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<p>WASHINGTON – The Russian military anticipates that an attack will occur on Iran by the summer and has developed an action plan to move Russian troops through neighboring Georgia to stage in Armenia, which borders on the Islamic republic, according to informed Russian sources.</p>

excerpt- As the United States, the European Union, and western allies expand efforts to squeeze Iran through crippling sanctions, Tehran is working to create loopholes to mitigate the impact. Often, the Iranians have used third countries for this purpose. From the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Germany, Iran established networks of businesses and front companies designed to assist and finance the regime’s illicit procurement activities. But the UAE and Germany, alongside other erstwhile partners of Iran, have since joined the sanctions’ effort, pushing Iran out of their financial systems and scaling down on trade. -excerpt- For Armenia, Iran’s presence is...

1912 - MILESTONE IN THE BEGINNING OF THE 'CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE' BY MUSLIM TURKEY Perpetrators: Ottoman Islamic Turkey Victims: Christians: Armenians; Greeks; Assyrians The Jihad Against the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christians Aug 7, 2011 - It was a jihad against Anatolian Christians... "Persecution, Expulsion and Annihilation of Christians in the Ottoman Empire 1912-1922." ... Most historians regard 1912 to 1925 as a time of massive Christian annihilation and relocation by ...http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/the_jihad_against_the_armenian_assyrian_and_greek_christians.html The Jihad Against the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christians Posted GMT 8-7-2011 12:59:51http://www.aina.org/news/20110807075951.htm The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus...

Iran is confident that neighboring Azerbaijan would not allow attacking forces to pass through its territory, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday, according to the official IRNA news agency. Ahmadinejad told visiting Azerbaijan Defense Minister Gen. Safar Abiyev, “We are sure that no problem will take place against Iran from (the land of) our friend and brother, Azerbaijan.” Earlier, Abiyev, told reporters Azerbaijan will not act against “great Iran” or allow an attack using its territory. This came after he met his Iranian counterpart, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi. Ahmadinejad said, “Joint enemies of the two countries seek to stop improvement relations...

Whereas, On April 24, 1915, Ottoman Empire authorities arrested, and later executed, more than 200 Armenian community leaders and intellectuals in the capital of Constantinople, now known as Istanbul; and Whereas, This atrocity marked the escalation of systemic persecution and violence against the Armenian people by the government of the Ottoman Empire that continued through 1923; and Whereas, During this period, Armenians were subject to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre, and starvation, planned and orchestrated by the government of the Ottoman Empire; and Whereas, In all, approximately 1.5 million Armenians had perished and hundreds of thousands more had become homeless,...

The news that the Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar will be visiting Armenia mid-January might come as a surprise to some. Yet, Iran has always seen its Armenian population as well as its links with Armenia as an important asset. Armenians are the most favoured and relatively privileged of all non-Muslim communities in Iran today. It is tricky to establish the exact number of ethno-religious minorities in the country since the official numbers are politically shaped and minority communities guard such details and often are not clear themselves. However, various sources estimate that there are around 300,000 Baha'is, 110,000...

Protest Held In NYC Over France's Armenian Genocide Legislation By RFE/RL January 06, 2012 NEW YORK -- About two dozen people of Turkish origin or descent gathered in front of the French Consulate in New York on January 5 to protest the French genocide bill, which would criminalize the denial that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 constituted genocide. The evening protest, which was organized by the Young Turks Association, featured around 20 people waving Turkish and U.S. flags as they chanted "shame on France". Mae Sonmez, Vice President of the Northeast Region at the Assembly...

The French Government announced recently that the Senate is to debate the bill penalizing the denial of the Armenian 'genocide' by late January. The lower chamber of the French parliament approved the draft with an overwhelming majority of votes on December 22. ... After the passage of the bill by the National Assembly, Turkey’s state-run television said Ankara was recalling its ambassador from Paris. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan later said the country was freezing its political, economic and military ties with France.

