Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
The Islamified Armenians are a different story. The conditions in which that process took place is so unreal that its incomparable to anything occurring under normal conditions. It was mainly people doing it under threat of death, woman being raped and taken in by force, or children being kidnapped and raised as muslims.
Armenians accepting them is completely different than accepting those who have randomly decided to change religions. I'm not particularly religious, but I think its fair to say that if someone changed their religion to Islam or Judaism, its unlikely they are going to have much affinity for the rest of their identity: the Armenian part. Of course there's always exceptions, but it only seems logical that almost all would not value their Armenian identity very much.
I would go a step further and say its absolutely logical that being non Armenian Apostolic Christian- Protestant or Catholic- makes you less likely to identify with the Armenian cause. Simply because if you bother to go to church, in an Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenia, Armenian issues, and and the Armenian Cause are a regular part of service. Even on a more basic level, your religious identity identifies you as an Armenian. This naturally makes you more likely to support the Armenian cause.
But more importantly, one of the key differences between us and the Assyrians, who are painfully one or two generations away from becoming just a historic term, is that the Assyrians fractured into several churches, and languages, and so forth, while despite our bickering among ourselves, we've managed to stick together for the most part.
Originally posted by Eddo211
View Post
Armenians accepting them is completely different than accepting those who have randomly decided to change religions. I'm not particularly religious, but I think its fair to say that if someone changed their religion to Islam or Judaism, its unlikely they are going to have much affinity for the rest of their identity: the Armenian part. Of course there's always exceptions, but it only seems logical that almost all would not value their Armenian identity very much.
I would go a step further and say its absolutely logical that being non Armenian Apostolic Christian- Protestant or Catholic- makes you less likely to identify with the Armenian cause. Simply because if you bother to go to church, in an Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenia, Armenian issues, and and the Armenian Cause are a regular part of service. Even on a more basic level, your religious identity identifies you as an Armenian. This naturally makes you more likely to support the Armenian cause.
But more importantly, one of the key differences between us and the Assyrians, who are painfully one or two generations away from becoming just a historic term, is that the Assyrians fractured into several churches, and languages, and so forth, while despite our bickering among ourselves, we've managed to stick together for the most part.
Comment