Boycott Turkey Campaign Website

[Azat]

Azat, the border is closed for a reason or lack thereof other than the anger behind this, and assume a boycott on top of that.

 

I rest my case with the smoke-signalling and badge and certification, as nobody seems to be bothered by the notion that they could at some point throw the baby out with the bath water.

 

What "Talaat," for goodness' sake? Doesn't it follow that for every Turkish exporter there has to be at least one Armenian middle man getting rich as well? And isn't it also the case that in the event Gevork the manufacturer is getting rich, he is doing it by being able to sell inside his country and export as well, including to Turkey?

In all honesty and with all due respect to all, examples such as freaking out when you talk to a certain Mehmet Something-oglu on the phone, whether he own or be employed in a non-Turkish business or not, is not the right state of psyche to be in. If you have also taken it so far as to discriminate between businesses that employ Turks, then by all means you should also be able to say something that sounds like, "We don't like you," or go up to your boss and ask of them not to do business with that Turkish construction company or quit your job if they don't live up to your expectations. That to me sounds a bit out of place given Armenians in RoA want the border opened and occasionally work in Turkish-owned businesses not only in Turkey but elsewhere as well, such as the Russian Federation.

I, too, have my personal preferences as to where I buy what from, and often if someone is going to buy me something from a store I instruct them what to buy for me and what not to. If they ask, I tell them my reasons. I can't see myself pontificating at length or rounding up a campaign.

Remember that boycotts on the grass-roots level are short-lived - Greeks have been going at this for years and apparently it doesn't change much where Turkey is concerned, plus Greeks are known for being emotionally wired and not necessarlily where it makes Italians attractive - and have nowhere the impact of official, national, or international motions, and even then you can't predict the pros and cons of such unless it is an all-arounder as with the case of South Africa - see the Arab boycott of Israeli goods - Jaffa oranges and dates come to mind - on the ground and abroad at 200+ million heads.

 

I think that calling for promotion of Armenian goods and funnelling efforts there would be a step toward building that Rome. It doesn't sound as gratifying as getting the shop-owner hunched up apologising for selling the other side's goods and not yours, boycotting the big bad turkey, but it is proactive and can have a life much longer than a negative association if indeed it counts as much to its supporters as they claim.

 

Stormy I am ALL for open borders and business with Turkey, but at the present Turks have decided that they want to see Armenians in Armenia suffer thus they have closed the border. SO I am standing up against that and saying that Armenians should NOT buy anything of Turkish origin. This is also why I would not step a foot in Turkey and spend a penny of my money to improve their economy and so on. I really do not see anything wrong with that. And the Armenian businesses that gain prosperity by exporting Turkish goods and selling Turkish goods for all I care they can close shop as well and that gap will be filled by an exporter who brings figs from Antarctica for all I care.

 

I have to say that I really do not see ANYTHING wrong with the way I am thinking about this issue. And I think that Arabs should boycott Israeli goods and blacks should boycott South African goods and so on and so forth.

 

BTW, just to help you understand my thought process(maybe you will realize that I am completely nuts). I also do not go into Wal-Mart because of their employment practices, I also refuse to buy Nike goods and on and on. By me not going into wal-mart does not hurt them one bit but I still have made the decision to pay 10-25% more and buy my goods at other stores.

[gamavor]

SO I am standing up against that and saying that Armenians should NOT buy anything of Turkish origin. This is also why I would not step a foot in Turkey and spend a penny of my money to improve their economy and so on. I really do not see anything wrong with that.

 

Not only that Azat, but the real effect of a boycott can only be fulfiled when WE stop doing business with companies that DO business with turks.

I've met an Armenian businessman who hired few Turks. When I asked him why he hires Turks, he said something to the effect that they are generally good workers and also cheap. While this might be true I still couldn't understand why he didn't hire jobless Armenians and than I heard the biggest BS ever. He said that he is paying them minimum wage and the situation will remain like this,... in other words they will not grow.

[vava]

BTW, just to help you understand my thought process(maybe you will realize that I am completely nuts). I also do not go into Wal-Mart because of their employment practices, I also refuse to buy Nike goods and on and on. By me not going into wal-mart does not hurt them one bit but I still have made the decision to pay 10-25% more and buy my goods at other stores.

