Does anybody know WHY??!....

[Kazza]

.....We accepted and kept Christianity and all our surrounding courties had accepted and kept being Muslim?

[Arpa]

My guess is it was an assertion of our despise of our neighbors to the east and south and our europhilia. It still goes on. It is no secret that Armenians have alway looked to the west as our soulmates and our model of civilization and rejected our immediate neighbors as backward savages. Regardless of what anybody says our conversion to Christianity and declaring it as state religion had very little to do with religion (I am not convinced that Armenians are really Christian in the strictest sense). It was a contest with Rome which was fast moving to accept Chrsitianiny. Our move was strictly a political one, we beat the Romans as the first Christian nation, but sadly, even that did not enamor us to the Romans and the West who betrayed us time after time. They are still doing it. When will we ever learn?

Another reason why we chose Christianity while our neigbors chose more marshall religions is it suited our pacifistic and non aggressive character while the more warlike Persians, Arabs and others chose Islam because Christianity did not suit their culture of conquest and pillage. The Turks' case is living proof of that.

[Harut]

Qristos yekav yev asats "Sireq irar".

isk hayer@ irar sirelu hamar xelqner@ irants@ chi.

[gamavor]

Good question Kazza!

 

The answer is: Christos hariav ee merelotz!

 

Christ has risen from the dead!

[koko]

I agree that one of the reasons was that the civilized culture of armenia and armenians goes hand in hand with the chrstian ideólogi, or at least the way christianity should be in theory.blabla.

But the persians was not at all a worrier nation, actually they fought agains the islamic invation for many hundreds of years, untill they couldn't fight against it.

 

If im not misstaking it was the arabic invasion.

[MJ]

I think it is not a quite accurate statement. At the time we have accepted Christianity, all our neighbors except Persians have also accepted it.

One may say that some of them ( Aluanians, in particular) later have converted into Islam. Yes, but... the majority of Armenians have also done so and have assimilated. Only a minor part of Armenians has "stayed" Christian.

 

And obviously, as Arpa says, the acceptance of Christianity by Armenians as a state religion has been a political move. I think it was a fatally faulty political move (while I am for Christianity) and has destroyed Armenia.

 

Those who know the history of Armenia would know, for example, that Armenians have suffered far greater in the hands of Byzantine then the Arabs, for example.

 

At the end of the day, the fundamental question which remains to be answered, I think, is, "who destroyed Armenia?"

[Arpa]

Are you sure we are talking about the same Persia? Where did you get that version of history? Are the Persians in the business of santizing history as some other people that we know? Armenians are no saints either when it comes to hsitriography. i.e., show me even one passage where our histotians address our mistakes and failures. And if they do, it is always the fault of the OTHERS.

Click on the URLs below and see. There are numerous other sites about Persian empires of different times.

If we were to believe that Islam was jammed down their throat, it probably was, then how do we explaine modern Iran's jealous attitude towards the (alien)faith when gthey act as if they invented it and are the sole guardians and propagaters thereof?

Armenians are no different in that respect when we act as if we invented this new fangled religion which even the originators rejected and still do. Do they know something we don't know? There is nothing wrong with Chjristianity. If one must have a religion Christianity would probably be the one to have, but our perception of it and using it to totally replace our heritage is what made us what we are now. The mughtiest nations are Christian as well but they know whwn to use sword effectively while we melted our swords down to make crosses...

 

That has been our CROSS.

 

http://www.livius.org/pen-pg/persia_map/persia_map.gif

 

http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h02p+c.htm

[Harut]

i didn't know that Arax used to be in Central Asia.

[Arpa]

Bravo Harut. Very persceptive of you. I noticed that but I was not concentrating. WE are so accustomed to see "Arax" that it it didn't even dawn on me. However. We learn something every day. That river is either coming out of or going into the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. Take a look at the URL below.

 

What'a you know!!

 

Aralsk??? Arax??

 

http://visearth.ucsd.edu/VisE_Int/aralsea/...M21-735-46.html

[sen_Vahan]

"My guess is it was an assertion of our despise of our neighbors to the east and south and our europhilia. It still goes on. It is no secret that Armenians have alway looked to the west as our soulmates and our model of civilization and rejected our immediate neighbors as backward savages. "

 

Our neighbours considered us a progressive community in their countries(though not always showed that). Europe was the most progressive part of the world for a long time, and the Europhilia of Armenians is understandable. By the way, if you mean the times of early Christianity then there could not be europhilia.

 

"Regardless of what anybody says our conversion to Christianity and declaring it as state religion had very little to do with religion (I am not convinced that Armenians are really Christian in the strictest sense)."

 

Usually countries accept state religions for mainly political reasons. But the reasons may be purely political only for some time after which a new religion may bring much progress.And show me a real Christian nation, please.

 

"It was a contest with Rome which was fast moving to accept Chrsitianiny. Our move was strictly a political one, we beat the Romans as the first Christian nation, but sadly, even that did not enamor us to the Romans and the West who betrayed us time after time. They are still doing it. When will we ever learn?"

 

True. But what is strange or unusual here? Russia that accepted Christianity from Byzantine also had a lot of serious conflicts with Byzantine.

 

"Another reason why we chose Christianity while our neigbors chose more marshall religions is it suited our pacifistic and non aggressive character while the more warlike Persians, Arabs and others chose Islam because Christianity did not suit their culture of conquest and pillage. The Turks' case is living proof of that."

 

Christianity may also be a "religion of conquest". Russia accepted it and became one of the strongest countries in the world. There are many other examples. And do have an idea what would happen if Armenians did not accept the Christianity in that surrounding?

[koko]

[Harut]

Dear Arpa,

 

actually the name of that river is Syrdarya and it flows into Aral sea. the one entering the sea from the south is Amudarya.

 

i think Aralsk is a wrongly translated word from russian: in Russian Aral Sea is "Aralskoye More", where "-skoye" is a sufix equavalent to "-yan" in Armenian (Aralyan Tsov).

[sen_Vahan]

Aralsk?? There is Aral'skoe more but I do not think Aral has something to do with Araks. Maybe I did not get something but in my opinion Harut is right saying that it was a wrong translation from Russian.

[Arpa]

Thank you Harut and Vahan for your input.

Aralsk as in Arxangelsk(Archangel).

Even though I don't know Russian I did figure as much. In fact, if you look at the URL you will notice that Aralsk is not a river at all, it is a port town on the Little Aral Sea. I did not elaborate as the evidence was self explanatory. As to my original URL in re Persian Empire, I did take the data with a grain of salt knowing full well that there is no other River Arax. Whoever composed that map did not, did not have to research. How many really research data presented to them on a tarnished silver plate, so to speak. How many question the fact that the Turkish/turkified name for Mt. Ararat, Agri Dagh is not really Turkish, neither the mountain nor the name. It is simply a turkified form of Aghouri Ler named for the Village of Agouri/Agori that is still evident despite numerous diasters, natural or man made.

As a rule disinterested people take unreserached, uncorroborated info as "gospel truth", but for those of us who know better some of the garbage passed on as historical and geographical fact is not only a challenge to correct but, more so to, to provide the correct version.

Note: Read story about Turkey to Place Noah's Ark ... When did the Turks begin to believe in the Noah Story?

Pretty soon they will find a way to "prove" that Noah was a Turk.

 

It is incumbent on us to read between the lines and let the world know of the blatant lies masquerading as history.

Keep up the bunko squad.