Following is an excerpt from a sermon delivered by Sunni scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Qatar TV on December 23, 2011. Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: We stand by our brothers in Turkey. All Muslims must oppose France in [its Armenian genocide bill]. We reject any allegation against the Muslims at any time. Throughout its history, Islam has never wanted to annihilate any nation. This is completely unacceptable.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Thursday that he would cancel all political, economic and military meetings between representatives of Turkey and France. He also forbade French aircraft from landing in Turkey and said French hsips were no longer welcome in Turkey's ports. Turkish television reported earlier that Ankara would call back its ambassador from Paris. The crisis was precipitated by a bill ratified Thursday in the French parliament, according to which denying the 1915 Armenian genocide would be punishable by a jail sentence of up to one year and a 45,000 euro fine. The bill has yet to...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Thursday that he would cancel all political, economic and military meetings between representatives of Turkey and France. He also forbade French aircraft from landing in Turkey and said French hsips were no longer welcome in Turkey's ports. Turkish television reported earlier that Ankara would call back its ambassador from Paris. The crisis was precipitated by a bill ratified Thursday in the French parliament, according to which denying the 1915 Armenian genocide would be punishable by a jail sentence of up to one year and a 45,000 euro fine. The bill has yet to...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Thursday that he would cancel all political, economic and military meetings between representatives of Turkey and France. He also forbade French aircraft from landing in Turkey and said French hsips were no longer welcome in Turkey's ports. Turkish television reported earlier that Ankara would call back its ambassador from Paris. The crisis was precipitated by a bill ratified Thursday in the French parliament, according to which denying the 1915 Armenian genocide would be punishable by a jail sentence of up to one year and a 45,000 euro fine. The bill has yet to...

Turkey is doing its utmost to head off a bill in the French National Assembly that would criminalize the denial of the Armenian genocide of 1915. The Armenians claim that one and a half million Armenians died as result of mass deportations by the Turkish Ottomans. Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned the French that they were jeopardizing centuries of friendship in return for "small political calculations". The Turks view French president Nicolas Sarkozy as hostile to them and a major roadblock in their quest to join the European Union. The political calculations Gul referred to were apparently Sarkozy's wish to...

Israel is set to join France and recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide, according to a report Sunday on Channel 10 News. The report said that the Knesset’s Education Committee will hold a discussion on Monday regarding an initiative presented by MKs Aryeh Eldad (National Union) and Zehava Gal-on (Meretz) to recognize the Armenian genocide. According to the report, the committee is expected to pass the initiative, though it is still unclear what the exact wording will be and whether the term genocide or disaster will be used. The Armenian Genocide is also called the Armenian Massacres. Armenians call it the...

Turkey's high-flying economy, which expanded at a 10 percent annual rate of gross domestic product growth during the first half of 2011,[1] will crash-land in 2012. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan's "economic miracle," to use the Daily Telegraph's admiring words,[2] depended on a 40 percent annual rate of bank credit expansion, which in turn produced a balance of payments deficit as wide as that of southern Europe's crisis countries. Markets have already anticipated a sudden turnaround in the Turkish economy. The Turkish lira (TRY) fell by a quarter between November 2010 and September 2011, making it the world's worst performing...

President Obama again declined to call the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I a genocide, instead on Saturday painting the massacre as "one of the worst atrocities" of the 20th century and "a devastating chapter" in history. In a statement issued as he and first lady Michelle Obama spent a weekend getaway here in western North Carolina, the president marked the 95th anniversary of the start of the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks with strong words but intently avoided branding it genocide.

Quote: homeland.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-jihadist-use-social-media-how-prevent-terrorism-and-preserve-innovation Subcommittee Hearing: Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence | 311 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 | Dec 6, 2011 2:00pm On Tuesday, December 6, 2011 the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will hold a hearing entitled "Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation." The Committee will meet at 2:00 p.m. in 311 Cannon House Office Building. Witnesses Mr. Evan F. Kohlmann Flashpoint Global Partners Mr. William McCants Analyst Analyst for the Center for Naval...

