raffiaharonian

Tzo Movses, amot kezi Gayaneyin hed gh@ khaghas gor? Gadag@ megti, shad lav pan e ays 'oknoutian kitdz@'. Yerani yerpek bedk ch@la, sagayn lav e vor ga!

An Irrelevant/relevant question: Dear Dragon, please tell us , are you Mr. or Mrs. Not that it matters, but it creates a confusion, which in its turn creates a hostile stand against you. Unless this is your aim (a sado..feeling ) and you like to be in hostile terms with honest people, then I believe you should clear this . I repeat , it doesn't matter at all, but don't expect people to be nice and unbiased with you! You seem a clever ( maybe somehow with an extra dose of it ), and I believe you should get what I mean! Forward your hand of friendship to the rest and you'll get a warm welcome and maybe more. If you start barking (sorry- too harsh ) we'll have to unleash our own dogs......

Your observatins, although well taken, they represent one fundamental chain of thought: "all those in power are corrupt and they do not allow people like us, who are honest and beyond selfish acts, to bring forth our ideas and our contribution ....." The premise of this concept disturbs me, because it forces me to be suspicious and negative/pessimist against all leaders. It is a bias, which although could be well documented and supported, forces us to be Negative and suspicious. And this is a heavy chain around our neck. I believe , maybe naively, that some leaders try to accomplish a noble cause, however during their tenure, they are diverted and somehow loose the forest for the tree. Maybe they need our moral support and our professional guidance , instead of constant critics and 'anathema'. After all "people get the leaders they deserve..." Nihilism is not a healthy stand, nor does it provide with solutions and contributions. Nor does the attitude of "I am beyond anything" contribute towards a better policy. Constructive criticism is the duty of all concerned citizens and is the weapon of Democracy through the voting process.

I fully agree with you Btac. I also share your thoughts and have 'those' little questions which stay in the air. "The Gift of Life" should be the answer to our question. If life is conceived as a gift of God to us, then we have to protect and love it. In doing so we are somehow showing our gratitude to God for His gift. After all the life we have is a temporal stage , which we have to go through before any 'life after death' stage. I know it is not a great answer, but it has 'worked' for thousands of years and I guess this can be taken as a thought.

Sulamita ,although I am not a priest nor a 'theologician' , I believe the issue is not the offering as an item, the issue is the desire of the offerer to please God. Abel's offering came out of his desire to 'show' his love , while Cain's offering was a half-hearted 'must-do' action. Maybe I am wrong , but I suppose the idea of love and devotion to God is the principle idea of this 'play' of the Bible.

The interpretation of the Bible is one of the most controversial issues which has and is creating walls of separations and contradictions among the Believers. However there are basic principle which cannot and should not be ‘played’ with. The Bible is not a cookbook , nor a know-how-to-do-things reference guide. I believe it is the spiritual guidance of the Believer , who has entrusted his/her beliefs in God. First of all let me point out that the Genesis was written prior to the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and is part of the Old Testament, thus the explanation laid down in this version of the Bible is rather unrealistic and based on wrong assumptions. It is the Spirit of the offering to God under discussion and not the work/laziness of Abel and Cain. Abel offered his first and ‘rich production yield’ to God , while Cain chose the less ‘quality level production yield’. Thus Abel’s offering is from his heart while Cain’s offering comes from the feeling of ‘obligation’ and not devotion to God. It is like the wedding gift. You either take a gift just for the sake of the gift or you buy something which you consider will be usefull and appreciated!

Simply put, GREAT! Bravo Mike. It was a nice and honest reply.

"Womens'Day". I had the slight impression that everyday of the year was Womens' Day. OK. OK . don't shoot! Happy Womens' Day to all the ladies. (poor little men of the world !!!! )

Very nice hypothetical question. The richness and heritage of our culture, the high level intellectual capacity, the material wealth of our people, would have insured the survival of our country as a progressive and balanced country in the region. Yes we would be 'fighting' against each other, but this rebellious attitude would have strengthened the democratic and diversified opinion and knowledge level of our country. I have no doubt that we would have become the most stabilised and least troubled country in the region. We do not defer alot from the Greeks. Look at Greece now, it is an EU country with considerable wealth and excellent democratic institutions. Armenia could have been like Greece.

Artur jan what about being a blasphemus? Does it fall within the fasting category? Do we have to be selective in not commiting a crime or a sin? Only against the Christians or others as well? There is/was a very wise inscription around the fountain outside the Hagia Sophia in Constantinopole, which read as follows in Greek " Nipsonanomimatamimonanopsin" , which is read also the same from the end to the beginning (by one letter difference). The meaning " Wash your sins, not only your face". I hope you get what I mean!

I had the pleasure and honor to hear one of her performances , when she visited our school "Melkonian" in Cyprus. She was great and we loved her. The whole audience loved her and cheered her several times. Then in 1986 we had the honor to sing with her in Sourp Echmiadzin with our school's choir at the presence of the late 'yerchangahishadag' Vazken I Catholicos. Her "Sourp-Sourp" still echoes in my ears. I'll never forget her! Garo, thank you for the site. I'll try it!

