kill Armenians I just want to do genocide god god. Let me do my favorite thing. Okay, and or And I want to come back to like the political aspect of this in a little bit But it's always funny whenever the Armenian topic comes up with Turkey they go never happened But if it was it was the Ottomans You're like what was that mean what you guys like yeah, are you guys the same thing? They're like no Never happened, but they want a waving turkeys flag. It never happened, but they deserve them. Remember they helped the Russians? No, you

fucking socked and you lost your Eastern front world or one. Yeah, you got the sick man of Europe over here, picking a fight with Floyd Mayweather. You're like, get out of here. Oh, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And they find like, yeah, like, oh, these are Armenians. Didn't they make up most of our Ottoman state? Yeah, let's go. Let's pin it on the. Jesus Christ.

We just looking back all the way, all the way to the days of the Romans and whatnot. It seems like every time anything went bad in the Lothaans area, the Romans were like fucking Armenians. I can't believe they bullied them. I'm not done. Let's go bully the Armenians.

Yeah, I can't remember his name at the moment, but the Armenian King was like, we're on the same side. Stop attacking me. We're trying to kill the Persians, right? But oh yeah, it's, I don't know, that whole thing. But what I do want to ask is when it comes to the geopolitics, something like Ukraine is a color revolution in 2014, Crimea, Gizannex, blah, blah, blah, and it looks like there was political

instability inside Turkey and there was a quasi-rev revolution or a coup attempt which was Was later came out where erdogan staged it to find out who didn't like him and got rid of him and then at the same time invaded Syria So it's like how to do it that I agree with that. Yeah, you're speculative on it Yeah, how does that in impacts like the politics with Armenia because nothing really happened from what I see like no like sure there was like a few pop shots across the border but nothing like a full-fledged 2020 situation or the issues he stepped up. No matter how liberal or Turkish diplomat is at the end of the day they hate Armenians. No matter how progressive and how pro-EU they are, when you dig down into their party and start looking into like their party publications and the stuff they spread, it's just the same parking points when it comes to different things. And there was one Turkish president who was actually open on reconciling with Armenians and it was during the Asala movement.

They were actually declared a terror organization by CIA. Oh wow. And it was because they were very good. Yeah. I'm going to get a lot of flack for this. They killed lots of villains. But they were good. Yeah.

Yeah. They were never do that. Like, They were good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They were never do that. So they actually got the list as a terror organization, I think, by Clinton, something like that. Okay. But they were like this Armenian militant organization that operated in Greece, Lebanon, supposedly operated in Palestine, Turkey, France and Portugal. They blew up a Turkish embassy in Palestine, Turkey, France, and Portugal. They blew up a Turkish embassy in Portugal.

Lisbon, it was a funny idea. I met a guy from Lisbon yesterday and he was like, oh, you're Armenian. I was like, yeah, embassy. He's like, yeah. But yeah, so this group kind of put enough pressure on the Turkish government that the president at the time was willing to make Reconciliation and then he got he got

assassinated by some Turk So anytime there's been the one time we were able to get them like there are meeting good or meeting people Honestly, this wasn't even the government was able to put pressure on the Turkish government, was just like striking soft targets, and just basic means of terror and redemption. And it came down to the person that was willing to make a man's and make everything okay, got assassinated, and then military coup. Turkish history politics mostly. Something happens, they start getting progressive. There's a military coup.

Military coup. And that kind of resets Turkey and puts things back. It lines them up, because they're not meant to be progressive. It's Turkey. Yeah, there. That's why I looked at that Wagner coup in Russia the other day where it was like it looks a lot like the 2014 coup in Turkey where

Erdogan secured power and then re-wrote the Constitution where he can never leave office I was like hey Putin is through his political enemies in prison by using the one organization his private arm his SS if you will to prop it up You can say like Progo is there and he's probably off in his own thing So to prop it up, you can say, like, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don, I don't, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don, I don to this. Yeah dude. Everyone is saying it's a cool look at them. They're looking at the map. They're like 15 clicks away. Yeah. From bot mood down the street. Like what the fuck do you mean? Like bro. My favorite part. I was gonna say like my favorite part is the whole world went from like Wagner terrorists to Wagner freedom fighters. You're in lot. You're cutting them within like 20 minutes.

Yeah, and then like sub-dude published an article in the time saying like that two Wagner guys confessed to throwing thermite grenades into a fucking bunker with like 40 children and then naffos on Twitter just like they're gonna save us. They're gonna kill Putin and meanwhile they're throwing thermite on kids and you're just like what the fuck is going us. They're gonna kill Putin. And meanwhile, they're throwing thermite on kids. And you're just like, what the fuck? It's like once again, am I taking crazy pills? And they're like 40 kilometers or whatever from Kiev now. They have their own army base.

