My main response is that there are many instances in life where you have to face reality rather than hold on to something that just no longer exists. That doesn't mean that everyone needs to embrace the new. It means that you have to consider both the new and the old, and try to make some sort of compromise.
If you don't do that, the situation might turn out to be a lot worse than what you intended. Here's an example. I have for about 3-4 years been acquaintances with someone who still works as a doctor in Yerevan. She has worked in the city as well as with people in the villages, and she told me that some girls in Armenia, because of fear that they're not going to be virginal on their wedding night, choose to have anal sex so that their future husbands think they're virgins when they get married. Other than being disgusting (and I mean think in a physical sense, not in a moral one), that's very unsafe in a society where most people still think that condoms are unnecessary. Had these girls believed that they wouldn't be disgraced if they weren't virgins until marriage, maybe they wouldn't have turned to such behavior.
And Armenia itself is changing, whether people like it or not. I'm not sure exactly why that is. Of course, a major part of it is probably the western influence as well as the Russian media. I'm sure that has a lot to do with the fact that Yerevan's high-end "supermarkets" are miniskirts galore (that's the standard uniform of their female sales clerks). I guess when you watch tv and see those Ukrainian "Virgra" girls making megabucks primarily because they look good and wear sexy lingerie, that makes you think that's what you need to be to attract male customers and men in general. For the same reason, employers there have no qualms putting in their ads that a girl needs to be "barekazm" to work for them as a waitress, while no similar requirement exists for men. See, Armenia is not Bhutan, where people have, to a great extent, managed to preserve their traditions, including the tradition that women don't really need to use sex to find/keep a man. It's also not the US. It's somewhere in between: similar to Taiwan or Singapore. Just look at the flight attendants of Singapore Airlines the next time you're at the airport, and see if they don't at all remind you of how much the female waitresses/cash clerks in Armenia use sex/sex appeal to get what they want out of life. Armenia, or Yerevan at least, is hardly a place where an impressionable young girl can feel that she doesn't need to be sexual to get ahead in life.
There coule be another reason that a couple of people have suggested to me. They say that many of the young people in Armenia (those now in their 20s) grew up in the early 90s, where there was little electricity and not a whole lot to eat besides pasta from Iran. As a result of this hardship, they now have a you-only-live-once attitude, so they've chosen to throw some of the traditional values out the window.
There's also the high ratio of young single women to young single men, which has made the former turn to non-traditional means to attract potential mates.
In short, Armenia no longer is a bastion of "good"/traditional sexual mores. Maybe you didn't see/hear this when you were in Armenia, but there are some things people there say sort of as anecdotes, but I'm sure there's truth to them. They joke about Armenian men having two women: one in Armenia, another one in Russia (again, not a good thing considering that HIV is a problem in Russia and most Armenian men still don't believe in condoms). They also joke about men from Iran coming to Armenia becaue it's "Europe" to them (i.e. sex is easier to get there), or at least because they want to go to a place where attending a strip club is acceptable. I myself never witnessed this because I never went to a dance club in Yerevan, but I've heard that girls at night clubs there dance provocatively in front of mirrors while boys are in the back watching them.
Maybe we just didn't see the same Armenia.
As far as being an 18 year old virgin, there are lots of people like that. If you really do feel strongly about the no-sex-before-marriage rule (which I respect but disagree with), you should be open about it. The problem is not the small number of people in the same situation; the problem is that people in that category are not open about it, which reinforces the view that that's not normal. I happen to think that 18 is too young for that. The right time for sex is when you're old enough to realize that your first time isn't going to be glamorous and will be more awkward than romantic; most 18 year olds are not mature to understand that. There's a very good scene about that in the movie "Kinsey"; the rest of the movie isn't good, but that scene shows that that sort of thing by no means comes naturally to a man.
P.S. I never said porn is the way to go....I was referring to regular Hollywood movies. I've never watched porn on my own. Pretty much the only time I saw it was when I was 10 and two very repressed and dumb adults (yes, who were virgins when they got married) were babysitting me.
I won't argue with you on the subject anymore. As long as you believe BOTH men and women have to remain virginal until marriage (in other words, no double standars), that's cool.