William

Philadelphia is the best city in the country.

Other cities are great! We love New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Baltimore, San Francisco, New Orleans, Miami...

But Philadelphia, it's a special place! I can't claim to be from the city, but I thank my stars everyday that I grew up near it 🔔

Who's "they"? When did this happen? What are you talking about? Is it relevant to the late 1990s?

Written in 1998.

Asks the question: with the collapse of the Soviet Union, what will happen to the Russian-speaking peoples who are now minorities in the newly independent titular republics? Focuses on Estonia, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.

"Untangling myths from historical reality is very difficult and often tries the patience of nonspecialized readers"

- Bogdan Denitch
"Ethnic Nationalism: The Tragic Death of Yugoslavia"

I've traveled a fair bit, all around the world.

Los Angeles is one of my favorite cities.

Feel free to message me on here and I'll send the file (if it lets me), I would truly like someone outside my social circle to give me fair feedback!

And you know I had to combine Turkish and Greek singers, because drama aside, Turks and Greeks aren't such different people.

But my fave artist in the list is Eleni Foureira: Albanian refugee to Greece who represented Cyprus in Eurovision. A pop goddess.

U.S. declares genocide in Sudan, sanctions paramilitary leader Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces has used systematic murder and sexual violence in its war in Sudan, the U.S. government says as it sanctions RSF’s chief, Hemedti.

Ah cool apparently the US opposes genocide www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

I'm proud that I can understand all those different peoples, even in Turkish!

I met Bulgarian Greeks when I was in Thessaloniki! I had an interesting conversation. And years ago I met Bulgarian Turks in Istanbul. Identity and geography are so layered. But the violence of the nation state has forced people to pick sides as much as it has forced them out of their homes

Forgive me if I already sent you this (I think maybe I did?) but this is a sample of the paper I wrote for my undergrad thesis last year. Of course the population exchange came up, even if it wasn't the focus. I'd love to get your opinion!

We should do a book recommendations exchange!!!

I imagine we have some overlap in what we've read. But I'd be happy to learn of any books you thought were really good. I already shared some with you, so please (if you have time and energy), send some my way :)

Between pushing to rename the Gulf of Mexico as "the Gulf of America," the Panama Canal grab back and "buying Greenland," even Trump's imperialism reeks of Trump University-level scam energy.

"Ege Denizi" a playlist of Pop Gold from Ελλάδα and Türkiye:

open.spotify.com/playlist/3jUIC… #NowPlaying

And yet Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, European Turkey, Bulgaria, and Macedonia exist with their deeply rooted and indigenous Muslim populations 🤷‍♂️

Not to mention that Islam is the second largest religion in Europe. And that Spain and Sicily and the Balkans were Muslim regions for centuries.

"a key to their European identity"

There's no reason that Islam cannot be part of a European identity, because it already is a part of a European identity.

This might shock: but neither Islam nor Christianity are originally from Europe.

Oh this one too!

All I want to do is share the nerdy books, super specific books I read 😅

I'll happily take any of your recommendations too!

Not about Kazakhstan specifically, but I can recommend these books!

Important point to make about this quote:

He says "near-genocidal" likely because the book was written in 1994. You were thinking that of course there was a genocide in Bosnia, the only internationally recognized one happened in 1995.

Looking at your profile it seems we have many overlapping interests! I got into my field by learning about Yugoslavia and I was fortunate to study in Sarajevo last Summer. Then I traveled the Western Balkans, ending in Athens. I care also about the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia!

It's difficult to read people on social media. Are you just being a stubborn troll, or are we having an interesting conversation sharing ideas? I think this has been the latter, and I do appreciate it. But forgive my initial defensiveness. I'm sure you understand 😄

I did write this paper last year as my undergrad thesis (I've attached a short sample here). Of ourse we can't talk about modern Greece and Turkey without talking about the population exchange and I do wonder why no one mentions the legacy of the exchange when talking about the Cyprus question.

It was literally a short post suggesting an idea I have for a research paper. It didn't shadow anything. I didn't even mention why or how the island came to be occupied. I simply mentioned that this is something that happened...a direct line from rejecting Enosis to the island being split.

It's quite good so far!

These little boxes could never contain a whole research paper and I haven't yet written it anyway. I'm just thinking that a critical comparison of Crete and Cyprus could be valuable research.

That's not how it reads at all 🙂

I'm saying that the situation of Muslims in Crete after Greece annexed it might well have given Cypriot Turks an insight into how they would be treated had Enosis succeeded. We can expect, then, that they would fight this! It's an idea for research I have forming...

...what? I'm talking about a topic I'm thinking of researching. How can it be "simply wrong"? I haven't even made a statement.

I have a paper idea bopping around my head comparing #Cyprus and #Crete. Thinking about the population exchange between Crete and Anatolia, and how that likely impacted Cypriot Turks' perception of #Enosis. Leading of course to war, and then the division of the island.