French president Nicholas Sarkozy's party has introduced legislation in that nation's legislature that would make illegal the denial of the infamous genocide perpetrated against Armenians and other Christians by the government of Turkey during the Second World War in 1915. This would make it a crime on par with denying the historicity of the Holocaust, perpetrated by the Germany's National Socialist government before and during the Second World War. Historians estimate that approximately 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the Turks, at the time ruled by the last of the Ottoman rulers. This was a planned and concerted...

Mideast: Our premature departure from Iraq tells the world that the U.S., as in Vietnam, can't finish big jobs. But far worse, it opens the door to a nuclear-armed, pan-Islamist empire led by Iran. Why, as Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported Thursday, did Iraqi leaders opt out of the official end-of-war ceremony in Baghdad? Well over 4,000 U.S. servicemen and women gave their lives to free Iraq from Saddam Hussein, and some 32,000 were wounded over nearly a decade of war. Shouldn't the elected representatives of the Iraqi people have been there to express their personal thanks? After all,...

In October 1914, over 5 million Belgians faced starvation. The German Army had invaded on August 4 and swept across the country in three weeks. Revisionist historians would later snicker about "atrocities" invented by the British, but the Kaiser's troops executed over 5,500 Belgians, women and children as well as men, though there was no civilian resistance to the invasion. Over 2 million refugees fled to Holland, France, and Britain. The Germans requisitioned all grain, flour, livestock, fruit, and vegetables. They seized the railroads, canals, all motor vehicles, and telegraph and telephone lines, and removed machinery from factories. The economy...

There is an illegal occupation that has gone on for decades in the Middle East and it's not being enforced by the IDF. In August 1974, Turkey seized nearly 37% of the then-independent Cyprus. The pretext for the invasion was the protection of Turkish Cypriots, who made up about 18% of the island's population. On July 15, EOKA B, a Cypriot paramilitary organization supporting union with Greece, backed by the junta in Athens, overthrew the government of Archbishop Makarios. But the coup failed. Makarios survived and his thuggish replacement was ousted after eight days in office, when the regime of...

The Arab League voted to suspend SyriaÂ’s membership at its meeting on Saturday and said it would impose economic and political sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad as well as call for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus. The Arab foreign ministers meeting at the LeagueÂ’s headquarters in Cairo also called on the Syrian army to cease its involvement in the killing of civilians and invited the Syrian opposition for transition talks. Opponents of Assad were hoping that the Arab League would suspend SyriaÂ’s membership after Assad pressed ahead with a military crackdown on the unrest despite an...

The government of Iran, much like many across the Middle East, believes that the Obama administration is so consumed with a desire to undo the wrongs of the Bush era and get out from under the costs of two difficult, hard-to-justify wars in the region that it would never intervene against them militarily. Iranian leaders seem to believe that the United States would not risk another war in the region just to stop their development of nuclear weapons. The government of Israel, also worried that its number one ally has lost its appetite for complex entanglements in the region, seems...

A group of Armenians, raised as Sunni Muslims, were baptized on Sunday, as Armenian Orthodox Christians in the Church of S. Giragos (Surp Giragos), in the South-Eastern province of Dyarbakir. The church was reopened on 22 October after two years of restoration work. The group that was baptized were of Armenian origin, and their ancestors had been converted after the Genocide of 1915. Among them is Gaffur Türkay, who contributed to the restoration of the church. Türkay was very excited, as reported in a local newspaper. "It is amazing to be here, along with people from all over the world,...

Tension between Baghdad and Kurdistan region has reached its peak since the Iraqi PM, Nuri AL-Maliki ordered the removal of Kurdish flags from government buildings in Khanaqin in Diyala province, which is in the disputed territories defined under Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution. Since the directive was issues by the Iraqi PM, many protests in Diyala province and elsewhere in Kurdistan region have taken place... The head of Diyala province also refused to comply with the order from the PM to remove the Kurdish flag from government buildings. The focal point of the incident was in Khanaqin, in an...

