Otto's Random Thoughts

It is impossible to tell short of people telling me in the comments or otherwise how many people ever read anything I write here. The site c...

I have a journal article with the title "Kurds in the USSR, 1917-1956" scheduled for publication in the October 2017 issue of Kurd...

Tomorrow marks the 76 th anniversary of the Supreme Soviet decree to deport the ethnic Germans living in the Volga German ASSR, Sarato...

Yesterday, I tried a new Korean place called Seoul Ramen off of Kievskaya. I had the ramen, kimchi, kimbab, a half liter of coke, and a half...

I have decided to once again to try and use this blog as a personal journal. Especially, since I am planning on seriously reducing the time ...

This blog has been slowly dying for a while. It long ago ceased to get any readers and comments stopped eons before that. But, now I am trul...

It is impossible to get into the heads of dead dictators and political police chiefs and frankly trying to do so is rather pointless. Intent...

I was only in Seoul a week so my observations are rather casual. That plus I speak almost no Korean. I purchased a Russian-Korean phrasebook...

Okay, I have been very lax in updating this blog this summer. Mostly, I have been in Bishkek visiting my family. But, I did make a week long...

I am currently in Kyrgyzstan visiting family again as I do every summer. I'll be back in Kurdistan in September. In the meantime I don...

Regarding the Tuvel controversy there is something that I have not seen brought up. That is the difference between ethnicity and race. Ethni...

In relation to the last post, Beria's official justification for the deportation of Turks, Kurds, and Hemshins from Georgia in November...

In November 1944 the Soviet government accused nearly 9,000 Kurds from Georgia including women, children, old men, Red Army soldiers, and Co...

On Thursday I finished classes for the semester. Now I just have to give and grade finals. In the last two weeks I also sent out three journ...

Today I went to the Amna Suraka prison and museum . The political prison designed by the East Germans specialized in the torture of Kurds ac...

Today I got up at 5:00 am. But, fortunately I went to bed at 9:00 pm so I got enough sleep. I took the 7:00 am bus to work and ate a breakfa...

At this point I am sure this blog has no readers other than my parents left. But, I feel compelled to keep the thing alive just out of sheer...

I thought Stalin's construction of socialism causing the premature and excess death of over 15 million people was near the top of inhuma...

Today I took a taxi to the bank and then strolled to the bazaar. At the bazaar I had a falafel roll and ayran for lunch. Then I walked to a ...