Boghos

Dear Arpa, In Italian the word for green is "verde" as it is in Portuguese and Spanish. The only association I can come up with Verdi is the composer.

Vive la France. Let the Turks do whatever they want, who cares!

Hell is full of people with good intentions, or so it is said. Not sure this is a good translation either, but it is done in good spirit ). Well, if advice from the brother of the President of a small republic where everybody knows everybody can't be relied upon, who can you trust for business purposes?

Once you are in the diaspora it is just a matter of time. The only thing left will be the ian/yan at the end of your surname. Nothing to worry about, just how things work.

I wished they built an autobahn to Stepanagerd but has anybody recently travelled to Garni-Geghard? I have and it is just unbelievable how bad it is.

Good find, Yervant. Just back from Toronto...very quickly, in and out, but I promise next time, we'll share a bottle or two.

Dear Arpa, You have quite a memory! Hagop Baronian said that if you see a short, slightly hunchbacked and not very attractive man, his name is probably Giragos.

I know one Giragos. I also remember how Hagop Baronian described a Giragos...

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-to-protest-france-over-8216genocide8217-remarks-2011-10-07 Diplomatic tensions hit Franco-Turk ties Font Size: Larger|Smaller Friday, October 7, 2011 Sevil Küçükkoşum ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev speak, next to Azerbaijan’s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva ®, on the balcony in Baku. AFP photo Relations between Turkey and France could be headed for a new crisis after French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested his government could pass a bill criminalizing any denial of Armenian genocide claims, drawing a swift reaction from Ankara. Turkish Ambassador to Paris Tahsin Burcuoğlu will visit the French Foreign Ministry on Oct. 8 to lodge Ankara’s protest regarding Sarkozy’s comments, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned. The development came on the same day the interior ministers of Turkey and France signed an important agreement on the fight against terror and organized crime, but the deal has been overshadowed by the eruption of the diplomatic crisis. Sarkozy, who is currently on a Caucasus tour, visited Armenia on Oct. 6 and urged Turkey to “revisit its history” over the killings of hundreds of thousands Armenians during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. If Turkey does not recognize the genocide claims and step toward reconciliation, the French president said he would consider proposing the adoption of a law criminalizing the denial of the killings as genocide. An earlier attempt by the French government was rejected by the French Senate in 2009. Sarkozy intimated that Turkey should make the recognition before the end of his mandate in May next year. France should face on past, Ankara says Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu instructed Burcuoğlu to express Ankara’s feelings and opinions in a strongly worded message to his French counterpart. Alongside the diplomatic protest, senior members of the Turkish government harshly criticized Sarkozy’s stance and urged France to confront its colonial past before giving lessons to others. “Those who will not be able to face their own history for having carried out colonialism for centuries, for treating foreigners as second-class people, do not have the right to teach Turkey a history lesson or call for Turkey to face its history. It will be very beneficial if France confronts its own history, particularly with African nations,” Davutoğlu told reporters Oct. 7. Turkey could face its own history, but it is also a history of Turks and Armenians living together, Davutoğlu said. “I consider such remarks [by Sarkozy] as political opportunism, and unfortunately such political opportunism is seen in Europe whenever there is an upcoming election,” Davutoğlu said. Turkish EU Minister Egemen Bağış also criticized Sarkozy, saying the president would do better to concern himself with extricating France from its economic crisis rather than play historian on the Armenian question. “Our mission, as politicians, is not to define the past or past events. It is to define the future,” he was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency during a visit to Sarajevo. ‘Turkey does not belong in EU’ During his visit to Tbilisi on his tour, Sarkozy reiterated his opposition to Turkey’s accession to the European Union. “France does not see this country [Turkey] in the EU,” he said. “Turkey has an important role in the world as it has been located in Asia Minor and is a bridge between West and East. But this role [of Turkey] does not cover the EU,” he said. In the last leg of his Caucasus tour, Sarkozy visited Azerbaijan, a close ally of Turkey, from where he received a cold shoulder for his views on the genocide claims. Ali Hasanov, a senior official at the Azerbaijani Presidency, said his country did not share Sarkozy’s views on the 1915 incidents, Anatolia reported. Recalling that Turkey and Azerbaijan’s regional interests were similar, Hasanov said they hoped Sarkozy’s visit would help speed up efforts to solve the Nagorno-Karabkh dispute with Armenia. Friday, October 7, 2011

I was just in Mongolia. Seriously. On business, they have some giant mines coming up.

One good thing about freedom of expression is that human ignorance can be seen naked. Yet another case.

Very, very interesting.

That's exactly right, dear Yervant. I do recognize that the diaspora, still to this day, has a romantic version of Armenia. But acting like unruly princelings of a far corner of the Russian Empire is a disgrace.

What we are saying here, once and again, is that Armenia is a passive player in the international arena. Should we have expected differently? Probably not. But it does not mean that we couldn't be more active internationally. We certainly could but our state institutions are either paralyzed or lost in meaningless activities. There are exceptions but they are just that. So we get the US Congress, after humiliating Armenians countless times over historical truth, to approve the Genocide Bill because the Jewish/Israeli lobby decides that the Turks are bad. Wow! We are doing well.

Brits are odd...

Bravo. Super!

Likewise, dear Arpa, likewise.

No, no, no dear Arpa. This is Hyeforum! Where is the Armenian connection?

Arpa, you disappointed me. It is not NH I was refering to...

Yes, I was recently in Yerevan and: - my favourite mineral water, Bjni, didn't have enough bubbles - there was a Georgian coke bottle in a trashcan in Hrabarag - Mardiros Saryan is looking too serious in the 20000 drams banknote - the lahmadjun at Sarkis needs 12 grams more meat So, who do I send my complaints to? Mrs. Hakobyan seems to be too busy travelling all over the place... Eleftheria o thanatos

Raffi was right, what can I say.

բախտավոր կամ միամիտ...

Գերեզմանատուն this is actually quite interesting...I am not aware of any other language, not that it means much, where the word "cross" is used so widely...

What can I say, dear Arpa, you never disappoint me!