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Boston is the capital and most populous municipality of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city proper covers 48 square miles (124 km2) with an estimated population of 685,094 in 2017, making it also the most populous city in the New England region. Boston is the seat of Suffolk County as well, although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country. As a combined statistical area (CSA), this wider commuting region is home to some 8.2 million people, making it the sixth-largest in the United States.
Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States, founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U.S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education and culture. The city has expanded beyond the original peninsula through land reclamation and municipal annexation. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing more than 20 million visitors per year. Boston's many firsts include the United States' first public or state school (Boston Latin School, 1635), first subway system (Tremont Street Subway, 1897), and first public park (Boston Common, 1634).
The Boston area's many colleges and universities make it an international center of higher education, including law, medicine, engineering, and business, and the city is considered to be a world leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, with nearly 2,000 startups. Boston's economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, and government activities. Households in the city claim the highest average rate of philanthropy in the United States; businesses and institutions rank among the top in the country for environmental sustainability and investment. The city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings.
Boston's early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine (after its "three mountains," only traces of which remain today) but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the origin of several prominent colonists. The renaming on September 7, 1630, (Old Style) was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was initially limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River and connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC.
In 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colony's first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history; America's first public school was founded in Boston in 1635. Over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America.
Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century. Boston's oceanfront location made it a lively port, and the city primarily engaged in shipping and fishing during its colonial days. However, Boston stagnated in the decades prior to the Revolution. By the mid-18th century, New York City and Philadelphia surpassed Boston in wealth. Boston encountered financial difficulties even as other cities in New England grew rapidly.
Revolution and the Siege of Boston
Many of the crucial events of the American Revolution occurred in or near Boston. Boston's penchant for mob action along with the colonists' growing distrust in Britain fostered a revolutionary spirit in the city. When the British government passed the Stamp Act in 1765, a Boston mob ravaged the homes of Andrew Oliver, the official tasked with enforcing the Act, and Thomas Hutchinson, then the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. The British sent two regiments to Boston in 1768 in an attempt to quell the angry colonists. This did not sit well with the colonists. In 1770, during the Boston Massacre, the army killed several people in response to a mob in Boston. The colonists compelled the British to withdraw their troops. The event was widely publicized and fueled a revolutionary movement in America.
In 1773, Britain passed the Tea Act. Many of the colonists saw the act as an attempt to force them to accept the taxes established by the Townshend Acts. The act prompted the Boston Tea Party, where a group of rebels threw an entire shipment of tea sent by the British East India Company into Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party was a key event leading up to the revolution, as the British government responded furiously with the Intolerable Acts, demanding compensation for the lost tea from the rebels. This angered the colonists further and led to the American Revolutionary War. The war began in the area surrounding Boston with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
Boston itself was besieged for almost a year during the Siege of Boston, which began on April 19, 1775. The New England militia impeded the movement of the British Army. William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, then the commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, led the British army in the siege. On June 17, the British captured the Charlestown peninsula in Boston, during the Battle of Bunker Hill. The British army outnumbered the militia stationed there, but it was a Pyrrhic victory for the British because their army suffered devastating casualties. It was also a testament to the power and courage of the militia, as their stubborn defending made it difficult for the British to capture Charlestown without losing many troops.
Several weeks later, George Washington took over the militia after the Continental Congress established the Continental Army to unify the revolutionary effort. Both sides faced difficulties and supply shortages in the siege, and the fighting was limited to small-scale raids and skirmishes. On March 4, 1776, Washington commanded his army to fortify Dorchester Heights, an area of Boston. The army placed cannons there to repel a British invasion against their stake in Boston. Washington was confident that the army would be able to resist a small-scale invasion with their fortifications. Howe planned an invasion into Boston, but bad weather delayed their advance. Howe decided to withdraw, because the storm gave Washington's army more time to improve their fortifications. British troops evacuated Boston on March 17, which solidified the revolutionaries' control of the city.
Post Revolution and the War of 1812
After the Revolution, Boston's long seafaring tradition helped make it one of the world's wealthiest international ports, with the slave trade, rum, fish, salt, and tobacco being particularly important. Boston's harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (adopted during the Napoleonic Wars) and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Boston's merchants had found alternatives for their capital investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the city's economy, and the city's industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nation's largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, and was known for its garment production and leather-goods industries. A network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a dense network of railroads furthered the region's industry and commerce.
During this period, Boston flourished culturally, as well, admired for its rarefied literary life and generous artistic patronage, with members of old Boston families—eventually dubbed Boston Brahmins—coming to be regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites.
Boston was an early port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies, but was soon overtaken by Salem, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island. Boston eventually became a center of the abolitionist movement. The city reacted strongly to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, contributing to President Franklin Pierce's attempt to make an example of Boston after the Anthony Burns Fugitive Slave Case.
In 1822, the citizens of Boston voted to change the official name from the "Town of Boston" to the "City of Boston", and on March 4, 1822, the people of Boston accepted the charter incorporating the City. At the time Boston was chartered as a city, the population was about 46,226, while the area of the city was only 4.7 square miles (12 km2).
19th Century
In the 1820s, Boston's population grew rapidly, and the city's ethnic composition changed dramatically with the first wave of European immigrants. Irish immigrants dominated the first wave of newcomers during this period, especially following the Irish Potato Famine; by 1850, about 35,000 Irish lived in Boston. In the latter half of the 19th century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans, Lebanese, Syrians, French Canadians, and Russian and Polish Jews settling in the city. By the end of the 19th century, Boston's core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants. Italians inhabited the North End, Irish dominated South Boston and Charlestown, and Russian Jews lived in the West End. Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Roman Catholicism. Currently, Catholics make up Boston's largest religious community, and the Irish have played a major role in Boston politics since the early 20th century; prominent figures include the Kennedys, Tip O'Neill, and John F. Fitzgerald.
Between 1631 and 1890, the city tripled its area through land reclamation by filling in marshes, mud flats, and gaps between wharves along the waterfront. The largest reclamation efforts took place during the 19th century; beginning in 1807, the crown of Beacon Hill was used to fill in a 50-acre (20 ha) mill pond that later became the Haymarket Square area. The present-day State House sits atop this lowered Beacon Hill. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created significant parts of the South End, the West End, the Financial District, and Chinatown.
After the Great Boston fire of 1872, workers used building rubble as landfill along the downtown waterfront. During the mid-to-late 19th century, workers filled almost 600 acres (2.4 km2) of brackish Charles River marshlands west of Boston Common with gravel brought by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. The city annexed the adjacent towns of South Boston (1804), East Boston (1836), Roxbury (1868), Dorchester (including present-day Mattapan and a portion of South Boston) (1870), Brighton (including present-day Allston) (1874), West Roxbury (including present-day Jamaica Plain and Roslindale) (1874), Charlestown (1874), and Hyde Park (1912). Other proposals were unsuccessful for the annexation of Brookline, Cambridge, and Chelsea.
20th Century
The city went into decline by the early to mid-20th century, as factories became old and obsolete and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere. Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects, under the direction of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) established in 1957. In 1958, BRA initiated a project to improve the historic West End neighborhood. Extensive demolition was met with strong public opposition.
The BRA subsequently re-evaluated its approach to urban renewal in its future projects, including the construction of Government Center. In 1965, the Columbia Point Health Center opened in the Dorchester neighborhood, the first Community Health Center in the United States. It mostly served the massive Columbia Point public housing complex adjoining it, which was built in 1953. The health center is still in operation and was rededicated in 1990 as the Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center. The Columbia Point complex itself was redeveloped and revitalized from 1984 to 1990 into a mixed-income residential development called Harbor Point Apartments.
By the 1970s, the city's economy had recovered after 30 years of economic downturn. A large number of high-rises were constructed in the Financial District and in Boston's Back Bay during this period. This boom continued into the mid-1980s and resumed after a few pauses. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women's Hospital lead the nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as Boston College, Boston University, the Harvard Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine, Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Berklee College of Music, and Boston Conservatory attract students to the area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s.
21st Century
Boston is an intellectual, technological, and political center but has lost some important regional institutions, including the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Charlotte-based Bank of America in 2004. Boston-based department stores Jordan Marsh and Filene's have both merged into the Cincinnati–based Macy's. The 1993 acquisition of The Boston Globe by The New York Times was reversed in 2013 when it was re-sold to Boston businessman John W. Henry. In 2016, it was announced that General Electric would be moving its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to the Innovation District in South Boston, joining many other companies in this rapidly developing neighborhood.
Boston has experienced gentrification in the latter half of the 20th century, with housing prices increasing sharply since the 1990s. Living expenses have risen; Boston has one of the highest costs of living in the United States and was ranked the 129th-most expensive major city in the world in a 2011 survey of 214 cities. Despite cost-of-living issues, Boston ranks high on livability ratings, ranking 36th worldwide in quality of living in 2011 in a survey of 221 major cities.
On April 15, 2013, two Chechen Islamist brothers detonated a pair of bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring roughly 264.
In 2016, Boston briefly shouldered a bid as the US applicant for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The bid was supported by the mayor and a coalition of business leaders and local philanthropists, but was eventually dropped due to public opposition. The USOC then selected Los Angeles to be the American candidate with Los Angeles ultimately securing the right to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Boston is the capital and most populous municipality of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city proper covers 48 square miles (124 km2) with an estimated population of 685,094 in 2017, making it also the most populous city in the New England region. Boston is the seat of Suffolk County as well, although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country. As a combined statistical area (CSA), this wider commuting region is home to some 8.2 million people, making it the sixth-largest in the United States.
Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States, founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U.S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education and culture. The city has expanded beyond the original peninsula through land reclamation and municipal annexation. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing more than 20 million visitors per year. Boston's many firsts include the United States' first public or state school (Boston Latin School, 1635), first subway system (Tremont Street Subway, 1897), and first public park (Boston Common, 1634).
The Boston area's many colleges and universities make it an international center of higher education, including law, medicine, engineering, and business, and the city is considered to be a world leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, with nearly 2,000 startups. Boston's economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, and government activities. Households in the city claim the highest average rate of philanthropy in the United States; businesses and institutions rank among the top in the country for environmental sustainability and investment. The city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings.
Boston's early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine (after its "three mountains," only traces of which remain today) but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the origin of several prominent colonists. The renaming on September 7, 1630, (Old Style) was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was initially limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River and connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC.
In 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colony's first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history; America's first public school was founded in Boston in 1635. Over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America.
Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century. Boston's oceanfront location made it a lively port, and the city primarily engaged in shipping and fishing during its colonial days. However, Boston stagnated in the decades prior to the Revolution. By the mid-18th century, New York City and Philadelphia surpassed Boston in wealth. Boston encountered financial difficulties even as other cities in New England grew rapidly.
Revolution and the Siege of Boston
Many of the crucial events of the American Revolution occurred in or near Boston. Boston's penchant for mob action along with the colonists' growing distrust in Britain fostered a revolutionary spirit in the city. When the British government passed the Stamp Act in 1765, a Boston mob ravaged the homes of Andrew Oliver, the official tasked with enforcing the Act, and Thomas Hutchinson, then the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. The British sent two regiments to Boston in 1768 in an attempt to quell the angry colonists. This did not sit well with the colonists. In 1770, during the Boston Massacre, the army killed several people in response to a mob in Boston. The colonists compelled the British to withdraw their troops. The event was widely publicized and fueled a revolutionary movement in America.
In 1773, Britain passed the Tea Act. Many of the colonists saw the act as an attempt to force them to accept the taxes established by the Townshend Acts. The act prompted the Boston Tea Party, where a group of rebels threw an entire shipment of tea sent by the British East India Company into Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party was a key event leading up to the revolution, as the British government responded furiously with the Intolerable Acts, demanding compensation for the lost tea from the rebels. This angered the colonists further and led to the American Revolutionary War. The war began in the area surrounding Boston with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
Boston itself was besieged for almost a year during the Siege of Boston, which began on April 19, 1775. The New England militia impeded the movement of the British Army. William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, then the commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, led the British army in the siege. On June 17, the British captured the Charlestown peninsula in Boston, during the Battle of Bunker Hill. The British army outnumbered the militia stationed there, but it was a Pyrrhic victory for the British because their army suffered devastating casualties. It was also a testament to the power and courage of the militia, as their stubborn defending made it difficult for the British to capture Charlestown without losing many troops.
Several weeks later, George Washington took over the militia after the Continental Congress established the Continental Army to unify the revolutionary effort. Both sides faced difficulties and supply shortages in the siege, and the fighting was limited to small-scale raids and skirmishes. On March 4, 1776, Washington commanded his army to fortify Dorchester Heights, an area of Boston. The army placed cannons there to repel a British invasion against their stake in Boston. Washington was confident that the army would be able to resist a small-scale invasion with their fortifications. Howe planned an invasion into Boston, but bad weather delayed their advance. Howe decided to withdraw, because the storm gave Washington's army more time to improve their fortifications. British troops evacuated Boston on March 17, which solidified the revolutionaries' control of the city.
Post Revolution and the War of 1812
After the Revolution, Boston's long seafaring tradition helped make it one of the world's wealthiest international ports, with the slave trade, rum, fish, salt, and tobacco being particularly important. Boston's harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (adopted during the Napoleonic Wars) and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Boston's merchants had found alternatives for their capital investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the city's economy, and the city's industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nation's largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, and was known for its garment production and leather-goods industries. A network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a dense network of railroads furthered the region's industry and commerce.
During this period, Boston flourished culturally, as well, admired for its rarefied literary life and generous artistic patronage, with members of old Boston families—eventually dubbed Boston Brahmins—coming to be regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites.
Boston was an early port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies, but was soon overtaken by Salem, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island. Boston eventually became a center of the abolitionist movement. The city reacted strongly to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, contributing to President Franklin Pierce's attempt to make an example of Boston after the Anthony Burns Fugitive Slave Case.
In 1822, the citizens of Boston voted to change the official name from the "Town of Boston" to the "City of Boston", and on March 4, 1822, the people of Boston accepted the charter incorporating the City. At the time Boston was chartered as a city, the population was about 46,226, while the area of the city was only 4.7 square miles (12 km2).
19th Century
In the 1820s, Boston's population grew rapidly, and the city's ethnic composition changed dramatically with the first wave of European immigrants. Irish immigrants dominated the first wave of newcomers during this period, especially following the Irish Potato Famine; by 1850, about 35,000 Irish lived in Boston. In the latter half of the 19th century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans, Lebanese, Syrians, French Canadians, and Russian and Polish Jews settling in the city. By the end of the 19th century, Boston's core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants. Italians inhabited the North End, Irish dominated South Boston and Charlestown, and Russian Jews lived in the West End. Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Roman Catholicism. Currently, Catholics make up Boston's largest religious community, and the Irish have played a major role in Boston politics since the early 20th century; prominent figures include the Kennedys, Tip O'Neill, and John F. Fitzgerald.
Between 1631 and 1890, the city tripled its area through land reclamation by filling in marshes, mud flats, and gaps between wharves along the waterfront. The largest reclamation efforts took place during the 19th century; beginning in 1807, the crown of Beacon Hill was used to fill in a 50-acre (20 ha) mill pond that later became the Haymarket Square area. The present-day State House sits atop this lowered Beacon Hill. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created significant parts of the South End, the West End, the Financial District, and Chinatown.
After the Great Boston fire of 1872, workers used building rubble as landfill along the downtown waterfront. During the mid-to-late 19th century, workers filled almost 600 acres (2.4 km2) of brackish Charles River marshlands west of Boston Common with gravel brought by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. The city annexed the adjacent towns of South Boston (1804), East Boston (1836), Roxbury (1868), Dorchester (including present-day Mattapan and a portion of South Boston) (1870), Brighton (including present-day Allston) (1874), West Roxbury (including present-day Jamaica Plain and Roslindale) (1874), Charlestown (1874), and Hyde Park (1912). Other proposals were unsuccessful for the annexation of Brookline, Cambridge, and Chelsea.
20th Century
The city went into decline by the early to mid-20th century, as factories became old and obsolete and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere. Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects, under the direction of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) established in 1957. In 1958, BRA initiated a project to improve the historic West End neighborhood. Extensive demolition was met with strong public opposition.
The BRA subsequently re-evaluated its approach to urban renewal in its future projects, including the construction of Government Center. In 1965, the Columbia Point Health Center opened in the Dorchester neighborhood, the first Community Health Center in the United States. It mostly served the massive Columbia Point public housing complex adjoining it, which was built in 1953. The health center is still in operation and was rededicated in 1990 as the Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center. The Columbia Point complex itself was redeveloped and revitalized from 1984 to 1990 into a mixed-income residential development called Harbor Point Apartments.
By the 1970s, the city's economy had recovered after 30 years of economic downturn. A large number of high-rises were constructed in the Financial District and in Boston's Back Bay during this period. This boom continued into the mid-1980s and resumed after a few pauses. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women's Hospital lead the nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as Boston College, Boston University, the Harvard Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine, Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Berklee College of Music, and Boston Conservatory attract students to the area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s.
21st Century
Boston is an intellectual, technological, and political center but has lost some important regional institutions, including the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Charlotte-based Bank of America in 2004. Boston-based department stores Jordan Marsh and Filene's have both merged into the Cincinnati–based Macy's. The 1993 acquisition of The Boston Globe by The New York Times was reversed in 2013 when it was re-sold to Boston businessman John W. Henry. In 2016, it was announced that General Electric would be moving its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to the Innovation District in South Boston, joining many other companies in this rapidly developing neighborhood.
Boston has experienced gentrification in the latter half of the 20th century, with housing prices increasing sharply since the 1990s. Living expenses have risen; Boston has one of the highest costs of living in the United States and was ranked the 129th-most expensive major city in the world in a 2011 survey of 214 cities. Despite cost-of-living issues, Boston ranks high on livability ratings, ranking 36th worldwide in quality of living in 2011 in a survey of 221 major cities.
On April 15, 2013, two Chechen Islamist brothers detonated a pair of bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring roughly 264.
