as i see it - Pt. III

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, October 31, 2002

******************************

A rose may be a rose but a war is not just a war.

A recent study states that as many as

two million German women (aged 12 to 80)

may have been raped by the Soviets

at the end of World War II.

As a result, cases of syphilis, botched abortions,

broken marriages, suicides, and illegitimate children

(most of whom were abandoned) rose dramatically

in postwar Germany.

On being confronted with these statistics,

a Soviet diplomat by the name of Michael Grabar

is said to have dismissed them as hostile propaganda

and commented: "Everyone tries to rewrite history

in his own way."

According to some Armenian historians and pundits,

this comment also applies to our own historians.

***

Spinoza tells us good and evil have no objective existence

because they are not properties but relations.

Ask any victim and he will tell you otherwise.

Bear with me and I will give you my own explanation

of good and evil.

Astronomers speak of the visible universe

thus implying there may be another

that so far has remained beyond our vision.

Others speak of parallel universes.

How many? Is it two or two thousand?

Or perhaps an infinite number?

Will we ever have the answer

to this and similar questions

dealing with the dimensions of reality?

Now then, if we compare the immensity,

majesty, infinity, and eternity of the universe and its creator,

a hundred million years are as a fraction of a second.

It follows that all of human history

acquires such petty and insignificant dimensions

that good and evil vanish into nothingness.

If you find this and similar metaphysical speculations boring,

I for one will not disagree with you.

*

Count Dracula was not the bloodthirsty monster

portrayed in Hollywood movies,

states a Canadian academic,

who after visiting Rumania eight times

has written a book on the subject.

Dracula was and remains a national hero to Rumanians

because, the good professor informs us,

he impaled his enemies, including women and children,

on sharp sticks. His enemies, in case you didn't know,

were Turks.

[ara baliozian]

Friday, November 01, 2002

*******************************

If we were to list and add up

all the blunders and crimes committed

by organized religions, we shall have to conclude that

there is no limit to human arrogance and gullibility –

arrogance on the part of the few,

gullibility on the part of the many.

Where there is a sucker born every second,

there will be others up to no good.

*

A snake may shed its skin but not its venom.

Keep that in mind next time you think

of forgiving and loving your enemy.

*

A man who refuses to open his mind:

in what way is he different from the king of Greek mythology

who blinded himself?

*

Not to understand in a world where

others understand is bad enough,

but what is infinitely worse is to reject explanations

without even considering their validity.

*

United we stand, divided we fall.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Just because the solutions to our problems are clichés,

it doesn't mean we should reject or ignore them.

On the contrary.

What is the use of novelty or originality

if it leads us to procrastination and perdition?

Does a man of faith reject the daily repetition

of familiar prayers?

*

Some fools may be shamed into silence

but not fools who are also persistent buggers.

Obvious, you say. But sometimes it pays

to repeat the obvious.

*

Should I be flattered that far wiser men than myself

continue to read and reject me?

Am I a threat to their magic spells and abracadabra?

*

On the subject of nationalism and patriotism:

let us rise from the abstract to the concrete

(as our friend the Marxists used to say):

let us speak of specific nationalists and patriots.

If the man is good his patriotism will also be good.

But if the man is bad….

Hitler was a dedicated nationalist and patriot

and it was Stalin who called World War II

the Patriotic War – he even authorized the publication

of such patriotic/nationalist writers as Raffi

(banned until then) in order to promote his war effort,

which claimed 350,000 Armenian lives.

*

To be evil and to think of oneself as a paragon of virtue:

the tricks men play on themselves are without number.

Lunacy, they say, feeds on itself;

and neither the depth nor the width of hate can be measured

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, November 02, 2002

********************************

The first time I criticized Canada

in the presence of Canadians

I was kindly told to go back where I came from.

Where did I come from?

Greece, the cradle of democracy that

even in its Golden Age (5th century BC)

executed, persecuted, and drove into exile

some of its ablest men as surely

as Stalin’s Kremlin; and more recently

its political career veered from corrupt monarchy,

to corrupt democracy, civil war,

and a coup d’etat by a fascist junta.

*

Because fools have always outnumbered the wise throughout history,

the wise now prefer to keep silent on the grounds that

it is better to be ignored than crucified, poisoned, and assassinated.

*

We are carefully educated to demonize our enemies

as surely as they are educated to return the compliment.

In short, we are products of the same system.

