1.
SKS
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The SKS is a Soviet semi-automatic carbine chambered for the 7. 62×39mm round, designed in 1943 by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov. Its complete designation, SKS-45, is an initialism for Samozaryadnyj Karabin sistemy Simonova,1945, the SKS-45 was manufactured at Tula Arsenal from 1949-1958 and at Izhevsk Arsenal in just 1953 and 1954, resulting in a total Soviet production of about 2.7 million carbines. In the early 1950s, the Soviets took the SKS carbine out of service and replaced it with the AK-47, however. It is still used as a ceremonial firearm today, the SKS was widely exported, and was also licensed for production by then Eastern Bloc nations, Romania and East Germany, as well as China, where it was designated the Type 56 Carbine. The East German version was known as the Karabiner S, the Albanian as the Model 561, the SKS is popular on the civilian surplus market as a hunting and marksmanship semi-automatic rifle in many countries, including the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Its age and numbers make it inexpensive to purchase. The SKS was the second firearm to be chambered for the 7. 62×39mm M43 round, the SKS has a conventional layout, with a wooden stock and rifle grip. It is a rifle that has a spring-loaded bolt carrier. The bolt is locked to contain the pressure of ignition at the moment of firing by tilting downwards at its rear and being held by a lug pressed into the receiver. At the moment of firing, the carrier is pushed rearwards, which causes it to lift the bolt, unlocking it. This allows the case to be ejected and a new round from the magazine to be carried into the chamber. As a result, it has a higher muzzle velocity than those arms that replaced it. The SKSs ten-round internal box magazine can be loaded either by hand or from a stripper clip, cartridges stored in the magazine can be removed by pulling back on a latch located forward of the trigger guard. In typical military use the clips are disposable. If necessary they can be reloaded multiple times and reused, because of this design, care must be taken during cleaning to ensure that the firing pin can freely move and does not stick in the forward position within the bolt. SKS firing pins that are stuck in the position have been known to cause accidental slamfires. This behavior is likely with the hard primer military-spec ammo for which the SKS was designed. For collectors, slamfires are more likely when the still has remnants of Cosmoline embedded in it that retard firing pin movement
2.
Assault rifle
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An assault rifle is a selective-fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine. Assault rifles were first used during World War II, examples include the StG44, AK-47 and the M16 rifle. However, other sources dispute that Hitler had much to do with coining the new name besides signing the production order, the StG44 is generally considered the first selective fire military rifle to popularize the assault rifle concept. Today, the assault rifle is used to define firearms sharing the same basic characteristics as the StG44. The U. S. Army defines assault rifles as short, compact, in a strict definition, a firearm must have at least the following characteristics to be considered an assault rifle, It must be capable of selective fire. It must have a cartridge, more power than a pistol. Its ammunition must be supplied from a box magazine. It must have a range of at least 300 metres. Rifles that meet most of these criteria, but not all, are not assault rifles. For example, Select-fire M2 Carbines are not assault rifles, their range is only 200 yards. Select-fire rifles such as the FN FAL battle rifle are not assault rifles, semi-automatic-only rifles like variants of the Colt AR-15 are not assault rifles, they do not have select-fire capabilities. Semi-auto rifles with fixed magazines like the SKS are not assault rifles, selective fire rifles like the Fedorov Avtomat which in hindsight could be classified as prototypical assault rifles. However,6. 5x50mm Arisaka is still very much a full-powered rifle cartridge and they would soon develop a select-fire intermediate powered rifle combining the firepower of a submachine gun with the range and accuracy of a rifle. The result was the Sturmgewehr 44, which the Germans produced in large numbers and it fired a new and revolutionary intermediate powered cartridge, the 7. 92×33mm Kurz. This new cartridge was developed by shortening the standard 7. 92×57mm Mauser round and giving it a lighter 125-grain bullet, a smaller lighter cartridge also allowed soldiers to carry more ammunition to support the higher consumption rate of automatic fire. The Sturmgewehr 44 features an inexpensive, easy-to-make, stamped steel design and this weapon was the prototype of all successful automatic rifles. The barrel and overall length were shorter than a traditional rifle, on July 15,1943, a Sturmgewehr was demonstrated before the Peoples Commissariat of Arms of the USSR. The Soviets soon developed the 7. 62×39mm M43 cartridge, the semi-automatic SKS carbine, shortly after World War II, the Soviets developed the AK-47 assault rifle, which would quickly replace the SKS in Soviet service
3.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
4.
