TheArmenianPirate

First, let me point to the quote below by one of your lovely “moderators”. To me and to many rationale individuals, your moderator’s comment would qualify as “sarcastic ridicule” in his usually pathetic effort to marginalize other forum members’ factual statements regarding the cultural issues that face us as Armenians today in a VAIN, or rather, a SNIVELING attempt at creating justifications for his own lack of cultural conviction. So please little lady, SAVE your innuendos and banter regarding “respect” and “being dignified” for the FASCIST ANIMALS you have dubbed as “moderators” that lurk on these boards ready to pounce on the backs of any proud Hye that speaks the truth about what’s going on in his/her culture. Have your fellow lackeys practice a little bit of what you preach, then try and add some intelligent commentary about the serious as well as immanent danger that faces our ethnicity and culture today. If you cannot do either of these things, I just suggest you shut your mouth and listen, you and those like you may just learn something about how to have pride in yourselves as Hyes. If you still want to act like a monkey on someone’s back, go do some “moderating” in “Ara Baliozian’s Corner”, which contains 80+ pages of contradictory and delusional gibberish with no solidifying idea, belief, or mindset worth a damn to any Armenian’s cause, plight, or struggle. Just an old senile bastard talking out of his rear end about the idealogy of being an ideal human being while our youth and my generation is slowing being tricked into destroying ourselves as Hyes with ridiculous questions of “is inter-marrying bad?” Furthermore, what I “expressed”, are not merely “opinions”, they are facts. FACT, in no time in history has inter-marriage been conducive to the health and preservation of any culture, or ethnic group. Understand this ladies and gents, Armenians WON’T be an exception to this rule. You go down the path of marrying odars or “dating them” (read: hye axchiks thinking they are slick and takoon takoon gnan karavati xaxaleek darnan sevi, parsiki, yev spanatzihi hamar, heto asmoosnutyan jamanack “hyaser” darnan). Also, if you’re contemplating on using the “Jew paradox”, forget it, it’s a fallacy at best as well as an excuse for Hyes to try and convince their communities that their ODAR DATING HABITS have validity. To Jews, being “Jewish” is a matter of theology as well as “ethnicity”, when it suits them they become a “religious group” and when it does not they are suddenly an “ethnic group”. However, the truth of the matter is, if Jews COULD go back to the days of yore when they were Egypt’s slaves and undo what centuries of inter-marriage has done to them, they WOULD LOVE to reclaim their ethnicity as a people which they have long since lost. Those IDIOTIC Armenians that don’t see this and cannot recognize the difference between being an ethnic group and a religious group deserve to be destroyed in the oblivion of assimilation. Those that don’t care, well good riddance to them too, just DON’T COME BACK into our communities with your now odar spouse IN HAND and expect us to “accept you back”. I would have more respect for these Odar dating/marrying Hyes if they just went off and had the courage to follow through on their decision of becoming ztolvatz instead of running crying back because “they miss their culture”; frankly if it’s THAT important to you, then make the rationale and right decision by pursuing Hye lovers/spouses. Ladies and gents, we are NOT a religion, we are an ETHNIC GROUP and CULTURE which you cannot simply “convert” to in order to appease your own ridiculous notions of inter-marriage being okay as long as the odar learns the Eibuben, eats dolma, and learns to say “Barev” to your relatives. Unless you have been living under a rock, you would notice all the things I speak of as clear dangers to all of us instead of subscribing to this reckless abandonment of the value of being Hyes and why it’s important to protect ourselves, our way of life, as well as our culture the way our ancestors/forefather/foremothers did. ON THE ISSUE OF “OPINIONS”, well nothing I have said has been mere opinion, everything stems from FACTUAL observation and the realities of ethnic guidelines/borders. Perhaps most importantly, neither I nor anyone else needs to be or WILL BE PACIFIED into good little “opinion” respecting dolts. My “opinion” is that the world is flat and that gravity does not exist, however FACTS dictate that my opinion is GROSSLY WRONG. Don’t mind these facts though, go on now, “RESPECT” my “OPINION” and open a tenth story window, and jump out. We’ll see how much gain you will attain from your “respect” of my “opinion” as you’re plummeting to Earth ready to go SPLAT. Doesn’t quite work, does it? Some opinions are simply TOO IDIOTIC to “respect”, however, THOSE who would love ARMENIANS DESTROYED and our CULTURE wiped clean off the face of the Earth have somehow convinced some folks in our Hye communities to lay down “their ways” and to “RESPECT” the “OPINIONS” of dating/marrying odars as being acceptable like good little morons. Historic FACTS dictate that we will surely perish as a people if we subscribe to this ideology of inter-marriage/dating and let go of our CENTURIES old values and wisdom. I, nor ANY OTHER SELF RESPECTING HYE MAN will EVER “respect” opinions that endanger our culture, way of life, and lineage. Like I said before, if you have any self value for yourself, your identity, for those that died for us in 1915, and those that are still suffering to protect our identity, then wake up and smell the coffee GENTLEMEN. Ladies, if you decide to turn your back and become ztoolvatz then PLEASE, I implore you, DON’T COME BACK, EVER! To the Hye men on this forum, NEVER tolerate this type of behavior. That means those that show up with a sev, spanatzi, spitak, gabuiyt, garmir, inch vor uzuma elni, on their arm professing a “progressive” way of thought, let them know THEY ARE NOT WELCOME. Our grandmothers/grandfathers did not die so we could voluntarily allow what they paid with their lives to condemn. MENK ENK ES AZGI YEV MESHAGUIYTI DEXAMARTNERE yev pashpanoxnere, the incipient destruction of our identity through the actions of porniks and careless Hyes will not be tolerated with impunity. Be steadfast, ruthless, and fierce as Hye men in protecting our identity. Today we face very RADICAL PROBLEMS as Hyes, and RADICAL mannerisms and way of thought are needed. Being compliant sheep will cause a repeat of 1915 but instead of a scimitar at the throats of our mothers and kuyriks it will be an odar jacka$$ with a Hye axchik on his arm smiling and asking you to “respect their opinion”. Screw respecting imbecile opinions. The only respect these types of Hyes deserve is the same respect and value they showed toward our culture and identity, which is none. I think at some point some Hye women have convinced themselves that we as Hye men are blind and deaf and do not see them WHORING AROUND with odars. Nothing could be further from the truth, we all pay CLOSE ATTENTION, especially the educated among us. Just make sure that when you take that step with an odar, don’t ever come back and try and be with a Hye guy, WE DON’T WANT YOU. Our mothers were never odar leftovers and our children’s mothers will not be either, remember that. No one will ever assail our culture and identity with impunity, NO ONE. -The Armenian Pirate

I don't agree at all with "love has one language", whoever said it, was an idiot. Everything boils down to an individual CHOICE. Any Armenian that dates an odar, CHOOSES to do so simply because they see an odar as the equivalent of a Hye. Indeed, it is this very philosophy that opens the avenues to silly ideas of "I fell in love with an odar, I couldn't help it". IF one sees a value and worth in their own culture that is above and beyond that which exists outside their ethnicity, then it becomes categorically impossible to see an odar as potentially someone you could "fall in love with". I personally have travelled enough to see every creed and culture there is. To me, there are certain unique ideas and values in Hye culture that exist nowhere else on Earth which have developed over thousands of years, there is no denying this. Therefore, I see Hye women as something unique with value above all other women. Granted ladies and gents, this not just any slut off the street that says "HI I AM ARMENIAN". By "Hye women" I'm talking about a woman that reciprocates her VALUES for my culture and sees it as something UNIQUE that she CANNOT maintain or attain ANYWHERE ELSE with ANY ODAR MAN. These ideas of secretly or publicly INTER-DATING and INTER-MARRIAGE contribute to the destruction of our culture, if integration was the means to surivival, there would never have been an Armenian Genocide, complacency and mixing could have saved the millions that perished; but we know this to not be true yet in the face of blatant truth there are those among us that proclaim "I will teach my mate Hyeren and our culture, and he/she will be Hye". Wake up folks, stop lying to yourselves. As I said, some women go around dating odars and banging around then when time comes for "settling down", they introduce themselves as a "Hye axchik" that wants to be with a Hye guy, which is LAUGHABLE to any Armenian man that has some self-dignity for his past and present culture. These individuals are better off staying away from our communities and never coming back, we AS ARMENIAN MEN, do not want the concubines of odars after odars are done with them in bed. Understand? If you're with an odar, STAY with an odar, and don't try and re-intergrate yourself into our communities as if you have done NOTHING WRONG. Spitting on the sacrifices of our ancestors, our current struggles, and those that continue to keep our culture healthy through Armenian families will NEVER be acceptable to me or any Hye MAN that has any sense of self-respect. As far as "riding donkeys and worshipping fire" goes according to Sipan, I say, you're the IMBECILE you've proven yourself to be over and over again on these boards. To say that wanting to maintain one's identity/ethnicity is somehow a primitive mannerism just proves that there are idiotic Armenians like you out there that have an INFERIORITY COMPLEX toward their own culture. You're the WORST OF US, because not only do you believe that ethnic pride and desire to maintain identity is primitive, but you also make efforts in leading impressionable youth away from the idea of being PROUD HYES that form Hye families. In the grand scheme of things, at best, you're pathetic, to consider you a Hye dexamart, the idea of "dexamart" would have to be loosened to unparalleled levels. ANY MAN that sees nothing wrong with the women of his culture/ethnicity being the bed buddies of odar men is NOT A MAN AT ALL, but rather, an animal at best; though even animals set some standard in their instinctive behavior. As for your fellow FASCIST moderators, well they do nothing more than attempt to persecute and ridicule those on these boards that talk about millennia long Armenian values and way of life in an effort to justify their own lowlife actions. Like I said, it's always the same people on these boards that talk out of their a$$ about dating odars and marrying them and persecute those that speak against it because they themselves ARE DOING IT, HAVE DONE IT, OR are the procreative result of parents that have gone off with an ODAR. I don't blame the half-breeds on these boards, they see talks of parental homogeneity as threatening and react, but you should not be angry at Armenians that do not accept inter-marriage/dating and want to maintain their ethnic/cultural identity. INSTEAD, go home, and be angry at your parents that made the irresponsible and selfish decision of such an act in their youth without thinking of the impact it would have on their children and their cultural/ethnic future. -The Armenian Pirate

Well well well . . . What an amazing re-occuring topic this seems to be in the face of obvious historic facts and outcomes. It just seem that some Armenians are just itching to follow this path to ethnic and cultural suicide. The plain and simple answer is to this question is "NO". In a context of cultural/ethnic self-preservation, "marrying an odar" is not conducive to preserving anything, get this fact through your thick ignorrant skulls. If culture and ethnicity could have been preserved through intermarriage, our grandmothers would have chosen to simply save their own skin and marry into Turkish families instead of hanging themselves from bridges or dying of starvation. Fast forwarding 100 years and replacing said Turk with any other otar is no different, just becuause you do not have a scimitar or 500 mile desert march ahead of you, does not mean the outcome of intermarriage will somehow magically change. You marry an otar, the inevitability of your ethnic/cultural obliteration will soon come, plain and simple. No culture/ethnic group has survived in the history of mankind by inter-marrying into another culture, they are all extinct and cease to exist. Those that think that this is possible are stupid and simply want an excuse to act without consequences from their ethnic community. Mind you, the idea of "well I'm just dating one" is also no excuse to whore yourselves out like $10 jobs from Bankok in dark hidden little places. Whether it's "fair or unfair", society, even in the so called "progressive" western societies appreciates a reasonably "makoor" woman. Even today, a guy in any culture can go bang 300 women and not a thing will be said, but women, whether they like it or not, need to realize that after a few sessions of nasty, no man, Armenian or otherwise will want to make them the mother of their children. During my travels in the US I was disgusted by some of the stories I was told about how some of our women, about which Paruyr Sevak wrote "not even the moonlight had touched", were readily giving handjobs, blowjobs, and receiving anal sex in all sorts of dirty ways by odar men to only "when the time came", present themselves as the good little "hye axchik" to some poor Joe Hye. Is it a wonder that some Hye guys will not approach you? Why is this such a shock? What Hye man can honestly say to himself "I don't mind marrying an otar's leftovers"? Except maybe some of the liberal vaginas I have seen on these forums, proud HYE men would never want to be with women of this sort for reasons that go far beyond simple personal diginity but rather delve into the realm of feeling culturally violated. If anything I would think that some of you women would at the very least think of the women of the past in our culture and how they made such great sacrifices in dire straits and maintained their pride/dignity before running off with an odar behind closed doors or openly pissing on everything your forebearers died for. If acting like a "closet whore" is what a Hye axchik's aspirations are these days until she is ready to have an Armenian family of her own (assuming she does not run off with an otar before that), then I wheep for the future, and I also wheep for the past and the women that died for nothing. To claim that "Amerkaztis don't mind their women having multitudes of partners why should Armenians?" is just about the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. We have our own ways and our own beliefs, thousands of years before many western societies were civilized, and now all of a sudden I, as an Armenian man am supposed to change my ways and emulate degenerate "Amerkatzis" regarding the most important aspects of my culture/ethnicity and way of life? Or worse yet, take the advise of an odar on how individuals of my culture should be "more accepting" of inter-marriage? Never. I say on these forums to any Hye dexamart that has any sort of dignity onto himself to NEVER tolerate the "progressive" changes that are indirectly being imposed on our culture. Any Hye woman that opts to marry an odar has made her bed and needs to sleep in it. There are women of course that will never do this, these are our wonderful Hye axchiks which we bled for 15 years ago; but there are also those that are perhaps sitting on the fence regarding the matter, and by having a weak stance on this, the men in our culture are ALLOWING FOREIGN CULTURES to infiltrate and destroy what our fathers and grandfathers DIED to preserve for thousands of years. The whores in our culture need to be made an example of, tollerating such behavior will destroy us in the near future, make no mistake about this ladies and gentlemen. To me as an Armenian man, any woman that has given herself in whole or in part to an otar is better off just continuing down that path and not looking back instead of trying to "re-establish" her ties with our culture or communities by all of a sudden becoming the ideal Hye through enrolling her children in Armenian scouts/schools/etc. These women should have been such an ethnocentric Hye women when they were making the decision of being with and subsequently marrying an odar, NOT after the fact due to regret. On the flip side, some Armenian men nimrods that choose to head off the beaten path and start acting like "Spitaks", "Sevs", or some other otar derviative, get your God damn acts together. Start acting like Hye MEN, you don't need to behave any other way, ONLY when you behave like what you ARE do you give yourself some worth and value. Any woman that says "well Hye guys don't like this or that but OTARS are cool with it, why can't Hye guys be like this", well then, we can't because we are HYE men this is OUR CULTURE, if you don't like it then by all means, go bang an otar and DON'T COME BACK. Hye men are only interested in Hye women that are into their own culture, not women that pant like dogs for otars that will bang you on Monday and trade you for a six pack on Friday. A culture/ethnic group is only as strong and vibrant as the men that defend it. When you're too busy acting like a hispanic gangster or some sev who spent the last 150 years being oppressed when instead you should be acting like a man from a culture that is 3000 years strong, that's when our culture gets over run by those that think it is somehow an "upgrade" to marry into another culture/ethnic group. Have any of you fairies EVER seen a sev guy try and act like he was anything but sev? Ever see a white guy try and act Hye? Of course not, stop acting like SECOND RATE otars and start acting like FIRST RATE Hye MEN. I realize that not all Hyes act this way, but it has become increasing more acceptable to toss Haykakan self worth and values for some other cultural way of life, this is the FIRST STEP in letting our women get whored out and have our culture be destroyed from the inside out. YOU, the ARMENIAN MAN, sets the tone, boundries, and values of our culture, "sahmanere menk piti kashenk, che vor himar otarner, kam toxnenk mer azgi yev joxovurti porniknere yev pechaztaztnere menaztortin borboken irantz varkerov". DO not be tollerant of transgressions against our culture, DO NOT be tolerant of Hyes that think our culture can be stuffed in a bottle and preserved through inter-marriage and undercover slutty "dating" bahavior. Mer axchiknere, meren en, che vor otarneri karavati xaxaleekneri. Mer mayere pechachatz chen ele vor mer himakva kinere, kuyriknere, yev axchiknere pechaztats darnan. Mek hat hye axchick chi piti iran da otari heto vor 5 kam 6 hoku takoon takoon devav heto hishi vor hye dexi het bidi elni yev ga mek hat hye dexi sooterov geravi. NEVER be tollerant of this kind of behavior, it's your DUTY as Hye men to shun and cast out those that behave this way and piss on everything that was once our proud Armenian culture. Those that want to waltz around with otars on their arms parading them in our communities better be prepared to be confronted and reminded of how low they are and the disgrace they have brought to the memory of the mothers and fathers that died 100 years ago and to the men and women that bled 15 years ago JUST SO that the diaspora can say "menk yerkir unenk" yev "karabaghe azata". Being Armenian is not some God damn title, "spirit", or "state of mind". We are a distinct ethic people with a distinct culture and lineage. Some of today's idiotic "intellectual" community, who's sole contribution to Astzakh was writing fancy books, has become so hedonistic that they preach to the youth that by marrying an odar and making said odar learn "Armenian" and how to eat Armenian food will insure the surivival of our people. What a BRILLIANT idea! I wonder why our grandmothers didn't think of this when they were being sodomized, raped, and butchered; all they had to do is say "I do" and cook up a pot of dolma for their Turkish husbands and teach them how to eat and speak like an Armenian, TADAA, problem solved. Some of you people need to get your heads out of your a$$es. All we are as a people is NOT merely hinged on the "Eibuben". We have a our bloodline, heritage, our way of life, and all the other things that COLLECTIVELY encompass an Armenian. Only when an Armenian man and woman have children, is an Armenian child born. To what extent that child embraces his/her own culture, language, and way of life is thereafter the responsibility of the parents. The converse however is NEVER true, that is, when an Armenian and an otar have children, an Armenian child is not born, just like when a Japanese and otar intermarry their child cannot be considered Japanese; instead a child which is a composite of two different lineages and cultures is created and this, extrapolated over two, three, or perhaps four generations leads to the complete disappearance of the original parental cultures, HISTORY has proven this over and over again. It is neither realistic nor morally correct to expect a child to live TWO CULTURAL lives or to act like two different distinct ethnic individuals without ever blending the two. A child's ethnic identity and culture should be singular and ethnic/cultural preservation has the best chance of survival through parents that are of the SAME ethnic group. It's not surprising to see that those Armenians that inter-marry and realize they have screwed up turn into the most fascist ideologists of them all, by force feeding Hye culture down the kid's throat and completely suppressing the other half. That's why you get some half-wit Hye's that themselves want to inter-marry citing "look, that kid was from a mixed marriage and he is MORE into his culture than your average Hye", this is exactly true, a mixed marriage child has a fanatic Hye parent that has shoveled everything Hye down the kid's throat because deep down they know they screwed up by marrying or being with an otar, so they try and overcompensate and reverse things by enrolling their kid into everything Armenian in a vain attempt to "fix things" or "minimize damage". When confronted about this behavior, these parents have the audacity to reply with "I want my culture/heritage to stay healthy". Well GUESS WHAT dip$hit? If you wanted that you should have been with an Armenian in the first place! Those of us Armenians that have not strayed do not need such doltz rationalizing their own gross mistakes by calling us "racist" merely on the basis that we do not appreciate their actions of heading off with an odar "in the name of love" or some other ridiculous excuse for their callous behavior. I read some posts here and it amazes me how every time any individual says "it's wrong to marry an otar" they are given one of several of the same hollow meaningless replies like A) "You're racist, b} "You need to expand your horizons and think more 'progressively' ", or C) "I will teach my kids all there is to know abot Hyes and our language, that will make things okay". No it won't make things "Okay" a$$wipe, your kid is on his/her way to becoming a mutt pop-culture reject pregnant at 14 or drugged out by 17, in essence he/she is on their way to becoming "American", not to be confused with American Indians, which were slaughtered much in the same way Armenians are being slaughtered through silly ideas of inter-marriage. These replies come from three groups of individuals A) Hyes that are currently "dating" and otar (read: messing around in secret behind their family's back or in places where their community won't notice) b} Hyes that have married an otar and are trying to defend or legitimize their position, which makes one wonder if they themselves felt what they had done was so RIGHT, WHY would they need to defent their actions? C) Children of mixed marriages that are confused or can't seem to fit in either culture properly. I think ENOUGH is ENOUGH, there are those that will NOT allow imbeciles in our culture to destroy everything we have fought to preserve and protect. Too much bloodshed has occured, too many folks still suffer today in Armenia and Karabagh to hold onto their identity and to work towards having our culture prosper, and I for one have seen too many good people sacrifice their lives to merely tollerate the jacka$$es on these community boards to speak about notion of preserving our culture through inter-marriage as if the deaths of all Hyes that came before them mean nothing and the ideas we sacrificed ourselves for, bled for, and died for mean nothing. Behave yourselves and get your acts together, an entire generation is being lost to these himar false ideas of being able to maintaining our identity through inter-marriage while you contemplate the obvious. The Armenian Telethon is coming up ladies and gents, so get your wallets out and donate a bit to the homeland you so often use as a punchline in conversation to sound sophisticated, don't worry the "Mafia" won't take it all, some of it does reach the poor and needy in Karabagh and all of that does reach us, does indeed get put to good use to improve YOUR Armenia. I'm sure $100 or perhaps two won't break the pigibank on any of your parents or yourselves for that matter, you can do one weekend without your "clubbin" and booze as you attempt to act in every way but Hye. -The Armenian Pirate RIP: Lena Sahakyan, the brave one. Note: Two threads are not neccessary for the same topic.

