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

TB, I have nothing against you my friend, as another Hye, you would always be welcome in my home and at my table, as would anyone else on these boards. However, to classify me and my approach on this topic as “overtly emotional” or a “hot-head” is just another indicator of how horribly jaded people these days have become. If anything, I am not a very emotional person at all. If there is the quintessential “analytical” image of a 20 something out there, I am him. I make my living on being analytical because of the field I’m in. Simply because I write in detail about what truly is happening around us as Armenians with care, does not make me emotional, and even if it did, being emotional while at the same time having a good analytical sense is definitely not a bad thing. Also, NEVER read what I or anyone else says merely because it is “pleasant”, because even lies can be made pleasant to the eyes and ears. My goal is not to write pleasantly, my goal is to write about truth and what is truly happening right now with us Hyes and to present ideas of how may can possibly deal with our problems as Armenians; and in those writings at times I will come off un-pleasant and at times I will come off as pleasant, you should not read what I write merely because it is “pleasant” or “un-pleasant”. My efforts seem “hot-headed” only because most individuals have socially been pacified for so long through the media. People are kept so busy with the media’s blitzkrieg onslaught that they forget the very meaning of what being a critical thinking and active person really is. Instead they are led to believe that when someone is a critical thinker and takes action about his own ideas, he must be a “fanatic”, “hot-headed”, “overtly emotional”, or “extremist”; but this is simply not the case my friend. But I must admit, the media Elitists are brilliant in their methodology of turning everyone into subdued cattle like groups. And believe me, I wish every day that the things I said were as obvious as you claim them to be, but this is not truly the case. If in fact 90% of what I say were as obvious as you say it is to most folks, I would not be compelled to write everything I write. Also, the basis of my writing is strictly observation of events that are VERY real and VERY much happening to our Armenian youth, our Hye communities, and our lineage/culture/heritage as Hyes. If you believe that the remaining 10% of what I write is invariably wrong, then so be it, maybe you have not observed some of the things I have and until you do see it with your own eyes, you don’t have to read anything I write. In fact no one here has to read what I write, but make no mistake, what I write is based on what I, as an Armenian male, have witnessed on countless of occasions in my life. I just got so tired and disgusted of seeing things go on unchanged that I decided to bring these issues to light in an attempt to resolve some of the problems that are clearly damaging us as Hyes. I simply refuse to allow matters that are curable by us as a people, to eradicate the essence of my culture/heritage/lineage as a Hye and I will not sit idly by as long as I have life coursing through my body. I used to be just like you TB, very analytical and a devotee to the way of “scientific-objectiveness”. I studied the virtue of numbers, equations, and all things mathematical for a long time, but even those things are not as absolute as they are made to be. While I have not lost my analytical aspects at all, I’m not a 100% devotee to being “purely analytical” either, because people that are such devotees are easily manipulated by the media because the media knows how to exactly cater to such individuals. No one here should read what I write simply because they feel the same way or feel that I’m right. You also should not read it because you feel I’m wrong and want to prove I’m wrong with a counter-point. Read what I write merely for the reason of gaining a view and understanding that you may not have thought of before, then test it for yourself and analyze it in your own life. Look around yourself and look at how the media manipulates things in order to blend everyone together to better control them. I will continue to bombard all of you with ideas and while I may claim they may be right or wrong, YOU try them out for yourself and decide whether you agree or not. I merely make you aware of my ideas and the possibilities within them, but I cannot ever whole heartedly convince anyone of you here of anything unless you have the desire to agree with me based on what you have also observed yourself. So open your eyes and sharpen your minds as Armenians, then comb the world around you to see the truth behind what is sold to you as the truth by the media’s pop-culture ideas, this is the core of being an “intellectual”. Once you see things as they are for yourself, then decide whether you want to take actions toward changing things you feel need to be changed as a Hye for the betterment of our Armenian lineage, heritage, and culture. And once you’ve coupled your intellectuality with your actions, only then, will you realize just how much as Armenian youth you are capable of and what a powerful force you can be in any society, whether you’re a Diasporan or not. Thanks for yet another personal attack TB, you’re all class bud. Unti next time, have a restful Sunday everyone. -The Armenian Pirate

Now that is a VERY frightening thought Gurgen. And in fact it is EXACTLY what I have been trying to bring to light to everyone here as well as tie it into how it affects us as Armenians. Just re-read that sentence, it’s simply a horrific idea. “One tells, and the other does”. The role of the “teller” in this day and age has been seized by the media elitists and their tool is Pop-Culture. The “action takers” are the general populace, BUT, the action promoted is not any action at all toward any individualized cultural progression, but rather LACK OF ACTION is promoted. This is a simple but VERY effective way of completely tearing asunder cultural distinctions such as being Armenian, Chinese, French, etc, for the sake of establishing mental, cultural, and social dominance over us all. However, it’s done SO subtly that even those that claim to be “intellectuals” are fooled into believing that they are above the manipulations of these elitists. The elitists cater to the egos of these supposed intellectuals in order to socially pacify them into thinking that there exists no conscious effort to blur the lines of culture, lineage, and heritage as a means to further the agendas of the elitists and their own respective cultures. These same elitists start their cycle of destruction with the cultures that statistically are most vulnerable, that is, those cultures who’s people are of small numbers globally, such as us Armenians. Our Armenian youth today is falsely led to believe that in order for them to enjoy the fruits of Pop-Culture and just do what youth does, be wild and free, they must sacrifice their own culture/lineage/heritage as Armenians. Thus Armenian youth are essentially led to believe that they cannot be part of the Pop-Culture of today while simultaneously also holding on to their rich traditions, lineage, culture, and heritage as Armenians, THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE! I do not need a mathematical model or theory to “prove” this to anyone, I AM the living and breathing proof that this IS possible! Among my circle of colleagues, those of us that are Hye do this every day, we easily have been able to be as “American” as can be while at the same time being as “Armenian” as we would like to be without any grandiose “struggle” against a non-existent pressure that supposedly will inevitable force us into integration permanently. We are quintessential professionals, but we remember that we are Hye professionals within an American system, and we also remember that we can continue to be such professionals while maintaining our heritage, culture, and lineage. And WHY shouldn’t we think this way? The Jews, Asians, African-Americans, Italians, etc, etc, think like this, not only that they push to proliferate their cultural ideals on others. Jews in fact have perfected this down to a science because they have the advantage of having Judaism represent a religion as well as the lineage of Israelites, so what do they do when they marry? They MAKE their husband/wife CONVERT to Judaism and TAKE classes! It’s simply a brilliant tactic to ensure at the very least statistical growth is achieved, but this tactic comes at the price of them losing their ISRAELITE lineage, and that is why Jews in Israel do not regard Jew converts or even mixed Jews as true Israelites and children of Israel. Now I’m not saying that persecuting mixes is the right thing to do, but it is a very clear and concise example of how other cultures are looking after themselves first and not buying into all this “globalization”, “inevitable assimilation”, or “one human race” nonsense the way some folks preach on these boards So why should I or any other Armenian man or woman simply settle for “assimilation” or “integration” or “joining the human race” when I have SUCH a great, rich, and wonderful heritage/lineage that I can stick with and do my best to preserve? And the answer behind that question is that only those individuals that simply desire to be careless about Armenian lineage preservation but deep down feel a guilt in doing so will truly want to opt for “integration”, and to save face, they pretend to know concrete “variables” and present oversimplified mathematical models to say “look no matter what we do, we’ll integrate as Diasporans”. Better yet, they won’t even try and rely on false logic to appease their own guilt, they’ll blatantly say integration and Diasporan death is “inevitable”. The key words here are “as Armenian as we would LIKE to be”, and maybe folks like Boghos, TB, or those that feel the way they do simply don’t like to be Hye or it’s just not important enough for them on a personal level, and that’s fine, it’s their decision. However, when they do not want to take that plunge by themselves and preach bleak ideas of inevitability or oversimplify population dynamics to a couple variables and talk of asymptotic curves reaching zero, that’s when their actions hurt my own and many other Armenians’ efforts to preserve/proliferate our lineage, culture, and heritage, which is a VERY realistic and achievable task to perform from now until the end of time, regardless of whether I’m living in United States or on Mars. And who is most vulnerable in this invisible domination of the mind that the media performs? The answer is simple, if we assume that all cultures are susceptible on a roughly equal level given a certain standard deviation from that level of susceptibility, then those cultures that are statistically the largest in population will have the best chance of surviving the media elitist’s Pop-Culture onslaught. If 100 million Chinamen migrated out of China and every single one of them inter-married, forgot their language, history, heritage, etc, they would STILL have roughly 1.4 Billion other members to rely on to continue their traditions, lineage, and heritage into the future. But we as Armenians simply CANNOT afford such losses if we truly desire to preserve our culture, heritage, and lineage. That is why it is SO very CRITICAL for the individual Armenian to elevate his/her level of awareness of the world around him/her beyond that of someone of another culture/lineage/heritage that statistically has more members to “lose” so to speak. Armenians must also elevate their sense of culture/lineage admiration, appreciation, and preservation beyond those of the members of other cultures/lineages; NOT because we think “we’re better” but because in the statistically game of losing members to globalization, if we’re to survive as Armenians, we cannot suffer as many losses as Chinamen that make up 1/5 of the world population or any other statistically larger culture for that matter. Now, does that mean that an Armenian may have to be just a bit ethnocentric to achieve this? Perhaps, in fact, most likely ethnocentrism will be crucial, because by definition, to be “ethnocentric”, is to love your own culture/lineage more than those of others, and if that’s the case, SO BE IT! But here in lies the manipulation of Pop-Culture and the media elites. You see Gurgen, these elitists USE Pop-Culture media to implant the idea of “ethnocentrism” being the equivalent of “racism”, “prejudice”, or even “hate”. And this SIMPLY IS NOT TRUE, an Armenian can certainly be ethnocentric by having a deep admiration/passion for his own culture and lineage while simultaneously having a profound respect for other cultures as simply being different as well as unique in their own right. But the media and those groups in power like to tie a VERY negative co-notation to the idea of being ethnocentric through Pop-Culture promotions of “we’re all one happy human race”, “cultural distinction prevents us from progressing together as human beings”, “lineage distinction creates conflict”, etc, etc. YET these very groups in power, whoever they may be, associate themselves with their own culture in such a fanatical manner that as an observer it becomes VERY CLEAR that they do not buy into ANY of the ideas of “one human race” or “all lineages are one” which they so very tirelessly preach to the masses. They simply preach those ideas through mass media in order to dilute the heritage, lineage, traditions, and culture of other groups of people, such as us Armenians, in order to assimilate more of the world’s resources, education, positions of power, and homeland stability for their own respective lineages and culture. ALL of you need to realize this fact, yes it is an ugly truth to stare at, it also disheartens the soul at times, but it’s the truth folks, and until we truly live in a globally Utopia like society, we as Armenians cannot let up the preservation of our culture, our heritage, our lineage, and our traditions. In fact, it is IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER that as one of the older lineages on the world stage, we pose the largest threat to these Elitists that use the media for control and manipulation. This is because they know we have developed a very high level of resilience toward anything that threatens our heritage/culture/lineage and that most of us have a deep passion for our heritage/culture/lineage that has endured for more than 3000 years and WILL continue to endure. I should have elaborated more on the definitions of “intellectual” and “Action taker” to prevent this misinterpretation. “Intellectuals” are not incapable of action and “Action takers” are not incapable of intellectual thought, do not make the mistake of believing that stereotype, I should have elaborated more so that the context of the words would not be taken so literally, so here goes. . . . The Armenian “intellectuals” that I was making reference to are of a distinct type, I should not have generalized, for that, I apologize to everyone here. So I’ll rephrase that group as “Psuedo-Intellectuals”. These TYPES of intellectuals certainly have a high degree of mental capacity and intelligence. However, they lack any fortitude, desire, dedication, or determination to actually do ANYTHING that would be culturally productive for Armenians. In fact, most of the time they are spineless cowards with very low self-esteem, but they do carry a high level of mental prowess. And they use this prowess to analyze the problems Armenians face, to tear down other people’s lesser analytical results for self-gratification, and to provide all types of elaborate and wonderfully complex solutions to our people’s social problems as means to announce “I’m a smart Armenian”. BUT, at the essence of ANY solution, is the IMPLENTATION of that solution through ACTION. And furthermore, only the individual that gave birth to an idea or solution can truly implement it best as an action, because he/she has the best fundamental understanding of what needs to be done in order to resolve a situation via the solution he/she has come up with, after all, there is no better person to take the steps of a solution to particular problem than the person that thought of the solution in the first place! Sadly, the human ego is a very intoxicating aspect of the Armenian psyche and of the human psyche in general. And because of ego, many intellectuals fall prey to leading a life of INACTION. They just talk and talk, or write a book, or take on the mantle of the “tortured poet” through heartfelt poetry, and while all these things may contain great many ways of helping us as Armenians, nearly ALL of these Pseudo-Intellectuals consciously REFUSE to take any sort of risk, role of leadership, or take a chance in leading others toward positive cultural progression through their ideas AS WELL AS their ACTIONS/IMPLENTATIONS of those ideas. Instead, they opt to feed their already enormous ego by building up a better and more refined self-image of “the intellectual, or “the smart poster”, or “the articulate poet” at a gathering, party, or social event. And this type of behavior sees no exception on these boards either. There are folks here that post in a very analytical and elaborate manner with fancy screen names, and they LOVE coming off as “the intellectual” bunch, but when they put the keyboard down and go about their daily lives, being Armenian or preserving Armenian culture/heritage/lineage is the furthest thing from their mind, and Pop-Culture dominates them despite all the “intelligence” they claim to have on these boards. And I’ve witnessed this so many times in different places. I’ve sat down at a table while out with others, and one or two of these Pseudo-Intellectuals will start doing the “hey look at me I’m smart and articulate, I know lots about Armenianism and I can analyze every detail of our struggles” sales pitch to the rest of the Hyes at that table, then some odar will come along and say something derogatory towards Armenians, and these very same “analytical” Hyes that are so “logically inclined” and such great “intellectuals” will just sit there with their tails between their legs. They can talk a great philosophical game so to speak with respect to our culture and how we should go about keeping it strong, but when it’s actually their turn to do some of the things they preach, they become too busy being “Americanized”, or “European”, or “too busy with life”, or any number of ridiculous excuses for not taking action in order to help their Armenian culture/heritage/lineage stay strong. The reason Pseudo-Intellectuals behave like this is because as brilliant as their ideas may be about how Armenians can succeed, their motivation for giving birth to those ideas does not stem from a desire to truly help their fellow Hyes or to preserve our beautiful culture/lineage. Instead, their motivation stems from the egotistical notion of creating an image of “the intellectual” within their Hye community/circle of friends, in a grandiose attempt to pathetically show-off that they are “smart” or of “high intellectual capacity” or “articulate”. And because of these notions, I do not like the idea of being classified as an “intellectual” because some intellectuals, NOT ALL, but some are in fact Pseudo-Intellectuals that do a good job of pretending they have sincerity toward their Armenian lineage, but their deception comes through EVERY time it’s time to put their words into action, because all they do is stay seated where they are, while the odar says derogatory things about Armenians. Only those Intellectuals that CHOOSE to also be ACTION TAKERS, will quickly and EFFECTIVELY put the odar in his/her place for having assaulted a fellow Armenian, whether it be verbally, mentally, or even physically; it all depends on the situation. But at the VERY least, an intellectual that is also an ACTION TAKER has the courage to DO SOMETHING about the situation around him/her and within his/her Hye community. And The Armenian Pirate will always follow and respect those that are courageous, action takers, while maintaining their intellectuality. Mere Pseudo-Intellectual words and idle arrogant socialite chatter doesn’t cut it for me as “Armenian awareness” or “Armenian cultural/heritage/lineage preservation”. ALL OF YOU here need to always keep in mind that as an individual, you need to give birth to an idea then carry it out YOURSELF, not expect SOMEONE ELSE to do it for you, especially someone of another lineage, culture, or heritage. First off, I’d like to thank you for not jumping to conclusions about what I have written with personal attacks. Your approach is the correct one, that is, you’ve decided to ask a bit more before making a final personal analysis about what’s been said here by me, I commend you Nairi. Now with reference to your question, I certainly do see a difference in identity and culture, there is a definite distinction between the two. However, that does not necessarily mean that they are not somehow partially interconnected. I believe that at the core of every person, there exist two sub-sets of identity. One part of a person’s identity, the more superficial one, stems from his/her immediate social surroundings, the social trends that they are into, and the society that they live in. For example, I myself have my immediate social structure of Hye and non-Hye friends which I partly identify with because they exist within the same framework of “trends” that exist in the United States today. And just like all of you, I indulge in those trends, and culturally I dabble in what’s known as “Popular” culture of today. I also as a professional realize that in order to make progress in my personal finances and social life, I must to a certain extent abide by the societal structure that exist today in the United States, and I do exactly that every day and I am successful because of it. But the MOST IMPORTANT realization I can make about this first part of my identity is that the social trends, pop-culture influences, as well societal hierarchies that help constitute this first part of my identity change every 10 years or so and as I indulge in these changes, this superficial portion of my identity will also change. Thus I cannot consider it the “more significant” aspect of my identity or go as far as saying it makes up my identity as a whole, that would be foolish at the very least. Today’s pop-culture focuses around African-Americans with rap music, movies, their economic struggles, and their civil struggles because it makes record companies and movie studios money, it’s a sad fact but it’s true. So why wouldn’t these companies want to assimilate AS MANY people as possible into Pop-culture by blurring the distinction