Armenian cell on the "Great Chessboard"
In September, 1998, the measured silence of the world book market, blew up the publication of books under an extravagant title that speaks for itself. The “Great Chessboard”, the author of which is the unforgettable Zbigniew Brzezinski, became for the XXI century something of the memorable “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, which appeared a century earlier. In his work, former adviser to US President Jimmy Carter, whose pathological Russophobia is akin to Winston Churchill’s anti-Soviet, openly identified what was still hidden under a bushel — the ideological concept of American foreign policy for the next half century in its quest for world hegemony. And, in his deep conviction, “Eurasia, where 75% of the population lives and where three quarters of all world energy resources are located, is the key to world domination”.
IN ANTHROUGH ANCIENTS VENTURES
With the collapse of the USSR, the geopolitical struggle for sole dominance on the Eurasian continent entered a crucial phase. In the context of the “battle for Eurasia”, the actions of the United States are aimed primarily at strengthening its presence in its key regions, among which the South Caucasus is a priority. According to domestic political analysts, the American “hawks” view it as a geostrategic core connecting Europe and the Middle East with Central Asia and Afghanistan. At a time when, on one side of the Atlantic, Belovezhskaya “funeralists” hammered the last nail into the coffin of the late Soviet Union, on the other - in the depths of the leading US analytical centers, an ideological strategy was born to curb its main geopolitical competitors in the Eurasian space, called “Anaconda”.
One of its founding fathers, Colonel John Chicky, a US military officer, described this geo-strategic as a very effective way of compressing the geopolitical space by expanding the network of military bases and deploying a missile defense system. Why are the Americans not concealing their growing interest in the territories south of the Main Caucasian Range, which, according to the statements of their high-ranking visitors, are not only the main link in the light of Brzezinski's Eurasian reflections, but also a springboard for confronting with their main (which is no longer hidden) geopolitical the enemy is the Russian Federation.
The current contender for the presidency in the White House, Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state on the Financial Times pages in December 2012, clearly defined the vital priorities of the United States in this geo-strategic direction: “There is a movement towards re-Sovietisation of the region. It will not be called that way. It will be called the Customs Union, it will be called the Eurasian Union and everything like that. We will not be mistaken about this. We know what the goal was, and we are trying to develop effective ways to slow down or prevent it. ”
It is not surprising that, as the use of a springboard for compressing the vital space of the Russian Federation and Iran, the main competitors of the United States in the South Caucasus, the Anaconda strategy is coordinated with the plans of the State Department pointing, for example, to Armenia. On our partner in the CSTO and the Customs Union. It should be noted that the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia are also linked by a long-standing strategic partnership within the framework of the closest military cooperation in the form of a long-term presence in the territory of the last contingents of the Russian Armed Forces deployed at the 102 base in Gyumri. However, at the very beginning of the dashing 90s of the last century, Americans were the first to rush to officially recognize the independent existence of this Transcaucasian republic, opening the largest American embassy in Yerevan at that time (based on the number of staff at the then diplomatic mission).
In addition, after the establishment of bilateral relations in the US Congress, on the initiative of two congressmen, Democrat Frank Pallone and Republican Edward Porter, a group called “Armenian Cauccus” was founded, now uniting more than fifty influential American politicians. The initial phase of the US-Armenian state relations was to provide humanitarian and financial assistance to the latter-day public education and to the de facto recognition of the independence of the United States by Nagorno-Karabakh. For this, a whole series of legislative steps were taken in the citadel of world democracy.
Thus, in 1992, amendments to the “Act in support of freedom” came into effect, which categorically forbade any support for Azerbaijan and allowed to implement the resolution adopted at that time on rendering financial assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh. In November 1997 of the year, another similar legislation was enacted providing, among other things, additional financial assistance to the self-proclaimed Transcaucasian Republic in the amount of 12 million dollars. Thus, the US today, not recognizing de jure the right of the Karabakh Armenians to create their own independent state, in fact, it is the only country in the world that provides them with financial and humanitarian support at the level of interstate relations through the United States-Armenia line.
But at the same time, in the customary Anglo-Saxon tradition of double standards, Americans are in no hurry to recognize the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War at the federal level. By the way, it is a very painful and burning question that concerns the Armenian diaspora all over the world. Currently it is recognized in 44 US states from 50 cash. But this is a poor consolation for those who think that Armenians are not tempted by free cheese from overseas mousetraps. This was especially evident during the recent aggravation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations around Nagorno-Karabakh, to which the Russian and Armenian blogosphere responded with recriminations. The characteristic claims of Russians were voiced by blogger Alexei Artsakhov in his article “It's Time for Armenians to Decide” posted on the Russian Spring Internet resource. While his correspondent opponent, one Tevos Arshakyan, called his “CSTO Allies betrayed Armenia” on the site of the Armenian Report. It is as if some conditional sections of public opinion of interested parties in the public opinion of both countries, not claiming the right to be the ultimate truth.