This is a somewhat interesting topic, most definitely a testament to the degeneracy of modern morality that any self-respecting Hye should avoid, never the less it is interesting. I couldn’t resist but make some comments . . . It’s naïve to think that even the most devoted of lovers do not fantasize about various things mentally. However, to think that semi-conscious, sub-conscious, or conscious mental fantasies are in any way “synonymous” to the act of flirting, with regards to moral implications and/or violations, is a slippery slope that you don’t want to step on because pretty soon you will have careened into a hole too deep to crawl out of. While many individuals arrogantly think that they may have the discipline to “keep things under control” by keeping things “innocent”, nothing could be further from the truth. Several instances of innocent flirting with a little bit of leeway can quickly reach a point of moral compromise even if the very act of flirting is ignorantly not considered a moral compromise to begin with. The very notion that active flirtation which is deliberately allowed by a woman or man that has a significant other is somehow mysteriously “innocent” is nothing but a cop-out excuse for those that have that need to do it in secrecy but simultaneously lack the courage as well as the boldness to do it in front of their significant other or around people they know. This is because inherently, deep inside, they know it is in fact very hurtful and wrong. If it is so “innocent” why do you have to do it in secret? To further specify, if your significant other would consider your flirting just as much of an act of “fun” as well as merely a “game” as you would, then why question its innocence to begin with? Better yet! Why not go out one night, and just flirt right in front of him/her with another person and even be kind enough to find someone that he/she can flirt with as well, after all, it’s just “fun and games” and who doesn’t want to have “fun”, right? Assuming one is involved in a relationship that is theoretically based on commitment, devotion, loyalty, and trust, what place does “innocent” flirting have when the very act of flirting is the anti-thesis of the aforementioned aspects of a relationship/marriage? The truth is, flirting has no place in such a situation because violations regarding the sanctity of a committed relationship do not necessarily have to be a physical ones to count, indeed, perhaps worse than physical betrayal is the emotional and mental type that can result from seemingly “innocent” acts such as flirting. When you look at it really introspectively, if you cannot even place enough worth and value on what you already have or if an individual cannot muster up the discipline to see an opportunity to actively flirt and pass it up by saying “thanks but not thanks”, then truly, you have no business bringing another man or woman into a serious relationship for sake of commitment when you yourself cannot begin to make the most basic act of commitment by maintaining the integrity of that relationship/bond when your lover’s back is turned. Simple but complex, che? So then, when is it “not cool”? Do I have to outright bang the living brains out of another man’s woman for it to be considered “cheating”? Or is cheating in reality the simple act of betrayal, regardless of the level of magnitude, the shape, or manner in which it manifests itself through the allowance of those that are involved? To me the latter seems to be a much more clear-cut, practical, and no nonsense approach that effectively defines cheating. Cheating is betrayal, plain and simple, trying to paint certain acts as “okay as long as it doesn’t go further than that” is ridiculous, not to mention nothing more than the manifestations of a guilty conscience; regardless whether the betrayal took place in a steaming hot bed with sexual intercourse or merely behind the keyboard of an online chat room. Granted, I’ll say that there are practical limits as well, certainly the fantasizing that is done by nearly every living human being is a gray area that can never be resolved because to a certain degree it stems from human nature but more importantly, it is impulsive and to a certain extent beyond our conscious control. Restricting thought is damn near impossible, so we can categorize that as the “gray area” and we should keep fantasizing as the ONLY gray area if we are interested in the moral integrity of the relationship being kept healthy. Anything beyond the mental fantasizing is a deliberate act as well as a conscious choice that is made by that man/woman that sits behind the computer and knowingly flirts. This choice will in fact hurt your significant other no matter how deceptively you paint it as “harmless if controlled” or “harmless if kept under wraps”. More importantly, it is essential to note that the knowledge of your significant other that you willingly chose to make such a choice is what hurts the most for most people. Effectively speaking, it is the choice of performing that act of sitting in front of a computer behind your significant other’s back that creates more of the residual pain rather than the act itself. Why am I not surprised that you would be making this comment? I think a lot, if not all of what you write emerges from depths of low self-esteem, you surely will deny this but we’ll digress on that for the sake of the topic at hand. So, flirting is an excellent stimulant? In that case, so is cocaine, as well as the rush of adrenaline of taking another human life in combat, thus, are you going offer up some blow off your buttocks for the next passer by or should I go out and quench my bloodlust for the sake of stimulation? Surely you cannot recommend the above mentioned items alongside flirting for their sheer stimulatory value as well as part of a “healthy lifestyle” now could you Anileve? The way you put it, you make “discreet acts of flirting (read: betrayal)” sound like a box of Wheaties for all seriously committed lovers/couples to enjoy, yet nothing could be further from the truth. Furthermore, what the hell kind of nonsense is “Alleviation of infidelity”? That statement sounds like an Aspirin pill for the metaphorical “headache”, which in your case, seems to be the idea of relationships itself. If anyone has a compulsive need to “alleviate” themselves from one BIG act of betrayal by actively participating in a regular cycle of MINOR betrayals, then you have a psychosis problem that is deeply rooted and you should not be considering any form of serious commitment with another person, period, invest in some psychiatry instead. Also, why is it that “discreet” flirtation is somehow more justifiable and acceptable versus flirting coming from “a man twice your age with a wife nearby”? The audacity you have in stating that this older man’s acts make you nauseous but somehow equivalent acts that are done “discreetly” are perfectly alright and in fact “healthy” is mind boggling. That’s like putting a gray area as well as a double standard on something that should not be a gray area to begin with, namely, flirting; truly this transcends many levels of arrogance and narcissism. Why not simply see things for what they truly are, that is, flirting is in fact a form of betrayal, granted its not as blatant as doing the nasty with Joe Blow or Jane Cane in the back of a pick-up, but let’s face it folks, you’re still shafting your significant other emotionally, the only difference between active flirting and doing the wild thing with someone else is how well you lube the shaft and how deep it’s driven in when committing the betrayal (no metaphorical puns intended). Please don’t try and kid yourself about it in any other way, especially not with the prescription like “dosage” method of how much betrayal can be allowed to “slide” and how much cannot as described and prescribed by Anileve. Easy there Don Juan, not everyone is so easily lent to whoring themselves out at a moment’s whim. “Degenerative” aptly describes your train of thought. While I don’t like to get too deeply into personality analysis in my writings, I’d say there is a great chance that you were somehow betrayed at some point by someone, if you have been, you have my pity and at least there is some explanation for the utter sphincter wind that is flowing out of your mouth and mind like there is no tomorrow. “No worries, go flirt and if you like, go get laid too”? I’m not even going to discuss the practical health aspects of what you write, but if you’re so open to this idea why not offer yourself up as a consort in assembling all future concubines to other men, namely, all the women you’ll date in the next 50 years. There are plenty of jacka$$es out there that don’t mind double dipping, so have a few of them around during your wedding or better yet, the day after your honeymoon, offer up your new bride to the next guy with a nice haircut. If you say this stuff because you truly believe it and it’s not really due to being betrayed by someone in the past, then “degenerative” doesn’t being to describe you pal. Get some help and get it fast, your moral compass is seriously in need of some tuning, people like you are like a virulent infection on young Armenians in the up and coming generations. I pray you’re some jaded 14 year old hurting from puppy love instead of the 30 something imbecile with his head up his a$$ that I suspect you are, that would really be immeasurably pathetic. If you still insist on your above notions, please feel free, next time you’re out with your girl offer her up to others, or as you more idiotically put it, “spread the joy”. -The Armenian Pirate

Vigil little buddy, this is not a surprise at all on these forums, selective moderation runs rampant, hang in there. Some of the moderators on these boards know as much about "moderation" as they do about being Armenian, which in both cases, is next to nothing. I've been following this thread along with many others while on the road and at 13,000 feet, I have quite a few things to say regarding different matters. In the meanwhile, keep those great posts coming because my friends and I love reading your raw honesty and truth regarding various topics regarding our Armenian people. Last but not least don't let some of the spineless socialites on these boards get you too roused up my friend, just keep posting because TAP is ALWAYS reading, and enjoy the labor day weekend!

Interesting topic, though it got derailed, I'll address both the original thread and the derailed topic. Nairi, you're wrong and naive, the latter being nothing new on these boards, especially with the small group of socialites. Vigil, made some good points, I'll elaborate more on later. Sev-Mart, kudos to you for not buying into the Russell Simmons exploitation of the black man. -TAP

The Armenian Pirate's postulates of nonsensical jargon regarding extistentialist philosophical notions regarding ethnicity that should not be regarded with ethnicity to begin with. Guaranteed to be void of logic, reason, truth, reality, and rationality, inspired by The Domino Theories of Armenianism: 1)I think like a tree, I must be a tree. 2) I can speak ebonics VERY well and after a few hours of a healthy dosage of MTV "Hip-Hop" dribble, I sure as hell think like an african man of color. I'm BLACK, I wonder if the black folk in the slums of Detroit will buy this fact? Zimbabwe, here I come my motherland!! 3) I just finished my 5th year of advanced japanese linguistics, mentality, and way of life, I MUST be Japanese. In fact, when seen in the street, my white, round eyed, hot looking Armenian male appearance is always mistaken for Japanese since I know the language, culture, and way of life/thinking after several years of study. Yes, I'm Japanese. 4) After studying my dog for many years, I've learned the instinctual mentality of a canine, I'm a dog. 5) Actually come to think of it, I did learn a lot about Native American Indians, I can perform smoke signals, and I speak Cherokee very well, enough to think like one in fact, call me Chief TAP from now on, I'm Native American. Jesus H. Christ man, I can't believe you attribute ANY of the theories you've come up with in this thread as logically coherent or relevant in ANY manner with what it is to be Armenian. For ANYONE to discount genetic lineage as not a contributing factor for being defined as part of an ethnic group is so childishly naive and proposterous. It's amazing that grown adults on these boards buy into it at all. And for thousands of years there have been wars, rape, killings, and conflicts between different ethnic groups for survival and here is Domino with the solution all along, "learn" the language and you'll become part of the opposition, BAM, simple as that! Please bud, first grow up, then relax and step right back through that door back to us, you know, that door that says "Reality" on it. -The Armenian Pirate

No actually I haven’t sacrificed anything, YOU may have bud, but not me. Perhaps you don’t want to be the only one doing so, thus you are a proponent of assimilation while making attempts to antagonize those that are not. Yes, you’re right, I do want to have my cake AND eat it too, in fact, I CAN do it and I’m doing it RIGHT NOW and it feels so damn good. Every single day of my life I wake up knowing that I’m extremely educated, a successful professional, and an active Armenian that knows his own language, history, and tradition inside-out while also being extremely aware of all socio-political events that affect his fellow Armenians. I don’t represent the spineless sheep that cower and forget who it is they are the minute they set foot in a new environment, I’m Hye no matter where I go, regardless of how the system around me functions or expects me to operate, I was born Armenian and that is what I will preserve as well as protect. I also do not represent the extremist that may have lost respect or value for his fellow human being simply because he is non-Hye. Instead, there is a blend of both of these extremes that I represent, a neo-Armenian mentality of being modern and operating in a western system while simultaneously carrying enough self-worth to not get lost within that system or forgetting my lineage, culture, and heritage as an Armenian. My interests are for me, my family, and my people, and as long as odars do not attempt and violate those interests, we won’t have any problems. Should anyone decide to verbally attack Armenians, I’ll respond in kind. If it’s a written assault, I’ll respond. If it’s a physical one in which a fellow Hye brother or sister is persecuted in any way, then I’ll grind the opposition into the ground underneath my heel with the equivalent level of mercy as they showed toward my fellow Armenian. It’s a very simple and an extremely easy mentality to live by, the only people that continually whine about it are the very same ones that never have the courage to create a path for themselves in life, that’s why they will always follow and not lead. They can only stay on paths that have already been made, effectively, they are governed by the rules or expectations of odars instead of their own, this needs to change, so I try to contribute by writing out my ideas. Maybe 99% of readers will think of my ideas as BS, but the 1% that agree with me will be such effective and powerful individuals they will more than make up for those that are still lost in social pacifism. Actually it’s not, I’m not “supposing” that there are those Hyes that live in westernized states, they DO in fact live there and are very real. I am also not “supposing” that some weak minded Hyes that have little self-worth completely lose themselves the minute they are born into or walk into foreign soil as Diasporans, because some actually HAVE lost themselves, they will realize the fallacy of their decision at an older age, trust me. Lastly, I’m not “supposing” that we need not sacrifice our identity/lineage/heritage/culture as Hyes, because men and women like myself exist and I have yet to make any of those sacrifices that those that have already made them claim are “unavoidable” in order to appease their own guilt. Thus conclusively, we can say logically that the example you used was a statement of realism and factuality rather than that of supposition. I believe you’re confused. No actually, I feel you’re once again arguing for the sake of argument within a thread of debate that you don’t agree with. Instead of contributing something with regard to the multiple topics I covered in my text, you chose to instead sift through ten pages and find one sentence to give me a hard time with, excellent work. This is to be expected by now, I was just curious as to how many posts it would take before it began. The post criticism band-wagoning however is surprisingly missing. In any case though, that example was definitely not a supposition, if it was a supposition, I would not need to point it out as a damaging social phenomenon in our Hye communities nor would I worry about such a phenomenon to begin with. You’re absolutely right Boghos jan, hard to take issue with it, it’s as plain to see as daylight, and yet there still are those that would deny it with the greatest of social delusions. I call them “KORR”, I think it fits well. There are some interesting threads that have recently popped up, one in particular I’d like to comment about soon. Those of you for which text lengths greater than 7 sentences causes eye strain, pain, weakness, physical discomfort, nausea, rectal constipation, moral fatigue, erectile dis-function, or any other negative side-effects for having read multiple paragraphs in an attempt to grasp possible new ideas for yourselves; make sure you look for my name next to a thread or post and DON’T click on it. This neat little trick should make sure you remain mentally naive, docile, and pacifistic for years to come.This thread is done with. -The Armenian Pirate TheArmenianPirateBroadcast@hotmail.com