of ACTUAL cultures such as Armenianism? After all, the more people they convince that Pop-culture is their ACTUAL culture, the more money they make! I might pop open a CD and listen to some rap, but the way some Armenian folks ACTUALLY adapt the struggles described in rap music as their own is ridiculous. I have no idea what it’s like to be a black man in the ghettos of Compton, no Armenian does because they are not black, period. Just like the way a black man will never understand why I so relentlessly have chosen to protect and preserve my lineage, heritage, and Armenian culture. So why the hell would I tip my hat sideways, wear a jersey, and pretend that I somehow am connected to that black man’s struggle? I’ll tell you why, because it’s “what’s hot” in pop-culture right now, just like the way putting on a leather jacket with long head banger hair and doing coke was 20 years ago in the 80s. Yes, I’ll dabble in pop-culture for the sake of “keeping up with the trends” and having some fun, but I will NEVER betray my own Armenian identity by giving it up and replacing it with whatever Pop-culture puts on my social plate. Think about this everyone. The second, more prominent, part of a person’s “identity” is composed of his lineage, heritage, and his culture. And we as Hyes, do have a distinct identity that extends itself to the way we behave, the resiliency we have, the traditions we uphold, and these things are VERY distinct and VERY different from those of a Frenchman, an Asian, an African American, etc, etc. and if hybridized through globalization, interbreeding, intermarriage, or “the one human race” philosophy, then part of our deep rooted personal identity is lost. And what’s worse is that the new hybrid lineage, say between a Hye and an Asian, is NOT ENOUGH of either one of these cultures to be identifiable as ANYTHING that can be classified. And some might say, “well what’s so bad about that”? And in fact, nothing would be really bad about that IF we lived in a world in which other cultures are not gunning to gain the high ground on the world stage and to put themselves at the top. But we obviously do not live in such a world, we are human beings, that much is true, but 99% of the world does not yet have the ultra high level of “humanitarian” mentality that the elites would have you believe. Essentially, it’s pretty damn cutthroat still out in the world folks, and Hyes need to stick together and preserve their cultural identity, their language, their heritage, and their lineage so that we can retain ourselves as a classified group of people; otherwise what will happen is that those cultures that DO preserve themselves and stay classified as “something” will lay claim to our rights, our homeland, and the restitutions that are owed to us for the atrocities that have been committed against us. To put it bluntly, in today’s world, no one gives a $hit about culturally hybridized individuals, every lineage/culture/heritage is out to gain benefits for its OWN people, this much is evident by just looking around yourself folks. The Asians are extreme isolationists, they do not even consider odars their equals, the Jews do their best to provide Isrealite/Israelite marriages for their children and if an odar comes into the family he/she HAS to convert to Judaism as a religion so that he can at least be “a Jew” through his religious faith. Us Armenians certainly don’t have the luxury of “converting” an odar into an Armenian because being Armenian is a matter lineage/heritage not a matter of religious faith; your parents are either of Hye decent or they are not, period. Everyone here needs to look around and see how much other cultures/lineages/heritages look out ONLY for themselves FIRST before even considering an odar, and us Hyes need to do the same and do it well. And to re-emphasize the importance knowing things such as the Eibuben and our language, when a group of Jews visited Armenia to confirm the existence of an ancient Jewish gravesite, after simple carbon dating to verify the gravesite’s age, their claims were validated when Ancient Hebrew inscriptions of the people buried there were discovered. Boom, case closed, it’s a Jewish grave site. Now had the Jewish language been allowed to die and become long gone, these groups of Jews would be standing there with a rock in their hand that dates back 2000 years but cannot be confirmed to be “of Jewish origin”. And this very same phenomenon can happen with huge land masses such our beautiful homeland, our descendants won’t be able to make any claims to that land if the very language that exist in temple inscriptions on that land cannot be identified as their own because we allowed our culture of 3000+ years to be replaced by “Pop-culture” or be hybridized through globalization. This is absolute and undeniable, and I’ll burn in hell first before letting it happen without at least trying to prevent it, nothing is inevitable or futile. So yes, we can conclude that PART of our personal identity DOES in fact stem from our culture, heritage, and genetic lineage; and it’s a VERY important part to try and maintain. And we must strive to keep those aspects of our identity, essentially, the aspect of being Armenian, as strong as possible. I have never said that an Armenian is supposed to be ultra-nationalistic or Dashnakesque in order to be considered “Hye”, though being so is not necessarily bad either; but to be Armenian you must at the core at least maintain your lineage that has trickled down generation after generation via Hye/Hye marriages, this is something we CAN control. Yes, it is true that at some point, our women may have been raped and some damage to our genetic lineage may have been done, but those women had little choice, but you Nairi as a modern Armenian woman, have an infinite number of choices but sadly some of you have been led to believe that those choices are non-existent or “inevitably” futile, do not buy into that farse, it simply is not true. Sure they are, religious belief is completely separate from cultural lineage, the two are definitely not one in the same. You can be Armenian but choose to be catholic, or Hindu, Atheist, etc, etc. That is your religious belief, not your cultural lineage or heritage. It is true that as Armenians we have adapted Apostolic Christianity as our country's national religion, but that’s merely a religious doctrine we chose at the time, we were Armenians before becoming Christians, many Hyes were pagans that worshipped the goddess Ani, but they were Armenians never the less by lineage, which is the basis, root, and essence of being Armenian. When a Hye male and a Hye female create a Hye child, what that child is christened does not make him genetically and through lineage any less or more Hye. Because the majority of Hyes are Apostolic Christian by faith, some people are falsely led to think that being Apostolic Christian is directly linked to the Armenian lineage, it is not, be sure to understand this Nairi jan. If he is of Hye/Hye parents, of course he is still Armenian. Albeit, he is a “lazy” Armenian, but his lineage/heritage is still part of the Armenian people. Granted, by being lazy about maintaining some of his traditions he makes himself/herself more vulnerable to drifting away from his culture/lineage/heritage, but yes, until he is completely drifted away and has intermarried to an odar, he is still Armenian through direct connection to his lineage and the line of the people of Armenian, Diasporan or not. But let us not discount that although observing traditions does not necessarily connect you to the Armenian lineage, it is still important to have “the feeling” of the Hye spirit, it can be used as a great motivational force for pro-Hye efforts. However I will say this, if your parents are Hye/Hye, being Armenian and being tied to Armenian lineage is still valid to announce, even if you decide not to observe Armenian traditions. However, many people think the converse is also true, that is, by simply observing Armenian traditions but having Hye/Odar parents you are still completely part of the Armenian lineage, this is NOT true, only one half of your lineage/heritage is that of Armenians the other half belongs to the other parent’s odar heritage. Also, some people actually believe that a child of an Odar/Odar is also considered as part of Armenian lineage simply because they observe Armenian traditions, this is not only a preposterous notion but also a VERY dangerous one, because it opens the doors for odars to make claims on rights that only belong to people that are truly of Armenian ancestry, lineage, and heritage. Essentially, an odar group of people can say, “We observe Hye traditions, thus we are Hye, and this land ALSO belongs to us”, this ladies and gents is EXTEMELY dangerous, and it is one of the things media Elitists try to pass off as legitimate through their manipulation of Pop-culture by blurring the lines of lineages and distinct heritages. Yes it does, read the above for a brief explanation. However, I will say this, a Hye/Odar person should NEVER be persecuted by our Hye communities or any of us simply because only one of his parents is Hye, they should be made to feel welcome. But at the same time, we must realize that ultimately that person is only half Hye by lineage/heritage and no amount of observations of Armenian traditions by him/her will change that fact. We must also realize that when an inter-marriage happens, at each consequent generation, less of that ongoing lineage/heritage will be composed of Armenianism, because at each generation a new lineage/heritage is introduced. A person that began as ½ Hye will have his children be ¼ and grandchildren be 1/8, so on and so forth, gradually dwindling to an unrecognizable fraction. The ONLY way to partially salvage the lineage/heritage is to re-introduce a Hye/Hye marriage after a single round of Odar/hye marriage has occurred. It’s not anger you sense in my words, it is disappointment. I’m disappointed that as a 20 something Armenian male, I’ve actually met a 30 something Armenian male that is as culturally jaded, naïve, and careless as you are. I, as well as the other youth here on these boards, should be learning something from you but after reading post after post of your redundant and irate cry of “diasporans will disappear inevitably”, “Armenia will one day be taken care of by people that don’t call themselves Armenian”, or the ever classic “TAP, you’re a critical thinker, hence you are a fanatic”, I have come to the conclusion that there is only one thing that I or anyone else can and should learn from you Boghos, and that is to make every possible effort to NOT be like you as an Armenian and to be wary that we don’t end up becoming so one dimensional in our beliefs that what lies ahead is beyond our control as a people the way you have become as an individual. No there isn’t and I never said there was, again, do not put words in other people’s mouths just to drive your point forward. In fact, the ultimate and most potent form of an Armenian is when a TRUE intellectual Armenian decides to stop being merely an “intellectual” but to also be an activist. Such a person is then a force that is so relentless and so powerful, that the environment around him yields to his will and the surrounding environment accommodates HIM, he does not have to accommodate his environment any more, ever. The most incredible part of this idea, is that there exists no pre-requisite for achieving this except personal desire. Any one of you readers can achieve this, yes it can be more difficult for some than others, if you generally are a person of low self-esteem, overcoming that barrier is more difficult, however it can be done given time, confidence development, and self-motivation. What I DO have a problem with is those intellectuals that when in a social setting, put out great ideas and puff up like an over-bloated Einstein about Armenian topics, then after the neo-socialite gathering of drinking and “partying” is over, they won’t even admit to an odar that they are Armenian if it doesn’t suit their taste or their situation. They soon revert back to the Pop-culture slave that they truly are. When someone behaves like this, whether online or off, it just tells me that the ONLY reason they even bother to pretend to care or be involved with Hye issues is because they would like to build up a social image among their Hye peers for self-gratification, recognition, and praise. Folks, it is not enough to simply be an “intellectual” that can talk, write, and debate brilliantly during social settings among his Hye peers. Also, it is not enough to be a mindless activist that jumps at the first chance to wave the Armenian flag. To be effective and of any use to your people, you have to be a combination of both. Think of an idea that you feel would help Armenians in general, then, do some personal research to make sure that it in fact is positive for Hyes and not just “the trendy thing to do”, finally, IMPLEMENT IT through your OWN actions. Don’t tell it to someone else under the assumption that merely because it is a “great” idea that the other person hearing about it will implement it for you. This is important to realize. Seriously, you need to tone down on the metaphors and abstract analogies my friend. I’m sure you’re thinking about writing “well you’re too stupid/uneducated/etc to know what I’m saying” right now, but honestly, you get lost in your own metaphors and attempts at creative writing, tone it down a little so things can be a bit more clear-cut. You’re right, but again, you’re putting words into my mouth. I never said we must deny our intellectual heritage. What I DID say, is any intellectual that only speaks of his/her “great ideas” for helping our people then disappears into Pop-culture due to a belief in the false inevitability of our people’s circumstance or for whatever reason, is a worthless one, and I will confront him/her and tell him/her that he is worthless not to mention a pathetic coward each and every time I come across such a person. I will always respect and support an intellectual that has a “small idea” and takes ACTION to implement it versus another intellectual that has “a big idea” but expects “other Armenians” to do it or only talks of his great idea to promote his self-image as “the intellectual” in a social setting. I never deny myself the fact that what I write won’t emotionally upset someone at some point, you being no exception. However, nowhere in my writings do I attack someone’s personal character, the same cannot be said of you or TB. The both of you will put up an argument then at some point when you do not have valid counter-points, you default to “you don’t get it because you’re XXXXXX” or “I’m an old-timer with XXXX posts, thus I’m right” or you try and bandwagon your arguments against a new-comer on these boards in order to intimidate them, and it’s just pathetic and you’re at zero credibility right now because of such antics. Make no mistake, I will not hold back with disproving another person’s ideas if I do not agree with them. If an individual has the courage to speak his mind and express his ideas, then that individual should also realize that those ideas will be challenged and must be defended, but they must defended through VALID COUNTER-POINTS that are equally detailed as the argument they attempt to disprove, NOT by the ridiculous methods described above that you and TB try and use. In the beginning, you were making some good points but once TB came along to be your crutch and compliment you on every post, you basically resorted to personal attacks after writing one or two witty paragraphs of the same nonsense over and over again. You make a post, TB then compliments you with something like “once again, Boghos, you understand my points very well bravo”, I can almost hear his bourgeoisie tone when he writes; then he makes a post for you to compliment him on. Both of you think you’ve built credibility for your arguments by doing this, but instead you’ve lost all credibility, and no self-respecting critical thinker would buy into it on these boards. TB actually has the audacity to say things like “once again Boghos, you’re one of the few that tempts me to write”, then, when called on his arrogance and pompous statement, actually has the nerve to deny it and retort with yet another personal attack. And I love the way he keeps reiterating how “busy” his life is, he must be learning to walk on water or performing some other miraculous deed, it’s not like the rest of us 1500 registered users have much else to do in our daily lives. This must be why the rest of us can “make time” to put up decent posts while he posts one-liner insults or his couple paragraphs of mind-numbing wit here and there; after all he is “too busy”. Or maybe it’s just because he is in fact arrogant, condescending, and pompous with his statements. But I digress, my post count is “only 20” and you two are “old-timers” with 1500 posts, you must be right because of this, at least this is what TB thinks. I’ll tell you what, when you can actually debate with me properly, we’ll just assume both of you are right ALL THE TIME because of your “high post counts” and the fact that you’re “older timer” Hye Forum members. After all, my observational writing of the truth in our Hye communities cannot possibly compete with both your combined “post counts”. Let’s see here, I’ve been writing about Hye youth being dynamic thinkers, action takers, and motivated lineage/cultural/heritage preservationists if we’re to succeed as a people. I also spoke of being less judgmental of our gorgeous Hye women and to make them feel comfortable within their own communities and social circles by not raising our youth in a sexually judgmental and repressed manner. Then I spoke of how Hyes should individually be greater critical thinkers with ideas which they can implement through action. I’m also an advocate of the individual Hye’s potential being only limited by the individual himself/herself. You on other hand, have just continually preached to the young readers on these boards about why Diasporans regardless of what they do, are doomed to fail in their efforts, and that it is not possible to retain Armenian lineage/heritage AND enjoy Pop-culture trends simultaneously. You also have a very morbid view about the future of Armenia and Armenians all over the world, this was evident when you said “Armenia will one day be taken care of by a people that do not speak the language and don’t call themselves Armenian”. At this point, I can easily conclude that NOT ONLY are your ideas the anti-thesis of our ARMENIAN spirit, but that your ideas are also the very anti-thesis of the HUMAN spirit as well. Next time you use the words “obtuse” and “obscure” to make accusations toward others, make sure you know exactly what they mean then think about your own pessimistic one-dimensional mentality before falsely accusing others of such things. Why would you take it the wrong way? You DID make a VERY arrogant comment, what did you expect others to do when you said “Boghos, you’re one of the few that tempt me to write on these boards”? If that’s not a pompous and arrogant comment, I don’t know what is. Did you expect everyone here to thank you for being condescending during a debate? Also, what makes you think you’re qualified to make such a statement, have you performed some sort of global miracle that the 1500 of us are not aware of? If anyone here thinks he/she is “the High Commissioner”, it’s you, not me. I just write up my ideas for everyone to read, I don’t twist anyone’s arm to read my material or to respond to what I write. Also, weren’t you the one that tried to claim superior credibility on these boards by announcing to me and the rest of the board that you have seniority because you are one of the first to register and that you’re an “old timer” with a high post count? I couldn’t care less when you registered on these boards, how many posts you’ve accumulated, or how old you are, those numbers do not make you more credible or more correct than anyone else on these boards. Post-count, date of registration, or age does not count for anything in a debate, experience does, and if you think that because you are older or have a higher post count that you are somehow “more experienced” or more credible in this debate, you are sorely mistaken TB. No one “deserves” another person’s arrogance, and I pity anyone that has self-esteem that’s low enough to actually believe such garbage. If you think you have the right to act arrogantly toward anyone, you’re wrong. Is it simply because they do not agree with what you say? And just because someone does not agree with you, you assume they must be stupid or of low intelligence? You’re wrong on all counts. Try to be a bit more civil than that. This is a debate about important topics, not a character insulting contest. Furthermore, you are wrong in assuming stupidity about me or anyone else that does not agree with you. Unless you know someone else personally, I can’t see how you can make such intimate character assumptions about them TB. I’m a “toxic dum-dum” now? Jesus, grow up man and get back on topic. Calling me names won’t strengthen your stance in this debate, in fact, it just weakened it further with that comment. Correction, while an “arbitrary” family that has the mentality of inevitable loss of Diasporan Armenianism may meet such a fate; a family that makes the conscious choice to speak to one another as husband, wife, and children in Armenian, observe traditions of Hyes, pass on those traditions to their children, and infuse the desire to preserve their lineage/heritage/culture into themselves and their children by not inter-marrying, WILL NOT meet any “inevitable” doom of loss in Armenianism. Just like most of what you say, you and Boghos VASTLY over simplify the dynamics of Diasporan families and the Armenian populace in general. It DOES all depend on personal initiative. Before a group, there is the individual that is a composite of that group. There is no such thing as “group effort” without first establishing effort among INDIVIDUALS via PERSONAL initiatives. And as far as personal initiative not being a self-sustaining idea, you’re wrong. It is in fact one of the few self-sustaining mechanism in existence. An individual’s personal initiative does not need to be fueled once it is activate, until it does become activated, it does need a spark, but once alit, personal initiative coupled with the desire to see that initiative realized is such a potent force, that Elitists do their best to prevent all of you, as young Armenians, from gaining that “spark” that will fire up your initiatives. There are many individuals that live their entire lives without realizing their cultural/heritage and non-cultural desires