beauty

Dear fellow Armenians, I have this old postcard (from the 1920's) that has an Armenian writing on it. However, the handwriting script it is written with is so unusual that I don't understand a word in the entire text. I am thinking somebody who is more familiar with the western Armenian dialect and various Armenian handwriting styles would be able to help me deciphering the text. I am attaching the copy of the postcard to his message, so please look into it and respond with your ideas. Thank you so much! Maryana

Tha is such a BS to say that a woman should have beating when she crosses the line. When is that an Armenian women crosses the line? She marries an underaged virgin, from the first day of marriage cooks for ten or more family members, does dishes, washes clothes for all family members, gets pregnant in the forst weeks of marriage ( otherwise would be kicked out of the house), listens in everything to her husband even if he is stupid and wrong, does not even dare confront her vicious moher-in- law, makes sure that father -in -law has no dust around where he sits , takes care of all kids that are available in the house, never takes care of herslef, never goes to doctor if when she is sick, and after all she crosses the line? When? I hardly ever met an Armenian woman who crossed the line, and still they get no respect and appreciation and get beaten and humiliated. I don't know whom to blame for it, on the other hand I kind of think that maybe that's our women's fault, they just like to be victimized, why do they let them to be treated like that ? They have nowhere to go? no help? That's not an excuse, they have to stand for themselves, they should raise awareness of the fact that women in Armenia have no rights, and domestic violence is an issue in Armenia. Women should start fighting for their rights, othewise Armenia would stay in "taliban" rule forever. That really hurts me when I hear how our women are treated, like they are piece of garbage. Armenian women should start forming women rights and protection coalitions. Those who raise hand on a woman should be severly punished. I just don't understand how Armenian women can put up with their conditions, how they can say "oh there is nothing that can be done, it's a woman's destiny to be trapped and beaten, let our chldren be well, my life is gone already," ( she is just 37 or something). Come on, when is Armenian society going to change its rotten mentality, in five hundred years? I understand that I generalize and there are species in Armenia other than an agressive looser man and a modest woman who gets beatings regularly, but I'm talking about great majority.

You can still love a person but not wanna be with him anymore because he has changed and became alienated. The same with Armenia we love it the way it is in our memories and it gives us pain to see how foreign it has become for us.

Yeah, I agree Persia is definitely on the list of culinary inventors

My opinion is many thousand years ago people ate very simple, there was no culinary art back in the days, just simple cooking pieces of meat over the fire, boiling vegatables. Food was for survival, I think it was later that people started inventing dishes and giving names to them. I think probably culinary was strength of Arabs that's why their cuisine was adopted by others. Do you remember in One Thousand and One Nights. Full Baghdad markets, cooking everywhere, exclusive delicacies on tables. I think Arabs are actully first significant culinary inventors, and then came Turks , they always had developed royal level cuisine. So, Arabs and then Turks brought foods to other cultures, including Armenia. As for Armenia, I don't think we ever had exclusive royal cuisine, the food Armenians ate thousands of years ago was very basic and simple. Armenians have never been culinary inventors. Arabs, Turks, and French - they are culinary artists.

I see there is much said here about non-existance of Armenian cuisine and that all Armenian dishes have Turkish origin. Well, first it is not only Armenia that was strongly innflunced by Turkish culture. Ottomans spread there culture inclsuding cuisine to Middle East, Greece and Eatern Europe. Today Bulgarians, Greeks, Lebanese have cuisines similar to Turkish, so what, what's wrong with that. What makes it unique not the name of the dish, but how different nationalities cook their dishes. For example, Armenian dolma stuffed with meat and rice is different from Turkish one, Turks don't mix meat with rice, and they put other vegetables in thier dolma. Of course there are some dishes which are specifically Armenian , any dish cooked with pork is Armenian , as Turks do not eat pork. Also evolution of foods is a long story, all these dishes like shish -kebob are nomadic , they go back to ancient times and then were adopted by Turks and spread to other cultures. What I think about origin of dishes which are now common to many cultures is that first they originated in ancient Greece or Persia and then were adopted by Turks and spread to Arab world and other cultures. It is all about the co-existance of cultures, cultures cannot exist by themselves, all cultures at some extend are influenced by others and influence others. Especially cultures who were under Ottoman domination for centuries. What can you expect from them, say thanks that we could at least preserve some elements of our culture. I don't understand why fighting for "ownership" over dishes.

I already met a nice otar guy, I did give up on Armenian guys

I think it is just ridiculous to sit , waste your best years waiting for a non-existant Armenian prince, there are no enough decent Armenian guys to marry all beautiful, smart and caring Armenian girls. Most of Armenian men I have met in my life failed to be good hustbands, there are rude, possesive and unfaithful. So why should we marry a worhless Armenian jerk or not to marry at all for the sake of the "stick to your culture " thing instead of being happy with someone outside your culture. Dear Armenian girls , do not narrow down your choices of potential hustbands to only Armenians , you risk to stay unmarried until death. There are so many great guys of different ethicities out there who will make you happy and self-sufficient women. Besides mixed-blood children come out really cute! No offense to Armenian guys, but I have spent almost a quarter of century waiting for a nice Armenian guy, but nope, didn't happen and I expanded my horizon and met a decent "otar" , and feeling happy and independent...

I just thought how said that those of us who grew up in Armenia basically grew up in the world which does not exist anymore, it is like we spent our childhood in an imaginary world. Going back to Armenia will not give us any satisfaction as we won't see any of the things we were surronded by as kids. Everything has dramatically changed; food, buildings, culture, habits, even language (no more mixture of Armenian and Russian), evrything we once had is gone forever, it is like our memories are coming from nowewere. Look for example at your fellow Americans, since childhood they have been eating the same brands of foods, speaking and listening the same language, seeing the same buildings, playing the same games, watching the same movies... They don't have to miss ther childhood, it is still there, anytime they can return to thier hometowns and see that everything is pretty much the same. No reson for sadness. And we Armenians are destined to long for our lost world of childhood...