In 2016, Boston briefly shouldered a bid as the US applicant for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The bid was supported by the mayor and a coalition of business leaders and local philanthropists, but was eventually dropped due to public opposition. The USOC then selected Los Angeles to be the American candidate with Los Angeles ultimately securing the right to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Khevsureti 2010
Geography
Comprising the small river valleys of the Migmakhevi, Shatili, Arkhoti and the Aragvi, the province borders with Chechnya and is included in the present day Dusheti district, Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, Georgia. The province covers 405.3 square miles (1050 km²), with a winter population of approximate 3,200 people. The largest villages are Barisakho and Shatili.
Mutso, Kkhevsureti, Georgia
[edit] Ethnography
Khevsur clansmen, c. 1910
The territory of Khevsureti, together with the neighboring area of Pshavi was known to medieval writers under the joint designation Pkhovi or in the Georgian language: ფხოვი. Chronicler Leonti Mroveli mentions that after the conversion of the King Mirian II and the Queen Nana into Christianity in the early 4th century, St. Nino continued to preach among Georgian highlanders (მთიულნი, mtiulni) including Pkhovi.[1]
"და წარვიდა წმიდა ნინო და ეპისკოპოსი იოვანე, და მათ თანა წარატანა მეფემან ერის-თავი ერთი. მივიდეს და დადგეს წობენს, და მოუწოდეს მთეულთა, პირუტყუთა სახეთა მათ კაცთა, ჭართალელთა, ფხოელთა, წილკანელთა და გუდამაყრელთა." (ქართლის ცხოვრება,1955)
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Medieval Georgia was never able to establish a typical feudal system. The civil code of the community remained based on the ancient traditions and values. Children of the noble families and lords were brought up by the families of peasants (გლეხი, glekhi) who were known for their wisdom and human qualities. These people introduced youth to their culture, history, traditions and all aspects of human knowledge and experiences based on Christian orthodox values. (See Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church) Later prominent writer Ilia Chavchavadze expressed three Georgian treasures: language, land and belief.
Historically, Georgian highlander communities enjoyed a degree of autonomy. Khevsurs never accepted local lords; they elected their leaders or khevisberi (ხევისბერი, elder) and council of elders and submitted themselves only to the monarch (see List of the Kings of Georgia). They were exceptional warriors with traditional Georgian qualities of courage, open and honest, fraternity, independence and love of freedom[2], who were often promoted as royal bodyguards. Kings regarded them as reliable guardians of the Caucasus Mountains and the northern border of the kingdom. In the battles Khevsurs wore flags adorned with crosses and considered themselves permanent members of the army of the sacred flags and guardians of Georgian Kings.
Khevsur woman. Photo by D.A. Nikitin, 1881.
There has been a hypothesis, coming from the locals and descriptions by Russian serviceman and ethnographer Arnold Zisserman who spent 25 years (1842-67) during Russian expansion in the Caucasus (see Georgia within the Russian Empire), that these Georgian highlanders were descendants of the last European Crusaders because their folk culture – the material, social, and religious practices – greatly resembled those of the Crusaders.[3] American traveler Richard Halliburton (1900-1939) saw and recorded the customs of the Khevsur tribe in 1935.[4] Khevsurs are mentioned in Greek, Roman and Georgian sources before the formation of European crusades ( See History of Georgia and Georgian People), and the pure European origin of Khevsurs is not supported by most modern scholars. However, some form of settlement of Crusaders in these areas is possible, as they are mentioned in several manuscripts of the time as participants of several battles against the Muslims in Georgia (100 "Frankish" Crusaders participated in King David's army in the Battle of Didgori), and the fact that some passed through here after the fall of the Holy Land.
The Khevsur men, dressed in chain mail and armed with broadswords, wore garments full of decoration made up of crosses and icons, which served as a means of protection according to Christianity which they adopted early in 4th century (See history of the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church). Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484 – c. 425 BC) notes that the Caucasian highlanders of that time, were brilliant knitters and embroiders of their dress or Chokha, which wore out but never faded from frequent usage. Young girls started knitting at the age of 6-7, but men studying and military training, because according to their tradition women were deprived from education and higher social status.
They had a strict system of physical training in martial arts preserved as a Khridoli martial art, and which is a part of the rich Georgian military tradition.
Khevsur dances also preserved in the national dances as a warrior dance Khevsuruli.
[edit] Religion
The Kistani tower in Khevsureti
Their religion is a unique mixture of Georgian Orthodox Christianity and pre-Christian cults. They worship sacred places locally known as jvari (“cross’), khati (“icon”) or salotsavi (“sanctuary”). Aside from their religious character, these were the sites where the locals discussed and decided common matters such as raids against enemies, peace-making, appeals of various characters, etc. Even in a Soviet period of harsh restrictions against any religious activities, each year the Georgian highlanders, together with the group of elder priests organized and performed their traditional rituals.
[edit] Migration
Some disobedience offered by the Khevsurs to the Soviet ideology was a reason for obligatory migration to the plain initiated by the government in the 1950s. As a result, many high-mountainous villages were deserted. Economic hardship of the last two decades also increased a tendency towards migration.
[edit] Traditions
The fortress village Shatili.
The Lebaiskari fortress.
As other mountainous areas of Georgia, Khevsureti is characterized by a great diversity of traditions and customs. They speak a local dialect of the Georgian language that resembles the literary Georgian of the Middle Ages and retain many of their ancient traditions including element of folk rituals. Law of blood revenge was still alive in the twentieth century.
Musical traditions also resemble music of the Middle Ages. Khevsureti is famous for its Medieval ballads and folk music. Khevsureti Perangi is different from the classic Georgian Chokha, because it has more cross decorations and more powerful color balance and is generally short, shaped like a trapezoid.
The architecture of Khevsureti is mostly characterized as fortress style and numbers of towers are located in the mountains as a sign of constant watchfulness of their enemies. Khevsures are known by their warfare with the peoples of the Northern Caucasus including Chechens, Kists, and people of Dagestan. Due to the complexity and the lack of industrialization of the Greater Caucasus, the Northern caucasian tribes used to attack and rob mountain-dwelling Georgians. Well-known Georgian poet Vazha Pshavela described the warfare of the Khevsurs in his poems. One of his most famous poems is Aluda Ketelauri, a young Khevsur, famous of his warrior skills and bravery. One day, after the Khevsur village was invaded by the Kists (Ingush, in classical Georgian works, despite the name of the modern group of Chechen Georgians in Georgia's name being the "Kist", Kist actually referred to the Ingush; the name for Chechens was the "Dzurdzuks" [5]; however, Ingush were less likely to raid then Chechens due to socioeconomic factors, so it may have very well been a Chechen nonetheless), Aluda followed the invaders and killed both of the robbers. After killing the 'Kist' called Mussah, Aluda starting crying for the warrior after realizing the bravery of the 'Kist' and his dedication to his religion. When Aluda returned back to Shatili, he told to the village how much he admired the 'Kist' hero, but the community was shocked by his admiration of the pagan and the village ended up condemning Aluda and expelling him from the community.
The Encyclopædia Britannica reported in 1911 that many curious customs still prevailed among the Khevsurs, as for instance the imprisonment of the woman during childbirth in a lonely hut, round which the husband parades, firing off his musket at intervals. After delivery, food was surreptitiously brought to the mother, who was kept in her prison a month, after which the hut was burnt. One of the more striking features of the traditional cultures of Khevsureti was the premarital relationship known as sc’orproba (or c'ac'loba as it is known in Pshavi). As a young couple could lie together during the night with a sword placed between them. Sexual intercourse between the pair was strictly forbidden. Any man who breached this rule was condemned to death.
Dozens of fortifications, sanctuaries and churches are scattered across the province. Chief of these are the Khakhmati fortress, Akhieli fortress, Lebaiskari fortress, Mutso fortress, Shatili fortifications, Gudani Cross, and the Anatori Cross.
Boston is the capital and most populous municipality of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city proper covers 48 square miles (124 km2) with an estimated population of 685,094 in 2017, making it also the most populous city in the New England region. Boston is the seat of Suffolk County as well, although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country. As a combined statistical area (CSA), this wider commuting region is home to some 8.2 million people, making it the sixth-largest in the United States.
Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States, founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U.S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education and culture. The city has expanded beyond the original peninsula through land reclamation and municipal annexation. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing more than 20 million visitors per year. Boston's many firsts include the United States' first public or state school (Boston Latin School, 1635), first subway system (Tremont Street Subway, 1897), and first public park (Boston Common, 1634).
The Boston area's many colleges and universities make it an international center of higher education, including law, medicine, engineering, and business, and the city is considered to be a world leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, with nearly 2,000 startups. Boston's economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, and government activities. Households in the city claim the highest average rate of philanthropy in the United States; businesses and institutions rank among the top in the country for environmental sustainability and investment. The city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings.
Boston's early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine (after its "three mountains," only traces of which remain today) but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the origin of several prominent colonists. The renaming on September 7, 1630, (Old Style) was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was initially limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River and connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC.
In 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colony's first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history; America's first public school was founded in Boston in 1635. Over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America.
Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century. Boston's oceanfront location made it a lively port, and the city primarily engaged in shipping and fishing during its colonial days. However, Boston stagnated in the decades prior to the Revolution. By the mid-18th century, New York City and Philadelphia surpassed Boston in wealth. Boston encountered financial difficulties even as other cities in New England grew rapidly.
Revolution and the Siege of Boston
Many of the crucial events of the American Revolution occurred in or near Boston. Boston's penchant for mob action along with the colonists' growing distrust in Britain fostered a revolutionary spirit in the city. When the British government passed the Stamp Act in 1765, a Boston mob ravaged the homes of Andrew Oliver, the official tasked with enforcing the Act, and Thomas Hutchinson, then the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. The British sent two regiments to Boston in 1768 in an attempt to quell the angry colonists. This did not sit well with the colonists. In 1770, during the Boston Massacre, the army killed several people in response to a mob in Boston. The colonists compelled the British to withdraw their troops. The event was widely publicized and fueled a revolutionary movement in America.
In 1773, Britain passed the Tea Act. Many of the colonists saw the act as an attempt to force them to accept the taxes established by the Townshend Acts. The act prompted the Boston Tea Party, where a group of rebels threw an entire shipment of tea sent by the British East India Company into Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party was a key event leading up to the revolution, as the British government responded furiously with the Intolerable Acts, demanding compensation for the lost tea from the rebels. This angered the colonists further and led to the American Revolutionary War. The war began in the area surrounding Boston with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
Boston itself was besieged for almost a year during the Siege of Boston, which began on April 19, 1775. The New England militia impeded the movement of the British Army. William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, then the commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, led the British army in the siege. On June 17, the British captured the Charlestown peninsula in Boston, during the Battle of Bunker Hill. The British army outnumbered the militia stationed there, but it was a Pyrrhic victory for the British because their army suffered devastating casualties. It was also a testament to the power and courage of the militia, as their stubborn defending made it difficult for the British to capture Charlestown without losing many troops.
Several weeks later, George Washington took over the militia after the Continental Congress established the Continental Army to unify the revolutionary effort. Both sides faced difficulties and supply shortages in the siege, and the fighting was limited to small-scale raids and skirmishes. On March 4, 1776, Washington commanded his army to fortify Dorchester Heights, an area of Boston. The army placed cannons there to repel a British invasion against their stake in Boston. Washington was confident that the army would be able to resist a small-scale invasion with their fortifications. Howe planned an invasion into Boston, but bad weather delayed their advance. Howe decided to withdraw, because the storm gave Washington's army more time to improve their fortifications. British troops evacuated Boston on March 17, which solidified the revolutionaries' control of the city.
Post Revolution and the War of 1812
After the Revolution, Boston's long seafaring tradition helped make it one of the world's wealthiest international ports, with the slave trade, rum, fish, salt, and tobacco being particularly important. Boston's harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (adopted during the Napoleonic Wars) and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Boston's merchants had found alternatives for their capital investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the city's economy, and the city's industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nation's largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, and was known for its garment production and leather-goods industries. A network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a dense network of railroads furthered the region's industry and commerce.
During this period, Boston flourished culturally, as well, admired for its rarefied literary life and generous artistic patronage, with members of old Boston families—eventually dubbed Boston Brahmins—coming to be regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites.
Boston was an early port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies, but was soon overtaken by Salem, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island. Boston eventually became a center of the abolitionist movement. The city reacted strongly to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, contributing to President Franklin Pierce's attempt to make an example of Boston after the Anthony Burns Fugitive Slave Case.
In 1822, the citizens of Boston voted to change the official name from the "Town of Boston" to the "City of Boston", and on March 4, 1822, the people of Boston accepted the charter incorporating the City. At the time Boston was chartered as a city, the population was about 46,226, while the area of the city was only 4.7 square miles (12 km2).
19th Century
In the 1820s, Boston's population grew rapidly, and the city's ethnic composition changed dramatically with the first wave of European immigrants. Irish immigrants dominated the first wave of newcomers during this period, especially following the Irish Potato Famine; by 1850, about 35,000 Irish lived in Boston. In the latter half of the 19th century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans, Lebanese, Syrians, French Canadians, and Russian and Polish Jews settling in the city. By the end of the 19th century, Boston's core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants. Italians inhabited the North End, Irish dominated South Boston and Charlestown, and Russian Jews lived in the West End. Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Roman Catholicism. Currently, Catholics make up Boston's largest religious community, and the Irish have played a major role in Boston politics since the early 20th century; prominent figures include the Kennedys, Tip O'Neill, and John F. Fitzgerald.
Between 1631 and 1890, the city tripled its area through land reclamation by filling in marshes, mud flats, and gaps between wharves along the waterfront. The largest reclamation efforts took place during the 19th century; beginning in 1807, the crown of Beacon Hill was used to fill in a 50-acre (20 ha) mill pond that later became the Haymarket Square area. The present-day State House sits atop this lowered Beacon Hill. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created significant parts of the South End, the West End, the Financial District, and Chinatown.
After the Great Boston fire of 1872, workers used building rubble as landfill along the downtown waterfront. During the mid-to-late 19th century, workers filled almost 600 acres (2.4 km2) of brackish Charles River marshlands west of Boston Common with gravel brought by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. The city annexed the adjacent towns of South Boston (1804), East Boston (1836), Roxbury (1868), Dorchester (including present-day Mattapan and a portion of South Boston) (1870), Brighton (including present-day Allston) (1874), West Roxbury (including present-day Jamaica Plain and Roslindale) (1874), Charlestown (1874), and Hyde Park (1912). Other proposals were unsuccessful for the annexation of Brookline, Cambridge, and Chelsea.
20th Century
The city went into decline by the early to mid-20th century, as factories became old and obsolete and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere. Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects, under the direction of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) established in 1957. In 1958, BRA initiated a project to improve the historic West End neighborhood. Extensive demolition was met with strong public opposition.
The BRA subsequently re-evaluated its approach to urban renewal in its future projects, including the construction of Government Center. In 1965, the Columbia Point Health Center opened in the Dorchester neighborhood, the first Community Health Center in the United States. It mostly served the massive Columbia Point public housing complex adjoining it, which was built in 1953. The health center is still in operation and was rededicated in 1990 as the Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center. The Columbia Point complex itself was redeveloped and revitalized from 1984 to 1990 into a mixed-income residential development called Harbor Point Apartments.
By the 1970s, the city's economy had recovered after 30 years of economic downturn. A large number of high-rises were constructed in the Financial District and in Boston's Back Bay during this period. This boom continued into the mid-1980s and resumed after a few pauses. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women's Hospital lead the nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as Boston College, Boston University, the Harvard Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine, Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Berklee College of Music, and Boston Conservatory attract students to the area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s.
21st Century
Boston is an intellectual, technological, and political center but has lost some important regional institutions, including the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Charlotte-based Bank of America in 2004. Boston-based department stores Jordan Marsh and Filene's have both merged into the Cincinnati–based Macy's. The 1993 acquisition of The Boston Globe by The New York Times was reversed in 2013 when it was re-sold to Boston businessman John W. Henry. In 2016, it was announced that General Electric would be moving its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to the Innovation District in South Boston, joining many other companies in this rapidly developing neighborhood.
Boston has experienced gentrification in the latter half of the 20th century, with housing prices increasing sharply since the 1990s. Living expenses have risen; Boston has one of the highest costs of living in the United States and was ranked the 129th-most expensive major city in the world in a 2011 survey of 214 cities. Despite cost-of-living issues, Boston ranks high on livability ratings, ranking 36th worldwide in quality of living in 2011 in a survey of 221 major cities.
On April 15, 2013, two Chechen Islamist brothers detonated a pair of bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring roughly 264.
In 2016, Boston briefly shouldered a bid as the US applicant for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The bid was supported by the mayor and a coalition of business leaders and local philanthropists, but was eventually dropped due to public opposition. The USOC then selected Los Angeles to be the American candidate with Los Angeles ultimately securing the right to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
The Postcard
A carte postale that was published by Azur. The card was printed in France. The image is a glossy real photograph.
The card was posted in Nice on Saturday the 13th. August 1955 to:
Mrs. J. E. Jones,
'Willowfield',
Bagillt,
Flintshire,
N. Wales,
Great Britain
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Friday.
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Jones,
Just a line from Nice to let
you know that I did come
here.
It's been glorious sightseeing,
or sailing on the Mediterranean.
Regards,
Gladys P."
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes département. Located in the French Riviera, on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Alps, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast.
The city is nicknamed Nice la Belle, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912.
The area of today's Nice contains Terra Amata, an archaeological site which displays evidence of an early use of fire.
Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, the goddess of victory.
The natural beauty of the Nice area and its mild Mediterranean climate came to the attention of the English upper classes in the second half of the 18th century, when an increasing number of aristocratic families took to spending their winters there.
The city's main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais owes its name to early English visitors to the resort.
The clear air and soft light have particularly appealed to notable painters, such as Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. Their work is commemorated in many of the city's museums, including Musée Marc Chagall, Musée Matisse and Musée des Beaux-Arts.
Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and is one of its most visited cities, receiving 4 million tourists every year. It also has the third busiest airport in France, after the two main Parisian ones.
Palais de la Méditerranée
Hyatt Regency Nice Palais de la Méditerranée is a nine-storey luxury casino hotel complex located on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.