They have billions of dollars. And oh, by the way, Bella Rousse is staging barges to go down the deniper. Like, what did he have to do? Yeah, every, I mean, Jesus Christ, could nobody look at them out like You want to look at the bigger picture? It didn't bella Rusey that we're going to be absolved into Russia by 23 So they have seven years they have seven yeah, they have seven years to prove themselves

I think soldiers is a good way to do that So and people look at bella Ruse is like this potato farmers, but they make some pretty Cool equipment there. They've made they make some pretty cool equipment. They make a budget searam that comes out of a Mercedes Sprinter. It's pretty cool. Yeah, they make a searam that goes into a Mercedes Sprinter and with like a hydraulic lift like pops out the top. So they have like equipment now. Now Wagner is in Bellarose. They can just get equipment made by Bellarose right there. It's not a transfer of equipment to Russia. There's gonna be no warnings, no whistles, no, it's a transfer of within

the country to a different building group in your country. So that was something that I looked into because people were saying a whole bunch of shit. My dad was like, my dad was in the army since 88 to like, 2-1-T-22, we have a whole episode on it. But he was like, I was there when we were about kick Sadams ass and Ukraine sold S-300s to Iraq. And so they could get rid of the air corridor that we put over the Kurds. And then Belarus was going to was gonna train them some bitches

And then Belarus also trained the Republican Guard of Iraq because they had mercenary camps in Belarus And so there's a couple guys who are like old Republican guard who went and killed a shit ton of ISIS like the most Decorated sniper who killed that he trained in a mercenary camp in Belarus And so I was like, that's wild. And then I looked it up. Belarus per capita has like the most fucking army bases, the most training grounds, the most everything. Like they're just like literally the hub

of Russian mercenaries. And I was like, okay, cool. And now they have Wagner. And you're like, oh, sweet Jesus. It's like, it's like what Blackwater could have been. And it's like, so Blackwater with some vodka. Yeah, Blackwater with some balls. Like, fucking.

But yeah, dude, that whole thing is gonna go down the shitter because they just, see, we always come back to Ukraine. They just announced another mobilization of like 60 or 90,000 men in Ukraine and they're pulling them out of the fucking houses. There's like videos all over Twitter of young men just like, no, I don't wanna go. Like, don't worry, you get Bradley.

You get high cut off helmet and cry. Like, well, I know how to do anything. No, you get Bradley. You get Bradley. You get Bradley. You get a brandly. You get a pretty sick upper cut in an American fatigue uniform. I couldn't tell if that was an American if there was no flag. What of the fucking guys in our Patreon Discord was like,

because he's like a scout in the army. He's like, I've just accepted that Ukrainian teachers are going to have better gear than me, but they're going to die way faster, but they're gonna die way faster because they're just like, kidded out to the tens. It's like, they're jumping on landmines. They can't remember where their own landmines are. It's crazy. And yeah, we can talk about this forever.

Yeah, we can talk about this. Is there something like that and talking about like post 1990s war against like between Armenian and Azerbaijan? Was there equivalent to like not marking landmine fields just just in case yes some Ezra by Jean he's wandered across the guest smoke check and you could say like I didn't go there I don't know so no comment no all right

so yeah there's a cut. Brick, go mind sweeper on my fucking Armenia pack unless they're fucking. When I was in, what's that? There's a little roundabout in Armenia. It's on the border. There's an FSP border guard, a border post. And that was my first encounter with the FSP. And there's a, there's a FSB base.

There's a kind of hill with pill boxes on it. And the Azurai sit on that side and actually shoot onto the highway of civilians. And that's why it's kind of like this berms so you don't hit the cars. And actually that's where they started shooting at those Indian construction workers who were building that American steel plant and obviously no

spilous blink-and-luck announced nothing the American company gets attacked by Azerbaijan and Armenia no comment. I was there and actually I went on top of the berm and because I didn't know at the time but that's the highway that gets shot at all the time and And beneath the berm is a minefield. And I'm just hanging out. Yeah, you're just like, you're just like, you're fucking, you're like, I'm just looking because I see like Azerbaijan, a little like, Esco barrier. You could, you could see them with binoculars. I could see a little SPG and some other stuff. Well, it's a recordless rifle pointing up a highway.