because they are constantly being brainwashed by the media to think that the individual cannot do anything on his/her own and that taking INDIVIDUAL initiative is a “waste of time”, and NOTHING ladies and gents, can be further from the truth. While I could name countless individuals that took initiative and achieved a great many things through that individualized initiative, I will keep it within the realm of Armenians and mention Monte Melkonian again (may you rest in peace). No one can deny or dispute the fact that one day, this young man woke up, and for reasons that I have tried to understand better for years, he set out on a quest to aid his people. There are many of you on these boards that are first generation immigrants still, Monte was not. There are also many Hyes that have a far less promising “American” future than Monte did, yet he decided to do all that he did. Full ride to Oxford, with a degree already under his belt, by “the American Dream” standards, he had A LOT going for him as a young man in the United States. Yet for years I have wished to be “the fly on his wall” the moment he decided to drop it all and achieve everything he did achieve for Armenians everywhere. Things that many people only assume achievable in fables and movies, this very real Armenian achieved, NOT because he all of a sudden developed a “group mind” and joined an already existing legion, but rather, because he made a realization about his own desire and took INDIVIDUAL initiative to set out on his own and create cultural gains for his people. This is a testament of the limitless power of the individual when initiative is sparked within that person, this is what Elitists fear the most, because they know that nothing except death can stop a person that is motivated to achieve certain goals. And sadly, it was in fact death and ONLY death that stopped Monte. It wasn’t the jail-time in France, or the criticism and persecution he received from foreign governments. It simply was death and only death in the form of a shell casing against his skull that finally put his candle out. That is how powerful individual effort and initiative can be, and as Armenian youth, you are all capable of A LOT, regardless of whether your family is poor or rich, educated or uneducated, you are capable of more than you can possibly imagine; and the reason many of you cannot imagine such capabilities as being real is because you have been conditioned by Pop-culture and media to not believe in yourselves as Armenian youth and as individuals. Pop-culture is fun to dabble in and enjoy, but do not let it affect your inner personal identities as Hyes. Go out, party, drink, have sex if you feel your ready, hit the clubs, attend college, etc, etc. Do whatever you want, but ALSO remember who it is you are and of what people your lineage stems from, then take personal initiative to make certain that your lineage/culture/heritage are preserved and protected, because I promise you this as my Armenian brothers and sisters, that EVERY odar is doing the same for their own culture/lineage, and they would love for you to think that they are not so that they can get ahead and leave you in the dust as Armenians on the world stage. If America is designed to do anything specific, which to a certain extent I agree with you that it is, then what all of you should ask yourselves is “who is the designer”? The answer is again the media and those in control of Pop-culture. America is whatever these controllers of media say it is, and the populace is bombarded by their culture blending, lineage destroying, and social pacification blitzkrieg every day, including us Armenians. TB you seem like an intelligent Hye, surely you must realize all these things bud, and if you do, I don’t understand how you can buy into their bull$hit man. The ONLY time all of you as young Armenians could possibly be duped into giving up your culture/heritage/lineage, is if you did not know that the machinery that TB is talking about existed, but since you DO KNOW, you can easily manipulate it to your own will and to serve your own purpose. That means, you can be as “American” as can be the way the media machinery would like you to be WITHOUT sacrificing your Armenian lineage/heritage. You can also be a capitalistic success story, and ALSO make that choice of preserving your Armenian culture/heritage/lineage by helping one another, not taking the inter-marriage route, maintaining at least some of your traditions, and also knowing your own Armenian language inside/out both in written and verbal form. Yes, they did A LOT of good for Armenia and Armenians everywhere. In a time period where Armenian plights and atrocities against Armenians were nearly dimmed and forgotten, ASALA was a very abrupt wake up call for the European communities that would have loved nothing better than for the world to forget about all the Hyes killed during the Genocide. I thank God every day that the men that formed ASALA were around to ensure that the useless political bureaucratic entities that are supposedly so concerned with “human rights” received a swift and shocking reminder over and over again regarding the Armenian Genocide as well as its recognition. Up until the formation of ASALA and its respective assault on the entities that denied the Genocide, the Armenian Genocide was in very real danger of being suffocated and “swept” under the international rug via the delusional propaganda that those mongrel Turks put out. And had it not been for all the combat experience and knowledge Monte gained from his days in ASALA, he would not have been as intuitively brilliant in his military campaigns and the training of troops that won battle after battle, ultimately gaining a significant amount of land back for Armenia before falling in battle. So yes, ASALA DID in fact help Armenia and Armenians in general with everything they did. I’ll mention one final note regarding this topic to everyone here using myself as an example. Whether I agree with ASALA’s methods or not, unless I, as an individual, have attempted anything remotely as significant as the men in ASALA did, it’s not my place to question the methods behind the very Genocide recognition achieved by ASALA that I take comfort in every day as an Armenian. Certainly I can disagree with it if I so choose or believe, but unless I’ve “walked the walked”, that is, taken a weapon, left my family and friends, and blown the brains of a Turkish “anti-Genocide” national clear across the pavement for being a lying snake, then it’s best that I disagree if I choose to, but not resort to harsh criticism of ASALA or groups like ASALA. Marrying an odar is NOT a crime, and to treat it as such is simply wrong. Not being welcoming of a mixed Armenian/odar person is also wrong. However, marrying an odar IS in fact, the deepest damaging blow any individual can deal to his/her lineage, culture, and heritage, ESPECIALLLY as an Armenian. The reason being, that we are at a critical juncture in our history. Every Armenian’s effort, no matter how miniscule, matters in the long run if we’re to survive as a people and ultimately thrive. And when inter-marriage occurs, it acts as an axe at the roots of that particular Armenian’s family line, his Armenian lineage/heritage, and ultimately after a few generations after the initial odar/Hye marriage, the descendants of that original couple will only be marginally Armenian and will know as well as care very little about that small fraction of their own lineage known as “Armenian” if they even care or know anything at all by then. So yes, to put it simply, the odar/Hye marriage is a bad decision if you remotely care about keeping your Armenian heritage/lineage/culture in tact, if you don’t care, well then that’s a whole different case, and I pity people like that. To conclude this post, I’d like to touch up on a few things. First and foremost, I’d like to mention that the dynamics of an Armenian population far exceed any predictions made by any mathematical theories or equations. Earlier, TB brought up a variable, a 2-dimensional Cartesian graph, and an asymptotic curve dropping to zero, supposedly signifying an inevitable doom for Armenian population. He perhaps did this because supposedly math “does not lie”, well it does in many cases, I’m not going to go into the details of why. What seems to be mathematically predictable turns out to be a vastly underestimated situation to try and quantify. I’m not mentioning this in an attempt to antagonize TB, however, the model he used was HIGHLY over simplified, and even if it was a fancy version of itself with proofs, graphical trends, etc, it still is not valid within the setting of this topic. While not wanting to delve too much into my personal life, I’d like to say that part of what I do has to do with designing solutions for various academic/industrial institutions. My mentor is a very prominent Physicist by trait but has since his days as a Physicist focused his attention to computational biology schemes regarding different population models and dynamics within those models. And I can whole heartedly tell you all, that to this day, nearly every mathematical model that was supposedly able to predict how populations will behave, has at some point shown to be very fallible when the complexity of the situation is raised even slightly in the real world. With regards to the Armenian population “dropping to zero” using a math model as an indicator, forget about it, it’s just not going to happen without such immense numerical errors that are propagated left and right or variables that simply cannot be accounted for mathematically. Unless you’re among one of the 14 or so leading computational biology research groups with an extensive background in your respective field, lets leave the math out of this folks. It is completely irrelevant as well as ultimately inaccurate to try and predict something as complex and specific as Armenian cultural/lineage population trends by using a “do it all” model or equation, much less do it on an internet message board. Also, I’d like to say to Boghos and TB, you both are smart guys, but you need to tone down the verbal badgering. We’re not here to insult each other or prove who is “the greater intellectual”, we’re here to put ideas out there and get feedback from one another as well as the rest of the folks here. If you want to aggressively counter another person’s idea, go for it, that’s why we’re here; but just blatantly saying that someone does not understand you due to a lack of intelligence or disagrees with you because they are “stupid” is not going to get us anywhere guys. Personally, even though my ideas may conflict with some of yours’, I have nothing against either of you as my fellow Armenians or any of my other Hye critiques for that matter. The essence of such discussion is to find ways for us all to succeed as Armenians, and even the disagreement between fellow Hyes or mixed Hyes, should not be allowed to supercede our desire to be kind to one another, break bread and wine with one another, be supportive of one another as fellow Hye brothers and sisters, and strive forward together as Armenians. I’m no fanatic, or an extremist, or any of the things I’m accused of being, I’m just a Hye male that’s concerned about issues regarding his lineage/heritage/culture. These are issues that affect us all one way or another, regardless of where our social or political stances may be as Armenians. We can either drop our heads and let these issues screw us in the future by allowing things to continue forward without supervision or correction, or we can read between the lines a little and look around ourselves and realize that we are masters of our own destiny. We, the Armenian youth, ARE the FUTURE, and with a little bit of individual effort and cohesiveness as Armenian youth, we can mold our homeland and our future as Diasporans in any fashion we like, this is absolute. The world is a rough place, and it has treated us as Hyes as such, sometimes, you have to be more rugged than the ugliness you face in life in order to succeed. Just remember that these are NOT “romantic” or “idealistic” notions that I’ve mentioned. Those in power would love for you to believe that so that they can mold the world to their liking and drive forward their own culture/lineage/heritage instead of allowing our own Armenianism and our Armenia to thrive. I live my ideas every waking day, and I’m no one special, and everyone here can too if they choose to. If you’re ambitious, then go out there and do what you need to do to get to your goals, but always remember that you need not sacrifice the essence of who you are as an Armenian or abandon your heritage/lineage/culture in order to reach those goals; there are plenty of Armenians that do whatever they want anywhere in the world and still maintain a deep connection to their Hye lineage/heritage/culture, it is easily done once you learn to walk out of that box that Pop-culture has put you into. In fact, don’t just walk out of the Pop-culture box, shatter it to pieces and declare yourself not only an intellectual but an intellectual that has the power to breathe life into superb ideas through action and resolve. -The Armenian Pirate

THAT's RIGHT! God forbid the day I turn into a worthless intellectual that can only sit in the background and theorize about Armenian cultural plights VS actually doing something about it! I'm an educated person, but I'm no intellectual and I don't EVER want to be classified as one, intellectuals just know how to talk and talk, but none of them will do much to amount to even a fraction of what an Action Taker does. Hence an action taker will ALWAYS get things done and take the risks necessary to succeed thus overshadowing a pathetic nimwit intellectual socialite that only knows how to hypothesize about what "should be done" but never has the courage to actually do it himself. There is nothing "cowardly" about taking action toward anything, I don't know what world you live in, but here on Earth, it's not what you say that matters, it's what you do that counts. An action taker will see an oppressed thirsty man suffering and will decide to give him water in order to quench that man's thirst regardless of the risk he must take. An intellectual will see that very same man in thirst, ignore him because he is too much of a coward to take the chance of getting the thirsty man some water. Instead, the intellectual will write a book about it later explaining how much the man "suffered" and how "tragic" it was, by that time that very same man has died of thirst and is long gone, and no amount of book writing will ever bring him back to life. That's what intellectuals are and they do nothing but write and talk, but never take action towards getting any goals achieved, hence actions takers will always be more important and far more relevant in this world. And you know what Boghos, like I've said before, in everything I have written, I have not made personal attacks on anyone directly or indirectly. You insist on doing it over and over again, and your credibility just goes down further each time you resort to such tactics. I'm beginning to doubt that you're even 10 years my senior the way you claim to be. Stop with the insinuating personal attacks and grow up. You can't make your side of the debate any more relevant by resorting to ridicule tactics toward me and my character, so please just stop.

That’s a very good observation. I wish more people would see this. Instead, many individuals opt for what TAP likes to call “Scapegoat Tactics”. These Scapegoat Tactics basically allow an individual that claims to be “well beyond maintaining my heritage/lineage/culture, after all I’m an ‘American’ now” to find a cliché reason for essentially being too lazy or caught up in pop-culture to really take action for his/her own culture. So what do these types of people do? They find someone like me, TAP, and falsely make me out to be some raving extremist JUST SO THAT they can have a social justification for having “given up”, “have become too Americanized”, “Driven away”, “treated as an outcast” , or any other ridiculous reason for being a jaded Media Child. These same types of people are what I have dubbed, “Bleeding Idealists”. They are SO deeply caught up in this incessant idealism that the media elites preach, that they simply refuse to see that those very same elitists that preach the “one-happy human race” nonsense are out there in the world trying to capture all the world’s resources, financial strengths, educational advancements, and social stability for their own respective culture. Some Armenian individuals callously attack our culture and claim that it is “so horrible”, “not worth my time”, “silly to try and preserve”, etc, etc, yet these VERY SAME individuals then expect those that DO IN FACT still deeply love their own culture/heritage/lineage to welcome them with open arms and pretend like nothing was said. What adds insult to injury is that these jaded Hyes then go about blaming Armenians like me for their lack effort, which basically is a bunch of nonsense and smells of irrelevance the minute the words come out of their mouths. INSTEAD, these careless and naïve Hyes should just take up responsibility for their own actions, or rather, their LACK OF ACTION in our cultural communities and stop whining about being “driven away” by “people like TAP”. My purpose is to bring my fellow Hyes together, here on these boards I state facts and observations that are simply the truth without painting a pretty picture for the sensitive liberal intellectuals that constantly need verbal cushions otherwise they cry “I’m being driven away”. Stop whining like pathetic little insects folks, instead DO SOMETHING for your own sake as an Armenian to somehow help our cause. No matter how miniscule your effort, it is still better than putting in no effort what’s so ever. Also, if you’re under the impression that by some grandiose miracle under the “righteous” banner of “we’re all one human race of brothers”, a Jew, an African-American, an Anglo Saxon, an Asian, an Indian, or even a Martian, will stand up for your cultural plights and your rights as a Hye individual over their own cultural rights, then you’re dead wrong. This is absolute, NEVER forget this. Someone of another culture will ALWAYS stand up for their own cultural preservation before any Armenian’s, the world is not yet as ideal as many of you make it out to be, so practice some cultural self-preservation instead of jumping head over heels into notions of Utopia. Neither I, nor anyone else here, has to be “content” with anything unless they have consciously chosen to give up, this is a fact that cannot be disputed. Unless an individual is a quadriplegic that’s also deaf AND mute, they do not have to settle for anything that does not suit them culturally as a Hye. We continually run into this re-occurring theme of all 1500 of us here and the many other Diasporans being somehow individually incapable of doing anything to govern our future as well as our destiny as a people/culture. If the idea of the individual being able to move a mountain is optimistically idealistic, as some of you claim it to be, then certainly the idea of “having to settle/be content unless circumstances go exactly like this” is equally idealistic but in a pessimistic fashion. Thus we can conclude that everything between those two extremes, such as the simple daily culturally aiding decisions that I have been talking about, are very much possible and DO HAVE a significant positive effect for our cultural/heritage/lineage preservation. This idea of “you’re preaching” is yet another Scapegoat Tactic in an attempt to justify a person’s refusal to show effort and be actively involved with their own culture. No matter what any of you say, reality is reality; hence it’s very obvious that simply being part of “the melting pot” and abandoning any notion of cultural distinction via heritage/lineage preservation is EASIER than actually showing active effort for maintaining one’s heritage/lineage/culture, regardless of whether you’re a Jew, Gentile, Black, Japanese, Chinese, or in our case, Armenian. So how is the easier choice of diving head over heels into “the melting pot” justified? Statements such as this one above, that’s how. “Oh my God, when I’m preached to about my lack of effort, I run astray EVEN FURTHER from my culture, TAP, you raving lunatic, stop preaching to me or I’ll be forced to slit my wrists”. Essentially, the social card known as “don’t preach” can be extrapolated to encompass any argument that does not suit an individual’s taste or does not allow them to save face. If the sky was blue and Seaphan said that it’s gray, and I said to him “but it is blue Seaphan jan, why are you not seeing what clearly is being observed?” He could pull out the old Preach Card and respond “well I don’t believe it’s blue TAP because you KEEP SAYING IT IS, so I’ve decided to believe that it’s gray”. Hence, by simply stating the truth about the sky being blue (a fact in this example), I somehow magically have created this immense pressure upon another person to believe that it is grey and not blue, HOWEVER, the 99% likely truth in this situation is that Seaphan has decided to “just not give a rat’s a$$” anymore, but does not like to admit to it in a setting of his peers, hence the elaborate “preaching led me astray” card is pulled out in order to create a legitimate social justification. And ultimately and falsely, I supposedly have “alienated” him from admitting that the sky is Blue by “preaching” to him the REALITY of his situation. Claiming to have been driven away through “preaching” is like saying that instead of the “truth setting you free” (which it does), it instead somehow “gags you and holds a .45 to your head”, which we all know is a false assumption, nothing more. Lastly, pulling the old “preach” card is ridiculous when it’s done in the face what ACTUALLY is occurring in reality but an individual simply refuses to admit it and uses the “you’re preaching to me and making me withdraw myself” one liner as nothing but an excuse to behave carelessly in the face of the task at hand. And perhaps the truth IS being preached over and over again, but SO WHAT? Does that make the truth any less true? Of course not! Just because you refuse to face what’s clearly in front of you as an individual, does not mean that it was MINE or ANYONE ELSE’s “preaching” that led you to make that choice or “alienated” you, it was your own choices that alienated you, NOT my “preaching”. YOU chose to not show effort toward your culture, YOU chose to integrate into the pop-culture melting pot the way the media elites spoon fed you to do so, YOU were the one that believed in the false idea that you can either be “American” or “Armenian”, but not both. When asked about those choices, have the courage to say you’ve made your own choices whether they agree with mine or anyone else's ideas or not, they are YOUR choices never the less, don’t dump the accountability on others by saying “they preached to me too much so I withdrew and became a jaded Media Child”. This one I agree on. That “driving force” begins with an individual’s decision to become active in supporting his/her cultural heritage/lineage. And that decision is ONLY the individual’s to make, not anyone else’s. However, that does not mean that prior to making that decision, all the options and the truth of his/her surroundings cannot be put in front of the individual before that final decision is made. That’s the misunderstanding everyone here makes about what I write on these boards. Beyond all the “fanatic” accusations, I definitely am not trying to “force” anyone to meet any Armenian model that I may personally believe in. Nothing I can do behind a keyboard will force any of you to make a choice one way or the other in my favor. However, I do write everything I’ve written in order to put as much about the reality of the situation in front of all of you as possible, and make no mistake about it, what I’ve written IS the circumstances that we as Armenians face these days. But NEVER fall under the guise that you as an individual somehow cannot change those circumstances to benefit us as a people. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, very few things are ACTUALLY beyond the reach of the individual that decides to exude the proper effort in order to reach their goal, but the elites would love for you to believe otherwise in order to manipulate the general populace. If you, as an individual, decide this very moment that “hey, this guy TAP might be a fanatic, but at least 1% of what he says is legit”, then decide to do something with regards to our cultural obstacles, then you already have become a force onto yourself and have made a SIGNIFICANT contribution to Armenian culture/heritage/lineage/etc. And if you absolutely are so engrossed in yourself that you refuse to be involved with anything that is cultural or “for others”, then do it for yourself! Because as it stands, whether you believe in anything I say, you are classified as an Armenian-American, so by screwing Armenian-Americans in any way, you screw yourself and IT WILL come and haunt you and your children later. A good example of this is a story about an acquaintance of mine that was pretty much as anti-TAPish as possible. Our cultural ideas were as opposite as can be and he was all for “Americanization”, “melting pot pop-culture integration”, ”abandoning preservation” etc, etc like some folks here are. When Armenia was classified for a short period of time as a “Terrorist State”, the INS apparently came a knocking on this person’s door. He has been here for MANY years and pays more in taxes than most folks make as a yearly salary, but due to his circumstances he has not been able to become a “naturalized” citizen. So they basically told him he is of “a terrorist state” and that he was to be deported out of the U.S. He had to fly out of the country with his family/etc and arrange proper paperwork for re-admittance into the U.S. Even after that, his struggle did not come to a favorable conclusion UNTIL Armenia was removed as a “terrorist” state due to the EFFORTS put forth by Hyes here lobbying for our rights as Armenians. Suffice it to say that this person now thinks a bit more deeply before pledging his loyalty utterly to the “American Dream”, “pop-culture melting pot”, and the gods of “Capitalism”. Had it not been for those Hyes that do and have shown relentless effort for their culture/heritage/etc, he would have been deeply shafted by the system and the mentality he for so long defended tirelessly. And no, this person was not TAP. Well if this happened, what is the purpose at that point then? If people that do not call themselves Armenian anymore, do not speak the language, have a completely altered culture/heritage/lineage are the only ones left to preserve Armenia then I hate to break this to you my friend, it’s not “Armenia” anymore, it’s a plop of dirt that belongs to a people not of my heritage. And if I as a Hye show up at their doorstep, I’ll get myself knocked around and my rights violated because like you said, the people in charge of Armenia’s welfare do not call themselves Armenian, can’t speak the language, and have a different cultural background. In essence, at that point, we have died as a culture. You can put us up in a suite next to the Romans, Babylonians, etc. You also add a positive note to this situation for some reason when it’s a horrific notion to think about. God forbid that as an Armenian, I have to one day rely on a group of people that know nothing of my culture, heritage, lineage, language, and do not even call themselves “Armenian” in any manner. I prey this day never comes. I don’t believe in the idea of "orphans" either. I don’t know where this notion of us being “orphans” comes from, we’re definitely NOT at that point yet nor have we ever been. Maybe when Armenia is completely over run and annexed into some other state, our culture decimated socially, and our language long dead, then perhaps we can use the term “orphans” for those that still are left as remnants of a people long gone. But as it stands, we have a homeland known as “Armenia”, rightful claims to that land, an official state religion, a beautiful language that transcends historical civilizations for at least 2000 years, and a culture/heritage that’s as rich and vibrant as any other on the global stage. So to make claims of us being “orphans” is a bit premature in any regard. If at this point we, as Armenians, are to be dubbed “orphans” than cultures such as the Jews, Kurds, and Azeri should be referred to with far worse terms because culturally they are MUCH more ravaged than we are. Ironically, as “gone” as some of those cultures are, they still relentlessly push to keep their culture together and to preserve it, while some of you as Armenians, being in a MUCH BETTER stage with regards to cultural/heritage/lineage cohesiveness, have already decided to “throw in the towel”. This attitude needs to change, and it begins with each individual. I don’t think anyone here has accused you of anything beyond what you yourself have said. You believe in the inevitability of Diasporan destruction through inevitable integration, I don’t, and thus I have thrust my counter-point to what you have said NOT simply as a personal opinion but as an observational fact of the PRESENT as well as the PAST in an attempt to salvage the FUTURE for our people. I cannot fathom how our survival as Hye Diasporans would have been possible had everyone thought the way you did Boghos, people would have just laid down their heads and died out of sheer hopelessness, because your theory of inevitability leaves room for little else except imminent as well as unavoidable doom. And this simply is not the case, never has been, and hopefully never will be. Don’t take offense, but nothing about your theory is long term in any way, it is in fact as short term as it gets, “we diasporans are Fukked” is basically the crux of your theory when you strip away all the articulate chatter. And I just don’t buy it. The Diasporan position will weaken only when we choose it to be so through less and less cultural effort, NOT because it is somehow going to happen REGARDLESS of what we do. Also, the potential of our homeland is completely and utterly irrelevant if it is not exploited through action. That is the nature of the notion of “potential”, it is a potency that is there but needs the nurturing to unleash it maximally. Having potential doesn’t necessarily mean it will take a life of its own and happen on its own. We as Hyes, have to exploit our cultural potential by not believing in any idea of things being inevitable or beyond our control as INDIVIDUALS. The abilities and influence of a Hye individual upon our culture, heritage, and lineage is limitless, I cannot stress this enough. Don’t EVER let anyone or any group have you believe otherwise. Realizing this is the essence of a “long-term” view, which is exactly what I “preach”, as Seaphan would say. He does make thoughtful points, and he does post, and he does put himself on the line just like all the other posters. And for that, I respect him. We may not meet eye to eye on some topics, but at the very least, by debating back and forth with one another we can encourage others to join in and feel comfortable to express their views. And that is the key ladies and gents, COMMUNICATION! Nothing gets done until we plan it first by discussing things amongst one another as Armenians. Again, I’ll say this, 1500+ folks here but only 20 or so Hyes responding to topics that are important for us to discuss and reach a compromise on. If you’re not going to post then at the very least proliferate this site, I’d like to see as many registered users as possible reading, posting, and communicating with one another as Hyes. On the contrary, my approach is VERY right. I take what is ACTUALLY happening with us Hyes, and put it smack in middle of the table for everyone to see and try to resolve. Some people refuse to look at that truth and to confront it, so what do they do? They accuse my action of bringing the truth to light as a form of social persecution and actually then have the audacity to say that I “drove them away” when in fact they had already made their decision about our culture long before I ever came onto the scene. And for you to say that I’m actually the one that has caused someone like Anka to be “driven away” or that I create “division” is ludicrous and way out of line. She knows exactly what she is doing, and the decision she made about the lack of value for her culture was never forced upon her by me or anyone else. Please don’t make unfounded accusations, especially those of the magnitude which you have made towards me again. So wait, staying Armenian, loving my culture/heritage/lineage is blatantly a “bad thing” now?! Are you serious when you say these things?! I’m just blown away by that statement. What is it you suggest people “like me” do? Abandon our very identity, strap on a yamacka, and convert to Judaism? Or perhaps I should take a statue of Buddha underneath my arms and convert to Buddhism? Or better yet, I’ll be an “American”, yes that’s it, but before I do embrace my “Americanism”, can you please define for me what it means exactly to be “American”. More specifically, define for me what it is to be “American” beyond the pop-culture ideas of what it supposedly is. You’re damn right I’ve chosen to be Armenian, because that’s who my parents are, that’s who my grandparents were, and the countless of thousands of ancestors before them. That little piece of land in the middle of hell belongs to me and my people, and I will ALWAYS be welcome there, it’s my birth right to be welcome there, I’m part of that land as much as it is a part of me. The same cannot be said of France, England, the U.S., Iran, Lebanon, or any other place that we Armenians have been forced to scatter to as Diasporans. Yes, I will exist and walk along the guidelines of the social system I live in, the United States. However, simply because I live in the United States, France, Spain, or where ever else as a Diasporan DOES NOT mean that my American apple pie cannot co-exist next to my Dolma, or that I cannot find a beautiful Hye girl instead of an odar to make my wife in order to have beautiful Hye children that can speak Armenian AND English and thus propagate my long standing Hye heritage/lineage/tradition. Am I hallucinating or does anyone else see these three statements together as a potent sign of a productive effect via bringing topics to light and stirring critical thought rather than being "counter-productive"? What is all this nonsense with “ ‘your people’ ” ? And of what people are YOU a part of Seaphan? Oh wait let me guess, you’re part of “the noble human race”. And last I checked Armenian culture was VERY tangible, VERY much present, VERY rich in culture, VERY in depth, and there is a body count of about 6.5 million to attest to these facts. That’s not exactly “abstract” or “imaginary” by any means. The title of “Armenian” will have more distinction, credibility, and concrete identity than the term “American” can EVER hope to have. And why is it that WHENEVER we talk about Armenianism it is so very “abstract” and “imaginary” but Americanism, Judaism, French, Italian, or any other culture is so much more “credible”? If you’re so eager to not be associated with the culture known as “Armenian”, which includes ALL sub-sets of Hyes (Parskahye, Lipanahye, Hayastanzi, etc), then you’re more than welcome to denounce it completely and stop beating around the bush about it. People do not “draw lines” about lineage or culture, those lines have began at a point in time and have developed absolutely into distinct encompassing boundaries that define GROUPS of PEOPLE, we call these groups cultures/lineages/heritages. You don’t choose to be Japanese one minute and then Irish the next by redrawing "imaginary" lines. So please don’t be as naïve as to reduce the ideas of lineage, heritage, and distinct culture down to mere ideas of existentialism or some other mundane philosophical banter. What's next? You going to tell me that if a two ton tree doesn’t make a noise while falling, it does not in fact exist? Get serious man. And yes, I WILL mock the line drawing around the globe by the media controllers. Because they are hypocrites, they dupe the general populace through pop-culture that we are all “one big happy family” and to “abandon your culture and join the human race”, but THEY THEMSELVES do not practice ANY of the things they preach. The lines that define Armenians, Irish, Jews, Africans, Italians, or any other culture are very distinct and VERY real, but pop-culture would have you believe otherwise, and many of you play right into their hands. Today being black is seen as being “cool”, 10 years from now it will be some other gimmick, and if ANY of you give in to these manipulations, WHERE will YOU be after you’ve gone through 3 or 4 gimmicks in your lifetime and abandoned your Armenian culture? You’ll be nothing, pure and simple. You’ll be “a human being” without any further identity beyond that and without any claims to any personal rights because you’re not part of any distinct group of people. And yes I do not endorse the separation of Parskahyes, Lipanahyes, Hayastanzis , etc, because those lines have never concretely existed either; just like the way the lines of a globally encompassing “ human race” have never existed in the definite and distinct manner that cultural and heritage lines exist. If we define a sovereign state with its distinct group of people that are unique culturally from other cultures, such as a Frenchman, then REGARDLESS of where that Frenchman exists in a moment in time, he is STILL a Frenchman. He can be in Zimbabwe for all I care, that DOES NOT make him a person of Zimbabwean origin nor a Zimbabwean for that matter. For that very reason, the lines defining his French heritage are VERY real and distinct, but those defining his regional occupancy as “his culture” are false because they are not of his origin of lineage. Thus a Frenchman from France is the equivalent Frenchman in lineage, heritage, and culture as the one that has traveled to Zimbabwe. And on that same token, a Parskahye, Lipanahye, or Hayastanzi, are all ONE IN THE SAME. Yes it’s true we have been driven to different regions, but that DOES NOT mean we are now people of the region we have been driven to. I’m sorry to say, your sheer refusal to understand this very evident and blatant fact is mind bogglingly ignorant. You are the quintessential product of the media's attempt to globalize everyone, a by product of the media’s social “cookie cutter” manipulation. NO THEY DO NOT have "different cultures", you’ve just been brainwashed by your own social stigmas and Hayastanzi prejudices to believe this! Regardless of what type of Hye you are through dialect, YOU ARE STILL ARMENIAN of ARMENIAN CULTURE. How difficult is this for some of you to grasp and accept? We can categorize a Texan, New Yorker, and Californian under the banner of “American”; or an East and West German under the banner of “German”, but when it comes to Armenians, Parska-Hyes/America-Hyes are somehow of “different cultures” than Hayastana-Hyes? And if that’s the case, why on Earth do you refer to Armenia as “my homeland”? According to your logic, you are “of different culture”, and thus cannot lay claim to your homeland being Armenia. And yes, the different Diasporans may have varying PERSONAL responsibilities due to the fact that we live in different economic and social systems in FOREIGN countries, I agree with you there Seaphan. BUT, simply because we live in FOREIGN countries and not our own, DOES NOT MEAN that our basic cultural/heritage responsibility to PRESERVE OURSELVES as a people should be abandoned. We can adapt ourselves to thrive in the different foreign systems in which we live in while at the same time, in our homes, maintaining the cultural roots, traditions, heritage, and lineage that makes us who we are. In essence, adaptation is possible and easily achieved WITHOUT sacrificing one's cultural roots and lineage. That means I can be a greedy capitalistic bastard AS WELL as a devout Armenian simultaneously. The Jews do this all the time and do it well. Not only that, they exploit the religious aspect of their lineage in order to annex more bodies into their collective via faith conversion, thus strengthening their statistical position on the globe. Though we do not have the benefit of Armenianism being a religion as well as a lineage, we can still apply similar motivations to strengthen our own position on the globe by preserving our heritage/lineage as much as possible through INDIVIDUAL effort! Like I explained before, there is nothing “abstract” about the definitive lines of being Armenian, they are very real, youth like you has been brainwashed to believe otherwise by pop-culture. Sadly, the media has done SUCH a good job all these years while you were growing up, that you can’t even realize the brainwashing even when it’s dissected in front of your very eyes. Furthermore, I have nothing to be humble about. My humility will not aid me in preserving the identity, rights, and heritage of Armenians. At best, “humility” will allow those that are not humble to manipulate me, control me through propaganda, and eventually wipe me off the face of this Earth as an Armenian. I am PROUD of my heritage, lineage, and my Armenian culture, and it is my pride, not my humility, that will ensure that I preserve my identity as a Hye male individual. And yes, there is a “concrete” thing as a Hye in this day and age, I AM HIM, and you are too. But it’s just sad and a little pathetic to see how you try so very hard to try and convince yourself that we are some sort of blurred and distorted culture when we clearly are not, and have NEVER been. I don’t know why you try so hard to convince yourself of such things, but perhaps like some other Hyes, it’s simply to appease your own conscience for the guilt you feel for your lack of effort, some Hyes do this a lot. What disturbs me the most about Hyes like you is the fact that you’re so wrapped up in thinking that the “cultural grass” is so much more “greener” on the other side of the fence, when in fact it is not. That’s not too say that Armenians are superior in some fashion to others, but we are who we are, and I love everything about us, personally it makes me who I am and I don’t want to lose that rich culture I’ve grown up on. And there most CERTAINLY IS a definition to us, but those that think like you do would like to say that there is no definition just so that you can feel good about continuing to think that the grass is greener on the odar side of the cultural fence. However, as one dimensional as you tend to be, you don’t have the courage to fully ever take the leap onto the other side without a safety line to the Armenianism you irrelevantly claim is “blurred”. Instead, you just walk that cultural fence all the time and jump down to the side that suits you the most in different points in time. And what is this contrary, you speak of? At the essence of every individual, including Armenian individuals, it’s not very important what one simply SAYS but what one actually DOES. Action is the most definite variable of any person or culture. I’m not a murderer until I actually PULL a trigger and blow your brains across pained glass. I’m not a saint until I actually PERFORM a miracle, I can talk about being saintly all day long, but until I pull off a miracle, I’m not a saint, just an elaborate speaker. By these very same notions, what WE DO culturally as Armenians, defines our heritage, lineage, and traditions. Yes, it is important to have beliefs and cultural passions mentally, but until we take the necessary steps to proliferate/preserve those beliefs and passions through ACTIONS, you cannot hope to define yourself through mere philosophical discussion and verbal claims. It’s easy to just “talk the cultural talk”, but you also have “walk the cultural walk” through actions of Armenian self-preservation, protecting the rights of Hyes, passing our Hye heritage to our children/youth, and using the sense of cultural pride as well as cultural belief to make sure that we survive as a people. You’re absolutely right on that one, by neither pen nor force, but a little bit of both as well as an important third variable; culturally positive actions. Don’t take this the wrong way, but that’s a pretty damn arrogant comment to say to everyone that reads or posts on these boards. I didn’t realize that you are so far above the rest of us that our merely mortal words only draw you out when you have absolutely nothing else to do and decide to grace us with your cosmic presence. Seriously, tone down the condescending socialite routine a little, we’re here to debate about important topics that affect us all, not swing our IQ testicles toward one another. While “kna merir, egur sirem” is fairly extremist, “kna ztulvir, egur sirem” is not much better, neither is “kna vochinch mi ara, egur sirem” for that matter. Less metaphors and personification type comments, more debate please. That is WAY too cryptic. This thread has turned out great so far, lots of excellent debating by everyone, communication is key in such matters. Also a general message, if you are going to respond, at the very least dignify your responses by elaborating a bit more instead of trying to make a point with only one brash paragraph of criticism. Until next time, take care all. -The Armenian Pirate

