Antalya or Helltalya?
Seems like, given the chance, the entire population of Yerevan Province will waste their hard earned Drams in those hellholes? Is it because the furkish airlines is the cheapest around or that OUR travel agents get a hefty kickback? Not to forget that Sevan is too cold and there are no furkish prostitutes pounding the sidewalks or “bitches” pardon my “ermenijeh” I mean beaches . How many are trying to stay there pleading “political asylum”, or that they are persecuted in Yerevan because they are “gay“ , I mean happy.?
Survey this map and see where antalya (a corrupted form of Anatolia) is and how far it is from Historical Kilikia.
http://maps.google.c...n...le&resnum=1
I we are so nostalgically enamored with the Mediterranean Sea since the days of the Kingdom of Klikia, how can we forget that Kessab is also on the Mediterranean Sea? Or, is it that our long lost “brothers” speak a “dialect” of Armenian, share the same cuisine of kokma, kakma and kakstrma, while the natives of the Kessab region speak that “funny Armenian“ or “disgusting” Arabic ? Sadly. As we speak, many Kessabtsis are abandoning their ancestral homeland, getting off their “ësheks”, moving to countries, to “greener patutres” where the “ëshek” comes with an emblem of Mercedes/BMW. We forget that to get to the Mediterranean beaches of Syria one can sleep overnight in that most hospitable Aleppo or Kessab which are less than an hour’s drive to the SEA.
Syria map, survey it, see where Lattakia is, and locate the Armenian town Kessab just above it.. Also note that the air route to Aleppo/Kessab is so much shorter than to that helltalia/antalya;
http://www.sacred-de.../syria-1990.jpg
I hate to do this…since it is a furkish site, yet it tells volumes
http://www.turkishfo...er-destination/
YEREVAN - Daily News with wires
Despite the sour relations between Turkey and Armenia, the popular Mediterranean resort city of Antalya ranks as Armenians’ number-one summer vacation destination, reported EurasiaNet.
According to the report, Antalya’s reputation for low prices and high-quality customer service outweighs for many customers the fact that it is located within the borders of “longtime foe” Turkey.
Tez Tour’s Armenia office director, Narine Davtian, told EuraisaNet that by summer’s end her Russian-owned agency will have twice the number of Antalya-bound customers as the 8,000 who chose to travel to the Turkish city in 2008. Armavia’s four direct flights to Antalya each week from Yerevan, a service offered by Tez Tour, are regularly full, she said.
“I am a patriot, but let’s not mix tourism and politics,” Daytian was quoted by the Web site. “No other country can provide the same range [of travel options] and quality. People want a good vacation and they get it.”
Another travel company manager agrees.
“We offer tours to different destinations — Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Georgia, Jordan — but the hottest tours are to Antalya in Turkey,” Flight agency manager Marine Ayvazian told the EurasiaNet reporter, who estimated that the city is the choice of 70 percent of Flight’s customers.
The Armenian government has no data on the number of it citizens who travel to Turkey. Armenian travel agencies, it says, will not share the information.
However, Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry announces the number of foreigners entering to the country monthly on its Web site. According to that data, 19,209 Armenians visited Turkey in 2007, including daily visits. The number went up to 24,496 in 2008 and is 21,231 for the first six months of this year, indicating a definite increase.
While many Armenians are happy to visit Antalya to benefit from the sun and the Mediterranean, some consider it as a “betray to the country.”
A youth group associated with the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun has requested the Yerevan mayor’s office remove all street posters advertising Antalya and “to deal seriously” with the issue. The mayor’s office has not yet acted on the request.
“Advertisements for a vacation in Antalya are springing up like mushrooms and, instead of spending their vacations in Armenia, people are leaving for Turkey. Is this normal?” Haroutiun Melikian, who runs an anti-Antalya protest campaign for the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s Nikol Aghbalian Student Union, was quoted in EurasiaNet story.
“The money that goes to arm and strengthen Turkey [via tourism] could remain in our country and contribute to our own strength,” he argued.
To combat Antalya’s popularity, the Nikol Aghbalian Student Union has hung posters throughout Yerevan that declare that “Armenians who spend their vacation in Antalya are arming the Turkish army.”
Employees of several government ministries told EurasiaNet that unwritten rules forbid state employees from spending their vacations in Antalya — this despite the recent official push towards some form of rapprochement with Turkey.
But the disapproval tactic does not always work.
“If I have to choose between the high prices of Armenian resorts and an all-inclusive vacation at the seaside in Antalya, I’ll pick the sea for my family and me, especially when the difference in prices makes no sense,” said one Yerevan resident booking an Antalya trip in a travel agency.
On average, travel agencies charge as low as $450 per person for a week-long package tour in Antalya, while a similar vacation at Armenia’s Lake Sevan, the mountain resort of Tsaghkadzor or the mineral water spa of Jermuk start at about $700.
Yerevan State University psychologist Nelly Haroian believes that, lured by the attractive prices, Armenians are able to put aside misgivings about the past and feel “comfortable” visiting Turkey since “Turks are serving them.”
Given the crisis-friendly prices for tours to Antalya, expecting any other reaction is not realistic, commented sociologist Aharon Adibekian. “There are many questions linked to national self-esteem, but people are free to decide where to have a vacation and what to do,” Adibekian said.
“We all are patriots,” Tez Tour’s Daytian told EurasiaNet. “And spending a vacation in Turkey does not mean being less Armenian.”