Azerbaijan is expected to acquire 60 small Israeli-designed unmanned aerial vehicles built under license in the oil-rich former Soviet republic that's moving closer to the Jewish state as the Baku government modernizes its military. The burgeoning military and intelligence alliance between the countries is causing growing concern in Iran, Azerbaijan's southern neighbor, and in nearby longtime rival Armenia. The Israeli Aerostar and Orbiter 2M UAVs are being manufactured by Baku's Azad Systems Co., a joint venture between Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry and Aeronautics Defense Systems of Israel.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Turkey to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide in remarks Friday that drew sharp criticism from Ankara. “Turkey, which is a great country, would honor itself by revisiting its history like other countries in the world have done,” Sarkozy said during his visit to the Armenian capital, Yerevan. The killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire has been the main barrier to the ex-Soviet republic’s reconciliation with Turkey. Armenians have long fought to persuade other governments to call the killings a genocide. Turkish leaders have...

The USSR might have imploded two decades ago, but debris from its headlong industrialization drive litter the post-Soviet landscape, and nothing more unsettles the population of the fifteen new nations carved out of the Soviet Union than its nuclear legacy. The poster child for Caucasian nuclear concerns is Armenia’s aging Metsamor nuclear power plant, which provides nearly 40 percent of the country’s electricity. The facility has not only alarmed neighboring Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan but begun to receive international notice as well - on 11 April National Geographic ran a story entitled “Is Armenia’s Nuclear Plant the World’s Most Dangerous?”...

Obama Congratulates Karimov, Military Aid May Soon Follow -- The United States appears to be willing to strengthen the regime of Uzbek leader Islam Karimov in order to secure the northern supply route for its forces in Afghanistan. The U.S. Senate may consider a bill backed by the administration of President Barack Obama that would allow restrictions on military aid to Uzbekistan to be lifted, EurasiaNet reports. The new, closer ties between Washington and Tashkent were brought home by Obama's congratulations to Karimov on the occasion of Uzbekistan's 20 years of independence. Following a letter in early September, Obama called...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attacked Israel once again on Sunday, suggesting his country’s ties with the Jewish state may never be normalized. Erdogan, who was speaking in an interview on CNN, said, ..... He added that the flotilla “had passengers from 33 different countries and was attacked both from the sea and the air. At the end of these attacks, nine Turkish citizens died. One of them is an American citizen of Turkish descent and the American citizen’s rights have not been defended by the United States.” Erdogan, who was referring to the incident on the Mavi Marmara...

MOSCOW - The blockade of Armenia, to some extent hinders the development of border areas in Turkey, senior research fellow, center for international security institute for international economics and international relations Stanislav Ivanov told at the interview with Voice of Russia. He believes that Turkey still has supporters of the incumbent Turkish PM Erdogan, which means that ratification of Zurich protocols may be on the agenda of the next convocation of the parliament. "Turkish government has the right to include those protocols into the agenda of the new parliament, thus, they can be on the agenda in October. Turkish business...

“Poland supports actions aimed at Armenia’s membership in the European Union, and that is why it is very important to facilitate and support those decisions that will really further Armenia’s EU accession process,” Komorowski said after talks with President Serzh Sarkisian. “We are ready to share with you both negative and positive experience that we have gained during our difficult path to EU membership,” he told journalists. While declaring European integration a top foreign policy priority, Armenia has so far not expressed a desire to join the EU in the foreseeable future. The authorities in Yerevan are instead seeking to...

A rendering of a proposed Marriott that will be developed in the city of Erbil. U.S. hotel chains are joining projects in northern Iraq. U.S. hotel brands are moving into the north of Iraq, a reflection of growing economic development in the Kurdistan region of a country that most U.S. consumer brands have long avoided. On Sunday at the U.S. consulate in Erbil in northern Iraq, Marriott International Inc. plans to disclose two of its brands, Marriott Hotels & Resorts and Marriott Executive Apartments, will join a large real estate development project. That follows an announcement in May that Best...

