I may be a Never Trumper with TDS but this is President Trump‘s finest hour!

@HiYou12 the world would be better off without nuclear weapons period.

@SW-User Tell that to the West Berliners who would’ve been swallowed by the USSR without the US nuclear umbrella.

So to refine your statement: The world would be a better place if the enemies of freedom and western civilization had no nuclear weapons whatsoever.

@CedricH No.

The world would be better without nuclear weapons, period. I stand by that.

And by the way, your statement includes the US and Israel as the enemies of freedom and Western civilisation at this point.

@SW-User Okay. You‘re entitled to that point of view, you‘re not alone, but among senior statesmen and policymakers you‘d definitely be alone with that view.

@CedricH Yes. The senior statesmen and policymakers claim that Iran has always been the aggressor in the Middle East, and that Israel is a peaceful land flowing with milk and honey, very much in the Biblical sense. Which is why they dare not criticise.

I am proud to stand against them at this point.

@SW-User Whatever makes you proud 🙂

@CedricH Western Civilization huh?
Western Civilization started with the Greeks.
Yet you lot are fine with the Turks walking over them.

@basilfawlty89 Ehm, at what point did I say that I was fine with Türkiye‘s foreign policy vis-à-vis Greece or Cyprus?

@CedricH in our last exchange you vehemently defended Turkey and Azerbaijan. Ironic, as Pan-Turkism led to the Genocide of the Pontic Greeks, the burning of Smyrna and later the illegal occupation of Northeast Cyprus by Turkey.

@basilfawlty89 I justified Azerbaijan‘s invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh, their own sovereign territory. By that same logic, I vehemently oppose the Turkish invasion and subsequent occupation of Cyprus and any infringement of Greece‘s or Cyprus‘ airspace or their maritime rights under the UNCLOS treaty.

@CedricH sovereign territory illegal ceded by Stalin to "Azerbaijan" you mean? And land where Armenians lived as the indigenous majority for thousands of years before Turkic migrations to the Caucasus. And land where Armenians of Artsakh voted by referendum to be independent from Azerbaijan as were their rights as an Autonomous Oblast when the Soviet Union was ending?

@basilfawlty89 Yes, that land. Exactly. Just to note though, even before the USSR stepped in, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic controlled Karabakh from 1918-1920. So Stalin‘s administrative reforms are beside the point.

Both countries had a claim to the area. The issue should’ve been resolved peaceably through negotiations, the regime in NK refused to even consider any partial autonomy or special region status with minority rights.

As far as I know, but maybe you have some better insight into this, it was their position to either be fully sovereign or annexed by Armenia come what may, and nothing else was seriously considered until the realities on the ground had already shifted against the Karabakh Armenians.

@CedricH and Armenia held parts of modern Turkey that was allotted to it by Serves, then removed without their consent with Lausanne.

The amusing parallell though is the glorious west was all for the independence of Bosnia and Kosovo (and rightfully so), but when happens to people in MENA who can't be used for oil, they don't matter.

Also - fun fact, before 1918 there was never an Azerbaijan north of the river Aras until 1918. It refere to a region in Iran. Pan-Turkists in modern Azerbaijan used the name to try to make claims on Iran.

@basilfawlty89 I think I’ve mentioned it before, and I‘ll mention it again. I would’ve been in favor of a Nato-led, humanitarian intervention to end the First Nagorno-Karabakh war (1988-94) so that a negotiated settlement could’ve taken place with a permanent Nato presence in Karabakh to protect the people, the cultural heritage and the political autonomy of Nagorno-Karabakh.

But these are complicated issues and keep in mind that it took the US and Nato a while before they finally intervened in Bosnia, after 3 years of bloody, even genocidal, inter-ethnic, inter-communal fighting.

The main phase of the First Nagorno-Karabakh war war was over roughly three years after the dissolution of the USSR. Armenia, NK, supported by the Russian Federation won that round.

As for the League of Nation’s allotment. I‘m aware of it. It was, in fact, a just settlement. But Turkey successfully fought the allies, who weren’t interested in much more fighting after WWI, which led to substantial revisions to the Treaty of Sèvres.