Nice try, you ALMOST got away with this one, almost. Luckily such responses carry a very strong foul stench with them as was the case with your analogy, and I happen to have a very sensitive nose. Seeing as how these boards are extremely prone to band-wagoning by a small group of individuals that are constantly tossing out witty nonsense then patting each other on the backs, I wanted to wait until a good number of them came out of the woodwork with their quick congratulations and praises towards your “nicely put” response so that you could all be conclusively deemed incorrect as band-wagoning pals. Names won’t be necessary, you know who you are. I’ll be the first to admit, you did a satisfactory job of setting up a descent analogy, however, while the analogy was coherent, it is COMPLETELY FALSE and definitely NOT in the correct context of anything I have written thus far. What you wrote would have made sense and been correct IF I had said, “you DO NOT have the CHOICE of inter-marriage and CANNOT do so under any circumstance but IF you do, you must be persecuted and ravaged by other Hyes”. I didn’t say anything of the sort, again, just like many others on these boards, you chose not to truly understand what is being said and put forth in front of you all, instead, you hastily jump in with wit in the face of my logic in an attempt to push forward your side of the debate which is riddled with supposition and fallacy in place of actual logic because you’re TOO PROUD to admit that you’re wrong. Worry not though, “the pride always comes before the fall” as it is so gracefully said. It blows me away to see so many folks on these boards that are among my own generation and some EVEN OLDER, completely and utterly out of touch with the simple notion that if there is to be true preservation, inter-marriage is definitely not a good start for any individuals that is serious about maintaining their heritage, culture, and lineage. I’m not surprised to hear retorts from individuals like Thoth and Anaheed, because they are progeny of inter-marriage, what I say inherently comes off offensive to them, so they are quick to say that inter-marriage “is not that bad” in the context of preserving our heritage. But some of you that are of Hye/Hye parents simply amaze me with your naïve outlook in the face of simple logic in the form of “if you want to preserve Armenian culture/lineage/heritage, it begins through Hye/Hye marriage and forming Hye/Hye families”. NEVER in all that I’ve written have I said “you do not and cannot have the choice of inter-marriage”, OF COURSE you have that choice! If you didn’t have that choice, I wouldn’t be writing all this out for all you sleeping sheep! However, IF you seriously give a damn about your own heritage/lineage/culture as a Hye, the simple truth is that inter-marriage, while available as an option, is not a CHOICE that allows any sort of true preservation; it’s simple logic, whenever you want to preserve anything on any level, you do your best not to alter it, how difficult is this to understand for some of you? Inter-marriage causes and leads to loss of the Hye identity/culture/lineage/heritage/tradition/language/mentality/ and everything else that is remotely Hye due to the fact that once inter-marriage occurs, within a Hye/Odar family, a competition of culture occurs, this is inevitable. As it is universally known, in any competition there is always a dominant force that subdues the weaker force, and if that is the Armenian half, then guess what? You’re screwed as far as maintaining your heritage and culture, and you’re automatically screwed lineage-wise regardless of what you do due to the inter-marriage that occurred, in essence, you’re progeny are HALF Hye. Jesus H. Christ, some of you are 30+ year old adults but your outlook is so childishly naïve while simultaneously jaded to the obvious destructive effects of inter-marriage for us Hyes. What I have outlined is pure and simple and not at all in tune with the witty analogy of Elusive Devilina, at best, her analogy was wrong and had absolutely nothing to do with what my side of this discussion is all about. Instead, what I have said was that IF as an INDIVIDUAL, you CARE about PRESERVATION of our heritage/lineage/culture and are involved in Armenian efforts, then the CHOICE of inter-marriage is wrong, non-beneficial, as well as meaningless; YOU CAN STILL MAKE the CHOICE of inter-marriage, but that DOES NOT make it correct IF you ARE an individual that wants preservation of our culture/heritage/lineage to be successful. I also said that IF you are an individual that simply doesn’t feel compelled enough to care about such things, then by all means, marry WHOEVER you want. Also, it is important to note that those that do get involved in inter-marriage then make massive efforts as Hyes, are essentially not doing much in the long run of our survival. The reason for this being the fact that at the basic level, the biggest effort of Hye proliferation comes through forming Armenian families, and inter-marriage DOES NOT produce Armenian families, it produces HALF-hye families that carry with them all the ethnic confliction that stems for the children of such a marriage. A Hye/odar union between two individuals doesn’t even hold the slightest candle or effectiveness when compared to a family that is composed of a Hye/Hye union, now keep in mind, this is with regards to ARMENIAN PRESERVATION; I don’t want to hear garbage about my comment being “condescending” or “bigotry” against odar/hye marriage, because it’s not, it’s just simple logic, you want to stay Hye and maintain your heritage/lineage/culture/way of life/etc/etc, you marry into another Hye family, not an odar family, NOTHING can dispute this simple LOGICAL assessment. Essentially, it is pointless to be a “super Armenian” in your community via high levels of involvement when in fact, at the basic level of forming a union with a Hye lover, you chose to not do so. All of you still HAVE a choice with regards to marriage, I never said you did not, nor did I say that if you do choose to inter-marry you should be persecuted. HOWEVER I did say that in the context of effort toward Armenian preservation, inter-marriage is the incorrect choice IF you CARE about maintaining your culture/heritage/lineage as an Armenian individual, plain and simple; stop trying to refute this fact with supposition. No matter how much denial you may be in regarding this matter, nothing anyone can say can hold water against such an absolute logical notion. If you nay-sayers need me to re-iterate this with a third grade rice analogy, then so be it. If we equate Armenian lineage/culture/heritage as “plain rice” the way Elusive Devilina did, then those individuals that care about KEEPING that rice PLAIN, logically SHOULD NOT make the CHOICE of adding SPICE to it, because once the spice has been added, it CANNOT be reversed and will NEVER taste anything remotely close to plain rice EVER again; hence you’ve forfeited your “plain” tasting rice (ie: culture/lineage/heritage). However, those that DO NOT care about tasting PLAIN rice EVER again, by all means, pour the WHOLE spice rack into your rice pot and chow down. Just DON’T show up at places where plain rice STILL exists with a look of LONGING because you chose to spice up your own plain rice and cannot reverse the process anymore. This longing is analogous to those that chose to inter-marry then mid-flight have a deep seeded regret because they realize what they have lost and can never have back for their own children, so what do they do? They decide to become “super Armenians” and get involved EVERYWHERE with Hye efforts, but regardless of how much they do, the basic critical decision of forming an Armenian family with another Hye lover they chose not to carry out. For some, this haunts them for the rest of their lives but they will never admit it because the minute they do they have to face the reality of their own disconnection and their children’s disconnection with other Armenians around the world as well their ethnic homeland of Armenia. The funny thing about “spicing things up” is the fact that regardless if you start with plain rice or beans or anything else, if you add enough spice recklessly and throw caution to the wind, in the end it will not taste at all like itself anymore, furthermore, rice and beans will begin to taste the same because they both were bombarded by spices because having beans and rice that is “plain” wasn’t interesting enough for individuals like Elusive Devilina. In the end you can’t even call it rice or beans anymore, it becomes a mixture of sludge that is unrecognizable under all that spice that you’ve poured on it, with so many tastes blended together, the luster of the original taste of that rice or beans is completely gone for good, you might as well ignore it and toss it all out, but since that was your ONLY batch of rice, once you’re screwed it up with “spicing it up” and are forced to toss it out for whatever reason, you don’t have anything left. In short, Armenianism has been destroyed through “spicing things up”. Maybe “spicing things up” isn’t as good as folks like Elusive Devilina claim it to be for us Armenians eh? Yes, I think this is true. As you can see ladies and gents, I can set-up nice little analogies too; but this two year old behavior is nonsensical jargon. This is a place of debate where logic and choices based such logic count when you’re trying to respond to what I have written. Supposition and adolescent analogies by folks like ED that are not even correct or in accordance to the context of what was written by me will not hold water against LOGICAL debate, TRUTH, and REALITY, no matter how much some of you would like to believe otherwise. If you decide to post, make a RELVEANT RESPONSE via a credible counter point that uses DEDUCTIVE REASONING, and for the love of God, BE CIVIL, most of you are old enough to at least do that much. Don’t approach anything I write with slander, putting words into my mouth, making character attacks, or using analogies that are not at all in tune with what I have written simply because you want to push forward your argument for the sake of pride rather than for the sake of truth/reality. One sentence band-wagoning followed by concise wit, the saga continues. What do you mean “and”? Gurgen, have you been reading anything in this thread at all? Maybe if you weren’t so eager to come back with verbal jabs at me you would not have missed the point my friend. The debate here is “does inter-marriage hurt Armenians as far as their lineage, culture, and heritage is concerned”? The answer to that question is a big, “YES”! I wasn’t trying to point out Thoth being half-Armenian as a means to remind him of it or degrade him, I’m sure he knows this. The purpose of pointing out the fact that he is half-hye was to re-iterate that the inter-marriage that took place between his parents was DETRIMENTAL as far as Armenian preservation is concerned. His lineage is at this point half-hye, his other half is composed of some other ethnic group. He does not know how to speak Armenian. He does not know how to read nor write in Armenian. He does not know the Eibuben. As far as cultural aspects go, he has relied on external sources to begin to even REMOTELY understand Armenianism as a mentality, behavior, and way of life. On many degrees he does not fully belong to either classification of either half of his ethnic backgrounds and there exist a disconnection that will last his entire life then be passed on to his children in an even more severe form. As far as his children are concerned, he can only hope to pass along VERY LITTLE Armenianism down to them because he himself already knows/feels/understands so little when compared to what a child of Hye/Hye marriage can learn in a Hye family. Also, not all of what he knows will pass onto his kids because inherently his kids will have EVEN more disconnection because Thoth himself is half-Hye and has not grown up in a family that was made of a Hye/Hye couple, which makes a HUGE difference in how much of Armenian culture/tradition/heritage he carries with him and how much he can pass along to his kids. So as you can see, “the point” is that inter-marriage is not a positive decision for the individual that wants to proliferate and preserve his Armenian way of life, heritage, culture, traditions, and also lineage. With that said, Thoth’s situation clearly shows that as a child of a Hye/odar marriage, the part of him that is Armenian has DWINDLED, and it’s not surprising, that is what inter-marriage does and I’m just pointing this fact out for all you nay-sayers. It’s also only natural that Thoth’s own children will be even less “Armenian” in every sense of the word and on all levels; all this began when a Hye chose to inter-marry, Thoth, Anaheed, and others like them are living proof of this fact. Such facts cannot be disputed logically, it’s simply the truth of what inter-marriage does. I’m surprised that as a proclaimed Anthropologist, Thoth would not be the very first person to admit to the accuracy of my claims with regard to what inter-marriage does to ethnic groups and their culture/lineage/heritage. You can look at ANY tribe, ethnic group, or culture of people and one of the VERY FIRST actions that led to their self-destruction was not war, famine, etc, etc, it was simply inter-marriage or inter-breeding with individuals of other cultures, tribes, or ethnic groups. Any Anthropologist will quickly admit to this phenomenon as incredibly accurate and relevant. However, inter-marriage is a choice and everyone has the choice of inter-marriage, but at the same time all of you must understand the logical truth that IF you want to preserve your Hye identity on EVERY level, inter-marriage is NOT the right choice; there are no “ifs”, “buts”, or “ands” to this logic. If you want something to stay blue, you don’t mix other pigments with it. If you want a structure to hold its integrity, you don’t chip away at it with a chisel; it’s simple logic that cannot be disputed. The same applies to Armenian heritage, lineage, culture, tradition, way of life, and mentality; IF you care about preserving these things for yourself and your children as a Hye individual, you must realize that it ALL begins with finding a Hye lover and not an odar to form a HYE family, this is what will give all of us THE BEST chance of maintaining ourselves on all levels as a identifiable ethnic group on the globe. The truth is the truth, I have nothing against Thoth nor any other mixed child; I just point out the reality of the situation. Some of you continually try and paint me as the antagonist in such discussions by putting words into my mouth or making accusations of “bigotry”, etc, etc. I never have said that Thoth, Anaheed, or any other mixed child is a bad person, of low moral character, or anything else that is negative on a personal level. But as far as Armenian preservation goes, there is no grey area for this debate, children of inter-marriage hold less of a chance for preserving us as Hyes and their Hye lineage automatically gets destroyed at the onset of birth, this happened to the Jews and it will also happen to us if we continually think that it is somehow “inevitable” when it is not, not inter-marrying is a simple choice any one of you here can make, it’s NOT that difficult folks, no one is asking you to move mountains here. Stop making excuses for yourselves, instead just put your pride aside and admit to this obvious fact. I hope you get my “point” now Gurgen jan. Look Thoth, I never said the sheer fact that you were born was wrong, that’s just horribly cruel for anyone to say and I would NEVER even attempt to hurt someone in such a way. You were born and like all life, it’s a beautiful thing and you should be grateful, which you are. I also never said you should have negative feelings for being a mixed child, you’re a good person it seems and that is incredibly important. I’m not here to persecute you or anyone else with what I write, but what I do write will inevitable disturb some folks regardless of the fact that my intentions are to “tell it how it is”; some folks just don’t want to admit to the reality of certain situations. So what do they do when someone points things out? They label them and lash out against them, and with the case of these boards, a lot of folks here are conditioned to act this way and they also band-wagon when doing this. The way some posters jumped onboard with Elusive Devilina’s incorrect analogy in the face of logic is a testament to conditioned behavior, lack of foresight or critical thought, and a natural tendency to lash out as a band-wagoning conglomerate by some members here when the reality of the situation is put forth for all to see by young Armenians like me. The funny thing about truth is that some individuals are such bleeding “denialists” towards it that they will never fully comprehend the consequences of their actions until they have their nose in the dirt at the age of 80 with death’s cold clasp around their throat, then they’ll say “oh $hit, he was right”, and as we all know, 20/20 vision is always in hindsight. All of you need to make certain you don’t fall into this trap, we need to make these realization now while we’re young and invincible so that we can forge the future to our liking in a way to best benefit who we are as Armenians on this Earth. I’m not here to talk about whether Thoth the mixed child is a “good person” or not due to inter-marriage. What I AM here for, is to raise the question, “is Thoth the mixed child AS GOOD of a carrier/propagator of Armenian lineage, culture, heritage, tradition, language, way of life, and mentality as a child that is of Hye/Hye marriage?” The answer to this is an obvious “NO”, every mixed child such as you is living proof of this. You simply cannot dispute this fact Thoth, for us to survive as a people, inter-marriage is not and cannot be a “good thing” on any level if you care about preservation, whether it’s here in the United States or on the planet Venus. Yet, with such blatant obvious facts in front of some of the Hyes here, they still refuse to accept this notion because IF they do in fact accept such a notion, they incriminate themselves because A) they are involved with an odar for whatever reason or they are a child of mix marriage such yourself and thus can’t help but take offense to what I write or C) they would like to get involved with an odar, but The Armenian Pirate pointing these things out to them creates a thorn of guilt in their side, so they lash out against me instead of actually trying to overcome the stigmatizations of Armenian “girl and boy” dynamics in our communities that separates our young girls and boys from one another. You see Thoth, the enticement of inter-marriage is nothing that is merely a superficial social phenomenon, its cause is MUCH deeper, one must investigate a little and pretty soon, it all begins to tie together. Most Hye youth in our Armenian communities (and I’ve been to MANY across the world during my traveling days), ESPECIALLY our young women, have incredible stigmatization to overcome that have been passed down from their parents. It is all ridiculous notions of “makur”/”non-makur” and who is “makur” enough to get “seriously” involved with. It’s not a surprise to me sometimes to see a Hye girl in a sexual relationship with an odar when her choice of an open-sexual relationship with a Hye lover would leave her with nothing but community persecution, gossip, and slander. Even women as mature as their 20’s suffer from this, you would think that by the age of 20-something, a young Hye could comfortably have a sexually-open relationship with a Hye lover, but in some communities this is NOT the case, it is ridiculous! A few backwards thinking Hye men also have contributed to this phenomenon by brutally disrespecting women that decided to share a bed with them as lovers, after such an experience, why would a Hye woman want to risk such brutalization again when an odar will keep everything nice and “hush hush”? As horrible as persecution may be, the problem with this mentality by Hye women is that they fail to REALIZE that NOT ALL Hye men are radically backwards when it comes to human sexuality, in fact, MANY are INCREDIBLY OPEN minded. Thus, women that have been socially persecuted by their Hye lovers are scared away from the notion of being sexually involved with a Hye guy that might be interested in her; so what does she do? She certainly cannot shut her sexual drive down, so she chooses to steer clear of Hye lovers and before you know it, that “sexual fling” with the odar becomes an emotional attachment that leads to inter-marriage, kiss another potential Hye/Hye family good-bye. All this is inter-connected and many such stigmas such as those involved with the sexual dynamics between Hye men and women contribute to inter-marriage occurring, which ultimately contributes to the destruction of Armenian lineage, heritage, and culture. The question all of you Armenians have to ask yourselves is, how do we change such things between ourselves as Armenian youth? The answer is simple, as an individual, you look around and train yourself to recognize what TRULY is “Armenian” culture/heritage/tradition and you hold on to it with all your might because it is incredibly precious, once it is gone, it will be gone for good. Things such as harassing our beautiful young Hye sisters for their relationships with Hye men ARE NOT “Armenian culture/tradition”, they are social stigmas that have been left behind as remnants of our parents’ past social atmosphere in places such as Iran, Lebanon, Armenia, and other places. These stigmas can be wiped out, leaving behind things that are true tradition, culture, and heritage that belong to Armenians and can be called Armenian. Only, we as Armenian youth can make these changes through active effort. If you’re a Hye guy and end up doing the wild thing with a Hye girl that digs you and your buddy asks you if anything happened, say “if it did, it’s none of your business” instead of automatically assuming that the girl was “not makur” for getting involved with you and disrespecting her in front of your friends. Likewise, perhaps Hye women that are incredibly wary of getting involved with Hye men due to a bad past experience should give the next Hye guy a chance instead of swearing off Hye men for good. These are simple decisions but they DO make a difference and DO create a new movement in the efforts of destroying negative stigmas. It all begins with us, the Armenian youth. You’re right, you cannot force Armenians one way or another, and this discussion isn’t about what an individual HAS TO DO, but rather, in the reality of the situation we’re in as Armenians, what is the MOST correct and the MOST beneficial course of action Armenian men and women should take in terms of preserving ourselves as a people? The answer is simple, the reality of the situation is that we as Diasporans, for whatever reason, have been scattered and have formed communities that still are strongly linked to our motherland. Now, to keep that link strong on the planes of culture, heritage, tradition, and lineage, there are inherent actions and decision that one can make that are without a shadow of a doubt MORE correct (in the context of preservation) than other actions and decisions. This is the essence of my ideas and what I write about, that is, there are in fact MORE correct decisions/actions (for those Diasporans interested in our preservation) to make/take. Now, am I saying that the interest for preservation HAS to be there? No, such an expectation is unrealistic and cannot possibly be enforced without basic human rights violations. HOWEVER, IF an individual DOES in fact have interest in his/her preservation as an Armenian on all levels (culture/heritage/lineage), then YES, there exist decisions/actions such as NOT inter-marrying that are inherently and logically the CORRECT manner to accomplish preservation regardless of where you are on the Earth. I consider my ideas as absolute because they are based on logic and reasoning after the variables of the situation and the reality of our people’s situation is taken into account and dissected. What I write is not based on supposition or the politically correct credibility given to the ideas of some other individuals here merely because it is “their opinion and must be respected”, I’ll respect other people’s opinions, but that does not make those opinions correct with respect to what we must do as a people to survive, all of you need to remember this. Thus, to say that individuals that have interest in Armenian preservation “can do little about it” is wrong Thoth, because in fact, each and every individual that has interest in preserving their Hye lineage, culture, tradition, heritage, etc, can do VERY MUCH about it via making CORRECT decisions to maximize that preservation, and simple decisions such as not inter-marrying or making efforts toward forming a union with a Hye lover are not the astronomical burdens many folks make it out to be. What I do not like nor do I believe, is the way those that are of mixed marriages or have chosen not to care, continually try and put forth the idea that preservation decisions are incredibly hard tasks when in fact they are not. To me, this is like seeing a house on fire burning slowly, and seeing an individual standing there confused as to how to stop that fire. Now instead of telling that individual that water will extinguish that fire and showing him how to properly pour that water, you teach that confused “neutral” individual that petroleum ether is what will extinguish that fire simply because you yourself in the past did not want to make efforts toward extinguishing that very same fire when it was your turn to do so. Consequently, as a side note about the issue of “opinions”, I have a few words to say. The social pacifists and those here that are quick on the trigger with accusations of “racist”/”bigot” or those that are bleeding proponents of “political correctness” and “respecting other people’s opinions in order to be PC” should heed extra special attention. . . . . If respecting opinions were to be equated to having them be correct merely because they are being respected, then my opinion is that Jeffrey Damer had good taste in dining on human flesh when he slaughtered all those young individuals. Since this is “my opinion”, everyone here must respect it for politically correctness’ sake, and since it is being respected, we should assume it is an absolutely correct opinion. In fact, because it is “my opinion” among a sea of other “opinions”, it MUST be JUST AS correct as another person that says killing other human beings is wrong and dining on them is even more wrong. Sarcasm aside, this type of treatment of “opinions” doesn’t quite work, does it? It’s missing logic and reasoning, that’s why. If we were to look at the situation for what it truly is using my approach of logic/reason instead of worrying about being “socially/politically correct and respecting opinions regardless of how wrong they may be” on these socialite forum boards, then what you have, is a psychotic maniac that killed other human beings and then ate them for his own delight and eventually got what was coming to him in jail, end of story. This same technique should be used when discussing issues about our preservation tactics, we should see things for what they are and also realize what actions/decisions are inherently/logically the BEST ones and CORRECT ones as far as preservation efforts are concerned instead of continually trying to say that “somehow everyone is right since we are all expressing opinions”. Expressing your “opinion” does not automatically make it correct folks, don’t be so naïve and sheep like. You can express your opinion that gravity does not exist then jump off a cliff, you won’t be able to float, trust me. The same reasoning can be used with regards to the topics we discuss about ourselves as Armenians, NOT EVERY opinion is “a good choice” merely because “opinions must be respected”, you’re just led to believe this because nearly all of you here are conditioned to be “good human beings to one another no matter how wrong the other person may be about a certain matter” by “respecting other people’s opinions”, FINE, respect it; but don’t respect something then equate it as being “correct” simply because you’ve decided to respect it. Respecting something does not make it “correct”, never has and NEVER WILL because it is based on supposition and social acceptance ONLY, it’s not based on LOGIC and REASONING, and we all know logic/reasoning have much better track records than supposition and political correctness, realize this and try not to forget it ladies and gentlemen. Again, one has to wonder, how much of everything you lack as a half-Armenian stemmed from the inter-marriage between your parents. Logic, experience, and reason allows me to profess that A LOT of the lacking that you have, stemmed from inter-marriage, of course getting you to admit this is unlikely, but it is true never the less Thoth and I think deep down just like many others here, you know this just as much as I do but don’t like to admit it perhaps due to personal pride or some other reason. While I have absolutely no ill-will towards you, my main concern is not you as a mixed child, things are already late in the game for you, so to speak. At best I can hope that you’re involved with your Hye-half and will try and cling onto it somewhat actively while instilling some of the richness into your children as well, and it seems that you’re doing this to a respectable degree, which is excellent! However, I’m mainly concerned with those young Hyes here that still have the choice of choosing a Hye or Odar as a lifelong partner in marriage and I try and write about what the realistic outcomes are for the way they make that choice in marriage. Regardless of how much some individuals here would like to deny the reality of making the odar choice, it does have negative consequences for our people in terms of our preservation of everything that is Armenian, and in a very conditioned manner I’m persecuted for maintaining the truth that hurts the ears of some of the readers here. I guess this type of behavior by them is what being a “modern good politically correct human being” is all about. Thank God I’m not such a being, what a truly “cattle amongst the herd” way of life that must be. EXACTLY! You’re absolutely correct! However, if we stress the importance of Diasporan involvement less and less then essentially the numbers of “Diasporans who involve themselves in Armenia” will drop down and become smaller and smaller, ultimately nullifying itself, which is not good for obvious reasons that are amazingly oblivious to some members here. Instead, we must promote preservation, involvement, togetherness, inter-mingling among the Hye youth, and most importantly, marriages that are composed of two Armenians, not a odars and Armenians if we’re to have any hope of maintaining a high statistical number for “Diaspora who involve themselves in Armenia”. Ultimately, the likelihood of an odar that is married to a Hye recognizing the importance of his/her Hye lover’s importance in being involved with Armenia/Armenianism will inherently be MUCH LESS than a Hye recognizing his/her Hye lover’s involvement with Armenianism because he/she himself is a Hye within a Hye/Hye marriage. This notion cannot be disputed and can EASILY be statistically be proven, suffice that I say it is absolute. You speak incredibly naïvely my friend. You think the fact that some Armenian Diasporans are not concerned with larger social and political issues is in any way a notion that is to merely be dismissed as if it does not matter or does not affect those very same individuals that claim to be “too busy”? Do you seriously believe that by claiming to be “too busy personally or with my family’s future” to be actively involved in Armenian issues and preservation will protect you, your family, or any other Hye here in times of Armenian persecution? Even as a half-Hye you will not be immune, trust me. If you do believe you will be immune because you place this nation “above” Hye issues/preservation as a half-Armenian or an Armenian, you know nothing of the world around you and will always be vulnerable and your family will also be vulnerable my friend. It was not even a year ago, that THIS nation, the one you “place above” your Armenian affiliation and pronounce it as your “bread and butter” so to speak, declared Armenia a terrorist state and Armenians as potential terrorists. HAD it NOT been for the feverish lobbying of Armenians that are wide-awake, aware, and active in Armenian preservation and involvement, we would have been categorized as terrorist, and we all know how well the Japanese were treated during the WW2 incident Japanese that were here in the U.S. And yet with all this parlayed in front of you and others on these boards, you would profess that true preservationist efforts are not of important enough significance and it should all be dumped on the backs of Armenians in Armenia because we are merely “Diasporan”. Diasporans of Hye/Hye parents ARE Armenian too my friend, though some of them have been brilliantly bred into being children of pop-culture and the media’s blitzkrieg, we are Armenian never the less, and thus, share as much responsibility for the nurturing, growth, and success of our ancestral homeland as those Armenians that live there, stop trying to deny this fact merely because it allows for the veil of responsibility to be lifted from our heads, the easier way of dumping responsibility is not necessarily the best path as an Armenian or half-Armenian; it will come back and haunt you down the road, history has proved this time and time again with those ethnic groups that are extinct now, let us not be one of them. No, Armenia lives as an ancestral land mass that belongs to me as an Armenian by birth right but it also lives in me as well, NOT just “in Armenia”. It is part of my soul, my heart, my being, and flows through my blood. Armenia needs me, as its child, to protect it, nurture it, and look after it, REGARDLESS of WHERE I may be at the present time in my life or where my Hye/Hye parents gave birth to me. It’s not just to a “whatever” degree that we need to embrace our Armenia, because for its survival which will allow for our own survival as Armenians, we must embrace it to a distinct degree of importance in all our lives as young Armenians. We must not forget it and abandon it because it will NEVER abandon us as Armenians and as its children, it belongs to us. ANY Armenian in any part of the world can always pick up and head over there and declare it as his/her ancestral home regardless of what state it is in at the time or what political agenda it may have; the same cannot be said of other states some of us live in currently, do not ever forget this my fellow Armenian brothers and sisters. Some of us may live in modern westernized states but that does not mean we must ourselves sacrifice who it is we are as Armenians or forfeit our lineage, heritage, traditions, way of life, or culture merely because of this notion of “living somewhere that is not Armenia”. We should try and support one another, overcome social stigmas that hold us down as Hyes, create unification as Armenians amongst all types of Armenians, not look down upon one another, and like I said previously; nurture, support, and help make our ancestral homeland as successful as possible, and the first step to this is not abandoning it or forgetting about it, but rather recognizing that it is a tangible piece of land that is ours’ which has been for a long time and that it can live, breathe, grow, within us only if we realize that we are just as accountable for its failure or success as those that live in Armenia. All you proponents of “good examples to follow” by the Jews know that every foreign Israeli has this mentality toward Israel and they are not any more special than us as an ethnic group. So let us try to not quickly dump preservationist responsibilities as Armenians on other Armenians merely because we “don’t live in Armenia”, this notion is ridiculous and nothing but a cop-out excuse for alleviating yourself of accountability or personal stress. When there is no preservationist effort to whine about because there is no “Armenians” or “Armenia” and you as an individual are considered as a person without an ethnic identity, what then will some of you use as an excuse to supposedly alleviate stress from your personal lives? Whether you agree with me or not, always think critically about such things, perhaps then you will see things in a different light and change your mind on such topics. This topic is spent, have a great weekend everyone, have fun and stay safe. -The Armenian Pirate TheArmenianPirateBroadcast@hotmail.com

