Nicholas Danforth

@NicholasDanfort

Senior Visiting Fellow, German Marshall Fund. Mideast Politics. Turkey. Maps. Historical Randomness. Retweets are not endorsements nor necessarily sarcastic.

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Joined November 2012
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  1. Pinned Tweet
    Oct 16
    Replying to

    the era of mitigated idiocy is over

    2 replies 8 retweets 37 likes
  2. Retweeted
    10 hours ago

    Ruined big game w/. Those whose projects were frustrated turn to antiquated resolutions.Circles believing that they will take revenge this way are mistaken.This shameful decision of those exploiting history in politics is null&void for our Government&people.

    85 replies 357 retweets 903 likes
  3. Retweeted
    8 hours ago

    Genocide and mass atrocities are already vexed areas for leftist foreign policy. This is a troubling and deeply unfortunate way for a standard bearer to be thinking about these questions.

    Omar's office has sent this statement to CNN explaining her present vote:
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    1 reply 3 retweets 26 likes
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  4. Retweeted
    9 hours ago

    1. Today after 40 years of disputes the US House passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Armenian Americans are celebrating. I do not want to begrudge them this moment. They feel closure and acknowledgement of their grandparents' loss.

    6 replies 20 retweets 45 likes
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  5. 10 hours ago

    The Armenian genocide happened and its good congress recognized it. They did it in the worst, most hypocritical way possible and its hard for me to feel good about it. But I hope others for whom this is far more meaningful feel differently and I hope some real good comes of this.

    I welcome the House’s passage of H Res 296, which recognizes and condemns the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23. By acknowledging this genocide we honor the memory of its victims and vow: never again.
    17 replies 28 retweets 94 likes
  6. Retweeted
    10 hours ago

    After 104.5 years, the House just voted to recognize the Armenian Genocide. 405 yes, 11 no, 3 present. This has taken decades, & while I’m supposed to keep myself out of coverage, I will slip just this once to say that vote is an affirmation of history to every Armenian-American.

    193 replies 2,037 retweets 11,263 likes
  7. Retweeted
    10 hours ago

    The genocide is a matter of almost universal consensus among historians. But this resolution has much less to do with historical truth than with the sorry state of US-Turkey relations. Politics was why Congress never recognized the genocide; politics was why it did so today.

    Bombshell: the U.S. House of Representatives has just recognized the Armenian genocide. Resolution:
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    22 replies 239 retweets 551 likes
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  8. 11 hours ago

    Whenever I read smarmy tributes to civility I'm reminded of this North Carolina police officer in the 1950s explaining to a visiting Turkish journalist the importance of throwing eggs at Mamie Eisenhower:

    1 retweet 15 likes
  9. 12 hours ago

    A good look at the complexities and uncertain future of Turkish-Russian cooperation in Syria from

    2 retweets 3 likes
  10. 13 hours ago

    If Turkey's going to do the whole whataboutism thing, why not at least highlight something Americans will learn from:

    House adopted the rule for H.Res. 296 - Affirming the United States record on the Armenian Genocide by a vote of 223-191.
    3 replies 1 retweet 5 likes
  11. Retweeted
    13 hours ago

    GMF's on the consequences of 's death: “For years, Turkey has faced criticism, both fair and unfair, about its relationship with IS. Whatever facts emerge, this will undoubtedly intensify because of where Baghdadi was found."

    6 retweets 6 likes
  12. 13 hours ago

    Ataturk and Fatih standing guard over the newly opened Bosporous Bridge

    10 likes
  13. 13 hours ago

    “It would be all guerrilla warfare, not this open field-style kind of thing,” he said, gesturing at the reenactment of the 1864 Battle of Cedar Creek in Middletown, Virginia, earlier this month. “I would probably be an officer in that effort.”

    Amid concern from extremism experts about rising talk of a new civil war, I asked people at a Virginia Civil War reenactment for their thoughts on Trump's recent tweet suggesting his successful impeachment would cause a "Civil War like fracture":
    1 reply 1 retweet
  14. 16 hours ago

    The difficulty is finding a way to articulate that people experienced unspeakable suffering on both sides - but also that the scale and political circumstances of that suffering differed dramatically in ways that need to be acknowledged.

    6 replies 4 likes
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  15. 16 hours ago

    This has less to do with the actual scholarly meaning of the term than with the way it implies, for many of us, the idea of guilt and suffering tidily divided along national lines.

    1 reply 3 likes
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  16. 16 hours ago

    Part of what makes this issue so intractable is that many people in Turkey have become convinced that using the term "genocide" actually denies the lived experience and suffering of their own ancestors...

    For nearly a century, Turkish policy has made the mere fact of this tragedy a political issue by insisting it never happened, contrary to historical consensus and the lived experience of all of its victims and countless witnesses.
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    5 replies 2 retweets 7 likes
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  17. 17 hours ago

    "whereas Turkey, which was founded on the murder of one million people, subsequently proved more peaceful, stable and democratic than most countries in the world during the course of the 20th century... honestly were confused and uncomfortable and losing the moral thread here

    2 replies 13 likes
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  18. Retweeted
    17 hours ago

    THREAD: Today, the House is poised to vote on a resolution that would make recognition of the Armenian Genocide an official position of the United States government. Nearly all historians recognize it. Nearly all US states recognize it. Many developed countries recognize it.