 

And by extension, here in Canada, I prefer to purchase goods made/assembled in Canada (rather than imported from cheap labour/developing countries like China). If given the choice betweem purchasing a mitre saw at the Home Depot (American) vs. Canadian Tire - I'd probably choose the latter even if I were to pay 5-10% more. Why? Because I choose to support local business.

 

I also choose to support Armenian business vs. Turkish business. I think Azat summed up pretty well my attitude with respect to a "boycott" of Turkish goods. However' i would like to re-iterate that a large part of the motivation for my action, as insignificant it may be, is due to the embargo imposed by the Turkish administration on Armenia.

[Boghos]

Dear Azat, vava et al,

 

I have to say that intention and consequence find a greatr dissociation in your actions.

- boycotting Walmart, Nike, or favouring Canadian Tire, "buying Canadian" and other similar acts sound good but make no economic sense. First because were you to act in accordance to this rationale across the board you wouldn´t fill up your tank, hell you wouldn´t even have a car, you wouldn´t wear almost any clothes, you would not buy at any ethnic stores, you couldn´t buy a computer and on and on. If one is not to act rationally when purchasing goods and services it will just mean transfering an undue part of your income to someone else. I buy what is best for the price, however subjective that may be. The people at a sweatshop in Bangladesh (next to India, not in Yerevan) are "happy" that you buy their goods, this is part of the economic development process...

 

more later...

[Stormig]

Azat, I do not necessarily question the choice to boycott; however - and this may not necessarily be directed at you per se - I am firmly of the opinion that that is where the line should be drawn. You can share your reasons with your shop owner for not buying particular merchandise, but to go into negative association with the shop and shop-owner because they sell Turkish products and to compel them not to sell Turkish products is not the way to go. Because, as I said before, if every ethnic group got into these attitudes, then everyone could go back to an agricultural lifestyle or you could have quarters in cities where this or that was sold or not, and I don't say this out of concern for anybody. Azat, by Vava's example, shouldn't even step in shops that sell Nike when he wants to get his Reeboks (or whatever) unless and until the shop owner gives up selling Nike. And that deprives people who want to buy Nike despite the abuses in the sweatshops. Bear in mind that not all the NGO's who are after Nike's track record actually sanction a boycott - likewise I maintain that there ought to be ways of getting around to this, especially by way of the government in question.

I still do not find my question on Armenians from Turkey adequately answered.

Also, make sure you never use Google again - Google employs Turks, too: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/technolo...731539d&ei=5088

 

Web Site Born in U.S. Finds Fans in Brazil

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By SETH KUGEL

Published: April 10, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO — Ask Internet users here what they think of Orkut, the two-year-old Google social networking service, and you may get a blank stare. But pronounce it "or-KOO-chee," as they do in Portuguese, and watch faces light up.

 

"We were just talking about it!" said Suellen Monteiro, approached by a reporter as she gossiped with four girlfriends at a bar in the New York City Center mall here. The topic was the guy whom 18-year-old Aline Makray had met over the weekend at a Brazilian funk dance, who had since found her on Orkut and asked her to join his network.

 

Orkut, the invention of a Turkish-born software engineer named Orkut Buyukkokten, never really caught on in the United States, where MySpace rules teenage cyberspace. But it is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon in Brazil.

 

About 11 million of Orkut's more than 15 million users are registered as living in Brazil — a remarkable figure given that studies have estimated that only about 12 million Brazilians use the Internet from home. (And that 11 million does not include people like Ms. Makray, who clicked on Hungary as a nod to her heritage, or someone named Mauricio who wrote in Portuguese but jokingly registered as being from Mauritius.)

 

Expect Brazilian Portuguese dictionaries to add "orkut" to upcoming editions. O Globo, Rio's biggest daily newspaper, refers to it without further explanation. And the Brazilian media routinely measures the popularity of music groups and actors by the number of user communities dedicated to them on Orkut.

