For you islam may be just a religion but for EE it is dervishme, being second tier humans and the reason the renesaince in Eastern europe started 500 years later.
If the refugees were vulnerable it is possible. But the majority of them are male.
And some of them are draft doggers.
If the Ukrainians start to run from Russia the reception will quite different - case in point - the armenias during the genocide.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13661540 and marked it off-topic.
The whole western world sat and watched two decades of persecution that Armenians suffered which ended up becoming a genocide, even Russia who declared herself the protector of Ottoman Orthodox christians didn't move a finger. And those who managed to flee the country were not always welcome. See e.g. the autobiographical movie Mayrig.
Also, in 1915 when the Armenian genocide started, the western world was already locked in a bitter war with the Ottoman Empire. Did you want the infantry sent against Ottoman positions to be carrying banners saying "Okay, now we really mean it!"? Then after the war you had the major players exhausted, denuded of men, materials, and war chest.
Finally, there wasn't really a concept of a 'world cop' like there is in the Pax Americana... but even with the Pax Americana, there's plenty of places it ignores (eg see the five-year Second Congo War, ended this century, 5 million dead).
This picture that you're painting skips an incredible amount of context.
The Ottoman Empire was a world power up until the first world war - suggesting that other world powers should go to war against them because of how they treat people in their own sphere of influence is completely missing the context of the times.
Hell, it's even missing the context of the current times - how many western nations intervened in the annexing and oppression of the Crimean peninsula by Russia? What is the World Cop doing about the clear oppression of Tibetans by China? What is anyone doing about the plight of North Koreans under their murderous dictatorship? What about the Khmer Rouge in the 70s, where the World Cop actually backed the people doing the genocide?
Context is important.
Ans who said those aren't actual Ukrainians? Ukraine has been multi-ethnic for centuries...
>Eastern Ukraine has a huge Russian minority.
And has had for centuries, but it's seldom mentioned in stories about "Russia invading Crimea".
It's as if e.g. Baja California had 60% population of US ethnicity, Mexico's government was toppled to bring a coalition of anti-US parties in power (including actual neo-nazis, swastikas and all), and the US getting in Baja California to protect their citizens and their national interests and been called for it (not to mention that its somehow forgiven to do worse in Iraq and elsewhere, with actual deadly invasions, but Russia is called for intervening next to its borders and with Russian ethnicity population living there).
It's not 'as if' and you're regurgitating Russian propaganda and shallow whataboutism. The key issue is Russia invaded and annexed a piece of a sovereign country, a country whose territorial integrity it was bound to respect not just by international norms but a relatively recent treaty. It just isn't comparable.
Actually it is just like that. What part did you find unlike that? The "sovereignty"? Mexico, which I used as my example, is also sovereign. And the rest of the things are all true: Ukraine is directly in Russia's borders, it has areas with large ethnic Russian population, and it's legitimate government was toppled. Even the part about bona fide neo-nazis being part of the power coalition is true.
>and you're regurgitating Russian propaganda
No, I'm rather not force-fed with BS west propaganda for the events. (And I'm not Russian either, so it's not like I have a horse in the race. I just can't stand hypocrisy).
Russia is a 1000 pound bear, mostly minding its own business and border interests, and is blamed by a 10,000 pound King Kong who rampages all over the globe.
(USSR yes, it did pull the same kind of shit all around the globe too. But not today's minor player Russia).
>and shallow whataboutism.
Those that bring on "whataboutism" are the ones that are OK with one side doing all kinds of crap (even 10.000 miles away from it's borders, where it has no business to be, and with thousands of dead and total mayhem caused by its actions) but only criticize the other side for doing 1/100 as much -- and are quick to shout against whataboutism when that is pointed out to them.
It's like a murderer calling out a guy that merely slapped an annoying person -- and when called on it, he complains about "whataboutitsm".
This is inaccurate and you can read pretty much any reporting that isn't from RT at the time that confirms that it is not.
No, I'm rather not force-fed with BS west propaganda for the events. (And I'm not Russian either, so it's not like I have a horse in the race. I just can't stand hypocrisy).
It's not hypocrisy. You are simply deeply misinformed and equating reliable sources and unreliable ones.
And I'm not Russian either
I am, if it helps you believe me. You have no idea what you're talking about. I don't think you can find a serious analyst of these issues, of any political leaning or ideological stripe who will not tell you this was aggression. It's killing people as we type. I get the desire to be a clear-eyed critic of the US but what you're doing is providing excuses for immoral things. You should reconsider doing that, I'll leave it at that.
if RT is not trustworthy, google "azov battalion" and click on images. more about its people and their role in government:
Oh, and Ukraine is not within Russia's borders. The USSR died a while ago.
That's an analogy of something the US could do that it would be similar to the Crimea situation.
In real life they did much worse (just in the past 10-15 years): they invaded 2 countries (and bombed 8 or so), bombed them, occupied them, created hell-holes of fundamentalism and mayhem where functional states once stood -- and they did that 6000+ miles away from their borders, where they have no place to be, and no ethnic Americans to protect there to justify their actions.
>Oh, and Ukraine is not within Russia's borders. The USSR died a while ago.
Not sure if you even know the region. The two countries share miles upon miles of borders. Except if you took "within" to mean "surrounded" -- I mean "right there in their border".
i wish Ukrainians would be more inclusive and stop separating Ukrainians into "real" ones and ethnic "others", whose only link to Ukraine is the Ukrainian passport.