geography lesson

[medicvet]

For those who are curious as to precisly what and where the fuck is Abkhazia:

Columbia Encyclopedia
Abkhaziaăbkăz', autonomous republic (1990 est. pop. 539,000), 3,300 sq mi (8,547 sq km), in Georgia, between the Black Sea and the Greater Caucasus. Sukhumi (the capital) and Gagra are the chief cities. Despite some perpetually snowcapped peaks, the region is mainly one of subtropical agriculture. Tobacco is the leading crop; there are also tea and citrus plantations, vineyards, and fruit orchards. Industries include sawmilling, canning, metalworking, and the manufacture of leather goods. Abkhazia is famous for its health resorts. The population is made up of Abkhazians (an Orthodox Christian and Muslim people of the North Caucasian linguistic family), Georgians, Russians, and Armenians.
Originally colonized in the 6th cent. B.C. by the Greeks, the region later came under Roman and Byzantine rule. In the 8th cent. a leader of the Abkhaz tribe formed an independent kingdom that became part of Georgia in the 10th cent. In 1578 the Turks conquered the area and gradually converted it to Islam. By a treaty with the Abkhazian dukes, Russia acquired Sukhumi in 1810 and declared a protectorate over all Abkhazia, which was formally annexed in 1864.

Abkhazia became an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union in 1921 and was made part of Georgia in 1930. In 1991 the region became an autonomous republic inside independent Georgia. Georgia itself was soon torn apart by bitter fighting between government forces and a guerrilla movement seeking an independent Abkhazian state. More than 3,000 people were killed in the fighting, and some 250,000 people, mostly ethnic Georgians, fled. In 1994 a cease-fire was negotiated, with Russian troops serving as peacekeepers, but the ultimate disposition of Abkhazia remained unresolved and fighting broke out again in 1998 and in 2001. In a 1999 referendum regarded as illegal by Georgia, voters approved declaring the region a sovereign state. The area is heavily dependent on Russia, and most of the residents now hold Russian passports.

After a presidential election in Oct., 2004, that apparently ended in a slim victory for opposition candidate Sergei Bagapsh, allegations of fraud from the Russian-supported runner-up, Prime Minister Raul Khajimba, resulted in a call for a new election, and a governmental impasse ensued. The issue was resolved when Bagapsh, who was widely believed to have won despite fraud on Khajimba's side, agreed to a new election (Jan., 2005) in which Khajimba was his running mate. Russia's failed attempt to manipulate a presidential victory for Khajimba, despite Bagapsh's own pro-Moscow leanings, was generally seen as a significant blunder.

http://plus.aol.com/aol/reference/Ab...Abkhazia?flv=1

What shall we find out next..how far back this clusterfuck of a bunch of fubar'd shit goes? Man, I am getting the willies thinking about how we could end up possibly being a species so ignorant as to actually make itself extinct.

[medicvet]

For those interested in knowing more about Georgia can go here:

http://plus.aol.com/aol/reference/Ge...opedia.results


I keep getting this awful vision in my head of apocalyptic mushroom clouds and double sunsets? I could utube if i knew how to make a video it would be 'what a wonderful world..I am so going to make it a goal of mine to learn how to do those..if I got the time...got such a strong feeling that that is one thing we are very quickly running out of.

[medicvet]

And of course we can't forget Ossetia:

http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/ossetia.htm

[proffett]

Medic thanks for the info. I was trying to read up about these areas last night in an effort to make sense of what is happening over there... I even put Google Earth on my laptop lol..

I do hope this ends soon. And by end I don't mean everyone blown to bits either.

[krakatoa]

Thanks for that Medicvet, i love geography lessons, especially in a case like this, i have to admit i did'nt knew much about this place, and i think it is important to know, what we are talking about, either for them, to make us know more about them, and us to, by not being ignorant.

It is important to be aware, it makes us more anderstanding about other places, and their peoples.

Krakatoa.

[medicvet]

thanks, ya'll. And now, let me throw some Kurds and whey into this smoragasbord of nations.....since they factor into this region too. I have been saying for years about how the fact that the Kurds are the only people left without their own nation now that there is Israel.

Oh yeah, and the Brits, along with other pre-colonial and colonial empires really fucked the world over when they made their map of new nations..and did it on purpose so they could keep their pawns divided the more easily to conquor, and leave the Kurds without a Kurdistan.

Who Are the Kurds?

A largely Sunni Muslim people with their own language and culture, most Kurds live in the generally contiguous areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Syria – a mountainous region of southwest Asia generally known as Kurdistan ("Land of the Kurds").

