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1. Countries of Europe
[HOPE
FOR EUROPE (hfe.org)]
FACTS ABOUT EUROPE (Including the former USSR or CIS)
Area: Europe, apart from the CIS (former USSR) is 4,874,040 square kilometers; the former USSR is 22,402,200 sq. km.
Population: Europe = 501,000,000; CIS = 288,000,000
Number of Countries: 35
Number of Principalities, Republics or Territories: 15
Highest Mountain: Communism Peak in the Pamir Mountains = 7495 meters |
2.
Georgia Asked To Allow Return of Ahiska
Muslims
[By Sa’ad Abdul Majid, IslamOnline(IOL)Correspondent]
Turkish
and
Azeri
parliamentarians
also
appealed
for
an
international
intervention
to
pressure
the
Georgian
government
into
allowing
the
return
of
Ahiska
Muslims
after
more
than
60
years
of
forced
migration.
"Ahiska
Turks
have
suffered
a
lot,
and
they
have
the
right
return
and
help
develop
Georgia,"
Azeri
Deputy
Prime
Minister
Ali
Hassanov
told
a
conference
hosted
by
the
Azeri
capital
Baku
on
July
13-14.
Other
participants
urged
the
United
Nations
to
get
involved
in
efforts
to
resolve
the
long-standing
crisis
of
the
Ahiska
Muslims.
|
|
3.Georgian Turks
[International Islamic News Agency (IINA)]
Tiblisi,
Rabi Thani 3/Jun 14 (IINA) – Georgia was once owned by the Turkic
people known as the Meshket Turks, who originally came from Central
Asia and then spread out across the Caucasus, according to historical
and archeological records. Under the rule of the Meshket Seljuk
Muslims, the region prospered both economically and politically, and
was an independent entity between the Christian Georgian-ruled areas
and the Turkish Empire.
In
1555, the Meshket region came under the hegemony of the Ottoman Empire,
and remained so for three centuries. But in 1829 there was a treaty
whereby the Russians who had defeated the Turks in a war imposed their
own hegemony on at least part of the Meshket region. However, the life
of the Meshket Muslims was not the happiest one under the Russians, and
by the early 19th century this region, like other regions in the
Caucasian, witnessed deportation, and this process was being actively
assisted by the Armenians, and because of Turkey’s continued weakness,
the region became a Russian vassal. And when the Bolshevik Revolution
took place in 1917, the whole area was under Russian subjugation. |
4.
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