It was built in 1929 by architects Charles and Marcel Dalmas, and partly rebuilt and modernized in 1990, a year after two of its façades were classified as historical monuments. It contains 187 rooms and twelve suites.
The Palais was built for the American millionaire Frank Jay Gould. According to Insight Guides:
"It epitomised 1930's glamour with
a casino, theatre, restaurant and
cocktail bar".
It was originally a major centre for the arts in Nice, and national and international art exhibitions were held there.
The original hotel closed in 1978. The main Art Deco façade on the Promenade des Anglais and the façade on Rue du Congrès were classified as historical monuments in 1989. These were retained when much of the original hotel was demolished in 1990, to make way for a fully modernized hotel, with hotel rooms, apartments and a casino.
The hotel has 187 rooms, 12 suites, and a restaurant, bar and conference rooms on the third floor, which is the main floor of the building. The rooms on the 4th. floor all have large balconies.
The Terrorist Truck Attack
On the 14th. July 2016, a truck was deliberately driven by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel into a large crowd of people on the Promenade des Anglais. The crowd were watching a fireworks display in celebration of Bastille Day.
The attack, which had taken months to plan, resulted in the deaths of eighty-seven people, including ten children. The perpetrator was shot dead by police near the Palais de la Méditerranée. Another 202 people were injured, with 52 in critical care and 25 in intensive care.
Christophe Lion was the only survivor from a family group who had travelled to Nice from the French border area near Luxembourg, according to French media.
His wife Veronique Lion, 55, and her 28-year-old son Michael Pellegrini, a professor of economics, were killed along with Veronique's parents Francois and Christiane Locatelli, aged 82 and 78, and Christophe's parents Gisele Lion, 63, and Germain Lion, 68 - a total of six family members.
Paris tobacconist Timothe Fournier, 27, died protecting his heavily pregnant wife, Anais. She described how he pushed her out of the path of the lorry before being struck down himself:
"He was a young dreamer,
but he was always there for
his wife and future child".
The Terrorist Knife Attack
Nice has since suffered a further terrorist attack. On the morning of the 29th. October 2020, a woman and a man were killed by a terrorist with a 12-inch knife inside the Basilica of Notre-Dame. The woman aged 60, who had gone to the Basilica to worship, was found decapitated near the font of the church. The murdered man was the Basilica's church warden, 55 year-old Vincent Loquès, father of two.
The third victim - 44 year old mother of three Simone Silva managed to escape, and staggered to a nearby bar where she succumbed to her injuries. Her final words were:
"Tell my children I love them".
Armed police stormed Notre-Dame and shot the suspected terrorist, wounding him. The suspect was taken to hospital. Nice mayor Christian Estrosi said the attacker kept shouting "Allahu Akbar" even after he had been shot.
The terrorist was Brahim Aoussaoui, a 21 year old Tunisian migrant who had arrived in Europe by boat on the Italian island of Lampedusa 39 days earlier on the 20th. September. He had arrived in Nice the night before the attack.
The Basilica attack came amid heightened security fears in France due to the ongoing row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
France provoked the ire of Iran and Turkey by taking a tough line in defending the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
On the 28th. October 2020, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani warned that the row over the cartoons could lead to violence and bloodshed. He said:
"It's a surprise that this would come
from those claiming culture and
democracy, that they would somehow,
even if unintentionally, encourage
violence and bloodshed.
Westerners must understand the great
Prophet of Islam is loved by all Muslims
and freedom-lovers of the world.
Insulting the Prophet is insulting all
Muslims.
Insulting the Prophet is insulting all
prophets, human values, and amounts
to undermining ethic".
Samuel Paty
Samuel Paty, aged 47, was beheaded by 18-year-old freedom-lover Abdullah Anzorov on the 17th. October 2020 after Samuel used the cartoons to teach his students about the importance of free speech. An image he showed to students was the same one published by Charlie Hebdo that sparked the attack on the magazine's offices that killed 12.
Anzorov followed Paty as he left the school, having paid two students, aged 14 and 15, around €300 to identify him. Using a knife 30 centimetres (12 in) long, Anzorov killed Paty and beheaded him in the Rue du Buisson Moineau in Éragny-sur-Oise near the school where Paty taught, at approximately 5:00 p.m.
In addition to decapitating Paty, Anzorov inflicted a number of wounds to his head, abdomen, and upper limbs. Witnesses told police they heard the killer shout "Allahu Akbar" during the attack.
Minutes after the murder, an account named @Tchetchene_270 (French: Chechen 270), identified by prosecutor Jean-François Ricard as belonging to Abdullah Anzorov, posted on Twitter an image of Paty's severed head.
The image was seen by many of Paty's students.
The photo was accompanied by the message:
"In the name of Allah, the most gracious,
the most merciful, .. to Macron, leader of
the infidels, I executed one of your
hellhounds who dared to belittle Muhammad,
calm his fellow human beings before a harsh
punishment is inflicted on you."
Minutes later, Anzorov was confronted by police about 600 metres (660 yd) from the scene in Éragny. Anzorov shot at the police with an air rifle and tried to stab them with a knife. In response, the police shot him nine times, killing him. On Anzorov's phone, they found a text claiming responsibility and a photograph of Paty's body.
French police announced that there were more than 80 messages on social media from French people supporting the attacker, with Anzorov being described by some individuals as a 'martyr.'
Paty, a history and geography teacher, is being seen as a champion of free speech by many in France after his brutal death. He was posthumously given the Legion d'Honneur - France’s highest award - and French president Emmanuel Macron insisted:
"We will not give up our cartoons".
The mayor of Nice said after the Notre-Dame attack:
"Enough is enough. It's time now
for France to exonerate itself from
the laws of peace in order to
definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism
from our territory."
Eva Bartok
So what else happened on the day that Gladys posted the card?
Well, on the 13th. August 1955, Eva Bartok married German actor Curd Jürgens.
Eva was born Éva Márta Szőke Ivanovics on the 18th. June 1927. Known professionally as Eva Bartok, she was a Hungarian-British actress. Eva began acting in films in 1950, and her last credited appearance was in 1966.
She acted in more than 40 American, British, German, Hungarian, French and Israeli films. She is best known for her appearances in Blood and Black Lace, The Crimson Pirate, Operation Amsterdam, and Ten Thousand Bedrooms.
Eva Bartok - The Early Years
Bartok was born in Kecskemét, Hungary, to a Jewish journalist father and a Catholic mother. As a young child she performed in school productions from the age of six, and later in charity events and performances for wounded soldiers during the Second World War.
Following the outbreak of the war her father stayed in Budapest. Bartok and her mother moved to live in Kecskemét, to the south of the city, where her mother had relatives. Her father visited them on Sundays, but later disappeared without a trace during the Nazi period.
To avoid persecution as the daughter of a Jewish father, the teenage Bartok was forced at the age of 15 to gain protection by marrying Géza Kovács, a Hungarian officer who had Nazi connections.
Kovács disappeared following the occupation of Hungary by the Communists, and Bartok was able to get her marriage annulled on the grounds of coercion of a minor.
Eva Bartok's Acting Career
Following the end of the Second World War, Bartok decided to enter the acting profession, and successfully sat an examination at the Drama Centre in Budapest. One of the examiners was the director of the prominent Belvàrosi Szinhàz theatre, and in 1945 he was impressed enough to offer Bartok a three-year contract.
Eva made her professional debut in a performance of J. B. Priestley's A Conway Család (Time and the Conways) which ran at the Belvàrosi Szinhàz for three months.
She also performed at the Nemzeti Kamara in 1947. Eva then performed in Gáspár Margit's Új Isten Thébában (New God in Thebes) in 1946, followed by Áron Tamási’s drama Hullámzó Vőlegény in 1947.
This was followed by George Bernard Shaw’s Androkles és az Oroszlánok (Androcles and the Lion) and Jean-Paul Sartre’s A Tisztességtudó Utcalány (The Respectful Prostitute).
She first appeared in front of the camera in the 1947 Hungarian film Mezei Próféta which was banned by the Communist censors for political reasons.
Feeling threatened and persecuted by the new Communist regime in Hungary, Eva asked for help from Hollywood-based Hungarian producer Alexander Paal, who had been a friend of her father.
Paal took her to London in 1948. Bartok was later able to smuggle her mother out of Hungary via Austria and Germany to eventually settle her in France.
As one of its producers, Paal was able to arrange for Bartok to appear in the British-Italian drama film A Tale of Five Cities (which was released as A Tale of Five Women in the US). It was filmed in 1948, but due to due to financial difficulties it was not released until 1951.
As Eva's surname would have been an hindrance to Western audiences, she changed her professional name to “Bartok” after the well-known Hungarian composer Béla Bartók.
After divorcing Paal in 1951, Eva was introduced though the Hungarian expatriate community to fellow emigre Alexander Korda, who arranged for her to be put under contract to London Films. She received a small salary of £80 a month, and auditioned for the studio's various film projects.
At the same time Eva undertook English language lessons. To assist in gaining parts on the advice of theatrical publicity agent William Wordsworth, (who later became her third husband) she attracted attention by attending theatre premieres. As she had little money, she made most of her own dresses, displaying a flair for doing much with little.
Bartok came to the attention of an Italian stage producer who was in London looking for an English actress. He asked her to join his company with the provision that she could learn enough Italian in three weeks to perform a monologue in a variety show that incorporated singing, dancing, comedians, magicians, acrobats and novelty acts.
With Korda's permission Bartok flew to Rome to join the show's rehearsals prior to the show opening in December 1951 at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan. The show was a success, and over the following four months there were performances in Florence, Venice, Genoa and other cities, ending with a six-week long run in Rome at the Teatro Quirino.
In 1951 A Tale of Five Cities was finally released in the UK. It was seen by actor-producer Burt Lancaster and director Robert Siodmak, who were visiting England looking for an actress to play opposite Lancaster as his romantic interest, Consuelo in the upcoming production of the comedy-adventure film The Crimson Pirate.
Impressed by Bartok's performance and appearance, they telegraphed her in Italy asking her to attend a screen test. Bartok, by now wary of countless unsuccessful auditions, replied “No test. Send script.” To her surprise she was offered the role, and was asked to report for location shooting on the island of Ischia. In total she spent over three months in 1952 working on the project.
Also in 1952 Bartok appeared alongside Richard Todd in The Venetian Bird.
The success of The Crimson Pirate brought Bartok numerous role offers, though most were either in “B” movies or German language movies.
In 1953 Bartok made her first German film Rummelplatz Der Liebe (Circus of Love), starring opposite actor Curd Jürgens. Their on-screen chemistry led to a demand for more collaborations, which came one after another in rapid succession.
In 1955 Bartok acted on stage in The Lovers, at the Opera House in Manchester, England. Directed by Sam Wanamaker. It was an adaptation and translation of Émile Zola's novel, Thérèse Raquin.
In 1955 Bartok published a novel, Fighting Shadows, and in 1959 an autobiography, Worth Living For.
In 1957 Bartok appeared in the musical Ten Thousand Bedrooms, opposite Dean Martin. The movie was filmed in Italy and in Hollywood, and for a time Eva resided in Los Angeles.
Following that production her best known roles were in The Doctor of Stalingrad which was released in 1958, and in 1961's It Can't Always Be Caviar, opposite O. W. Fischer.
Eva Bartok's Later Husbands
Eva acquired British citizenship through her third marriage to English theatrical publicity agent William "Bill" Wordsworth in 1952. Wordsworth was the great-great-grandson of the poet of the same name.
That marriage fell apart, with him claiming that she had deserted him within a month of their marriage to move to Rome to make a movie in 1952, but the divorce was not finalised until the 7th. March 1955, with Bartok not contesting Wordsworth's application.
Eva met the British aristocrat David Mountbatten, 3rd. Marquess of Milford Haven at a London dinner in 1952. They embarked on a high-profile relationship that lasted for several years.
Romaine, Marchioness of Milford Haven, cited Bartok in her divorce petition. Mountbatten was prominent part in the London demi-monde of the 1950's, which brought together a colourful mix of aristocrats and shadowy social climbers such as osteopath Stephen Ward.
Eva's relationship with Mountbatten ended after she began a relationship with German actor Curd Jürgens when they acted in a movie together in Germany. Amidst great media interest, she married Jürgens on the 13th. August 1955 in Schliersee, Germany. It was Jürgens's third marriage. They divorced on the 6th. November 1956. Shortly after her marriage to Jürgens had ended, Bartok gave birth to a daughter Deana in London on the 7th. October 1957.
Three decades later, Bartok claimed Deana's biological father was actually Frank Sinatra as a result of a very brief affair in 1956 with him following the breakup of Sinatra's marriage to Ava Gardner. Bartok had first met Frank Sinatra at a party while she was in Hollywood in 1955 while appearing in the film Ten Thousand Bedrooms, alongside Dean Martin. Sinatra never acknowledged that he was the father.
In 1980 Bartok married her fifth husband, the American producer Dag Molin, and lived with him in Los Angeles until their divorce in 1983.
Eva Bartok - The Later Years and Death
Bartok had been introduced to the philosophy of the Subud sect while being treated for ovarian cancer in the late 1950's. As her career declined in the mid-1960's she became more and more involved with the sect, and ended up spending three years studying with the sect near Jakarta, Indonesia. She later taught its philosophy in a school she opened in Honolulu.
In the last years of her life, she lived as a permanent paying guest in a small London hotel. Eva died at the age of 71 on the 1st. August 1998 at St. Charles's Hospital in London.
Story from the forums, written by Company Technical Advisor Robin "GreenLead" Chang:
"After the federally-sponsored but dubious Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov was assassinated in a bloody coup led by disgruntled ex-Chechen Interior Ministry Forces commander Mikhal Pulkhin, a combined US-LS-Russian coalition force were authorised by the United Nations Security Council to assist in the protection of ethnic minorities in the former Soviet republic. Lack of coordination between coalition commanders, as well as secret FRC support for Pulkhin's forces in the form of advanced weaponry resulted in a disastrous initial assault, whereby many of the gliders transporting troops to fields near the capital Grozny were shot down, and severely injured survivors were subsequently attacked by Chechen troops awaiting for them.
In defiance of orders to retreat and regroup, Alpha Company was involved in the unauthorised capture of Hill 452, a key strategic position overlooking the capital, suffering heavy losses, but allowing friendly artillery to be sited for providing cover fire to panicking coalition troops below in the outskirts of Grozny. The unit was also involved in uncovering the genocide committed by Pulkhin and his cohorts, and assisted in the coup leader's capture, ending the conflict. When photographs of the unit participating in the conflict were accidentally leaked to the general via social networking sites, the overwhelming response of sympathy and support led to the Alpha Company being awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest unit-based award in the Lego States Armed Forces. At the same time, enlistments for the Army skyrocketed, with many recruits explicitly stating their intention to specifically join the now-legendary unit.
A war memorial was later erected at Fort Dilworth Falls, the unit's home garrison, which eventually grew to become the Lego States Army War Memorial Museum. March 20th, the date commemorating the storming of Hill 452, was designated by Presidential Decree as Armed Forces and Veterans Day, a public holiday in the Lego States."
This dio was inspired mainly by Tears of the Sun. Something that even I think is interesting is that the little fight with 2ndLt. Kobayashi and Chechen troops was inspired by The Last Samurai .
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
The kit and its assembly:
This rather simple what-if model had been on my idea list for some time, but the “Captured!” Group Build at whatifmodellers.com in late 2020 was a good occasion and motivation to take the idea to the hardware stage. This what-if model was originally inspired by a PrintScale aftermarket decal sheet for the Aero L-39 Albatros trainer. It contained markings for a lot of exotic operators, including Laos and Ghana, as well as markings for an aircraft of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Air Force from the early stages of the 1st Chechen War, actually a captured aircraft of the Russian Air Force. While the paint scheme was simple - a standard trainer livery, just with overpainted roundels and tactical markings - I found the historic context interesting. I did some legwork and tried to puzzle together the background of these markings, as well as the origins of the Chechen air force, in order to transfer it onto a different aircraft type.
In fact, much of the background given above is authentic (As far as I can tell, during such conflicts, there is always more than a single truth…), the Chechen makeshift air force was pretty small, consisting primarily of trainers, some helicopters and obsolete types (apparently, the single resurrected MiG-17 from storage was “real”!). AFAIK, no MiG-21 single seater was operated in Chechen colors, even though (at least) one MiG-21UM trainer carried Ichkerian roundels. However, all aircraft were destroyed on the ground within the first hours of the conflict, so that the air force did not play any role in the ongoing battles.
The basis of this build is the relatively new KP kit for the MiG-21MF/MA/R, which is apparently a low-budget re-boxing of the RV Aircraft kit without PE parts. Having some surplus MiG-21 kits at hand from a KP “Joy Pack” (with three complete MF/MA/R version kits, w/o decals), I decided to use one of them for a fictional Chechen Fishbed, an MF. This is/was actually an export version of the Fishbed (the MiG-21 SM, to be specific), but this variant was operated by the Soviet/Russian Air Force, too, alongside the more capable MiG-21bis, even though not in large scale. A Su-25 would have been another worthwhile choice, but I found the L-39 markings to be too small for this type, so the slender Fishbed was chosen, being a very common and therefore plausible type.
I had a trio “joy pack” sans decals stashed away some time ago and now is the occasion to build the first of these kits, and I built an MF from it, mostly OOB. So far, I am very impressed by the kit's details. The cockpit has a full tub, with side walls and consoles up to the canopy, rich detail everywhere (there is probably ANY rivet represented on the surface, finely recessed) and there are things like a free-standing shock cone, options for all air brakes to be built in opened position and even an opening for the air outlet in front of the windscreen. However, fit is not stellar, and any surface detail is a separate part. For instance, the small wing fences have to be glued into place - not that problem if they would fit... The fences are rectangular parts, and the wing surfaces are curved - that does not work. There are no locator pins for the wings, they have to be glued directly onto the fuselage flanks – a rather anachronistic approach. And the worst bummer is that the main landing gear wells are somehow located too far ahead - I am not certain how this blatant flaw on such a good model could find its way into the mold? Nevertheless, I am impressed by the many details and options of this kit, but feelings are ambiguous.
