Free Republic

In 1995, former Iranian president Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani made a little-noticed trip to the neighboring country of Georgia. He spent several hours in Tbilisi, the capital, and then instead of returning to Iran, he made a secret side trip to the breakaway region of Adjara to visit President Aslan Abashidze. The purpose of the detour was not to visit the balmy, palm-treed tourist sea port resort of Batumi on the Black Sea. His purpose was more sinister. The Iranian president was looking for black market sources of chemicals to enrich uranium for building a nuclear bomb. He found a willing...

...The Turkish foreign ministry called on both parties to "exercise common sense and refrain from unilateral actions."They added, "We expect that measures will be taken to reduce tensions in the region as soon as possible and that the necessary mechanisms, including in the field of counter-terrorism, will be put in place to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents. We also support Pakistan's call for an investigation into the 22 April terrorist attack."...Azerbaijan also issued a statement soon after the attack, condemning violence against Pakistan.In their statement they said, "The Republic of Azerbaijan expresses its concern over the further escalation of...

As Russian tanks rumble through Georgia, and Western pundits talk of the "new Cold War," one trope keeps reappearing in their discourse. Russia's newly aggressive stance, we are told, is partly our fault: After the fall of Communism, the West went out of its way to humiliate and trample Russia instead of treating it as a partner--and now, an oil-powered Russia is striking back. "Russia's litany of indignities dates to the early 1990s when the Soviet empire collapsed," Samantha Power, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and former Barack Obama adviser, wrote in Time. "A bipolar universe gave...

Hundreds of women were kept as slaves on a human egg farm in Georgia where they were fed hormones and treated like cattle. Their horrifying ordeal has been revealed by three Thai women who were freed from the clutches of the 'egg mafia' on January 30 after being exploited for half a year, tabloid Bild reports. The woman said they were held captive on a 'human farm' in the eastern European country of Georgia by a criminal organisation led by Chinese criminals, who sold their eggs on the black market. They were lured in by a job offer on Facebook,...

<p>The good news for the people of former Soviet Georgia is that their little Caucasus republic has advanced 160 years in political development in only a decade. The bad news is they still live in a violent, complex neighborhood, cursed with national borders that were expressly designed not to work.</p>

Scientists have uncovered evidence suggesting that hominins, the ancient relatives of modern humans, were present in Europe at least 1.95 million years ago. This finding, from the Grăunceanu site in Romania’s Olteț River Valley, represents the earliest-known trace of hominin activity on the continent, predating prior European hominin fossils by more than half a million years. The discovery, recently published in Nature Communications, hinges on meticulously analyzed cut-marked animal bones unearthed in a fossil-rich region historically overlooked in discussions of early human migration. According to researchers, these cut marks were made with tools, indicating that hominins were actively butchering animals...

Bashplemi Lake tablet. (Shengalia et al., Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology, 2024) A few years ago, late in the fall of 2021, locals fishing Georgia's Bashplemi Lake in the municipality of Dmanisi came across a long-forgotten piece of history – a small stone tablet inscribed with dozens of mysterious symbols. Now a team of archaeologists from across Georgia has confirmed the impressions represent samples of a script that has never been documented, raising questions on the spread and preservation of writing across the transcontinental region. Roughly the size of an iPad, the basalt tablet features just 39 different characters...

Roughly 100 world leaders are traveling to Baku, Azerbaijan, for the U.N. Climate Change Conference — even as scores are skipping the annual talks, known this year as COP29. In a Tuesday address before world leaders speak at the summit, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres described the previous year as a “master class in climate destruction,” adding, “The sound you hear is the ticking clock.” He also expressed optimism about the transition to clean energy, saying that “no group, no business, and no government” can stop it. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg chose to skip the conference: Speaking Monday at a...

During the Roman period, Apsaros was an important port and garrison on the Colchis coast—a term that refers to a historical region on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, roughly corresponding to what is now western Georgia—Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski said. Apsaros, constructed around 2,000 years ago, was of particular importance in the time of the Roman emperors Trajan (who ruled from A.D. 98-117) and Hadrian (who ruled from A.D. 117-138).The votive plaque found during the 2024 excavation season at the site, which ran from mid-May to the end of July, is essentially a thin gold plate. It features a Greek inscription...

By the end of June, more than 10,000 foreign workers from India will be employed in Israel, and at the same time, the process of absorbing about 10,000 foreign workers from other countries such as Georgia, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, and more will begin. The arrival of foreign workers will save the construction industry, which is currently in collapse, and most of the construction sites are closed. The trend is to bring about 40,000 more workers to Israel to complete a quota of 65,000 foreign workers because Palestinian workers who worked in the construction industry no longer come to work in...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on October 13 that in the coming weeks, Azerbaijan could invade Armenia. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has threatened Armenia with war multiple times.Meanwhile, pro-Erdogan media outlets in Turkey are also playing their war drums against Armenians. The headline news in the pro-Erdogan newspaper Türkiye on October 3 refers to Armenians in Armenia’s Syunik (Zangezur) province as “snakes”, “gangs” and “terrorists”. One headline reads: “The new nest of the snake is Zangezur”. It claims that the Armenians displaced from Artsakh (also known as Nagorno-Karabakh) are receiving military training in “terror camps in Zangezur”.When the...