Then like different things. My driver just goes, hey, maybe come back, come down from there. Don't stand up there. Wait, right in the chair. Yeah, dude. So there's a lot of minds, thankfully. I remember one time I posted about how genius the volcano mind spreader is and

how it could be mounted to an MIA and just cluster your mind. So everywhere. Yeah, those are cool. And some Red Cross guy was like, mind, they're terrible. They blow off the things of children. I'm like, yeah, but also stop as a versionian versions. Yeah. So I'm like, you live in fairy tale land.

Yeah. You're a little trust fund kid. You go, you can volunteer. Yeah, I was gonna say like, how does that work? Because it's like, it's an active war zone, regardless of like, you know, political affiliation or not. So do the average person just pretend it's not there. Or do they go to the gym, get strong and drink,

you know, white monsters all day, just get fucking hyped on WWE pro-mouse. How do they actually deal with that? The average person just acts like it's not there. And that was actually really weird for me because I was like, oh, I almost stepped on the mind, basically my Uber driver pulled me down. I go to a different position, I just see different stuff. And just humanitarian aid, you guys have done it. You see some weird stuff. And then I was like, OK, that was a lot to take in. I go back downtown and we're getting drunk, hanging out, eating kebab. And I'm like, wait, I was two hours ago.

By my hand. I was looking at a record, this rifle, we're putting out the highway I was on. In the Hesco fairs and all this shit, and like FSB board, board of guards. And then it's like, now we're in Yerevan in a nightclub. Let's the same thing in Ukraine, man. It's like, we can see that like,

live even like, you know, Kiev in places like that. Where it's like, oh, it's a party city where there was that old saying back in the Iraq was like, you know, America's in, or you're in, you're at war. America's at the mall, something like that. Where it's like, yeah, I mean, like,

people just don't care about you. They don't care about like the bigger picture. They want to live in like a box or something like that. But I think it's a completely different like psychological aspect where America is on the other side of the planet and Armenia is like what 15 clicks from wherever that recovers right? Five hour drive from the capital. Yeah. Jesus. Okay. How bad the roads are. Those are bad roads. so... If you've got a lot of... You've also been in the German Warvision. Yeah.

Yeah. So... So, the... What happened in the 2020 War? Describe it, because like I have my opinion on it, but you're obviously... You've been there, so I don't know, shit. I would say this absolute, just this array, just fell apart, just complete military, just destruction of the formation.

Yeah. No proper lines of communication. No chain of command. Overconfident commanders, poorly trained conscripts, poorly equipped, or defensive positions. Like, hey, we were there for 30 years why is it trenched out to my shoulder why is it just a dirt trench ductoid oh I can't stand open you know why is there no overhead cover yeah you had 30 years you couldn't wheel a old artillery gun this trench it's like it's like it just old artillery gun. It's strange. It's like it just, our media just never prepared for like a proper military confrontation since the first war. Yeah. The first war during the winter we had some trouble in Shushi and there's a couple parts where we took over our town, Austria's took over our town, and we took over town, the Osiris took over town, and we took over and just kind of, but after

the winter and after the capture of Shushi, it became just steamrolling the Osiris, where really quickly Russia came in and, you know, everyone else came in and was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, like slow down. Our ammunition had never slowed down. Yeah. They were, after that, as a bjana was just running, back to its Baku, and our mini slowed down.

They trusted the Russians about that. And like, I was a way to try to get international support like accreditation, where it's like, hey, we'll slow down. If you give us, you know, legitimacy or something like that. If they probably marketed right, we just didn't market it correctly. And that's that work. I mean, just before before running back to this, under the

Soviet Union, great generals, two admirals, space physicians probably attributed to like the mere projects. Like how do you go from geopolitically? How do you go from something like we have? First aid bomb for the Soviets. They have something to do that too. Yeah, first aid bomb for the Soviets is built in tunnels in Armenia. I had no clue.

Yeah. But it's one of those. Like looking at like the timeline that you were talking about earlier, it's like, how do you go from this to today where they just would rather call someone ugly on stage and just something like that and be like, not getting anywhere, I'm just voicing my personal frustration. It's like, how does that happen?

And does that go back to the 1990s where they were like, well, we'll pump the brakes for a little bit to get some legitimacy? I did want to make a joke, because I've ever met a European man just over competent. No, I mean, no, I like just over confident, just false sense of hubris comes out to that. It's just living on the reputation of these legends. And these legends built the name, did everything, pulled all the way, and now we have a generation that didn't have to do that,

because they built the reputation. So these people are kind of dilly-dally enjoying, living up to all this fame that the name and the people got, but they're not actually working on continuing it. the name and the people got, but they're not actually working on continuing it. So, you have a bunch of people that are not just now prepared, have been complacent, have only been, you know, pounding their chest. It was a 2020 worst shock then for the populist. Very big shock.