Vietnam War
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It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war. As the war continued, the actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role. U. S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, in the course of the war, the U. S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam and they viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States. The U. S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and this was part the domino theory of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina, U. S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. Regular U. S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965, despite the Paris Peace Accord, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued. In the U. S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture, the war changed the dynamics between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and altered North–South relations. Direct U. S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973, the capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3.8 million. Some 240, 000–300,000 Cambodians,20, 000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U. S. service members died in the conflict. Various names have applied to the conflict. Vietnam War is the most commonly used name in English and it has also been called the Second Indochina War and the Vietnam Conflict. As there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this conflict is known by the names of its primary protagonists to distinguish it from others. In Vietnamese, the war is known as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ. It is also called Chiến tranh Việt Nam, France began its conquest of Indochina in the late 1850s, and completed pacification by 1893. The 1884 Treaty of Huế formed the basis for French colonial rule in Vietnam for the seven decades
5.
Laotian Civil War
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The Laotian Civil War was fought between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government, with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. It is called the Secret War among the CIA Special Activities Division, the Kingdom of Laos was a covert theatre for other belligerents during the Vietnam War. The Franco–Lao Treaty of Amity and Association transferred remaining French powers to the Royal Lao Government, However, this government did not include representatives from the Lao Issara anti-colonial armed nationalist movement. Several attempts were made to establish coalition governments, and a government was finally seated in Vientiane. The actual fighting in Laos involved the North Vietnamese Army, U. S. Thai, the North Vietnamese Army occupied the area to use for its Ho Chi Minh Trail supply corridor and as staging area for offensives into South Vietnam. There was a major theater of action on and near the northern Plain of Jars. The North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao eventually emerged victorious in 1975, the Geneva Conference established Laotian neutrality. The Peoples Army of Vietnam, however, continued to operate in northern and southeastern Laos. North Vietnam established the Ho Chi Minh Trail as a highway in the southeast of Laos. The Trail was designed to allow North Vietnamese troops and supplies to infiltrate the Republic of Vietnam, North Vietnam also had a sizable military effort in northern Laos, while sponsoring and maintaining an indigenous communist rebellion, the Pathet Lao, to put pressure on the Royal Lao Government. The U. S. S. interests in the war in Vietnam, the status of the war in the north throughout the year generally depended on the weather. When the rainy season six months later rendered North Vietnamese supply lines inoperable, other air strikes were planned ahead. Overall coordination of the air campaign was directed by an Airborne Command and Control Center, the denials were seen as necessary considering that the North Vietnamese government and the U. S. had both signed agreements specifying the neutrality of Laos. U. S. involvement was considered necessary because the DRV had effectively conquered a large part of the country and was equally obfuscating its role in Laos, despite these denials, however, the Civil War was actually the largest U. S. The end of World War II left Laos in political chaos, the French, who had been displaced from their protectorate by the Japanese, wanted to resume control of Laos, and sponsored guerrilla forces to regain control. The Japanese had proclaimed Laos independent even as they lost the war, though King Sisavang Vong thought Laos was too small for independence he had proclaimed the end of the French protectorate status though he favored the French return. He let it be known he would accept independence if it should occur, thus there was a nascent movement for independence amid the turmoil. Underlying all this was an undercurrent of Vietnamese involvement
6.
Sino-Indian War
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The Sino-Indian War, also known as the Sino-Indian Border Conflict, was a war between China and India that occurred in 1962. A disputed Himalayan border was the pretext for war. There had been a series of violent border incidents after the 1959 Tibetan uprising, Chinese troops advanced over Indian forces in both theatres, capturing Rezang la in Chushul in the western theatre, as well as Tawang in the eastern theatre. The war ended when China declared a ceasefire on 20 November 1962, Indian posts and patrols were removed from Aksai Chin, which came under direct Chinese control after the end of the conflict. It was the 3rd major loss of land for India after losing Gilgit-Baltistan, the Sino-Indian War is notable for the harsh mountain conditions under which much of the fighting took place, entailing large-scale combat at altitudes of over 4,000 metres. The Sino-Indian War was also noted for the non-deployment of the navy or air force by either the Chinese or Indian side. China and India shared a border, sectioned into three stretches by Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan, which follows the Himalayas between Burma and what was then West Pakistan. A number of disputed regions lie along this border, at its western end is the Aksai Chin region, an area the size of Switzerland, that sits between the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang and Tibet. The eastern border, between Burma and Bhutan, comprises the present Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, both of these regions were overrun by China in the 1962 conflict. Most combat took place at high altitudes, the Aksai Chin region is a desert of salt flats around 5,000 metres above sea level, and Arunachal Pradesh is mountainous with a number of peaks exceeding 7,000 metres. The Chinese Army had possession of one of the highest ridges in the regions, the high altitude and freezing conditions also cause logistical and welfare difficulties, in past similar conflicts harsh conditions have caused more casualties than have enemy action. The Sino-Indian War was no different, with troops on both sides dying in the freezing cold. The cause of the war was a dispute over the sovereignty of the widely separated Aksai Chin, Aksai Chin, claimed by India to belong to Kashmir and by China to be part of Xinjiang, contains an important road link that connects the Chinese regions of Tibet and Xinjiang. Chinas construction of road was one of the triggers of the conflict. The western portion of the Sino-Indian boundary originated in 1834, with the Sikh Confederacys conquest of Ladakh, in 1842, the Sikh Confederacy, which at the time ruled over much of Northern India, signed a treaty which guaranteed the integrity of its existing borders with its neighbours. The boundaries at its two extremities, Pangong Lake and Karakoram Pass, were defined, but the Aksai Chin area in between lay undefined. W. H. Johnson, a servant with the Survey of India, proposed the Johnson Line in 1865. Johnson presented this line to the Maharaja of Kashmir, who claimed the 18,000 square kilometres contained within
7.