The kit was built OOB. I just gave it a pair of unguided missile pods as suitable ordnance from the scrap box. The Fishbeds from the Joy Pack only come with drop tanks, some Atoll and Aphid AAMs and a pair of heavy unguided missiles.
Painting and markings:
I used the L-39 from the PrintScale decal sheet as conceptual benchmark: a former Russian aircraft, captured and pressed into Chechen service on short notice. As such, the Fishbed received a typical Soviet/Russian disruptive four-tone, tactical “steppe” camouflage. A real-world MiG-21 was the benchmark for the pattern, I just replaced the colors. They became pale sand, medium brown, grass green and dark green, with blue undersides (Humbrol 121, 237, 150 and 75, respectively with 115 underneath).
The cockpit interior was painted in characteristic bright turquoise and medium grey, the landing gear became matt aluminum, with bright green wheel discs. The wells were painted with a mix of Humbrol 56 and 81, for a yellowish metallic grey. Humbrol 105 was used for the Fishbed’s typical di-electric fairings on nose, tail and ventral fin.
The kit received a light black ink wash and some post panel shading for a used/worn look, since the MiG-21 would in 1994 have already been a secondary line aircraft with many flying hours on the clock. The areas, where Red Stars and the tactical code had formerly been placed, were overpainted with fresh dark green (Humbrol 195), and the new operator’s markings were added on top of that: early Chechen roundels with a red star as background (which was later changed into green, probably in order to make the aircraft easier and clearer to distinguish) from the aforementioned PrintScale L-39 sheet. The tactical code numbers come from a MiG-17 (Microscale sheet).
The suitable slogan “Ӏожалла я маршо“ (Joƶalla ya marşo, “Death or Freedom”, after the Anthem of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria’s title which was written in 1992 and lasted until 2004) was painted manually with white and a fine brush. The handwritten style pragmatically suits the aircraft and its situation well. Cheesy and patriotic, but IMHO appropriate and just the detail that sets this Fishbed apart from a simple rebadge.
Some areas were furthermore lightly wet-sanded overpainted with different shades of dark green and dark brown, simulating wear and ad hoc repairs, for an intentional makeshift look.
Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and I did some dry-brushing with aluminum on the leading edges and around the cockpit.
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Middle East. It shares control of the Dead Sea with Israel. Much of Jordan is covered by the Arabian Desert. However, the north-western part of Jordan is part of the Ancient Fertile Crescent. The capital city is Amman.
During its history, Jordan has seen numerous civilizations, including such ancient eastern ones as the Canaanite and later other Semitic peoples such as the Edomites, and the Moabites. Other civilizations possessing political sovereignty and influence in Jordan were: Akkadian, Assyrian, Judean, Babylonian, and Persian empires. Jordan was for a time part of Pharaonic Egypt, the Hasmonean Dynasty of the Maccabees, and also spawned the native Nabatean civilization which left rich archaeological remains at Petra, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World located in the Ma'an Governorate. Cultures from the west also left their mark, such as the Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Turkish empires. Since the seventh century the area has been under Muslim and Arab cultures, with the exception of a brief period when the west of the area formed part of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and a short time under British rule.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a constitutional monarchy with representative government. The reigning monarch is the head of state, the chief executive and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The king exercises his executive authority through the prime ministers and the Council of Ministers, or cabinet. The cabinet, meanwhile, is responsible before the democratically elected House of Deputies which, along with the House of Notables (Senate), constitutes the legislative branch of the government. The judicial branch is an independent branch of the government.
Jordan is a modern Arab nation, its population is 92% Sunni Muslim with a small Christian minority. Jordanian society is predominantly urbanized. Jordan is classified as an emerging market with a free market economy by the CIA World Fact Book. Jordan has more Free Trade Agreements than any other country in the Arab World. Jordan is a pro-Western regime with very close relations with the United States and the United Kingdom. It became a major non-NATO ally in 1996, and is one of only two Arab nations, the other being Egypt, that have diplomatic relations with Israel. It is a founding member of the Arab League, the WTO, the AFESD, the Arab Parliament, the AIDMO, the AMF, the IMF, the International Criminal Court, the UNHRC, the GAFTA, the ESCWA, the ENP and the United Nations. Jordan is also currently undergoing close integration with the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Jordan expects to receive "advanced status" with the EU by 2011.
History
Please go to:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Jordan
Geography
Please go to
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Jordan
Other Info
Oficial Name:
المملكة الأردنّيّة الهاشميّة
Al Mamlakah al-Urdunniyah al Hashimiyah
Independence:
25 May 1946
Area:
89.342km2
Inhabitants:
7.890.000
Languages:
Adyghe [ady] 44,280 in Jordan (1986). Alternate names: West Circassian, Adygey. Classification: North Caucasian, West Caucasian, Circassian
More information.
Arabic, Levantine Bedawi Spoken [avl] 700,000 in Jordan. Throughout Jordan, but especially in the east. Alternate names: Bedawi. Dialects: South Levantine Bedawi Arabic, North Levantine Bedawi Arabic, Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
More information.
Arabic, Najdi Spoken [ars] 50,000 in Jordan. Far eastern Jordan. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
More information.
Arabic, South Levantine Spoken [ajp] 3,500,000 in Jordan (1996). Population total all countries: 6,145,000. Also spoken in Argentina, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, Puerto Rico, Syria. Alternate names: Levantine Arabic, South Levantine Arabic, Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic. Dialects: Madani, Fellahi. There are differences from village to village of which speakers are aware. There is a newly emerging urban standard dialect based on Amman. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
More information.
Arabic, Standard [arb] Middle East, North Africa. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
More information.
Armenian [hye] 8,000 in Jordan (1971 The Armenian Review). Dialects: Western Armenian. Classification: Indo-European, Armenian
More information.
Chechen [che] 3,000 in Jordan (1993 Johnstone). In 2 or 3 villages mixed among Adygey and Arabic speakers. Classification: North Caucasian, East Caucasian, Nakh, Chechen-Ingush
More information.
Domari [rmt] 4,913 in Jordan (2000 WCD). Alternate names: Middle Eastern Romani, Tsigene, Gypsy, Nawar, Kurbat, Barake. Dialects: Nawar, Kurbat, Barake. Classification: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Dom
Capital city:
Aman
Meaning country name:
After the river Jordan, the name of which derives from the Hebrew and Canaanite root yrd — "descend" (into the Dead Sea.) The river Jordan forms part of the border between Jordan and Israel/West Bank. In classical times, the region (known as Nabataea) encompassed territories on both sides of the River Jordan, infrequently also territories on the Sinai peninsula in Africa.
Transjordan (former name): "Trans" means "across" or "beyond" i.e. east of the river Jordan.
Urdun (Arabic), literal translation of name Jordan, sometimes spelled Urdan
Description Flag:
The national flag of Jordan (Arabic: علم الأردن) is based on the flag of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The flag consists of three horizontal bands (black, white and green) that are all connected by a red triangle on the left edge. The horizontal colors stand for the Abbasid, Umayyad and Fatimid Caliphates. The red triangle is for the Hashemite dynasty and the Arab Revolt. The seven pointed star, which is the only feature that distinguishes Jordan's flag from that of Palestine, has a dual meaning: it stands for the seven verses of the first surah in the Qur'an, and also stands for the unity of the Arab peoples. Some believe it also refers to the seven hills on which Amman, the capital, was built.
Coat of arms:
On August 25, 1934, the Executive Council (The Council of Ministers at the time) issued Directive No. 558 declaring the Coat of Arms (Arabic: شعار الأردن), (which was designed in 1921 upon the request of His Highness Prince Abdullah I) as the official emblem of the country and outlining its specific design layout. On February 21, 1982, the Council of Ministers issued the official Notification No. 6, which gave written specifications and explanations of the official emblem of the country.
National Anthem: As-salami al-urdoni, Arabic: السلام الملكي الأردني
The Royal Anthem
Arabic
عاش المليك
عاش المليك
سامياً مقامهُ
خافقاتٍ في المعالي أعلامه
نحن أحرزنا المنى
يوم أحييت لنا
نهضة تحفزنا
تتسامى فوق هامِ الشهب
يا مليك العرب
لك من خير نبي
شرف في النسب
حدثت عنه بطون الكتب
الشباب الأمجد
جندك المجند
عزمه لا يخمد
فيه من معناك رمز الدأب
يا مليك العرب
لك من خير نبي
شرف في النسب
حدثت عنه بطون الكتب
دمت نوراً وهدى
في البرايا سيدا
هانئا ممجدا
تحت أعلامك مجد العرب
يا مليك العرب
لك من خير نبي
شرف في النسب
حدثت عنه بطون الكتب
Translation
A-Sha-al Maleek
A-Sha-al Maleek
Sa-Mi-yan-ma-qa mu-ho
Kha-fi-qa-tin fil ma-ali
a-lam m-hu
Nahnu ahrazna al muna
Yawma ahyayta lana
Nahdaton tahfixona
Tatasama fawqa hami ash-shohobi
Ya malika al-arabi
Laka min khayri nabi
Sharafon fil nasabi
Haddathat anhubutuno al-kotobi
Ash-shababul amjadu
Junduka al-mujannadu
Azmuhu la yakhmadu
Fehee min ma'naka ramzu al-da'abi
Ya malika al-arabi
Laka min khayri nabi
Sharafon fil nasabi
Haddathat anhubutuno al-kotobi
Domta nooran wa huda
Fil baraya sayyida
Hani'an mumajjada
Tahta a'lamuka majdol arabi
Ya malika al-arabi
Laka min khayri nabi
Sharafon fil nasabi
Haddathat anhubutuno al-kotobi
English
Long live the King!
Long live the King!
His position is sublime,
His banners waving in glory supreme.
We achieved our goal,
On the day you gave us the mark,
A revolution gives us our motivation!
Flying over the shoulders of the highest comets.
Oh! You king of Arabs,
From the best prophet you have..
The honour of dynasty,
Talked about in the depths of books!
All the youthful men,
Are your armed armies
His determination never dies out!
(translated literally):Getting from your meaning a symbol of well-being!
(meaning):Getting from you the manners you have
Oh! You king of Arabs,
From the best prophet you have..
The honour of dynasty,
Talked about in the depths of books!
May you stay the light and the guide,
A master in being away of all sins and wrong-doing,
Living your life happily and well-respected!
Under your flying flag rests the glory of all Arabs.
Oh! You king of Arabs,
From the best prophet you have..
The pleasure of dynasty,
Talked about in the depths of books!
Internet Page: www.mohe.gov.jo
Jordan in diferent languages
eng | cor | dan | fao | hau | hrv | nor | swa | tpi: Jordan
bre | eus | fin | ina | oci | pol | roh | spa | sqi: Jordania
afr | lim | nld: Jordanië
deu | ltz | nds: Jordanien / Jordanien
ast | glg: Xordania
cat | srd: Jordània
ces | slk: Jordánsko
dsb | hsb: Jordaniska
est | vor: Jordaania
ita | lld: Giordania
kin | run: Yordaniya
lit | slv: Jordanija
ron | rup: Iordania
sme | tet: Jordánia
arg: Chordania
aze: İordaniya / Иорданија
bam: Zɔrɔdani
bos: Jordan / Јордан
cos: Ghjurdania
crh: Urdun / Урдун
csb: Jordaniô
cym: Gwlad Iorddonen
epo: Jordanio
fra: Jordanie
frp: J•ordanie
fry: Jordaanje
fur: Gjordanie
gla: Iòrdan
gle: An Iordáin / An Iordáin
glv: Yn Jordaan
hat: Jòdani
haw: Ioredāne
hun: Jordánia
ibo: Jọdenia
ind: Yordania / يوردانيا; Jordania / جوردانيا
isl: Jórdanía
jav: Yordania; Jordania
jnf: Jourdain
kaa: İordaniya / Иордания
kmr: Ordon / Ордон / ئۆردۆن; Ordonî / Ордони / ئۆردۆنی; Îordanî / Иордани / ئیۆردانی
kur: Erden / ئەردەن; Urdin / ئوردن; Urdûn / ئوردوون
lat: Iordania; Jordania
lav: Jordānija
lin: Zordaní
mlg: Jordana
mlt: Ġordan
mol: Iordania / Иордания
msa: Jordan / جوردن
nrm: Jourdanîn
por: Jordânia
que: Hurdanya
rmy: Yordaniya / योर्दानिया
scn: Giurdania
slo: Jordania / Йорданиа
smg: Juordanėjė
smo: Ioritana
som: Urdun; Joordan
swe: Jordanien
szl: Jordańja
tgl: Hordan
ton: Sioatani
tuk: Iordaniýa / Иордания
tur: Ürdün; Erdün
uzb: Iordaniya / Иордания
vie: Gióc-đa-ni
vol: Lurdunän
wln: Djordaneye
wol: Jordaani
zza: Urdun
abq | alt | kir | kjh | kom | krc | kum | rus | tyv | udm: Иордания (Iordanija)
che | chv | oss: Иордани (Iordani)
ava: Ордон (Ordon)
bak: Иордания / İordaniya
bel: Іарданія / Iardanija; Ярданія / Jardanija
bul: Йордания (Jordanija)
chm: Иорданий (Iordanij)
kaz: Иордания / Ïordanïya / يوردانيا
kbd: Иордание (Iordanie)
mkd: Јордан (Jordan)
mon: Иордан (Iordan)
srp: Јордан / Jordan
tat: Иордания / İordaniä, Yordaniä
tgk: Ӯрдун / اوردن / Ūrdun
ukr: Йорданія (Jordanija)
ara: الأردن (al-Urdunn)
fas: اردن / Ordon
prs: اردن (Ordon)
pus: اردن (Urdun); اردنيه (Urduniyâ)
uig: ئىئوردانىيە / Iordaniye / Иордания
urd: اردن (Urdun); جورڈن (Jorḋan)
div: ޖޯޑުން (Jōḋun)
syr: ܝܪܕܢ (Yordan)
heb: ירדן (Yarden)
lad: ז'ורדאניה / Jordania
yid: יאַרדן (Yardn); יאָרדאַניע (Yordanye)
amh: ዮርዳኖስ (Yordanos); ጆርዳን (Jordan)
ell-dhi: Ιορδανία (Iordanía)
ell-kat: Ἰορδανία (Iordanía)
hye: Հորդանան (Hordanan)
kat: იორდანია (Iordania)
hin: जॉर्डन (Jŏrḍan); जोर्डन (Jorḍan); जार्डन (Jārḍan)
ben: জর্দান (Jôrdān); জর্ডান (Jôrḍān); জর্ডন (Jôrḍôn)
pan: ਜਾਰਡਨ (Jārḍan)
kan: ಜಾರ್ಡನ್ (Jārḍan)
mal: ജോര്ദാന് (Jōrdān); ജോര്ദ്ദാന് (Jōrddān)
tam: ஜோர்தான் (Jōrtāṉ); ஜோர்டன் (Jōrṭaṉ); ஜோர்டான் (Jōrṭāṉ)
tel: జోర్డాన్ (Jōrḍān)
zho: 約旦/约旦 (Yuēdàn)
yue: 約旦/约旦 (Yeukdaan)
jpn: ジョルダン (Jorudan); ヨルダン (Yorudan)
kor: 요르단 (Yoreudan)
bod: ཇོར་ཏའན་ (Jor.t'an.); ཡོ་ཏན་ (Yo.tan.)
mya: ဂ္ယော္ဒန္ (Jɔdã)
tha: จอร์แดน (Čɔ̄[r]dǣn)
lao: ຊອັກດະນີ (Sɔkdanī)
khm: ហ្ស៊កដង់ (Hsokdăṅ); ហ្សកដង់ (Hsokdăṅ)
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Su-21 attack aircraft had its roots in the Su-15 interceptor, which itself was a development of Sukhoi's tailed-delta Su-9 and Su-11 interceptor fighters. Construction of the Su-15 (internal project designation T-58) began in mid-1960, state acceptance tests of the respective T-58-8M1 interception complex with radar and air-to-air missiles started in August 1963.
In 1966 series production at Novosibirsk began, the first pre-series Su-15 interceptor made its first flight from Novosibirsk on 6 March 1966. Once identified as a new service aircraft, NATO christened the type 'Flagon'. While the Su-15 was in series production, a number of improved design features were developed, tested and subsequently introduced with a new production series of the interceptor.
In 1969, under the influence of the Vietnam conflict and the conclusion that dedicated ground attack aircraft were needed in a modern battlefield, the Sukhoi OKB investigated options for a new close-support "mudfighter" aircraft. One option was a derivative of the Su-15, designated the "T-58Sh" -- the suffix "Sh" stood for "shturmovik (storm bird)", a general Soviet name for a close-support aircraft.
The T-58Sh design was based on the Su-15 fuselage and engine installation with two Tumansky R-13-300 turbojets, but with considerable modifications. These included totally new wings and stabilizers - the orginal delta wing for high speed gave way to tapered wings with a constant 40° sweep, and the horizontal stabilizers were modified, too. The original fin was kept, though, as well as most of the landing gear installation, even though the front wheel retracted backwards now, since the complete nose up until spar no. 10 had been redesigned: instead of the interceptor's large radome, a slanted, considerably shorter nose improved the field of view for the pilot. In its tip it housed a 'Fon' laser rangefinder as well as a missile guidance antenna. A Doppler radar was housed under the nose, too, and an ASP-PF gunsight and a PBK-2 bomb sight optimized for lob-bombing were installed. The cockpit was completely armored, as well as parts of the lower fuselage around the engine section. All internal tanks (holding 4.500kg/9.921lb of fuel in the fuselage as well as in the wings) were self-sealing.
Another novelty was the freshly developed, built-in Gatling cannon, the GSh-30A, also known as 9A-621. This formidable, six-barreled weapon had a pneumatic mechanism (instead of en electric system, which was used in US types like the M61 'Vulcan' gun), fired 30mm shells and achieved a staggering fire rate of 5.000rpm. The cannon's magazine held 280 rounds - a shift of fuel tanks from the fuselage into the new wings with more internal space allowed the belly installation behind the front wheel well. Furthermore, a total of nine external weapon hardpoints allowed an ordnance load of up to 5.500kg (12.115lb), which included laser-guided smart bombs/missiles as well as tactical nuclear weapons.