Gotcha. It was a very big shock. So, that's a local media. Yeah, they fought hard They're committed people didn't know But it was a big very big shock especially when the M.O.D. was announcing that we're winning we're winning Because Sure, we were winning in the North During 2020 but in the south we were being absolutely steamrolled. In the north we caused the most, the Armenia caused the most casualties on the

Azores. They had almost no land captured in the north. So in the entire section of the Republic of Marsakh, no land was actually captured by fighting. That was all signed away. In the south, that's when they made that big push after they captured Shushi and Hazrut. They had reached Armenia proper. And that's when they were kind of forced to sign the November 9th agreement between Russia as a vision on Armenia. So it could sign the November 9th agreement between Russia as a vision of the Armenian. So that was what I thought happened. And I do, I don't know if you know some of the things I'm about to say on the end, but from what I've researched, that's, you know, the Armenians had old Soviet everything. Just weapons, training, tactics, they were conscript army, the Turks basically worked with Azerbaijan, trained them. Israeli is worked with Azerbaijan? Yeah, and long story short,

what happened in the north was like they were just in a better defensive position. And I mean, I'll be the first, if you've never stormed a trench in training or real life, like it's fucking brutal. It's, you know, you need 10 to one odd, literally, to take that odd. And so the North was pretty secure, but the South, not so much, and the terrain played in the favor of the Azerbaijanis. And so... Ladder terrain.

Yeah. More open terrain. Yeah. And so the drones, the new training, but something that I dug up, I don't know if you're familiar with this, but the American National Guard has a partnership with foreign countries. So I think it's like Pennsylvania. Oklahoma. Yeah. Oklahoma's a Azerbaijan. Kansas with Armenia. Have you researched that? Yes. They actually just did the training exercise.

So at Oklahoma has actually, their governor has gone to Azerbaijan several times. He has had many trips there. They have a Air Force Soft element, Cybersecurity element. They have all these things that they give to Azerbaijan in training. 2022, they increase cooperation with the Air Force Soft Elements, Cybersecurity Elements, they have all these things that they give to Azerbaijan and training. 2022, they increased cooperation with the Air Force Soft and Cybersecurity professionals. They are playing into, like you said, Israel and Turkey, Armenia's paired with Kansas. The last trading exercise I found was for the fucking fire department. And they just did one.

They just did one a couple weeks ago. Yeah. For our meeting. And for our media. Cancer didn't look at our meeting. And to house. I've never seen like National Guardsmen with kid set up so bad. Yeah.

The, the Armenian and COs were actually leading them into the exercise. That's how bad it was. So they were doing like, so they still did a Soviet thing, when they kind of walk in a file out in the open. I hate that. I still see it. And like these Kansas National Guards means we're in a file out in the open. And when they took contact from up for, one of the guardsmen like laid on this back and

started shooting to office back, I just like, what is this? What the fuck? I think their MPs are something. Yeah. So, Oklahoma has opened up its doors to Azerbaijan. Like Azerbaijan is getting like 30 to 40 to 50. I would argue 50 times the training that, uh, Kansas is providing for Armenia. It's, it's absolutely treasonous.

What we are doing for Azerbaijan. And so I was, I was thinking about that when I was like, get ready for this podcast, I was like, bro, if he wants to fucking stick a knife in the side of fucking Azerbaijan, I was like, we need to fucking sit there and like make a fucking like, sign this petition, have Oklahoma separated from Azerbaijan. Because they're- That's right from Azerbaijan. Dude, it's, it, I haven't even looked into it, but I swear to God if you're a journalist or wanna be a journalist one day and you're listening to this podcast, dig. Just dig

into that because the governor has this shitty ring grin on his face. The governor of Oklahoma is like, I don't know what to do. He's getting, yeah, he's getting, they're gonna get it, they're gonna get him a bad position in some sort of oil company or something. That's what they do. They have, there's a bunch of ex-Israelis that are advisors for as a bit Johnny oil.

Yeah, they all have connections, we all have connections. They all have connections like Israeli defense companies. I think it was 2015 or 2016 and Israeli engineer demonstrated a harab loitering munition on an Armenian position. The Israeli engineer from the defense company that demonstrated it on an Armenian So and all they got was a slap on the wrist by the Israeli government. It's really government doesn't care to limit Yeah, don't do a fuck they're making so much money down there. So yeah, I For those that don't know you do a lot of work with Armenia and like there's a lot of nonprofits and stuff like that Going out of there and you're you're pretty tied into the situation

what's What's the future in your opinion? profits and stuff like that going out of there and you're pretty tied into the situation. What's the future in your opinion? What should be the plan? What should happen? What can people do? There is one problem within the Armenian community in the U.S. Even internationally I'd say. It's not very united when it comes to supporting NGOs.