Taking its fears of an imminent coup to the next level, the Georgian government is now accusing the United States of sponsoring a DIY revolution workshop in Tbilisi.USAID, the international aid arm of the US government, and its Serbia-based partner organization that organized the workshop have dismissed the claim as false and absurd. The US Embassy in Tbilisi assailed the Georgian claims, saying they “fundamentally mischaracterize” the goals of US assistance to the country. Domestic critics contend that the government’s accusations are politically motivated, intended to kneecap opposition elements as Georgia gears up for parliamentary elections in 2024.

Thousands of people have fled from a disputed Azerbaijani territory to neighbouring Armenia amid fears that they may face ethnic cleansing. Nearly 6,700 people arrived in Armenia after leaving the Nagorno-Karabakh region, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, in the two days since the Armenian government began accepting refugees on Sunday. Armenia's prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, said that the country has plans to look after up to 40,000 refugees, but said he expects up to 120,000 people to leave the region due to the 'danger of ethnic cleansing', raising serious concerns over whether Armenia will be able to cope with...

Update from Ukraine | South frontline success | Azerbaijan Armenia Conflict. Ukraine Poland tensions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW4Cm7IL0lM The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the recent developments on the battlefield, as of 13th September 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). [NOTE: two summaries per week, released on Wednesday and Sunday] https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-567-summary/ *** Great interactive maps with viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use for each Front! https://militaryland.net/maps/

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) expressed frustration Thursday with the Biden administration's lack of urgency in addressing what the United States has described as a "rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation" in Nagorno-Karabakh, a hotly disputed region at the center of rising tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan.Menendez, while chairing of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the crisis, said he was "amazed" by the responses from Yuri Kim, the acting assistant secretary for the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs...The senator's frustration centered on the administration's application of Section 907 of the United States Freedom Support Act, which bans direct...

‘People feel let down by Russia’: disputed Caucasus enclave choked by blockade: Warnings of humanitarian catastrophe in mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh, a region claimed by Armenia and Azerbaijan, now Russia is no longer capable of intervening Armenia sent a convoy of 19 trucks carrying humanitarian aid for the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh last month. But the convoy was stopped at an Azeri checkpoint and has remained there for more than two weeks. Nina, a 23-year-old village schoolteacher, goes from store to store every morning searching for food in the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where she and her parents have been trapped for...

Japan was the first country to break its silence after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Tokyo said of the Kuril Islands that it was “completely unacceptable that the Northern Territories have yet to be returned since the Soviet Union’s illegal occupation of them 77 years ago”. That annexation saw the expulsion of Japanese people from the southern islands, and since then, the countries have failed to reach a compromise. Talks broke down when Putin showed he was not willing to share lands but only to gain new ones. Then China started drawing maps marking part of Siberia and...

The Legio X Fretensis “Tenth legion of the Strait”, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army formed around 41/40 BC. The legion was centrally involved in the Great Jewish Revolt (AD 66–73), the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire. Around AD 70, most of Roman rule was restored in Judea except for several fortresses and Jerusalem. The city was placed under siege by the X Fretensis, in conjunction with the V Macedonica, XII Fulminata, and XV Apollinaris. After several battles, Jerusalem and the Second Temple was destroyed, with contemporary historian, Titus Flavius Josephus,...

Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’s spokeswoman, Christina Pushaw, has doubled down on her historic support of Volodymyr Zelensky, suggesting that critics skeptical of her pro-war stance want her to “support Putin”.Pushaw, the Governor’s “rapid response director”, has faced criticism for her support of Zelensky, a man accused of embezzling hundreds of millions from U.S. taxpayers. Conservatives concerned chiefly about their own country’s issues are increasingly keen for the White House to broker peace rather than wage war. As such, many are leery of Pushaw’s proximity to and potential influence over Oval Office hopeful, DeSantis.“When the best ‘oppo’ you can find on...

Polish scientists discovered that Legion X Fretensis, known for its brutal suppression of Jewish uprisings, was stationed in the early 2nd century AD in the Roman fort of Apsaros in Colchis on the Black Sea coast.Until now, researchers were unaware of their presence in such a distant region.This legion of the Imperial Roman army known as the Legio X Fretensis, or "Tenth Legion of the Strait," was formed around 41/40 BC. The legion played a key role in the Great Jewish Revolt (AD 66-73), the first of three major Jewish rebellions against the Roman Empire.This finding was made possible through...