*

After reading Raffi’s KHENT as an orphan,

Gourgen Mahari writes in his memoirs,

he couldn't sleep, and he thought of

Queen Semiramis (Shamiram in Armenian),

the corpse of an old Turkish woman,

and a black cat. It was midnight.

He got out of bed and wrote a poem

whose last line read "Let me lie in your arms and die."

If Mahari had written in French

he would be identified as a precursor of Breton and surrealism.

*

Writing has this in common with running a bordello:

you cannot always choose your clientele.

*

Learning from your enemies is the best revenge.

What have we learned from the Turks?

A great many things except solidarity.

What have they learned from us?

They didn't have to learn anything:

they were our lords and masters;

they used us.

*

I prefer the braying of an ass

to the speechifying of a partisan,

and the bark of a dog to the sermon of a preacher.

A wise man once said that

the Pope and Martin Luther reminded him

of two whores discussing chastity.

*

To crap on someone else’s thoughts

does not make you a better thinker.

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, November 03, 2002

***************************

Confusing prejudice with divine revelation

or promoting hatred in the name of religion

very probably has claimed more victims

than serial killers, organized crime,

drunk drivers, and cancer combined.

*

Organized religion might as well be synonymous

with organized insanity.

*

No one can be as unreachable as a fool

who is infatuated with his own ignorance.

*

If you lie down with swine

it will be a miracle if you get up smelling like roses.

*

According to a 19th-century American traveller

in the Middle East: "It is often very difficult to distinguish

a Jew, an Armenian, a Turk or a Greek, one from the other….

It is a common saying, and likely it has some basis in fact:

that it takes the wit of four Turks

to overreach one Frank;

two Franks to cheat one Greek;

two Greeks to cheat one Jew;

and six Jews to cheat one Armenian."

[ara baliozian]

Monday, November 04, 2002

*******************************

There are reasonable men with whom

you may agree or disagree;

but with a nuisance you can only hope

if you ignore him he will go away.

*

It is written: "A just ruler and an unsodomized courtier:

since they do not exist, looking for them is a waste of time."

*

To say "It is a nice place to visit"

is not to praise but to caution with the unspoken warning:

"but you wouldn't want to live there,"

or "not fit for human habitation."

Likewise, to say Armenians are smarter than

Turks, Franks, Greeks and Jews is to warn unwary travellers

to keep their distance.

*

An Armenian-American professor of sociology

once told me that the only customers of an Armenian grocer

in his predominantly Armenian neighborhood were odars.

*

It is said: "If you lie, pimp, cheat, kiss ass, beg, flatter,

betray, and bear false witness,

you will enjoy the friendship of princes and wealthy merchants."

*

Most Christians are Christians because they were born

in a predominantly Christian environment.

What this means is that we don't choose our religion,

geography does.

*

It is written: "It is our duty as men of honor

to fart in the beards of the arrogant and the mighty of this world."

*

It is written: "If you want to beget a jackass,

marry a mullah’s daughter."

*

Nothing can be as educational as writing for a hostile audience.

Perhaps I should dedicated my next book

(tentatively titled: BEING ARMENIAN: IN THE COMPANY

OF JACKASSES) to my critics.

*

It is written: "Speak no word of truth so as not to get into trouble."

*

In his book CATS I HAVE KNOWN AND LOVE,

Pierre Berton writes he once had a cat

by the name of Meow Tse Tung

who was carried off by an owl

and dropped across a river.

Listed as missing-in-action and presumed dead,

he eventually found his way home.

[Sip]

I fully agree!

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, November 05, 2002

***********************************

There is a natural tendency in all losers

to ascribe their defeats on outside factors

and in doing so to perpetuate them.

*

Muslims believes a good woman is obedient

to both God and her husband. What this means is that

man and God are engaged in the same enterprise –

that of enslaving women.

Some day if Muslim women rise,

they will castrate their men as surely

as the French beheaded their king.

*

It is written: "Don't set up house in a street

where there are minarets, so that you may not be given headaches

by the screaming of the muezzins."

*

It is written: "Beware of your enemy,

and beware a thousand times of your friend;

for often a friend becomes an enemy

and then he knows best how to harm you."

*

It has been said that the East

is more religious, mystical, metaphysical.

By contrast, the West is more pragmatic, scientific, skeptical.

Armenians, who happen to be in the middle,

appear to have learned the worst from both camps.