 

"Surto," a popular comedic play showing in Rio de Janeiro, is peppered with references to Orkut. And the site's jargon has entered the Brazilian lexicon, like "scrap" (pronounced "SKRAH-pee" or "SHKRAH-pee"), meaning a note that one user leaves in another's virtual scrapbook for everyone — including jealous boyfriends and girlfriends and curious suitors — to see.

 

But the sheer popularity of Orkut, which people can join by invitation only, has had several unexpected consequences. Almost as soon as Brazilians started taking over Orkut in 2004 — and long before April 2005, when Google made Orkut available in Portuguese — English-speaking users formed virulently anti-Brazilian communities like "Too Many Brazilians on Orkut."

 

And, more darkly, Orkut's success has made it a popular vehicle for child pornographers, pedophiles and racist and anti-Semitic groups, according to Brazilian prosecutors and nonprofit groups. Hatemongering on Orkut has also been decried in the United States and elsewhere, but it is in Brazil where the biggest effort is under way to halt the problem and confront Google's seemingly tight-lipped attitude.

 

SaferNet Brasil, a nongovernmental organization founded late last year, tracks human rights violations on Orkut and has generated much press coverage of illegal activity on the site. (Many forms of racist speech are outlawed in Brazil.)

 

SaferNet's president, Thiago Nunes de Oliveira, a professor of cyberlaw at the Catholic University of Salvador, said the problem had exploded in the last few months. "In 45 days of work, we identified 5,000 people who were using the Internet, and principally Orkut, to distribute images of explicit sex with children," he said. And that was aside from the racists, neo-Nazis and other hate groups the organization found.

 

In February, after several failed attempts to contact Google's Brazil office, Mr. Nunes de Oliveira said, SaferNet Brasil filed a complaint with federal prosecutors in São Paulo. Prosecutors summoned Google's Brazilian sales staff to a meeting on March 10 and asked them for help identifying users breaking Brazilian human rights laws.

 

Google declined a reporter's requests for a direct interview with Mr. Buyukkokten, but a spokeswoman forwarded some of Mr. Buyukkokten's responses by e-mail. The Brazilian office, he said, handles ad sales and does not even work with Orkut, which produces no revenue. "Orkut prohibits illegal activity (such as child pornography) as well as hate speech and advocating violence," he wrote. "We will remove such content from Orkut when we are notified."

 

But Mr. Nunes de Oliveira said that removing the content was not what they were asking for. "The incapacity of the authorities to investigate these crimes is principally the lack of cooperation by Google in identifying those users," he said. He also worried that Google was not archiving evidence of crimes as it deleted offending pages.

[vava]

.... but isn't taking an action against Turkish business owners and/or employees, even if secondary to the matter and in a "Sorry, not personal, is business" sort of way, going too far? That they send money home or pay taxes or such - this is also true for Armenians with Turkish citizenship who still have family in Turkey. Do you shun them, too? What are they in their turn to do?

 

Well, it's not necessarily a matter of "shunning" them per se. They have made their choice; I shall make mine. Where alternatives exist, I see no reason to directly support the economy of of a country that is econimically hostile to Armenia.

 

I think that for it to be all or none and for it to continue to be a valid reason throughout if directly involving other persons - after all it is one thing to not buy products and cause the apricot processing factory loss and indirectly cost people their jobs or income and another to directly take such action - some things have to be able to be universal, at least in theory. So now there are also first instances where such doesn't hold.

 

I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to ask here. Could you please explain?

[vava]

I have to say that intention and consequence find a greatr dissociation in your actions.

- boycotting Walmart, Nike, or favouring Canadian Tire, "buying Canadian" and other similar acts sound good but make no economic sense. First because were you to act in accordance to this rationale across the board you wouldn´t fill up your tank, hell you wouldn´t even have a car, you wouldn´t wear almost any clothes, you would not buy at any ethnic stores, you couldn´t buy a computer and on and on. If one is not to act rationally when purchasing goods and services it will just mean transfering an undue part of your income to someone else.

