Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ @shabashewitz Twitter profile

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

2 months

Just made a simple portfolio-type website with a bio and some of my best articles. Gonna pin this so that it’s easier to look up what I’m up to.

Dor Shabashewitz / דור שבשביץ

Journalist and political analyst

dor.shabashewitz.com

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

Kanak independence activists waving Azerbaijan flags in New Caledonia, an island in the South Pacific, might be the most absurd thing I’ve seen lately.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

Russians move to Georgia and Kazakhstan and then say one shouldn’t learn Georgian or Kazakh because these “small” languages are a “waste of time” not needed in the modern world. A deeply messed up attitude but it’s very common.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

9 months

This is my great-great-granddad, Viktor Israilevich Zhitomirsky. He was a leading microbiologist and epidemiologist at the Tajik Medical Institute and the Institute for Tropical Diseases in Dushanbe. He helped fight malaria until, all of a sudden, he was fired and forced to leave

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

9 months

@T_llulah Everyone is rightfully mad at her for having Nazi mutuals, but I’d like to add that saying someone “looks Jewish” is weird too. There’s really no “Jewish look”, and whatever this is referencing is a meaningless stereotype and probably partly antisemitic.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

Remember Navalnaya’s post where she said “We’ll find those who want to artificially decolonize Russia despite the shared background & common culture?” Tons of ethnic minority people from Russia are disagreeing with her in the comments – and I translated a few. A thread ⬇️ 1/11

Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

25 days

Yulia Navalnaya mocks ethnic minority independence movements, calling them “decolonizers” (pejorative) and saying that secession of any region from Russia would be “artificial division of a people with a common background and culture.” Unsurprising but still messed up. 1/3

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

This perfectly innocent post by a Kyrgyz user got bombarded by mad Russians saying “no, you post in Russian because your ethnic language is useless, it’s only spoken by a handful of dumb kebab sellers and there’s no meaningful media in it”. Pathetic but unsurprising.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

25 days

Yulia Navalnaya mocks ethnic minority independence movements, calling them “decolonizers” (pejorative) and saying that secession of any region from Russia would be “artificial division of a people with a common background and culture.” Unsurprising but still messed up. 1/3

ᠴᠠᡕᠠᡃᠨ ᡉᡎᡄᡅ Заянго

@Aldarka4

26 days

Общий бэкграунд и культурный контекст с русскими? Вот это вот как раз искусственно

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

22 days

“Russian diplomat turned Putin critic” showing his true face. The entitlement, the chauvinism, the white man’s burden – fundamentally messed up logic but very much normalized among the intelligentsia and mainstream opposition.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

19 days

“A reminder to the decolonizers.” Another Russian liberal showing her true face when ethnic activists from indigenous regions talk about independence or just say that Russia is colonialist.

Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

22 days

“Russian diplomat turned Putin critic” showing his true face. The entitlement, the chauvinism, the white man’s burden – fundamentally messed up logic but very much normalized among the intelligentsia and mainstream opposition.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

It’s pretty telling that so many Russians find this convo ridiculous and perceive it as a “meme”. In the eyes of Russian society, Uzbeks and others formerly colonized peoples lack the agency and education to make such decisions. 1/5

Репетитор грузинского языка 🇬🇪

@tutor_geo_lang

3 months

Как же я заорал

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

7 months

@scrawnya Not really. Indigenous and other non-Slavic ethnic activists from Russia itself, myself included, had been using the same decolonization language for years by the time it became a mainstream topic for Western scholars and journalists.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

For context, Azerbaijan’s dictator Aliyev has been working on rebranding his country as the main ally of indigenous peoples struggling against French colonialism – just because he’s mad at France for supporting Armenia. Can’t make this up!