    4 replies 25 retweets 51 likes
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  19. 18 hours ago

    "whereas congress recognizes that the modern nation state in all its manifestations is an inherently genocidal project...

    2 replies 3 retweets 27 likes
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  20. 19 hours ago

    okay fine i propose a combined "genocide recognition and happy birthday turkey" bill

    IMPORTANT: US House of Representatives this afternoon will vote on recognising Armenian Genocide, and today is Turkish Republic’s 96th birthday
    1 reply 2 retweets 22 likes
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  21. Retweeted
    19 hours ago

    CSPAN video of meeting on US-Turkey Relations with me, , Naz Durakoglu and Ellen Laipson.

    5 replies 10 retweets 18 likes
  22. Retweeted
    20 hours ago

    Now that's chutzpah

    Al-Baghdadi's death exposes YPG-Daesh ties | Today’s Front Page
    6 replies 11 retweets 40 likes
  23. Retweeted
    Oct 28

    A new episode of the WOTR pod to help you sort through the mess in Syria, with guests

    1 retweet 3 likes
  24. 21 hours ago

    From astronaut to pastry chef, there are all sorts of great professions that dont require knowing anything about the Ottoman Empire's relationship to modern-day conceptions of the caliphate. People who write about ISIS for a living should know this stuff

    1 reply 2 retweets 10 likes
  25. Oct 28

    They're also on record as saying Fatih's conquest of Istanbul didn't count, which is almost worse

    2 replies 3 retweets 20 likes
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  26. Oct 28

    Seriously, this is the only reference I could find to the end of the "Ottoman state" in ISIS's Turkish magazine Konstantiniyye.

    1 reply 5 retweets 14 likes
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  27. Oct 28

    Western media: ISIS wanted to revive the caliphate, which was abolished in 1924 with the fall of the Ottoman Empire ISIS media: the Ottomans were a bunch of perverted, polytheistic grave-worshippers

    3 replies 32 retweets 80 likes
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  28. Oct 28

    [those are eggs frying on this take because it is so hot]

    1 reply 10 likes
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  29. Oct 28

    🍳🍳🍳🍳

    Appeasement didn’t work for Neville Chamberlain, and it’s not likely to work for Donald Trump either:
    1 reply 1 retweet
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  30. Retweeted
    Oct 28

    Commentator Mehmet Barlas in his daily column in pro-gov't paper Sabah argues that since "Trump refers to [SDF leader] Mazloum Kobani has 'General' then Turkey should refer to al-Baghdadi as 'Field Marshall'." Barlas manages to be both sarcastic & idiotic.

    6 replies 8 retweets 32 likes
  31. Oct 28

    This seems a bit like saying that Mussolini wanted to revive the Roman Empire, which was destroyed by Napoleon in 1806.

    10 likes
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  32. Oct 28

    A minor point, but I'm pretty sure ISIS did not recognize the Ottoman claim to the caliphate

    8 replies 22 likes
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  33. Oct 28

    Im just amazed they made the guy on the right "unidentified" instead of claiming it was John Bass

    Replying to @CSIS
    The reason is.....
    3 replies 1 retweet 14 likes
  34. Retweeted
    Oct 28

    “Although it is high time the Armenian Genocide was universally recognized, to do so as a way of lashing out at Turkey seems to be inadvisable." - , former US ambassador to Armenia who has become a leading advocate of genocide recognition.

    3 replies 8 retweets 13 likes
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  35. Retweeted
    Oct 28

    New podcast: "The Sense in Syria’s Senselessness" feat. and a special appearance by

    3 replies 16 retweets 22 likes
  36. Oct 27

    She’s nowhere close to going full Gladwell of course. It’s s long slow process and one I very much hope can be reversed.

    1 like
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  37. Oct 27

    The Gladwellization of Jill Lepore is a national tragedy and one that fills me with deep sadness

    1 reply 2 likes
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  38. Oct 27

    (Im honestly not sure if this tweet is making fun of Turkey or Western media coverage. Probably both)

    2 replies 2 retweets 24 likes
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  39. Oct 27

    "Turkey, which sees the YPG as a terrorist entity, contends that the YPG, which Turkey sees as a terrorist entity,  is linked the PKK, which Turkey, which sees the PKK as a terrorist entity, sees as a terrorist entity."

    8 replies 12 retweets 63 likes
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  40. Oct 27

    This article is amazing. I would honestly say anyone who is interested in anything should drop everything to read it

    3 replies 4 retweets 32 likes
  41. Retweeted
    Oct 27

    the academic journal business model - pay reviewers nothing, pay authors nothing, charge libraries outrageous prices - is already pretty shady. But when go after authors for posting their own content on their academic websites, that’s really rubbing it in

    3 replies 35 retweets 78 likes
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