Yes, of course there has not been any negatives relating to the inter-marriage of your parents, in fact it was SUCH a SERENE inter-married environment that it prevented you from even learning how to speak, read, and write in Armenian, YES folks inter-marriage is great for preserving ourselves as Hyes! Seriously, let us set the sarcasm aside and reiterate just SOME of the “not so negative” issues that arose from the inter-marriage that took place within your family Thoth, as you described them in your own words in the original thread when you were describing some the things you experienced while growing up in a Hye/odar home, I particularly took notice of some of the notable things pertaining to this discussion, thus capitalizing them out: So after that quote, which is your own words describing the “wonderful” virtues of inter-marriage let’s recap a bit. You my friend, DO NOT speak Armenian, you DO NOT know how to write in Armenian, and you CANNOT read in Armenian. Within your household, you described in YOUR OWN WORDS, there was strife that pertained to the fact that inter-marriage occurred, and certainly it seems to have been a conflicted environment to grow up in for a child that is of two ethnic lineages/backgrounds. So with that set, you’re telling me that inter-marriage plays absolutely NO hindering role in the preservation of Armenian heritage, lineage, and culture? Outside of what you have read in books about the half of you that is Armenian, what in fact have you preserved my friend? My beautiful Hye language? Nope. My Armenian alphabet? Nope. My Armenian written word? Nope. The lineage that is directly connected to the people of known as Armenian? Nope, you are half-Hye and your children will be even less so. So tell me, HOW have you preserved anything for Armenians bud? I’m willing to bet that there is a significant chance that your real life name itself is not of Armenian origin because perhaps your odar parent may have opted give you a name that related to his/her own lineage/ethnic group. So again I ask you, how are all these facts that have stemmed from the decision by your parents to inter-marry NOT destructive to the survival and preservation of my Hye heritage, culture, tradition, and lineage. I regret that what I write upsets you and others like you, since you are the VERY mixed child that presents no hope for my people’s future in any way as far as preservation of heritage/culture/lineage is concerned because progressively your own children/descendants will inevitably be less in touch with their Armenian portion on all levels. I wish I could say that a mixed child such as you will be equally likely to carry on everything and anything that is Armenian because they feel an equal amount of affinity toward their ancient lineage as a child of Hye/Hye parents would, but this is not the case. Or that you have absolutely on inner conflict about the dichotomy of your ethnic lineage my friend, but this simply is NOT the case either regardless of how much you would like to deny it; and many of the individuals on this board will not admit to this out loud for various reasons; to some it is an ugly truth to some that they would avoid if possible because A) they are mixed children themselves or are involved with an odar on a romantic/sexual level and their guilt is sparked when they speak of such things, but it’s the truth never the less. If right now, the world governments for whatever reason said, those individuals that can claim right of ownership to Armenia through parental birth-right, you could easily be excluded with the technicality of being half-Armenian and half-odar, which you are; thus you would have no claim to those lands. And let us assume that even as a mixed child you were so motivated that you climbed to great political levels due to your love for your Armenian half. Ultimately with all the work you possibly may have accomplished, when push comes to shove, the opposing political forces could use such technicalities as your lineage to knock those like you out of the loop for things such as rights to Genocide restitutions, rights to land claims, rights to Armenian sovereignty, rights to Armenian political asylum, rights political oppression, and many other things out there. And please don’t respond with “that stuff doesn’t happen anymore” because it does, every single day. There is a political power struggle out there for land grabbing and erasing small ethnic groups unlike any other, it is done in different means these days, such as the dilution of distinct ethnicities/lineages using techniques of globalization. Many of you live in westernized nations and these things are screened incredibly well, it is the rule of the universe, the strong/majority crush and the weak/minority get crushed, but it can be avoided. Perhaps one of the few protections left for any ethnic group these days is the distinctness of their lineage on the world stage because it gives them political and historic relevance through the absoluteness of their maintained identity as Armenians, Jews, Japanese, etc, etc. When that distinctness is allowed to be diluted and stamped out, the protection if provided also disappears, all you self-proclaimed political aficionados and “intellectuals” on these boards surprise me with how blind and naïve you are to these facts about what goes on and how important it is to maintain the barriers of protection such as distinctness of one’s identity as a Hye. But perhaps by pulling the veil down on yourselves things become all the more comfortable, and like a drug, lifting that veil back up the light of truth becomes a difficult task, indeed. Thoth, I look at you and I don’t see anyone “bad” or “inferior” to any other person on these boards that may not be a mixed child with regards to your personal character, so don’t think that Thoth. On the other hand, I cannot just deny the fact that in the role that young Hyes need to play for our Armenian culture, lineage, and heritage to survive and proliferate, you as a mixed child, are FAR LESS effective for that role inherently due to your dual background which has led to the loss of many aspects/understandings that could have been more “Hye” in you had you been a Hye/Hye child VS mixed; your lack of Armenian linguistic knowledge being the first and most obvious of such things. Also, at the same time I’m not naïve to the fact that you do not speak Armenian, cannot write in Armenian, can not read Armenian, nearly everything you know of your Armenian half comes from external sources, there are very simple traditions, mentality, and way of life that you will never come to understand because of your split lineage and all of these things will die with you Thoth. As good as it is that you at least are trying to stay in touch with your Armenian side, you’re still VASTLY limited when compared to the majority (not all, but majority) of folks your own age that have grown up in homes consisting of Hye/Hye parents. Your children will be even more so limited and it will continually degenerate to extinction in your family’s line, it’s difficult to accept but it’s something that simply is true and easily provable when you investigate real life cases. Yes, you’re right, that is the way it was; and inter-marriage did in fact contribute to you not learning Armenian because among your two parents there was also another ethnic lineage present besides just Armenian. This is very self-evident, you point it out yourself while being living proof of the culturally destructive effects inter-marriage had, one of those effects being the formation of an environment where your study of Armenian language was not nurtured as much as it should have been and could have been HAD both your parents been Hye. When a person, as an adult, cannot speak to one’s spouse in one’s native ethnic tongue such as Armenian, what chance does one’s child have when all he/she hears spoken between the parents is the common language they both know, in Thoth’s case, that language being English? The answer is simple, that child will inherently learn what is spoken the most in that household or the language the parents use to communicate with one another. With Hye/Hye parents, the parents may in fact both speak fluent English, but all they have to do is consciously speak Armenian around the child and that child will learn it fluently with little or no difficulty, this choice by the parents is not present within the setting of an inter-marriage. So not only is that child’s lineage half-Armenian due to the inter-marriage but this child very likely will never speak the language and if they don’t do that, the written alphabet and ability to read in Armenian will also be lost and gone for good. Now, with that logic and reason CLEARLY sprawled out for Thoth and the rest of you that are in social denial, you cannot possibly claim to me that inter-marriage is not anti-preservation for my Armenian culture, heritage, language, and lineage because it clearly has incredibly destructive effects whether you like to admit to it or not. Yes, people do have the right to choose, I never said they do not. Not anywhere in my writing will you find any denial of the existence of that choice, you are being a negative critic of a portion of my argument that you just fabricated on your own behalf, in short, don’t put words into my mouth. The choice is obviously there for everyone to make, that much is true, but choosing inter-marriage is in fact WRONG IF on any level an Armenian individual is CONCERNED about the preservation of his/her Hye culture, lineage, and heritage and that of his/her children in the future. You can’t say you “care so much about your Armenian heritage” then turn around and inter-marry, thus completely cutting off your Armenian roots at the core, it’s a hypocrisy and contradiction in terms; it just does not make sense. One cannot boast about the 65th step that was correctly taken on the path of Armenian preservation when in fact at step number 1 of forming a union with a Hye lover, you decided to not take that step at all. When you want to grow a rose, you seed the soil with the appropriate seed, give it sunlight, water, and nutrients so it grows, and it does grow to blossom beautifully. But if you start with the wrong seed, then deprive it of sunlight, and urinate on it, how will that plant grow? And if it does, it will not be a rose; and if it’s a hybrid seed to begin with, its petals/stem may look somewhat like a rose, but it will only PARTLY be a rose, but never a complete rose. However, IF you couldn’t care less about preservation, then the choice of inter-marriage does not matter and is not wrong or worth losing sleep over because you have also made the choice of not caring about preservation of your own heritage. In fact, once you do make the choice of not caring about your Armenian lineage/heritage/culture’s preservation, then every other choice after that is completely out of the loop and should not pertain in any way to the topic of preservation, it’s pointless and irrelevant. I have never said you HAVE TO make the choice of marrying a Hye, some of you keep trying to make that assumption to discredit or create slander toward me, instead, try putting up a valid counter-point to what I write if you can. What I DO BELIEVE, is that IF you want to PRESERVE Armenian heritage/lineage/culture, the choice of inter-marriage is the wrong one, this is a very reasonable, rationale, and completely relevant idea. If you DON’T CARE much about PRESERVATION of such things, then by all means, do what you want and any choices you make about inter-marriage are not wrong in any way because you just don’t care nor are you a proponent of preservation through personal decision. What is incredibly annoying and hypocritical is seeing a self-proclaimed “super Armenian” romantically involved with an odar. Honestly, what the hell is the point of such people’s “Armenian spirit” when that very same spirit obviously WASN’T remotely STRONG ENOUGH to compel them to ACTUALLY MARRY AN ARMENIAN? That kind of behavior is incredibly pathetic. Are you serious?! With nearly half the world population of Armenians being Diaspora all of a sudden it must be “left to them”. Hello! In case you didn’t notice my friend, “them” is ME, last I checked I’m still ARMENIAN from ARMENIAN parents and ARMENIAN grandparents. You speak of Diaspora as if they are not Hye anymore, sure there are some that have inter-married such as your parents, but the majority still are in very tightly knit Armenian communities all around the world, myself included; and we’re supposed leave it to “Armenians from Armenia” to decide things? I AM FROM ARMENIA! And so is every single other Diasporan that fled persecution, that’s why we’re called Armenians, escaping death did not make us any less Armenian nor should our concern be any less for our homeland, Jesus Christ you’re obtusely naive. No, actually what’s REALLY amazing is how you claim that you didn’t read past a certain point yet in the same breath began putting words into my mouth as far as my writing was concerned on your own behalf. Maybe if you had read it all, you would see that no where in all that did I say “you HAVE TO make the choice of inter-marriage”, the whole point is, if someone is really a person that cares about Armenian preservation, that decision begins through basic choices such as not inter-marrying. This is a “simple” notion, and as you claim, you are all for understanding “simple things”, so next time read and clearly understand what you read before making false accusations of others or providing tasteless wit with BS one-liners and smileys. Well first I’d like to say it is incredibly sad to hear that a grown man would deliberately make it a point to not teach his own child the language that he himself grew up on. The spoken language is one of the most significant portions of any culture, so the fact that he deliberately did not teach you, for whatever reason, things cannot be redeemed after that simply by having you learn Armenian history, a book could have taught you that, and if you think simply by knowing Hye history you can truly be credited to being Armenian, then you’re sorely mistaken Anaheet jan. How you can even believe that you are actually preserving Hye culture by not knowing its fundamental roots of language, alphabet, and speech is beyond me. Any mediocre anthropologist will tell you that the diminishing of an ethnic group’s language/speech is one of the first things that leads to the dilution and possible destruction of that ethnic group, and since inter-marriage promotes the diminishing of even the basic element of such things as Armenian linguistics in mixed children, then we can logically deduce that inter-marriage is in fact the WRONG choice for any individual that may be concerned with cultural/heritage/lineage self-preservation. Also, I don’t think you can claim to know what “it is to be Armenian” because if you DID actually FULLY understand what Armenianism is in both spirit, culture, lineage, and heritage, and the importance of those aspects; then you would also know how to speak your native tongue because it would have been an important issue for you, regardless of the fact that you’re half-Hye by lineage. From what I’ve written thus far, it’s very clear that inter-marriage is VERY MUCH related to choices such as the one your father made about deliberately not teaching you Armenian. It’s redundant for me to get into it again, read some of the above, but suffice that I say that inter-marriage can easily lead to the choice your father made for an incredible number of reasons, yet within a Hye/Hye marriage, that choice never truly comes up because there is a consistency in the mentality, atmosphere, tradition, practices, values, way of life, heritage, culture, and lineage of that Hye/Hye household. This notion has been brought up before, and I’ve gone through it in depth, since you are new, I’ll gladly write some more about it. Judaism is brilliant in its dynamism, because it can be considered BOTH as a RELIGION as well as a LINEAGE for the people of a land known as Israel. When an individual converts to Judaism for whatever reason, yes they are then considered “Jewish” by title, but ONLY in the context of RELGIOUS belief, they are NOT, I repeat, they are NOT necessarily in any way connected to the lineage of people known as Israelites, which are also known as “Jews”. But because the word “Jew” is synonymous for religious belief and ethnic lineage it can be very misleading with describing someone that has converted to the religion of Judaism, this person is a Jew, but not a person of ISRAELI lineage. I can convert my belief from Apostolic Christian to that of Judaism tomorrow and be regarded as “Jewish”, but am I a Jew in the context of my lineage being part of the people of Israel? No, of course not, I’m still ARMENIAN and my lineage is still part of the people of Armenia because my parents, grandparents, etc, were of that lineage; thus I can only be referred to as an Armenian “Jew”, which is an ARMENIAN that has converted to Judaic religious beliefs, but is certainly not a true Israelite. If you go to Israel, you will quickly notice that those of true Israeli origin will not just refer to themselves as “Jewish” but as “Israeli” in a declaration of their true lineage, and unfortunately, those individuals that have lost their Israelite lineage through scattering in the early 20th century or those that are merely “converts” to Judaism as a religion, a lot of times get treated in a VERY condescending manner by those that are truly Israelites and children of Israel through Israelite/Israelite marriages keeping that lineage in tact. So NO, you cannot say that if you marry an Armenian as an odar, then your children are full blooded Armenians directly connected to Armenian lineage, because Armenianism is NOT synonymous with being a religion and a lineage/culture the way Judaism is. A Jewish woman that marries a non-Jew can through RELIGIOUS ceremony convert her children to Jewish faith, thus them becoming “Jews” in the religious sense, but they will NEVER be part of true Jewish lineage, which is that of the children of Israel, the Israelites. That is why cumulatively worldwide there are about 20 million “Jews” which includes those folks that converted to Judaism as a religious faith, those that have diluted lineages but still give themselves the title of “Jew”, and the true Israel Jews that are still directly linked to their lineage through Israeli/Israeli marriage. If you count only those “Jews” that are of Israeli/Israeli parents in the present day world, their numbers are at about 4-5 million, not 20 million. And since Armenianism doesn’t have this luxury of being considered a lineage/culture as well as a form of religion, a child of a Hye/Odar marriage is HALF hye, not full. You wouldn’t call a person that is a child of Japanese/German marriage “Japanese” or merely “German” because they are not COMPLETELY either of those things, they are mixed, so why would you assume that a child of an Armenian/odar marriage is equivalent of a Hye/Hye marriage in the CONTEXT of LINEAGE (not trying to say one is superior to the other as a person, calm yourselves my critics) when that child is clearly of mixed lineage? The answer is, you wouldn't assume so. Actually it’s not BS, don’t so pretentious in assuming such things. Lineage is in fact very clear in its definition, though not surprisingly, the greatest adversaries of this clarity are those that have already forfeited it through inter-marriage and their children, such as you Anaheet. Lineage is the basis of the hierarchy of any culture, it is where all the other sub-categories of heritage are derived from beginning with other basics such as distinct linguistics/speech to more complex notions of traditions, values, mentalities, and beliefs. But let us ASSUME that you are right about lineage not being important for a moment; let us assume that language and culture are in fact the only important factors. Now, you don’t speak Armenian and are distanced from Armenian culture due to the inter-marriage that took place, so thus according to YOUR OWN theory, inter-marriage did in fact play a key role in disrupting cultural preservation. Hence even on the assumption of lineage “not being important” as you would claim, which was a wrong assumption of you to begin with, you STILL are INCORRECT about inter-marriage not playing a destructive role on Armenian heritage and culture as well as its survival. Many. Yes it can, I can learn Japanese and study/understand/learn about Japanese culture, hence performing the “acquiring” that you speak of, but that does NOT make me Japanese, I’m STILL Armenian through my lineage, my Armenian parents, and my connection to my homeland and place of ancestral origin. Try and understand this, it amazes me how many of you do not grasp this notion. I wasn’t trying to speak for you Anaheet, you spoke for yourself with what you said. You claim inter-marriage has absolutely no detrimental effects on Armenian cultural, heritage, and lineage preservation; yet you describe things like this quote below which are directly linked to the inter-marriage that took place in your own family. It seems CLEARLY detrimental to me, unless you find what you describe above as “positive” for culture, lineage, heritage preservation for Armenians, in which case I would REALLY be worried for you. I tell it how it is and you label me because you’re conditioned to do so, I’ve expected such reactions long before I began my writing career. I don’t expect to be seen in a good light on these boards because seldom are those that describe what they see around them as it truly is happening liked. This is because individuals like me reveal things people like you would like to not think about, and I talk about things that many of you do not even dare speak of but during moments of solace, when it’s just you and your conscience, you feel these things and you know them to be true, I just remind you of all this and you dislike me for reminding you of it and putting it in your face. I never accused Sev-Mard or anyone here of being a person of “bad” character or ill moral judgment, on the contrary, I’m the one that is CONTINUALLY attacked on a personal level by you and some of other posters here every time I write anything remotely pertaining to critical thought on matters that concern us all as young Armenians. It’s either a variant of the “ignorant” label you or some other folks toss my way or a sarcastic comment in an attempt to be a clown; but NEVER has anyone outside of maybe Boghos, which I still respect a lot, put up a descent retort outside of lashing out against me with verbal attacks. If you think my writing is “uncontrolled”, “uninspiring”, “too long”, just don’t read it, why waste your time at all? After all, I’m just an “ignorant” and “stubborn” person, right? With regards to Sev-Mard, I truly believe in the things he says about how he feels about his female counterpart, he is definitely genuine in his emotions. But that still will not keep me from pointing out the fact that because a union is taking place between him and a Hye, one less union will take place between a Hye and that same Hye woman, and for preservation purposes for us Armenians, inter-marriage is wrong. Can you honestly deny this Vava? Yes it’s an awkward truth, but it is TRUTH never the less; I’m just presenting it to you and you lash out against me over and over again along with some other folks on these boards. In order to write about the things I put down on paper, one must be desensitized to a high degree during the writing process as well as while reading what others have to say. It certainly is incredibly emotionally taxing as well as draining. Maybe one day some of you will have the courage to see things as they truly are, let’s hope it won’t be too late for all of us Armenians by then, until that day comes I’ll keep writing out my ideas for those that like reading them, and those of you that hate what I write, just don’t read it. Whether I speak of the truth or not in all of your ears, ultimately in the end the truth will reveal itself, and when it does, who will my antagonizing critics label, antagonize, and lash out against then? One of the most impact-filled and interesting things I ever read on these forums was when Azat once said something along the lines of “I’m trying to find a nice Armenian girl to settle down with” while simultaneously Sev-Mard was speaking of his own Armenian girlfriend in that same thread. Truly it was a moment of irony on un-paralleled levels, the Armenian man pouring his heart out about not being able to find an Armenian woman for himself while the odar speaks of his own Armenian woman. Think about this ladies and gentlemen. I hope everyone has a great weekend, almost Friday! Wow it is Friday, started writing on Thursday! -The Armenian Pirate TheArmenianPirateBroadcast@hotmail.com

