y are armenians so racist?

[Sip]

Re: y are armenians so racist?

I do not "represent" anyone. I also don't "hate" all muslims. I have many muslim friends. I grew up in Iran. You were asking why such "racism" against arabs and muslims in Armenia and I am simply trying to explain to you this is nothing that is specific to Armenians or Armenia. This is something you will face ANYWHERE you go ... especially in the west.

[Esra]

Re: y are armenians so racist?

If you have many Muslim friends then you should already be aware of the peaceful Muslims... and that when they try to stand up to these fundamentalists (who actually do not practice Islam, they just abuse it's name and reputation)...These true peaceful Muslims who do stand up to these demons are either killed or tortured by them... but we don't hear of that.

And as for the west, i've lived there Majority of my life, have you actually been? or are you just going by what you hear on this brainwashing box called "Television" ?

[Mos]

Re: y are armenians so racist?

wow... I don't really care if this thread is over 6 years old or not.......But just found it now directly from google and read through, i'm shocked at the racism against Arabs and Muslims amongst the Armenians here. I'm Arab and Muslim and have always been fascinated by Armenia, i've wanted to visit and explore. Is this hostility really what's going on in the minds of Armenians??....I think i would fear for my safety there after reading all this, I think i will forget any ideas of traveling to Armenia, at least for now. :-(

By the way, I'm aware that maybe no one is going to read this, but the definition of racism is not pride of one's own race, the definition of racism is irrationally hating and attacking another race based on stereotypes or prejudice....I'm disappointed by all this. :-(

Not much people care about Muslims or Arabs really in Armenia. We are in the Russian and post-Soviet sphere, and care more about that than backwards places like Saudi Arabia. We are friends with Persians, over any middle eastern group. Some countries such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Pakistan are rather anti-Armenian so they can go to hell. There's a Arabic restaurant in Armenia, been there, was rather nice, cool architecture. Yeah sure maybe there are some racist Armenians against Arabs, but honestly among Armenia Armenians, we think very little about Arabs.

[Esra]

Re: y are armenians so racist?

I think even Arabs from other countries don't like Arabs from Saudi Arabia very much, Saudis seem to be racist towards anyone who isn't from Saudi (Whether they are Arabs or not) and Saudi Arabia is backward and do most things that are against Islam itself, So i'm not surprised to hear that.
I'm from Iraq myself and personally have no time for racism of any sort, there's good and bad in all nations, just some leaders are unfortunate! I've never heard any Jordanians or Pakistanis talk badly about Armenians and I know a few .... The only Armenians i've ever spoken to were the couple visiting London, who were sat next to my friend and I when we went to this Persian restaurant, and they seemed nice and friendly towards me knowing my background. in fact it was because of their friendliness i wanted to learn more about Armenia.

[Federate]

Re: y are armenians so racist?

I think even Arabs from other countries don't like Arabs from Saudi Arabia very much, Saudis seem to be racist towards anyone who isn't from Saudi (Whether they are Arabs or not) and Saudi Arabia is backward and do most things that are against Islam itself, So i'm not surprised to hear that.
I'm from Iraq myself and personally have no time for racism of any sort, there's good and bad in all nations, just some leaders are unfortunate! I've never heard any Jordanians or Pakistanis talk badly about Armenians and I know a few .... The only Armenians i've ever spoken to were the couple visiting London, who were sat next to my friend and I when we went to this Persian restaurant, and they seemed nice and friendly towards me knowing my background. in fact it was because of their friendliness i wanted to learn more about Armenia.

As Mos said, Armenians in Armenia don't really care, as in don't have much of an opinion, about Arabs or Muslims simply because of a lack of exposure to them due to the USSR and just its orientation towards the ex-USSR sphere and the European sphere. Recently, there has been growing links between Armenia and such places like UAE and many Armenians are visiting there with no problems. Same with Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. We don't have a specific problem. Maybe you might find hostility from xenophobic people but those are everywhere. There's many Iranian tourists in Armenia and they are easily identifiable especially when they wear the hijab and there's really no crime or open hostility displayed towards them.