 

Hi Boghos

 

I understand your point. However, I was perhaps not very clear - in my examples it's not an outright boycott of all imported goods/foreign retailers etc. I neglected to mention my preference in purchasing "local" for me is a guideline that applies whenever suitable alternatives exist:

 

I shall choose a local supplier over a foreign multinational, an independant farmer's market over a chain supermarket, Armenian produced goods/services vs. those hailing from Turkey, environmentally friendly products vs. products that may be harmful, organic foods vs. processed/refined foods and so forth. Each purchase we make is accompanied by a choice.

 

I am by no means perfect and I probably do violate my own "guidelines" occasionally, but the point is as consumers, we can guide industry to a certain extent. For example: Yes, organic foods are more expensive, but they are clearly a healthier option. If we continue to purchase these products, educate the buying public, and lobby for better/more precise labelling laws - eventually organic products may find a greater niche in the marketplace - manufacture the demand to bring down the price. The same can apply for goods from Turkey - if due sto some "boycott pressure" from the local Greeks and Armenians, my local market notices that his Bulgarian preserves sell better than the Turkish counterparts - then it's been not only an effective grass roots initiative (to boycott) but it's also been beneficial for the market itself.

 

Now when the suitable alternatives do not exist, we are left with another type of choice. Abstain from purchasing altogether, or some form of compromise. In most cases it's the latter - I don't think we're at the point where we can avoid buying fuel, for instance.

 

 

EDIT: Please don't confuse me with some leftist, militant activist. I'm no such thing - but I do believe that in today's western societies, we cannot underestimate the power of the consumer. Yes we're "the little guy", but we can make choices.

Edited May 3, 2006 by vava

[Boghos]

Vahe jan,

 

I agree with you. I buy organic, I just found out that some Cadbury chocolate I bought at duty free was made in Turkey and that means i won´t be eating it. Individual choice is all i am in favour of. My point, and you clearly understood it well, is more related to the empowerment of the individual but unrelated to collectivist aspirations.

Edited May 4, 2006 by Boghos

[Stormig]

Tsk tsk... The Portuguese or aloof Armenians help the Sabanci Museum earn off of Gulbenkian's collection. Protest at once.

 

http://www.thy.com/en-INT/corporate/skylif...cle.aspx?mkl=90

 

Where The Written Word Remains

‘The Art of the Book from East to West and Memories of the Ottoman World’, an exhibition recently opened at the Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum, presents a magnificent cross-section of the journey of the book through time and culture.

 

 

I t was once a work of art. The palace masters that produced it received the highest wages of their day and were regarded as artisans of the first rank. Its every detail demanded a different kind of expertise, knowledge and experience. Easily carried, it passed from hand to hand all over the world throughout history. As for its contents, they opened the doors of a completely different world for whoever possessed it. Time passed and, eventually, began to work against it. Although it has not fallen out of use, the thing called the book has fallen out of the high favor in which it was once held, adapting itself to the times by becoming commonplace.

The title of the exhibition, ‘The Art of the Book from East to West and Memories of the Ottoman World’, inevitably sets us thinking about the journey of the book through time and culture. For, at this new exhibition by the Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum, what you remember most of all is that ‘the book is a work of art’. The manuscripts and Korans in the exhibition are so impressive that, even without understanding what is written in them, you can’t help but be struck by this most aesthetically pleasing and spellbinding aspect of the culture created by man down the ages.

 

A BIBLIOPHILE’S COLLECTION

In the wake of its, for Istanbul, seismic Picasso exhibition, the Sakıp Sabancı Museum is now hosting the collection of Calouste Gulbenkian, one of the greatest collectors in the world. Dr. Nazan Ölçer, director of the museum, which is playing host to

111 selected works from Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, emphasizes two important aspects of the Gulbenkian collection that formed the point of departure for the exhibition; namely that the works of Ottoman-Islamic art in the collection of the Istanbul-born Gulbenkian are of great importance for Eastern culture and that the collection contains only the best of the best.