Tell me. How is it that I should have treated her? How do you tell someone in a “politically correct” or “sensitive” manner or even in a way that will not “drive her away” that her adamant and relentless negative view of HER OWN culture and heritage is not something that will help her people’s cause when her mind is made up indefinitely? I mean, here is someone that basically has said that if you have any cultural insignias in your own home, such as a painting of Mt. Ararat or some form of Armenian cultural decorations, it is somehow “silly”, “un-cool”, or “fanatical”. Yet in the same breath she says she has Buddhist statues etc, etc, in such a proud manner that one cannot help but think that if being Armenian and showing interest toward STAYING Armenian is SUCH a mundane, outdated, and “fanatical” idea, then why even associate in ANY manner with other Hyes and its respective culture? I have met some folks that are like this. They either have a VERY condescending attitude about being Armenian or they have such a pseudo-intellectual attitude that their “intellectuality” depreciates itself into condescension, in essence, from my experience MOST intellectuals are all “talk but no walk”. Somehow being ultra-new worldly and “Americanized” is always more appealing to them then simply being who they are, Armenian. They use words like “embarrassing”, or “awkward”, or anything that makes their own heritage seem somehow “behind the times” and thus, according to their mentality, it should be abandoned. Yet these VERY SAME types of people, if put in a room full of a group of Buddhists/odars and another group of Hyes, will flock to the Hyes, yet they claim they are SO VERY beyond being attached to any one culture, INCLUDING their own. All my life I have seen some folks like this, they knock the ideas of Armenianism, being culturally attached/passionate, and being pro-preservation, yet they themselves never have the courage to actually detach themselves from that very Armenian culture that they so shun and arrogantly cast aside during every “intellectual” discussion such as this one. And yes, make no mistake about it Sasun, I WILL in fact confront these types of people head on and will not “sensitively” dance around the topic at hand with philosophical jargon in an attempt to vocalize my profound vocabulary the way some of the folks on these boards do. All my ideas revolve around the truth and what I observe around me, as a young modern Armenian male in the prime of my life, I could not possibly write as much as I have written with a basis that is just made up of “casual opinion” or “philosophical” nonsense. My basis is truth through observed and occurring events within my Armenian-American community and my solutions are through simple day to day ACTIONS of the individual that chooses to realize that even ONE motivated individual can shake the foundations of negative stigmas, make notable contributions to his/her culture, and have the capacity to understand that without one’s own identity/lineage/heritage you’re nothing but a person of “the human race” without any recognizable rights or claims. Let me make this clear to all of you, IF you ruthlessly, carelessly, and callously dismiss Armenianism as “embarrassing”, “behind the times”, “silly to try and preserve”, or in any other arrogant and condescending manner yet not have the brass nor the balls to COMPLETELY and UTTERLY detach yourself from everything and anything Armenian, I WILL call you on your bull$hit every single time, and I will be just as blunt about it as you are about cultural dismissal. I’m not here to paint the truth and make it nice and sensitive for anyone, I’m here to tell it how it is, and that’s EXACTLY what I’ve done. Yet the first thing out of most of your mouth’s is “TAP is a fanatic” followed up by negative criticism. When you scrape off all the articulate grammar and fancy words, my passion and purpose is FOR all Hyes, even those that are jaded and long gone. I do not advocate shutting out anyone that does not agree with me, or anyone that is not of hye/hye parents, or any other manner of “my way or the highway” mentality. We have to have AS MUCH cohesiveness as possible as Armenians, but that cannot be at the cost of WILLINGLY or EAGERLY blurring our cultural identities, promoting negative stigmas that are merely social and not at all “Armenian”, and taking lineage/heritage for granted via “it’s okay to marry odars under any circumstance” type views. EVERYONE here has a least SOME valid points in what they say, because everyone here has grown up with distinct experiences and maybe simply being Armenian has seriously injured some of you here, so it’s natural that some of you prefer alienating yourselves. But at the same time some folks here are so blatantly brainwashed by the media blitzkrieg of ideas that it simply boggles my mind. Some of your minds seem to have been dough on the shelves, and the media/pop-culture showed up with cookie cutters. Regardless of your experiences as Hyes however, I have always felt that at least some degree of every Hye’s inner conscience has room for a little bit of self-admiration for being who you are as a Hye. But I’m just surprised and frankly appalled by the way some people on these boards speak so proudly about their LACK of self-admiration as Hyes. Instead, most of you choose to bicker and philosophies amongst yourselves instead of actively making an effort to resolve our cultural issues with decisions that are SO simple to make when you have even the most miniscule amount of love for our beautiful heritage. I do not have a “martyr”, “champion”, “knight”, or “savior” mentality, nor do I ever want to be those things. If I died as any one of those things, I won’t serve any purpose for my people/heritage. I plan on living as long as possible so that I can do as much as possible for my cultural identity. I’m also not a fanatic by any means the way some of you would have me labeled. I do carry some ethnocentric views and rightly so. This is because I am continually reminded by some Hyes that my ethnocentrism must exist to compensate for their sheer void-like cultural/heritage admiration. Having ethnocentrism will serve me and my people a much greater motivational purpose VS being a jaded “too modern for Armenianism” socialite that doesn’t have a clue about what goes on in the world around him/her outside of what “the news” tells them. At the core, I’m just a regular educated 20 something professional that is just as “American” as all the rest of you neo-socialites. Perhaps the main difference between me and my critiques is that I one day realized that having critical thoughts about preserving my own culture, heritage, and Armenian lineage is not a form of fanaticism, but rather a very necessary basic need in order to preserve my self identity as an Armenian in an ever merciless world governed by media elitists; but the pop-culture media would have all of you believe otherwise; and many of you have bought into it like sheep. And you would insinuate that this is what I’m doing? What you say would hold water in this discussion if all of you were flocking to me as “your leader” and saying “what can we do to make things better TAP, our great leader” like zombies. But as it stands about 80% of you have a negative view of me, are my harsh critiques, and dub me a fanatic; that’s not the “image” any person would want to portray for themselves willingly I think. As far as fooling others, I definitely have not managed “fooling” anyone here into anything, you don’t fool folks with the truth, you fool them with lies, and what I’ve written thus far has never been lies, it’s truth based on what’s happening in our culture/communities. And yes I do have “a role”, it is that of my birthright, my role as an Armenian-American. To me, the responsibilities of that role include preserving the cultural values within that role, it’s domains of heritage, it’s historic lineage, and making sure that my individual Armenian–American rights as well as that of my people are protected, maintained, and respected here in the U.S. and all over the globe. I wish I could say that the rest of the world shared the sentiments of “one human race without cultures” the way some of you irately preach over and over again. If that was in fact the case, we would not have to have struggled to this day as a people and been massacred as well, because we would be considered part of “the human race” and would have been treated accordingly. But instead we HAVE BEEN struggling and HAVE BEEN persecuted because most of the world’s cultures are out to preserve themselves and climb to the top of the global mountain, and Hyes should not be an exception to this rule simply because some of you folks have been brainwashed into thinking the world is a “one big happy family” type of place by the elitist that want to wrestle control from you. As one previous poster so correctly put it, “it’s a dog eats dog world”, which it is. And if that’s the case, I’d definitely want to be the Pit-Bull instead of the prissy Pink Poodle. And when you say my type of mentality and outlook does not “benefit” our people/nation, it is a bit ludicrous. So far I’ve had some people write and say that after having read some of the things I’ve mentioned, their own desire to put in effort for our people has been rekindled/renewed. HOW is that NOT a benefit for our nation/people? If it wasn’t for my deep rooted cultural love/passion I would never have done 90% of the culturally positive things I have done as a Hye. My outlook has allowed me to take actions and steps for cultural gains as an Armenian that I would otherwise not have taken had I been a jaded media child of MSNBC, CNN, MTV or VH1. So again, I can’t surmise how you come to the conclusion that my approach or mentality is not “beneficial” to our people/nation when in fact it has brought nothing but benefits in one form or another. I feel a connection with you all as Hyes and care about all of us as a people deeply, but maybe some of you should not approach these discussions with “How can I take apart TAP’s or this other guy’s arguments” as the crux of what you write, but instead, look within yourselves a bit then try and concentrate your efforts in addressing the many issues I and other people on these boards have brought up. That would be a “benefit” for our people and nation wouldn’t it Sasun? And I know you’re all about being a “beneficial” Armenian. So get started. Unless I’m misunderstanding you, you seem to be insinuating that what I have said somehow creates division. If you ever do meet me and perhaps re-read what I have said, you’ll see nothing can be further from the truth and my ideas certainly never promote division amongst us Hyes. Division among Hyes is the very anti-thesis of what I try to strive for as a Hye male. To me there is no such thing as Hayastanzi, Parskahye, or Lipanahye, everyone is just Hye and part of the Armenian people, that’s it, nothing more, nothing less. I also never have or will ever endorse any of the negative stereotypes that Parskahyes hold of Hayastanzis , Hayastanzis of Parskahyes/Lipanahyes, etc etc, those stereotypes will never get us anywhere as a people. And none of what I say is merely “rhetoric” my friend, on the contrary, my ideas are based on things that are easily “doable” through simple decision making on a daily basis when the motivation is there and I have always stressed this fact about my ideas. However, when there is lack of any real cultural motivation and folks are jaded the way some posters here are, not even the easiest idea can be implemented into a working action. Perhaps you’re right Gurgen. But perhaps it also could be that most women on these boards and many others have the negative stigma that a good chunk of Hye men are controlling, sexist, chauvinistic pricks. Which to some degree is true and hence leads to wonderful Armenian girls seeking out a more mild mannered atmosphere underneath the bedsheets of odars, instead of a Hye lover. All this while maintaining the illusion their community so relentlessly tries to impose on them and then dubs that illusion “the Hye way”, when in fact it has NOTHING to do with Armenianism but is rather a remnant from a socially oppressed past for women. The unfortunate part about this is that we as Hye men only have ourselves to blame for continually being so judgmental toward our women when it comes to matters of sex, relationship, etc. Granted, I’ll say NOT ALL us Hye men are like this, in fact more Hye men are perfect gentlemen than those that are overtly brash and judgmental, but never the less, I can’t help but wonder if the Hye women on these boards hesitate to address the topic about sexual repression and the judgmental onslaught they endure from our Hye communities because it has become much easier to simply create an illusion of “makur” rather than correct the sexual stigmas and create acceptance of sexuality within our communities through risk and open minded action. Come on ladies, let’s hear more feedback please! I’d like to believe that you are in fact so strong willed, but that very statement is the first sign of being what TAP calls, “The Media Child”. The truth in most cases for folks that say “my culture is what I make it” is that their culture has already nearly gone beyond their own power to mold, they just hold onto the illusion that they still have control. In fact, it has already been molded by MTV and VH1 by the time they hit college when their actual heritage/lineage, such as Armenianism in our case, is not also nurtured alongside “pop culture” by parents/guardians. It is only through conscious self-admiration of your native heritage/lineage that any individual can hope to retain their strength of will that allows them to realize that “pop culture” is merely just pop culture and nothing more, at best, pop culture is a trend that morphs every few years. And where is this self-admiration inspired from and nurtured? From those you’re raised by of course, if they are “too busy” to instill it within you and stress its importance while nurturing it, it is only natural that you will become a child of the media, hence when asked about “your culture”, you respond by saying “My culture is what I make it”, because that is the essence of the destructive effects of media globalization. Essentially, the control over maintaining the core of your cultural sentience has been wrestled from your control and belongs to media pop culture. You are a mental slave of how you “should be” rather than being able to realize what you “are”. Question to ask here is, what has caused the mental change of that concept? You would be quick to answer, “ME OF COURSE”! But I highly doubt that you even were aware when the change of that concept was taking place, slow media feeds did it over time, not you. Only when you make that realization AND believe it wholeheartedly will you truly have your personal control back with regards to your actual heritage/lineage and not that of pop-culture. Think about this. Until next time, take care everyone. -The Armenian Pirate

If this day ever happened the way you describe it, I would be euphoric, while a romantic notion indeed, it’s not impossible by any means. Certainly those that survived the Armenian Genocide definitely deserve to gain citizenship without any formal procedures or pre-requisites. And the rest should have to undergo some reasonable requirements. While most Diasporans may not want to permanently move back to our homeland due to their current situation in their state of residence, a good way to allow dual citizenship is using what TAP likes to call, “Cumulative Visit Time Accumulation” (CVTA). For example, a law could be passed stating that if you are of Armenian descent, and make cumulative visits for say 2 years total time spent in Armenia, then a citizenship can be granted. This way, the idea of “dropping everything” and moving just for citizenship will not scare away the mild mannered Diasporan that is not as passionate as yours truly. This cumulative system would allow a “30 something” that’s amidst a career, family, becoming rich/wealthy/powerful, etc, to essentially buy a summer home and visit our homeland a few months in the summer or for however many months he would like. Once the cumulative thresh-hold of 2 years total time spent in RoA has occurred, he could be given the right to citizenship, and for voting rights, another year or so of cumulative visit time could be added. I think by implementing a system such as CVTA would be a win/win situation for all sides. The Diasporan would have a chance to gain his/her rightful citizenship but would not simply be “given” his citizenship, but instead would have to earn it via visits that are added to meet a required thresh-hold. This approach would be inviting to a Diasporan that would like to have citizenship but is not necessarily in a situation in his life where he can just drop everything and move to RoA for that citizenship. At the same time, while he/she is building accumulated time within our homeland, they will be adding revenue via “visitation spending” while there. And ultimately to gain voting rights, the additional cumulative time spent in RoA must be met. For someone like me, that is saving up to in fact buy a secondary home in RoA, this situation would allow for much greater possibilities and flexibility toward earning that citizenship. Say if you have a very successful business that needs you 8 months out of the year, you could potentially use this type of a citizenship approach to take care of your financial issues while using time spent in RoA over say a few months a year as a means to also gain that citizenship that you would like to have. Ultimately with enough accumulated visit time, the voting rights that you want for your homeland can also be had. Agreed, but what are everyone’s thoughts on a cumulative method of earning voting rights on Armenian soil? I agree strongly. But while the parasitic officials under that regime are enjoying their feast at the cost of people’s well being, ignoring issues will be opted for if the issue at hand doesn’t somehow benefit the government officials on a personal level. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did start Diasporan citizenship offers at price of $49.99 going toward the Robert Kocharian and Company Retirement Fund. There are ways of snuffing out an oppressive regime while not hurting the people TOO MUCH, people will get hurt during a regime change no matter what, whether it's financially, emotionally, physically, etc, but the short and long run must be weighed before pulling the trigger of revolution. Stay tuned for more on this later. Nicely put and very true. Citizenship must be earned, there is no exception to this rule. Otherwise we risk alienating a lot of Hyes that were born and live in RoA. In a sense it would be socially condescending of any Diasporan to not somehow earn his/her citizenship. A progressive way of first earning citizenship then earning voting rights after being a citizen is a great idea. Again, I’d like to get everyone’s thoughts on whether cumulative CVTA method is a good one. What are it’s strengths and weaknesses? Also, please bare in mind that the CVTA way of earning citizenship and ultimately voting rights would ONLY apply to Diasporans, not odars. Odars should and must go through MUCH more stringent methods for citizenship to earn the rights of a citizen. Peronally, the Swiss mentality of “we have enough, we don’t need more citizens of non Swiss descent” is great, we do have enough and growing ever so slowly, but growing never the less, we just need to focus all of the Hye efforts to one epicenter, Armenia. Discuss, discuss, discuss. MORE posts from all 1500 of you, come on, you can do it, send more PMs at the very least! Have a restful Sunday. -The Armenian Pirate