But for a more complete understanding of the situation, a slight digression should be made. Another Russian philosopher Vasily Rozanov wrote: "Without Russia, the peoples of the Caucasus switch to each other like chickens without a hen." In this case, one should keep in mind the Russian factor in the elimination of local contradictions in its traditional sense, and not something that was thoughtlessly put into practice at the local level in the Soviet period stories. And, of course, not the inconsistency and toothlessness of the Caucasian policy of the Russian Federation, or rather, its absence at all during the reign of Boris Yeltsin as its first president. Unfortunately, the relapses of that era have not been eradicated to this day. Although the awareness of the need for the military-political presence of the Russian Federation south of the Main Caucasus Range is finally being understood in the corridors of the Kremlin.
Therefore, the Armenian leadership can be understood. Being in a hostile environment and looking at how, in a relatively recent period, Russia's foreign policy doctrine was inconsistently and rashly lined up under the influence of the pro-Western lobby in its government, the political leadership in Yerevan begins to "mow a lilac eye" towards overseas partners. So, in July 2009, an impressive overseas delegation visited Armenia, which included representatives of the Pentagon and the command of all branches of the US troops in Europe and the National Guard of Kansas. They paid a visit to the Drastamat Kananyan Institute for Strategic Studies at the local Ministry of Defense. During the meeting of guests, the director of this venerable institution, Advisor to the Minister of Defense of Armenia, Major General Hayk Kotanjian, highly appreciated the active participation of American colleagues in the interdepartmental coordination of the development of the national security strategy of his country and attached great importance to the willingness of Americans to strengthen and deepen cooperation with Armenian security forces.
Thus, Armenia is balancing on the brink, maintaining a strategic partnership with the Russian Federation, and at the same time receiving support from the United States, participating in NATO peacekeeping programs. This may seem strange and even suspicious to some, but in the context of the unfolding “Battle of Eurasia”, official Yerevan’s desire to expand cooperation with the United States and the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance to prevent its traditional, sworn friends of Turkey and Azerbaijan from using NATO’s resources in contentious issues It looks quite logical. Meanwhile, such a development of events cannot but affect the further development of the strategic partnership between Armenia and the Russian Federation. Why should official Moscow clearly enough place its Transcaucasian foreign policy accents, preferably on a long-term basis, methodically and consistently promote its own projects at the local level, reflecting the fundamental provisions of mutually beneficial cooperation of both countries as guarantors of the peaceful development of the South Caucasus. The history of centuries-old Russian-Armenian relations speaks in favor of this statement.
NEW COURSE IN ACTION
Since the United States recognized the independence of Armenia 25 December 1991 of the year and established diplomatic relations with it 7 January 1992, not so many years have passed from the point of view of interstate relations of these two countries. If we take the number of visits of high-ranking officials of official Yerevan of the highest rank over the ocean during this period, then this figure is impressive. Almost every year, one of the top three leaders of the Armenian Republic — the president, the prime minister, or the head of the foreign affairs agency — visited the United States on an official visit.
The overseas envoys of official Washington were represented by figures of the Secretary of State, often his deputies, and even assistants. US Secretary of State James Baker was the first foreign minister of the United States to visit Armenia on February 1992 in February. The current contender for a seat in the White House, Hillary Clinton, being the head of the foreign ministry twice, made a voyage to Yerevan in July 2010 and June 2012. Among US visitors, we will find US Undersecretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Victoria Nuland, who has already received worldwide fame on the events in Kiev’s Maidan, who appeared in Armenia 18 February 2015 of the year at the head of a representative delegation of the State Department.
All this time, the main driving force behind the development of bilateral Armenian-American relations has been and remains constantly increasing trade and economic ties. For this, the Americans abolished the corresponding Jackson – Vanik amendments, which prohibited the sale of high technologies and appropriated the status of “permanent normal trade relations” to Armenia in 2004. With the active mediation of the United States, a number of international financial institutions, primarily the IMF, carried out a complex of long-term credit and grant programs totaling about $ 1 billion. For such a small country in the territory and population of Armenia, this figure is quite solid, to say the least. .