To justify their partisan or parochial loyalties,

they adopt metaphysical reasons

which are not easy to refute, hence, their longevity.

But to promote their own interests,

they adopt pragmatic methods,

hence, such phenomena as full-page ads

in the NEW YORK TIMES promoting

the sale of Oriental rugs in our cathedrals.

(Some of these rugs, I am informed by eyewitnesses,

bear a label that says "Made in Turkey.")

Dear Mr. Kipling: You were not quite right

when you said "East is East, and West is West,

and never the twain shall meet."

The twain have met in us and the result, alas,

cannot be said to be an edifying spectacle.

[ara baliozian]

A USELESS BUNCH

According to an 11th-century traveller

by the name of Ibn Butlan:

"Armenians would be beautiful

were it not for their peculiarly ugly feet,

though they are well built, energetic and strong.

Chastity is rare or absent among them

and thievery widespread.

Avarice is very rare among them,

but they are coarse in nature and speech.

Cleanliness is not in their language.

They are slaves for hard work and service.

This race is untrustworthy even when they are contented,

not to speak of when they are angry.

Their women are useless for pleasure.

In fine, the Armenians are the worst of the whites

as the Zanj are the worst of the blacks.

And how much do they resemble one another

in the strength of their bodies,

their great wickedness, and their coarse natures!"

*

ON CONFORMISM

How well I understand those of my readers who think,

if they don't rock the boat (as I do)

and if they keep their nose clean (as I don't)

no one will bother them

and they will live happily ever after as Armenians.

But to conform is not as easy as it may seem.

Constant adjustment to the prevailing winds

can be a challenge even to the most cunning opportunist.

Consider the history of the USSR:

the system victimized not only dissidents

but also men at the top of the hierarchy.

It is the same in our own environment:

our critics and dissidents

were betrayed, starved, or ignored,

but our bosses and bishops were also

ousted, assassinated, or committed suicide.

So what’s the answer?

There are no final answers.

Life’s options sometimes boil down to

tails you lose, heads I win.

As for the option of non-involvement or assimilation:

it amounts to saying "Let them eat cake!"

with the final "e" deleted –

and we all know what happened to Marie Antoinette.

*

THE MOST UNTEACHABLE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

******************************************************

Panchoonies whose favorite line is "mi kich pogh."

Partisans who have all the answers.

Bigots with gut convictions.

Turkish gypsies who parade

("man gou kan," as Zarian would put it)

as superpatriotic Armenians.

Self-appointed commissars

whose favorite solution to all our problems

is a bullet in the neck.

Bishops and benefactors

who believe they represent

the two most powerful forces in the universe:

God and capital (make it, Capital and god).

[aycemnik]

Ara Berliozyan!

 

TO HAVE HAD AN ARMENIAN EDUCATION

MEANS TO HAVE BEEN SYSTEMATICALLY MORONIZED

 

You were lied to, when given an education. Your education is not an Armenian one.(Get it?)

[sen_Vahan]

Aycemnik,

 

What it means to have an armenian education? You mean to be educated in arm national traditions? Or you mean getting education in armenian institutions?

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, November 06, 2002

**********************************

No one can defy the rules of logic

without paying a price.

Even kings must obey the rules of grammar.

Even revolutions cannot escape the law of dialectic.

Even Marxism became its own contradiction in Stalinism.

And consider the destiny of Christianity or,

for that matter, all organized religions:

from divine revelation to an instrument of the devil.

Why should we be surprised

if our own Turkish gypsies now support

religious hatred, terrorism, and genocide –

all in the name of love, peace, tolerance, and God–

the very same God in whose name we were massacred?

*

Self assessed pundits are phonies,

political elites are moral trash,

and religious leaders are charlatans:

all rules have exceptions

but I have yet to see an exception to these rules.

*

For most of my life what I knew about Armenians

was from Armenian sources.

Now that I have consulted odar sources

I have reached the conclusion that

propaganda penetrates every facet of our perception of ourselves.

As a result, an accurate understanding of reality eludes us.

Confusion and disorientation have become constant companions;

and it is this and nothing else that allows our "betters"

to mislead us into thinking we are in good hands

and we have nothing to worry about,

when in fact the exact opposite is the case:

our "betters" are scum

and they are dragging us to the abyss.

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, November 07, 2002

*******************************

Feeling the need to assert your high IQ

is the surest symptom of a low IQ.