Rhodesian Bush War
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The Rhodesian Bush War—also known as the Second Chimurenga or the Zimbabwe War of Liberation—was a civil war that took place from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia. However, this new order failed to win recognition and the war continued. The country returned temporarily to British control and new elections were held under British, ZANU won the election and Mugabe became the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe on 18 April 1980, when the country achieved internationally recognised independence. Rhodesia was settled by Britons and South Africans beginning in the 1890s and while it was never accorded full dominion status, many white Rhodesians were concerned that decolonisation and majority rule would bring chaos as had resulted in the former Belgian Congo after its independence in 1960. Britains unwillingness to compromise on its policy of No independence before majority rule led to Rhodesias unilateral declaration of independence on 11 November 1965, though Rhodesia had the unofficial support of neighbouring South Africa and Portugal, which governed Mozambique, it never gained formal diplomatic recognition from any country. Many white Rhodesians viewed the war as one of survival in the context of atrocities committed against the population during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. Many whites viewed their lifestyle as being under attack, which both had considered safer and with a standard of living than many other African countries. Although the vote in Rhodesia was technically open to all, regardless of race, the 1969 constitution provided for Non-Europeans to elect representatives for eight of the seats in the 66 seat parliament. A further eight seats were reserved for tribal chiefs, amidst this backdrop, African nationalists advocated armed struggle to bring about independence in Rhodesia under black majority rule. Resistance also stemmed from the economic inequality between blacks and whites. In Rhodesia, whites owned most of the land whilst many blacks were crowded on barren land. ZANU and its military wing ZANLA were headed initially by the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, ZAPU and its military wing ZIPRA consisted mainly of Ndebele ethnic groups under Joshua Nkomo. Cold War politics played into the conflict also, with the Soviet Union supporting ZIPRA, each group subsequently fought a separate war against the Rhodesian security forces, and the two groups sometimes fought against each other as well. In June 1979, the governments of Cuba and Mozambique offered direct military assistance to the Patriotic Front, other foreign nations also contributed to the conflict, for instance North Korean military officials taught Zimbabwean militants how to use explosives and arms in a camp near Pyongyang. By April 197912,000 ZANLA guerrillas were training in Tanzania, Ethiopia, on the other side of the conflict South Africa clandestinely provided both material and military support to the Rhodesian government. Inevitably the Bush War occurred within the context of regional Cold War in Africa, the conflict was seen by the nationalist groups and the British government of the time as a war of national and racial liberation. The Nationalists saw their country as having been occupied and dominated by a power, namely Britain. Ian Smiths Rhodesian Front party was elected to power in 1962, however, unsatisfied with this and spurred on by Britains refusal to recognise the new order, the nationalist forces persisted
8.