This is a long piece, those that will whine afterwards about its length would be better off heading over to the cooking threads, they are shorter. For everyone else, your time is appreciated. Ah Yes, how easy it is to quickly toss out the old “a person of XYZ background must have done you wrong, hence you speak ill of me” card. Why, am I not surprised to read this? Right after reading Vigil’s post I knew you couldn’t resist bringing up that crutch excuse in your response instead of actually responding with a valid retort. Furthermore, I’m not surprised the BANDWAGONING that takes place the minute nonsense accusations of “racism” are brought up, all the social pacifists jump on board rather than actually replying with a retort that would hold water against the things Vigil mentioned. I’m not going to deny the fact that Vigil is angry and at times speaks extremely bluntly, but the content of what he states still is valid, regardless of the tone, inflection, and method of delivery that content. Do you not understand that not I, Vigil, nor any Armenian with any self-worth for his/her lineage really cares how you made your approach? No one is accusing you of anything negative, nor are we looking down on you in any way. Your heritage as a black man is great, wonderful, and unique; it’s also riddled with struggle which I along with other Hyes respect. HOWEVER, the same can be said of MY culture, even more so than yours NOT because mine is “better” but because it has sustained itself for orders of magnitude longer than yours through pressures that only a Hye can truly appreciate and wholeheartedly understand. While the black man’s history and heritage is in its infancy, that of an Armenian has endured for CENTURIES through so much strife, bloodshed, and hardship that our survival is a miracle in and of itself, we have also lost so many great men/women that dedicated themselves to an ENTIRE people, and intermarriage will bring MY lineage, heritage, and culture to it’s twilight or perhaps it’s end if it is simply allowed to blend in with yours, not too mentioned taint the work of all those that have DIED so that I can retain my ethnic sovereignty; DO YOU COMPREHEND THIS? Do you actually believe that I or many others will stand idly by and allow this to happen through the tolerance of intermarriage merely because it is the “politically” or “socially” correct thing to do according to the standards of globalization and ethnic blending? Of course NOT! Maybe for an African-American, who’s ethnic stability and survival is NOT at all threatened through the dwindling of his kinsmen’s population this is not a big deal, but I and other Armenians DO NOT have the luxury of such stability yet; THUS, we must make EFFORTS as Hye men and women to keep our lineage proliferated by NOT getting involved in inter-marriages. YOU my friend, regardless of how noble your romantic intentions, hinder those efforts, whether you’re doing it consciously or just by the circumstance of “falling for a girl”, it DOES NOT MATTER, you’re creating a hindrance never the less, do not try and deny this through justifications of “I love her”, “I’ll take good care of her”, etc, etc. Whether your personal character as an odar is good or bad, it still does not change the ABSOLUTE FACT, that beyond your union with a Hye female or vice versa, the Armenian lineage will just a bit smaller and thus less potential will be available for lineage proliferation. It’s a simple statistical fact, 10 Hye couples are better than 9, that’s it. And if that number is continually tolerated in its decrease, eventually, Armenian lineage will cease to be; it simply ASTONISHES me how difficult it is for you or those that are in denial of this fact to see this in all its simplistic clarity! On a census card, THERE IS NO check box for mixes, on the socio-political stage THERE IS NO check box for mixes, during the recognition of national rights of a group of people THERE IS NO RECOGNITION FOR MIXES! Understand this in all of its absolute nature. The point here is not how an odar such as you approaches, interacts, or intermingles with a Hye woman or man. The essence of this debate is the fact that your intermingling, as an odar with a Hye woman or man, REGARDLESS of how noble, worthy, well meant, etc, etc, it may be, DOES NOT and WILL NOT benefit the cause of Armenian preservation in ANY manner. To preserve ourselves as Hyes, it is not merely enough to preserve “the spirit”, or the “language”, or keep track of our historic past the way some of the pacified minimalists continually insist. BEFORE we even begin to preserve ANY of those aspects about ourselves, we MUST begin at the CORE, the BASE, and the ESSENCE, which is the union between an Armenian girl with an ARMENIAN boy, NOT an odar boy or girl; THAT folks, will in turn magnify and increase by many magnitudes the chance/opportunity to preserve our other important links to our identity, our LINEAGE, and the multitude of other aspects of Armenianism. The union between a Hye woman with a HYE man is the ROOT of everything else that will then be possible to preserve including our history, language, spirit, traditions, and culture. When an odar, such as Sev-Mard, for WHATEVER reason decides to step into our circle he is certainly welcome by me and other Hyes, BUT when you form a union with an Armenian girl, the root for that particular woman is cut off, the lineage is DESTROYED. Regardless of how well that woman’s children speak Armenian, how well versed they are in Armenian history, etc, their historic lineage and ties to the Anatolian people known as Armenian is severed for good, they ARE NOT, and CANNOT be considered as a person of ARMENIAN descent; at best they can and ARE considered as a person of HALF Armenian and HALF African descent. I’m sitting here writing this out and my God I’m blown away at the sheer IGNORANCE and STUBORNESS some of you display regarding this VERY SIMPLE notion of what it means to have distinctness in Armenian lineage, heritage, cultural definition, and how to go about maintaining that distinctness merely because you would LOVE NOTHING more than to rid yourselves of the Armenian responsibility of actually showing effort to create a union with a Hye male/female rather than an odar as a lover. They say ignorance is bliss, but some of you have gone so overboard that you’ve tapped this bliss dry in the proverbial barrel. Wake up. No you have not told any Armenian how to do anything, nor could you as long as Hye brothers and sisters like me exist, our people, children, men, women, way of life, culture, heritage, rights, and lineage is under an ever vigilant watch. No Armenian or Half-Armenian needs ever to worry about being threatened in any way ever again, thankfully, the 20th century made sure to forge young, astute, and determined Hyes. As the 21st century moves forward, I represent the future, I’m not the Dashnak with the gun, nor am I the Intellectual that can only write about the things he/she COULD HAVE prevented through some action, I’m a blend of both these sects whenever any situation dictates. If there is social transgression made against Hyes, I will respond verbally; whenever a written manifesto is created against Hyes, I will respond with my writing, and if any odar dares make physical threats or ethnic slurs such as “dirty Armo”, I will grind them beneath my heels in any club, bar, or social event; they WILL learn to respect my heritage, lineage, and culture the way I respect theirs. There are many like me out there and those that are not yet slowly are beginning to understand their own self-worth as Hyes and the importance of maintaining that identity. The problem has been that many individuals are afraid to be ethnocentric or have nationalistic pride because weak minded socialites and some odars such as yourself use bandwagon type persecution to make it seem like Armenian pride is in some form “racist”, “un-cool”, “not modern”, “not-trendy enough”, “not pop-culture enough”, or “ignorant”; when in fact it is NONE of these things, NOR is it a “double edged sword” the way you imply it to be. And in the process of doing this, these very same socialites arm odars such as yourself with the notion that we as Armenians, in the face of our population and survival being threatened, should be accepting and “open-minded” about the notion of our men or women inter-marrying. And EVERY time someone says “inter-marriage is wrong if we’re to survive”, they are quickly replied to with nonsense crutch excuse responses such as “you’re ignorant” or “racist”. Tell me ladies and gentlemen, WHO really is the ignorant individual here? The person that whole-heartedly recognizes the fragile state our lineage/heritage/culture is in and the importance of maintaining the basis of all that by making efforts NOT to inter-marry and expressing to others VALID and LOGICAL reasons why it is important for Hye/Hye unions to be maintained for our people’s survival? Or is the ACTUAL IGNORANT individual the one that DOES know VERY WELL the fragile state of our people’s linage/culture/heritage and also knows how rich and wonderful it is, BUT STILL chooses to turn a blind eye to it and chop everything off at the roots by eagerly believing that the “grass is greener” on the odar side and ultimately inter-marrying? The answer is obvious, the former individual sees things for what they ARE and knows what must be done to create positive gains despite his own persecution by the masses, this is not ignorance, it is known as COURAGE, something some of you know NOTHING about, but you will soon LEARN. The latter individual is in fact the IGNORANT one, he/she lacks a spine and has low cultural self-esteem, such an individual has very little self-worth as an Armenian, he/she thinks that by expressing anything Armenian during any social activity is “ahmot” in the context of “un-cool”. You talk to people like this in makur Armenian and they continually respond in English as if responding in Armenian is in some manner “ahmot”; yet within the same breath these very same individuals can easily emulate “thug-life” rapper antics without reservation, I can’t stress how PATHETIC this is to bare witness. If you’re one of these individuals then I whole heartedly pity you, because you are nothing but a PUPPET of the media and pop-culture, television says “jump” and you respond with “how high”. These Hyes are easily influenced, dominated, and will be quick to turn his/her back on Armenian lineage/heritage/culture through the act of inter-marriage due to low self-worth as an Armenian being programmed into them through others that are suffering by the same symptoms, it’s a viscous cycle. My own investigations into the matter have lead me to source of such behavior, which is lack of knowledge. If you don’t know exactly what it MEANS to be Armenian, how you have CONTRIBUTED to the world, what you have EXPERIENCED as a people, and how critically you tie into the world historically when compared to other ethnic groups, how can you possibly have the self-worth necessary to properly value your identity? You cannot. And how’s fault is this lack of knowledge in those Hye youth that are neglectful of their own Armenian ties? It’s ALL of OUR faults, beginning from the parents of such individuals that are far too busy with financial greed all the way down to some of those on these boards that actually promote the “whatever” attitude into some of our younger forum members. To some of these members, everything is a joke, an opportunity for sarcasm, a chance to be an attention whore, or simply a moment in time to rid themselves of their own guilt for being careless by bringing other Hyes into the abyssal vacuum of carelessness towards Armenian lineage, heritage, and culture. As a side-note, I’ve noticed that women are especially prone to the odar allure inherently because the notion of “romance” while wonderful, at times acts to blind them to the destructive nature of inter-marriage and the severe social, emotional, and stigmatized effects inter-marriage will have on their mixed children. I’d like some of the women to comment on this notion with their perspective of it. Anaheet (a little late but welcome to the forums never the less!) and Thoth are perfect examples of inter-marriage complexities. Both of them in some manner speak of how disgruntled their family life has been and how alienated they feel at times or have felt in the past with relatives, other Hyes, etc, etc. Many of these social negative symptoms that they have felt came from the inter-marriage that took place, yet they themselves would deny this, but deep down inside they know exactly what I am talking about. Even if their knowledge of their Armenian half is vast or up to date with things such as Hye history, politics, etc, etc, they still feel a need to connect with at least one half of their mixed lineage. So what if they chose the other half? How would that in ANY manner benefit Hye proliferation? It WOULDN’T! If someone like Anaheet felt her Odar half was more interesting than her Hye half, BOOM, she would be gone, that’s it for the Armenian portion of her lineage. Not every mixed child chooses to come to Hye boards and attempt to fill the void and confusion they have felt as mixed children due to the fact that they really do not belong to either side of their lineage completely. Many mixed children lose both halves of their lineage while growing up because they feel distant from both halves, which to some degree they are, thus they grasp the only culture they know, pop-culture. How can such a situation benefit Armenian preservation in any form? It CANNOT! Furthermore, with the fragile and critical phase in our Armenian population’s survival and progression, WHY are ANY of you willing to risk such a situation with your own children when instead by choosing a Hye lover, you eliminate any such risks completely or at the very least reduce such risks by significant amounts? While it is easy for some moderators or some other folks to create a “quick fix” solution by labeling everyone with fractional Armenian lineage as a “Hye” with regards to their lineage; THIS IS NOT the responsible solution ladies and gents; because it blurs the clear definition of our lineage and with such blurring it will also blur what we as Armenians can claim as our rights on the world stage. If we allow that to happen, you, me, and every other Hye on this globe is SCREWED on un-paralleled levels. The responsible solution is individual EFFORT to form a union with a HYE man or woman as one’s lover IF IN FACT you truly DESIRE to sincerely aid your people proliferate their culture/heritage/lineage the SAME WAY every other Japanese, Chinese, Jew, Gentile, Black, White, Pink, and Blue man or woman does but pretends like they supposedly do not make ethnocentric efforts. If you are so jaded and weak-minded that you would like to just drift through your life and “do whatever” or buy into pathetic notions of “as long as you love a person, it doesn’t matter who they are”, then by all means do so, the end won’t be pleasant I assure you, because inter-marriage is a very serious issue and it DOES matter, but other ethnocentric odars that are out to gain power, status, and position for themselves would LOVE for you folks to think that it does not matter like good little sheep. The world is not the ideal place many of you would love to believe it to be, at least NOT YET, and until it becomes such a place, it is best for you to attempt to create some basic self-worth for your own Armenian lineage/heritage/culture instead of PATHETICALLY believing or envying an odar simply because that odar’s culture is having its 15 minutes of fame in the mass media and pop-culture. Being young, modern, intellectual, etc, etc, is all great, The Armenian Pirate is also all of those things and more, but also remember to BE and STAY who YOU ARE as a birth right, and that is ARMENIAN. Regardless if you live in the U.S., Europe, or anywhere else in the world, remember that you’ll always be a guest on those lands, more specifically you will be the odar on French, Spanish, American, or any other land that is not called “Armenia”, so don’t be so quick as to lose sight of your own lineage as a Hye, because non-Hyes will never lose sight of the fact that you’re Armenian and not one of them. Who cares what percentage of Americans are black? The obvious point Vigil was trying to make is that WHATEVER the percentage may be, when calculated, it dwarfs the Armenian statistical worldwide census population by several magnitudes. Thus, his point being, that when there is inter-marriage between an African-American and someone of another ethnic group, it is FAR LESS damaging to the efforts of lineage preservation of African-Americans VS when an Armenian individual inter-marries, it is extremely damaging due to our already small numbers worldwide. In essence, it’s not a big deal and by no means a threat to the survival of blacks as a lineage and a people when inter-marriage occurs within them, but for us Hyes, IT IS A VERY BIG dent in the efforts to create a positive population growth in order to preserve Hye lineage, which ultimately allows for the preservation of our heritage and culture. Instead of realizing this VERY OBVIOUS point Vigil was trying to make, you’re anally hung up on correcting his census “guestimation”, stop making trivial retorts in an attempt to distort the logic that is being attempted to be conveyed. Tell me, why shouldn’t Vigil be in pain or frustrated? Why shouldn’t he be concerned as an Armenian about the danger that odars pose to the survival of our Armenian lineage, bloodline, and heritage? Do you know for HOW LONG, HOW MANY individuals have bled or suffered simply to keep that lineage alive and healthy for nearly 4000 years? Of course you don’t, you’re NOT Hye, and you never will be. If for every time an African-American intermarried, a black man or woman somewhere else was put back into slavery, I’m sure you would be EVERY BIT as outspoken against inter-marriage as well as what is happening to your lineage and heritage as Vigil is; because at that point your own black lineage and culture would be in danger. Right now, your numbers are in the tens of millions and growing, so you sit there smugly blowing hot air out of every orifice with accusations of “extremism” towards Hyes like Vigil simply because they speak out about the REALITY of intermarriage and how it WILL affect Armenians in a negative manner. You also use bandwagon techniques with socialite statements such as “we’ll all be merry and drink beer at my house” to pacify those Hyes that have a low level of pride/self-esteem for their own identity as Hyes and are weak-minded as well as feeling no shame in persecuting a fellow Hye such as Vigil that is speaking out for THEIR OWN survival as Armenians and the survival of their own Armenian lineage. As far as those Hye guy friends of yours are concerned, it’s pathetic that they feel the need to seriously date odars. In fact, I will go as far as saying that it is self-defeating for any Hye, man or woman, to get seriously involved with an odar; because our women are some of the most beautiful, intelligent, and wonderfully sincere/homely women in existence. Why settle for Helen of Troy when I can have Aphrodite herself? This is the type of mentality that needs to be realized by those young Armenian men that are so busy looking into the other side of fence much like some of our women do. Our women are great, in fact they are more than great, they are brought up with certain qualities that are lacking in many pop-culture dominated women these days. That is why odars such as you fall so quickly for them. They have many qualities that are lacking in many of today’s cultures, that is why when an odar actually dates a Hye for the first time, they are so quickly enamored by the values and qualities that they once thought were long gone in today’s world in both sexes. Our men are men among men, those friends of yours need to realize this and grab the nearest Armenian girl and have a great time together instead of drifting apart, or even worse, allow an odar to try and fill that void. An odar will never fully understand what it means to be Armenian or to have the Armenian spirit as well as value the Armenian lineage. Nor will they ever truly bleed or make efforts for my people should the time come for such efforts, and most importantly, they will end up producing children that are permanently detached from the lineage known as Armenian and at best can only be called half-Hye. So how are these facts in ANY way beneficial for Armenians and why should they passively be tolerated? Should I or other Hyes sit back twiddling our thumbs about these matters just because it’s the “socially polite” or “politically correct” thing to do? Of course not! These facts are not beneficial, never will be, they also should not be tolerated if we’re to survive, and will not be tolerated! Sure, I’ll be the first to confess for you all, it’s great to see an odar learn about my culture, heritage, history, language, etc, etc, but the second an odar dilutes my lineage through intermarriage, it completely undermines any effort I may be making toward preservation of Armenianism; because true preservation at its essence is not merely with knowing facts about one’s culture, but rather, also preserving the bloodline/lineage of that culture in order to maintain its integrity among other lineages of the world such as French, Jewish, Italian, etc, etc. Thus an odar cannot expect those Hyes that truly care about Armenianism as a whole to smile and knock back beers with you when they see you as an odar seriously involved with a Hye, because ultimately regardless of how great or noble your intentions may be romantically, an odar’s romantic involvement with a Hye will be only detrimental to true preservation efforts. This fact cannot be disputed, some folks on these boards just like to put this on the back burner of their minds because when they acknowledge it as the fact that it is, their own guilt cannot be appeased. Sadly, some of the previous generations of parents have various stereotypes that they have passed along to their children. Some wives that have come from very conservative families tell their daughters to date odars such as you until it is time for marriage, then opt for the Hye guy. This of course is to maintain the illusion of “makur”, which is a preposterous notion to begin with. This seed implanted in the heads of some of our women of course works great for you as an odar, but for the Hye male, this notion acts as an additional barrier for him to overcome. Essentially, he has to convince a Hye girl, which he would like to have a great sexual/romantic relationship with, that it is “okay”, that they can evade community persecution. You, as an odar, don’t have to go through this with a Hye girl that comes from parents that have brainwashed her with ideas of “when to date a Hye and when not to”. On the other side of the mirror, a Hye girl has to be wary to a certain degree with certain Hye men that also come from very conservative families that have taught them that if a Hye girl wants to have a sexually active relationship, she must somehow be of low moral character or “not decent”; THESE are the type of Hye men that drive Hye women away from other Hye men that are very open minded and would like nothing more than to be a great lover for their Hye woman. Ultimately those women that become very wary and simply cannot get themselves to take that leap of sexual/romantic faith with a Hye male, end up dating the odar because inherently it is “safer” and things are kept on the “down-low” or “hush hush”. This is truly a pathetic scenario that does in fact take place with some Hye men and women, thankfully The Armenian Pirate is here to shatter and decimate such notions. Hye guys and girls should be allowed to have obvious sexual relationships without having to worry about community disdain or persecution. In my many travels, I always find it amazing how within a Hye community, an odar such as yourself dating a Hye can be tolerated on a sexual level when it is BLATANTLY OBVIOUS that this very odar/hye couple is involved in any form of sexual escapade possible, yet when a hye/hye couple even remotely tries to achieve the same type of open sexual relationship, they are quickly surrounded by family and community members like hawks while being looked down upon. It’s not a wonder ladies and gentlemen, that some Hye women and men feel intimidated or hesitant to approach one another with carnal sexual intent in order to form a union. There must be a change, and that change begins with all of you as Armenian youth. You must overcome and shatter the ridiculous stereotypes that exist within the walls of our communities worldwide regarding matters of male/female sexual relationships. I’m not implying that lack of sexual self-respect is not important for men and women to follow, but at the same time on the other side of the mirror, extreme sexual repression which drives youth away from one another and into the beds of odars is not correct either. Some REALLY jaded wives tell their daughters that it is “okay” to marry an odar, this is FALSE, no it’s NOT okay, at least not if you give a damn about your own identity and those of your own children. These wives feel that their daughters will fall prey to the same stigmas and repressions they had to endure as women, so they steer their daughters away from young Hye men. They don’t realize that this is not the case, that in fact, things have changed significantly since their own days as young girls and a lot of Hye men have a very open-minded outlook regarding relationships with our beautiful Hye women. But convincing these wives that their daughters will not necessarily go through the same repressions as they did becomes a difficult matter, thus their negative outlook toward young Hye men is carried into their daughters unchecked. It’s the daughters’ responsibility to actually bring their mothers “up to speed” regarding the Hye male/female romantic dynamic instead of buying into what their mothers preach about the “dangers” of having a sexual relationship with a Hye guy and how it will affect the illusion of “makur”. Come on ladies, get to it! Of course then we get into the matter of what else is “okay” if a young person is in their “whatever” mind-set, at this point it doesn’t simply end with inter-marriage, many other obvious grievous errors also seem to become “okay” because a young Hye has been conditioned and jaded by pop-culture into that unique “whatever” mentality. There is a complete lack of critical thought, in fact, much of any thought for that person is governed by television, pop-culture, and other forms of conditioning because their parents are too busy to attend to their kids properly because they have become slaves/servants of their own mortgage or car payment. Even on these boards this is apparent, some individuals here act EXACTLY according to pre-set molds that are expressed in pop-culture. It’s so blatantly obvious sometimes that I can almost predict what some forum members will say in response to different topics; it’s almost as if there is absolutely no sense of self as an Armenian for some of these members outside of the realm of what conditioned notions have been shown to them through the media. This is EXTREMELY frightening to me but never at all worrisome to the victims of the media’s onslaught, which I have called the Media Children in the past. The reason they do not worry is because one cannot have any concern about the danger around them when part of the danger is the conditioning of being blind to that very same danger, it’s an ingenious method used by media to pacify the Armenian youth into the conglomerate known as “globalization”. Capitalism, when allowed to attain the status of one’s own master instead of merely being a tool for personal success, is the perfect weapon in destroying our culture, values, and lineage; but I’ll digress on this issue for now. Let’s move on with our current topic. Sev-mard, it’s easy for you and the little crew of band-wagon posters on these boards to quickly label Vigil with ridiculously short-sighted and nonsense comments as “racist”, “Vigil the odar”, or any of the other dribble you attempted to tag him with as your response to what he said in the past. You also falsely equate Vigil’s ethnocentrism as a Hye with racism, which is an absolutely incorrect assumption, sadly, mass media has done an excellent job of making one’s own deep love for his/her own culture/lineage be quickly labeled as “bigotry” or “racism”; your comments are living proof of this fact. However, facts are facts, and the fact is that in order for our populace as Hyes to thrive, EVERY SINGLE Armenian on these boards needs to realize that inter-marriage WILL NOT allow for this as far as our lineage, heritage, and culture are concerned. This is due to the fact that, with intermarriage, comes the dilution of Hye values, way of life, upbringing, kinship, faith, heritage, and lineage, these are things that have been sustained with blood, sweat, hard work, and perseverance for thousands of years by fellow Armenians. Yet you, as an odar, expect Hyes to just accept your waltz like disruption of our efforts because it is the “politically correct”, “modern”, or “socially correct” thing to do within the United States’ social system, suffice that I say you are wrong in your presumptions. Make no mistake about it folks, as bluntly as I have put it, intermarriage, in any form with any odar, IS IN FACT a disruption of Hye progression on this Earth. I wish I could say that there was another way, but there simply isn’t. Armenians cannot progress as an ethnic group by merely settling for the preservation of their history, political stance, and cooking recipes; their BLOODLINE and LINEAGE must ALSO be preserved in order for us as Armenians to retain our ethnic credibility, rights to lands, rights to restitutions, and the integrity of our cultural identity on the global socio-political stage; and we all know all this is impossible once intermarriage takes place between a Hye and an odar. A child that is of mixed lineages will not ever and cannot be expected to be as effective in preserving all that is Armenian throughout his/her life. This is because at the very basic root of their being, which is their lineage, they are only HALF Hye and thus will inherently suffer from the dilution of their identity and with each subsequent generation, the children and grandchildren of that Hye/Odar child will heed less and less importance to their identity as a fractional Armenian because they will in fact have a smaller and smaller connection to the portion of their lineage that is Armenian, this is a completely absolute notion and cannot be disputed. All of you must realize one very important notion. Regardless of what you do as an individual Hye, whether it’s being involved in groups such as ANCA, ASA, AGBU, ARF, Dashnaks, ASALA, etc, etc; helping other hyes, opening up Hye schools, attaining high ranking status as Hyes, gaining political grounds, lobbying for Hyes, becoming a millionaire, creating Armenian funds, WHATEVER you do as a Hye pales in comparison to the greatest contribution you can make for your own people, which is delivering into this world an Armenian child and infusing that child with the richness of the many facets of our people’s heritage and culture. This can only be done with a Hye lover and NOTHING else ANY Hye can do can exceed such a contribution, because true immortality is attained through one’s child. So if you sincerely would like to leave behind a powerful Armenian legacy regardless of whether you’re an atheist, spiritual, or heavily religious in nature; the greatest legacy is knowing that with your Hye lover, you truly contributed to the survival of your Armenian lineage by leaving behind a child that will carry on our people’s triumphs, struggles, heritage, values, and culture long after you’re gone. That same Hye/Hye child, infused with the love and desire to carry on our traditions, culture, language, and heritage can only do so if he/she is not marginalized with emotional, spiritual, and mental confusions about who he/she is on the global stage, and this marginalization can only be avoided by a child that is of a Hye/Hye marriage, not a Hye/odar marriage. Realize this, a child of Hye/Hye marriage is the single most powerful entity for our people’s survival in the 21st century; no 100 million dollar contribution for paving roads, ASA attendance, or charity donations can even compare. What contribution to one’s people can ever lay claim to be greater than the life essence of an Armenian woman and man in the form of a child? Nothing can be greater then this, my friends, nothing. These notions are absolute and cannot be disputed. They are difficult to accept by some here on these boards, in fact, I’ll go as far as saying that the “nay-sayers” to what I write would quickly retort with accusations of “one-sidedness”. They are right, what I have outlined is one-sided, it resides on the plane of truth and reality, that is the only side I stand on. Sadly, for some, even truth and reality are difficult to accept because when accepted, their own current situation quickly reveals itself to be the very anti-thesis of truths such as “only Hye/Hye marriage can insure Armenian preservation”. Thus, for such individuals that discover that their behavior is in fact a form of self-destruction, a dark cloud of guilt quickly looms over their heads, and instead of setting themselves free through the acceptance of truthful and factual notions of “to preserve, Hye/Hye marriage is the key”, they instead continue to deny it and lash out against those that have long since acknowledged these same truths with labels of “racist”, “bigot”, etc, etc; such accusations are the way of the blind coward, nothing more. It is time for all those in denial of these truths to make the realization that all the branches of preservation for our Armenia, our Hye lineage, and our fellow Armenians begin at one singular root point, the union of a Hye man with a Hye woman and the child that they bring into our world; this is where everything else having to do with preservation will branch away and aid our people, but it MUST begin with a Hye man and woman coming together to form a beautiful Armenian family, and no odar/hye marriage can claim on any level to being able to achieve this. It is time for all of you fellow young Hyes to realize all these notions for what they truly are, facts. To many, “Hell” is place of anguish, loneliness, lack of connection, or plainly a lake of fire with a horned-man torturing you for eternity. To me, “Hell” is a place where I cannot connect with other Hyes because they have completely forgotten who it is they are and what the name “Armenian” denotes with regards to cultural, heritage, and lineage. Hell, ladies and gentlemen, is a place where mine or your future kids feel lost and out of touch and in doubt with regards to their place on this Earth. They look around and see distinct unique cultures that their peers belong to and are so proud of, yet when they look within themselves they only find that they are “part this and part that” but not much of anything distinct as a whole with regards to their lineage. They can only make partial claims to their composite lineage because it is fractionalized as well as marginalized through the inter-marriage of their parents and they also constantly feel “not quite at home” with each portion of their mixed lineage. Yes, they are still human beings and part of the “human race”, but they do not belong to any group of ethnic people completely, and this will tug at their psyche all their lives, I have seen it happen with friends and strangers all around me that have gone through this. That to me is Hell. I wish all of you a great week. Love each other and take care of each other as Armenian brothers and sisters because no one else ever really has and most don’t plan on starting, not yet at least. -The Armenian Pirate TheArmenianPirateBroadcast@hotmail.com