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

10 months

Pleasantly surprised to see Armenia ranked in the safest category in the new travel warnings map by Israel’s National Security Council. This matches my personal experience, but Azerbaijan has been working hard to paint Armenia as antisemitic. Nice to know it didn’t work out.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

24 days

To those who claim Russia isn’t imperialist because “colonialism is when boats and faraway places.” Russia’s treatment of indigenous minorities, Ukraine, Central Asia and the South Caucasus is enough to consider it a colonial empire – but if you want Africa, it’s in Africa too.

Philip Obaji Jr.

@PhilipObaji

24 days

In the Central African Republic, the Russian Wagner Group punished local fighters who left the private military company by kidnapping their family members.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

“Yulia, the only common background us Caucasians have with you is that you have historically occupied us. We don't have the same culture, we just had to learn yours to defend ourselves. You don't know anything about us.” 2/11

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

10 months

🧵 Azerbaijani propagandists and other anti-Armenian speakers love portraying Armenia as an extremely homogenous, monoethnic country. I’m not sure why this would necessarily be a bad thing, but it’s not even true. A small thread on Armenia’s diversity. 1/18

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

“We, the indigenous nations of the Urals, Siberia and the Caucasus demand that the federation is dissolved as it was created illegally. No one asked if we wanted to become Russian subjects.” 3/11

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

I wish international orgs did some research and talked to Armenia’s Jews before jumping to conclusions. 1. The synagogue wasn’t damaged by the attempted arson. 2. The arsonist was a non-resident foreigner. 3. I feel safe and welcome here, and so do most other Jews I know.

Combat Antisemitism Movement

@CombatASemitism

11 months

On Wednesday night, Armenia’s only synagogue, which serves the small Jewish population in the capital city of Yerevan, was set ablaze.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 days

It’s ridiculous to praise Azerbaijan for inclusivity when it just ethnically cleansed Artsakh of its indigenous Armenian population and officially bans people with Armenian-sounding names from entering the country regardless of their citizenship. You should be ashamed.

Sarah Abraham✡️

@sarajewish

11 days

Azerbaijan is home to various ethnic groups, including Jews, Lezgins, Russians, Armenians, Talysh, and others. The country with a cultural inclusivity and multiculturalism, fostering an environment where different ethnic groups can preserve their traditions.🇦🇿❤️

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

6 months

Mass xenophobia on the rise. Drivers working for Russian taxi apps share messages from their clients: “What’s your ethnicity? If you’re Tajik, cancel my ride.”

Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

6 months

Tajiks have been one of the main targets of Russian xenophobia for decades but now it will be even worse for them because RU propaganda is already blaming the whole nation for the terrorist attack. Already seeing calls to deport all TJ immigrants or send them to fight in Ukraine.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

17 days

A Ukrainian soldier in Sudzha, Kursk Oblast, is asking why no Russian opposition leaders go there to talk to the locals who are disillusioned with the government that abandoned them. “You wanted a Russia without Putin, here it is, why don’t you come visit?” Very good question!

Віталік «Донецк» Овчаренко 🇺🇦

@Vit_Ovchar

17 days

3. Загальна атмосфера я б сказав спокійна. Ми не помічаємо їх - місцеві нас. Якщо хтось з них потім буде казати про «плохое ВСУ» це тупо буде брехня. Бо і їжу і ліки їм привозять. Мене дивує що тут до сих пір немає жодного російського опозиціонера, який би хоч просто розмовляв з

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

25 days

P.S. “Republics shouldn’t secede because they share our common culture.” And why do they share it? Maybe because Moscow forced them to? One of the reasons secessionism exists is because people want to preserve their *original* cultures/languages. Has Yulia thought about this? 3/3

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

Russia has always had a huge xenophobia problem but this is another level. A Russian language teacher shouting at a Yazidi 9th-grader: “I’m proud of my mighty Russian nation fighting against the US, whereas your people don’t even have a country and your language is useless.”

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

6 months

Every time there’s a terrorist attack, Russia’s authorities blame random Central Asian immigrants instead of actually investigating it. This time they blamed a taxi driver who spent the whole day in Samara, not Moscow, and two others who weren’t even in Russia. Pathetic & racist.