This is the second time you’ve blatantly attacked me personally with a condescending comment like this. If you have so much faith in your own ideas, you shouldn’t feel it necessary to attack me personally in your posts in order to push your ideas into the foreground of this discussion. You’re welcome to critique my ideas and try to disprove them with rationale, logic, and reason. But it seems the more I write, the less debating you do, and the more you have to resort to one line condescending opening sentences. If you think attacking me personally and trying to smear my character with your “implied stupidity” sentences will gain ground for your own notions, perhaps you’re not as mature as you claim to be. All I’ve heard from you thus far is the same irate declaration of inevitability and hopelessness. I’ve covered many different ideas in detail and you keep disguising your one dimensional notion of doom in different forms and tossing in blatant condescending comments. This will not win you any credibility with respect to this debate, so put the personal attack and condescending comments to rest. Again, you open your argument up with another verbal assault on me, this is not the way to discuss an issue I’m afraid. Furthermore, you claim that my ideas about Armenians making an effort toward unity, staying together, preserving their lineage, their heritage, and culture are “ridiculous” and that my conclusion about these preservations being necessary for us on world stage in order for us have recognizable rights globally to be “even more ridiculous”. I can’t see how you can make those accusations except maybe for the sheer sake of arguing and being too prideful to admit that you’re wrong and that you feel bad about giving up your own efforts. What IS in fact “ridiculous” for a rational human being is your theory of “giving up” and “giving in” when there is absolutely no reason to. And make no mistake, your mentality is absolutely dangerous to our youth. Let’s ASSUME for a moment that your notion of inevitable total assimilation of Diasporans, regardless of the effort to preserve ourselves, is true, which it is not, but lets just assume it is. Let’s also adapt your idea that while assimilation is inevitable, the 15-25 demographic will not witness it in their lifetime because perhaps total assimilation and Diasporan cultural death is 500 years away. How is it still rationale for any Hye to totally adapt a mentality of hopelessness, or any human being for that matter even if these notions are presumably true? The answer is that IT’S NOT rationale. And do not reply by saying “that is not what I meant, you just cannot understand my simple texts”, make no mistake, that is EXACTLY what the core of your idea is. You preach that in the face of assumed inevitability, I should as a Hye and as a Human Being, culturally live on my knees rather than continue to make a stand. Human beings in general have a tendency of being resilient in the face of even the most extreme hopelessness. Historically this has been proven with all the struggles that many “hopeless” individuals have overcome. So taking into the assumption that you are right in stating that our situation as Diasporans/Hyes is inevitable and unpreventable, it still should not be used as an excuse for me, you, or anyone else to just sit on the sidelines or follow the media’s flute playing piper into whatever nonsense theories of “we’re all one happy family” or “let’s globalize”. Yes we are in fact one human race, and no one culture is necessarily better or worse than mine, but that DOES NOT mean I have to mundanely and naively think that in order for me to be successful within the American system or any other system, I should completely buy into the ideas of dismantling my own efforts of preserving my heritage, blurring the lines of my lineage, turn my back on my heritage, etc. I can make the “smart moves” that are necessary within any system while at the same time making simple decisions of maintaining my identity. Those decisions include the simple notion of investing my time in developing a relationship with a Hye woman versus an odar. They also include not subscribing to social stigmas that only hurt my relationship with my Hye peers or my Hye significant other. Or the simple effort of learning about my past, my people’s history, where my people presently are politically on the global stage, and how I can in fact aid them in any adversity they may be facing, or passing my cultural knowledge and value of that culture onto my children. Whether it’s through lobbying, educating myself in order to play a vital role, using my amassed financial strengths to personally oversee some positive changes via Kirk Kerkorian style, or the simple decision of dating a Hye instead of an odar, it is very easy and takes very little effort for me to perform day to day decisions of maintaining my lineage and heritage. Any yes, anyone that states otherwise in the face of all these facts, is in fact spewing out garbage and hiding that verbal garbage behind the protective wall of “that’s my OPINION”. All opinions, including yours’ in this case, are not infallible, if they were, then I could potentially say “in my opinion I can fly by flapping my arms really fast after jumping off a plane”, but we all know at best, I’ll end up as a smear of flesh on the ground, thus I was wrong, just like the way the ideas of “inevitable Diasporan death regardless of how much effort we as Hyes present", are wrong when all the factors are accounted for; one of those factors being individual effort contributions. Lastly, I’m not here posting to be a “good boy” or a bad one. My ideas have nothing to do with my moral integrity, and you know nothing of my moral integrity to yet again attack me personally and imply that I lack any sort of morality. Well at least you admit that at some point you in fact showed great effort for your personal identity, and I can certainly respect you for that Boghos, it’s a shame that for whatever reason, you’ve decided that it is somehow so very not changeable. And to be perfectly honest with you, I still think that deep inside somewhere you just cant completely adapt to your own idea of just “letting go” and truly believe that things are in fact inevitably hopeless for us Diasporans. Even though you perhaps would like nothing more than to be right on this issue and see me running with my tail between my legs, I still care about you as a Hye, and if possible would like to see you rekindle that part of you that you claim has been extinguished. That is the essence of the meaning of hope. No there isn’t. I don’t struggle at all to be Armenian, I AM Armenian, that’s it. It’s very easy for me to be Hye, I’ve been doing it for many years, and will do it for many more years with ease. My father is Hye and my mother is Hye, thus I am also Hye. It seems to me that between the two of us, it is you in fact that struggles so much to be Armenian. Who knows, maybe being Hye and maintaining your identity is so difficult because you feel somehow enticed by odars in some way. And that’s okay, you have the right to be so, but for me it’s just not a problem. I have many odar friends as well as Hyes, my odar friends and Hye friends intermingle at times, but I really never feel any reason to not continue my efforts of holding onto my lineage and culture. Maybe you feel otherwise because you have convinced yourself that it is such a monumental task to simply be who you are and to retain the identity that you were born with simply because you currently live in a society that is not of your origin. I’ve never seen this as a problem for myself personally, and I fail to see how it can be so much of a difficulty for those that claim it to in fact be a huge task to perform. You’re right, I absolutely agree with you my friend. You just can’t force anyone into anything they do not want to willingly participate in. And that lack of will usually occurs, again, due to the fact that the simple CHOICES that allow a Hye to maintain their identity are blown way out of proportion and exaggerated by media/pop culture notions of “an ever changing world” or “blurring the lines will bring world peace”. The reality of the situation is that all the choices that are “so very difficult” for someone that claims to be “too deep” in American society to be able to actively show effort and care about their Hye identity are in actuality very easy. I think people that lack effort just use the false “too difficult” or “inevitable” factors as excuses for their lack of willingness to preserve Hye lineage, heritage, and culture because they don’t want to be seen as Hyes that sit on the sidelines while many others are actively involved and even more have bled in the past in much harsher conditions to keep us alive as a people. Again, I agree with you Boghos, you just can’t force others to “be Hye”, you can just try and inform them as much as possible about the options that they DO have and by doing so, hope that you will inspire them enough with the reality of their situation which may stir up the willingness to preserve their own Hye lineage/identity. What I do not like or agree with, is the way people that have opted for the option of “giving up” or “letting go” the way you have, present their chosen option as a “lack of any options/choice” or “inevitability”. Lack of options is simply NOT our case yet, we still have a long way to go, before we can conclusively say “we’re screwed indefinitely”. But JUST BECAUSE we do have a long way to go before the situation does in fact become “hopeless”, doesn’t mean we should forge full steam ahead into the abyss so prematurely when we clearly are not at a dead end yet. This is very important to remember folks. Where is this historical evidence you so adamantly make claims to every other post? We’ve had Diasporan communities for thousands of years and still do, yes it is true that some did not make it and blended. But I can conversely and rightfully state that many have also flourished and still flourish to this day and refer to it as “indisputable proof” the way you keep doing, but it’s not proof of anything definite or inevitable. If there are East Asian Diasporans that did not survive, there also are Ethiopian Armenian communities that in fact thrive to this day in Ethiopia, some of which are close friends of mine, in a country that is predominantly composed of black individuals. So, to make reference to just those communities that did not survive as “historic proof” is wrong and cannot be claimed as historic proof of any kind for the notion of inevitability. The only proof it can be claimed as is the notion that “SOME communities of Diasporans will perish IF the community’s Hye populace does not make a conscious effort for cultural, heritage, and lineage preservation”, since that is not what your notion specifically is, do not make claims of having historic proof when you don’t have anything relevant pertaining to the topic at hand. Again another personal attack, why not devote another line to the actual debate instead of the demeaning opener? Might be a better approach to think about. Good, at least you’re comfortable with who you are, for a while I thought you were somehow uncomfortable with even the notion of being Hye. Not trying to be sarcastic here, just didn’t know for sure. Excellent, I commend your efforts, and the cold calls we’re probably VERY interesting indeed. Thankfully, thanks to the magic of the internet, we can at least still perform something analogous to cold calls through forums such as these! Well, based on everything I’ve seen and experienced, including my own day to day efforts, I just don’t think Diasporan disappearance is as inescapable as you claim it to be, it’s not even close to being inevitable in any way, not yet at least. And for that simple fact that things are not in fact hopeless yet, I for one, will choose to realize the limitless power of my individual effort. One man/woman CAN make a difference, it’s just too bad many people have been led to believe that they cannot, as a means to subdue them and make them easier to control. The media and pop culture is SO potent in its manipulation, that the sheer manner in which people live in the United States is based on a “cookie cutter” type model. Youth in society is led to believe that in order to achieve a state of “happiness” they must adopt to this model created by media elitists which control pop culture in this country. The model goes through some changes every decade or so but the basic elements stay the same. Currently, it is “Be born, grow up in suburbia as a white person or the hood as a black person, go through teenage angst, date get to know the opposite sex, make a choice about college (choice A) or labor (choice after high school, if choice A is chosen then finish college then move onto labor then work until you can either afford to not work anymore (retire) or die, if choice B is chosen work until you can either retire or die yet again.” Even after death there exist models of how we should have prepared for that death! Prepare “the Will”, leave finances to family, pre-pay for your coffin, when dead, have lawyer carry out orders. Rinse repeat for next generation. This is the model media and pop culture has branded into the minds of our society and youth, this is what erases the beauty that is known as “cultural diversity and lineage” because it creates the illusion that there is little time to in fact maintain culture, heritage, and lineage. Many immigrants see this model as very “anti-life” or “anti-living”, because they’ve seen the other side of the coin by not being exposed to media and pop culture from birth by the elitists. But some fall prey to it and only after they are nearly dead and decrepit do they realize just how wrong they were in their choice of choosing pop culture over personal culture, when they could have done both. Lastly, it doesn’t seem to me that you are as happy as you claim to be, because you’re obviously very confrontational about my ideas of not giving up, having hope, and showing effort toward Armenianism VS your own ideas of just accepting our supposed fate. I think you just do not want to step into your own idea of inevitable disappearance alone, so you come onto these forums and try to convince others of it as well so that they can take the plunge with you, and you make personal attacks on those that call you on your bluff. I on the other hand, have no reservation about performing my own ideas by myself, I’ve been doing it all my life. The only reason I’m here is to prevent the propagation of false ideas of inevitability when we, as a people, clearly have such a good chance before we can truly say “it’s over”. More personal attacks, I never once said anyone is a fool, but I did state that some ideas are foolish, don’t put words into my mouth to drive forward your side of the debate. You don’t gain any relevant credibility when you do that during a discussion. I know exactly what being Armenian is all about, I know enough at least to understand what it has taken to preserve it thus far and what it will take to continue to preserve it, and being socially apocalyptic like you is not what is needed. I also know that it in fact is not “inevitable” yet, it’s still far from it. Also, I don’t necessarily equate my age or anyone else’s with the amount of “wisdom” they may have. If you are in fact in your mid 30s and thus about a decade older than me, that fact alone, doesn’t necessarily make you any wiser than me or wiser than anyone else younger than you. I may/may not have had a much more experience filled life in my 25 years than you may have had in your mid 30s, and while that may make me perhaps more “worldly”, it still doesn’t make me any wiser or my ideas any more correct than yours and vice versa, so lets not open up this can of worms within a debate setting. Ideas/opinons are inherently right or wrong based on the reality, actuality, and facts of a given situation, NOT because of someone’s age or experience. This is absolute. I certainly hope so my friend, I certainly hope so. But if you believe this, why have you spent the last 7 pages going back and forth with me? I thought it was inevitable that we will be gone? Or is it that you perhaps are just feeling guilty about the choice of having let yourself go effort-wise when before you were a big proponent of showing effort? Very possible that the latter suggestion is what you’re going through. That’s a good analogy, though I doubt it’s as vindictive as “revenge”, I feel it’s more of feeling a bit of guilt for having made the choice of not showing effort, thus wanting others to join in on that choice as a means of appeasing that guilt/fear . I don’t think he meant it in the context of “worshipping” Anka. The word “faith” doesn’t necessarily make reference to faith in the context of religious worship. He probably meant having faith in the idea of Armenianism as a culture/lineage/heritage, etc. in a positive manner VS a negative one. You're a research god Seaphan!!! I would like to say that while my ideas and philosophy clash with some of the folks posting, they certainly have earned my respect, Boghos certainly has earned it indefinitely. At the very least, he and others have decided to register AND post, which is admirable. However, the posters are limited to roughly about 20-25 of the same people, yet I see 1500+ registered users. This place should be bustling with activity, where is everyone? Where are the women’s responses on the topics of sexual repression and social stigmas that have been brought up, regardless of whether you agree/disagree with me or anyone else, at least post something ladies. I for one would love to get “the woman’s point of view” in an uncensored and raw manner. I would think it’s something that would be important to any woman. So let’s hear it ladies and gents, feedback is critical for opening up some lines of communication. If you’re still reluctant to post, then just send it via a personal message, I’ve received a few but would like to get more thoughts in. Goodnight to all of you. -The Armenian Pirate

What makes me think what you say is garbage? Because I choose to think critically about the world around me and not accept things for what they supposedly are just because “being jaded” is the norm among my age demographic or just because my immediate social environment uses propaganda to make an actively involved person, such as myself, seem like some sort of fanatic, when clearly I am not. I make the realization that my power as the individual is limitless and that I have the ability to affect the future, no matter how miniscule that change may possibly be, I do not simply attribute my existence and identity preservation to an “inevitable” loss. And yes, there DOES in fact exist a RIGHT and a WRONG way of thinking with respect to the world around us, you’ve just been so well brainwashed to think that everything is “only a matter of opinion” and that nothing anyone says can truly be right or wrong to you. You've become a social, moral, and cultural nilhist. According to you and some other folks here, identities do not truly exist, and unique differences are not of enough value to be preserved or actively pursued. I begin to wonder if ANYTHING in your irate little existence is of ANY value or consequence or are you just alive to whine about these things being a social burden and that thinking about your own identity prevents you from “being happy” the way Boghos declared. I’m in my 20s and never in my life can I honestly say thinking about and helping preserve my heritage, lineage, and culture has prevented me from reaching any of my many other goals or has prevented me from “being happy”. That’s just an excuse and you, Boghos, and others like you use it as exactly that, en excuse to be careless and care free. How naïve are you? The first and most obvious sign of social brainwashing for an individual is when an individual cannot at all attribute anything they or anyone else says to being correct or incorrect, instead, these weak minded pathetic individuals always fall back on the crutch excuse of everything being “just an opinion”. And that’s bull$hit, and I WILL call you and anyone else on any bull$hit crutch excuses that you post on these boards, it IS garbage, period. So what? What, you think my own family had the Eibuben tattooed across their foreheads and pistol whipped me if I didn’t speak Armenian? Because that certainly is not the case, if anything, my family is as liberal as they come and at times conservative as well. All in all, my family and friends are the quintessential “American” family and friends, but one little tidbit is that we do keep in mind we still are “Armenian-Americans”, because as I have stated before, there is no such thing as purely “American” unless you have a feather sticking out of your head. See, this is why your mentality and that of Boghos is WRONG, and not “just an opinion”. It is wrong because what you say DOES NOT coincide with the actual REALITY of your situation, hence it is incorrect. You feel that in order to perform and create preservation of culture, heritage, and lineage, there HAS TO BE a certain number of criteria that are “inevitably” met such as “being burdened”, “not getting rich or being successful in a capitalistic system”, “being dubbed a fanatic”, “being a social hermit in American society”, “having a messiah complex”, “not realizing inevitable failure of efforts”, etc, etc. and the REALITY of the situation is that none of these criteria are a pre-requisite for simply caring about who you are as an individual and wanting to preserve your identity as an Armenian American, but you believe them to be pre-requisites so very adamantly in a brain washed manner, hence I can easily and conclusively say, YOU’RE WRONG, and your “opinion” is WRONG. Just because you have an opinion doesn’t necessarily exclude that opinion from being incorrect when the variables of actuality and reality are applied, don’t be so foolish as to think that by making something your “opinion” automatically protects it from the forces of accuracy, precision, and accountability. And that made your decision to not join AYF the correct one? Because your father decided to ridicule your desire to be with other Hye friends and youth? Very sad indeed. Your father is obviously not the greatest source of moral support when you want to make decisions, because he is possibly too jaded to care, he laughs at you long enough so that you become just as jaded as him. The most scariest part of this is that you feel this is a proper measure of how to determine whether a decision of yours was correct or not. It’s mind bogglingly horrific. This I don’t agree with at all, if anything, all the 3 different sub-sects of Armenians have a very good consensus about what it is an Armenian is. I have many friends from all three sub groups of Parskahyes, Lipanhyes, and Hayastanzis , and the idea of what an Armenian is, is one of the constants that exists among the three sects. Now this is something I WILL agree with to a high degree! But you have to understand Anka jan, that this stems from the sense of loss and isolation that many diasporans feel because they have been dispersed to different regions of the globe. As human beings, we easily tend to fall prey to taking for granted that which seems to be around all the time and within our immediate vicinity or reach, such as living in Armenia and being surrounded by Armenianism. Once that is taken away, we start realizing how much of an important impact it had, then begin to feel longing for it, at least most folks are this way. Those that are not, typically have simply given up caring for certain aspects of themselves and have become disheartened at some point in their lives, and that is truly unfortunate. I have plenty of born and raised Armenian friends that are just as actively involved in their Armenianism as I am. In fact, I would say at some point in my life they truly helped elevate and inspire the philosophy of “The Armenian Pirate” and contributed to it as well. In fact, that really is what “TAP” is about. It’s not about one person, but rather a very powerful and effective philosophy and mental outlook toward one’s own identity and the importance of maintaining that identity in a world where those in power would use their power to manipulate us like sheep by blurring or disrupting the very essence of who each of us are and where we originated from. “TAP” gives it’s users maximum results with minimum effort and simple choices, and elitists fear such philosophies, because it easily neutralizes their agendas of dominating the major populace through media machinations. . Well I don’t know where you go this from, because there are plenty of other threads on these boards on many other topics, most of which are not Hye related but rather just good conversations about day to day topics, so you’re wrong in your statement about “always talking about the same thing”. And why should I not talk about things that are important to my identity over and over again? Where is it written that doing that is necessarily a “bad thing” or “annoying” or “redundant” or “beating a dead horse”? This is more of the media talking through you, sadly Anka, you in fact are a child of the media, your father is “MTV, VH1, pop culture” and your mother is “trend, what’s hot”. I’m into trends and pop culture as well, but I realize that these things are just trivial momentary variables of my current society, in 10 years there will be something else that is “cool”. In the 70s being a drugged out hippy was the “trend” so folks adapted to it, 80’s it was heavy metal culture, early 90’s it was grunge and beliefs of oblivion, the late 90s until today being a black person within hip hop culture is what’s “cool”. That's why during my visit to the University of Indiana, I met white folk that believed they were black, Armenians also fall prey to these trend mentalities. 