You know, I sit here and I read what everyone here has said so far. No matter how I look at it, all I see is what I have seen all my life. A group of Armenians composed of Diasporans and Benicks trying to self-righteously legitimize them selves as the Armenian that has “cared more”. Every single one of you has a distinct outlook and philosophy yet no matter how all these outlooks are stacked-up, they never seem to want to agree with one another due to the personal pride that each and EVERY one of you can’t muster up the courage to look beyond. Yet, each view tells the composite portion of a grand truth, but many of you do not want to admit to this and insist on attacking one another as well as quibbling over social table scraps of “who is/was right and who is wrong”. Diasporans state that they have survived in harsh environments and maintained their Armenian heritage, and they are right in saying this, many of them have in fact done this without question, my own parents being no exception. Benicks such as Yerevanian, claim they have suffered while many in their place would have chosen to flee during the tough times of our homeland, and this is also a just and rightful claim. Many fellow Armenian Benicks have suffered and are still suffering in my Armenia, yet a good number of individuals here do not even have an understanding of being Armenian as a definition. Instead, most individuals’ notion of “Armenianism” and its roots are so vastly diluted by pop-culture forces that it does not surprise me how most of the youth on these boards are confused about their own Armenian lineage, heritage, and culture. This is a forum named HYEforum, yet, even some of the MODERATORS, are such bleeding pacifists or articulate socialites that they wouldn’t know Armenianism as a lineage, heritage, and culture if it backhanded them in the face, but I’ll digress on that topic . . . . . .for now. Some of you propose that it is the act of powerful individuals that only matter in stirring up the necessary change. Others among you say that it will take group effort to overcome our strife as a people. You are both WRONG. There are those among us that must lead, take the first step, and risk many things in order to introduce and bring forth new ideas or rejuvenate existing ideas. There are plenty of solutions available to our people, but when an individual steps forth, those that are corrupt and lack a soul snuff out the light from our just leader’s eyes. These corrupt individuals many times are already themselves leaders that do not want to be dethroned and you all know who they are. Fear of being targeted manipulates and prevents those individuals that do not have what it takes to lead from at the very least following those that put them selves on the line as meaningful and righteous leaders. All of you must realize, leaders and strong individuals need the support and love of their followers in order to stay strong, protected, and effective. Yet many of you are too prideful and blindly stubborn to see or admit to this fact. There are many who have had great benevolent intentions for our people and they did put themselves on the line for all of us, in the end, we left them vulnerable due to our fears of being targeted, not caring, being “too busy” with “life”, becoming millionaires, “rollin in the benz”, etc, etc, thus lots of leaders, writers, and political activists with good intentions were assassinated via “accidents” or blatantly killed by corrupt HYE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS! Corruption is strong, but the people will ALWAYS be stronger, it is THE PEOPLE that a corrupt individual fears; because when the people put their foot down and say “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”, no corrupt entity, group, or person can stand in the way of those people! If only Armenians would realize their own individual potential and step out from behind the socialite curtains they all hide under, HOW MANY MORE Monte Melkonians must do so much as INDIVIDUALS, bleed for us, and ultimately die alone in their efforts of doing what was said to be “impossible” by pacifistic cowards so that all you folks that are “too busy” can pick yourselves up and dedicate a miniscule amount of time for your people in some way or through some action?! This was ONE man, he brought the French prison system to its knees and had every Turkish national and official looking over their shoulders day and night. What will it take for all of you to stop this ridiculous madness of ParskaHye/LipanaHye/Hayastanzi or Benick/Diasporan nonsense and instead just call each other “HYE” with efforts for our people in some manner?! WAKE UP! What will you do when there is not much left about being Armenian to even WHINE about the way some of you women complain about men and vice versa? Will you be content and happy then knowing that you are not part of ANYTHING as an individual?! Will you look at your grandchildren and smile knowing they cannot associate themselves with anybody else outside of the droves of Pop-culture propaganda that by then will govern their minds? We are YOUTH, the ultimate force in any time, there is no future without us, the closest thing to being a god on this earth is being young full of whim and vigor with the ability to mold the environment around you in any way you wish! So why not ACT for your fellow Armenians everywhere instead of constantly looking elsewhere into other culture’s yards with pathetic longing when your own is rich with lineage, heritage, greatness, fortitude, struggle, triumph, art, and culture? The slumber is over, it’s time to awaken your own self-worth as a young modern Hye. With that said, we must ask, “what does it take to unite a group?” The answer is CONSENSUS and the shedding of PERSONAL PRIDE. Though these answers seem obvious and simple to most, the actual implementation takes a lot of courage from the individual that must choose to view things as they really are and to do away with their own ego which continually drives them to “prove” that they are right for the sheer sake of “coming up on top” in a debate. Instead, they should simply realize that they speak only part of the truth while another person may be presenting a different portion of the same truth, NOT an entirely “different view” but rather, a fragment of a grand vision that is representative of what is REALLY going on. What this means is that nearly ALL of you are to some extent mentioning things that are VERY valid and VERY true, but NONE of you are expressing the truth of our people’s situation in ALL of its entirety. This is a very difficult fact for many of you to admit, because inherently you are driven by your ego or pride in putting your mindset into the discussion and pushing it further and further as “being right”. You have to stop blaming each other and stop this madness! Neither Benicks nor Diasporans are at fault here, because they are ONE IN THE SAME, Hye. The blame to be attributed must be made to those that decided to wipe us out of our own land for their own gain. Those that migrated out of our homeland faced certain death and responded to such a situation by at least trying to preserve themselves and stay alive. All of you must realize that NONE OF US are at fault for the scattering that took place. Some of us did what we must to survive, however, that does not mean that those that left should forget or discount those that stayed and conversely those that stayed should not persecute and attack those that left. NEITHER party is at fault and NEITHER party is “more Hye” than the other, if you are from Hye/Hye parents and this tradition has been kept up throughout your lineage then you are just as much a Hye as any Benick or Diasporan. During one of my visits to the Los Angeles area, what I found very disturbing is how some Benicks have taught their children to classify ParskaHyes or LipanaHyes as “Muslim Armenians”, not just in the context of an Armenian that happens to have lived in Iran or Lebanon due to the Genocide, but rather, this implication is made as if those Parska Hyes are actually NOT true Hyes from Hye/Hye parents when in fact their whole lineage stems from Hye/Hye marriage; similar stereotypes are made of LipanaHyes simply because they dwell in Lebanon. This is so horrifically WRONG and it’s a way to ensure that our youth stays sub-divided in the future under the banner of the same stereotypes as our parents have made of one another, all of you need to make the realization that this is just sheer insanity. If we are to truly progress and preserve ourselves as a people and stir up change, it must be done TOGETHER! There is NO EXCEPTION to this rule, don’t be foolish enough to believe that we can stay segregated under preposterous sub-divisions of Benick/Non-Benick or ParskaHye/LipanaHye/Hayastanzi and still be able to do anything for ourselves or our ancestral homeland as Armenians. The youth MUST break away from this cycle of categorization and realize the ultimate truth that there is only ONE category, ARMENIAN, NOT “parska-hye”, NOT “lipana Hye”, NOT “Hyastanzi”, and sure as hell not “the noble” Benick that stayed and the “treacherous” Diasporans that fled. We, as youth, must also ALWAYS remember that we are here now in a place that is not Armenia, but that does not mean that we can slowly just forget our lineage, heritage, and culture simply because our surroundings are pleasant, comfortable, and modern. This is the trap that some individuals almost enjoy falling into because it is a little easier to undertake versus actively putting effort into Armenian preservation. These very same “eager to abandon Armenianism” individuals must realize that although at times it takes a bit more effort to preserve one’s own identity, if that is lost, the difficulty of showing effort will pale in comparison to the nightmare of having lost your identity as an Armenian through intermarriage, lack of effort, laziness, etc, etc. What’s worse is blame attributing discussions such as the one in that other thread help further segregate us from each other yet in the same breath we want to progress as a people. How can we progress anywhere when we’re too busy blaming each other as Benicks and Diasporans for things that NEITHER party is even responsible for? The answer is simple; we CANNOT progress with such antics! DO NOT blame each other for staying or leaving when neither “staying” nor “leaving” would even BE an issue if we were not forced to make such a choice due to Turkish transgressions against our people! THEY are the ones to hold responsible for this situation, NOT Diasporans that fled to survive, and NOT Benicks that stayed and suffered! I also couldn’t help but notice another thread about connections to Ethiopia. Before questions such as that are posed, it is very important for the topic starter to define the level of connection they are implying. Could there possibly be historic affiliation of Armenians with Ethiopia in the form of Hyes from ARMENIA after the genocide settling there? Yes, of course, just like the type of settlements that occurred in Iran, Lebanon, or Iraq, but that does not necessarily tie us in lineage to any of those ethnic groups in any way; Iraqi, Persian, Lebanese, or Ethiopian lineage are completely separate from those of Armenian. So when you want to connect Armenianism to any other group in a manner of lineage “divergence”, there are no existing groups today that can correctly claim that Hyes have diverged from them, mainly because we tend to pre-date nearly every single one of the groups we supposedly “diverged” from, and the ones we actually diverged from are long gone and extinct cultures. These facts when expressed DO NOT automatically indicate that the person expressing them is being “prejudice” or “racist”. Does it sound ethnocentric? Yes, but there is not ANYTHING wrong with ethnocentrism, ethnocentrism by definition means to love one’s own culture more than others NOT because you think it is better or superior in some way, but because you feel a comforting familiarity and kinship with your own culture and your own lineage. Frankly, ANY person from another culture that righteously claims to not be ethnocentric themselves is lying through their teeth and is a HYPOCRIT. Don’t let media conditioning, with ideas of “ethnocentrism is equivalent to racism”, numb your minds to the point where you forget your own self-worth as an Armenian and the worth of your Hye lineage, culture, and heritage. So the hot heads here should THINK deeply first before jumping the gun with accusations of “you’re ignorant”, “you’re racist”, etc, etc, merely because another poster decides to defend his own culture, heritage, and lineage against a slow death, dilution, and manipulation. It is NOT “paranoia” or “schitzo” as one poster so naively put it if it is ACTUALLY happening folks, do not be so blind to these facts. Hell, it doesn’t surprise me that some folks here think they are African-American ghetto denizens with their tipped caps, jerseys, and false ideals that they live in “ghettos” when in fact 99% of you come from middle class families with Hye parents and siblings. It’s what the entertainment media feeds your minds and you drink it all up like sheep, and those fellow HYE young individuals that do not buy into the media garbage, you label then persecute viscously, this needs to stop now. This phenomenon is not only a pity for Armenians but also for African-Americans, because the media moguls have reduced the efforts and struggles of men like MLK or Malcolm X down to dollar signs with dime a dozen “rappers” that wouldn’t know a ghetto or a black man's struggle if they were air dropped into these issues; just like the way most of you cannot even fathom the truth behind the worth of our people, culture, heritage, lineage, as well as potential and the importance of maintaining those things because you’re WAY TOO caught up with trivial cycles of pop-culture expectation, greed, “benzos”, “big houses”, “benjamins”, or “too busy to care” attitudes. Every single one of you needs to re-evaluate and understand what it means to be part of an ethnic group as well as how important that is as an Armenian and then make the realization that once that is gone, you will NEVER EVER be able to walk into a room with individuals that are Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Jewish, Greek, Russian, etc, etc, and be considered their cultural equal, because you will not HAVE a culture, lineage, or heritage to represent yourself with. Sometimes . . . .there are days I wake up and wonder if this small effort I make is even worth it, if I could just drop everything and walk away the way many so selfishly do. Then I remember guys like Monte, how in the face of ideal personal circumstances with an ideal life ahead of them, free of burdens, abandoned it all and chose to go through the hell that they did. After a brief moment I can’t even look at myself in the mirror anymore, because I become so riddled with shame, WHO am I or ANYBODY else in a similar position as me to complain about the social “burden” of preservation when men like him went through all that they did just so I can call myself “Hye” and have a small piece of land of my own? And for his work, I’m to abandon everything he slaved for years JUST so that I don’t have to put in a few hours a week into taking steps/actions for my culture, lineage, and heritage because I’m supposedly “too busy” the way some Hyes claim to be? NEVER. I look at his picture and behind his eyes I wonder if he knew that one day a simple shell casing would claim his life after all those battles and struggles he went through did not, and maybe he knew what was coming, and eventually death did arrive; but I’ll be damned if after all he’s done I’m going to complain and whine about my own efforts which pale in comparison to his like a little coward the way some of you do with your quibbling, name calling, prideful egos, intellectual bravado, and “too busy” attitudes. We all live in paradise yet still whine, moan, and complain about the small effort that is asked of us as young modern Armenians, then we alienate each other into sub-groups of “parskahye”, “hyeastanzi”, etc, etc while persecuting one another. After his decision to leave that paradise, Monte Melkonian lived a life in hell and achieved more than any of us can dream of for Armenians everywhere as an individual for EVERY Hye; ultimately being rewarded with a lonely road and eventually death, yet no one ever asked him or expected anything from him. So the next time some of you want to whine and complain about your “burdens” as young Armenians, why don’t you take a pen with some paper, and write out your “burdens” out to his mother in Fresno California, I’m sure she’ll understand “how difficult” it is for you to preserve your Hye lineage, heritage, and culture. May you rest in peace my friend, your memory will always be kept alive. -The Armenian Pirate TheArmenianPirateBroadcast@hotmail.com