Cambodian Civil War
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The struggle was complicated by the influence and actions of the allies of the two warring sides. The Cambodian coup of 18 March 1970 put a pro-American, anti-North Vietnamese government in power, the North Vietnamese Army was now threatened by a newly unfriendly Cambodian government. The North Vietnamese turned over some of their conquests and provided assistance to the Khmer Rouge. The Cambodian government hastened to expand its army to combat the North Vietnamese, the U. S. was motivated by the desire to buy time for its withdrawal from Southeast Asia, to protect its ally in South Vietnam, and to prevent the spread of communism to Cambodia. American and both South and North Vietnamese forces directly participated in the fighting, the U. S. assisted the central government with massive U. S. aerial bombing campaigns and direct material and financial aid. After five years of fighting, the Republican government was defeated on 17 April 1975 when the victorious Khmer Rouge proclaimed the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea. The Cambodian civil war led to the Cambodian Genocide, one of the bloodiest in history, during the early-to-mid-1960s, Prince Norodom Sihanouks policies had protected his nation from the turmoil that engulfed Laos and South Vietnam. On 3 May 1965, Sihanouk broke diplomatic relations with the U. S. ended the flow of American aid, and turned to the PRC, by the late 1960s, Sihanouks delicate domestic and foreign policy balancing act was beginning to go awry. He had also agreed to allow the use of the port of Sihanoukville by communist-flagged vessels delivering supplies and these concessions made questionable Cambodias neutrality, which had been guaranteed by the Geneva Conference of 1954. Sihanouk was convinced that the PRC, not the U. S, on 11 September, Cambodia held its first open election. Through manipulation and harassment the conservatives won 75 percent of the seats in the National Assembly, the prince then found himself in a political dilemma. One of Lon Nols first priorities was to fix the economy by halting the illegal sale of rice to the communists. Soldiers were dispatched to the areas to forcibly collect the harvests at gunpoint. On 11 March 1967, while Sihanouk was out of the country in France, a rebellion broke out in the area around Samlaut in Battambang, with the probable encouragement of local communist cadres, the insurrection quickly spread throughout the whole region. Lon Nol, acting in the absence, responded by declaring martial law. Hundreds of peasants were killed and whole villages were laid waste during the repression, simultaneously, Sihanouk ordered the arrest of Chinese middlemen involved in the illegal rice trade, thereby raising government revenues and placating the conservatives. Lon Nol was forced to resign, and, in a typical move, the immediate crisis had passed, but it engendered two tragic consequences. First, it drove thousands of new recruits into the arms of the maquis of the Cambodian Communist Party
9.
Sino-Vietnamese War
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The Sino-Vietnamese War, also known as the Third Indochina War, was a brief border war fought between the Peoples Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in early 1979. China launched the offensive in response to Vietnams invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978, Kissinger also noted that hatever the shortcomings of its execution, the Chinese campaign reflected a serious, long-term strategic analysis. Chinese forces entered northern Vietnam and captured several cities near the border, on March 6,1979, China declared that the gate to Hanoi was open and that their punitive mission had been achieved, before withdrawing their troops from Vietnam. Both China and Vietnam claimed victory in the last of the Indochina Wars, as Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia until 1989, it can be said that China was unsuccessful in their goal of dissuading Vietnam from involvement in Cambodia. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Sino-Vietnamese border was finalized, although unable to deter Vietnam from Cambodia, China was able to demonstrate that its Cold War communist adversary, the Soviet Union, was unable to protect its Vietnamese ally. The Sino-Vietnamese War is also known as the Third Indochina War, in order to distinguish it from the First Indochina War, in Vietnam, the conflict is known as the War against Chinese expansionism. In China, the war is referred to as the Defensive Counterattack against Vietnam, the major allied victors of World War II, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union, all agreed that the area belonged to the French. Nationalist Chinese troops entered the country to disarm Japanese troops north of the 16th parallel on 14 September 1945, the parallel divided Indochina into Chinese and British controlled zones. Once hostilities had ended the British handed over the territory to the French, in January 1946, the Viet Minh won elections across central and northern Vietnam. British forces departed on 26 March 1946, leaving Vietnam in the control of the French, the French landed in Hanoi by March 1946 and in November of that year they ousted the Viet Minh from the city. Soon thereafter, the Viet Minh began a war against the French Union forces. Vietnam first became a French colony when France invaded in 1858, by the 1880s, the French had expanded their sphere of influence in Southeast Asia to include all of Vietnam, and by 1893 both Laos and Cambodia had become French colonies as well. Rebellions against French colonial power were common up to World War I, the European war heightened revolutionary sentiment in Southeast Asia, and the independence-minded population rallied around revolutionaries such as Hồ Chí Minh and others, including royalists. Prior to their attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese occupied French Indochina, the Japanese surrender in August 1945 created a power vacuum in Indochina, as the various political factions scrambled for control. The events leading to the First Indochina War are subject to historical dispute, when the Viet Minh hastily sought to establish the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the remaining French acquiesced while waiting for the return of French forces to the region. The Kuomintang supported French restoration, but Viet Minh efforts towards independence were helped by Chinese communists under the Soviet Unions power, the Soviet Union at first indirectly supported Vietnamese communists, but later directly supported Hồ Chí Minh. The Soviets nonetheless remained less supportive than China until after the Sino-Soviet split, the war itself involved numerous events that had major impacts throughout Indochina. Two major conferences were held to bring about a resolution, finally, on July 20,1954, the Geneva Conference resulted in a political settlement to reunite the country, signed with support from China, Russia, and Western European powers
10.