Bakhti Nishanov

@b_nishanov

6 months

Tajik foreign ministry officially stated that at least two of the four perpetrators Russia is claiming to have carried out the Moscow terror could not have done it as they have been in Tajikistan since at least November of last year.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

“Access to YouTube and Instagram is enough to have a “shared cultural space.” Now, sharing a political space with fans of Russian nationalist marches and “apartments for Slavs only” is scary. People like you have always asked us to go back to the villages we came from.” 5/11

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

The “English is a colonial language too” part is the most common response by Russians but it’s obviously wrong in this context because specifically Uzbekistan wasn’t colonized by an English-speaking country, it was colonized by Russia. 2/5

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

“You’ll find the decolonizers – and do what? Send them all to Siberia, like under the Soviets, or just to prison, like today?” 6/11

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

“Common background? You mean occupation?” 7/11

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

“Genocide, ethnic cleansing, Russification, erasure of indigenous cultures and languages and acquisition of new territories by force for centuries – is this what you mean by common background and shared cultural context?” 10/10

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

25 days

Tapping the sign aka my article from last year about the distrust indigenous activists rightfully have in Russia’s mainstream opposition. Works every time. I have yet to see a Russian liberal for whom Russia’s borders aren’t sacred. 2/3

To dissolve, or not to dissolve: what makes Russia’s indigenous movements suspicious of re-federa...

There has been a great amount of talk recently about the potential “re-federalisation” of Russia. Seen as a safer option compared to a potential collapse, reform has drawn support from people both...

neweasterneurope.eu

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

“Your husband was “found” and we know what happened to him. And now you’re telling us you'll find us? Sounds weird and retraumatizing coming from a woman whose husband was a former or maybe not-so-former ultra-nationalist.” 8/11

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

“You don't get to decide for the republics.” 4/11

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

“We, the indigenous residents of the republics, didn’t ask you for advice. Do what you want in Muscovy, and we’ll decide what we want to do in our lands.” 11/11

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

“You’re now saying the same as the Kremlin, ignoring that even OSCE and EU Parliament members have officially called for a decolonization of Russia.” 9/11

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

8 days

אזרבייג׳ן היא דיקטטורה פשיסטית שביצעה טיהור אתני. האידאולוגיה הלאומית שלהם היא שנאת ארמנים. זה מביש שיש לנו "חברים" כאלה.

George Deek

@GeorgeDeek

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

6 days

Great, now we’ve got Western academics repeating the Russian myth of “Tatars and Bashkirs will genocide each other if given independence, only Moscow can save them” and using the word “decolonizers”, a derogatory term popularized by people like Latynina who simps for Rhodesia.

Robert Horvath

@RG_Horvath

6 days

This is a grotesque distortion of @IlyaYashin 's sobering words. In fact, he is warning us of the real danger of ethnic cleansing and genocidal massacres after a 'brutal' state breakdown in a post-Putin, fragmented, 'decolonised' Russia. 1/4

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

Yerevan synagogue wasn’t burned down. Someone did try to set it on fire, but thankfully it was put out without major damage. A vast majority of Armenians condemn this attack. Many members of the Jewish community think this was a provocation by Azerbaijan.

Visegrád 24

@visegrad24

11 months

Armenia’s only synagogue was purposefully burned down last night, in an antisemitic attack.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

Most Russians believe Uzbeks should be poor, uneducated peasants or, at best, taxi drivers and delivery guys catering to their needs 24/7 while barely making a living in Moscow where everyone hates them. 4/5

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

An Uzbek talking about decolonization in English messes with their idea of Uzbeks. They make fun of it, in part because they are unconsciously scared. 5/5

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

However, even the first comment alone would be viewed as a funny joke by most Russians because the very idea of an Uzbek speaking English is like “Whoa, is this a talking animal?” 3/5

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

8 months

Another sociolinguistic milestone: Yerevan KFCs are now learning Hindi bc so many delivery people are Indian immigrants. It’s really impressive how quickly Armenia is adapting! It took 20 years for Russia to introduce some signage in Central Asian languages & the locals were mad.

Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

9 months

Saw a bunch of Jehovah’s Witnesses on France Square in Yerevan handing out brochures in 4 languages: Armenian, Russian, English and… Hindi! I hereby declare them the ultimate sociolinguistic barometer. You know an immigrant community is big enough when they start targeting it.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

This is a quote from Sam Greene’s article. As a Russian citizen of ethnic minority background who was forced to leave the country, I strongly disagree. A truly decolonized Russia is one that doesn’t exist anymore. Dissolution is the only way. 1/9

Sam Greene

@samagreene

5 months

We need to be more careful with language here. Rooting for the collapse of Russia’s regime and its replacement with something better is great. So is rooting for the collapse of Russia’s war machine. Rooting for the collapse of Russia as a state — less so.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

6 months

Tajiks have been one of the main targets of Russian xenophobia for decades but now it will be even worse for them because RU propaganda is already blaming the whole nation for the terrorist attack. Already seeing calls to deport all TJ immigrants or send them to fight in Ukraine.

Eden Webberd

@edenwebberd

6 months

Сейчас важно выразить поддержку Таджикистану 🙏🏻 Потому что русские мрази повесили на всю вашу нацию вину за то, что совершили русские спецслужбы. А это значит, что теперь во всех городах рф начнется активный шовинизм против таджиков.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

Seeing so much bullshit about Armenia being antisemitic and/or having zero Jewish citizens that I’m starting to think Armenia’s Jewish community needs more online presence to communicate its actual interests, problems and feelings. I’ll meet JCA leader next week and discuss this.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

9 months

Came to our local Persian bar. It was closed but the owner saw us knocking on the door through a CCTV app on his phone, came here to open it for us and went back to party with his friends elsewhere. “Drink whatever you want and pay as much as you want.” That’s why I love Yerevan.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

22 days

Sorry for so many highly emotional posts about Russian colonialism lately, I know it’s not very academic or journalistic of me. It’s just that there’s been so much hatred towards anything remotely “decolonial” in Russian-speaking spaces that I need to vent somewhere.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

8 months

@ArmandDoma Absolutely, half my family in Russia are like that.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

2 months

Did he just… take responsibility for the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh?

Abdullah Bozkurt

@abdbozkurt

2 months

#Turkey 's president #Erdogan threatened #Israel with a military action today. "We must be very strong so that Israel cannot do these things to Palestine. Just as we entered [militarily] Karabakh and Libya, we would do the same to them."

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin talks about the recent attack on Yerevan’s only synagogue. He, too, thinks it was carried out by Azerbaijani agents in an attempt to taint Armenia’s reputation. I added English subtitles to his video.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

25 days

This is also a very important point. My mom used to identify as Russian at some point after being bullied as a kid in the USSR. She’s Jewish, half-Ukrainian and quarter-Latvian, and her mother was born in Kazakhstan and learned German as her first language. Go figure. 1/5

yev

@YevYevhenii

25 days

People quickly stop identifying as Russian when it’s no longer required for safety. Ask millions of Ukrainians why their parents called themselves Russians before the collapse of the Soviet Union but not after.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

Since this thread is getting some traction, here’s an article I wrote about the emerging independence movements in my original home region, Astrakhan, once an independent khanate and currently sadly a part of Russia, and in its neighbor Kalmykia.

