Arpa Posted January 22, 2002 Report Share Posted January 22, 2002 Nvard. You are so right and you have the right to be angry.Let me first address Movses' note and I'll come back to yours._________________Movses wrote, quote------------ "Bavakanin informativ yev x@raxosakan post er. yes mi tsnot unem uo Pap@ Hayastan galsi 1946-7 tvakanerin poxel er ir azganun@ turqakan Bakhalyan-its ---N@paravacharyan- Hayerenov-, hima im tsanot@s USA qaraqatsy darnalun pes poxets ir azganun@ ir hin Turkakanov drets het Bakhalyan, asum em inchu asuam Hayerenov yerkara. hetaqrqir mardik en. tekuz yerkar, ayst te Hayerena, kam vstah em ir papakan azganun@ bakhalyan el chi yerevi, eli gaxti jamanak trvats atsakan@darstel e azganun, chunes jisht azganun @entry paperit t@sn@ndavayr@, kam anun@ mets papit. hima el ho hnarvorutyun ka shateris hamar."----------------A typical example and a good case. This is exactly the major problem. That is exactly what I meant when I said it is a matter of education. I mean "education" in both senses of the word as sometimes it may be used as a euphemism for "propaganda". In the latter sense, if our leaders would take the lead and clean their surnames then the public will follow, or if we would make having alien, insulting, illegible and unintelligible names illegal then maybe some of us would seriously think about it. The example you bring is a good one and it invokes "education" in the other sense. We all know that their family name was not Bakalian for too long, it certainly was not during Vardananank and neither it was during the Bagratuni days. It is highly probable that it only became so during the Genocide as many could only remember what they were commonly known, the family known as the "grocers" in this case. Many families agonize over the subject, they are anxious and sincere but they lack the imagination or the courage to act. The prevailing thought is that it has to be an exact translation, this is where imagination is needed. It does not have to be for many reasons the most important of which, as stated above most family names, if they had one, was definitely not anything like Bakalian or the like since words like "bakal" etc. have been with us only a few hundred years. It is safer to assume that their dynastic name was probably someting like Amatuni, Artsruni, Mamikonian or the like. It may be pretentious to assume these names again even if we at all have the right to do so. However the biggest mistake, to repeat, is to think that it has to be an exact translation. Some may think that by changing and amending they will lose continuity. Of course. Who would want to have a surname like Nparavacharian, specially in a country where Armenian is not the common language. It is long, it is difficult to write, to spell, to pronounce, it dons not even sound good. Here is where education comes. "nparavachar" is a compound word made of "npar/goods" and "vachar/trade/sell". Why would Nparian not be enough, or assuming that they want to maintain the jist of the word, even Parenian as "paren" as in "parenavorel/to stock up". It is short and simple. Some people lack the imagination or better yet they feel enslaved and obligated to their immediate heritage which is definitely alien. Here is two examples of what some people did. Thy both had long, ugly and unintelligible, not to mention alien names. One was a long word beginning with "nu", they took the first syllable and saw that it sounded like "new" so they decided to changed their surname to Norian. Another had a similar name that began with "der", it was long, ugly, unintelligible and alien they changed their surname to Derian. One other had a surname of Najarian, it means carpenter, the Armenian word for it is "hyusn", they changed their name to Hewsen.It takes imagination, courage and education, but most of all it needs lesdership and guidance, but with leaders in the highest places with names like Pozabalian why should the common peple care???================ Nvard wrote, quote_______________________"Ok..Arpa it's absolutely stupid to argue on this topic.When you talk about the Parthian and Persian names we have you forget our anciet culture.It was all that!We had the the same ruling Arshakid dynasty, same religion, almost same culture SO we had a lot of common names!We also have lots of Jewish and Greek names because becuase now we're Christian and this is our religion today! But the Turkish surnames are offensive for a nation that didn't share any common cultural features or religion with the Turks! All we saw was hatred and opression, why should we have their ugly and barbarik names that we even don't understand????!!Do they like our names or do they have them?? I don't go against our famous people that had their names.I am agains the surnames not the people! But I'm 100% sure that poor Daniel Varujan that was so horribly killed in 1915 would be happy to stay in our hearts as Daniel VARUJAN !"_______________ If you read my original post you will see that I mentioned Varouzhan and co. as examples of a conscious and deliberate movement by our intelligentsia to get back to our native and pure heritage. Were it not for the "horrible" murder the trend would have caught on, however one of the reassons of his "horrible" murder and the murder of his soulmates was exactly what they were doing, rediscovering their heritage and rediscovering their true identity. This was viewed as a threat to the empire and voila! the Genocide.As to Pahlavi and other much older (mind the word "older") heritage, my name is supposed to be from Pahlavi, or is it the other way around, just like in your case, but in both cases we have used these names for so long and so exclusively they have become intimately associated with our culture, i.e. when I see you name I will not hesitate and assume 100% that you are Armenian. As mentioned before, nobody but us uses it. I will not even argue and debate, it is 100% Armenian and those who don't like it can go to kehena. Our entire modern culture and identity is a legacy of Souren Pahlavuni. Again, we are the only nation that uses the surname of Pahlavuni as the original Pahlavs and Parthians have dissappeared.Who you say Souren Pahlavuni is?After the fall of the Parthian Arshakunis (Arsacids)the Karenian Pahlavs attempted to migrate to Armenia, they were unsuccessful as they were massacred (by the Sassanids)on their way. Among the few surviving Perozamat made it to Central Asia and his son Kamsar made to Armenia during the 3rd c. and was granted land in the Shirak region by Trdat II, where they founded the Kamsarakan dynasty. Another family that had found refuge in Armenia were the Sourenian Pahlaviks. They were virtually exterminated and the only survivor was instigated by the Sassanids to assasinate King Khsrov the Great I. The assasin's name was Anak Partev. He had an only son Souren Partev who was smuggled out by his nurse and taken to Caesaria where he grew and was indoctrinated to christianity. He was bapptized and assumed the name of Grigor. Now you know who Souren Partev is. Even though he had converted and in turn converted the whole nation he retained his dynastic name. Some of his heirs are Aristakes Partev I, Vrtanes Partev I, Housik Partev I, Nerses Partev I and of course, Sahak Partev I.So, Nvard, we are not talking about Pahlavi or Parthian names, by now they have become more Armenian than even Haik and Aram. We are talking about names that have no historical value, no dynastic precedence but more importantly they are ugly, difficult, insulting and ALIEN.We are not talking about names like Robert, Levon, Movses, Daniel etc. which even though may not be original native Armenian they have been with us so long that one would not even think twice about them, but above all there is nothing wrong with them, they are not ugly, insutlful and pejorative either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.