Dear Dragon, As you might have seen, this site is quite different from many other sites and most of the members try to keep a balanced and and elevated level of communication. Most of the people here are busy professionals or students who have the desire to communicate with each other mainly on Armenian related topics. Accordingly most of the people do not have time for BS and 'silly' talks. There are other sites , where we could be 'silly' and 'free' to have pleasant passtime! Everybody is welcome in this Forum , but if he/she decides to be 'silly' or 'clever' , then he/she is put in line with the prevailing 'spirit' of the Forum. After all we do not know each other, so there is no way of become prejudised against each other, unless this is the hidden desire of that member! You are clever enough to figure out the meaning of my posting!!!

As a Melkoniantsi and a scholarship reciepient of AGBU , I feel somehow 'insulted' from the tone of your posting against AGBU. I did not dine with anybody and nor did I kiss anybody's A. to get that. AGBU has assisted thousands of students and numerous schools and institutions , and is one of the first and most concerned Armenian Organizations to try to assist the RoA. Probably they were wrong in refusing the funding of your research, but the needs and expectations from AGBU are greater than the funds available. BTW, did you know that there was such a work by "Shiraz" , in the form of photographs ? I've seen it and is great! Of course it would have been great if you could manage to do your research and I wish we had the means to assist you. Good luck man!

Dear Kazza, I had a classmate named Tehmourian. He was from Iran and ofcourse 100% Armenian. BTW , do you speak Greek?

Dear Levon, Would I be wrong in assuming that you were clever enough, long time ago, to convert your cash let say in $ or Euro ? After all you are an Armenian! However , I find the current situation really disturbing and God help you all. I further wish and pray that the Turkish political powers will not try to "export" the current crisis in the form of aggresive foreign policy towards its neighbours! ( maybe they'll discover a new tiny little rock in the Aegean, which belogns to them??? )

Thank you Mr.Suat about your precious time and devotion to share with the rest of us your thoughts , your knowldege and aspirations. My remark was only to point out the fact that lay men ,like myself, have some difficulty in digesting certain points and ideas, especially if those ideas deviate tremendously from the main topic. Enlarging the picture to include other parameters also, makes the follow up tiresome and 'dangerous' (especially if conclusions are derived based on those! ). Your are obviously a different Turk than those we have encountered and heard of. Obviously we are sceptical about your presence in this forum , but just because we know that "we have the Right with us" , we feel at ease to engage in a constructive communication with you. After all we have nothing to hide! I prefer a civilised Turkey than the 'sick man of Europe' , because through constructive and mutual agreements and communication we will be able to face the challenges of the future and find out some possible solutions in the 'blood-sealed' animosity between our nations. Obviously most of us in this Forum reserve our rights to keep the question marks ongoing! After all we have not yet arrived at a 'full stop' ! Regards, Raffi A.

Sometimes, people like us, the simple TV viewers, are witnessing some ‘poor’ people who were naïve enough to appeal to the TV talk shows etc. to resolve their problems and find a solution for them. The ‘poor’ accountant, dentist, doctor, cleaner, hairdresser, housewife etc are met with the representatives , big-sharks/lawyers, who would corner them in a second , because they possess the ability to talk and elaborate on the topic , without really ever touching the ‘hot-issue’. Of-course the real issue gets distorted and ‘clever’ viewers are left open-mouthed and frustrated. I suppose Mr. Ali is a very well educated and ‘informed’ person on the issue of the Genocide. For me he appears as an expert with many credentials and vast ‘data-bank’ of knowledge. He is more than welcome in this site, however I would like to point out an obvious problem and a gap! An accountant like me, a dentist like Levon, etc etc etc, are not well informed and ‘equipped’ with the historical evidences and facts to accept or refute Mr. Ali’s comments and ‘lectures’. We are mere viewers of the narrations and we rest our representation on MJ, who is not himself a Historian or political sciences professional. The problem of-course is not Mr. Ali as such, but the apparent gap of expertise knowledge and communication! The lack of equilibrium in the ‘alish-verish’ or communication will soon be apparent and the truth will be distorted. Although we have the will we lack the way to counter argue with Mr. Ali or any other scholar. I just wanted to put this forward in a move to explain and clarify our stand as tremendous interested Armenian listeners. Without direct correlation to Mr. Ali, I would like to say that most of us would not be able to repulse Gebel’s ‘professional-truths’, due to our lack of ‘same-level’ knowledge and preparation. I am more than interested to listen to Mr. Ali, but I would like to reserve my right to put a tiny little question mark on the topics discussed and I expect the others to do the same. After all a kitten cannot fight a tiger!

Thank you all for the best of wishes! You are all great and I hope God will protect all of us and help us through the various phases of our lives. The wedding issue is still far and not in the shortime period. God wish , maybe mid next year. We'll see. If I had the financial capability I would have liked to invite you all in Greece and we would have some great time together. You are all an online family to me and I think I am getting fond of all of you! Thanks once more for your wishes!