Astrakhan: Russia’s least Russian oblast at the crossroads of emerging separatisms

Astrakhan Oblast is an ethnically diverse federal subject of Russia located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the North Caucasus. The region’s previously marginal pro-independence...

neweasterneurope.eu

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

25 days

I’m asking once again: Kazakhstan was only 39% Kazakh in 1989 and voted against leaving the USSR, yet it’s independent. What exactly prevents many of Russia’s republics from doing the same? Also, “admirer of East Slavic cultures.” And – a thread! 1/13

Robert Horvath

@RG_Horvath

25 days

I disagree. Unlike the 'decolonisers,' Navalnaya is a liberal who understands some basic facts about Eurasian demography. With over 80% ethnic Russians, the Russian Federation is vastly more homogeneous than USSR (51% Russian). The idea that it will dissolve is a delusion. 1/3

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

2 months

Ukrainians don’t owe anything to Russians, liberal or not. If Russian liberals stopped “seeking an alliance with Ukrainians” because of “toxic” social media comments, it’s their own problem and fault. A true ally wouldn’t change their mind like that in the first place.

Emu Brigadier

@emubrigadier

2 months

This post about "what Russians must do to be accepted by Ukrainians" betrays a misunderstanding about Russians. It's not 2022 anymore. As I see it, Russian liberals no longer seek an alliance with Ukrainians or seek their approval or validation. Let me explain why. 1/

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

Just met an ethnic Azerbaijani guy from Russia who moved to Armenia to avoid draft. Asked him what it’s like to live here as an Azerbaijani and he said “same as being gay in Russia, you often hide what you are but with some people you just know you can open up and feel welcome”.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

Armenia’s Investigative Committee officially confirmed the attempted synagogue arson was carried out by a non-resident foreigner who left the country shortly afterwards. This matches govt insider info from yesterday about the perpetrator being Russian.

Երևանում սինագոգի դռները օտարերկրացու կողմից հրկիզվել և տեսանկարահանվել է. ՔԿ-ն նոր վարույթ է...

Երևանում սինագոգի դռները օտարերկրացու կողմից հրկիզվել և տեսանկարահանվել է. ՔԿ-ն նոր վարույթ է նախաձեռնել

www.1lurer.am

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

I know the guy who wrote the post and I fully agree with him as a Jewish person who’s been living in Armenia for over 2 years. No country is entirely free of antisemitism but Armenia is about as close as it gets in this region.

Nara

@nmatini

11 months

From a FB post of a Jewish-Russian activist living in Armenia: “Everything I said and wrote earlier about Armenia as the most favorable place for Russian-speaking Jews to live outside of Russia and Israel was confirmed. Now, when Europe, the Arab world, Turkey and even the

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

Russia’s Chief Rabbinate representative in Dagestan, Rabbi Ovadia Isakov, said the entire Jewish community of his region might be in need of evacuation. That’s over 400 families. “We don’t know where they should go because nowhere in Russia is safe,” he added.

Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

Worrying rise of antisemitism in the North Caucasus. In Khasavyurt, Dagestan, rumor has spread that there were Jewish guests at a local hotel. A group of people reportedly planned to set it on fire. Hotel administration had to put this on their door to stop them.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

6 months

Central Asian countries have received hundreds of thousands of Russian immigrants fleeing mobilization and repression, and yet many Russians, incl members of the so-called “liberal anti-war opposition”, are now calling for suspending visa-free travel to Russia for Central Asians.

саша 🏳️‍🌈

@gaybalagan

6 months

ебать после того, как казахстан и кыргызстан стали вторым домом и прибежищем для сотен тысяч россиян, они все еще требуют ужесточения миграционной политики

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

Lake Sevan is exceptionally beautiful, today and always 💙

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

10 months

🧵 Since I seem to have become an informal ambassador of Armenia’s Jewish residents defending this beautiful country from ignorant accusations of extreme antisemitism, let’s talk about (in)tolerance and discrimination in Armenia a bit more broadly. A small thread. 1/21

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

2 months

Russia is bombing Ukraine because it misses the days when it was officially an empire. Russia thinks it is entitled to control and exploit Central Asia and the Caucasus. Russia is forcing the indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Volga to abandon their languages and cultures.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

8 days

I’ve lived in both Belarus (2016 and visited yearly until 2020) and Armenia (2021 to 2024). This is utter bullshit. Belarus is beautiful and deserves better but today it’s a violent dictatorship actively killing its own language. If you want this in Armenia, you hate Armenians.

