The former president of Georgia, and now the fierce oppositionist in Ukraine Mikheil Saakashvili is not the apple of my eye. Although it is not possible to deny that after the Rose Revolution he brought some “order” to his homeland.
Now they say that as a Georgian leader, he was “Armenophob”, which also a disputable question. I do not perceive him as bright democratic, his mission was different: to restore the elementary order and to conduct economic reforms, which Saakashvili managed to do if not for “A”, then for “B”. National minorities are not granted any privileges within the framework of the government’s centralizing policy, especially if these minorities live in compact, as in some regions of Javakhk. To say that it was specially against Armenians, I think is an exaggeration.
Saakashvili’s good and bad deeds can be disputed over like those of any state and political figure. One thing is indisputable: if there are people who are interested in reading his ideas, then all possibilities should be created for them. Whom are our authorities afraid of for banning Saakashvili’s book, Kremlin, or Georgia’s current authorities? Does not matter. I think there should be a very simple principle: does it violate the Armenian legislation or not? Based on this principle, it is clear that the prohibition of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” would be absolutely legal, because this book contains propaganda of ideas forbidden by law. If there is no such thing, then the spread of any ideas, books, and newspapers should only be encouraged. Let people read and draw their conclusions.
However, the peculiarity of the “digital age” is that this presentation does not have to be performed physically. Moreover, the ban on holding the presentation is a better presentation than just physically distributing and signing the book in a store or museum. Those who were not interested in the ideas expressed by Saakashvili (like me), began to think, “maybe there is something interesting in that book”.
In the same way, Husik Ara’s poem was so much criticized that it became known to thousands of people. By the way, I am for the presentation of this author’s book as well.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