Gulbenkian, who lived in Portugal and whose collection is housed at a museum named for him in Lisbon, was born in Turkey and grew up in a typical non-Muslim Ottoman family. This naturally shaped the direction of his tastes. One of the most salient characteristics of Gulbenkian, who assembled his collection during a specific period between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, is that he clearly identifies the source of each new addition, to the point of including even the correspondence that accompanied the acquisition process. The collection, which was assembled according to strict principles and brooked no second-class works, contains not a single piece that is in poor condition or has suffered the depredations of time. What’s more, this is a collection that was developed with absolutely no distinctions of East vs West, despite the fact that an Ottoman flavor is clearly detectable. According to Nazan Ölçer, exhibiting the Gulbenkian collection is eminently in line with the Sakıp Sabancı Museum’s mission: “At this museum we are trying to exhibit the most distinguished names in western art, such as Picasso, and Rodin, who will come in June. At the same time, we are also continuing to bring works of relevance to Turkish art and history. I could therefore say that we have a dual point of view, a dual exhibition policy. And the Gulbenkian collection is in this sense very important for us.”

 

THE BOOK AS A WORK OF ART

There are books in the exhibition which are not often displayed even at the Gulbenkian Museum, works the permanent exhibition of which is not advisable on account of their extreme fragility. What we have here is a collection of extremely rare tomes from the 13th to the 20th century. Among them are manuscripts copied for European royalty and books illustrated by famous painters as well as hand-written Korans and other important Islamic manuscripts. Furthermore, as we approach the 20th century, we see, alongside Japanese books, volumes that reflect movements in art such as art nouveau and art deco. Not only that, but the books are accompanied by a goodly number of Iznik tiles, velvets, silk brocades and embroidery. The result is a 111-piece exhibition entitled ‘The Art of the Book from East to West and Memories of the Ottoman World / Masterpieces of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon’.

“Exhibiting books is difficult,” says Ölçer, “both because of the conditions of preservation and because of the necessity of appealing to a narrow circle of people. But I believe all that is going to change with this exhibition, because the beautiful, decorative bindings of the books on display are going to remind us of an aesthetic pleasure we have long forgotten in today’s technology-intensive world. Books nourish and edify us not only by their contents but also as works of art. The most valuable objects in the Ottoman palace, for example, were books. Those who were employed in the art of the book were more richly munerated than any other artisans. With its contents, binding, illuminations and calligraphy, the book was regarded, indeed exalted, as an art in and of itself. The exhibition is going to serve to remind us of that, namely that the book is a work of art.” According to Ölçer, the exhibition is also going to compel us to reconsider the book and our changing relationship with it over time.

 

A MEETING OF TWO BUSINESSMEN

As one tours this exhibition, it is impossible not to sense the collector’s passion, a passion that sends mankind on a quest for the beautiful and the aesthetically pleasing. We see with our own eyes how imperative it is that no beautiful creation of any kind be lost. At the same time, visitors to the exhibition will also not fail to notice that the Gulbenkian collection exhibits all the characteristic features of the common taste and spirit embodied over the centuries by the Ottomans’ vibrant multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural society.

While we are on the subject of the collector’s passion, I should not conclude without mentioning another striking feature of the exhibition: Gulbenkian was a rich man, a well-known oil merchant who owned five percent of Iraq’s famous Mosul oil fields. Exactly like Sabancı, another famous and successful businessman. The exhibition therefore offers the added boon of bringing together these two illustrious businessmen who were also passionate collectors.

From 15 April to 28 May at the Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum.

[Arpa]

Of course!

When a so-called Armenian with a “christian” name like Galoust (the COMING) flaunts around with FURKISH surname like gul(f**k) beng(f**k)-ian.!**

What do you expect?

** We have native words for “gul”.. It is “vard” and “beng” is ”khal”. With people surnames like “Gul-benk-ian” , a f***k*n servant/slave of Mehmet, who needs Armen Yerevanian??

And. ..We celebrate people with surnames like "Balioz-(bokh)[shithouses of Yerevan]-ju)-ian!!!

Edited May 22, 2006 by Arpa

[vava]

Of course!

When a so-called Armenian with a “christian” name like Galoust (the COMING) flaunts around with FURKISH surname like gul(f**k) beng(f**k)-ian.!**

What do you expect?

** We have native words for “gul”.. It is “vard” and “beng” is ”khal”. With people surnames like “Gul-benk-ian” , a f***k*n servant/slave of Mehmet, who needs Armen Yerevanian??