President Woodrow Wilson's Arbitral Award, which defined the borders between Armenia and Turkey, has been published in full and will be released on Monday, announced Ara Papian, the director of the Modus Vivendi Center, which has been compiling the more than 240-page document. "On November 22, 1920, Woodrow Wilson signed the Arbitral Award, which defined the border between Armenia and Turkey. However, that important document was kept secret for a long time," added Papian during a press conference to announce the unveiling. Papian has managed to restore the 245-page document and the attached maps, which clearly depict that not only...

Republic of Turkey – the First Fascist State in History By Times.am at 6 April, 2011, 11:25 am The Republics of Armenia and Turkey have been in a long-lasting conflict with no resolution in sight. Therefore a proper assessment of the political system and state ideology of Turkey is extremely important for the Armenian state to build a competent foreign policy and properly position itself in the international arena. The West has traditionally portrayed the Republic of Turkey which emerged on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire as a secular democratic Muslim state. Even though this cliche is being persistently...

A group of demonstrators gathered by Istanbul's Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art for a rally in commemoration of Armenian Genocide victims. Hrant Dink’s son Arat Dink, publisher and human rights advocate Ragip Zarakolu participated in the event. Negation of Genocide is continuation of massacres; it’s time to put an end to Turkish policy of negation...

Did you know that the EU has ensured that there has been no war between its members for last 60 years?

Azerbaijani youth group on Saturday held a protest in front of the house of Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) Head Ali Kerimli. The action was organized to protest against the policy pursued by Kerimli. The action was attended by over 200 people, who voiced slogans "Shame on Ali Kerimli", "Shame on those who split the Azerbaijani youth" and "Azerbaijani youth know who you are". The protesters stressed that the Azerbaijani youth stand for the social and political stability. Eggs were thrown at the protesters from Kerimli's house. Obscenities were also shouted from the opposition leaders' house. This is the...

Since the situation surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh is what can be seen now and cannot be resolved by proposed methods, a conclusion can be drawn that the mediators are not interested in resolving it, Arman Melikyan, the former minister of foreign affairs of Nagorno-Karabakh, told Armenian News-NEWS.am. As to whether the mediators are trying to equally blame each side, Melikyan said that "it is exactly so." "This policy reflects the mediator states' own interests," he said. "It is easy to say: you are both guilty so do fall silent, and it will be my own way." "Our settlement plan envisages application of...

ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened France with trade sanctions if it adopts a bill making it illegal to deny that the 1915-17 massacre of Armenians in Turkey was "genocide," a Turkish newspaper said Sunday. "Patience has its limits. We do not have hatred (toward France) but we will impose our sanctions," the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted Turkey's prime miniter as saying at a summit of Muslim countries on the Indonesian island of Bali. French lawmakers were due to consider next week a bill from the opposition Socialists which would make anyone denying the existence of the "Armenian...

Four Israeli embassies and consulates have been temporarily shut down due to a mounting terror threat, according to foreign press. Turkish newspaper Hurriet reported that the Israeli embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul are among the diplomatic missions that have shut their doors. The Counter-Terror Bureau has cited, in recent days, a growing threat of the imminent execution of terror attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets abroad, with emphases on Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania and Venezuela. The Bureau urges Israelis traveling to these countries to avoid places where there are concentrations of Israelis, and...

Recent events in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt spell a dangerous new trend in the region. There have been major developments in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt, each of which is of tremendous importance. In Tunisia, a popular uprising fueled by unemployment, economic suffering and long-term discontent has overthrown the dictator, but not necessarily the dictatorship. In 55 years of independence, the country has been governed by two dictators, the current one being Zine al-Abedin Ben Ali, who has been president for 23 years and was a key power in the regime even before that. Is this going to spread? Does it...

