
Did wine cause a full-scale revolution in Armenia? - MiriamWeiner
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190129-did-wine-cause-a-full-scale-revolution-in-armenia
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helipad
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.

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ranit
> 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.

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hrayr
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.

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fnord123
>Armenia claims an enviable history.

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

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FabHK
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.).

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vram22
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.

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GordonS
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.

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vram22
Wow, thanks, must try that out. Only had the basil and pine nut kind so far,
and like it.

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

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

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calcifer
No, it didn't.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines)

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m0skit0
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...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman%E2%80%93Safavid_War_\(1532%E2%80%9355\))

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

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m0skit0
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?

