Free Republic

The Bagratid Kingdom, also known as Bagratid Armenia, was founded by Ashot I Bagratuni of the Bagratuni dynasty around AD 880 following centuries of Abbasid rule.The kingdom emerged as a buffer state between the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate, absorbing several Armenian principalities and the kingdoms of Taron, Vaspurakan, Kars, Khachen and Syunik.The earliest description of Ani comes from the 5th-6th century Armenian chronicler Ghazar Parpetsi, who gives mention of a hilltop fortress constructed by the Kamsarakan House (one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran closely associated to the Arsacids)...By the start of the 11th century, Ani had...

All hail the newest member of the Krugman Truth Squad — Fox News's Neil Cavuto. Paul Krugman took at shot at Cavuto in his Tuesday column in the New York Times — and Cavuto shot back with what can only be described as a generous serving of good old fashioned shock and awe. Krugman wrote, both the formal rules and the codes of ethics that formerly prevented blatant partisanship are gone or ignored. Neil Cavuto of Fox News is an anchor, not a commentator. Yet after Baghdad's fall he told "those who opposed the liberation of Iraq" — a large...