Russia to keep Tartus base...Russia connects Syria, the Caucasus, and Iran in the article
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_07_27/Ru...p-Tartus-base/Russia will maintain its logistics naval station in the Syrian port of Tartus. Commenting on the issue earlier this week, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov accentuated the importance of the Tartus base in providing logistics services to the anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden.
He said that there were ten Russian warships and ten support ships in the Mediterranean now, as part of planned maneuvers announced last year.
On July 10, a combined squad of Russia’s Northern, Baltic and Black Sea Fleets entered the Mediterranean on a three-month-long training mission to practice anti-piracy and rescue efforts. Some of the ships will call at Tartus.
Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, said in an interview that as long as Russia positioned itself as a naval power, it must have ports, mooring sites or, preferably, naval bases abroad. Russia pulled out of Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam and also out of Aden. Tartus is the only site where Russian ships can dock for refueling and repairs and allow their crews to rest a little, he said.
"Strictly speaking, the Tartus station is not a naval base. We only have a floating repair dock there. The port is not equipped to be a base, but potential changes are possible. If we maintain our presence there, modernization will be needed."
Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Military Forecast Center, echoes that with tension mounting around Syria and military intervention not altogether unlikely, the Russian base in Tartus acquires vital geopolitical significance.
"If Russia loses that base, it will have nowhere in the Mediterranean to fuel or repair its ships. The moment Russia loses the Tartus base, it will also lose Syria. Consequently, and I deem it quite possible, military actions against Iran may begin. That scenario will create very complicated problems for Russian troops stationed in the Caucasus. Therefore, and it should be admitted frankly, when we talk about Syria, we talk about Iran and the Russian troops in the Caucasus."
Russia has never made a secret of its intention to keep its logistics base in Tartus.
Someone shoot me now!
Isn't it the Caucasus region that Russian troops will have to use to enter Israel during Gog/Magog?
Is that a main route that their troops will have to use??
Am I jumping ahead of myself, looking for dots to connect?
Any one else heard about The Gates of Alexander?
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/LX/The...Alexander.htmlThe Gates of Alexander were a mythical barrier supposedly built by Alexander the Great in the Caucasus to keep the uncivilized barbarians of the north (usually associated with the Gog and Magog legend) from invading the land to the south. The gates were a popular subject in medieval travel literature, starting with the Alexander Romance in a version from perhaps the 6th century AD. The wall has been frequently identified with the Caspian Gates of Derbent, Russia (see below).
In the Alexander Romance, Alexander chases his enemies to a pass between two peaks in the Caucasus known as the "Breasts of the World". He decides to imprison the "unclean nations" of the north, which include Gog and Magog, behind a huge wall of steel or adamantine. With the aid of God, Alexander and his men close the narrow pass, keeping the uncivilized Gog and Magog from pillaging the peaceful southern lands. The nature of the pass is never very clear; some sources say it is a pass between mountains, while others say it is a pass between the peaks and the Caspian Sea.
The story appears in the Qur'an, Surat al-Kahf (The Cave) 83-98, where the great hero Dhul-Qarnayn ("The Two-horned One") constructs the gates to protect the innocent people at the feet of the mountains from Gog and Magog. That this story appeared in a fictional account before the Qur'an was written has caused some controversy among Islamic scholars, though some would argue that "Dhul-Qarnayn" is not supposed to be Alexander at all, but rather some earlier or later conqueror.
Sorry the maps are so small.
The Building of Alexander's Gates from an early Arabic manuscript.
Al-Idrisi's World Map with Gog and Magog behind the wall and circled in red. Note, this map is oriented to the south so here Gog and Magog are in the proximity of China.
Too much coffee today, guys.
(Gog/Magog in the Koran: http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/nora/html/18-94.html)
Ok....I'll go chill now.
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Annan quits as international Syria mediator: U.N.
Originally Posted by Raphael
U.S. sends aircraft carrier back to Gulf to face Iran, Syria
