Karena Avedissian's Avatar

Karena Avedissian

@karena1

Eurasian politics and foreign affairs, covering Russia, former Soviet space, Turkey and Syria. I focus on conflicts, political crises & narratives. Senior Analyst RCDS.am. Member @fromtheperiphery.com. Fellow thersa.org. Substack: itskarena.com

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06.10.2023
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Latest posts by Karena Avedissian @karena1

I spoke with @essssraaa.bsky.social about Azerbaijan’s expansionist agenda toward Armenia, the growing divide between the Armenian government and people’s lived realities, historical memory, and comparisons to Palestine. It’s one of my favorite episodes. Do give it a listen!

11.12.2025 11:25 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Syria: One year on after the fall of Assad
On From the Periphery Podcast
www.patreon.com/posts/145397...

10.12.2025 18:42 👍 23 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 2

Here I am with the thoughtful and brilliant @aymanmak.bsky.social and @leilashami.bsky.social talking all things Syria one year after Assad’s fall

11.12.2025 10:50 👍 5 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
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Ilham Aliyev's Territorial Claims on Armenia | From The Periphery Media Collective Get more from From The Periphery Media Collective on Patreon

Recently, I spoke to @karena1.bsky.social for @fromtheperiphery.com about Azerbaijani's president's expansionist statements. We explore the stark difference between lived reality and govt stories, historical memory suppression, trauma, & draw parallels to Palestine.

www.patreon.com/posts/ilham-...

10.12.2025 10:19 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1

Called it

26.11.2025 08:10 👍 197 🔁 43 💬 9 📌 2
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FTPP 8: Palestine Solidarity Against the Odds | From The Periphery Media Collective Get more from From The Periphery Media Collective on Patreon

How do we keep showing up when it feels like nothing is changing and when we're burned out? Together with @aymanmak.bsky.social & @karena1.bsky.social we spoke about Palestine Solidarity Against the Odds on @fromtheperiphery.com
www.patreon.com/posts/ftpp-8...

07.10.2025 10:33 👍 18 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0

Random, but I’m still looking for stable employment (research/analysis/writing/teaching) and I’m happy to send along my CV in English/French. Job has to be in the UK, Canada or online.

28.09.2025 20:32 👍 67 🔁 64 💬 0 📌 6
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How Keir Starmer’s polling became one of the worst in the west – in charts The UK prime minister’s drop in approval is among the lowest on record – both at home and abroad

It is quite a feat to be able to write a long article on the lack of popularity of political leaders and avoid talking about actual politics

Little context, nothing about power or ideology

Democracy is just management and it's worked so well so far...

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

09.09.2025 07:07 👍 68 🔁 16 💬 3 📌 1

I cannot help but think of the Armenian genocide where repeated forced displacements were a core part of destroying an entire people

09.09.2025 06:57 👍 66 🔁 26 💬 1 📌 0
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Israel pounds Gaza City as Netanyahu orders residents to ‘leave now’ Israeli forces bomb more high-rise buildings in Gaza City as Netanyahu warns residents to flee.

Israel is bombing Gaza City as Netanyahu orders Palestinians to "leave now" www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

09.09.2025 05:43 👍 66 🔁 48 💬 2 📌 3
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Photos by journalist Mariam Dagga Mariam Dagga, a visual freelance journalist for The Associated Press, chronicled the stream of wounded and dead that every day flowed into southern Gaza’s main hospital, where she was often based.

The horror journalist Mariam Dagga photographed in the last months of her life. The last one is from the hospital where she was killed today. Curated by @apnews.com editors apnews.com/photo-galler...

25.08.2025 20:12 👍 220 🔁 167 💬 1 📌 10
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Democrats writing letters

17.08.2025 02:20 👍 575 🔁 136 💬 8 📌 7

A week after Azerbaijan’s 2023 attack on Artsakh, Israel’s assault on Gaza began. As Gaza’s suffering exposed the limits of human rights and international law, a friend, whose family is from Artsakh, said: “It’s when I realized how f*cked we are.”

My piece on the need for solidarity in these times

12.08.2025 09:07 👍 7 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
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Is there a road forward for Suwayda’s Druze and Damascus? - Syria Direct Activists in Suwayda who were once open to the Damascus government weigh in on how their views have changed following a wave of sectarian violence—and whether any path forward remains.