15 years ago these same people would be ashamed of being associated with African Americans, but the media's push for trends is so powerful these days that it actually turns the most hard core redneck into a proponent of civil-rights and instills a desire within them to be what they once were ashamed of being associated with, being black. It's all a trend, nothing more! All of these groups have had their 15 minutes of fame in society under the rule of those that control the media. And the next gimmick is being formed as we speak, so don’t buy too much into the finite trends of today, believe in the infinite identity of your origin and heritage, which is not merely a decade long trend. Well I’m a “regular” person and I REALLY care, so you’re wrong there yet again. And the recognition in my heart HAS in fact made a difference many times, you have just been fed the lie that it cannot make a difference, but it can and has; thus you’re wrong. You presume then assume far too much without really taking a look around you in a critical, do less of this and you will have taken the first step of lifting the veil of naïveness from over your eyes. Last I checked, as a US citizen, I decide what our policy will be through my vote and INDIVIDUAL activism, not the government. The government serves me, THE INDIDIVUAL, I don’t serve the government, and because of this fact, nothing is inevitable while my vote exists. Hello and welcome to democracy. Fasten your seatbelts ladies and gentlemen, it can be a bumpy ride but the individual is STILL the person behind the wheel if he/she chooses to express their individuality instead of buying into media blitzkrieg campaigns like cattle. And what reality is that my friend? That I should bow my head and accept my fate like a good little boy the way you have? It’s not my fault your so guilt ridden and tortured inside because you’ve chosen to sit on the sidelines while I have not made that choice and never will. You have a right to that choice, have made it, so just live with it and stop your incessant push for others to put their head on the social guillotine like you have. Both you and Anka have the right to not care and “accept your fate”, but the problem I have with people like you is you don’t want to be the only ones doing it, so you keep trying to get others to join you in your oblivion like state just so that you can feel better about your decisions of “accepting your fate”. You’re so lost and diluted mentally due to what “Americana” has fed you that you equate the efforts for individual identity, heritage, and culture with “chauvinism” of some kind. You use your ethnic heritage as an intellectual punch line to sound intelligent and socially “modern” and nothing more beyond that. You claim that a lot of people have a hard time understanding your “simple” idea. So what if it is “simple”? That doesn’t necessarily make it the inevitable truth you claim it to be. Putting a gun to my head and blowing my brains all over the floor is also a “simple” idea about how death can come at a young age, but it’s still under the category of suicide, and I cannot justify it otherwise, just like the way you cannot ever justify to me or any other rational normal Hye that Armenianism just simply “ is doomed to fail”. So give it a rest. You have absolutely no idea what really goes on in the world around you beyond what is spoon fed to you at universities, on TV, and the radio, yet you would rather believe these entities than believing your own eyes. You sit there behind your computer and preach all day long how things are inevitable then someone like Monte comes along and makes the very idea of inevitability seem like the joke that it is, and you’re left twiddling your thumbs trying to find another excuse for giving up and feeling good about it. When you can’t find that excuse, you try and bring other people into the same hole you’ve dug for yourself. People claim “I know exactly who Monte was and what he did” then in the same breath they say “it’s useless”, “just accept your fate”, “why should I care”, “there is nothing special about us”, “you’re a fanatic”, “individuality is outdated”, “you’re not of modern mentality”, etc, etc. How can you possibly claim you understand what someone like Monte was all about when you’re so lost in your own indignations of cultural doom and inevitability? You don’t like what I say because I remind you of your own shortcomings and lack of effort with respect to your very identity, culture, heritage, as well as lineage, and you just can’t stand the guilt it stirs up inside of both of you. Just give it a rest. I have nothing against either of you personally, you have the right to the decisions you have made. You long for giving up so much, fine, marry an odar, have healthy beautiful kids and BE happy with the decision you’ve made, I wish you the best, truly I do. Just don’t try and push your hopelessness onto others that are still hopeful. Ayo azizes! Vsta eli vor torr uneztam, im torneris bolor patmutunere kasem, vorovhetev du yev Boghose shatek ezzbakvatz chaselov yev morranalov! -The Armenian Pirate

Actually, you’re ALMOST right that it is “only a matter of time”, but not quite. The reality of the matter is that yes, everything in the universe, including cultural heritage, is “a matter of time”. If I tie you up to a chair and not feed you or allow you to drink, in 10 days, the “matter of time” will provide me with a Sasun corpse. If I plant a seed in the ground and leave it there without the effort of nurturing it, then the “matter of time” will decay that seed and its potency will be lost. If I carve a fine marble statue and put it in the middle of nowhere without care takers, then in a “matter of time”, it will crumble to the ground if it is not properly cared for. So as you can see Sasun jan, everything is a matter of time if you decide to not actively pursue preservation, this philosophy also includes things like self identity, heritage, lineage, culture, and ethnicities of individuals as well. All these aspects of an individual must be nurtured as well as maintained actively, and the best person to do this is the individual himself/herself. But before an individual can decide to do this, they must first learn why it is important to do this and why these aspects about themselves hold value? And the answer to this question is simple, we live in a world where all of us in fact exist as human beings, that much is true. But we ALSO exist as subsets of different regional origins we call “heritage”, “culture”, or “ethnicity”. There are people in this world that would love nothing more than to control all of those groups and manipulate them in any way possible because they are hungry for power and want to impose their own ideas, values, or culture on the masses. But when you have so many different groups of cultures that are so diverse in their ideals, values, and mental viewpoints, it becomes very difficult for any manipulating body, such as the media elites of today, to control all of those different groups simultaneously; in essence, they have to diversify their efforts into “branches of control”. Before the advent of media tools such as television and radio, there was little choice but to in fact express control in a diversified manner because it simply was not possible to reach out to the masses and somehow blur their lines of heritage and ultimately consolidate all of their values, thus making them much easier to control as one group. BUT now-a-days, with television and radio, this becomes a much easier task. Ideas such as “we are one human race, lets forget cultural roots and distinction and merge together” are easily introduced with “intellectualesque” titles such as “globalization”, in an effort to make them sound very passive and harmless. Besides the ludicrous ideas of “let’s globalize, mix everyone up, and sing ‘Coombaya’ around an open camp fire”, another deceptive idea that is imprinted into the minds of youth is that maintaining personal heritage, culture, and lineage is “so very difficult”, furthermore, these power hungry proponents of globalization take it one step further and say that IF you in fact want to become successful in a capitalistic environment , assimilation culturally, heritage-wise, and lineage-wise is an inevitable price you have to pay, and this is simply not true. They also make it seem like maintaining one’s own heritage and cultural identity is a monumental task of epic proportions, this is also a false notion. A good many young Hyes have so readily bought into this laughable idea, just look at how adamantly YOU yourself believe in it. The fact of the matter is that keeping ones lineage, heritage, and culture alive and well is a very easy task and DOES NOT require the astronomical efforts that you think it may require. The way this goal is achieved is by discarding those things that act as social burdens on your youth and promoting aspects that actually help our youth communicate with one another and interact with one another. Social stigmas about sexuality, persecution of a woman’s desires, judgmental ideology in some of our men toward women, the preposterous standard of “makur”, the separation of lipanhye, parskahye, and hayastanzi due to social differences, and many other negative social stigmas should be purged by our youth as time gradually passes by. Positive aspects such as culture, heritage, lineage, the idea of “togetherness”,etc, etc, should be promoted and nurtured. Many of you feel that simply because someone believes in the ideas I talk about that he/she is in fact some sort of “anti-western” and “anti-modern” reclusive fanatic, and that simply is again the media’s stereotype talking through ALL OF YOU that buy into their hype and propaganda. Fact is I can be just as much an American as anyone else and still be a very huge fan of Armenianism and the maintenance of my lineage/culture/heritage. I can live the “American Dream” 100 times over and still have Hye grandchildren that speak Armenian, know their Eibuben as well as Alphabet, love who they are, etc, etc. This is not an idealistic notion by any means, it’s a very easily achieved realism. Stop acting like good little flocks of sheep by following the mass media’s herders. The approach of “inevitability” or “it’s only a matter of time” is what is NOT correct. My approach is VERY correct indeed. It is the approach of the individual’s power being expressed in a manner that many dare not express because they have been conditioned by their social media environment to join the phalanx of pop culture because it’s the “cool thing to do”, or “it’s the way things are”, or “we are one big happy family”. Pop culture tries relentlessly to replace ACTUAL culture, heritage, and lineage in an attempt to group people of different origins into one big pile that can be rolled in any which way it needs to be rolled. Every 10 years or so, some new ridiculous gimmick is used to pull youth astray from their own heritage/lineage in order to control them better. What better way to shut up those “annoying Armenians and their genocide restitutions that are owed to them” than to cleverly and slowly pull their youth away from their culture/lineage/heritage and make them forget who they are. Pop culture presents you with “the bling bling” and how to get it by suggesting that you “forget your own culture/heritage/lineage and you can live the dream, don’t burden yourself with your own Armenianism”, it’s all a ridiculous hype. While all of you are sheep racked into assimilating into this pop culture “melting pot”, the people behind the strings use your zombie like following to manipulate you in any way possible and make you forget about where you come from and who you are. Before you know it, you’ve inter-married and a couple generations later your grand children or great grandchildren are composites of SO MANY different heritages that they are indefinable, and as indefinable individuals, they cannot ever hope to lay claim to things that can only be owed to defined groups of people, hence the string pullers have just knocked you out of the loop of your own culture. And now that you’re out of that loop, you cannot say “HEY, I’m Armenian, you own me genocide restitutions” or “Armenia, this land, belongs to my people, it’s my land”, because YOU don’t belong to ANY distinct group of people in any way, you’re a mutt of the world and cannot lay claim to any single issue that concerns a distinct heritage or lineage. And as far as convincing people goes, it’s obvious that people are afraid to talk about these things, again it has to do with social conditioning, but the interest is there, the views on this thread are a testament to this interest. And if you’re not convinced, at the very least don’t be a mindless carcass with beliefs of things being hopeless, unchangeable, or apocalyptic. Give ideas of cultural progress/preservation a chance, put in some effort, and see FOR YOURSELF what the outcome is, don’t believe in an outcome just because someone says things are “hopeless”, “inevitable”, “only a matter of time”, or any other ultra-pessimistic notion. The power of the individual is infinite, but folks these days have been told so much that one person cannot make any difference, that they have finally bit the bullet and bought into this false idea and lie. If I can make just one person out of everyone here rekindle their hope, which I have from all the personal messages I have been receiving, then I have made a difference, nothing can be better proof of the power of my individual effort than that. The notion of “Pirate” rang true the very minute it popped up in my head during registration, it’s the very anti-thesis of convention promotion! Well I’m glad it isn’t a major issue in your social environment, that’s certainly good to hear. But, whether you’d like to admit it or not, it is in fact a major issue and not a minor one when our people are considered as a whole. And to say our views are subjective is also wrong because I’m not basing what I say merely on my own opinion on the matter. I tell it how I have seen it, not necessarily in my own personal life, but on a community level in general. I see how Hye girls are told to keep things “hush hush” by their mothers, or how Hye boys are preached to about judging our women harshly if they have had previous sexual experience or lovers, I have seen the way Hye girls tread carefully when out with Hye boys because they are uncertain if the guy will be “cool” with a sexual session happening on such short notice, I have seen how hye mothers preach the avoidance of open sexual relationships with Hye boys unless it’s “marriage material” otherwise opt for the odar or a Hye from another community. These are all things that are visually evident and obviously out there. I’m just as analytical a person as you with a very rigorous science educational background, but with things being so blatantly obvious I do not need a linear regression chart, census report projection, or other data figures to conclusively admit what obviously is there and happening. “If it quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, and acts like a duck”, it’s a duck my friend, you don’t need a calculator for this. Well, we are special. If an Italian can claim he is special because his lineage and heritage goes back 1400 years, then I certainly am at least twice as special and claim so because I go back even further, by 1600 years more to be exact. If a Jew can claim that he is one of the “chosen of God” and of “God’s people” and my people existed at least 1000 years before God decided to come to earth as a Jew Shepard, then that makes me pretty damn special, and I will claim to be special every chance I get, because I am. If I predate one of the most oldest and most popular books in history, the Bible, by at least 1000 years, then YES, I AM of a SPECIAL origin. There is your answer. Says me, and many other Hyes, AND many scholars throughout the world that dream and WISH they were Armenian so that they could claim to be part of the people who’s tablets they study for a living as archeologists, theologians, historians, and anthropologists. I’m not judging anyone, I’m recognizing that for a very long time, thousands of years in fact, many of my kin have fought, struggled, and died so that I could stay who I am, retain my cultural values, continue my lineage, have an ACTUAL heritage to talk about, and be able to lay claim to my homeland. Who cares? I CARE, and I will continue to care, because you obviously have stopped caring so extensively that you are okay with having your future kin be a composite of 10 different lineages that cannot lay claim to anything rightfully being their own in this world. If you’re dating an odar, have married one, or have had sexual relations with one because the Hye option was out of reach due to social pressure, I feel for you, hopefully we can change that by discarding negative notions about sexuality within our communities. This is not being judgmental, this is expressing individual strength and instead of whining about your persecuting environment, taking steps to modify that environment into one in which your identity can flourish maximally. You just admitted that you do in fact care about it by posting. Well you’re saying this now, but if I bayonet your baby while you watch, or slice your nipple off and string it up as a necklace, or label you as “terrorist” when you’re actually not, during a media persecution campaign which happened late last year, then as a “terrorist” I deport your a$$ to the Middle East, then I think you’ll quickly change your tune and want other Hyes to care about you and you would want them to definitely NOT adapt to your “careless” mentality. Everyone does have “their own life”, but that doesn’t mean that my life is not connected to your life in some manner as a Hye on the world stage. Wake up. So by “getting a life”, you mean I should in fact be as careless and mentally oblivious as you? I’ll pass. And by being “not so closed minded” I should in fact reject the notions of hope, personal responsibility, discarding social stigmas in our community, educating Hye youth, and admiring my own self-identity as you have? How about I just stop thinking all together the way you have? I’ll have to pass again, thanks. Just like “any other nation” we are unique, and that makes Hyes special to Hyes. I never told or expected an odar to think I’m special, he has his lineage, I have mine. For him his lineage is special and for me, my lineage is special. But to you it seems nothing is special, you have my pity. Why do you keep insisting that having a love for one’s own lineage and heritage is the equivalent of being “closed minded”. Yes, I love who I am as a Hye, but that doesn’t mean I’m saying that I am better than others, but I do realize my people have been around a lot longer than many other lineages, and that does make me a bit more special in terms of historic relevance on the world stage. You won’t quench your own guilt of giving up by whining like this. Which is exactly why WE shouldn’t stop caring. It’s not the responsibility of other cultures to maintain our own culture and history, it’s ours. But since you don’t care at all about your own or other people’s culture/lineage anyhow, there is very little point to your existence it seems. No actually, mountains are not impassable barriers, they can be breached easily. The reason we survived is because many people bled the ground red to maintain our lineage and rights to our lands. Mere geographical barriers alone do not allow a culture to survive 3000+ years, don’t be so simplistically delusional. No they didn’t say that, but they didn’t say all the garbage that you’re saying either, and thank God for that indeed. And some factors are in fact out of one’s control, but many important ones such as the will to exist, survive, propagate, and proliferate are not out of our control, they are composed of simple and easy decisions that have very positive and long term implications for our survival. This single line, coupled with everything you mentioned before saying this single line, equates to hypocrisy. I think you’re highly confused and guilt ridden. When you’re the pioneering CHRISTIAN state, surrounded by nothing but MUSLIM states, it becomes difficult to thrive and flourish. If I took you and put you in a cell with 12 death- row inmates that are rapists, I don’t think you’d flourish much as a woman would you? GET IT? You must be blind then if you can’t see it on a map. And land size has nothing to do with how great or powerful a nation of people are. Japan is one of the economic superpowers of the world, yet it’s a spot on the map. Stop making asinine comments like this. I don’t know of many other nations that have made so much progress only after a decade of true independence. It’s not paradise, yet. But the wheels of progress are turning, slowly, but they DO turn. When 1.5+ million people are killed because of their lineage and the fact that they refused to willingly give up land they have been on for thousands of years, it is wrong, and must be recognized. Not recognizing it is also wrong, because if a black man hopes to not have slavery come back to haunt him again, or if a Jew doesn’t want to end up in another mass killing again, then they better learn to recognize these incidents so that they won’t happen again to other folks. And the perpetrators of his crime must take responsibility for what they have done and must be punished and pay restitutions. The Jews were killed after we were, they have gotten their restitutions, recognition, and apology, ours is well overdue. When we were being killed Turks didn’t “keep to themselves”, why am I going to “keep it to myself” as a victim? If I raped you and had my way with you as a woman, would you want to just keep it to yourself and have me smiling at you while I walk by your house everyday free as free can be? Of course not, the same logic applies with genocide, it’s a crime and must be atoned for. And there is no “maybe” or “hopefully”, I’ll leave “maybe” and “hopefully” for the poets, intellectuals, and verbal analysts. In the meanwhile, I’ll crush any opposition that is trying to manipulate and hide the truth about my people with my actions. Lastly, Turkey is not the “friend” of the United States, the U.S. was Turkey’s sugar daddy because Turkey promised use of its military bases to the U.S. But when push came to shove during the Iraqi war last year, Turkey went back on its word and didn’t let U.S. military planes land. Turkey also quickly veered to Iraqi borders with military tanks in an attempt to annex some of the land after the US took the place over, a bit dubious for a nation that claims they never killed Hyes and took their land don’t you think? Turkey thought now that Iraq is crippled it’s a “free for all” for those nearby, but the US slapped them back and told them to stay put. So now the U.S. is starting to see the Turks for the mongrel backstabbers that they have been throughout history. The only reasons the Jews work with them economically is because everyone else in that region doesn’t like Jews, so they have little choice. And Turkey has burned its bridges with other Muslim states as well because it has chosen, like the little weasel state that it is, to work with Israel because Israel is the best economic force there right now by “modern” standards. So now you can’t say “I don’t understand” as a BS excuse next time for your whining and nonsensical banter. I just want to mention that you should read things more carefully next time. I never said Monte ONLY went to Armenian when he decided to travel outside the U.S. Before hitting the Middle East, Monte finished up college, then went to Japan for some eastern studies. Then he was all over the middle east fighting for Hyes and during this time joined ASALA and ultimately after being released from jail in France then leaving ASALA shortly after his release, ended up in Armenia where he led about 4000 troops to win after win in battle, recapturing land in big chunks then proceeding to defend those lands with great success until his death on the front lines. And yes, he was a kid form Fresno that had grown up there his whole life and was not an immigrant like most of you are, yet still he believed in the strength of the individual, and the difference an individual’s efforts can make. -The Armenian Pirate