There's a very large NGO that makes, I think after 2020, they had, let me see how much they got, Armenia fund. Yeah. Millions of millions of dollars. And very little of it is actually going into the fence project. Very little of it. Very, I think, like none of it is. There are some new funds growing that people could put money in that go into the fence projects. And the problem is everyone is obsessed over drones and loydering missions, right? Yeah. There's still not doing anything to educate forces on modern communications, how chain-to-command works, modern formations, stuff like basic things.

Everyone wants to say, same with the Ukrainians, everyone wants something flashy, everyone wants a Bradley. Everyone wants a toe. I don't want this conqueror or this foglet, ATGM. Yeah. You have to know. It's like Cody and I always talked about that in order to be a good intel analyst, you have to be a good soldier first. Yeah.

Like, you have to know how, you have to know how to clear a room for walk down the streets and check windows. Like, you have to know those things at first. And so at what point does there, is there a friction a splinter because if the US is quasi supporting both sides and the Russians are in the backyard, you're like, at what point does like Russia just step in and just like they just didn't 2021, they just grabbed their guides are like literally you work for us now. Like if you want that political shield you work for us now you guys like to Soviet so much you're part of us now. Well, if you want that political shield, you work for us now. You guys like to so be it so much, you're part of us now. Now, what points is something like that happen? Is that even an option?

I think that's an option. That's not. Yeah, especially with the current government and how things are going with like Russian Armenian relations. I think the most like 2018 that was out the door completely. Do you think even earlier, just given Armenia's reputation from like 99 till now, I don't think they had ever a chance to have, I mean, 2016 that war was kind of politically stopped. That's when our relation with Russia kind of shined because Armenia's relation with Russia kind of shined. Because our means relation with Russia signed because in the four-day war, Azerbaijan has a

poorly planned assault. I think 2020 wasn't planned by those. That had to be planned by the Turks. That operation order was not written by an Azerbaijanian by Azerbaijanian officers, no. Yeah. Yeah. That was an, that was an offboard from Turkish land command in East Mead. Yeah. And you can see all the generals and stuff that they have assigned to work with Azerbaijan.

I was looking at what I was digging into that. So. Yeah, I mean, like the NGO route needs a little bit of cleaning up obviously. They need some cleaning up. There's some good guys out there. If I can talk about that. Go for it. There's a group called Little Bird or a median development. They're in American 501 C3. There are a lot of companies match donations and they do great work. They're in American 501 C3. They're on a lot of companies match donations. And they do great work. They're getting villages, safety and security equipment.

They're working on cameras. They're American 501 C3, safe free to give them money as an American. And they're on a lot of company match, so if people match, so if they get donations up to, let's say, $5,000, they have a lot of deals with companies that will match that $5,000. They're really smart.

They're run by two great people. They're doing a lot of good work. There's an Armenian NGO, which I think still has a donation thing set up on their website or something on their Facebook, Mets and Degra. It's an NGO slash militia unit and it's like I want to say that is the most deserving of donations out of all these civilian defense groups. There are a lot of young XMOD guys. These are guys that have taken part in NATO training exercises. They're very squared away.

They're very professional, but at the end of the day, that's what they are. They're civilians now, and they're putting together a defense group. Okay. It's called Benson Degrand, MET, SN, Tria, he's really good and I don't know if we shared that video. Yeah, of those like that new group. They're in the park I was like is that a park like come on down we're doing CQB at the park Yeah, I mean it it dude. It's just so

It's so goddamn painful to hear this because I mean you're talking about Because I mean we talked about like the Georgians right who are just laughing at the situation And it's like bro if Armenia falls like you're fucking next like they're not gonna stop on that side of the mountain They're gonna come over and kick your ass. They already have claims. Oh Jesus. Yeah, they have and the Georgians are just ignoring it. They have claims on an ancient Georgian monastery. Jesus Christ. Yeah, and the Georgians allow them to have a military exercise with the Turks in their country. What is wrong? with the Turks in their country. What is wrong? The crazy pills?