Sri Lankan Civil War
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The Sri Lankan Civil War was an armed conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. After a 26-year military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, bringing the civil war to an end. For over 25 years, the war caused significant hardships for the population, environment and the economy of the country, with an initial estimated 80, 000–100,000 people killed during its course. In 2013, the UN panel estimated additional deaths during the last phase of the war, during the early part of the conflict, the Sri Lankan forces attempted to retake the areas captured by the LTTE. The LTTE then declared they would resume their struggle to achieve statehood. Following the end of the war, the Sri Lankan government claimed Sri Lanka as the first country in the world to eradicate terrorism on its own soil. Following the LTTEs defeat, pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance dropped its demand for a separate state, the origins of the Sri Lankan Civil War lie in the continuous political rancor between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. The roots of the conflict lie in the British colonial rule when the country was known as Ceylon. However, British Gov. William Manning actively encouraged the concept of representation and created the Colombo town seat in 1920. However, in 1944 J. R. Jayawardene moved in the State Council that Sinhala should replace English as the official language, approximately over 700,000 Indian Tamils were made stateless. Over the next three decades more than 300,000 Indian Tamils were deported back to India and it wasnt until 2003–55 years after independence—that all Indian Tamils living in Sri Lanka were granted citizenship, but by this time they only made up 5% of the islands population. In 1956 Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike passed the Sinhala Only Act and this was seen as a deliberate attempt to discourage the Sri Lankan Tamils from working in the Ceylon Civil Service and other public services. The Tamil-speaking minorities of Ceylon viewed the Act as linguistic, cultural, many Tamil-speaking civil servants/public servants were forced to resign because they werent fluent in Sinhala. This was a prelude to the 1956 Gal Oya riots and the 1958 widespread riots in which thousands of Tamil civilians perished, the civil war was a direct result of the escalation of the confrontational politics that followed. In the late 1960s documents relating to a separate Tamil state of Tamil Eelam began to circulate, at this time Anton Balasingham, an employee of the British High Commission in Colombo, began to participate in separatist activities. He later migrated to Britain, where he would become the chief theoretician of the LTTE, in the late 1960s several Tamil youth, among them Velupillai Prabhakaran, also became involved in these activities. They carried out several operations against pro-government Tamil politicians, Sri Lanka police. During the 1970s Policy of standardization was initiated, under the policy, university selection was calculated based on language
11.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
12.
Croatian War of Independence
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In Croatia, the war is primarily referred to as the Homeland War and also as the Greater-Serbian Aggression. In Serbian sources, War in Croatia and War in Krajina are used, Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991, but agreed to postpone it with the Brioni Agreement and cut all remaining ties with Yugoslavia on 8 October 1991. The JNA initially tried to keep Croatia within Yugoslavia by occupying all of Croatia, after this failed, Serb forces established the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina within Croatia. During that time, the RSK encompassed 13,913 square kilometers, in 1995, Croatia launched two major offensives known as Operation Flash and Operation Storm, which would effectively end the war in its favor. The remaining United Nations Transitional Authority for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, the war ended with Croatian victory, as it achieved the goals it had declared at the beginning of the war, independence and preservation of its borders. 21–25% of Croatias economy was ruined, with an estimated US$37 billion in damaged infrastructure, lost output, a total of 20,000 people were killed in the war, and refugees were displaced on both sides. The Serb and Croatian governments began to cooperate with each other but tension remains, in part due to verdicts by the ICTY. Between 2008 and 2012, the ICTY had prosecuted Croatian generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markač, Čermak was acquitted outright, and the convictions of Gotovina and Markač were later overturned by an ICTY Appeals Panel. The International Court of Justice dismissed Croatia and Serbia genocide claims in 2015, the Court reaffirmed that serious crimes against civilians had taken place, but ruled that specific genocidal intent was not present. From 1967 to 1972 in Croatia and 1968 and 1981 protests in Kosovo, nationalist doctrines, the suppression by the state of nationalists is believed to have had the effect of identifying nationalism as the primary alternative to communism itself and made it a strong underground movement. A crisis emerged in Yugoslavia with the weakening of the Communist states in Eastern Europe towards the end of the Cold War, in Yugoslavia, the national communist party, officially called the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, had lost its ideological potency. SR Slovenia and SR Croatia wanted to move towards decentralization, the rhetoric was approved by the Serbian political leadership, and accused the Croatian leadership of being blindly nationalistic when it objected. In 1989, political parties were allowed and a number of them had been founded, including the Croatian Democratic Union, led by Franjo Tuđman, who later became the first president of Croatia. In January 1990, the League of Communists broke up on ethnic lines, with the Croatian, at the congress, Serbian delegates accused the Croatian and Slovene delegates of supporting separatism, terrorism and genocide in Kosovo. The Croatian and Slovene delegations, including most of their ethnic Serb members, eventually left in protest, January 1990 also marked the beginning of court cases being brought to Yugoslavias Constitutional Court on the matter of secession. The first was the Slovenian Constitutional Amendments case after Slovenia claimed the right to unilateral secession pursuant to the right of self-determination, the Constitutional Court ruled that secession from the federation was only permitted if there was the unanimous agreement of Yugoslavias republics and autonomous provinces. On 4 March 1990,50,000 Serbs rallied at Petrova Gora, and shouted negative remarks aimed at Tuđman, chanted This is Serbia, the first free elections in Croatia and Slovenia were scheduled for a few months later. The first round of elections in Croatia were held on 22 April, the HDZ based its campaign on greater sovereignty for Croatia, fueling a sentiment among Croats that only the HDZ could protect Croatia from the aspirations of Milošević towards a Greater Serbia
13.