I don’t know why you insist this when that is clearly not what I have stated. Nowhere in my posts have I said that someone that is from a mixed marriage should be persecuted, not accepted, or turned away in any manner. What I do insist, is that the mixed marriages should be avoided if possible, and you know what? Most of the time, it is very possible and easily achieved. I also never said that a mixed person/child cannot be “one of us” in the sense of belonging to our Hye community, but I DID say that a mix cannot simply be dubbed as “Hye” or full fledged “Armenian”, just like a marriage between a Japanese man and a white woman will not produce a Japanese child nor a Anglo Saxon one. It blows me away that this simple concept is so difficult to grasp by some of you. Read more carefully before you make haste with your replies. Isn’t it ironic that Lipanahyes, Parskahyes, and Hayastanzis are all in fact Armenian and from the same lineage, yet 99.9% of you are busy quibbling amongst each other about who’s mentality is the “right” one? Isn’t it ironic that 99.9% of that same mind numbing quibbling about which sub set of Hyes has the correct outlook is carried over to these very same boards which is supposedly dedicated to helping us communicate better? Isn’t it ironic how if you truly have decided that Armenianism is doomed that you refuse to go to that social grave alone but would rather take others with you that may possibly still believe in the idea of successful survival? Yes, Jews do call many kinds of phenotypes “Jews”, but one little detail you forgot to leave out is the fact that Judaism is not only a reference to an ethnic group of people, but also a discipline of religion. That is why I can take anyone off the street, have them convert to the Jewish RELIGION, and then proceed to call them “a Jew”. The ethnic portion of being a Jew, is known as being an Israelite , and no my friend, you cannot take an Israelite and Jane X off the street , have them bare a child and call that child a “Jew” in the context of making reference to a person that is of the people of Israel, also known as an Israelite. There are Frenchmen that are Jewish by religion because again, “Judaism” is a religious faith AND a synonym for the people of Israel, which by lineage, are true Israelites. When the word “Jew” is used as ALL INCLUSIVE for those that are Jews by faith and those that are Jews by lineage (ie: Israelites) , then yes there are about 20 million “Jews” in the world today. But when the term “Jew” is used EXCLUSIVELY for reference to the people which belong to the lineage of Israel , hence being true Israelites from Israelite mothers and fathers, then the 20 million drops down to about 4 million. Consequently this drop in the actually figure is why so many true Israelites that DO decide to marry a non-Israelite ALWAYS make sure that their mate converts at the very least to the religion of "Judaism", because that way they can still on paper statistically represent their convert as "a Jew". We as Armenians, do not have the luxury of having “Armenianism” be a religion AND a reference to our native ethnic lineage. Our religious reference, being a sub-set of Christianity, is completely separated from that of our ethnic or lineage reference. Thus, for you to say we can include someone of mixed background or someone that has only fractional levels of Hye lineage (ie: not of Hye parents) under the category of “Armenian” is wrong. Now that doesn’t automatically imply that we should reject them or banish them in some way, I have never in my life promoted such actions, nor will I ever, that is simply wrong, especially toward an innocent child. On the contrary, we should accept them and help maintain their Armenian fraction as long as we can through kind gestures, and a warm welcome, BUT at the same time realize that the mixed person will have more and more choices to make with each consecutive generation because he becomes more mixed. Thus the likelyhood of abandoning his Armenian fraction increases gradually. This cannot be said of a person that from generation to generation is of Hye/Hye parents, a Hye/Hye person only has the easy choice of continuing just one lineage, that of an Armenian, and that likehood far outweighs the one of a mix person continuing our traditions generation after generation. But again, blurring the lines of what “Armenian” is by making it a HUGELY broad all inclusive manner of reference is definitely a sure way to kill us as a culture. Well first and foremost, for the Nth time, I’m NOT Vigil. I met Vigil through the things he posted here and got in touch with him online. Sadly, Vigil was so disheartened by the nonsensical degenerative pessimism some of you send out on these boards, that he decided to stop posting, by the same notion, I decided it was high time for me to start posting. This discussion is definitely not pointless. Any time the phrase about a discussion being pointless is used within a debate, it only diminishes your own credibility about reaching a resolution about the said topic. In general, in debates that are sanctified as “pointless” by “intellectuals”, it typically means that you’ve already made up your mind indefinitely, and given the topic at hand here and the stance similar to Boghos that you’re taking, just like him, debating is a waste of time if you truly believe things are "pointless". Because by definition, anything “inevitable” cannot be changed given even an infinite amount of time, the tide of the river has ran its course so to be speak, so even the effort of clickng “add reply” is a waste of your time. Now having said this, I don’t feel even our dear friend Boghos truly feels things are “inevitable”. More likely, he is one of those folks that feels guilt for his own mental notion of having either seriously considered an odar or is in fact involved with an odar. Day to day he constantly is reminded of his lineage yet he is also emotionally bound to an odar perhaps, and perhaps he will make the choice of ending up with an odar, so be it. What really bothers me is the fact that he actively pursues to align with him those that have not yet made that choice or are perhaps in limbo about that choice. This is very analogous to failing at something then out of self-disappointment wanting someone else to fail also and even luring them into situations that increases the chances of failure. And frankly, I’m not about to sit idly by, while people like that decide to create pessimism in others simply because they chose to be pessimistic themselves. And I do worry about the more minor issues that you mentioned above as well. But the fact of the matter is that while those issues are important, the root issues of inter-marriage, sexual repression, community persecution of our women, notions of promoting inevitable failure, etc, etc, are far more important and I will address those first and foremost. The things you’ve described above stem from these root problems we have, cure the root problems, and the minor issues will be wiped out. People sweat the idea of their “ian” last name in a shameful manner because they have a bourgeoisie attitude toward their culture and they judge low income Armenians because they feel they are so VERY "upper class" in this capitalistic nation. Instead of trying to understand the logic of a Hayastanzi that has grown up in a socialist homeland, Parskahyes persecute him and look down on his behavior. Instead of trying to understand the logic of a Parskahye, Hayastanzis call him “weak” or “*** whipped” or some other derogatory term. So the Parskahye chooses to dissociate himself/herself from the “ian” because in some twisted manner the “ian” represents a connection to the Hayastanzi’s “un-modern” behavior. The Hayastanzi in turn calls a Parskahye girl a “bozz” yet is blind to the fact that even Hayastanzi’s need sex and in fact Hayastanzi girls go after just as many secretive sex sessions as the accused Parskahyes. So as you can see, the root problems, need to be address first. Metaphorically speaking, cut the head off a hydra and it will sprout another, stab it in the heart, and the heads will hit the ground dead shortly after. You’re right, it does have to do with the lack of progression, and progression is needed. But first we have to understand that progression in its purest form is the desire to throw out notions that are disruptive and notions that impede progress. And before you can cast a notion out, you must identify it and address it, and this involves risk. In this specific case, the risk is the one the Armenian female will have to take with a Hye guy that has been raised with a backward mentality of “you have to be a virgin”, “you cannot have had previous boyfriends”, “you must be sexually novice”, etc , etc. Granted, NOT ALL, Hye men are like this, in fact more are of sane healthy mental outlook toward human sexuality than those that are not. But still, a Hye girl doesn't always know this when she meets a Hye guy so she must consider, “is he socially safe to sleep with?” , “will he judge me for wanting to do the wild thing in all forms of nasty ways?”, “does he have the mental capacity to understand that I am a human being too with a sex drive” , etc, etc . She also has to face the risk of defying her parent’s backward mentality of “have sex, but do it discreetly”, “avoid doing it with a Hye until you’re ready to be ‘serous’ with him”, “Maintain the illusion of ‘makur’ “. To me, it is ridiculous that we set SO MANY self imposing restraints on our youth. A Hye guy and girl should be able to have a one night stand with one another for the sheer reason of being horny, and nothing more. Whether each believes that is the morally right thing to do should be left to the individual, not the community to decide and then proceed persecute the couple. As a Hye male, I am already at a disadvantage when approaching a Hye girl, because she has been conditioned with these stigmas. I shouldn’t have to overcome any stigmas placed by my backward community mentality in the first place, being a young male or female is difficult enough these days. I shouldn’t have to worry about convincing her that it is “socially safe” for her to decide to have her way with me physically in bed. I never said implementing these changes will be easy, nor will it happen overnight. But I have said that as youth, we govern the future, not our parents. That is why we should try and take the risks with one another that are necessary to create these changes. That means that I, as a Hye male, make a Hye girl feel comfortable about her past love life and I don’t blow up in a hell bent rage the minute she mentions she actually had carnal sex with another male. And as a Hye female, one shouldn’t approach a Hye male with 20 different layers of illusionary masks that need to be maintained for the sake of social patronization, a Hye female should try and take the risk of approaching a Hye male with the same ease of approaching an odar with one’s desires emotionally and sexually. And you are right my friend, it is intimidating doing these things sometimes, it was for me when I first started, and it will be for any of you when you try for the first time to discard Armenian social stigmas with the opposite sex if you havent already, but once you do it initially, it gets easier and you will be surprised that many feel the same way and the minute they see you take the first step, they take the same steps as well. You definitely have misunderstood me, I have not remotely implied that in any of the things I’ve written. In fact, I specifically have said that it is in fact possible to be a capitalistic person in personal financial gains, while at the same time making efforts toward maintaining our ethnic culture and lineage. I just don’t feel that you MUST choose one or the other indefinitely, the two can co-exist. You keep insisting that your personal economic situation, goals, etc, come above your culture, fine so be it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you MUST in fact completely abandon your effort toward cultural preservation, let it be secondary or tertiary and co-exist in the domain that also houses your desire to be rich, powerful, and wealthy. Just look at Kirk Kerkorian, while I will say he made the mistake of the odar marriages and thus ultimately has no one to continue his interest in helping his people, he essentially did prioritize his efforts for his lineage in some manner where he was able to be rich and still retain his cultural effort SOMEWHERE within his list of priorities instead of casting his cultural effort out completely, as you would suggest we do with your theory of “inevitability”. Nothing is “the whole problem”. However, mixed marriage in any volume is in fact “a problem” and not necessarily the only one, you’re right there, but it is in fact a problem. Do not be so naïve as to think that simply because mixed marriage is a consequence of the lack of national fate OR faith, that it is not in fact a very real problem that must be addressed. And genetic mixing is a very critical issue, it’s the metaphorical equivalent of cutting a tree at the roots; it eventually leads to the blurring of the ideas of who we are, where we come from, what our lineage is, what geographical claims we can make as a people, and where we are going as a people, whether as Diasporans or living in Armenia. I would like to say I never claimed to be a nationalist, nor am I on the same level as the many nationalists that tirelessly dedicate themselves to all of us, I’m just a young Hye male that is rightly concerned about where his people are going, and what implications that path has, it’s called “thinking” about the world around you and your role in it. I never said what you’re doing is a “crime against race”, don’t make any Adolph Hitleresque accusations of me like that ever. This is not MY compound, I’m a guest here just like you and everyone else that shows up here to post or read up. However, your ideas are very dangerous and let’s face it, they are also very culturally apocalyptic, and in a time where our youth are so impressionable, I find it amazing that you just post away in such a pessimistic and irresponsible manner and actually promote a lack of effort. I don’t debate with you to make you feel bad or to attack your character, so do not take it like that because it seems like you are with what you’ve written. And I hope you don’t just post the things you say just to stir up personal “amusement”. Yes I did meet them, and I didn’t mention that as a boast, I mentioned it to help make my point about the topic at hand, again you’re making personal attacks on me and Axel it seems. And how do you know how successful I am as a person? I may be more successful than you can possibly fathom both educationally as well as financially and yet still choose to sit down and write out responses for my fellow Armenians to read and debate because I simply care about these topics. How can you possibly make such an assumption about anyone and furthermore, what does success have to do with wanting to show effort for your own lineage and people? And how is my desire to promote my culture, help my people survive, keep my lineage alive, provide an identity for myself on the world stage, and insure that my geographical rights are respected for my homeland in any way worse than your idea of a morbid social apocalypse about us Hyes and how things are bleak and “inevitable”? Also, how you can equate any of my response to simple “ignorance” or “xenophobia” is astounding. I’m willing to bet that as radical as you would like to make me sound in front of other readers, I am at least 10 times less prejudice than you, and anyone that knows me will attest to this fact in a heartbeat. I’m no “Knight”, I’m just a man that gives a $hit, you obviously have long given up and now you’re trying to lick your own wounds of guilt by trying to drag down as many others with you as you possible can with broadcasts of cultural doom. Maybe what I say sounds “fantastic” to you because you’ve become so jaded by the media manipulations that go on today on a daily basis as a means to get people to believe in ideas of discarding ethnicity, culture, lineage, heritage, and the many other factors that make us unique groups. And God knows it’s easier to control ONE BIG group VS many smaller groups. That is what “globalization” and “we’re all one big happy human race” ideas try to accomplish through the media’s promotion and duplicity. We obviously are all human beings, and we all bleed red, but we also have distinct unique sub-sects called "lineage" and "culture" that make us who we are, and that I'm not about to give up because some intellectual wants to promote it on MSNBC or some socialite is trying to sell it on MTV. EVERYTHING I’ve said has revolved around WORKING TOGETHER to achieve a bigger goal that is essential in modern times while not sacrificing our lineage and heritage and the best you can do is that one liner? How is me saying “Do not persecute our hye women for their sexuality so that they DO NOT in fact run astray or be driven away” equate to me driving “good people” away? Try using more logic and less vindictive banter in your debates. If anything, I have as a person been able to bring together more Hayastanzis, Parskahyes, and Lipanahyes through my actions in person than you ever will with your ideas of “lets disperse we’re doomed anyway”. And yet you actually have the audacity to make false personal attacks and accusations about me? If anything YOU are the one that uses your ridiculous ideas of hopelessness to drive people away because you one day decided to give up and maybe you just can’t stand the fact that you made that decision. Even with everything you’ve said, I still see you as my fellow Hye, and I’m trying to make you see things in a light that perhaps you have not yet considered, I’m no saint, this is a debate and in debates you express ideas to be considered, and that is EXACTLY what I’ve done. I’m very much independently minded, so much so, that I do not buy into the hype of anything being “inevitably” hopeless to achieve the way you do simply because of some social trend or expectation of me doing so in a given environment, in this case that environment being the “melting pot” of the United States. Nor do I believe at first glance any media machinations that exist by the dozen out there on the tube and in books about what exactly it means to be an “American”, or be “Americanized”, or why I should “assimilate” into any society like a good little sheep simply because that is the supposed “inevitable” order of things in the society that I live in. Calling me names like “Mickey Mouse” as a personal attack won’t add any more credibility to what you say, if anything it makes what you say more of a prideful whine than an actual retort within a debate. You made a choice of giving up, and you have every right to it, just live with that choice and believe in inevitability, I have decided to do otherwise. There are two kinds of people in this world, those that set standards, and those that follow them. You follow the standards set by media and “American” pop culture about assimilating and losing your identity, I’ll choose to set my own standard of keeping my lineage, heritage, cultural values, history, and my right to being part of a unique group of wonderful people while also taking care of my personal finances, sexual desires, buying that big house, my fast car, and marrying my gorgeous HYE girlfriend. Yes, just look at it, and realize that if Hyes thought like you do throughout history, we wouldn’t HAVE a history in the first place and you wouldn’t exist to preach your idea of inevitable doom to begin with. Yes they are in fact repressed to an unhealthy degree, at very least more so than your average level of taboo on the topic when compared to 85% of other cultures. Obviously Armenians are having sex when married, but the notion of having a sexual relationship with someone of the other sex long before you’re ready to marry them is shunned in a very fanatical manner in our community, I see this as a problem, one of many, but a problem never the less. It drives our youth apart from each other for no other reason except the fact that the girl feels afraid of persecution and the guy has to overcome stigmas by the girl of him being a judgmental prick if she decides to have a wild night of sex with him. All 1500 of you know this to be true, there is no denying it and it definitely is not exaggerated, Sasun jan. So it’s time to change things, and it begins with stripping ourselves of these conditioned notions that we hold against each respective opposite sex and ALSO believing that changing these old stigmas is possible, nothing is inevitable, NOTHING. I’d like everyone on these boards to understand that what I write is not meant to be an attack on anyone personally, including you Boghos jan. We are here to talk and debate, to present each other with ideas that we need to contemplate. For a debate to truly be effective, nothing must be taken personally. Have a good night everyone. -The Armenian Pirate