Two T-58Sh prototypes were completed, and the first of these flew on 6 April 1968, the second on 26 September 1968. After State Acceptance Trials the Su-15Sh entered service in 1970 - in parallel, OKB Mikoyan was also working on a ground attack variant of its MiG-23 VG fighter, the later MiG-27, which flew in 1971 for the first time.
This advantage in time to service worked in favor of the Suchoj aircraft, which was so different from its Su-15 origins that it received a new service-designation, Su-21 (which was, by Western observers, often miss-attributed to the late Su-15 interceptor versions with ogive radomes and new double-delta wings).
By 1972, four squadrons were equipped with the new aircraft. Interestingly, none of the Su-21 were deployed to Afghanistan. Instead, the new fighter bombers were exclusively allocated to Attack Regiments in the potential Western conflict theatre, two of them based in Poland and two in Eastern Germany.
The basic version of the aircraft was produced at Factory 31, at Tbilisi, in the Soviet Republic of Georgia. Between 1969 and 1975, 182 Su-21 were produced. Much like the Su-15 interceptor variants, there were no exports, the Soviet/Russian Air Force remained the only operator - the more versatile MiG-23/27 filled that role. Later, foreign customers would receive the Su-25K from Sukhoi's export program, as well as the Su-20 and 22 VG fighter bombers.
During its service career, the Su-21 was constantly upgraded. One of the most significant changes was an MLU programme which, among others, introduced the 'Shkval' optical TV and aiming system, which was coupled with a new 'Prichal' laser rangefinder and target designator in an enlarged nosecone. This system enabled the aircraft to carry out all-weather missions, day and night, and also allowed to deploy the new 'Vikhr' laser-guided, tube-launched missiles, which were very effective against armored vehicles.
These updated aircraft received the designation Su-21D ('dorabotanyy' = updated). Two respective prototypes were built in 1982–84, and all aircraft were brought to this standard until 1988.
The only engagement of the Su-21 in a real combat scenario was its employment during the First Chechen War - which also signalized the type's retirement, after the conflict was over. Together with other Russian Air Force air assets, The Su-21s achieved air supremacy for Russian Forces, destroying up to 266 Chechen aircraft on the ground. The entire Air Force assets committed to the Chechen campaign between 1994 and 1996 performed around 9,000 air sorties, with around 5,300 being strike sorties. The 4th Russian Air Army had 140 Su-17Ms, Su-21Ds, Su-24s and Su-25s in the warzone supported by an A-50 AWACS aircraft. The employed munitions were generally unguided bombs and rockets with only 2.3% of the strikes using precision-guided munitions.
The Su-21 was a controversial aircraft. It was relatively reliable, benefitting from its two engines and solid armor, which was seen as one of the most important features for a true battlefield aircraft - inofficially, it was nicknamed 'ома́р' ('lobster') among the crews.
It had a high payload and was a very stable weapon platform. But the type suffered from the fact that it was an interceptor derivate which had originally been designed for dashes at Mach 2.5 at high altitudes. Consequently, the airframe had to be enforced to withstand higher G loads at low level flight and with heavy external loads, so that it was basically overweight. The extra armor did not help much either.
Additionally, the R-13 jet engines (basically the same that powered the 3rd generation MiG-21MF) were thirsty, even when running without the afterburner extra power, so that the type's range was very limited. Its ability to dash beyond Mach 1 even at low altitudes was of little tactical use, even though its high rate of acceleration and climb made it ideal for suprise attacks and delivery of tactical nuclear weapons - the latter was the main reason why the type was kept in service for so long until it was replaced by Su-24 bombers in this role.
Another source of constant trouble was the GSh-30A cannon. While its firepower was overwhelming, the vibrations it caused while firing and the pressure blasts from the nozzles could badly damage the aircraft's lower fuselage. There had been several incidents when the front wheel covers had literally been blown apart, and in one case the gun itself detached from its fuselage mount while firing - hitting the aircraft itself from below!
In the end, the Su-21 could not live up to the expectations of its intended role - even though this was less the aircraft's fault: the military demands had been unclear from the beginning, and the T-58Sh had been a second- choice solution to this diffuse performance profile.
Eventually the MiG-27 and also the Su-17/22 family as well as the biggher Su-24 tactical bomber, thanks to their variable geometry wings, proved to be the more flexible aircraft for the ground attack/fighter bomber role. But the lessons learned from the Su-21 eventually found their way into the very successful, subsonic Su-25 ('Frogfoot') family. The last Su-21D was retired in January 1997, after a service career of 25 years.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length (with pitot): 17.57 m (57 ft 6 1/4 in)
Wingspan: 12.24 m (40 ft 1 in)
Height: 4.84 m (15 ft 10 in)
Empty weight: 11.225 kg (24.725 lb)
Loaded weight: 17.500 kg (38.580 lb)
Powerplant:
2× Tumansky R-13-300 turbojets,each rated at 40.21 kN (9,040 lbf) dry and at 70.0 kN (15,730 lbf) with afterburner
Performance
Maximum speed: 1.250km/h (777mph/674nm) at sea level
Range: 1.380 km (855 ml)
Ferry range: 1.850 km (1.146 mi)
Service ceiling: 17.000 m (55.665 ft)
Armament
1× GSh-30A gatling gun with 280 RPG in the lower fuselage
9× hardpoints (three under the fuselage, three under each wing) for a weapon load of up to 5.500kg (12.115lb),
including iron bombs, unguided missiles and rocket pods, guided weapons, napalm tanks or gun pods; two R-60 (AA-8 "Aphid") AAMs were typically carried for self-defense on the outer pylon pair
The kit and its assembly:
This whif actually has a real background, as outlined above - OKB Sukhoi actually worked in the late 60ies on a Su-15 derivate as a specialized attack aircraft, since the Soviet Forces lacked that type. The ground attack types then in service were the vintage MiG-17 and converted MiG-19 fighters, as well as the fast but very limited Su-7 - either outdated fighters or a fighter-bomber with insufficient range and payload.
Specifications for a ground attack aircraft were unclear at that time, though. Supersonic capability was still seen as a vital asset for any military aircraft, and WWII tactics were still the basis for close air support duties. The T-58Sh was eventually one design direction that would keep development time and costs low, starting with a proven basic airframe and adapting it to a new (and very different) role.
The Su-15, from which the T-58Sh was derived, originally was a Mach 2 interceptor, solely armed with missiles. Making THIS a ground attack aircraft surely was a huge step. The projected Su-15Sh, how the aircrfat was also called, was still to be supersonic, since this was seen as a vital asset at that time. This concept would eventually be a dead end, though, or, alternatively, result in the lighter and much cheaper MiG-27 tactical fighter in the 70ies. But it should still take some more years until a subsonic, simple and dedicated aircraft (the T-8, which made its maiden flight in 1975 and became later the Su-25 'Frogfoot') would be the 'right' direction for the new shturmovik. The Su-15Sh actually never left the drawing board, the swing-wing Su-17/20/22 more or less took its place in real life.
With that background my idea was to build a model of the ground attack Su-15 derivate in front line service in the mid 80ies, at the Cold War's peak and used by the Group of Soviet Forces in (Eastern) Germany. The Su-21 designation is fictional. But since the aircraft would be SO different from the Su-15 interceptor I can hardly imagine that it would have been called Su-15Sh in service. Since its cousin, the MiG-27, also received a new designation, I decided to apply the Su-21 code (which was never applied to a real aircraft - those Su-15 versions called Su-21 are just misnomers or speculations of Western 'experts' when the Iron Curtain was still up).
As a coincidence, I had all 'ingredients' at hand:
● Fuselage and fin from a PM Model Su-15
● Nose section from an Academy MiG-27 (leftover from the Q-6 kitbach)
● Wings and horizontal stabilizers from an ESCI A-7
The A-7 wings have slightly more sweep than what the drafted T-58Sh had (45° vs. 40°), as far as I can tell from profiles, but otherwise they fit in shape and size. I just cut the orginal leading edge away, sculpted a new front from putty, and the result looked very good.
What became tricky were the landing gear wells. Part of the Su-15 landing gear retracts into the lower fuselage, and mating this with the Corsair's wings and the potential space for the landing gear there did not match up properly -the wings would end up much too far behind.
After some trials I decided to cut out the landing gear wells on the lower side of the wings, relatively far forward, and cut out a part of the lower fuselage, reversed it, so that the landing gear wells woukd be placed about 5mm further forward, and the wings were finally attached to the fuselage so that these would match the respective openings on the fuselage's bottom. This was more or less the only major and unexpected surgery, and the original Su-15 landing gear could be retained.
Using the A-7's stabilizers was also a bit off the original concept (the T-58Sh appeared to keep the original parts), but I found that the more slender but wider A-7 parts just made the aircraft look more homogenous?
Grafting the MiG-27 cockpit (which was taken OOB) onto the fuselage was not a big problem, since the intersection is of simple shape and fits well by height and width. I made a vertical cut on the Su-15 fuselage in the middle of the air intake area, which would later be hidden through the air intakes. The latter were taken from the Su-15, but simplified: the intake became simple and "vertical", and the large, orginal splitter plates were replaced by the shorter speiceimen from the MiG-27 kit. The fit almost perfectly, are just a bit short, so that a small hole had to be filled with styrene strips on the lower side.
The fin was taken OOB, just as on the propsed real aircraft. The resulting side profile reminds VERY much of a Dassault Étendard on steroids...? The whole thing also looks a bit like the missing link between the Su-15 and the later Su-24 fighter bomber - esp. when you know the Fencer's fixed-wing T-6 prototype.
Externally, the gatling gun (also taken from the leftoevr MiG-27) and a total of nine hardpoints were added - three under the fuselage, flanking the gun, and six under the outer wings.
Since the Su 15 is a pretty large aircraft, I used the opportunity to equip the aircraft with serious air-to-ground ordnance, a pair of TV-guided Kh-29T (AS-14 "Kedge") missiles from an ICM USSR weapon set and a pair of R-60 AAMs, leftover from an ESCI Ka-34. Furthermore, chaff/flare dispensers were added to the rear upper fuselage, as well as some antennae and the pitots.
Actually, this kitbash was less complicated as expected. Needed lots of putty, sure, but this would also have been needed on the OOB Su-15 from PM Models, as it is a primitive and crude model kit. Here, it found a good use. One drawback is, though, that the surface lacks detail: the PM Model Su-15 is bleak (to put it mildly), and the re-used A-7 wings lost much of their engraved details to leftover paint or sanding - paint tricks would have to mend this.
Painting and markings:
As a frontline service aircraft, this one would receive a tactical camouflage pattern. The Soviet Air Force offers a wide range of options, ranging from boring to bizarre, and I settled for a typical four-color camouflage with light blue undersides:
● Humbrol 119 (Light Earth)
● Humbrol 159 (Khaki Drab)
● Humbrol 195 (Chrome Oxide Green, RAL 6020)
● Testors 2005 (Burnt Umber)
● Humbrol 115 (Russian Blue) for the lower surfaces
The paint scheme was inspired by a East Germany-based Su-17, the colors are guesstimates, based on pictures of real-life Soviet aircraft.
Cockpit interior was painted in typical, infamous Soviet/Russian turqoise (*Argh*), the complete landing gear was painted in Aluminum (Humbrol 56); the wheel discs became bright green (Humbrol 131), di-electric panels (e .g. the fin tip) received a coat in Forest Green (Humbrol 149, FS 34092).
The model was weathered through some counter-shading with lighter tones of the five basic colors, a wash with black ink and some additional stains and blotches with different shades of green and brown, including Humbrol 98 118, 128, 151 - even some RLM 82 from Testors found its way onto the aircraft!
Decals and markings were puzzled together from various aftermarket sheets, and are based on real life pictures of Soviet/Russian aircraft based in Eastern Germany.
I also added some bare metal stains at the leading edges and soot stains around the gun. Since the kitbashed model was pretty bleak, I tried to add painted panel lines - using a thin brush and a mix of matt varnish and black. The counter-shading applied before enhances this effect, and if you do not look too closely at the model, the result is O.K.
Finally, everything was sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish.
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
The Postcard
A Real-Photo Series postally unused carte postale published by Cie des Arts Photomécaniques of 44, Rue Letellier, Paris.
The image is a real photograph, and the card has a divided back.
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes département. Located in the French Riviera, on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Alps, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast.
The city is nicknamed Nice la Belle, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912.
The area of today's Nice contains Terra Amata, an archaeological site which displays evidence of an early use of fire.
Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, the goddess of victory.
The natural beauty of the Nice area and its mild Mediterranean climate came to the attention of the English upper classes in the second half of the 18th century, when an increasing number of aristocratic families took to spending their winters there.
The city's main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais owes its name to early English visitors to the resort.
The clear air and soft light have particularly appealed to notable painters, such as Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. Their work is commemorated in many of the city's museums, including Musée Marc Chagall, Musée Matisse and Musée des Beaux-Arts.
Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and is one of its most visited cities, receiving 4 million tourists every year. It also has the third busiest airport in France, after the two main Parisian ones.
The Terrorist Truck Attack
On 14 July 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into a crowd of people by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel on the Promenade des Anglais. The crowd were watching a fireworks display in celebration of Bastille Day.
The attack, which had taken months to plan, resulted in the deaths of eighty-seven people, including ten children. The perpetrator was shot dead by police. Another 202 people were injured, with 52 in critical care and 25 in intensive care.
Christophe Lion was the only survivor from a family group who had travelled to Nice from the French border area near Luxembourg, according to French media.
His wife Veronique Lion, 55, and her 28-year-old son Michael Pellegrini, a professor of economics, were killed along with Veronique's parents Francois and Christiane Locatelli, aged 82 and 78, and Christophe's parents Gisele Lion, 63, and Germain Lion, 68 - a total of six family members.
Paris tobacconist Timothe Fournier, 27, died protecting his heavily pregnant wife, Anais. She described how he pushed her out of the path of the lorry before being struck down himself:
"He was a young dreamer,
but he was always there for
his wife and future child".
The Terrorist Knife Attack
Nice has since suffered a further terrorist attack. On the morning of the 29th. October 2020, a woman and a man were killed by a terrorist with a 12-inch knife inside the Basilica of Notre-Dame. The woman aged 60, who had gone to the Basilica to worship, was found decapitated near the font of the church. The murdered man was the Basilica's church warden, 55 year-old Vincent Loquès, father of two.
The third victim - 44 year old mother of three Simone Silva managed to escape, and staggered to a nearby bar where she succumbed to her injuries. Her final words were:
"Tell my children I love them".
Armed police stormed Notre-Dame and shot the suspected terrorist, wounding him. The suspect was taken to hospital. Nice mayor Christian Estrosi said the attacker kept shouting "Allahu Akbar" even after he had been shot.
The terrorist was Brahim Aoussaoui, a 21 year old Tunisian migrant who had arrived in Europe by boat on the Italian island of Lampedusa 39 days earlier on the 20th. September. He arrived in Nice the night before the attack.
The Basilica attack came amid heightened security fears in France due to the ongoing row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
France provoked the ire of Iran and Turkey by taking a tough line in defending the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
On the 28th. October 2020, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani warned the row over the cartoons could lead to violence and bloodshed. He said:
"It's a surprise that this would come
from those claiming culture and
democracy, that they would somehow,
even if unintentionally, encourage
violence and bloodshed.
Westerners must understand the great
Prophet of Islam is loved by all Muslims
and freedom-lovers of the world.
Insulting the Prophet is insulting all
Muslims.
Insulting the Prophet is insulting all
prophets, human values, and amounts
to undermining ethic".
Samuel Paty
Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded by 18-year-old freedom-lover Abdullah Anzorov on the 17th. October 2020 after using the cartoons to teach his students about the importance of free speech. An image he showed to students was the same one published by Charlie Hebdo that sparked the attack on the magazine's offices that killed 12.
Anzorov followed Paty as he left the school, having paid two students, aged 14 and 15, around €300 to identify him. Using a knife 30 centimetres (12 in) long, Anzorov killed Paty and beheaded him in the Rue du Buisson Moineau in Éragny-sur-Oise near the school where Paty taught, at approximately 5:00 p.m.
In addition to decapitating Paty, Anzorov inflicted a number of wounds to his head, abdomen, and upper limbs. Witnesses told police they heard the killer shout "Allahu Akbar" during the attack.
Minutes after the murder, an account named @Tchetchene_270 (French: Chechen 270), identified by prosecutor Jean-François Ricard as belonging to Abdullah Anzorov, posted on Twitter an image of Paty's severed head.
The image was seen by many of Paty's students.
The photo was accompanied by the message:
"In the name of Allah, the most gracious,
the most merciful, .. to Macron, leader of
the infidels, I executed one of your
hellhounds who dared to belittle Muhammad,
calm his fellow human beings before a harsh
punishment is inflicted on you."
Minutes later, Anzorov was confronted by police about 600 metres (660 yd) from the scene in Éragny. Anzorov shot at the police with an air rifle and tried to stab them with a knife. In response, the police shot him nine times, killing him. On Anzorov's phone, they found a text claiming responsibility and a photograph of Paty's body.
French police announced that there were more than 80 messages on social media from French people supporting the attacker, with Anzorov being described by some individuals as a 'martyr.'
Paty, a history and geography teacher, is being seen as a champion of free speech by many in France after his brutal death. He was posthumously given the Legion d'Honneur - France’s highest award - and French president Emmanuel Macron insisted:
"We will not give up our cartoons".
The mayor of Nice said after the Notre-Dame attack:
"Enough is enough. It's time now
for France to exonerate itself from
the laws of peace in order to
definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism
from our territory."
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
DISCLAIMER
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The MiG-37Sh (Sh = shturmovik) was a heavily modified version of the basic MiG-37 stealth attack and reconnaissance plane. Dissatisfaction with the basic MiG-37 sans suffixe in the air-to-ground role, esp. due to its limited internal weapon load and agility at low level of flight, and the need to replace the ageing Russian MiG-27 and early Su-25 fleet after the millennium led to a further and radical development of the basic airframe, while keeping the proven stealth features.
The resulting 'Sh' variant was consequently optimized for all-weather ground attack, with a focus on a high chance of survival in front line service as well as an improved low-level handling and loiter time.