AFP - When police officers arrived at 13-year-old Masha's home, searched her room and inspected her computer, it was not because they suspected her of any crime. Her offence was simply to be a devoted follower of the angst-ridden punk-rock subculture known as 'emo', in an ex-Soviet state where pressures to conform remain strong. "It was offensive and frightening at the same time," said Masha, a schoolgirl in the Armenian capital, clearly upset by the experience. Police in Yerevan have been conducting a campaign against the capital's small but controversial emo community since the recent suicides of two teenagers who...

Turkey and Israel are at it again, but this time it's over reports that Turkey has added Israel to its so-called "Red Book," the top-secret security document that lists the country's threats and enemies. Israeli tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov struck back on Sunday by calling on Israelis to boycott Turkey as a tourist destination out of "national honor." According to Turkish media, the Red Book, which is amended every five years, now identifies Israel as a "strategic threat" to Turkey. The document, which is drawn up by Turkey's National Security Council, accuses Israel of being a destabilizing force and says...

YEREVAN, Armenia -- An Armenian archaeologist says that scientists have discovered a skirt that could be 5,900-year-old. Pavel Avetisian, the head of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in Yerevan, said a fragment of skirt made of reed was found during recent digging in the Areni-1 cave in southeastern Armenia. Avetisian told Tuesday's news conference in the Armenian capital that the find could be one of the world's oldest piece of reed clothing. Earlier excavation in the same location has produced what researchers believe is a 5,500-year-old shoe, making it the oldest piece of leather footwear known to researchers. Boris...

Boris Gasparyan, of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography at the RA National Academy of Sciences, head of the Armenian archeological expedition, is extremely concerned about the further examination of the ancient shoe and says he himself had time enough only to estimate the age of the shoe and learn a little bit about how it was made, before it was taken custody by the state history museum... According to the order by which archeological excavations are held, artifacts must be delivered to the State two years after the excavations. Gasparyan says that the legislation regulating archeology is imperfect; there...

Three months prior to the presidential elections in Belarus, the relations between Moscow and Minsk have deteriorated. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated that the leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko's election campaign is based on anti-Russia rhetoric mindless of the $4 billion worth preferential delivery of oil and gas every year. He also stressed that Lukashenko broke his publicly made promise to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, demonstrating "dishonest" behavior. A strong emphasis was put on Moscow's intentions to communicate with all the political forces of Belarus. ...Turkic CSTO member-states -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan -- have always supported...

Last year on October 10, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey signed protocols on the normalization of bilateral relations between the two countries and opening of the Armenian-Turkish border. The Armenian press called foreign office heads of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries -- Hillary Clinton (USA), Sergey Lavrov (Russia) and Bernard Kouchner (France) -- "the so-called curators and warrantors of fulfillment of the commitments" envisaged by the protocols. Very soon, however, it became clear that neither separately, nor collectively were they able to do anything that would make Ankara bound to fulfill its commitment. Turkey refused to discharge...

Sting operation by FBI- Press Conference just on FOX: 17 of 18 defendents arrested for attempting to purchase weapons from an undercover FBI agent. One wanted to buy uranium to make a nuclear device in a subway system. FBI spokesperson emphatically stated that did not come to fruition, but the suspect did ask the question. FBI was not involving itself in the end user, the sting operation was focusing on the people who were attempting to purchase the weapons for further sale/distribution. FBI taped over 15,000 phone calls made by the men trying to purchase. Very Dangerous weaponry including: grenade...

This documentary chronicles the discovery of an ancient Armenian city built by Tigran the Great (140-55 BC) in the First Century BC. Founded as the new capital of the Armenian Empire with the intention of securing a central position inside the borders of the growing empire, it was built on territory traditionally Armenian but claimed today by both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Under the rule of Tigran the Great, the Armenian Empire extended from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean and became, for a short time, the strongest state east of the Roman Empire.