In the Diaspora, Armenians and Arabs have close ties to each other, especially Levantine Arabs, because of the genocide surviving generation that lived among you guys for decades and still does. You are from Iraq, Armenians have a good reputation there and are viewed as successful before the Bush administration sent another country back to the Stone Age and now guaranteeing the extinction of that Armenian community. I was in Armenia this past summer and I saw Arabs there to my pleasant surprised. You should definitely visit!

Pakistani and Saudi government is hostile to Armenia. Jordan is just too much up Azerbaijan's ass, but anyway everything about Jordan's foreign policy is xxxx. There is a big community of Armenians in Jordan too and they must get along with the locals if they continue to live there.

[KanadaHye]

Re: y are armenians so racist?

@ Esra

Many Armenians still think that the reason for the Armenian Genocide was because of Turks being Muslim so they automatically have this animosity towards Muslims. The propaganda against Muslims and Arabs (even though all Arabs aren't Muslim) by the War for Oil profiteers also hasn't helped their perception either.

As Federate pointed out already, many Armenians who were exiled to Arab/Muslim countries are far more accepting and open minded towards other cultures. It seems the longer someone has lived in the "west", the more racist they are towards everyone (to a point that they are even racist towards themselves!)

[Mos]

Re: y are armenians so racist?

@ Esra

Many Armenians still think that the reason for the Armenian Genocide was because of Turks being Muslim so they automatically have this animosity towards Muslims. The propaganda against Muslims and Arabs (even though all Arabs aren't Muslim) by the War for Oil profiteers also hasn't helped their perception either.

As Federate pointed out already, many Armenians who were exiled to Arab/Muslim countries are far more accepting and open minded towards other cultures. It seems the longer someone has lived in the "west", the more racist they are towards everyone (to a point that they are even racist towards themselves!)

The Religion card was definitely used by the Turks, as they didn't only kill Armenians but the other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire, with their "Muslim brethren" the Kurds. Kurds aren't Turkic, yet they killed probably more Armenians than Turks. Of course there were pan-Turkic motives as well, but the religion card was very convenient for the Turks. They blamed the Christian minority as spies of Russian and the West, being supported by these Western powers to "destroy" Turkic Turkey.

Of course as Armenians we shouldn't hate all Muslims as it doesn't serve our interests (I doubt it does for any nation). But given the Genocide and the fact that the religious card was used, you will see some Armenians, especially ones who are older and grew up in Soviet Armenia, have a repulsion against Islam in general as it reminds them of the atmosphere of the Genocide that they or their parents/relatives went through. You know a way Turks checked if you were Armenian or not? They pulled down your pants and checked if you were circumcised or not.

I trust Iranians far more than Arabs, though I know that groups of Arabs such as in Lebanon have been rather good to Armenians, thus those Armenian who grew up in Arab communities will be more receptive to them. Armenians of Armenia are far more trust of Russians and other post-Soviet people, especially in Eastern Europe. We know very little of Arabs and Muslims, their culture, their mindset, and so on.

[KanadaHye]

Re: y are armenians so racist?

The Religion card was definitely used by the Turks, as they didn't only kill Armenians but the other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire, with their "Muslim brethren" the Kurds. Kurds aren't Turkic, yet they killed probably more Armenians than Turks. Of course there were pan-Turkic motives as well, but the religion card was very convenient for the Turks. They blamed the Christian minority as spies of Russian and the West, being supported by these Western powers to "destroy" Turkic Turkey.

