Armenak

I was looking up some of his archived posts and just came across this. I knew he was one of the older members of this community but I am still in shock. He was such a great contributor and also very dedicated and prolific, so I expected something had happened as there hadn't been any recent posts by him. He could be quite quarrelsome but it was always because of his dedication to Armenian culture and language. His post history should be anthologized to savor. RIP, Arpa.

I'm in for a revival.

This is frightening. Are these the same Georgians that are supposed to bring "tolerance" to Abkhazia and South Ossetia (according to the Western media)? Doesn't Abkhazia have a large Armenian minority if not majority? I'm sure they're thankful they don't have to live in "tolerant" Georgia.

Well his daughter married a Maghrebi and converted to Islam, so her.

Don't know about Timbuktu but I'm sure they'll construct one in Kamchatka soon enough. I agree, Arpa. I believe the largest Armenian cathedral in the Russian empire was the one in Baku…until it was demolished by the Soviet government, that is. And let's not forget the appropriation of Armenian churches by the Georgian Orthodox Church, which still goes on today. When the shit hits the fan, these structures which are meant to demonstrate wealth and power (are we supposed to believe it's piety?) are rendered meaningless. Yet our people continue to build them, bigger and bigger, from Krasnodar to Krasnoyarsk…

http://www.iavanak.com/

I don't think he necessarily hated Armenians... Armenia was still a Soviet republic and two of his advisers were of Armenian descent (Abel Aganbegyan and Georgy Shakhnazarov). But he, like most of the "international community" today, favored territorial integrity because granting Artsakh independence would have set a dangerous precedent for his pet project, which was to establish a reformed union where there would be "socialism with a human face." Of course Russians would dislike him. The country became (and remains) a cesspool after the collapse but not all of that was Gorbachev's doing. He's just an easy target.

That there are some (vocal) pro-Armenian British activists is encouraging. First Caroline Cox and now Russell Pollard. There's another person I can think of who might fight that description who used to post on this forum but...

Reading not just the translation but also that she is teaching at Yerevan's Linguistic University makes me feel pretty useless. <_<

She (along with others) also performed at the Cafesjian Center's Sayat Nova program: Here in Los Angeles, there's a "cultural critic" named Stepan Partamian who's always going on about how we shouldn't promote Sayat-Nova because his music isn't "purely" Armenian. I'm glad people in Armenia are paying no attention to him.

Arpa, you're aware that the website is run by former forum member Shahan Araradian, are you not? I have to say I am impressed that he has not only maintained the website since introducing it here but also expanded it considerably. Their keyboard input used to be set to Western Armenian but I believe it was changed to Eastern because the website has more Eastern Armenian users. Or maybe Shahan finally saw the light? Anyway, you can adjust the keyboard settings by clicking that little keyboard icon right next to the search box.

It says that the acquaintance who informed him about the radicalism was of Armenian descent. But if that's the case, why would he need to "stress" his ethnicity?

Yeah, the Armenian Reporter did a story on this a while back. It's very popular in the Czech Republic and neighboring countries. I only wish we could read about such success stories in Armenia!

From a recent subtly anti-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh conference at Johns Hopkins: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2OIlcvqSHCaalVReHVPOFlQOGM/edit?pli=1 Some of their wonderful suggestions include Armenia "renouncing claims on Turkey" and for Azerbaijanis abroad to "continue to lobby and raise awareness about crimes committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis to create a more balanced public opinion in relation to the NK conflict." Oh, I also liked the part about peacekeepers being from neutral countries like Finland and the Czech Republic.

Azerbaijani MP from ruling party suggests severing ties with all foreign institutions and Western embassies because "they regularly interfere into Azerbaijan's internal affairs." http://blog.novruzov.az/2013/04/mp-from-ruling-party-proposes-to-shut.html