*

Others may speak of structuralism or deconstruction.

We believe in only two valid schools of criticism:

censorship ("Shut up! He explained)

and tit-for-tat (when exposed as a racist,

call your critic a racist).

*

Armenians are smart?

In the bazaar, maybe, sometimes.

But in politics they are on the same level as Gypsies,

with one difference: Armenians have contributed

more victims to world history.

*

It is written: "A [Muslim] teacher was teaching girls how to write.

A sage passed by and said: ‘This teacher is teaching wickedness to the

wicked’"

*

It is written: "Be moderate in your love of your friend,

lest one day he become your enemy.

And be moderate in hating your enemy,

lest one day he become your friend."

[ara baliozian]

Friday, November 08, 2002

*****************************

Kemal Ataturk in a 1924 speech:

"Countries may vary, but civilization is one and for a nation to

progress, it must take part in this one civilization. The decline of the

Ottomans began when, proud of their triumphs over the West, they cut

their ties with the European nations. This was a mistake which we will

not repeat."

Who would have thought possible that eighty years after these words were

spoken there would be not only mullahs and their countless dupes but also

smart Armenians (self-anointed, of course) who would reject this view of

civilization. Allahu akbar!

*

Whenever a reader insults me I console myself by saying that even those

who hate me love reading me. And whenever I analyze our political

problems I invariably run into an idiot who tries to analyze my own

personal problems thus implying

(one) he is himself beyond analysis,

(two) we have no political problems, and

(three) my own personal problems are of greater concern to him than the

problems of the nation.

*

Sayings attributed to the Prophet:

"The unbeliever and the one who kills him

will never meet in Hell."

~

"Whosoever shall try to divide my community,

strike off his head."

~

"If allegiance is sworn to two caliphs,

kill the other."

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, November 09, 2002

*******************************

When Talaat became infatuated with a famous Viennese operetta singer, he

tried to seduce her by dropping a huge diamond in her soup during a

banquet in her honor. But it so happened that she was too hungry and

absent-minded and choked on the diamond, and, writes an eyewitness: "She

spewed out the soup and the diamond, turned round on him and slapped him,

calling him a clumsy pig, an oaf, an imbecile. Why had he not given it in

a bouquet or a box?"

*

I have been wrong many times and I have been right sometimes and I have

made more enemies when right.

*

It is written: "The ear is not the eye. Hearing a tale is not the same as

seeing and believing."

*

A word of warning to our crypto-fascist anti-Semites: Next time you plan

to express an opinion, consult Hitler’s MEIN KAMPF and if you find it

there, hold your tongue.

*

If Armenians are sweet, why is it that no Armenian poet has ever written

a sonnet titled "Yes im anoush hayrenagitsneri"?

*

I have learned nothing from my critics and I doubt if they have learned

anything from me, except perhaps to ask themselves before they insult a

fellow Armenian: "What if he knows how to take it?" and much worse: "What

if he can dish it out?"

*

Did I say critics? Make it hooligans.

Did I say Armenians? Make it Turkish gypsies.

Did I say Arabs? Make it mullahs’ dupes.

*

It is written: "You come from a fetid drop and you go to a place of dust

and worms and in the end you will give an account to the Almighty,

blessed be He."

*

It is written: "Who is wise? He who learns from everyone. Who is mighty?

He who conquers his own passions. Who is rich? He who is content with his

portion. Who is honored? He who honors mankind."

[nairi]

Aycemnik, they say a drunk person never feels drunk. I think you could say the same about a brainwashed person. Formal education, regardless of its nationality, is there to systematically brainwash us. I hope you know that.

 

Ara jan, great posts again.

 

Nairi

[Accelerated]

Nairi jan, I am afraid they are very wrong. A drunk person knows too well whats going on, escpessially when he/she can no longer SEE! LMAO!

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, November 10, 2002

*****************************

To Armenians who brag about their superior brand of Armenianism or

patriotism (and they happen to be a dime a dozen) I ask: "Has it ever

occurred to you that you may well be a source of embarrassment to all

honest men?" And if you were to say "Who cares?" I ask: "Isn't that

another symptom of your hooliganism? The honest opinion of an honest man

should be of deep concern to all of us." And if you were to say: "Define

honesty!" I would reply: "An honest man, my crooked friend, does not need

definitions of honesty."