I've had to go to jail. Yeah, I have had to go to jail. I, yeah, it's just the most, it's the dumbest thing. And I think it just honestly has a lot to do with like, you were saying at the very beginning, it's just poor diplomacy on the Armenian government side. And nobody is articulating this situation accurately to Americans or Europeans who can't think more than five

seconds it like I don't know am I frozen or can you hear me still your face okay yeah yeah but they they can't they can't understand this more than for five seconds. Like the minute you have to break it, like we were talking about this in the last podcast, if you have to talk more than five seconds about it, most Americans are going to be gone, but you're not a true political scientist. If you can't understand the Balkans, Azerbaijan and Armenia,

like all these, like, because people could talk all day about Russia and Germany and World War II and all these things, but go ahead and try to explain these other things, like we're talking. Well, I think though. I think what it comes down to, like, American foreign policy or American politics is like the racial and ethnic tensions,

where in America, that's a hot topic, like we don't like to talk about that one because, you know, XYZ, but if you talk about in a foreign country, like what don't like to talk about that one because you know XYZ But if you talk about in the foreign country Like what's your go to do you say like they're left to eat leaning we want to support them Do you want to say oh? You know they're imperialistic. We don't want to support them something like that So I don't think they know how to approach it and so not knowing how to approach it and especially like American Education system watering down

Essentially right wing is them to not see is Nazism and left wingism to like complete socialism is a detouration to how to approach the world because if you just look at both sides it's like a complete villain of one another. You're like, cool. Well, there's actually places where, yeah. No, go ahead. I was going to say like, well like what's the simplification of terms and demographics and places like this like hey like some ethnicities don't like each other

It's just a fact like look at Pakistan and India. They just do not like each other So it's like what do you do with something like that because the pack stays or the Afghans something like this It just goes on the rabbit hole and I think it's just easier for us and especially the West who kind of like followed the US to just go like, are they left landing? Let's support them. Good guys, bye guys. Yeah, black and white, right?

But there's no gray anymore. I vote left. So he's the leftist or I vote right. The thing is, it's like, yeah, Americans, I'm generalizing most Americans, majority of them, are just, they understand that basic dichotomy. They can't think past that basic dichotomy. I love that meme I shared, it goes with nothing burger.

It's like, most Americans still need to compare something to a hamburger. Yeah. To get an understanding of something. And it's like, no, it's like, they have, average, you know, they read at the eighth grade level and they have the attention span of five seconds. They want to see someone get blown up on the internet. Yeah.

Yeah. Dude, if I was you, I would just be at every church, just be like, we are subjected Christians, but God sent to the Holy Land fighting on all fronts. Like fucking put your money in the basket. Yeah. That's okay. Which also takes me back to like someone like Israel I got all fronts. I'm like, fucking put your money in the basket. Yeah. Which also takes me back to like someone like Israel who you would think would want to also

support like an isolated nation surrounded by natural enemies. So I think that's like, which is like, I don't know. I think that's the image of that country we have here. Yeah. Yeah. But dude, it's been like of that country we have here. Yeah. Yeah. But dude, it's been like almost an hour and 20 minutes. Do you have anything else you want to throw out there? No, whatever you want to. Yeah, I promise you, this was fun.

This was fun. Matt, you got questions? Huh? I'm formulating it. I don't want to blotch her it. So if you want to like plug something or say something, I'll I'll run back to this guy. Okay. Um, so we've talked about how just everything is convoluted for Armenia. And it's just Mm-hmm. Uh, is there Is there, besides Russia, I know they've had talks with Iran to like anybody. Is there any other countries out there that are helping Armenia, besides Russia and I read that really aren't helping them? Yeah, Iran doesn't really, other than sell his gas, they don't do much. Yeah.

That's the thing. Like, Armenia is scared to have relations with Iran. Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing like Armenia scared to have relations with Iran. Yeah, because you have relations with Iran Now you're seen as you know party access of evil all type of deal Legacy term very nice. Yeah, I It's funny at that work. We're working on a we're working on a certain project American defense. And it's an Armenian, a Belarusian,

and a Russian engineer. And we call it ourself's axis of evil. But, but, but, but, but, but yeah, it's just, I don't know,

other than France, but France just talks. They don't do anything. They're always like, oh, we're going to help. And they take Oreo, they don't do much. And they built schools in Armenia. My cousin in Armenia actually went to a French school. And they built schools. They're trying to expand their influence,

teach them kids a bunch of walksheds because schools. And I'm just just gonna help them. Yeah, I'm like, I'm like, so that using ATGM. Like that rounds back to what I was gonna say is there was this like, like pride parade in Los Angeles and a bunch of Armenian Americans came out and beat the fog out of the T-Cross. Like what are you doing?

In front of my grandma. Really? Grandma lives in another apartment behind the dude getting his ass beat. Yeah, it's like, I, what are you doing? In front of my grandma, I'm saying, really? Grandma lives in another apartment behind the dude getting his ass beat. Yeah, that's like, I had to call my grandma not to take my grandpa outside. And that's his. So it's like, if you look at like what,

the Rodney King rides of the 19, early 1990s, everyone's like, look at these rooftop Koreans being badass, right? Like standing up against looters and pro-tenders. But then Armenian men just go out and like, beat the fuck out of teachers. And they're like, what are you doing in our schools? And they were like, look at this prejudice we have against everyone who's not Armenian. I was like, Jesus Christ. It's like it's across the board.