Prince du Karabaque

@hayqmets

8 days

Armenians who fearmonger about "turning Armenia into Belarus," do you understand that Belarus is one of the safest and nicest countries in the world in almost all aspects? Given Armenia's current abysmal position, it's embarrassing to mock other countries. Have some shame.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

The average Russian user’s reaction to the Navalnaya “decolonization” scandal and, more generally, to hearing that Russia is a colonial empire indigenous activists might want to secede from, is vomit-inducing. Makes me wish I couldn’t read Russian on days like these.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

And here’s another one on why members of the “mainstream Russian liberal opposition” aren’t good allies for ethnic minority movements and regional independence supporters.

To dissolve, or not to dissolve: what makes Russia’s indigenous movements suspicious of re-federa...

There has been a great amount of talk recently about the potential “re-federalisation” of Russia. Seen as a safer option compared to a potential collapse, reform has drawn support from people both...

neweasterneurope.eu

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

10 months

This is technically a valid concern bc Azerbaijani border guards are known for banning ethnic Armenian visitors regardless of citizenship, but I can’t stop laughing at the idea of a Chinese person named Qian being arrested as an alleged Armenian spy. “Qianքս, you shall not pass”

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

8 months

Kazakh has a whopping triple plural: chipsılar ‘potato chips’! In chip-s-ı-lar, the S comes from the English plural, the I from the Russian one and finally LAR is the Kazakh plural suffix.

Hebrew Words

@HebreWords

8 months

1/ Sometimes, when Hebrew adopts a foreign word it will adopt the plural form as its singular resulting in what is called a double plural.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

Oh god not the “I’ll have a cheese shawarma” thing again. Such a common way for Russian racists to end the conversation when they’re out of rational arguments, implying “your people are only good for serving food to us”. One of the trends I hate the most on this app.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

2 months

Very true. Muscovite “mainstream liberal opposition” doesn’t represent Russia’s indigenous peoples and other ethnic minorities, and it’s a shame that its ethnic Russian-centric and largely imperialist interests are still prioritized by the West.

Erica Marat

@EricaMarat

2 months

The west should platform more exiled leaders from non-ethnic Russian nations. Buryats, Bashkirs, Tuvans, and others suffer from Putin’s regime disproportionately more than Moscovites and share completely different visions of what Russia should be like in the future.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

Imagine thinking France, a country of 68 million people and one of the world’s largest economies, is “enslaved” by the lobby of Armenia, a tiny landlocked country of 3 million people constantly threatened by its neighbors. Azerbaijan supporters are weird.

Dylan

@wakeorsleepENIT

5 months

It's what France deserves for being enslaved to the Armenian lobby. Not even America and Russia are as slavish in their support for Yerevan.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

Fall in the Armenian countryside 🧡

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

6 months

Going to Tbilisi by marshrutka rn and the Georgian driver just made the sign of the cross when passing a Yazidi temple near Aparan. Guess he mistook it for a church and was like “damn, those Armenians got hella weird churches but it’s better to be safe than sorry” 🫡

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

2 months

These are not mutually exclusive at all. Russia violently colonized Tatarstan and then used Tatar merchants and teachers to colonize Central Asia. Today, Central Asian nations are independent and Tatarstan isn’t, which means it can (and IMO should) be decolonized.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

“Guest worker language”, FFS. Гастарбайтер (which is actually a German loanword but it does translate to “guest worker”) is a pejorative term for Central Asian labor immigrants in Russia.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

It’s a shame that the old airport terminal in Yerevan is abandoned and left to rot. Such a beautiful building!

