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quote:Originally posted by bellthecat: I have the right to speak on any subject I know about (and when that concerns Turkey, the British empire, Africa, India, and (it seems) China, my knowledge appears to exceed yours). In the last 100 years Turkey may have killed its millions, China its hundreds of millions by genocide - but nobody is seriously going to say that Turkey is posing a threat to world security. China has that dubious honour. I feel that the Turkish and the Chinese sense of themselves does seems to be very similar - both walk around with a huge chip on their shoulders; have a massive ego that seems to mask a severe inferiority complex; have a belief that everyone (especially their neighbours) is always out to get them; take refuge in "tradition" when confronted with social problems; have a distrust of foreigners; a belief that all problems are as a result of outside elements; a severe cultural and ethnic insularity; and a contempt of any culture that is not their own (while destroying, diluting or popularising their own culture to the extent that it devoid of any real value). Steve Dear Steve, I shall not argue with you, as this is not the relevant board, and I never waste my time on people with a hate problem.

quote:Originally posted by bellthecat: Well, you obviously know nothing of what Britain did FOR India or Africa. am I alone in noticing how similar China is to Turkey in its extreme nationalistic / Fascistic behaviour towards the rest of the world? Infact, Turkey seems almost civilised by comparison. Steve Steve, Since this is a forum about Armenian issues, I shall make this note short. Here I have 2 points to make: 1) Are you Indian or African? If not, then you have NO right to say what good the British empire did for them. The Turks also claim that they did a lot FOR Armenains and Greeks. 2) Please do not compare China to Turkey unless you have studied the history of both these 2 countries in detail.

I'm sure there are some Turks who are very against what the Ottoman's did to the Armenians and Greeks. Being both British and Chinese, I am ashamed of what the British did in India and Africa, and what the Chinese are doing to day to the Uyghurs and Tibetans, and I would hate to meet and Indian, Uyghur, and Tibetan who refuses to talk to me just because of my nationality. The same way even in Nazi Germany, there were many German gentiles who were against what Hitler was doing to the Jews. After all it's been so many years and you cannot always live in the past.

Hi, I am an Anglo-Chinese man of 27. Must say that feminists are not my favourite people, not because of what they campaign for, but for their attitude. Almost all of them have a chip on the shoulder and I don't like that from anybody. I grew up in a fairly unisex family and have no problems with women having equal say and rights. Many of my best friends (excluding lovers) are women. However, when I was at university, I had many problems dealing with feminists because they first of all assume that ALL men have a problem with women's rights and act over-defensively, sometimes to the extent of insulting others just to prove their attitude. For example, I did a project with a feminist girl who told me every day I'm a chauvanist pig simply because I'm a straight man. Every time I disagreed with any of her opinions she would come up with arguments like "because you think I'm a woman so you can bully me!!!" etc. There was this other feminist I know who breaks everything down to gender and blames men for ALL the wrong-doings of the world. She only sees gender, and not the truth. For example, if a man and a woman are arguing, she would always support the woman regardless of whether she is right or wrong. It is like many Africans who blame Europeans for ALL their problems. Worst of all, I dislike feminists because they look down on, and even insult those women who do not support their clause. I rest my case here...

As I know there are diaspora Armenina communities all over the world: Middle East, France, USA....... How much do the cultures of these Armenian communities differ? Have the accent, language, and cuisine evolved separately? Is it easy to tell straight away which country an Armenian is from?

I would be Italian, Southern Spanish, Maltese, or Corsican.... somewhere next to the Medditeranean where there's a lot of sun, sea, and beautiful women.....

This is in response to the questions of family ties and gang involvement.... I don't think gangs are at all to do with having extended family or not. They are a pure result of poverty and segregation. In the USA, over history, almost all the nationalities that dwelled in ghettoes have formed gangs: Irish, Jewish, Italian, Chinese, Puerto Rican..., and today the Mexicans and Armenians. They are formed usually in multi-cultural cities where the different cultures don't mix, and are formed first of all for self-protection to stop other groups from attacking them. Many people here seem to have a misunderstanding of Latinos, as if gang culture is part of their tradition. No, it is not. In Mexico itself you cannot find any cholos or anything remotely resembling them. The Latino street gangs are a product of the American ghetto. Back in the 1910s and 20s, when many Jews dwelled in ghettos and lived in poverty, many Americans used to relate Jews to gang violence the way the Latinos are today. 3 generations later, when most Jews have moved out of the ghetto, the Jewish gangs faded away. Most people today don't even know that Jewish gang members ever existed, but back in the 20s there were plenty of them.

This is an interesting topic..... I am not Armenian at all: but Anglo-Chinese, but am interested in Armenian and Caucasian/soviet culture in general. One thing that I have heard is that assimilation doesn't always happen one way. When immigrants arrive in another country they and their children often try their best to assimilate into the host country to the extent of rejecting of their traditional values, and it may seem that the next generation will completely dissolve. However, 2nd or 3rd generation descendants of immigrants sometimes re-claim their ethnic identity, as they become curious of their origins that they know so little about. For example, many of my Chinese-American cousins, 2 generations away from China and mostly of mixed-blood, who were brought up completely as middle-class suburban Americans, suddenly began to develop a curiosity in their Chinese roots, and many of them learned Chinese again and spent a few years in China. While their parents prefer to be called "American", they actually prefer to be called "Chinese-American", although many of them are only half-Chinese. I heard that in the 70s and 80s many Italian-Americans also re-claimed the ethnic identities which they lost. Robert DeNiro was in fact brought up in a middle-class All-American New York suburb who later discovered his Italian roots. Sometimes it depends on the state of the country the immigrants came from. 100 years ago being Italian in the USA was a great disadvantage so many Italo-Americans tried their best to hide their roots, while today being Italian is 'cool' and 'hip', so many Americans with more than a drop of Italian in them are all calling themselves 'Italian'. So if one day being Armenian becomes 'cool', many lost Armenians will be reclaimed!!!