Agreed. To take your analogy one step further though Vigil, it's not that Ara is merely a "broken record", but rather, he is a record player trying to play 8000 different songs simultaneously. As a reader, one cannot focus on JUST one tune (quote in his case) alone. The moment you even begin to buy into one of his one-liners, a few lines down you see another one-liner that contradict some of those above it. After reading page after page of his banter, it seems he really has no stance on anything that can reach a conclusive end nor project a definite message to anyone except for depicting his own indecisiveness. Stance changing is as frequent and numerous as his bulleted one-line quotes. IF he decided to even take some form of action to implement even HALF of the ideas within his bulleted list of one sentence retorts, he'd need numerous lifetimes if not immortality to accomplish them all when one considers how many convoluted ideas he spews out or ends up contradicting with one another. Since he will only have one lifetime and is definitely not immortal, with so many ideas, intellectuals of his caliber will opt to continue putting up bulleted lists of eloquent one sentence chatter, ultimately accomplishing very little beyond creating a "quote" database for college sophmores to use in term papers. In conclusion, this thread is vastly misrepresented with the title "as I see it", we're talking VASTLY here folks. Ara my friend, I hate to clue you in here, but you don't see much bud. At best, your "vision" of things is a mosaic of convoluted imagery that momentarily lapse in and out of your mind as you compile them in the form of single sentences. You've melted down a 64 color kit of Crayola crayons, dropped a tab of acid, and have attempted to paint a "picture" for us "as you see it". All these one liners are your effort to reach some sort of conclusive grandiose ideaology or thesis, but after 34 pages you have accomplished no such conclusive end by any stretch of anyone's imagination. But since we are on the topic of quick one line quotes, here is one more for the multitude of contradictory quotes by Ara. . . "Choose a few ideas, believe in them, put action behind them, then see them realized. Choose too many ideas beyond your own capacity to keep track of, become overwhelmed, contradict yourself over and over again with convolution, then see none of them realized." That's all TAP will mention of Ara and his quote/one-liner database. -The Armenian Pirate TheArmenianPirateBroadcast@hotmail.com

