bellthecat

To be serious (sorry!) the same sort of war that most of Armenia's generals fought back in 1917-1921, pretending that they led a fully trained and equiped European army capable of fighting a European-style war. I don't for a moment think that Turkey ever will attack Armenia, but if it was ever to be considered it would not be the threat of fighting Armenia's armed forces that would deter a Turkish invasion, it would be the prospect of facing the day after day, month after month, year after year resistance from every person in Armenia. That's what's now happening against America in Iraq.

I wait for you to do likewise!

I read it that she was insecure about other people, and not that she was insecure about herself. In this I'm reminded about her "liars and braggers" thread, i.e., if you doubt the sincerity of a person then how can you be trusting and secure with them. Aren't people with huge egos also often the sort who are secretly very insecure?

Don't people test things because they know that there is a likelyhood of their failure, with bad consequences resulting from that failure? I think that there must be something that makes you doubt that that these guys, so far, are really worthwhile for you and are what you want and are worth risking a lot of emotion and time on. So don't lower your standards, Nairi! We wouldn't want a lowering in testing standards for vital components in cars or aeroplanes would we - and what is more vital that securely knowing that you are with the right person for you. Especially if it is the possibility of a for ever and ever thing that you are hoping for. Also, there is a danger that just the desire to be in love with someone (anyone) blinds you to the reality of the situation, so keep up the testing. If someone loves you then shouldn't he love your bad sides as well, since he should appreciate how lucky he is to be so close to them? (Though I suppose it does depend on what sort of bad those "bad sides" are!).

Their main airbase is in Erzincan, actually. Erzurum is where most of the foot-soldier grunts are based.

You are living in a fantasy world if you believe that. Turkish tanks could be in the heart of Yerevan before a single Armenian plane had left the ground. Armenia is impossible to defend in a conventional war since its territory has no depth. In such a situation, planes are nothing but expensive playthings for generals and to be used for fly-overs for silly politicians.

The first part is certainly right, but it does now seem that these people actually do now represent "Russian culture" both within Russia and in most non-Russians' view of what a typical Russian is. It is these sort of Russians that are the ones displaying that "Mongol consciousness" that Armensarg mentioned earlier.

Hey, I consider that what I said was rather smart. And in my eyes the wrong foot was on your leg, not on mine! But if you are going to be courteous and gracious then I'll do the same and will give you a chance to repair my less-than impressive image of you.

That says it all, and is an explanation why your articles get my unwavering lack of attention.

Yep! A classic case of "the pot calling the kettle black". I'd guess that ordinary Russians refer thus to true Caucasians because they consider the Caucasus to be nothing more than a colony and its peoples not worthy of any rights beyond the limited few given to them by their Russian imperialist "masters". Did anyone here notice a news report that a prominant Russian cosmonaut was beaten up in a Moscow street by a gang of Russian policemen because he "looked" Chechen?

Yep - it's very regal looking. A king amongst cats , maybe even their emperor.

The first three are by a studio photographer in Van, and are sold as photographs in a shop in Van. The next two (of the kitten) were taken by me, at Gevas (Vostan) to the south of Van. And the next two are from postcards. The last is from a book about Van. Though I wonder if the third one and the last one is of the same cat - they look similar. I had noticed that about their eyes, Nairi - it's possible some of photos are reversed (my pics are not), but I don't know. Also, the older the cat, the lighter its amber coloured eye seems to be. I haven't seen enough of them in real life to know if one eye position is more common than another! And most Van cats don't stay still enough for you to get more than a brief glance at them.

Though, actually, I think it is only obviously Christian to either ardent Christians, or those with little or no cultural connections to a Christian society. For the dwindling number of people (like myself) who grew up within a Christian society but were by choice not actually Christians, they could read and enjoy it without any of those cultural hang-ups. When I was reading them as a child I never noticed any Christian content, apart from the odious Aslan who fortunately only made brief appearances. I was given a copy of "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" when I was about four. Which was way to young to actually read it, so I just left it in a cupboard. Then, a lifetime later, when I was six, I rediscovered it and spend all summer reading it, hidden away in a little hut that I had made in the garden. And I remember remembering that book on the first time I went abroad alone, on a long train journey all the way to Turkey and beyond, while gazing out of the window like the characters in the book gaze down into the seas as they travel endlessly on and on. Ani is Narnia? Maybe - it has the correct letters.