The contractual and legal framework of the official relations between official Washington and Yerevan looks impressive. Armenia, as noted above, is increasingly cooperating with the United States and NATO in the sphere of defense and security - the main trump cards of the Americans, which they unsuccessfully play in almost all parts of the world they like. A relatively recent delegation of overseas visitors, led by Assistant US Deputy Secretary of Defense Evelyn Farkas, came to Yerevan in February 2015 relatively recently. During the meeting with Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, it was stated that the Armenian-American cooperation in the military sphere is carried out and dynamically developed in an atmosphere of transparency and mutual trust. But such boasts of the overseas empire at their potential victims have not been news, but only a tribute to the military-diplomatic protocol, behind which the brutal grin of American neo-colonialism is peeped with the naked eye.
In turn, the leadership of our partner in the CSTO faithfully fulfills its obligations, imposed by contractual relations with overseas partners. First of all, in terms of holding “clean elections” and politically eliminating any influence on local authorities of the local oligarchic clans, especially those who have strong economic ties with the Russian Federation. In the local political jargon, such tactical tricks of the Armenian establishment were called the “new course”. But this does not at all relieve Armenians from accusations of “dishonest play” by the Americans due to the continuing cooperation of Armenia with the Russian Federation, including in the military sphere. It is no secret that 102-I base of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Gyumri is like a bone in the throat for Americans. Therefore, using the tactics of multilateral binding, they try to implant their Armenian partners on a military-biological igloo. And many have succeeded in this.
ON THE WRAPPED DIAGRAM
The Government of Armenia, at its meeting on August 26 of 2010, approved the agreement “On cooperation in preventing the spread of production technologies, pathogens and biological testing weapons"Concluded between the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Pentagon under the program" Reducing the biological threat. " A little earlier, the US Embassy in Armenia on this occasion distributed a lengthy press release stating: “The partnerships being established within the framework of the program are aimed at universal struggle to prevent the proliferation of biological weapons. In particular, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia and the US Department of Defense will cooperate in improving the systems and procedures of biological safety, safe and uniform collection and research of harmful pathogens, as well as detection, diagnosis, registration and response to epidemics. ”
As RA Emergency Situations Minister Armen Yeritsyan stated: “The American side proposed to conclude an agreement, taking into account natural and man-made risks, the geographical position of Armenia.” According to him, the US investment in this area will amount to 9 million dollars. Subsequently, in his detailed interview with Regnum news agency in 2014, he referred to the lack of funding as a strong motive that prompted Armenian partners to throw themselves into good Uncle Sam’s arms: “Finance is never enough, no matter how many. They are always small, they are always in short supply. ” His colleague and the subordinate director of the Emergency Rescue Service of Armenia, Major-General Sergei Azaryan, with soldierly directness, stated that the agreement provides for the introduction of electronic means of controlling infectious patients, as well as the improvement of diagnostic laboratories taking into account the latest achievements of science and technology in this area, which will contribute increase the professional skills of local professionals in the industry.
He further shared the details that shed light on who is who in this project, noting the passive role of the Armenian side, while an office has been established at the US embassy to support the implementation of a program to reduce biological threats. “This once again proves how seriously the United States treat this program,” Azaryan said. “We need to understand that the program to reduce biological threats is the most important factor in raising the level of a country's national security.”
These words have more questions than answers. First of all, it concerns the passage of the chief rescuer of Armenia regarding the exclusively contemplative role of his compatriots in the matter of the material and technical support of biological security, which is actually at the mercy of American partners. However, nothing strange in this. This is exactly the way Americans behave in such cases in the entire post-Soviet space. Or did the first persons of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia believe in their exclusiveness so much and think that the Yankees will act differently with them? How can you not remember the Russian folk tale about the man and the bear, who shared the tops and roots.
Americans inherited the Soviet biological objects inherited from the disintegrated USSR in the territory of Armenia since the middle of the 1990s. As usual, they are interested not only in these institutions, but also in the first place scientific research conducted in them. Here, the Yankees act in their usual manner, building interaction with local authorities on the thumbnail. They launched a number of programs that provide funding in the direction ensuring the technological safety of local bio-institutions, equipping them with high-tech equipment, safe storage of microorganism samples, consolidation of promising research programs and, of course, attracting specialists from the closed scientific community to collaborate in microbiology. Research Institute sunk into oblivion USSR.
