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Kevork Oskanian

@drkevorko.bsky.social
2.1K followers 984 following 2K posts

IR, International (Dis)Order, Eurasian Politics. Lecturer at @uniexeter.bsky.social. Onetime Liberal. Enemy of Pigeonholes. X refugee. Personal views, Repost ≠ 'Like'. Cosmopolitan mutt: roots in 🇦🇲🇬🇷🇩🇪🇱🇧🇧🇪🇬🇧.

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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Something deeply troubling & shocking is happening at Exeter University*, where a mass cull of staff is planned, even though it's in surplus. No good justifications given. @jamesgdyke.info provides the details: www.technosphere.earth/the-bonfire-... *Disclosure: I have a Visiting Fellowship here. +🧵
technosphere.earth
The bonfire of the humanities
150 academic posts at the University of Exeter are to be cut, most in the humanities but also in social sciences, engineering and environmental sciences
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
James Dyke @jamesgdyke.info · 01/07/2026
Please sign the petition - this really helps! www.change.org/p/stop-redun...
change.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
«The mood was described as “febrile and mutinous” but also “positive and hopeful”.» -- True that. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Fury over Exeter University plan to scrap dozens of humanities posts
Rowan Williams and Mark Kermode join campaign against proposed cuts for arts and social sciences
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
IMPACT, baby. Exeter university staff rally to 'fight' job cuts www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Nearly 20K sign petition to stop University of Exeter job cuts
The university says the measures which would hit Devon and Cornwall posts were currently proposals.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Update: Impossible to work with the effing Sword of Damocles hanging over your head,
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Yes, we need more “I googled it and asked ChatGPT so now I’m an expert”.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
Business Ukraine magazine @businessukraine.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
“Rather than demilitarizing Ukraine, Putin’s invasion has inadvertently created the heavily militarized and permanently hostile Ukraine of his worst nightmares.” www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrain...
atlanticcouncil.org
Putin vowed to demilitarize Ukraine. Instead, he created a major military power.
When Putin launched the full-scale invasion in 2022, he identified the “demilitarization” of Ukraine as one his two primary war aims. It is now clear that he has failed in the most spectacular fashion...
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
#StopTheCuts
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Sign the petition - stop redundancies at Exeter! www.change.org/p/stop-redun...
change.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Mood. youtu.be/hJVXg1AHQTY?...
youtu.be
American Beauty (5/10) Movie CLIP - Lester Blackmails Brad (1999) HD
YouTube video by Movieclips
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
Meduza in English @meduza.io · 16/06/2026
Two days after the U.K. intercepted a Russian shadow-fleet tanker, a Russian warship fired warning shots at a British yacht in the English Channel. Moscow claims the civilian vessel ignored radio calls and flares, forcing the Admiral Grigorovich to open fire at 150 meters. meduza.io/en/news/2026...
meduza.io
Russian warship fires warning shots at British yacht in the English Channel — Meduza
The Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired a warning shot in the direction of a civilian yacht flying a British flag after it came within about 500 meters (1,640 feet) of the warship in the…
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 16/06/2026
Robert Kuzovkov, an artist who worked under the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, had recently joined protests against the Putin regime. He had lived in Poland since 2021 after leaving Russia to avoid arrest. ft.trib.al/My1qeXx
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
"How to turn a turd into gold".
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
"Harebrained" doesn't quite captures this -- Early War Goal Was to Install Hard Line Former President as Iran’s Leader www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/u...
nytimes.com
Early War Goal Was to Install Hard Line Former President as Iran’s Leader
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
This book is blowing my mind right now.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Wes Streeting will be to the UK's Labour Party what Kamala Harris was to the US Democrats.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
This is some Soviet-style shit.
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
The “Blue Labour” strategy still being promoted by some on Labour right is premised on being able to win social conservatives while holding on to social liberals. Failure state for this strategy is failing to win social cons while alienating social liberals. Here is a map of that failure state:
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Farage is a project by and for a certain billionaire elite. Anyone aspiring to tackle him without clearly laying this out will be fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Plenty of reasons for the Putin regime to feel nervous. This is one of them. At this rate, they’ll have to bring the war (sorry, Special Military Operation) home if they want to continue.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
After Biden and Starmer, political scientists will have to invent a new term for centrist politicians who help hard-right populists into power because they didn’t understand their time was up.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
1915-2026. 🕯️
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
Kevin Rothrock @kevinrothrock.me · 23/04/2026