Well, there were Armenian elements stirring up unrest towards the end of the Ottoman Empire. This, however, was in response to the massacres towards Armenians which went unrecognized by the international communities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Ottoman_Bank_Takeover

"From the start, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation handed out fliers to the general population of the Ottoman Empire stating that their fight was not against them but the Ottoman Empire's oppression. The decision to take over the Ottoman Bank was a strategic one as the bank held many European treasuries which would therefore attract the Europeans' attention the Armenians wanted. The men had been singled out because "apart from the interests of the European powers the various financial markets would also suffer heavy loss through the destruction of their property"

For centuries our forbears have been living with you in peace and harmony...but recently your government, conceived in crimes, began to sow discord among us in order to strangle us and you with greater ease. You, people, did not understand this diabolical scheme of politics and, soaking yourselves in the blood of our brothers, you became an accomplice in the perpetration of this heinous crime. Nevertheless, know well that our fight is not against you, but your government, against which your own best sons are fighting also.

[Esra]

Re: y are armenians so racist?

Speaking of the west being racist, even here and the US the media refuses to show anything positive about Arabs, Muslims and the Easteners in general, branding anyone who isn't Western as "backward"....Peace doesn't make "entertaining television" nor the concept of peace in the East goes in favour of the intentions of the government. The UK isn't as bad as America. My friend who lives in California, he and his family are full-on American republicans, they watch fox news *shudders* but the good thing about my friend is that he asks my view of things. What Islam really says, what really happens in the East, etc, compared to the total sh*t he is fed via FoxNews. But his mother just cannot stand me, she says i'm "Mozlim" and from "Saddam land" and cannot trust me and keeps telling her 36 year old son to stop talking to me. i find all this funny more than anything. So I wrote on her son's facebook wall "My name is Akhmed, I KIILL you!".... He found it funny, she wasn't so happy ;-))

Ironically the mentality can still be backward, and this is the aim of the government, to feed them and keep them comfortable so that they are easily brainwashed by their TV.

It's when the religion card is used, I get irritated and frustrated. worlds issues and conflicts are mostly political if you think about it, religion has little to do with it besides being the final "Name tag" . I say this because we as Muslims are not a allowed to kill anyone whether Muslim or not, only someone who is literally coming at us with a weapon to kill us.... This is why these fundamentalists p*ss me off, I live in the west and obviously because of the media, I get stupid questions all the time...Actually I remember someone even came up to me and asked "Has your marriage already been arranged from when you were 5 years old to some man who you don't know?"..... My response to that was "Do you still rub two sticks together to make fire?"

Anyway.... the first response I got here on this forum was terrible, basically saying "everyone hates you people, so don't expect Armenians to be any different" ....But I want to thank you others for more positive responses,

Federate:
"You are from Iraq, Armenians have a good reputation there and are viewed as successful before the Bush administration sent another country back to the Stone Age and now guaranteeing the extinction of that Armenian community. I was in Armenia this past summer and I saw Arabs there to my pleasant surprised. You should definitely visit!"

Thank you! I hope to visit Armenia someday. God-willing!

[Mher]

Re: y are armenians so racist?

I don't know where on this thread you got the impression that Armenians are racist. I read through the entire post, and out of more than a dozen people, i found three racist/ignorant people, one or all of whom were probably not even Armenian. If anything, most of the posters showed high level of tolerance and intelligence.
I personally grew up in Iran, and still have many Iranian friends in the U.S. and I have alot of respect for them, and can greatly relate to their culture as it is very similar to ours. I have not dealt with many Arabs, but all of my western Armenian friends, who come from Arab countries love and enjoy the Arabic culture.
To go beyond that, Armenians have great amounts of sympathy for Palestine and their struggle as it mirrors our struggle in many ways. Our heroes in the A.S.A.L.A worked hand in hand with the Palestinians on many occasions. Even today, while we as a people show our support for Palestine, our enemy, Azerbaijan, is the biggest and most important strategic ally of the biggest enemy of Arabs: Israel.
Now maybe in Armenia people wont have the same affection for Muslim culture, but that is only because they haven't had a chance to get to know it, and it definitely does not mean that they hate it, it only means they haven't been introduced to it, and are not opinionated about it.