*

The mind is the most precious gift that God has given us. To surrender it

to a man (be he a mullah or a bishop) or to a book (the Koran or the

Bible, DAS KAPITAL or MEIN KAMPF, the TALMUD or THE MAHABARATA) is to

abdicate its use and to dehumanize oneself.

*

I don't write for readers who know better. Besides, readers who know

better don't feel the need to read me. I write for readers who think they

know better and the distance between these two species of Armenian reader

is about the same as that which exists between zero and infinity.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, November 11, 2002

*******************************

When I came to Canada I was naive about my fellow Armenians. I thought an

Armenian was an Armenian until I found myself dealing with Armenians from

the Middle East, who, according to an older and more experienced friend

from Greece (my country of origin) "treat us as if we were ignorant

Arabs." It must be a source of disappointment to them to realize that

some Armenians, including Armenians born and raised in Canada and the

United States (generally dismissed by them as "aboush amerigahayer" =

stupid Armenian-Americans) may not be as ignorant as Arabs; they may even

be – if not as smart as Armenians from the Middle East (God forbid!) –

smart enough to recognize a phony when they see one.

*

It makes perfect sense: he who rates his fellow men by how smart they are

prefers to deal with people who are less smart than he. Or, people with

limited intelligence don't like dealing with people whose intelligence

may be less limited.

*

The trouble with tribalism (which may be said to be a more primitive form

of racism) is that it hangs a label on a group ("aboush amerigahayer")

and forever after it views that group under that label; and in

prejudging, it runs the risk of reaching the wrong verdict; and worse: it

limits (amputates) one’s perception of reality.

*

Prejudice is not just the source of many crimes against humanity but also

against one’s own understanding and perception of one’s fellow men. It is

this (tribal prejudice) that has made the Middle East -- the cradle of

civilization – a serpent’s pit of endless tribal feuds and conflicts.

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

*********************************

There is a familiar type of Armenian who is so full of love that he loves

everybody; he even loves Hitler and his concentration camps (whose

existence he questions, of course). He loves Stalin and his gulags (which

have also been much maligned by crypto-fascist and pro-capitalist

scumbags like Solzhenitsyn). He loves Saddam and Osama (humble servants

both of their people). He loves mullahs and ayatollahs; he even loves

their slogans DEATH TO JEWS and DEATH TO AMERICA. That’s because when his

side hates, kills and massacres, he calls it a justifiable response to

nefarious pro-Zionist Western imperialist bloodsuckers.

*

It’s simply astonishing the complex gymnastics the logic of a brainwashed

dupe is capable of performing. But this type of Armenian forgets one

thing: his body language speaks louder than his lying tongue. Being a

born dupe, he may fool himself, but whether he succeeds in fooling others

remains to be seen.

*

When an Armenian refuses to understand you (because understanding you may

also mean questioning his convictions) he says: "You don't know how to

write." That may explain why our critics (from Khorenatsi to Massikian)

have been ignored: they didn't know how to write.

*

If an Armenian is depressed the chances are the source of his depression

is another Armenian. If an Armenian suffers from cancer, the chances are

his carcinogenic agent is a fellow Armenian.

*

Armenianism is grounds for Ottomanism.

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

*********************************

A charlatan is harder to pin down than a murderer because a charlatan

does not feel the need to confess as murderers do. An interrogator cannot

say to a charlatan: "After you come clean you will feel much better!"

Charlatanism is not a single isolated act committed on the spur of the

moment out of rage; it is rather a habit gradually acquired, a way of

life. The plea of insanity or self defense is not an option.

*

When some of my critics attack me…make it: when some of our hooligans

insult me, they do so not because they disagree with me but because they

are afraid I am trying to muscle in their territory or field of

expertise, which may be anything from Armenianism and the Middle East to

the Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud…or again all of the above among

other fields. Faced with the possibility of exposure, a charlatan will

strike back with everything he’s got in his arsenal, and when sophistry

fails he will resort to name-calling, verbal abuse and even threats.

*

I am not here to chastise our charlatans and hooligans but to expose the

charlatanism of our bosses, bishops and benefactors whose crap they

recycle.

*

When an Armenian journalist in Paris recently criticized one of our

academics in Yerevan, she received a rebuttal which stated: "How dare you

attack a distinguished intellectual who has dedicated his whole life to

maintaining our identity and culture so that Turkish gypsies like you may

have a homeland!"