So, I think this thing, they weren't teachers. There was a one teacher with a bunch of like anti-fifu people. It was funny. Yeah, she taught at my elementary school. She was weird. Doesn't surprise me at all. I saw her. Sir. Sir. I'm like a sir.

You had no surprise and you should pull some shit one day. Yeah, that's so funny. I would. And uh, go ahead. But yeah, no, like I guess over here, that's the thing too. Like Armenians are mad at Armenians for doing that. Not so much of internal conflict. You're like, you've put more energy in protecting your children's schools. Not, you know, protesting against what you're not good.

Okay, with then how much you protested in Armenia? And it's like, did everyone forget the amount of aid, the amount of material aid people sent over during the war? And they're like, we're about to lose our stuff. I'm like, people were like in financial trouble here in the states to help to send money to Armenia during the war. People were committing eye-tower, who were breaking eye-tower to help you guys. And then everyone said, oh, look at the Armenians in LA, they're just fighting for this, they could have put this energy elsewhere, and I'm like these people, like, you know,

for a lot of energy, you can be sympathetic to them, you know, protecting their kids in school. So I do have a lot of energy, trust me, they'll hate all that, like, fucking, tough hate for every day. Yeah, so I do have like one question I want to capstone with this with. If you said that most Armenians pretend the war is not real, if they'd rather essentially gut each other, then be unified. What point did they just roll over and take it as a country? I think we don't roll over.

If you know in your Armenian. Yeah, exactly, but it's like a collective. It's like we can fight ourselves, but that one's fight us, you know, it's like yeah, yeah It's like you have you have a problem with your sibling. That's fine But someone picks on your little brother your little sister. You're gonna be crap out of them Mm-hmm. So it's a lot of you know So do you think that's just work? We unite we unite at the last minute Gotcha, we unite at the last minute

You know, yeah, you look we wait till our little brother is getting just absolutely shit rocked and then we're like coming. You stop that. I got the power of God and anime on my side. I don't tell you. Armenia. Are you not an intel guy? Yeah. No, no Matt. Oh no, he was an infantry man.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a, yeah, I wasn't an intel guy. Yeah, it was the caption every time I saw it was like a like Intel Marines in the wild. It was like what? People are like, who's this fucking weirdo? People think like me and Matt, like sometimes like they'll discredit us or something. They're like, I don't think Cody was in or something. It's like we met in a top-seagrute skiff. In the skiff? Yeah. We were both soft support and like working on like invasion plans for a certain country in the Middle East.

And it's like, no, you can't fucking sit there and tell me like, bro, I don't think Matt really like what the fuck are you talking like his dad was a one of the platoon sergeants there. That's he came on leave to work with his dad. Yeah, I'm boring was like, I'm just going to go to work and bullshit. Cody's like, yeah, I don't want to give a brief. Do you want to give a brief? I'll give you a medal. He's too a marine so they don't get medals so he's just like oh yeah I got a medal and everyone's like so funny so funny but yeah it is kind of funny to look at like a you know the comments or like, you know, like not to

disc order anything, but it's like, you know, discreditation thrown our way. We're like, brother man, we literally like met in an O plan. That's why I posted a couple pictures of me like in the, when I was, I was with this National Guardia Finchie in it. Yeah. Just sound like I've done a little bit of stuff in the dirt. I've slept in the dirt. That's fine.

No, it's part time. Weekend nasty girls. No. Hold up, because my wife did a couple years in the National Guard infantry. And then she supported the 101st infantry. And I can tell you for a fact, being in the National Guard infantry is 10 times worse than being in active infantry

because of how little shit you guys get Like you guys have nothing you go to the field with like your rook and that's it. Yeah No, bro. No, that we just we dug a little hole my slept in it. I thought that's a wheel No, they do that, but they bring like they've got dude. They've got everything. They've got tents They've got fucking command vehicles like they've got dude they've got everything they've got tents. They've got fucking command vehicles One big You guys have one Vic from the 80s like the Reagan era like Soft the thin skin healthy with no top. Yeah, like dude no

Yeah, I grew up my dad my dad was my dad was the Iranian conscript in the worst era But in the war era but in the war between against Iraq so my perspective on the military is if I'm not being fed beans with rocks in it and being shot up by scuds I'm fine. It's good. It's good. It's fine. Yeah. It sucks a little bit, food is bad, but yeah. Get over it. And rather have watered down beans in the fucking powdered eggs they make us.