And. ..We celebrate people with surnames like "Balioz-(bokh)[shithouses of Yerevan]-ju)-ian!!!

 

Arpa, please chill out dude. It's merely a name. No need to go berserk....

[Stormig]

Well?

[vava]

Well?

 

If you're referring to the exhibition of the Gubenkian collection, I fail to see any relevance to grass roots consumer decision making. Art should be shared, and it is my understanding that most of the works would be of interest to a Turkish public due to their Islamic nature. Why shouldn't the museums share their collections?

[gamavor]

Boycotting Turkish goods should be not only Armenian concern but international one. The international community due to political reasons is not capable of enforcing anything on Turkey. Power structures like the EU and USA government are absolutely handicapped in dealing with the Turkish government. In the same time a combine effort on part of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds and some segments in the Balkans and in the Arab world could bring positive results.

 

There are some other things in my mind which I call "entrapment of Turkish capital", which is an extremely effective measure against frivolous Turkish violations of WTO rules, but I'm not going to share them in public

[mankurt]

Boycotting Turkish goods?

 

It is a foolish idea for Armenians in Armenia , because most of the dry foods(biscuits,crackers,chocolate vs...) and canned goods in Armenia are made in TURKEY !.. Of course they don't get them directly , they get them over Iran or Georgia but for much higher prices . Also they get many Turkish made equipment like refrigerators , ovens vs.. over these countries. Armenians eat the food of their enemies. There are many Turkish made goods in Armenian black markets from clothes to machine parts.

 

Tell Armenia to boycott Turkish goods , considering their conditions if they boycott they would starve in a year or so.

 

Also, why Armenians want their Turkish border to be opened ? To get Turkish goods of course.

[vava]

Boycotting Turkish goods?

 

It is a foolish idea for Armenians in Armenia , because most of the dry foods(biscuits,crackers,chocolate vs...) and canned goods in Armenia are made in TURKEY !.. Of course they don't get them directly , they get them over Iran or Georgia but for much higher prices . Also they get many Turkish made equipment like refrigerators , ovens vs.. over these countries. Armenians eat the food of their enemies. There are many Turkish made goods in Armenian black markets from clothes to machine parts.

 

Tell Armenia to boycott Turkish goods , considering their conditions if they boycott they would starve in a year or so.

 

Also, why Armenians want their Turkish border to be opened ? To get Turkish goods of course.

 

Everyone wants the border to be opened, and normalised trade to resume between the two countires. Why would anyone disagree? But if Turkish policies are meant to "punish" Armenians, than I don't see any harm in Armenians (& Diasporans) to buy alternate products whenever possible. There's no sense in supporting the border closure, is there?

 

I really don't think it's foolish at all - wherever adequate alternatives exist, the effort will be well worth it - and will send a message (at a minimum) to the international communities.

[gamavor]

The only foolish thing is buying turkish goods and in the case of Armenians it is like hara-kiri. The boycott is a conscious act. You don't buy certain goods not because they are low quality (that too:)), but because of a conviction that it is wrong for some reason.

 

It is FOOLISH to buy foreign goods triple the price from an enemy country, while in the same time boycotting these goods may help developing alternative products preferably local brands, which create local jobs and help local economy.

 

Armenians in Armenia are buying turkish not because they are good but because they are competitive. They are cheap. Turkish economy was booming in the early 90's because of unprecedented demand for "brand names" in the former communist countries. It was evident that with increase of standard of living turkish goods in former eastern block countries became very unpopular.

 

Just to exemplify what I’m saying, - friend of mine has a production line for Danish cakes and in the last three years his turnover increased 10 fold. His product is EU approved and holds certification of excellence of many agencies. Each week two containers go to Yerevan and four to Moscow.

 

 

Just as a side note. Why you think Bush suddenly jumped over the illegal Mexicans?

Because last year, 50 billion dollars were the amount of Mexican-Americans retributions to the Mexican economy. Money, that otherwise would have been spent locally!

[Armnocirc]

The only foolish thing is buying turkish goods and in the case of Armenians it is like hara-kiri. The boycott is a conscious act. You don't buy certain goods not because they are low quality (that too:)), but because of a conviction that it is wrong for some reason.