Which, when taken literally, would have the additional advantage that the strain (drain!) of having to write with ones own blood would limit the number of words written. But if everyone had to write with sincerity then few would be able to last longer than a paragraph, and most would dry out after a sentence - which is why we should always mistrust short maxims.

And another Van kitty. Well I like them, even if nobody else does! http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/vancat2.jpg

Only better to understand where the authors' had nicked their ideas from maybe. I think that realising they are not just the pure imagination of the authors' actually makes them less pleasurable to read. About the religious overtones, I had mentioned under a different subject a while ago that The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was just a reworking of the True Cross story. And that Georgia's story of St Nino and the life-giving pillar was as well.

I think it depends where in Turkey, and who you speak to. Officially now it is always "Yunan", since using any other word would imply that there was a native Greek population in Anatolia for 1000s of years, and not just Greeks there mostly as a result of a post WW1 invasion from "Yunanistan".

You are underselling Russia's development. At the end of the 19th century the Russian economy was the most dynamic and fastest growing in Europe. It was compared to America, and in it size and natural resources Russia had potentual to exceed America. Cultural, technological, and social activities in Russia were at the cutting edge (we can still recognise this through its novels, and music, and art). And that advancement was an important reason WHY Russia had its revolution. But unfortunately those Russians that understood and had created those advances were still a minority. The vast majority of the population still had its "Mongol consciousness", and it was they who became the willing canon fodder and enforcers of the Bolshevik tyranny (a tyranny which did not develop until the mid 1920s and which was as Russian as its overwhelmongly Russian victims were.)

What a crock of shit this books sounds. He lacks even the most basic understanding of Iraq's history. For example, there was no Arab rebellion against the Ottomans in Iraq. And if Iraq under its current borders had not been created then Turkey would have quickly reoccupied all of northern Iraq in the post WW1 period. The origins of the 1958 coup date from WW2, when the "nationalists" - a small clique of fascist-inclined Iraqis - called in German help to precipitate a coup against British rule. Britain had planned to give Iraq complete independence by the end of the 1930s, but, thanks to WW2 and the existence of pro-German groups, Britain feared that any independent Iraq would quickly become a German colony, so halted plans for independance. This antagonised a lot of ordinary Iraqis, and resulted in the growth of the Baathist party. So blame the Germans. Meanwhile, the pro-German Iraqis organised their short-lived coup, took over Baghdad, and asked for German militery help. The Germans quickly flew in a flight of aircraft but the idiot Iraqis mistook them for British planes! After landing in Baghdad, the first man who got out of the first plane was shot dead by Iraqi soldiers. Unfortunately he happened to be the comander of the German forces! And the by now rather discouraged Germans did no fighting at all because the Iraqis did not realise that the plentyful supply of gasoline they had promised the Germans was only ordinary petrol and not suitable for aviation fuel. Germany were not very serious about intervening anyway, since they wanted Turkey to join the Axis forces and one of the rewards for this that Turkey wanted was to regain all of Iraq.

The only real enemy of Russia is Russia itself. You only have to look at its history to realise that.

And yet another. This suspicious looking kitty looks like it is planning world domination, or at the very least thinking about starting to. http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/vancat3.jpg

Another real one (from a postcard). http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/vancat1.jpg

Ed, here is what the so-called "Turkish Van cat" breed looks like - see, it looks nothing at all like a real Van cat! Ordinary eyes, different ears, and different colouring. So let the Turks keep their fake Van cats! The real ones are still around to be claimed!! http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/catfancy-turkishvan.jpg

Hmmm. So you have yet another victim in your sights. What happened to the one that came after me?

More meows. A little kitten that was wandering around an open-air restaurant near Van. http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/31.jpg http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/30.jpg