Oh yeah, dude. I can't, yeah. Hot, so good. We don't like runny, you don't like runny scramble eggs for some reason. Didn't taste like powder. Yeah. Yeah, you're just like sitting there like,

how do you make powdered eggs wet? How the fuck did you make wet powdered eggs? Like how do you see it? Yeah, yeah, how's the hell is this? Oh, dude they When I was overseas they had like the big the big bag of like eggs right the big plastic eggs and this like Fuck it. These two Eastern European Slavic men would make it They'd like dump the eggs on the grill and they'd just try to do their best, but I became like really really good friends with them. And we've had my buddy the contractor chat on. And so I'm Jewish, I speak with my hands, so I'm like got three eggs, scrambled, or like three eggs, like omelet, and like my buddy is just like, what's with the hands? What's with the fucking hands?

And so these Slavic men are enjoying my buddy just ripping the shit into me. But every morning after that joke, they'd be like, cook in the bag, like dump in the bag on the grill and making the eggs, and then they'd see me, they'd be like, ah, like three eggs scrambled, then do the hand movements, and I'd like flick them off,

and I'd be like, yeah, yeah, three eggs scrambled. So I'd get to like, cut the line because they could do the hand signals and there'd be like these kernels like what the fuck And it's like you got to do the hand signals like But no they these big eastern Slavic men just dumping that bag of fucking Egg yolk onto the grill and she's like oh, yeah, I'm gonna have diarrhea tonight, bro, like fucking. It's gonna get those MRIs out. Yeah, that's worth it. Yeah, I guess, you know, we do get a lot of bad rep in the National Guard because a lot of it is very relaxed. But when you're in a unit that gets nothing, you're kind of just out there and you're like survived. It's okay. So my experience of the National Guard is every other story, right?

Like I have met a unit who was absolutely incredible, the 149th cab. They took on half of Afghanistan. They did everything well. I'm that that Colonel, Colonel Collins, this is if he's out there. He dealt with pressure like a saint. Half of Afghanistan was his A.O. Every helicopter in that A.O. was his. He water off a duck's back.

I've seen majors fold under a staff meeting. Just like, this is the worst fucking thing ever. And he's just like, all right guys, let's meet up. We have a little huddle and talk about books. And I'm just like, you are the chillest fucking dude. And then like you said, other National Guard units are just like absolute ripped ass trash like Would die like would die in the first contact of a firefight out there training Armenians like you go take your big beer

Good you're just gonna lay on your sad and that's gonna prevent a stable shooting position Some of them are weird. Yeah. Yeah. My current one, I got there and I'm like, we're going to fucking die if anything happens. I was like, I was like, God. I was so fucking dead. I was like, I was scared.

I was like, yeah, some shit happens. I was like, look and laugh, look and write, like, damn, we're all going to die. It's when you look left and right and they're actually like enjoying it. They're like, yeah, we're all gonna die. It's, it's when you look left and right, and they're actually like, enjoying it. They're like, yeah, this guy's right. You're like, what the fuck? You believe these shit? Like, oh, God. Yeah, man, it's been an hour and a half. This is the cognitive. Yeah, I don't have anything.

I was gonna say, I don't have anything else crazy. He, I mean, if you want to come back, we're definitely not if you want to come back, we're definitely not. If you want to play some, you know, some video games, man. Oh, no. Oh my God. Last night was fucking awful. We spent like four hours. It was a drunk Scottish kid.

Italian Mozambique kid. A Frenchman in Ethiopia watching it all. A Canadian. Yeah, he was smoking a cigarette in Ethiopia, like watching us play. A Canadian, working out in his dream and then went and went to the house of a crazy. And then me, and we were all fucking playing squad, and we were the Chinese trying to fight the Australians.

And oh, yeah, like the Italian Mozambique kid was trying to like drive a tank and yelling at a kid in like fucking Arabic, because he speaks like eight languages. I was trying to lead the drunk Scottish kid And he kept going through the front door and like he dude it's it's a thick accent Duncan if you're listening that accent is There it is just like oh, I'm in Jordan Fuck you would morph now don't gun. It's don't get in there like fucking But no, it's a great time

Yeah, squat on sale Yeah, steam summer sales Lose your wallet you be fun, but but all right, yeah, all right guys All right, well everyone know you know, thanks for thanks for listening Yeah, there we go go on the patreon spend $10. Go on the patreon All right, well everyone, you know, thanks for thanks for listening. Thank you for sticking around There we go go on the patreon spend ten dollars Fun have fun. Goodbye recording stuff