The first sign in the sphere of interaction between the USA and Armenia on the issues of biological security was an agreement on combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, signed in 2000. Its actual and practical extension was the above-mentioned 2010 agreement of the year. The officially declared goal of bilateral cooperation in this area is to diagnose dangerous pathogens and create effective protection against them, to transform the state system of sanitary and epidemiological surveillance in order to minimize the risk of pandemic outbreaks. In general, everything is clear. If it were not for one "but." The main US player in the biological field of Armenia is the well-known American organization in the post-Soviet space - the Military Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
The activities of this structural division of the Pentagon are primarily aimed at bringing the sanitary and epidemiological surveillance system of Armenia in line with American and international standards in the field of human body and animal protection, in particular with the requirements of the World Health Organization and the International Epizootic Bureau. The Agency pursues the same goal with the financing of local scientists conducting scientific studies of especially dangerous pathogens, engaged in training personnel with the aim of increasing their research level in the framework of American technological programs. This should include the supply of the latest diagnostic and other equipment, as well as ensuring its uninterrupted operation through the involvement of American experts, etc.
INSTEAD OF RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
To implement their own programs under the 2010 US-Armenia agreement, DTRA officials have engaged the American company Black & Veatch since June 2011, whose activities in Ukraine were accompanied by a train of scandals extinguished due to the interference of US embassy officials in the internal affairs of our neighbor. This company began its work in Armenia with the fact that first of all it was engaged in the implementation at the local level of two systems for the detection, identification and elimination of biological threats: electronic complex sanitary and epidemiological surveillance of infectious diseases and control of pathogenic substances, as well as training employees of Armenian biological institutions in the correct handling with them.
At the same time, the staff of the aforementioned company provided the Republican Clinic "NORK" in Yerevan with the latest diagnostic equipment with the obligatory training of the local medical staff and the translation of technical documentation into Armenian. This was not the end. Pentagon contractors in 2015 put equipment for controlling the circulation of weapons of mass destruction and other similar threats when crossing the state border to the border service of Armenia. In the same year, the Emergencies Ministry of Armenia received special equipment from the United States in the event of a pandemic outbreak and preventing its spread. Similar resource preferences were also given to the local Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture. Officials of these departments have been trained on American standards to identify, diagnose and eliminate outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases of natural and man-made origin.
While DTRA employees pumped the biomuscles of our CSTO ally, their colleagues from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control of the US Department of Health put their biomostals under their full control, so to speak. It was this structure, which also settled locally in the middle of the dashing 90s of the last century, in fact filled with its content the functional responsibilities of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of Armenia, having built at its discretion a system of sanitary and epidemiological surveillance of dangerous infectious diseases. But the main thing is not even that. The fact is that the exchange of various information between local central and regional bio-institutions, its processing took place through the Epi Info software developed and used in daily activities by the above-mentioned structure of the US Department of Health. And therefore, the whole Armenian bioprogram is under the vigilant control of Uncle Sam.
Among other US tools in the implementation of the 2010 agreement of the year is the State Science-Controlled International Science and Technology Center (ISTC), which has its structural units in Yerevan. These units are used as control and auditing bodies coordinating scientific research on this topic within the framework of bilateral cooperation. In particular, ISTC has currently provided financial assistance for the logistics of several dozen projects implemented in a dozen research institutions, most of which are concentrated in the Armenian capital.
This spring, the reconstruction of the laboratory of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of Armenia was completed in Ijevan. The opening ceremony of 6 in April was attended by US Ambassador Richard Mills and the representative of the Pentagon’s Military Threat Reduction Agency, Lance Brooks. According to the head of the US diplomatic mission, this event is the first sign in the series of central and regional biolaboratories to be modernized as part of a program of cooperation in the biological sphere. The training conducted by personnel engaged in research in the Ijevan laboratory will enable its employees to use the acquired skills and the latest equipment very effectively in their daily activities. The US Ambassador particularly noted in his speech that the program of biological cooperation implemented by the parties is one of the largest programs implemented by the US government in Armenia.
The construction process of the central reference laboratory in Yerevan will be completed shortly. Its opening is scheduled for July of this year. In the near future, research work in another three regional biolaboratories in Lori, Gegharkunik and Syunik regions will be closed to it. Their reconstruction should be completed in 2017 year. It should also include a similar facility in Gyumri, work on which is in the final stages, which may sound like an American warning to the Russian side. After all, the local laboratory, controlled by the Americans, can bring a lot of trouble to servicemen of the 102 military base of the Russian Armed Forces.
What and what will happen next, time will tell. It seems to me that the historical memory of the Armenian people at the genetic level will sooner or later say its weighty word. Yes, and many Armenians, both living in Armenia and living outside of its borders, have long been determined by who should be considered a true friend. The one who saved them from the entire Turkish massacre exactly a century ago, or one who across the ocean still stubbornly refuses to recognize the very fact of the Armenian Holocaust.
Information