The 2nd generation 'Sh' prototype flew in summer 1999. A small number of MiG-37Sh has been built since, and in the long line of the MiG-37 development the aircraft received the NATO code ‘Ferret G’. Probably 20 of these machines serve alongside 1st generation versions of the MiG-37. Lack of funds seems to hamper large-scale production, even though the type already proved its effectiveness, e .g. in the Chechen conflict (see below).
Most visible difference of the new 'Sh' to its predecessors was a completely new wing. This new design featured a bigger wing span, lower sweep, a much higher aspect ration and also a much bigger profile. This new wings, together with the type's typical medium grey RAM surface coating, quickly earned it the nickname ‘бе́лая сова́ ‘ (‘Snowy owl’).
The new wings' anhedral had to be strongly reduced and the bigger internal wing space not only allowed additional fuel tanks to be integrated.
The more rigid wing structure now also allowed the optional attachment of two hardpoint per wing for external ordnance loads, the inner ones being able to carry 1.000kg, the outer ones 500kg. The inner pair is ‘wet’ for PTB-800 drop tanks in ferry configuration, there seems to be no provision for an IFR probe installation. But compared to the 1st generation MiG-37 versions, this new feature considerable expands the offensive potential, esp. for long range deployment or when the plane is simply on a non-stealthy mission.
Another new feature was a downward-sloping nose profile for improved pilot visibility. It also holds the highly effective Kyra-23 laser-television sighting system, which includes an A/W TV camera, a missile guidance antenna and integrates an S-31E2 KOLS, a combined laser rangefinder and IRST. This system more or less replaces an active, radar-based fire control system and is also installed on MiG-29 and Su27 interceptors. It provides exceptional gun-laying accuracy and is used for both air-to-ground guidance as well as to track and combat low-flying planes, helicopters and even cruise missiles.
The Mig-37Sh's PrNK-23K nav/attack system was borrowed from the sophisticated MiG-27K. It provides automatic flight control, gun firing, and weapons release. The capabilities of the aircraft in the ASM role are being enhanced by the incorporation of modern avionics systems consisting primarily of two Multi-Function Displays (MFDs) Mission and Display Processor (MDP), Sextant Ring Laser Gyros (RLG INSI), combined GPS/GLONASS navigation, HUD with UFCP, Digital Map Generator (DMG), jam-resistant Secured Communication, stand-by UHF communication, data link and a comprehensive Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite. A mission planning and retrieval facility, VTR and HUD Camera are also fitted.
The aircraft retains stand-by (conventional) instrumentation, including artificial horizon, altimeter and airspeed indicator, to cater for the failure of HUD and the MFDs. The modified plane also received much-improved electronic and Infra red countermeasure (ECM & IRCM) systems, including an SPO-15 radar homing & warning system (RHAWS) and an SO-69 identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) transponder.
Additional kevlar cockpit armour plates were installed. The undercarriage was revised to facilitate operation from poorer-quality airfields. It has a much simpler design and also allows more room under the plane for easier maintenance.
In order to improve agility, the MiG-37Sh received two Klimov RD-33MK turbofans (the same as used in the MiG-29MK, without afterburner and a special nozzle arrangement which adds cold air for a reduced IR signature) and modified vectored trust nozzles. The latter are still 2D, as featured on the original MiG-37 design, but can now move independently so that roll and slow speed manoeuvrability are considerably enhanced – the MiG-37Sh is not solely a ground attack aircraft, it is also supposed to take on attack helicopters and even cruise missiles near ground level. Rumor has it that its agility is immense, largely limited by the g-forces the pilot can accept.
With the emphasis on strike and low-level attack requirements, a fixed single-barreled GSh-30-1 30mm cannon with 300 rounds was installed in a shallow fairing under the plane’s starboard belly. It features a closable nozzle, so that the radar and also IR signature of the weapon is minimized – it is only exposed when actually made ready to fire.
Compared to the MiG-37 sand suffix, provisions were made to mount more weapons, mainly missiles and precision-guided munitions against ground targets. Self defence and limited air-to-air capability was also on the designers’ agenda. Therefore, and thanks to the bigger fuel capacitiy in the bigger wing tanks, two additional internal weapon bays could be incorporated into the lower wing roots.
These are to store a single, compact R-60/AA-8 "Aphid" IR missile each, leaving the original weapon bays free for offensive armament like a single KAB-500 guided bomb in each of them.
Overall, the offensive potential of the ‘Sh’ variant increased tremendously compared to the 1st generation MiG-37 types: thanks to its uprated engines and the new wings with greater lift, the MiG-37Sh can carry up to 3 tons of weaponry, about 40% more than the original MiG-37 sans suffix. It is able to deliver strikes with much more accuracy, in all weather conditions and with a much higher chance of survivability in hostile environment.
MiG-37 actively took part in the Russian Army's operations against rebels in the Chechen Republic. In December 2000, a pair of early production MiG-37Sh from Lipetsk-based 970 IISAP (Instructional & Test Composite Air Regiment) arrived to the area, accompanied by several Su-25, to provide reconnaissance and target designation in the conflict theatre.
The MiG-37Sh were quickly thrown into action: On 6 January 2001, the MiG-37Sh used live weapons against a real enemy for the first time. On 9 January, at the entry into a mountain gorge in the area of a settlement named Komsomolskoye, a single MiG-37Sh used Kh-29L missiles to destroy a warehouse full of ammunition belonging to Chechen insurgents.
On 6 February, in the forest-covered mountain area to the south of the village of Tsentoroj, the strike group composed of two MiG-37Sh and two Su-25 discovered and, from a range of 3 km, destroyed a fortified camp of insurgents using KAB-500L guided bombs.
14 February, saw a similar strike group carrying out a "hunting" mission in the area of Oak-Yurt and Hatun. In difficult conditions, pilots found and destroyed eight targets. These missions tested the type's airframe, as well as its on-board systems and armament. Its successful performance in difficult, mountainous terrain once again confirmed the usefulness of the many advanced features of the MiG-37Sh design, including its power and manoeuvrability.
It is unclear if the type has been used in combat since, e .g. in Afghanistan. It has participated in a number of exercises, though, including "Boundary 2004" which took place on the Edelweiss mountain range in Kyrgyzstan, in August 2004. Once again the "Ferret G" demonstrated its advantages by operating at a high altitude and an air temperature of more than 30 °C. Among other sorties, a single MiG-37Sh provided cover for the landing of troops, taking down two Ka-50 helicopters in mock air combat, and then successfully worked on ground targets using its precision weapons as well as unguided rockets.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 53 ft 6 in (16.34 m)
Wingspan: 43 ft 1 1/2 in (13.18 m)
Height: 10 ft 9 in (3,24m)
Empty weight: 24.250 lbs (11.000 kg)
Loaded weight: 33.730 lbs (15.300 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 39,690 lbs (18.000 kg)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 610 mph (980 km/h)
Range: 1.030 miles (1.650 km)
Service ceiling: 39.400 ft (12.000 m)
Rate of climb: 12.960 ft/min (72 m/s)
Engine: 2 Klimov RD-33MK turbofans w/o afterburner rated at 53.0 kN (11,900 lbs.), fitted with 2D vectored thrust nozzles
Armament:
1× GSh-30-1 30mm cannon with 300 rounds .
Four internal weapon bays (two bays for a single AA-8 "Aphid" or a twin ‘Igla’ light air-to-air missile starter; two bays in tandem fore and aft the main gear wells for various weapons incl. guided missiles and bombs).
Four external hard points (2 under each inner wing); total internal and external weapon ordnance 3.000kg.
Five UV-26 dispensers in the tail section (w. 120 chaff/flare cartridges in each pod)
The kit and its assembly:
I guess that everyone who is into whiffy model is familiar with Italieri’s fantasy MiG-37B kit from 1988, and I already built 3 of them since then.
Nevertheless, with my recent interest in Soviet/Russian air industries I felt an itch to build another (better) one, this time with major modifications. Esp. the stubby wings and the senselessly wide and low MiG-23-style landing gear had always been points that did not truly convince me. And since I had such a kit in 1:72th scale in store, I took action.
Surprisingly, you find a lot of individual conversions of the ‘Ferret E’ kit in the Internt. Many are colourful, but few are IMHO convincing as a complete work, lacking thought about the plane’s concept or mission. So, here’s my take on it, the ‘Snowy Owl’ version. All in all I wanted to present a realistic and optimized ground attack plane, based on the original and pretty interesting MiG-37 design, pushing my personal “Sh” version towards Su-25, MiG-27 and even Su-24 ground attack aircraft.
Most obvious change concerns the wings. These were taken from an F-117 donation kit, a horrible thing (probably the early Revell kit) that a friend gave me. Installing them to the fuselage was tough, since they are much thicker than the original, stubby wing spades!
A new landing gear, borrowed from an F-18, and a new nose section (built from scratch & putty and inspired by the installation on MiG-27 fighter bombers) were further changes. Other modifications include additional weapon bays for short range AAMs under the wing gloves à la F-22, the narrow gun fairing nect to the front wheel well and the auxiliary air intake doors on the upper side.
The engine exhaust area has been modified, since I wanted to get away with the original tabletops that are supposed to be vectored nozzles(?). I added some side panels, made from styrene sheet, as well as a central divider, which now offers space for some warning sensors and chaff dispensers. The vectored nozzles were re-built from the original parts as well as styrrene profiles.
Minor changes were made to several antennae and sensors all around the plane. The cockpit was left more or less OOB – it is pretty detailed, and together with the landing gear one of the original kit’s highlights. I just added a Matchbox pilot figure and some details behind the ejection seat.
The weapons come from the scrap box: the AA-8's belong to the ESCI Ka-34 whif Hokum helicopter, the guided bombs are fantasy weapons built from scratch.
Painting/Finish
A tough task from a creative point of view. I neither wanted the stereo-typical all-black stealth look, nor a Russian tactical paint scheme (even though the latter would have been appropriate for the aircraft's role).
A Flanker scheme or even the garish Su-34 ‘Greenbottle Fly’ look also did not seem appropriate, as well as the Su-24-inspired light grey/white livery which is suggested in the OOB kit.
Since I wanted something murky and mysterious, still with a kind of prototype look, I finally settled on two simple grey tones: a uniform medium grey for the upper sides (Testors 2059, 'Dark Sea Grey') and for a twist, a dark grey for the undersides (Testors 1592, RAL 7021 'Schwarzgrau').
I find that such simple designs make a whif plane much more realistic than flamboyant colours or weird paint schemes – leave this to “real” planes in whiff guises. Another factor for this all-grey livery is that I wanted to use the (many) light grey OOB stencil decals, making them stand subtly out against the darker shades below. Lighter shades of grey and ochre were used for antennae, di-electric covers and the wings' leading edges.
The cockpit was painted in typical Russian Blue-Green, air intakes, air brakes and the landing gear with its wells were, after consulting pictures of modern Russian fighters, painted in Barley Grey (Humbrol 167).
The wheels received dark green disks (Humbrol 149), the bomb/missile bays were - as a contrast - painted in a chromate primer color (a mix of Humbrol 81 and 225, Olive Yellow and Mid-Stone), a detail I found on photographs of Tu-95 and Tu160 interiors. Looks weird, but: why not?
Unfortunately, the final matte varnish ended in a minor disaster: I used a water-based, acryllic matt varnish (for a VERY matt finish), but it reacted with both some decals and the enamel paint, not certain why? Probably not enough stirring, and the Begemot decals seem to be very sensitive to humidity and setting solution.
Originally, the machine sported neat low-viz Russian insignia (just red outlines for the stars, featured e .g. on Suchoi’s T-50/PAK FA prototype) from a Begemot decal sheet (called “Demo Flankers” – it is massive, featuring decals for almost 20 prototypes with all markings and the respective paint schemes in a booklet!). They looked great, but crincled under the matt varnish and had to be scraped off, together with some other Begemot decals.
Hence, the final finish of the kit is not the best, I tried to save as much as possible. Since I did not want to invest into another aftermarket decal sheet, I used the light and dark red, opaque Red Stars without outlines from the original Italeri decal sheet. With the light and dark grey as backgorund the result is O.K., but I had another outcome envisaged. :(
All in all, though, a small but catchy project. Not as good as planned, but an attempt to make more of the wacky Italeri MiG-37 than just another black piece of charcoal.
Read the story at: hotzone.yahoo.com
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone -- One man, covering a world of conflict
DISCLAIMER
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The MiG-37Sh (Sh = shturmovik) was a heavily modified version of the basic MiG-37 stealth attack and reconnaissance plane. Dissatisfaction with the basic MiG-37 sans suffixe in the air-to-ground role, esp. due to its limited internal weapon load and agility at low level of flight, and the need to replace the ageing Russian MiG-27 and early Su-25 fleet after the millennium led to a further and radical development of the basic airframe, while keeping the proven stealth features.
The resulting 'Sh' variant was consequently optimized for all-weather ground attack, with a focus on a high chance of survival in front line service as well as an improved low-level handling and loiter time.
The 2nd generation 'Sh' prototype flew in summer 1999. A small number of MiG-37Sh has been built since, and in the long line of the MiG-37 development the aircraft received the NATO code ‘Ferret G’. Probably 20 of these machines serve alongside 1st generation versions of the MiG-37. Lack of funds seems to hamper large-scale production, even though the type already proved its effectiveness, e .g. in the Chechen conflict (see below).
Most visible difference of the new 'Sh' to its predecessors was a completely new wing. This new design featured a bigger wing span, lower sweep, a much higher aspect ration and also a much bigger profile. This new wings, together with the type's typical medium grey RAM surface coating, quickly earned it the nickname ‘бе́лая сова́ ‘ (‘Snowy owl’).
The new wings' anhedral had to be strongly reduced and the bigger internal wing space not only allowed additional fuel tanks to be integrated.
The more rigid wing structure now also allowed the optional attachment of two hardpoint per wing for external ordnance loads, the inner ones being able to carry 1.000kg, the outer ones 500kg. The inner pair is ‘wet’ for PTB-800 drop tanks in ferry configuration, there seems to be no provision for an IFR probe installation. But compared to the 1st generation MiG-37 versions, this new feature considerable expands the offensive potential, esp. for long range deployment or when the plane is simply on a non-stealthy mission.
Another new feature was a downward-sloping nose profile for improved pilot visibility. It also holds the highly effective Kyra-23 laser-television sighting system, which includes an A/W TV camera, a missile guidance antenna and integrates an S-31E2 KOLS, a combined laser rangefinder and IRST. This system more or less replaces an active, radar-based fire control system and is also installed on MiG-29 and Su27 interceptors. It provides exceptional gun-laying accuracy and is used for both air-to-ground guidance as well as to track and combat low-flying planes, helicopters and even cruise missiles.
The Mig-37Sh's PrNK-23K nav/attack system was borrowed from the sophisticated MiG-27K. It provides automatic flight control, gun firing, and weapons release. The capabilities of the aircraft in the ASM role are being enhanced by the incorporation of modern avionics systems consisting primarily of two Multi-Function Displays (MFDs) Mission and Display Processor (MDP), Sextant Ring Laser Gyros (RLG INSI), combined GPS/GLONASS navigation, HUD with UFCP, Digital Map Generator (DMG), jam-resistant Secured Communication, stand-by UHF communication, data link and a comprehensive Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite. A mission planning and retrieval facility, VTR and HUD Camera are also fitted.
The aircraft retains stand-by (conventional) instrumentation, including artificial horizon, altimeter and airspeed indicator, to cater for the failure of HUD and the MFDs. The modified plane also received much-improved electronic and Infra red countermeasure (ECM & IRCM) systems, including an SPO-15 radar homing & warning system (RHAWS) and an SO-69 identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) transponder.
Additional kevlar cockpit armour plates were installed. The undercarriage was revised to facilitate operation from poorer-quality airfields. It has a much simpler design and also allows more room under the plane for easier maintenance.
In order to improve agility, the MiG-37Sh received two Klimov RD-33MK turbofans (the same as used in the MiG-29MK, without afterburner and a special nozzle arrangement which adds cold air for a reduced IR signature) and modified vectored trust nozzles. The latter are still 2D, as featured on the original MiG-37 design, but can now move independently so that roll and slow speed manoeuvrability are considerably enhanced – the MiG-37Sh is not solely a ground attack aircraft, it is also supposed to take on attack helicopters and even cruise missiles near ground level. Rumor has it that its agility is immense, largely limited by the g-forces the pilot can accept.
With the emphasis on strike and low-level attack requirements, a fixed single-barreled GSh-30-1 30mm cannon with 300 rounds was installed in a shallow fairing under the plane’s starboard belly. It features a closable nozzle, so that the radar and also IR signature of the weapon is minimized – it is only exposed when actually made ready to fire.
Compared to the MiG-37 sand suffix, provisions were made to mount more weapons, mainly missiles and precision-guided munitions against ground targets. Self defence and limited air-to-air capability was also on the designers’ agenda. Therefore, and thanks to the bigger fuel capacitiy in the bigger wing tanks, two additional internal weapon bays could be incorporated into the lower wing roots.
These are to store a single, compact R-60/AA-8 "Aphid" IR missile each, leaving the original weapon bays free for offensive armament like a single KAB-500 guided bomb in each of them.
Overall, the offensive potential of the ‘Sh’ variant increased tremendously compared to the 1st generation MiG-37 types: thanks to its uprated engines and the new wings with greater lift, the MiG-37Sh can carry up to 3 tons of weaponry, about 40% more than the original MiG-37 sans suffix. It is able to deliver strikes with much more accuracy, in all weather conditions and with a much higher chance of survivability in hostile environment.
MiG-37 actively took part in the Russian Army's operations against rebels in the Chechen Republic. In December 2000, a pair of early production MiG-37Sh from Lipetsk-based 970 IISAP (Instructional & Test Composite Air Regiment) arrived to the area, accompanied by several Su-25, to provide reconnaissance and target designation in the conflict theatre.
The MiG-37Sh were quickly thrown into action: On 6 January 2001, the MiG-37Sh used live weapons against a real enemy for the first time. On 9 January, at the entry into a mountain gorge in the area of a settlement named Komsomolskoye, a single MiG-37Sh used Kh-29L missiles to destroy a warehouse full of ammunition belonging to Chechen insurgents.
