#28 - JRL 2006-131 - JRL Home
From: "Alexander Melikishvili" <alexanderm@miis.edu>
Subject: Second response to the Letter by Ashot
Vardanyan/ JRL #130
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006
I want to stress that my response does not reflect the views of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies or the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
For a person, who claims that he is not well versed in the political issues affecting the Transcaucasus region, Mr. Ashot Vardanyan’s response to my critique of his letter to Mr. Tsotne Bakuria is peppered with political references (JRL, Issue No.129, June 4, 2006). In my initial response to Mr. Vardanyan (JRL, Issue No.128, June 2, 2006), I attempted to hold him accountable for some of the baseless claims that he made in his letter. Regrettably instead of a meaningful exchange, which is what I expected, my criticism elicited an incongruent and meek answer. In it Mr. Vardanyan falsely accuses me of alleged arrogance towards Armenia because I basically reiterated the particular geopolitical circumstances that describe why Yerevan is the staunchest ally of Russia in this region. Mr. Vardanyan is proud of the fact that Mr. Bakuria’s and his articles generated substantial feedback from readers of the Russian website (http://www.inosmi.ru) that specializes in producing Russian translations of articles appearing in foreign media. Upon closer examination, however, one finds, as in most threads of anonymously posted comments on the Internet, that in most cases readers’ comments amount to little more than a simple verbal brawl replete with occasional expletives. In regard to the rest of the points, on point one, I never contested the fact that during the Cold War the Soviet people knew far more about the West than vice versa. I simply suggested that the Western movies picked by the Soviet culture ideologues were the ones that exposed the problems of the capitalist world. And, yes, they were masterpieces. I never questioned this. I am also very well aware of the significant contribution of the Georgian moviemakers to the world cinematography and in this regard there was really no need to list the movies for my attention. On point two, it is a blatantly obvious generalization to say that “no US classroom contains poster ‘I am American.’” You do not know this for sure, so your claim is unsubstantiated. However, what you should know is that every morning in classrooms across this nation American schoolchildren recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which is aimed to forge a collective identity through this basic exercise in patriotism. On point three, your comparison between the U.S.-Georgian agreement on the presence of U.S. forces in Georgia and the Russian-Armenian agreement on military cooperation is equally misguided. The decision by the Georgian government to adopt the agreement that excludes U.S. military personnel from the Georgian laws is based on the strategic calculus in which benefits from cooperation with U.S. military outweigh potential costs.
However, not a single U.S. soldier guards Georgia’s borders or greets passengers upon their arrival in Tbilisi or elsewhere in Georgia. Besides, the aforementioned agreement excludes only U.S. military personnel and it does not extend to the U.S. citizens in general. In your response you deliberately misrepresented this circumstance and created the impression as if the Georgian laws give a blanket amnesty from criminal prosecution to every American visiting the country. This is simply not true. Now in regard to the Russian-Armenian military cooperation, as I stated before, the nature of this security arrangement is such that it effectively strips Armenia of basic attributes of sovereignty, which include control over ports of entry and national borders. On point four, your lesson in proper etiquette is moot. As I stated before, since you are a graduate student at an American college, I thought it was quite puzzling to witness that your letter was submitted to the JRL by someone else on your behalf. In this regard I would like to note progress because this time you submitted your response to my critique directly to the JRL without any intermediaries. In conclusion, I would like to offer you a final advice. If, in your own words, you are “not a politician,” and you are “unable to contrast serious arguments,” then next time I would very much recommend to you to abstain from providing your comments on topics that require much more than a pointless demagogic demarche.
Alexander Melikishvili
Research Associate
International Export Control Observer, Co-Editor
Center for Nonproliferation Studies
Monterey Institute of International Studies
1111 19th Street, NW, 12th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
.