Russia's deputy foreign minister says Putin has been invited to this year's G20 summit in Miami but Vova's attendance isn't yet confirmed. "God knows what will happen before then," Pankin told reporters at the UN. Indeed. t.me/kommersant/1...
t.me
Коммерсантъ
Россия приглашена к участию в саммите G20 в США на высшем уровне, заявил замглавы МИД РФ Александр Панкин. Кто в итоге будет представлять Россию на встрече, пока неясно, отметил он. «Есть приглашение...
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
“Only the best people”.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Funny to see many of the same people who told us at the start of this war that international law didn’t apply suddenly discover the virtues of international law through UNCLOS and the Strait of Hormuz.
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
All this talk about the Madman Theory at work this week is driving me… well, you know. open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...
open.substack.com
The Beclowning of the Madman Theory
The tentative cease fire negotiated earlier this week is not --repeat, not -- an example of the Madman Theory at work.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
"That's OK, because the terrorists in question look like us and quack like us, wear uniforms, and spread their terror from multi-million dollar drones and fighter jets".
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
When writing my Masters dissertation on Iran's nuclear programme, I encountered the term 'crazy state' - applied by an Israeli scholar to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Maybe it's time for another neologism: 'psychopathic state'?
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Starmer and Whitehall must be delusional if they think that the US-UK relationship could, or should return to 'business as usual' after this.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Thank God for TACO Tuesdays.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Go back 60 years, and American pundits and politicians would have told you with the same conviction that the world as we knew it would end if North Vietnam and the Vietcong weren't defeated. North Vietnam and the Vietcong weren't defeated, and the world did not end.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Reagan: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'. Trump: 'Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards'.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Քրիստոս յառեաւ ի մեռելոց! Christ is risen! Happy - and peaceful - Easter to all.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Trump apologists to Europeans right now: “Why don’t you come and jump off a cliff with us?”.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
The idea that King Charles secretly loves Islam because he doesn't honour the entirely non-existent 'tradition' of an Easter message is a whole new level of right-wing nativist derangement.
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
Ian Hall @drianhall.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Good
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
This must be the most stupid war in living memory.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Few phrases I detest more than 'civilised world'.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Teaching at a Catholic institution takes me straight back to my Jesuit school days…
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 02/04/2026
Many civilian deaths in the Persian Gulf have been among migrant workers, whose labor has quietly turned cities such as Dubai into global business hubs. As many of Dubai’s wealthier residents fled during Iranian strikes, those workers have remained.
washingtonpost.com
Migrant workers keep Dubai running but can’t afford to flee Iranian strikes
As Iran’s retaliatory attacks hit regional centers of commerce, such as Dubai, the majority of the deaths have been among migrant workers who could not afford to flee.
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
Seva @seva.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
just thinking again about this article from a top poli sci journal
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 02/04/2026
Jacques Tilly, Germany’s best known maker of political carneval floats is on trial today in Moscow (he’s safe in Germany). These are some of his floats of the past years.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Happy to once again be lecturing on the rise and fall of the Liberal International Order at ICES.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
The Only Democracy in the Middle East™
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
A Chinese AI take on Trump's little excursion... youtube.com/watch?v=As0r...
youtube.com
US-Iran war explained by Chinese AI animation: Legend of the Valley of Gold
YouTube video by Taipology
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
And we’re off.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Concerned about Palantir sinking its claws into the British state? Sign this petition. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...
you.38degrees.org.uk
Stop Palantir taking over our public services!
Our public services aren’t for a secretive profit-hungry US tech firm. Sign the petition to tell the Government to scrap all contracts with secretive US tech firm Palantir.
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Reposted by Kevork Oskanian
ian bremmer @ianbremmer.com · 22/03/2026
a few more weeks of this, trump’s going to release the rest of the epstein files to distract from the war in iran.
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Kevork Oskanian @drkevorko.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
The biggest threat to Western Christianity are not ordinary Muslims, but ethnonationalist grifters who are trying to abuse Christianity for their hateful, thoroughly un-Christian political ends.
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