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 days

Nas is trying to justify his involvement with Azerbaijani propaganda here but ironically, this observation actually makes sense… except it applies very well to Azerbaijan itself (and of course to Russia).

Nuseir Yassin

@nasdaily

11 days

That’s it. I’m convinced of the following: Feeling like a victim is the first step of any nation’s decline. Be careful of victim mentality.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

Wasn’t expecting to wake up in an Armenia that recognizes Palestine. Not a bad thing at all – even I, a Zionist, recognize Palestine’s right to sovereignty. It just makes me sad that the relations between Armenia and Israel are likely becoming worse again.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

To those claiming us Jews living in Armenia and blaming Azerbaijan for the attack are actually just Armenians pretending to be Jews. Does my passport look Armenian? Does my Armenian SSN look like it was issued to a citizen when it literally says “foreign passport”?

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 days

When Yulia Navalnaya criticized independence movements in Russia for trying to “artificially divide a united nation,” Russia’s mainstream opposition agreed. Some even began simping for Rhodesia to prove the point. There was one exception, Yevgeniya Chirikova. I talked to her. 1/5

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

On antisemitism in Armenia (from the 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Armenia by the US Department of State).

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

9 months

@CaliberEnglish The Wiki page on Zangezur mentions five potential etymologies for the region’s name. Not a single one of them is Turkic. It’s an Armenian name, get over it.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

13 days

This right here is why Russia needs to be decolonized. The pressure to assimilate is so high it takes meeting a foreign linguist to realize what your ethnicity is. Awesome story but also an extremely sad one. One of a silent ethnocide.

Johanna Laakso

@JohannaLaakso5

13 days

The local guy, deep in thought, goes out to smoke. And comes back with a figurative light bulb above his head. "You know, I grew up with stories about those Karelians who used to live here in olden times. But now I realize they didn't just disappear. We are them." 3/3

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

4 months

The Yerevan synagogue was once again attacked by an unidentified individual who threw stones at the window. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Members of Armenia’s Jewish community think this was another provocation by an Azerbaijani agent. Read this article from last year for context.

Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

9 months

Last month, someone tried to set the Yerevan synagogue on fire. Although the perpetrator was a non-resident foreigner, many media outlets and personalities around the world used the attempted arson to call out Armenia’s alleged antisemitism. This article by Jackie and me focuses

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

8 months

“Go to Israel, you ugly little Jewess” is what Russian kids yelled at my mom every time she went to play outside growing up in the USSR in the 1970s. In the end she did go to Israel 🤷‍♂️

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

Slavic Russian supremacism, xenophobia and Russification of the minorities are extremely pervasive and deeply ingrained, they weren’t invented by Putin and won’t go away when he dies or leaves office otherwise. Personally, I’m tired of this “give Russia another chance” thing. 3/9

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

Just heard of a Russian immigrant who was issued an Armenian social security certificate with “Tatarstan” as their country of nationality. Armenia’s migration department be living in 2030 with a decolonized Russia 🙏

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

Armenian officials and Jewish orgs agree the attack was most likely orchestrated from abroad specifically to taint Armenia’s reputation. If you don’t want to take my word for it, contact Rabbi Burstein or secular Jewish community leaders Rima Varzhapetyan and Nathaniel Trubkin.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

What do you think happened next? Was the teacher fired? Duh, of course not, not in Russia! Instead, an angry mob of adult Russian ethno-nationalists showed up at the school to “defend” her and “punish” the poor teen. Full story and video here (in Russian).