Silence, and the Israelites have spoken. I'm going to make it a point to reference this thread EVERY time individuals of Jewish descent speak of their Holocaust and their enlightened "humanitarianism" and I would like other Hye readers here to do the same. The floor is open ladies and gents, let's hear your side of the story, not excuses, legitimate logic for the lack of support despite the incessant rants about how much you have learned from the Holocaust. If you go the "anti-semetism" route, you're better off not posting, you'll just be making a mockery of yourself on the grounds of TAP's patented "Crutch Excuse Syndrome", or CES for short. I know some Jews read this forum, so speak up folks. -The Armenian Pirate

We, as Armenians, gather every year on April 24 to gain recognition and mourn the loss of all those that perished at the hands of the Turkish government nearly one century ago. However, it should not start and stop on April 24th only, while the intensity of our efforts does peak on that memorial-day, we should strive to continually put pressure for this recognition to occur globally and the restitutions that are owed to us to be paid in FULL, and they will be, make no mistake about it folks. If Turkey wants to crawl out of the hole it is in economically and make progress, it will have to be done through recognition, otherwise, kiss the EU admittance goodbye. The recognitions by the Swiss parliament about 4.5 months ago of the Armenian Genocide was made possible by the continual effort of groups of INDIVIDUALS such as yourselves, and many more such recognitions WILL follow so NEVER think that as Armenian youth, what you do is in any way “in vain”, because it certainly is not in vain, it never has been in vain, and never will be in vain either. What all of you do individually DOES make a very SIGNIFICANT difference and TAP commends you all as my Hye brothers and sisters for all your efforts. What has amazed me for nearly all of my life is the behavior of the Jewish communities regarding our Genocide. Before I get into that, a quick side story that TAP was involved in earlier last week. The other day, a fellow Jr. Armenian Pirate friend of mine came up to me and mentioned how a Jewish colleague of his had said “Armenian women are so beautiful, smart, and homely”. Which does not surprise me, because our Hye women are some of the most gorgeous, beautiful, as well as intelligent women on the face of this globe, hands down, a precious gift for us Hye men to say the least. However, what did bother me was how when it comes to dating our women or men, whether it be Jews or the many other odars are quick to admit to how wonderful we are, but when issues of cultural plights come up such as recognition of the Armenian Genocide, they are nowhere in sight to provide support for our causes with only a few exceptions. This behavior really reiterates my idea that odars will ALWAYS look out for their own culture/heritage/lineage first before they ever decide to care for an Armenian. The only exception to this rule is when odars have a gain to make (ie: Nabbing that handsome/beautiful Armenian man/woman as a mate), otherwise the odars are not as globally “humanitarian” oriented as some folks on these boards have been brainwashed to believe through efforts of the media campaigns. Taking our wonderful women as their girlfriends or men as their boyfriends is always something they easily are willing to commit to and then preach about how “good they will be taken care of”. However, when it comes to the gritty issues of our people’s struggle, the Jew, the African-American, the Asian, the Scandinavian, the Martians etc, etc, will always shrug and move on until he/she runs into another Hye girl/guy to attempt and date. Ultimately folks, only us Armenians care about Armenians and Armenian causes deeply the way they need to be cared about, the odars can and will only care at a superficial layer, and mostly ONLY as long as they get to dip their hands into the cookie jar of our handsome men and beautiful women. This is very evident and absolute. With that said, the next topic I would like to touch up on is regarding the Israelite stance on our Genocide. It is both ironic and hypocritical for ANY Jew to NOT be at Armenian rallies or vigils with regards to the Armenian Genocide. Now, before any of you guest Jewish readers or critics act like the boy who cried “anti-Semite”, sit back, relax, grab a beer, and read on before jumping on the anti-Semite bandwagon crutch excuse, because I know you’re itching to accuse me of such irrelevant presumptions in the face of the truth I’m about to display. If you’ve got valid replies about the truth, by all means, post away, if you’re going to bring TAP's “anti-Semitism” irrelevantly into the discussion, save your breath. This discussion IS NOT about TAP being an anti-Semite. It’s about practicing what you preach as well as providing the same recognition that has been extended to all Jews that perished in the horror that was the Holocaust through the support of the Armenian Genocide recognition efforts. All throughout Hollywood, movies like “Schindler’s List”, “The Pianist”, “Jack the Liar”, etc, have been produced to display the atrocities that took place against Jews at the hands of the Nazi party and how from those lessons learned, what great humanitarians Jews are. Now, considering that Armenians were slaughtered just as ruthlessly, if not more so, in numbers that constitute an equal level of atrocious behavior by our persecutors, the Turkish government, nearly 25 years BEFORE Adolph Hitler even made attempts at massive Jewish exterminations, why is it then that our recognition is not supported by Jews at rallies? I’ve been to rallies all over at Universities, convention centers, diplomatic buildings, etc, and it is Armenians addressing Armenians along with some odar officials that have come to win votes or make some sort of personal campaign gain, with no Jews in sight. Even the so called intellectual Jewish professors on college campuses do not show up at all during University rallies. Also, during public demonstrations, why are Jewish men and women not present to show their support? I’d like to have a Jew explain to me this behavior of theirs’ as well as why his or her government DOES NOT recognize the Armenian Genocide. I cannot seem to get a straight answer when these questions are posed to some of my Jewish friends/colleagues/intellectuals, in fact, a good number of my Jewish friends/associates turn beet red in embarrassment or perhaps shame when I bluntly ask this question, this tells me that there are in fact a good majority of Jews that do care but Israeli officials do not push for it, thus progress is not made toward support for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. I pity those unfortunate Jews that passed away in the Holocaust when the whole thing could have been avoided and hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved had the Armenian Genocide seen more attention in its aftermath. Furthermore, those poor souls that passed away in the Holocaust would be rolling around in their graves right now if they knew that their own government and some of their people have refused to recognize an atrocious act such as the Armenian Genocide EVEN AFTER all those Jews themselves went through mass killings the way the Armenians did roughly 20 or so years before them. I do not want our Jewish readers to think I’m isolating them when I mention these things, but THEY ARE the closest group of people as far as similarities of Genocide experiences are concerned. We are both an ancient people that have a certain level of respect for one another due to the long standing traditions that both our cultures have maintained for thousands of years regardless of the odds. Adding the fact that we both have suffered oppression on a grand scale, it’s only fitting to focus on the Jewish behavior regarding the Armenian Genocide. To put it bluntly, we recognize YOUR Holocaust, and it’s high time and well overdue that all Jews begin to recognize the Armenian Genocide officially as well as support its recognition fully. Many years back, I was in California and visited the Museum of Tolerance. Frankly, I was so moved by the segment they had in one section of the museum about the Armenian Genocide. It was VERY detailed and very graphic, but held true to the events that took place. I was surrounded by many old Jewish couples and some other folks, nearly all of them were in tears before the segment was over, one of older Jewish women even said “why did they not realize these things after these Armenians were slaughtered so horribly, maybe we would have lost less Jews at that maniac’s hands had these people’s struggle been spoken of more”. That statement pretty much spoke for itself for me within that moment. Last year, during my visit to the west coast, I was shocked to see that the ENTIRE section about the Armenian Genocide had been removed from the museum grounds. It’s as if it never was there! It was an ARMENIAN governor that sanctioned and made efforts for that museum to be there in the first place! And now the exhibit about the people that represent this governor’s lineage/heritage/culture has been pulled out of the Museum of “tolerance”? Can any Jewish reader here explain this to me and rationalize this type of action in the face of what your OWN people, AS JEWS, have faced during the holocaust? Of course not, because there is no rational explanation! The sheer audacity of removing a segment about the Armenian Genocide from a museum of “TOLERANCE” is gut wrenchingly disgusting and must be rectified by putting it back up. Furthermore, advertising one’s cultural “humanitarianism” in multi-million dollar Hollywood productions despite the fact that as a Jew, you have allowed the truth about the death of 1.5 million Armenians that have been killed just like the way your own Jewish brethren were slaughtered, to be covered up or pulled out of a museum that supposedly sets grounds for “tolerance” is preposterous. With that said, all you fellow Armenians here can very clearly see, that as Hyes, we have to stick together and watch our own backs, this is done through cultural preservation, not intermarrying, sustaining our lineage, keeping our heritage alive, proliferating our culture in our Armenian youth, and taking care of each other as Hye brothers and sisters. Because even those that have shared a similar fate after our own Genocide occurred, such as the Jews in this case, are willing to sweep our plight under the social carpet for whatever gains they can make for themselves in culture, heritage, and lineage. I don’t know why Jews do not support us Armenians, even though they have had to deal with a similar fate, or why their government in Israel has to this day not recognized our Genocide officially. It most likely has to do to with the fact that Israel and Turkey are working with one another in the Middle East in an economic companionship of sorts, so the political manipulations have made certain that this Armenian issue does not disturb that union, at least for now. Turkey has burned their bridges with other Muslim nations by taking on the U.S. as its sugar daddy, but they screwed that one up with their mistake of refusing to help the U.S. with landing strips during last year’s Iraqi war after the U.S. poured billions into their country. Turkey also tried to pull into Iraqi borders because it saw a “land grab” opportunity after the U.S. decimated Iraq’s military. I wasn’t really surprised considering Turks have a reputation of doing this dating all the way back to when Constantinople was annexed and called “Istanbul”. This time though, the U.S. backhanded them back into their own borders, they know better than to stand against a superpower that has bank rolled their economy for the past 20 years. In nature, even mongrel Hyenas cower when the Lion comes around. Suffice it to say that there are a lot of Senators that are very angry about Turkey’s duplicity and betrayal. Turks also have chosen to work with Israel, which the other Muslim states do not approve of either. Israel on the other hand, is simply just antagonized by everyone in the region, with Turkey being the only exception, so in a sense they only have each other for support. And I want all you Jews reading this to realize that Turkey WILL betray your people and government the minute the need for Israel passes, be ready, and be prepared. It is just sad that Israelites have decided to allow this union with Turkey at the cost of the memory of all those that died in the Holocaust by refusing to support Armenians in our own recognition of a similar fate that took place years before the word “Holocaust” was even invented. Hopefully, Jews as a whole will recognize that their lack of support led to their own people’s demise at the hands of that horrible man Hitler, that the Turks cannot be trusted under any guise, even that of “economic partner”, and hopefully Jews will also recognize that to honor our Genocide is a means to honor as well as remember those of their own people that perished in the Holocaust. In closing, I would like to ask that as many of you participate as much as possible in any sort of local vigil or gathering that may be taking place in recognition of our Armenian Genocide annually, this year was excellent from what I saw during my travels. Do not think that merely because you are just one person that you cannot make a difference or cannot make a significant contribution to the collective efforts of Hyes that are involved in Genocide recognition. INDIVIDUAL Armenians working together in Canada, Montana, and Idaho, brought about official recognition this year, as well as the Swiss recognition that took place last December. You CAN make a difference, and you DO make a difference by simply making the easy choice of going out there with other Armenians and standing by their side as fellow Hyes in their efforts. Your very presence strengthens our cause and makes our voice that much more loud for the world to hear. And they WILL hear us, and the crimes against Armenians will be recognized by more and more nations as time passes; it has already been recognized by many and even more will join our cause as long as we continue to sustain the truth about the horrible acts that the Turkish government and its military committed against our people and the thievery they committed with our resources. Restitutions WILL be paid and redemption WILL arrive, do not EVER let the media, propaganda artists, pseudo-intellectuals, or any opposition coerce or intimidate you into believing that your efforts are futile or in vain. As I have said many times before, as the Armenian youth, we govern the future of our people and we have incredible potential to mold that future to benefit our culture, heritage, and lineage. But we must be critical thinkers as well as individuals of action, one or the other alone will not suffice in our cause and our goals, we must strive to incorporate both the aspects of intellectuality as well as activism in everything we do as Armenian youth. Both the "flag waving" AND "thinking" matter, I thank them both, but the ULTIMATE form is when you do BOTH, then we become invincible. If you choose to do this as an individual, you can achieve a great deal for yourself as well as your Armenian brothers and sisters, more than you can possibly imagine, and together we can achieve even greater aspirations as Armenians and honor those Hyes that died during the Genocide AS WELL AS those Hyes that are yet to be born as beautiful Armenian babies. Lastly, for those that preach lies, stand against us in order to conceal the truth about the crimes committed against the Armenian people, threaten us, or would want us to perish as a people, I say, let them come. I am ready and so are a lot of other Armenians, we will endure any difficulty as we always have, together. Show compassion as fellow human beings to us and you shall receive it in return a thousand fold from Armenians everywhere, we have always been a pleasant people that loves to enjoy life. However, take the ruthless route against the Armenian people and you will be treated as such accordingly. Finally, to any that decide to extinguish the light of our people, culture, heritage, or lineage through any means; I say to you, return to your mosks/churches/shrines and pray for mercy to whatever God or force you believe in, for you will not receive any from me. -The ARMENIAN Pirate The Armenian Pirate can be reached at TheArmenianPirateBroadcast@hotmail.com