On 6 February, in the forest-covered mountain area to the south of the village of Tsentoroj, the strike group composed of two MiG-37Sh and two Su-25 discovered and, from a range of 3 km, destroyed a fortified camp of insurgents using KAB-500L guided bombs.
14 February, saw a similar strike group carrying out a "hunting" mission in the area of Oak-Yurt and Hatun. In difficult conditions, pilots found and destroyed eight targets. These missions tested the type's airframe, as well as its on-board systems and armament. Its successful performance in difficult, mountainous terrain once again confirmed the usefulness of the many advanced features of the MiG-37Sh design, including its power and manoeuvrability.
It is unclear if the type has been used in combat since, e .g. in Afghanistan. It has participated in a number of exercises, though, including "Boundary 2004" which took place on the Edelweiss mountain range in Kyrgyzstan, in August 2004. Once again the "Ferret G" demonstrated its advantages by operating at a high altitude and an air temperature of more than 30 °C. Among other sorties, a single MiG-37Sh provided cover for the landing of troops, taking down two Ka-50 helicopters in mock air combat, and then successfully worked on ground targets using its precision weapons as well as unguided rockets.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 53 ft 6 in (16.34 m)
Wingspan: 43 ft 1 1/2 in (13.18 m)
Height: 10 ft 9 in (3,24m)
Empty weight: 24.250 lbs (11.000 kg)
Loaded weight: 33.730 lbs (15.300 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 39,690 lbs (18.000 kg)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 610 mph (980 km/h)
Range: 1.030 miles (1.650 km)
Service ceiling: 39.400 ft (12.000 m)
Rate of climb: 12.960 ft/min (72 m/s)
Engine: 2 Klimov RD-33MK turbofans w/o afterburner rated at 53.0 kN (11,900 lbs.), fitted with 2D vectored thrust nozzles
Armament:
1× GSh-30-1 30mm cannon with 300 rounds .
Four internal weapon bays (two bays for a single AA-8 "Aphid" or a twin ‘Igla’ light air-to-air missile starter; two bays in tandem fore and aft the main gear wells for various weapons incl. guided missiles and bombs).
Four external hard points (2 under each inner wing); total internal and external weapon ordnance 3.000kg.
Five UV-26 dispensers in the tail section (w. 120 chaff/flare cartridges in each pod)
The kit and its assembly:
I guess that everyone who is into whiffy model is familiar with Italieri’s fantasy MiG-37B kit from 1988, and I already built 3 of them since then.
Nevertheless, with my recent interest in Soviet/Russian air industries I felt an itch to build another (better) one, this time with major modifications. Esp. the stubby wings and the senselessly wide and low MiG-23-style landing gear had always been points that did not truly convince me. And since I had such a kit in 1:72th scale in store, I took action.
Surprisingly, you find a lot of individual conversions of the ‘Ferret E’ kit in the Internt. Many are colourful, but few are IMHO convincing as a complete work, lacking thought about the plane’s concept or mission. So, here’s my take on it, the ‘Snowy Owl’ version. All in all I wanted to present a realistic and optimized ground attack plane, based on the original and pretty interesting MiG-37 design, pushing my personal “Sh” version towards Su-25, MiG-27 and even Su-24 ground attack aircraft.
Most obvious change concerns the wings. These were taken from an F-117 donation kit, a horrible thing (probably the early Revell kit) that a friend gave me. Installing them to the fuselage was tough, since they are much thicker than the original, stubby wing spades!
A new landing gear, borrowed from an F-18, and a new nose section (built from scratch & putty and inspired by the installation on MiG-27 fighter bombers) were further changes. Other modifications include additional weapon bays for short range AAMs under the wing gloves à la F-22, the narrow gun fairing nect to the front wheel well and the auxiliary air intake doors on the upper side.
The engine exhaust area has been modified, since I wanted to get away with the original tabletops that are supposed to be vectored nozzles(?). I added some side panels, made from styrene sheet, as well as a central divider, which now offers space for some warning sensors and chaff dispensers. The vectored nozzles were re-built from the original parts as well as styrrene profiles.
Minor changes were made to several antennae and sensors all around the plane. The cockpit was left more or less OOB – it is pretty detailed, and together with the landing gear one of the original kit’s highlights. I just added a Matchbox pilot figure and some details behind the ejection seat.
The weapons come from the scrap box: the AA-8's belong to the ESCI Ka-34 whif Hokum helicopter, the guided bombs are fantasy weapons built from scratch.
Painting/Finish
A tough task from a creative point of view. I neither wanted the stereo-typical all-black stealth look, nor a Russian tactical paint scheme (even though the latter would have been appropriate for the aircraft's role).
A Flanker scheme or even the garish Su-34 ‘Greenbottle Fly’ look also did not seem appropriate, as well as the Su-24-inspired light grey/white livery which is suggested in the OOB kit.
Since I wanted something murky and mysterious, still with a kind of prototype look, I finally settled on two simple grey tones: a uniform medium grey for the upper sides (Testors 2059, 'Dark Sea Grey') and for a twist, a dark grey for the undersides (Testors 1592, RAL 7021 'Schwarzgrau').
I find that such simple designs make a whif plane much more realistic than flamboyant colours or weird paint schemes – leave this to “real” planes in whiff guises. Another factor for this all-grey livery is that I wanted to use the (many) light grey OOB stencil decals, making them stand subtly out against the darker shades below. Lighter shades of grey and ochre were used for antennae, di-electric covers and the wings' leading edges.
The cockpit was painted in typical Russian Blue-Green, air intakes, air brakes and the landing gear with its wells were, after consulting pictures of modern Russian fighters, painted in Barley Grey (Humbrol 167).
The wheels received dark green disks (Humbrol 149), the bomb/missile bays were - as a contrast - painted in a chromate primer color (a mix of Humbrol 81 and 225, Olive Yellow and Mid-Stone), a detail I found on photographs of Tu-95 and Tu160 interiors. Looks weird, but: why not?
Unfortunately, the final matte varnish ended in a minor disaster: I used a water-based, acryllic matt varnish (for a VERY matt finish), but it reacted with both some decals and the enamel paint, not certain why? Probably not enough stirring, and the Begemot decals seem to be very sensitive to humidity and setting solution.
Originally, the machine sported neat low-viz Russian insignia (just red outlines for the stars, featured e .g. on Suchoi’s T-50/PAK FA prototype) from a Begemot decal sheet (called “Demo Flankers” – it is massive, featuring decals for almost 20 prototypes with all markings and the respective paint schemes in a booklet!). They looked great, but crincled under the matt varnish and had to be scraped off, together with some other Begemot decals.
Hence, the final finish of the kit is not the best, I tried to save as much as possible. Since I did not want to invest into another aftermarket decal sheet, I used the light and dark red, opaque Red Stars without outlines from the original Italeri decal sheet. With the light and dark grey as backgorund the result is O.K., but I had another outcome envisaged. :(
All in all, though, a small but catchy project. Not as good as planned, but an attempt to make more of the wacky Italeri MiG-37 than just another black piece of charcoal.
Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys
Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys’s art casts a merciless perspective on reality. Through their numerous artistic approaches – including installations, video, drawing, sculpture, performance and photographs – de Gruyter and Thys visualise their imaginings of the parallel world inherent within the modern human psyche, along with how it manifests itself in the everyday aspects of life and civic conformity. Everything from work, leisure and family, to social class, masculinity and marginalization are envisaged through convening an unlikely cast of non-professional actors, family members, friends, beards, objects and mannequins alike, often in banal, homespun settings that are rife with awkward power dynamics Form balances the work of de Gruyter and Thys on the edge of the idiotic. Ragged mannequins are made to share common space with traced drawings of trams, the cries of animals, polystyrene heads with false facial hair, and monotonous monologues about renovations. The artists are inspired by myriad sources – like key scenes in films by Visconti, Fassbinder, Robert Bresson; reality television; the arsenal of videos at YouTube offers, ranging from Russian road rage to the home videos of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov; as well as traumatic events the artists have experienced over the years with various people and places.
جلالة الملك عبدالله الثاني يلتقي، بحضور سمو الأمير الحسين بن عبدالله الثاني ولي العهد، رئيس جمهورية الشيشان في الاتحاد الفيدرالي الروسي، رمضان أحمد قديروف
His Majesty King Abdullah II, accompanied by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, meets with Head of Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov
DISCLAIMER
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The MiG-37Sh (Sh = shturmovik) was a heavily modified version of the basic MiG-37 stealth attack and reconnaissance plane. Dissatisfaction with the basic MiG-37 sans suffixe in the air-to-ground role, esp. due to its limited internal weapon load and agility at low level of flight, and the need to replace the ageing Russian MiG-27 and early Su-25 fleet after the millennium led to a further and radical development of the basic airframe, while keeping the proven stealth features.
The resulting 'Sh' variant was consequently optimized for all-weather ground attack, with a focus on a high chance of survival in front line service as well as an improved low-level handling and loiter time.
The 2nd generation 'Sh' prototype flew in summer 1999. A small number of MiG-37Sh has been built since, and in the long line of the MiG-37 development the aircraft received the NATO code ‘Ferret G’. Probably 20 of these machines serve alongside 1st generation versions of the MiG-37. Lack of funds seems to hamper large-scale production, even though the type already proved its effectiveness, e .g. in the Chechen conflict (see below).
Most visible difference of the new 'Sh' to its predecessors was a completely new wing. This new design featured a bigger wing span, lower sweep, a much higher aspect ration and also a much bigger profile. This new wings, together with the type's typical medium grey RAM surface coating, quickly earned it the nickname ‘бе́лая сова́ ‘ (‘Snowy owl’).
The new wings' anhedral had to be strongly reduced and the bigger internal wing space not only allowed additional fuel tanks to be integrated.
The more rigid wing structure now also allowed the optional attachment of two hardpoint per wing for external ordnance loads, the inner ones being able to carry 1.000kg, the outer ones 500kg. The inner pair is ‘wet’ for PTB-800 drop tanks in ferry configuration, there seems to be no provision for an IFR probe installation. But compared to the 1st generation MiG-37 versions, this new feature considerable expands the offensive potential, esp. for long range deployment or when the plane is simply on a non-stealthy mission.
Another new feature was a downward-sloping nose profile for improved pilot visibility. It also holds the highly effective Kyra-23 laser-television sighting system, which includes an A/W TV camera, a missile guidance antenna and integrates an S-31E2 KOLS, a combined laser rangefinder and IRST. This system more or less replaces an active, radar-based fire control system and is also installed on MiG-29 and Su27 interceptors. It provides exceptional gun-laying accuracy and is used for both air-to-ground guidance as well as to track and combat low-flying planes, helicopters and even cruise missiles.
The Mig-37Sh's PrNK-23K nav/attack system was borrowed from the sophisticated MiG-27K. It provides automatic flight control, gun firing, and weapons release. The capabilities of the aircraft in the ASM role are being enhanced by the incorporation of modern avionics systems consisting primarily of two Multi-Function Displays (MFDs) Mission and Display Processor (MDP), Sextant Ring Laser Gyros (RLG INSI), combined GPS/GLONASS navigation, HUD with UFCP, Digital Map Generator (DMG), jam-resistant Secured Communication, stand-by UHF communication, data link and a comprehensive Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite. A mission planning and retrieval facility, VTR and HUD Camera are also fitted.
The aircraft retains stand-by (conventional) instrumentation, including artificial horizon, altimeter and airspeed indicator, to cater for the failure of HUD and the MFDs. The modified plane also received much-improved electronic and Infra red countermeasure (ECM & IRCM) systems, including an SPO-15 radar homing & warning system (RHAWS) and an SO-69 identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) transponder.
Additional kevlar cockpit armour plates were installed. The undercarriage was revised to facilitate operation from poorer-quality airfields. It has a much simpler design and also allows more room under the plane for easier maintenance.
In order to improve agility, the MiG-37Sh received two Klimov RD-33MK turbofans (the same as used in the MiG-29MK, without afterburner and a special nozzle arrangement which adds cold air for a reduced IR signature) and modified vectored trust nozzles. The latter are still 2D, as featured on the original MiG-37 design, but can now move independently so that roll and slow speed manoeuvrability are considerably enhanced – the MiG-37Sh is not solely a ground attack aircraft, it is also supposed to take on attack helicopters and even cruise missiles near ground level. Rumor has it that its agility is immense, largely limited by the g-forces the pilot can accept.
With the emphasis on strike and low-level attack requirements, a fixed single-barreled GSh-30-1 30mm cannon with 300 rounds was installed in a shallow fairing under the plane’s starboard belly. It features a closable nozzle, so that the radar and also IR signature of the weapon is minimized – it is only exposed when actually made ready to fire.
Compared to the MiG-37 sand suffix, provisions were made to mount more weapons, mainly missiles and precision-guided munitions against ground targets. Self defence and limited air-to-air capability was also on the designers’ agenda. Therefore, and thanks to the bigger fuel capacitiy in the bigger wing tanks, two additional internal weapon bays could be incorporated into the lower wing roots.
These are to store a single, compact R-60/AA-8 "Aphid" IR missile each, leaving the original weapon bays free for offensive armament like a single KAB-500 guided bomb in each of them.
Overall, the offensive potential of the ‘Sh’ variant increased tremendously compared to the 1st generation MiG-37 types: thanks to its uprated engines and the new wings with greater lift, the MiG-37Sh can carry up to 3 tons of weaponry, about 40% more than the original MiG-37 sans suffix. It is able to deliver strikes with much more accuracy, in all weather conditions and with a much higher chance of survivability in hostile environment.
MiG-37 actively took part in the Russian Army's operations against rebels in the Chechen Republic. In December 2000, a pair of early production MiG-37Sh from Lipetsk-based 970 IISAP (Instructional & Test Composite Air Regiment) arrived to the area, accompanied by several Su-25, to provide reconnaissance and target designation in the conflict theatre.
The MiG-37Sh were quickly thrown into action: On 6 January 2001, the MiG-37Sh used live weapons against a real enemy for the first time. On 9 January, at the entry into a mountain gorge in the area of a settlement named Komsomolskoye, a single MiG-37Sh used Kh-29L missiles to destroy a warehouse full of ammunition belonging to Chechen insurgents.
On 6 February, in the forest-covered mountain area to the south of the village of Tsentoroj, the strike group composed of two MiG-37Sh and two Su-25 discovered and, from a range of 3 km, destroyed a fortified camp of insurgents using KAB-500L guided bombs.
14 February, saw a similar strike group carrying out a "hunting" mission in the area of Oak-Yurt and Hatun. In difficult conditions, pilots found and destroyed eight targets. These missions tested the type's airframe, as well as its on-board systems and armament. Its successful performance in difficult, mountainous terrain once again confirmed the usefulness of the many advanced features of the MiG-37Sh design, including its power and manoeuvrability.
It is unclear if the type has been used in combat since, e .g. in Afghanistan. It has participated in a number of exercises, though, including "Boundary 2004" which took place on the Edelweiss mountain range in Kyrgyzstan, in August 2004. Once again the "Ferret G" demonstrated its advantages by operating at a high altitude and an air temperature of more than 30 °C. Among other sorties, a single MiG-37Sh provided cover for the landing of troops, taking down two Ka-50 helicopters in mock air combat, and then successfully worked on ground targets using its precision weapons as well as unguided rockets.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 53 ft 6 in (16.34 m)
Wingspan: 43 ft 1 1/2 in (13.18 m)
Height: 10 ft 9 in (3,24m)
Empty weight: 24.250 lbs (11.000 kg)
Loaded weight: 33.730 lbs (15.300 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 39,690 lbs (18.000 kg)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 610 mph (980 km/h)
Range: 1.030 miles (1.650 km)
Service ceiling: 39.400 ft (12.000 m)
Rate of climb: 12.960 ft/min (72 m/s)
Engine: 2 Klimov RD-33MK turbofans w/o afterburner rated at 53.0 kN (11,900 lbs.), fitted with 2D vectored thrust nozzles
Armament:
1× GSh-30-1 30mm cannon with 300 rounds .
Four internal weapon bays (two bays for a single AA-8 "Aphid" or a twin ‘Igla’ light air-to-air missile starter; two bays in tandem fore and aft the main gear wells for various weapons incl. guided missiles and bombs).
Four external hard points (2 under each inner wing); total internal and external weapon ordnance 3.000kg.
Five UV-26 dispensers in the tail section (w. 120 chaff/flare cartridges in each pod)
The kit and its assembly:
I guess that everyone who is into whiffy model is familiar with Italieri’s fantasy MiG-37B kit from 1988, and I already built 3 of them since then.
Nevertheless, with my recent interest in Soviet/Russian air industries I felt an itch to build another (better) one, this time with major modifications. Esp. the stubby wings and the senselessly wide and low MiG-23-style landing gear had always been points that did not truly convince me. And since I had such a kit in 1:72th scale in store, I took action.
Surprisingly, you find a lot of individual conversions of the ‘Ferret E’ kit in the Internt. Many are colourful, but few are IMHO convincing as a complete work, lacking thought about the plane’s concept or mission. So, here’s my take on it, the ‘Snowy Owl’ version. All in all I wanted to present a realistic and optimized ground attack plane, based on the original and pretty interesting MiG-37 design, pushing my personal “Sh” version towards Su-25, MiG-27 and even Su-24 ground attack aircraft.
Most obvious change concerns the wings. These were taken from an F-117 donation kit, a horrible thing (probably the early Revell kit) that a friend gave me. Installing them to the fuselage was tough, since they are much thicker than the original, stubby wing spades!
A new landing gear, borrowed from an F-18, and a new nose section (built from scratch & putty and inspired by the installation on MiG-27 fighter bombers) were further changes. Other modifications include additional weapon bays for short range AAMs under the wing gloves à la F-22, the narrow gun fairing nect to the front wheel well and the auxiliary air intake doors on the upper side.
The engine exhaust area has been modified, since I wanted to get away with the original tabletops that are supposed to be vectored nozzles(?). I added some side panels, made from styrene sheet, as well as a central divider, which now offers space for some warning sensors and chaff dispensers. The vectored nozzles were re-built from the original parts as well as styrrene profiles.