Антифа ру

Представители Русской Общины вступили в противостояние со школьником 25 апреля националисты из «Русской общины» парализовали работу школы №4 в городе Батайске, Ростовской области. Толпа мужчин...

t.me

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

23 days

@breadaintdead You can see from the comments I posted that many Russian speakers, too, understood her this way. Not saying that’s what she actually meant but I don’t care much either. The reaction matters to me by itself.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

Message to Azerbaijan from a Jewish person and Israeli citizen happily living in Yerevan (me): you can lie all you want, but there are many of us who feel safe here and proudly stand with Armenia! No place is free of antisemitism, but Armenia is as close as it gets in the region.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

15 days

I can only speak for ethnic minority independence movements in Russia. Yes, they mostly are romantic nationalists and they do view foreign powers, especially the US, Ukraine and a few EU member states, as important strategic allies. I, however, fail to see what’s wrong with this.

molecular vernacular

@vikkink

16 days

i'm still to see any evidence that today's mainstream decolonization theory in europe and post soviet societies is in any way distinguishable from the 19th-century romantic nationalism. coincidentally it makes it oh-so-cooptable by rivaling imperialisms

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

A few members of the new Russian Jewish community which emerged in Yerevan in 2022 are calling for a rally against the recognition of Palestine and accusing Armenia of antisemitism for the most unhinged reasons. This is messed up and not representatitve of all of Armenia’s Jews.

Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

3 months

Seeing so much bullshit about Armenia being antisemitic and/or having zero Jewish citizens that I’m starting to think Armenia’s Jewish community needs more online presence to communicate its actual interests, problems and feelings. I’ll meet JCA leader next week and discuss this.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

10 days

Funnily enough, Russian ethno-nationalists are convinced Russia was the poorest part of the USSR. They have a complex conspiracy theory on how Georgians and Estonians were bathing in money at the expense of the oppressed Ivan. They even got fake maps and statistics to “prove” it.

Beroya Maar Δ

@JetElectricEyes

11 days

I love how every time someone with half a brain attempts to show how good USSR was, its always russian statistics lol No shit, the centre government and their country benefitted from pillaging everyone else

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

1 month

Just saw this ad for an event by the Yerevan Jewish Home community. The restaurant hosting it was originally in Stepanakert, its owners – like all Artsakhtsis – were expelled from their homes by Azerbaijan, and they reopened the place in Yerevan. Beautiful, wish I could be there!

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

8 months

Just had a nice view of Ararat on my way to Tbilisi!

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

Many foreign experts want to give Russia another chance because they believe it can be democratic and inclusive. In theory, it can, but in reality, there is no reason to think it will be like that after the next regime change. 4/9

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

12 days

Although most of my research has been on Turkic languages and communities, my very first field trip some 10 years ago was to the speakers of Seto, a Finno-Ugric language spoken on both sides of the Russia-Estonia border near Pskov. I’ll share a few stories from there. 1/9

Bogáta Timár

@BogataTimar

14 days

This week at a Finno-Ugric conference I heard one of the funniest fieldwork stories in my life. It involves Tver Karelians, and Niklas, a young and very handsome Finnish scholar, with good Tver Karelian skills, who went to the region to collect linguistic data.

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

Maybe some American scholar thinks Russia will become a genuine federation if it tries for the third time, but ethnic minority activists on the ground and in exile don’t have this luxury of “let’s wait and observe from a distance, maybe it works out this time”. 6/9

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

5 months

The USSR was technically a federation. Today’s Russia, too, is one – it’s even in its official name. For Tatar, Mari, Kalmyk, Bashkir and other activists, it is clear that this formal designation hasn’t helped them preserve their languages & cultures or enjoy actual autonomy. 5/9

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

11 months

Honestly baffled by this Israeli political analyst comparing Armenia to Iran in terms of how it treats its Jewish residents and how much freedom of expression they have. This is either extreme ignorance or deliberate misinformation.

akog

@akog

11 months

@shabashewitz Wow, its like "lets talk to the Iranian Jews, they will explain that Iran is a peaceful country"

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Dor Shabashewitz דור שבשביץ

@shabashewitz

10 days

There’s a community of ~200 Kurdish Jews in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Their ancestors moved from Iran to Georgia in the late 1800s. Then Stalin deported them to Central Asia. Apparently some of them still speak a Neo-Aramaic dialect which is awesome! We don’t talk about this enough!

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