Hacker News Reader

Comment by jmstfv | Hacker News Reader

> Azerbaijan expelled the Armenian population from Baku in the 90s pogroms

Armenians started assaulting and expelling Azerbaijanis back in 1987 (Kapan/Kafan). This happened before Sumgait/Baku pogroms.

View on HN

This mini-thread accidentally explains why the West don't, won't, and can't care about Azerbaijan/Armenia violence: it's fucking incomprehensible. Tribes killing each other for generations, for complicated reasons that no one without a relevant PhD will understand. It seems intractable, so we throw up our hands and focus elsewhere, somewhere with a simpler narrative.

Everyone gets uptight about the word "uncivilized," but this kind of generational tribal conflict _is_ a failure of civilization. I don't know what causes civilization (it sure ain't skin tone), but without clear villain/victim narratives, and heroes to root for (brave Ukrainians fighting for their own liberation), no one will care. And that's tragic, too, but it's not a commentary on the underlying tragedy of human suffering and death, that people in every nation hurt the same.

You defer to the tv ratings and PR campaigns to define ‘civilization’.

Modern definition - if you're driven by emotions, over principles and self reflection.

And yes - Armenians are failing to be in any way rational about the long standing conflict.

True. Though the number was at least an order of magnitude smaller than Sumgait/Baku.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com