Bosnian War
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The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following a number of violent incidents in early 1992, the war is commonly viewed as having started on 6 April 1992, the war ended on 14 December 1995. The war was part of the breakup of Yugoslavia and this was rejected by the political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, who had boycotted the referendum. The Croats also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian, Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre later became iconic of the conflict. After the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force targeting the positions of the Army of the Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war. The war was brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia, Peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio and were finalised on 21 November 1995. According to a report compiled by the UN, and chaired by M, the report echoed conclusions published by a Central Intelligence Agency estimate in 1995. By early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted 45 Serbs,12 Croats and 4 Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia, the most recent estimates suggest that around 100,000 people were killed during the war. Over 2.2 million people were displaced, making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of World War II, in addition, an estimated 12, 000–20,000 women were raped, most of them Bosniak. There is debate over the date of the Bosnian War. Mulaj reports that Misha Glenny gives a date of 22 March, Tom Gallagher gives 2 April, while Mary Kaldor and Laura Silber, philip Hammond claimed that the most common view is that the war started on 6 April 1992. The Sijekovac killings of Serbs took place on 26 March and the Bijeljina massacre on 1–2 April. Some Bosniaks consider the first casualties of the war to be Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came about as a result of the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A crisis emerged in Yugoslavia as a result of the weakening of the system at the end of the Cold War. In Yugoslavia, the national communist party, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, was losing its ideological potency, meanwhile, ethnic nationalism experienced a renaissance in the 1980s, after violence broke out in Kosovo. While the goal of Serbian nationalists was the centralisation of Yugoslavia, other nationalities in Yugoslavia aspired to the federalisation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former Ottoman province, has historically been a multi-ethnic state. According to the 1991 census, 44% of the population considered themselves Muslim,32. 5% Serb and 17% Croat, with 6% describing themselves as Yugoslav. In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after the adoption of amendments to the Serbian Constitution which allowed the government of Serbia to dominate the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina
14.
Kosovo War
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The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 5 March 1998 until 11 June 1999. After attempts at a diplomatic solution failed, NATO intervened, justifying the campaign in Kosovo as a humanitarian war and this precipitated a mass expulsion of Kosovar Albanians as the Yugoslav forces continued to fight during the aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia. The war ended with the Kumanovo Treaty, with Yugoslav and Serb forces agreeing to withdraw from Kosovo to make way for an international presence, Kosovos borders did not precisely match the areas of ethnic Albanian settlement in Yugoslavia. Kosovos formal autonomy, established under the 1945 Yugoslav constitution, initially meant relatively little in practice, the secret police cracked down hard on nationalists. In 1956 a number of Albanians went on trial in Kosovo on charges of espionage, the threat of separatism was in fact minimal, as the few underground groups aiming for union with Albania had little political significance. Demaci himself was imprisoned in 1964 along with many of his followers, Yugoslavia underwent a period of economic and political crisis in 1969, as a massive government program of economic reform widened the gap between the rich north and poor south of the country. Student demonstrations and riots in Belgrade in June 1968 spread to Kosovo in November of the same year, however, Tito conceded some of the students demands—in particular, representative powers for Albanians in both the Serbian and Yugoslav state bodies and better recognition of the Albanian language. The University of Pristina was established as an independent institution in 1970, the lack of Albanian-language educational materials in Yugoslavia hampered the Albanisation of education in Kosovo, so an agreement was struck with Albania itself to supply textbooks. In 1974 Kosovos political status improved further when a new Yugoslav constitution granted a set of political rights. Along with Vojvodina, Kosovo was declared a province and gained many of the powers of a fully-fledged republic, power was still exercised by the Communist Party, but it was now devolved mainly to ethnic Albanian communists. Titos death on 4 May 1980 ushered in a period of political instability, worsened by growing economic crisis. The disturbances were quelled by the Presidency of Yugoslavia proclaiming a state of emergency, sending in riot police and the army, hard-liners instituted a fierce crackdown on nationalism of all kinds, Albanian and Serbian alike. Kosovo endured a heavy secret-police presence throughout most of the 1980s that ruthlessly suppressed any unauthorised nationalist manifestations, according to a report quoted by Mark Thompson, as many as 580,000 inhabitants of Kosovo were arrested, interrogated, interned or reprimanded. Thousands of these lost their jobs or were expelled from their educational establishments, during this time tension between the Albanian and Serbian communities continued to escalate. Such concerns did attract interest in Belgrade, stories appeared from time to time in the Belgrade media claiming that Serbs and Montenegrins were being persecuted. There was a perception among Serbian nationalists that Serbs were being driven out of Kosovo, in addition to all this, the worsening state of Kosovos economy made the province a poor choice for Serbs seeking work. Albanians, as well as Serbs, tended to favor their compatriots when hiring new employees, Kosovo was the poorest entity of Yugoslavia, the average per capita income was $795, compared with the national average of $2,635. 33 nationalist formations were dismantled by Yugoslav police, who sentenced some 280 people and seized arms caches, in Kosovo an increasingly poisonous atmosphere between Serbs and Albanians led to wild rumors being spread and otherwise trivial incidents being blown out of proportion
15.