Before World War I, traditional Kurdish life was nomadic, revolving around sheep and goat herding throughout the Mesopotamian plains and highlands of Turkey and Iran. The breakup of the Ottoman Empire after the war created a number of new nation-states, but not a separate Kurdistan. Kurds, no longer free to roam, were forced to abandon their seasonal migrations and traditional ways.

During the early 20th century, Kurds began to consider the concept of nationalism, a notion introduced by the British amid the division of traditional Kurdistan among neighboring countries. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which created the modern states of Iraq, Syria and Kuwait, was to have included the possibility of a Kurdish state in the region. However, it was never implemented. After the overthrow of the Turkish monarchy by Kemal Ataturk, Turkey, Iran and Iraq each agreed not to recognize an independent Kurdish state.

The Kurds received especially harsh treatment at the hands of the Turkish government, which tried to deprive them of Kurdish identity by designating them "Mountain Turks," outlawing their language and forbidding them to wear traditional Kurdish costumes in the cities. The government also encouraged the migration of Kurds to the cities to dilute the population in the uplands. Turkey continues its policy of not recognizing the Kurds as a minority group.

In Iraq, Kurds have faced similar repression. After the Kurds supported Iran in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein retaliated, razing villages and attacking peasants with chemical weapons. The Kurds rebelled again after the Persian Gulf War only to be crushed again by Iraqi troops. About 2 million fled to Iran; 5 million currently live in Iraq. The United States has tried to create a safe haven for the Kurds within Iraq by imposing a "no-fly" zone north of the 36th parallel.

Despite a common goal of independent statehood, the 20 million or so Kurds in the various countries are hardly unified. From 1994-98, two Iraqi Kurd factions – the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Massoud Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Jalal Talabani – fought a bloody war for power over northern Iraq. In September 1998, the two sides agreed to a power-sharing arrangement.

Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, currently waging a guerrilla insurgency in southeastern Turkey, has rejected the Iraqi Kurds' decision to seek local self-government within a federal Iraq. The PKK believes any independent Kurdish state should be a homeland for all Kurds.

Over the years, tensions have flared between the PKK, led by Abdullah Ocalan, and Barzani's KDP faction, which controls the Turkey-Iraq border. Barzani has criticized the PKK for establishing military bases inside Iraqi-Kurd territory to launch attacks into Turkey.

Ocalan's recent capture by Turkish agents touched off heated and sometimes violent protests by thousands of Kurds living in Western Europe. It's impact on the Kurdish people and their quest for independence is yet to be seen.

This one only goes until 1999, but I like how it explains the history of the Kurds..I got it here, and there is a timeline on the site too if you want to check that out:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...urdprofile.htm

[medicvet]

What that region needs, hell what anyplace needs, are more Sufis. I am a Unitarian Universalist, and also a Deist, Wiccan, Buddhist, and Sufi in my beliefs..with some Native American, Celtic, and Nordic animism thrown in for good measure.

Maybe if we could learn that G-d doesn't like it when we dont' get along in G-d's name, we might stand a chance for a future. Right now, though, it does look like the odds are pretty well stacked against us.

Anyway, here is a little bit about Sufiism, a mystical tenet of Islam, much like the Kabbalah is a mystic tenet of Judaism.

Sufi is a name given to a band of mystics who are lovers of God. There is an ancient story about a group of lovers who were called "Kamal Posh" (blanket wearers), thought by some to be early Sufis. Their only individual possessions were their single blankets, which they wore during the day and wrapped around themselves at night. They went to every prophet. No one could satisfy them. Every prophet told them, do this or that, and they were not satisfied. One day Mohammed said that Kamal Posh men were coming and that they would arrive in so many days. They came on the day he said and, when they were with him, he only looked at them without speaking. They were completely satisfied. Why were they completely satisfied? Because he created love in their hearts. "When love is created what dissatisfaction can there be?"(2)

Sufism is the ancient wisdom of the heart. It is not limited by form, by time or place. It always was and it always will be. There will always be those who need to realize God as the Beloved. There will always be lovers of God. The Kamal Posh recognized that Mohammed knew the silent mysteries of love. They stayed with him and became assimilated into Islam.

Islam literally means "surrender" and, while the esoteric side of Islam teaches the outer religious law of surrender to God, there developed an inner esoteric side which teaches of the lover's surrender to the Beloved. A century after the death of the Prophet, small groups known as "Lovers of God" began to emerge throughout the Muslim world. They were also known as "Travellers" or "Wayfarers on the Mystical path," reflecting a saying ascribed to the Prophet:

Be in this world as if you are a traveller, a passer-by, with your clothes and shoes full of dust. Sometimes you sit under the shade of a tree, sometimes you walk in the desert. Be always a passer-by, for this is not home.

http://www.nderf.org/sufi.htm


There is also more detail on Sufiism here:

http://www.goldensufi.org/index2.html