Good piece from @natachadanon.bsky.social on what people in Sweida say the central government must do to regain their trust.

The government is hemorrhaging faith, particularly from minority groups, and seems unwilling or unable to confront the more extreme factions

syriadirect.org/is-there-a-r...

04.08.2025 09:00 👍 6 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

Hear me talk with @leilashami.bsky.social about my time in NE Syria, also known as Rojava, speaking with Islamized Armenians, descendants of survivors of the Armenian Genocide who were forcibly ‘assimilated’ during and after 1915. And listen to the other episodes of her podcast!

31.07.2025 15:31 👍 19 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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In the latest episode of @syriapodcast.bsky.social I'm joined by @karena1.bsky.social to talk about the experiences of Islamized Armenians in Northeast Syria. Available on all podcast apps or here:
fromtheperiphery.com/2025/07/30/s...

31.07.2025 13:45 👍 11 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1

I needed to hear this episode today ❤️ if anything just to know what I'm feeling is felt by others

30.07.2025 04:55 👍 8 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
This cannot be the new normal

This cannot be the new normal

The Gaza famine and genocide cannot become the new normal. The latest episode of The Fire These Times is now available everywhere.

With @ayoub.bsky.social @leilashami.bsky.social @danielvoskoboynik.bsky.social @essssraaa.bsky.social & @karena1.bsky.social

www.patreon.com/posts/135258...

29.07.2025 23:06 👍 52 🔁 30 💬 0 📌 2

i find myself regularly reminding people that not one single German was severely punished for simply refusing to contribute to the Holocaust

17.07.2025 18:11 👍 1926 🔁 451 💬 22 📌 4
WeTransfer TOS says they can use all your uploaded content for genAI

WeTransfer TOS says they can use all your uploaded content for genAI

Bye forever, WeTransfer.

14.07.2025 23:57 👍 6946 🔁 3733 💬 211 📌 989

the stories that come out of the ICE camps are going to look like the stories that come out of every camp system; rampant corruption, epidemic disease, physical and sexual abuse on a vast scale, a death rate far higher than normal, and medical abuses.

02.07.2025 22:28 👍 12591 🔁 3542 💬 209 📌 114
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BBC boss offers to meet Jewish staff over Bob Vylan performance Tim Davie tells staff that comments during Glastonbury show streamed live by BBC were ‘deeply offensive and totally unacceptable’

So the head of the BBC is implying that British Jews are somehow connected to a chant about the Israeli army?

Does the BBC apologise to British Muslims when armies of self-described Muslim states are criticised?

How are we still at this level of the discourse?

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/j...

02.07.2025 22:33 👍 105 🔁 25 💬 1 📌 6

loved this conversation and so appreciate the space for independent thought @thefirethesetimes.com has created

01.07.2025 17:12 👍 196 🔁 44 💬 3 📌 1

My @civilnet.bsky.social interview on my trip to Northeast Syria (AANES), where I met with Islamized Armenians reclaiming their identity

30.06.2025 07:35 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Zohran Mamdani hasn’t said anything negative about Jewish people or cheered on their suffering. Yet these 4 demand he “distance himself” from such rhetoric.

They, however, have *all* expressed support for a government that’s committing a genocide & killed Americans. Will they “distance” themselves?

29.06.2025 17:31 👍 907 🔁 219 💬 24 📌 18
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'Who are these people?' Masked immigration agents challenge local police, sow fear in L.A. Local police have little or no insight into where the federal enforcement actions are taking place. In some cases, local cops have been mistaken for federal agents, eroding years of work to have immig...

“In Pasadena last week, a man stepped out of his unmarked vehicle at an intersection, unholstered his pistol and aimed it at a group of pedestrians before returning to his car… That incident left the police chief of Pasadena resigned to figure out whether it was a crime or part of a federal raid.”

24.06.2025 14:41 👍 2781 🔁 1096 💬 202 📌 154
Islamized Armenians in Syria: A Hidden Diaspora Reemerges
Islamized Armenians in Syria: A Hidden Diaspora Reemerges YouTube video by CIVILNET

Dr. Karena Avedissian, political scientist and researcher, shares insights from her recent visit to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, also known as Rojava.
@karena1.bsky.social

24.06.2025 08:56 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1