Iraq War
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The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces. An estimated 151,000 to 600,000 or more Iraqis were killed in the first 3–4 years of conflict and it became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition, the insurgency and many dimensions of the civil armed conflict continue. The invasion began on 20 March 2003, with the U. S. joined by the United Kingdom and several allies, launching a shock. Iraqi forces were overwhelmed as U. S. forces swept through the country. The invasion led to the collapse of the Baathist government, President Hussein was captured during Operation Red Dawn in December of that same year, the United States responded with a troop surge in 2007. The winding down of U. S. involvement in Iraq accelerated under President Barack Obama, the U. S. formally withdrew all combat troops from Iraq by December 2011. Select U. S. officials accused Saddam of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda, while others cited the desire to end a repressive dictatorship, after the invasion, no substantial evidence was found to verify the initial claims about WMDs. The rationale and misrepresentation of pre-war intelligence faced heavy criticism within the U. S. in the aftermath of the invasion, Iraq held multi-party elections in 2005. Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister in 2006 and remained in office until 2014, the al-Maliki government enacted policies that were widely seen as having the effect of alienating the countrys Sunni minority and worsening sectarian tensions. The Iraq War caused hundreds of thousands of civilian, and thousands of military casualties, the majority of casualties occurred as a result of the insurgency and civil conflicts between 2004 and 2007. A1990 Frontline report on The arming of Iraq said, Officially, most Western nations participated in an arms embargo against Iraq during the 1980s. Western companies, primarily in Germany and Great Britain, but also in the United States, sold Iraq the key technology for its chemical, missile, any Western governments seemed remarkably indifferent, if not enthusiastic, about those deals. N Washington, the government consistently followed a policy which allowed and perhaps encouraged the growth of Saddam Husseins arsenal. The Western arming of Iraq took place in the context of the Iran-Iraq War, prior to September 2002, the CIA was the George W. Bush administrations main provider of intelligence on Iraq. The agency was out to disprove linkage between Iraq and terrorism the Pentagon adviser told me, the U. N. had prohibited Iraq from developing or possessing such weapons after the Gulf War and required Iraq to permit inspections confirming compliance. This was confirmed by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, during 2002, Bush repeatedly warned of military action against Iraq unless inspections were allowed to progress unfettered. In accordance with U. N. Security Council Resolution 1441, Iraq agreed to new inspections under United Nations Monitoring, as part of its weapons inspection obligations, Iraq was required to supply a full declaration of its current weapons capabilities and manufacturing
16.
Mexican Drug War
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The Mexican Drug War is the Mexican theater of the United States War on Drugs, involving an ongoing low-intensity asymmetric war between the Mexican Government and various drug trafficking syndicates. Since 2006, when the Mexican military began to intervene, the principal goal has been to reduce the drug-related violence. Additionally, the Mexican government has claimed that their focus is on dismantling the powerful drug cartels, rather than on preventing drug trafficking. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market and in 2007 controlled 90% of the entering the United States. Arrests of key leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, has led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States. Analysts estimate that wholesale earnings from illicit drug sales range from $13.6 to $49.4 billion annually, by the end of Felipe Calderóns administration, the official death toll of the Mexican Drug War was at least 60,000. Estimates set the death toll above 120,000 killed by 2013, given its geographic location, Mexico has long been used as a staging and transshipment point for narcotics and contraband between Latin America and U. S. markets. Towards the end of the 1960s, Mexican narcotic smugglers started to smuggle drugs on a major scale, during the 1970s and early 1980s, Colombias Pablo Escobar was the main exporter of cocaine and dealt with organized criminal networks all over the world. By the mid-1980s, the organizations from Mexico were well-established and reliable transporters of Colombian cocaine, transporters from Mexico usually were given 35% to 50% of each cocaine shipment. This arrangement meant that organizations from Mexico became involved in the distribution, as well as the transportation of cocaine, currently, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel have taken over trafficking cocaine from Colombia to the worldwide markets. The balance of power between the various Mexican cartels continually shifts as new organizations emerge and older ones weaken and collapse, a disruption in the system, such as the arrests or deaths of cartel leaders, generates bloodshed as rivals move in to exploit the power vacuum. The fighting between rival drug cartels began in earnest after the 1989 arrest of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, there was a lull in the fighting during the late 1990s but the violence has steadily worsened since 2000. The center-left PRI party ruled Mexico for around 70 years until 2000, during this time, drug cartels expanded their power and corruption, and anti-drug operations focused mainly on destroying marijuana and opium crops in mountainous regions. It is estimated that about 110 people died in Nuevo Laredo between January and August 2005 as a result of the fighting between the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels. The same year, there was another surge in violence in the state of Michoacán as the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel established itself, on December 11,2006, the newly elected President Felipe Calderón sent 6,500 Mexican Army soldiers to Michoacán to end drug violence there. As time passed, Calderón continued to escalate his anti-drug campaign, in there are now about 45,000 troops involved along with state. Mexico is a drug transit and producing country. It is the main supplier of cannabis and an important entry point of South American cocaine
17.
