Did wine cause a full-scale revolution in Armenia? | Hacker News Reader

Did wine cause a full-scale revolution in Armenia?

bbc.com

53 pointsMiriamWeiner21 comments

Ha, well, sort of.

For better or worse, Yerevan is certainly becoming more cosmopolitan in the center. A younger part of the diaspora that never lived in Armenia seem to be spending time in Yerevan, with capital to be able to open the likes of wine bars, coffee shops and fancier bars.

The piece talks about wine but it's not as if booze from the region had a poor reputation before. Armenian & Georgian wine, Armenian cognac, all pretty reputable in the region.

It's not the wine, it's the _wine bar_ that's different here. History seems to be littered with change that occurs when thinkers, talkers and dreamers can meet openly in public.

> History seems to be littered with change that occurs when thinkers, talkers and dreamers can meet openly in public.

So true. Thanks for reminding this to all of us.

True for almost all revolutions, Salons in the French revolution, Churches in the English Civil War.

I visited Armenia back in 2007. We visited a very rural town deep inside the mountains with no other towns nearby. The night sky was unbelievable. With zero light pollution, the stars, planets and the galaxy were clearly visible. It was under this unbelievable sky that I tried their home made wine. I've since started enjoying wine on a different level but that experience will never be replicated.

>Armenia claims an enviable history.

Armenia's history makes Russia's "And Then It Got Worse" look delightful.

I've just been to Georgia and been very impressed, and can't wait to go to Armenia soonest. I would not be surprised if this hugely diverse region with a long history, delicious food, and friendly peoples becomes one of the next digital nomad hotspots (like SEA, Medellin, etc.).

Can you tell me a bit more about your trip? I have been wanting to go to Georgia for a few years now.

Just to Tbilisi for a couple of days, though I want to return and see Kazbegi/Stepantsminda, Kutaisi, and much more.

It is just a charming old city with cobble stoned streets, a river running through, between hills, with a funicular (cable car) running up to the fort and the "Mother of Georgia" looking down ([1], similar to Christ the Redeemer in Rio).

Excellent food and wine and brandy, cool bars (41 gradus), decent weather, inexpensive, many historical sights, long history, native script, much friendly, very hospitable, wow.

[1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mother+of+georgia&ia=images&iax=im...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartlis_Deda

(If you have specific questions, feel free to email (see profile).)

I found it amusing that Yerevan in particular has decent high speed Internet throughout the city, yet the garbage collection is still antiquated.

In the post-Soviet era, there are some pieces of modernization they seem to be bypassing, while throwing weight behind others.

The soviet era never ended. Just listen to Radio Yerevan.

I've been reading blog posts about Georgian food lately, and their cuisine and food practices and ingredients seem interesting and somewhat different from those of other countries. A lot of use of walnuts, for example, not just to eat as nuts, but in the form of paste added to various dishes. Also a lot of use of greens and herbs.

culinarybackstreets.com and roadsandkingdoms.com are the sites on which I've been reading that stuff, plus after that, googled some more for Georgian food blogs, etc.

Yes, the walnut sauce is lovely. And the cheeses. And the wine. Damn, hungry again.

I forget which region of Italy it originates from, but there is a wonderful walnut, sage and rosemary pesto, which is quite unusual if you're only used to the basil and pine nut variety.

Wow, thanks, must try that out. Only had the basil and pine nut kind so far, and like it.

Georgia is already on it's way to becoming a digital nomad hotspot. I'm from Georgia, living and working elsewhere. During my last visit, the number of coworking spaces and people working remotely out of Tbilisi was huge.

This being hacker news, I thought there was a revolution in Armenia because people started running Windows applications on their Linux computers.

Armenia and Georgia look like fascinating places, at a real crossroads both culturally, and in terms of the climate and geography too.

No, it didn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines

Armenia was incorporated to the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, not in the 20th. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman%E2%80%93Safavid_War_(1...

The article doesn't state otherwise, it just states when it turned to massacre...

Hm maybe; I think "Ottoman occupation in the early-20th Century turned from oppression to mass killings" has a slightly confusing word order, probably "in the early-20th Century" should go at the end?

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