[celtic]

Армянин - это, оказывается, вера такая... И что меня сегодня носит по писанинам непонятно кого?



...In discussing an issue as volatile as the status of the Ottoman Armenians, it is important to define terms. By "Armenian," I mean those Ottoman citizens who were Armenian in religion - Gregorian, Catholic, or Protestant Armenians. Following modern usage, it would be more common to define Armenians as those who spoke Armenian as their mother tongue. However, a great number of the Anatolian Armenians, perhaps the majority, did not speak Armenian as their first language and, in any case, the Ottoman Empire kept population records by religion, not language. Given the sense of religious identification of the Ottoman peoples, religion is a very accurate criterion by which to label Ottoman population groups. By "Armenian," I most definitely do not mean any standard of so-called race or "blood." Such categories are, at best, undefinable and, at worst, racist.



Justin McCarthy, Assembly of Turkish American Associations