Official Response of the Federal Republic of St.Charlie to Atlantis' Insults

Citizens of the Federal Republic of St.Charlie
Members of the General Assembly
Members of the Intermicronational Community

During the past few weeks we have unfortunately been caught up in a series of disputes with the Republic of Atlantis which, unsurprisingly given the lack of will to negotiate of our counterparts, have resulted in nothing but tension between our two nations.

The Federal Republic has no wish to maintain this climate of hostility, although it is not interested in an alliance or any other diplomatic support, and therefore positively greeted Ambassador Brizendine’s attempts to cooperation. The fact that the Ambassador is actually a Salanian rather than an Atlantis citizen should have been a warning signal to us, be we were confident in his goodwill.

It was therefore with utmost regret that we greeted Mr. Dworzycki, who was apparently willing to negotiate, and his statements were he had the cheek to demand the Federal Republic’s apologies and accusing us, the irony, of “discrediting” and “accusing” them; later stating these were “FACTS”. His ad hominem comments singling out of Mr. Von Linden further destroyed any hopes we had in cooperating with Mr. Dworzycki. Mr. Dworzycki then went on to state that it was the Federal Republic’s fault, that there was something “wrong with you”, that we were “mocking” them and that we were “teh (sic) ones causing trouble”. He then stated that he has “happy to terminate the negotiations” and that we could “forget about co-operation from me”.

Why all the fuss about apologies, one may ask. The reason is simple. For all their protestations to the contrary, the Republic of Atlantis has displayed a tendency to emulate the Federal Republic which has gone beyond inspiration and descended into pure plagiarism. The ranks used by the SCAF, the Commonwealth, its flag and coat-of-arms and St.Charlie Radio 1 are but a few examples of this behaviour. We do not have a problem with nations looking up to us and liking our ideas, but not without crediting us.

Various, rather flawed arguments have been brought up against this. For example, that St.Charlie copied its ranks from those of the Italian Army or that we copied the British Commonwealth or other Commonwealths existing in micronationalism. Both of these are nonsense. St.Charlie took inspiration from the Italian Army, and modified its design. Atlantis, given the wide range of other ranks and shoulder-pads existing within the IA, decided to copy the exact design of the SCAF ones. Having exhausted arguments regarding the topic, Mr. Virgili then lapsed into childish name calling and personal attacks against my person. Regarding the Commonwealth, we find it hypocritical to say the least that Mr. Virgili has repeatedly tried to belittle us by remarking that we were talking about things without knowing the facts, and then done exactly the same. If anything, we were inspired by the US rather than the British; and there are no Commonwealths with the same structure and aims as those of the St.Charlian Commonwealth, except for the Atlantis Commonwealth of course. So please, Mr. Virgili and all other Atlantis politicians, make sure to take a bit of your own medicine.

While, given the evidence, it is hard for the Federal Republic not to react to blatant plagiarism; we are reasonable and open to diplomacy. The same unfortunately cannot be said about our colleagues. We were initially told that Mr. Brizendine, Mr. Dworzycki and Mr. Pellecchia, the President, were wishing to negotiate. In particular, Mr. Dworzycki stated “So all of the memebrs (sic) of Atlantis, want for us to be allies”. However, Mr. Dworzycki then claimed that “since I crontrol (sic) majority of Atlantis” we could expect little support from anyone else. Apart from the incredibly undemocratic comment and lack of coherence, we would like to know what this majority is, since with the departure of Mr. Carbone, Mr. Angelosi, Ms. Di Fiore and Mr. De Felice there appear to be four people in Atlantis: Mr. Virgili, Mr. Brizendine, Mr. Dworzycki and Mr. Pellecchia. From simple mathematics it appears as if there is a 50-50 divide.

Indeed, Mr. Virgili himself decided to step in and remove any doubts of the democratic nature of Atlantis by saying the talks had been illegal as he was the only person responsible for foreign affairs. He then went on to claim that he would not continue negotiations, but then an hour later stated we should open negotiations ourselves. Virgili’s tendency to personal insult and unreasonableness later emerged when he stated he was acting on the consensus a “majority” and called De Armis an “ignorant”.

But the insults and insinuations unfortunately did not stop there. In a topic in the Atlantis forum, Mr. Brizendine brought forward the absurd and utterly slanderous suggestion that because of his wish to maintain privacy, Mr. Reinhardt could be in fact lying about anything. Once again forgetting to be true to his own statements on factual accuracy, Mr. Virgili claimed only Mr. Bronisz uses his real name in St.Charlie; forgetting Mr. Nicoló Alvisi, Mrs. Barbara Ruvolo, Ms. Elena Ferranti, Mr. Nick Maggiore and many others. In a display of self-styled “American ingeunuity (sic)” Mr Brizendine then went to give an incorrect surname. It is also worth knowing Mr. Reinhardt had informed the community of this almost a year ago. I would also like to stress the total and shameful disregard of Mr. Reinhardt’s privacy.

At this moment in time, the Federal Republic still hopes reason and coherence will prevail, and therefore offers Atlantis a chance to make amends for the insult brought upon our nation and for its plagiaristic actions. If the following 5 points are addressed, the Federal Republic is willing to normalise relations, but a failure in compliance may result in diplomatic and legal action.

• 1) That the ranks of the Atlantis Army be redesigned while avoiding copying those of the SCAF.
• 2) That the map showing an overlap between St.Charlian and Atlantis claims be substituted with a more accurate one.
• 3) That the “Atlantis Commonwealth” change its name or objectives in order to clear the blatant plagiarism present at the moment.
• 4) That the flag and coat-of-arms of the Commonwealth be modified for the above reason.
• 5) That “Radio Atlantis 1” change its name to something more original.
• 6) That the Republic of Atlantis issue formal and unequivocal apologies to myself, Mr. Reinhardt, Mr. De Armis and the Federal Republic for the gratuitous slander brought upon us.

If the above demands are met, the St.Charlian Government and Parliament stretches its hand to Atlantis. We hope that Atlantis will change its current stance and strive to be reasonable and coherent so as to ensure an end to a tension that has over-extended itself needlessly.

Heinrich Schneider OBS (s.gd)

On behalf of the St.Charlian Government and the St.Charlian Parliament