 

It is FOOLISH to buy foreign goods triple the price from an enemy country, while in the same time boycotting these goods may help developing alternative products preferably local brands, which create local jobs and help local economy.

 

Armenians in Armenia are buying turkish not because they are good but because they are competitive. They are cheap. Turkish economy was booming in the early 90's because of unprecedented demand for "brand names" in the former communist countries. It was evident that with increase of standard of living turkish goods in former eastern block countries became very unpopular.

 

Just to exemplify what I’m saying, - friend of mine has a production line for Danish cakes and in the last three years his turnover increased 10 fold. His product is EU approved and holds certification of excellence of many agencies. Each week two containers go to Yerevan and four to Moscow.

Just as a side note. Why you think Bush suddenly jumped over the illegal Mexicans?

Because last year, 50 billion dollars were the amount of Mexican-Americans retributions to the Mexican economy. Money, that otherwise would have been spent locally!

 

Recently Jons market in Glendale was selling pomogranate juice made in Azerbaijan. I wrote a complaint to the management asking to remove the product immidiately but they ingnored and continue to sell it. I don't know what to do next.

 

BTW, Gamavor, I've sent you a personal message re. circumcision issue among Armenians. Have you read it?

[vava]

BTW, Gamavor, I've sent you a personal message re. circumcision issue among Armenians. Have you read it?

 

THat's an interesting first post. Welcome - i guess...

[Stormig]

If you're referring to the exhibition of the Gubenkian collection, I fail to see any relevance to grass roots consumer decision making. Art should be shared, and it is my understanding that most of the works would be of interest to a Turkish public due to their Islamic nature. Why shouldn't the museums share their collections?

Rather than a matter of "should share or should not share," I think it is directly relevant where economic considerations are concerned and should thus raise the same reaction as any activity doing business in/with/for Turkey.

[Takoush]

Not only that Azat, but the real effect of a boycott can only be fulfiled when WE stop doing business with companies that DO business with turks.

I've met an Armenian businessman who hired few Turks. When I asked him why he hires Turks, he said something to the effect that they are generally good workers and also cheap. While this might be true I still couldn't understand why he didn't hire jobless Armenians and than I heard the biggest BS ever. He said that he is paying them minimum wage and the situation will remain like this,... in other words they will not grow.

Yes Gams; in N.J. as well, some Armenian restaurants only hired Turkish workers because apparently they said that they are good workers and know how to cook well. A lot of BS, I agree. Not only that, there would be a great many Armenians who are out of a job and probably would love to fill these positions.

 

What some of us don't want to remember that the Turkish gov't now for 15 or so years are blockading our Armenia, and at the very least we could and should boycott buying their products, promoting their products, working with them or employing them.

Edited May 29, 2006 by Anahid Takouhi

[hytga]

Anahit jan. es artsivt u ariutst inchi en sents hognats?

 

btw. i don't buy turkish products. It won't hurt their economy, but it will help those whom i prefer.

Edited May 29, 2006 by hytga

[Takoush]

Anahit jan. es artsivt u ariutst inchi en sents hognats?

 

btw. i don't buy turkish products. It won't hurt their economy, but it will help those whom i prefer.

Eh Hytga hayrenagits paregam, himag artsivs u ariutss aveli gaydar u ujov gerevan kez?

 

Ou nayev yergrort naxatasutyunet veraperyal turkerin shad badshadj eh!!!

Edited May 29, 2006 by Anahid Takouhi

[hytga]

es mek@ vonts a?

 

Haiastani artadranq areq vor sents voskezots ariuts u artsiv unenanq

Turqakan arneq hazive eti irants egugi manikur lini, baits haeri hamar tarberutiuny avel mets klini

[Takoush]

es mek@ vonts a?

 

Haiastani artadranq areq vor sents voskezots ariuts u artsiv unenanq

Turqakan arneq hazive eti irants egugi manikur lini, baits haeri hamar tarberutiuny avel mets klini

vordeghen kedar ays embleme hytga? Imes Arm. Rev. Federationen keda.