*

If a man is a fool or insists on playing the part of a fool, there is not

need to enlighten him. Reality will do that. After a blind man falls into

the ditch again and again, he will eventually conclude that he can no

longer rely on the guidance of another blind man.

[ara baliozian]

IF

********************

If you believe in flattery and

confuse your assessment of yourself with reality;

if you cannot tell the difference

between education and indoctrination;

if you place your nation above all others

because that’s what you were told

by your schoolteacher, daddy or grandma;

if you take your suffering seriously

and ignore someone else’s;

if you think adopting a religion or ideology

allows you to abdicate your common sense and decency;

if you assert that the political leadership of your nation

is always right or morally superior;

if you think your version of the past

is the only true one and any deviation from it

is fiction and propaganda;

if after reading a couple of pundits

(also known as members of the chattering classes)

you think you understand what’s going in the world;

if you say all of human knowledge

from alpha to omega is contained within a single book

(the Bible, the Koran, or the Talmud);

if you think you are thinking

when you are engaged in recycling someone else’s crapola,

you may declare yourself

a bona fide dupe,

an authentic jingoist,

a genuine bastard,

and a certified moron.

[ara baliozian]

Friday, November 15, 2002

*******************************

Anti-Semitism is a religion like any other.

You may agree on a thousand things with a man of faith,

but if you refuse to worship his god

(in this case, to share his hatred of Jews)

you might as well be a hetanos, an infidel, a giaour

who does not deserve to live.

*

"You Armenians are lucky," a Jewish friend once observed:

"only Turks are after your ass. The whole world is after ours!"

Yes, I now think, including some Armenians, alas!

*

Once in a while, after I have had my fill

of Armenian venom and hooliganism,

I curse the day I was born an Armenian.

But I suspect a day does not pass that a Jew

does not curse the day he was born a Jew –

if not consciously than sub-…

*

One of my most faithful readers

has made it part of his weekly routine to inform me

that I am just about the most boring writer

he has ever had the misfortune to read.

*

When, during a long-distance anonymous call,

I asked my interlocutor to identify herself,

she said: "I am only a Jew!"

She delivered that line as if it were a confession,

an admission of guilt so deep that

it might as well have been a capital offense.

When, near the end of our long conversation,

she asked: "Where did you learn to be so self-critical?"

I replied: "Mostly from Jewish writers."

*

I once knew a poet who had developed a detailed strategy

on building an image that was remote, mysterious, inaccessible.

There was only one problem:

no one appeared to be interested in her verse or image.

But she soldiered on with her act

like a faded move star playing on a stage to an empty audience.

*

Armenians make bad friends but good coconspirators.

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, November 16, 2002

******************************

There is a type of hooligan

who after making a nuisance of himself

accuses you of being full of hate.

To paraphrase Confucius:

But if you don't hate the hateful,

whom are you going to hate?

The lovable?

The ideal is to hate no one, of course.

One should understand and educate,

which is what many philosophers and religious leaders

(from Socrates to Jesus and Gandhi) have attempted to do.

And yet, fascists and fanatics continue to rule

the destiny of nations today.

As for our hooligans:

what is incomprehensible is that

they refuse to consider the possibility that

if someone hates them it may be because they are hateful;

or, just because their grandma or daddy loved them

it does not necessarily follow that they are lovable.

*

When I went into this business,

my ambition was to share

my feelings, experiences and convictions

with my fellow Armenians:

to be, in a sense, a tiny piece in a vast mosaic

of other feelings, experiences and convictions.

I have since come to realize that

some of my readers (make it, hooligans)

are quintessentially anti-mosaic:

one color (brown for recycled crap?)

is good enough for them.

If it were up to these bigots,

Armenia would be better off with a single political party and leader

whose title would be neither nakharar nor king but sultan:

His Serene Majesty Sultan Jack S. Avanakian.

You may take an Armenian out of the Ottoman Empire

but you cannot take the Ottoman Empire out

of a Turkish gypsy.

[aurguplu]

Sayings attributed to the Prophet:

~

"If allegiance is sworn to two caliphs,

kill the other."

 

ara,

 

there were no caliphs at the time of the prophet (if you are talking about muhammad). caliphate means "succession" and was invented after the death of the prophet.

[sen_Vahan]

Ara,

 

So much about Armenians, so many things about the charecter.... Why don't you go to Armenia some time? Alishan, as I know, did not go either but I see and feel something unhealthy in that.

vahan