Minor changes were made to several antennae and sensors all around the plane. The cockpit was left more or less OOB – it is pretty detailed, and together with the landing gear one of the original kit’s highlights. I just added a Matchbox pilot figure and some details behind the ejection seat.
The weapons come from the scrap box: the AA-8's belong to the ESCI Ka-34 whif Hokum helicopter, the guided bombs are fantasy weapons built from scratch.
Painting/Finish
A tough task from a creative point of view. I neither wanted the stereo-typical all-black stealth look, nor a Russian tactical paint scheme (even though the latter would have been appropriate for the aircraft's role).
A Flanker scheme or even the garish Su-34 ‘Greenbottle Fly’ look also did not seem appropriate, as well as the Su-24-inspired light grey/white livery which is suggested in the OOB kit.
Since I wanted something murky and mysterious, still with a kind of prototype look, I finally settled on two simple grey tones: a uniform medium grey for the upper sides (Testors 2059, 'Dark Sea Grey') and for a twist, a dark grey for the undersides (Testors 1592, RAL 7021 'Schwarzgrau').
I find that such simple designs make a whif plane much more realistic than flamboyant colours or weird paint schemes – leave this to “real” planes in whiff guises. Another factor for this all-grey livery is that I wanted to use the (many) light grey OOB stencil decals, making them stand subtly out against the darker shades below. Lighter shades of grey and ochre were used for antennae, di-electric covers and the wings' leading edges.
The cockpit was painted in typical Russian Blue-Green, air intakes, air brakes and the landing gear with its wells were, after consulting pictures of modern Russian fighters, painted in Barley Grey (Humbrol 167).
The wheels received dark green disks (Humbrol 149), the bomb/missile bays were - as a contrast - painted in a chromate primer color (a mix of Humbrol 81 and 225, Olive Yellow and Mid-Stone), a detail I found on photographs of Tu-95 and Tu160 interiors. Looks weird, but: why not?
Unfortunately, the final matte varnish ended in a minor disaster: I used a water-based, acryllic matt varnish (for a VERY matt finish), but it reacted with both some decals and the enamel paint, not certain why? Probably not enough stirring, and the Begemot decals seem to be very sensitive to humidity and setting solution.
Originally, the machine sported neat low-viz Russian insignia (just red outlines for the stars, featured e .g. on Suchoi’s T-50/PAK FA prototype) from a Begemot decal sheet (called “Demo Flankers” – it is massive, featuring decals for almost 20 prototypes with all markings and the respective paint schemes in a booklet!). They looked great, but crincled under the matt varnish and had to be scraped off, together with some other Begemot decals.
Hence, the final finish of the kit is not the best, I tried to save as much as possible. Since I did not want to invest into another aftermarket decal sheet, I used the light and dark red, opaque Red Stars without outlines from the original Italeri decal sheet. With the light and dark grey as backgorund the result is O.K., but I had another outcome envisaged. :(
All in all, though, a small but catchy project. Not as good as planned, but an attempt to make more of the wacky Italeri MiG-37 than just another black piece of charcoal.
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
جلالة الملك عبدالله الثاني يلتقي في غروزني رئيس جمهورية الشيشان في الاتحاد الروسي، رمضان قديروف 19\6\2014
His Majesty King Abdullah II meets with head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov in Grozni 19/6/2014
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
The kit and its assembly
I guess that everyone who is into whiffy model is familiar with Italieri’s fantasy MiG-37B kit from 1988, and I already built 3 of them since then. Nevertheless, with my recent interest in Soviet/Russian air industries I felt an itch to build another (better) one, this time with major modifications. Esp. the stubby wings and the senselessly wide and low MiG-23-style landing gear had always been points that did not truly convince me. And since I had such a kit in 1:72th scale in store, I took action.
Surprisingly, you find a lot of individual conversions of the ‘Ferret E’ kit in the www. Many are colourful, but few are IMHO convincing as a complete work, lacking thought about the plane’s concept or mission. So, here’s my take on it, the ‘Snowy Owl’ version. All in all I wanted to present a realistic and optimized ground attack plane, based on the original and pretty interesting MiG-37 design, pushing my personal “Sh” version towards Su-25, MiG-27 and even Su-24 ground attack aircraft.
Most obvious change concerns the wings. These were taken from an F-117 donation kit, a horrible thing (probably the early Revell kit) that a friend gave me. Installing them to the fuselage was tough, since they are much thicker than the original, stubby wing spades!
A new landing gear, borrowed from an F-18, and a new nose section (built from scratch & putty and inspired by the installation on MiG-27 fighter bombers) were further changes. Other modifications include additional weapon bays for short range AAMs under the wing gloves à la F-22, the narrow gun fairing nect to the front wheel well and the auxiliary air intake doors on the upper side.
The engine exhaust area has been modified, since I wanted to get away with the original tabletops that are supposed to be vectored nozzles(?). I added some side panels, made from styrene sheet, as well as a central divider, which now offers space for some warning sensors and chaff dispensers. The vectored nozzles were re-built from the original parts as well as styrrene profiles.
Minor changes were made to several antennae and sensors all around the plane. The cockpit was left more or less OOB – it is pretty detailed, and together with the landing gear one of the original kit’s highlights. I just added a Matchbox pilot figure and some details behind the ejection seat.
The weapons come from the scrap box: the AA-8's belong to the ESCI Ka-34 whif Hokum helicopter, the guided bombs are fantasy weapons built from scratch.
Painting/Finish
A tough task from a creative point of view. I neither wanted the stereo-typical all-black stealth look, nor a Russian tactical paint scheme (even though the latter would have been appropriate for the aircraft's role). A Flanker scheme or even the garish Su-34 ‘Greenbottle Fly’ look also did not seem appropriate, as well as the Su-24-inspired light grey/white livery which is suggested in the OOB kit.
Since I wanted something murky and mysterious, still with a kind of prototype look, I finally settled on two simple grey tones: a uniform medium grey for the upper sides (Testors 2059, 'Dark Sea Grey') and for a twist, a dark grey for the undersides (Testors 1592, RAL 7021 'Schwarzgrau'). I find that such simple designs make a whif plane much more realistic than flamboyant colours or weird paint schemes – leave this to “real” planes in whiff guises. Another factor for this all-grey livery is that I wanted to use the (many) light grey OOB stencil decals, making them stand subtly out against the darker shades below. Lighter shades of grey and ochre were used for antennae, di-electric covers and the wings' leading edges.
The cockpit was painted in typical Russian Blue-Green, air intakes, air brakes and the landing gear with its wells were, after consulting pictures of modern Russian fighters, painted in Barley Grey (Humbrol 167).
The wheels received dark green disks (Humbrol 149), the bomb/missile bays were - as a contrast - painted in a chromate primer color (a mix of Humbrol 81 and 225, Olive Yellow and Mid-Stone), a detail I found on photographs of Tu-95 and Tu160 interiors. Looks weird, but: why not?
Unfortunately, the final matte varnish ended in a minor disaster: I used a water-based, acryllic matt varnish (for a VERY matt finish), but it reacted with both some decals and the enamel paint, not certain why? Probably not enough stirring, and the Begemot decals seem to be very sensitive to humidity and setting solution.
Originally, the machine sported neat low-viz Russian insignia (just red outlines for the stars, featured e .g. on Suchoi’s T-50/PAK FA prototype) from a Begemot decal sheet (called “Demo Flankers” – it is massive, featuring decals for almost 20 prototypes with all markings and the respective paint schemes in a booklet!). They looked great, but crincled under the matt varnish and had to be scarped off, together with some other Begemot decals.
Hence, the final finish of the kit is not the best, I tried to save as much as possible. Since I did not want to invest into another aftermarket decal sheet, I used the light and dark red, opaque Red Stars without outlines from the original Italeri decal sheet. With the light and dark grey as backgorund the result is O.K., but I had another outcome envisaged. :(
جلالة الملكة رانيا العبدالله تزور الجمعية الخيرية الشيشانية للنساء.
عمان، الأردن/ 17 شباط 2015
Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah visits the Chechen Charitable Society for Women.
Amman, Jordan/ 17 February 2015
© Royal Hashemite Court
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue
The Postcard
A carte postale that was published by Giletta of Nice. The card was posted in Nice on Monday the 11th. May 1914 to:
Mrs. Green,
187, Browning Road,
East Ham,
London,
Angleterre.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Villa Louise,
Avenue des Fleurs,
Nice.
Arrived here yesterday
evening and not sorry -
it is a long journey.
I think we shall like it.
We are just off to Monte
Carlo for the day.
V."
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France and the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes département. Located in the French Riviera, on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Alps, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast.
The city is nicknamed Nice la Belle, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912.
The area of today's Nice contains Terra Amata, an archaeological site which displays evidence of an early use of fire.
Around 350 BC, Greeks of Marseille founded a permanent settlement and called it Nikaia, after Nike, the goddess of victory.
The natural beauty of the Nice area and its mild Mediterranean climate came to the attention of the English upper classes in the second half of the 18th century, when an increasing number of aristocratic families took to spending their winters there.
The city's main seaside promenade, the Promenade des Anglais owes its name to early English visitors to the resort.
The clear air and soft light have particularly appealed to notable painters, such as Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. Their work is commemorated in many of the city's museums, including Musée Marc Chagall, Musée Matisse and Musée des Beaux-Arts.
Nice has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and is one of its most visited cities, receiving 4 million tourists every year. It also has the third busiest airport in France, after the two main Parisian ones.
The Terrorist Truck Attack
On the 14th. July 2016, a truck was deliberately driven by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel into a large crowd of people on the Promenade des Anglais. The crowd were watching a fireworks display in celebration of Bastille Day.
The attack, which had taken months to plan, resulted in the deaths of eighty-seven people, including ten children. The perpetrator was shot dead by police. Another 202 people were injured, with 52 in critical care and 25 in intensive care.
Christophe Lion was the only survivor from a family group who had travelled to Nice from the French border area near Luxembourg, according to French media.
His wife Veronique Lion, 55, and her 28-year-old son Michael Pellegrini, a professor of economics, were killed along with Veronique's parents Francois and Christiane Locatelli, aged 82 and 78, and Christophe's parents Gisele Lion, 63, and Germain Lion, 68 - a total of six family members.
Paris tobacconist Timothe Fournier, 27, died protecting his heavily pregnant wife, Anais. She described how he pushed her out of the path of the lorry before being struck down himself:
"He was a young dreamer,
but he was always there for
his wife and future child".
The Terrorist Knife Attack
Nice has since suffered a further terrorist attack. On the morning of the 29th. October 2020, a woman and a man were killed by a terrorist with a 12-inch knife inside the Basilica of Notre-Dame. The woman aged 60, who had gone to the Basilica to worship, was found decapitated near the font of the church. The murdered man was the Basilica's church warden, 55 year-old Vincent Loquès, father of two.
The third victim - 44 year old mother of three Simone Silva managed to escape, and staggered to a nearby bar where she succumbed to her injuries. Her final words were:
"Tell my children I love them".
Armed police stormed Notre-Dame and shot the suspected terrorist, wounding him. The suspect was taken to hospital. Nice mayor Christian Estrosi said the attacker kept shouting "Allahu Akbar" even after he had been shot.
The terrorist was Brahim Aoussaoui, a 21 year old Tunisian migrant who had arrived in Europe by boat on the Italian island of Lampedusa 39 days earlier on the 20th. September. He had arrived in Nice the night before the attack.
The Basilica attack came amid heightened security fears in France due to the ongoing row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
France provoked the ire of Iran and Turkey by taking a tough line in defending the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
On the 28th. October 2020, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani warned that the row over the cartoons could lead to violence and bloodshed. He said:
"It's a surprise that this would come
from those claiming culture and
democracy, that they would somehow,
even if unintentionally, encourage
violence and bloodshed.
Westerners must understand the great
Prophet of Islam is loved by all Muslims
and freedom-lovers of the world.
Insulting the Prophet is insulting all
Muslims.
Insulting the Prophet is insulting all
prophets, human values, and amounts
to undermining ethic".
Samuel Paty
Samuel Paty, aged 47, was beheaded by 18-year-old freedom-lover Abdullah Anzorov on the 17th. October 2020 after Samuel used the cartoons to teach his students about the importance of free speech. An image he showed to students was the same one published by Charlie Hebdo that sparked the attack on the magazine's offices that killed 12.
Anzorov followed Paty as he left the school, having paid two students, aged 14 and 15, around €300 to identify him. Using a knife 30 centimetres (12 in) long, Anzorov killed Paty and beheaded him in the Rue du Buisson Moineau in Éragny-sur-Oise near the school where Paty taught, at approximately 5:00 p.m.
In addition to decapitating Paty, Anzorov inflicted a number of wounds to his head, abdomen, and upper limbs. Witnesses told police they heard the killer shout "Allahu Akbar" during the attack.
Minutes after the murder, an account named @Tchetchene_270 (French: Chechen 270), identified by prosecutor Jean-François Ricard as belonging to Abdullah Anzorov, posted on Twitter an image of Paty's severed head.
The image was seen by many of Paty's students.
The photo was accompanied by the message:
"In the name of Allah, the most gracious,
the most merciful, .. to Macron, leader of
the infidels, I executed one of your
hellhounds who dared to belittle Muhammad,
calm his fellow human beings before a harsh
punishment is inflicted on you."
Minutes later, Anzorov was confronted by police about 600 metres (660 yd) from the scene in Éragny. Anzorov shot at the police with an air rifle and tried to stab them with a knife. In response, the police shot him nine times, killing him. On Anzorov's phone, they found a text claiming responsibility and a photograph of Paty's body.
French police announced that there were more than 80 messages on social media from French people supporting the attacker, with Anzorov being described by some individuals as a 'martyr.'
Paty, a history and geography teacher, is being seen as a champion of free speech by many in France after his brutal death. He was posthumously given the Legion d'Honneur - France’s highest award - and French president Emmanuel Macron insisted:
"We will not give up our cartoons".
The mayor of Nice said after the Notre-Dame attack:
"Enough is enough. It's time now
for France to exonerate itself from
the laws of peace in order to
definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism
from our territory."
'The Master Mind'
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 11th. May 1914, the crime drama film The Master Mind was released, directed by Oscar Apfel and Cecil B. DeMille and starring Edmund Breese.
Based on the play of the same name by Daniel D. Carter, the film's plot revolves around a defense attorney's attempts to reverse the wrongful conviction of an innocent man.
John C. C. Mayo
The day also marked the death of the American business leader John C. C. Mayo.
John, who was born in 1864, was the developer of the coal mining industry in Kentucky and Virginia.
Daniel De Leon
Daniel de Leon also died on that day.
Daniel, who was born in 1852, was an American activist, known for promoting industrial unionism in the United States.
Some peshmergas take me to the front lines of the war against ISIS. I find myself in the Taza area, just south of Kirkuk, on the road to Baghdad.
According to them, very few journalists come here. Some even said that I was the only was they saw. Nonetheless, it is a key strategic location. It is very dangerous there since Kirkuk is divided: Kurds in the north, ISIS in the south. All along the front lines you can see different units roaming about little traditional houses. Some are kept by old Kurdish vets from the 1980s wars.
Many vets have returned to war, despite being well past middle-aged and having children and grandchildren. Some even behind comfortable lives in Europe to come back, like a Swiss colonel I met. For them, it is their duty to fight for their region. Despite being autonomous and having a large secessionist movement, Kurdistan is not recognized as a state distinct from Iraq. “Some terrorists come along and now the whole world calls them the ‘Islamic State’,” complains one peshmerga, “For decades we have been trying to make the state of Kurdistan and we’ve gotten nothing!”
They have very few weapons, most of them are pre-Cold War AK47s. Some even date back to 1960. They still work, but the Kurdish forces ask for more efficient guns since ISIS has the latest weapons taken (or given) from the Iraqi army who in turn was supplied by coalition forces.
Many vets have only one working eye. The other was lost in previous wars. Once night falls, it becomes very difficult to monitor the 1000km long border. They don’t even have night vision equipment.
Last week it rained for 5 days, and it was impossible to see or hear anything. Some ISIS guys tried to gain territory, but the Kurds successfully fought them off. Their 4 wheel drives were stuck in the mud while ISIS’s brand new hummers were able to move about without issue. From the front line you can see ISIS flags. Since they told me to pack light, I didn’t bring a zoom lens. Sorry! You can see the smoke from their kitchen and even see men running from house to house.
ISIS is only 500 meters from the Kurdish position but nobody seems afraid. Peshmerga know that death is part of their fate, and even if they look like an army from another century, they will defend themselves and their country to the very end. For them, it is the highest honor to die for Kurdistan.
They protect the Baghdad road, but a few weeks ago lost it. After heavy fighting, they regained it, killing 3 Chechen ISIS fighters in the process.
Since peshmerga don’t have armored cars, it is very dangerous for them to go around safely.
The car I took to go on the front lines was very slow and made in the 80s. If we were chased by ISIS cars, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. In one day, all the materiel I saw included AK47s, a tank, an RPG, and a few gun old machines. Even if the pehsmergas say that this equipment works well, they are disappointed not to receive new ones, as Europe and USA promised.
The day after my visit, France made lot of bombings in the area, as ISIS was too close. Peshmergas take a lot of pictures, not only for souvenirs, but also to fight ISIS on the new front: social media.
They fear the roads they do not know well as ISIS pays the local farmers to put mines. Even in times of war, peshmergas are among the most welcoming people in the world. They regularly offer food and drinks.
When it was time for me to go back to the safety of Erbil, circumstances changed. The north road was closed because of an ISIS attack. The only way out was to send me through the south road that crossed Kirkuk. Let’s just say that safety there was not ideal. I had to hide my camera, and we crossed Kirkuk with an escort of armed peshmergas and a civilian car.
The soldiers were all nervous since Kirkuk is very dangerous, especially at the check points. As soon as a car was driving next to ours for too long, they were shouting at the driver to go away.
If a man was crossing the road too slowly, they threatened to hit him. These methods, employed by ISIS suicide bombers, have claimed the lives of hundred in Kirkuk. Once on the Kurdish side, they found a Kurdish taxi driver to bring me safely back to Erbil.
© Eric Lafforgue