Libyan Civil War (2011)
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The protests escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council. In early March, Gaddafis forces rallied, pushed eastwards and re-took several coastal cities before reaching Benghazi, a further UN resolution authorised member states to establish and enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, and to use all necessary measures to prevent attacks on civilians. The Gaddafi government then announced a ceasefire, but fighting continued, throughout the conflict, rebels rejected government offers of a ceasefire and efforts by the African Union to end the fighting because the plans set forth did not include the removal of Gaddafi. On 16 September 2011, the National Transitional Council was recognised by the United Nations as the representative of Libya. Muammar Gaddafi remained at large until 20 October 2011, when he was captured and killed in Sirte, the National Transitional Council declared the liberation of Libya and the official end of the war on 23 October 2011. In the aftermath of the war, a low-level insurgency by former Gaddafi loyalists continued. A much greater issue has been the role of militias which fought in the civil war and these unresolved issues led directly to a second civil war in Libya. Muammar Gaddafi was the head of the Free Officers, a group of Arab nationalists that deposed King Idris I in 1969 in a bloodless coup and he abolished the Libyan Constitution of 1951, considering it a neocolonial document. From 1969 until 1975 standards of living, life expectancy and literacy grew rapidly, in 1975 he published his manifesto The Green Book. He officially stepped down from power in 1977, and subsequently claimed to be merely a figurehead until 2011. Under Gaddafi, Libya was theoretically a decentralized, direct democracy state run according to the philosophy of Gaddafis The Green Book, according to Freedom House, however, these structures were often manipulated to ensure the dominance of Gaddafi, who reportedly continued to dominate all aspects of government. WikiLeaks disclosure of confidential US diplomatic cables revealed US diplomats there speaking of Gaddafis mastery of tactical maneuvering and this extended even to his own sons, as he repeatedly changed affections to avoid the rise of a clear successor and rival. Both Gaddafi and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, however, officially denied that he held any power, while he was popularly seen as a demagogue in the West, Gaddafi always portrayed himself as a statesman-philosopher. According to several Western media sources, Gaddafi feared a coup against his government. The Libyan Army consisted of about 50,000 personnel and its most powerful units were four crack brigades of highly equipped and trained soldiers, composed of members of Gaddafis tribe or members of other tribes loyal to him. One, the Khamis Brigade, was led by his son Khamis, local militias and Revolutionary Committees across the country were also kept well-armed. By contrast, regular units were poorly armed and trained. By the end of Gaddafis 42 years rule, Libyas population had a per capita income of $14,000, a broadly secular society was imposed
18.
Syrian Civil War
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The Syrian Civil War is an armed conflict taking place in Syria. Syrian opposition groups formed the Free Syrian Army and seized control of the area surrounding Aleppo, over time, some factions of the Syrian opposition split from their original moderate position to pursue an Islamist vision for Syria, joining groups such as al-Nusra Front and ISIL. In 2015, the Yekîneyên Parastina Gel joined forces with Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Russia and Hezbollah militarily engaged in support of the Syrian government, while beginning in 2014, a coalition of NATO countries began launching airstrikes against ISIL. International organizations have accused the Syrian government, ISIL, and some groups of severe human rights violations. The conflict has caused a major refugee crisis, over the course of the war a number of peace initiatives have been launched, including the March 2017 Geneva peace talks on Syria led by the United Nations, but fighting continues. Syria became an independent republic in 1946, although democratic rule ended with a coup in March 1949, a popular uprising against military rule in 1954 saw the army transfer power to civilians. From 1958 to 1961, a union with Egypt replaced Syrias parliamentary system with a highly centralized presidential government. The secular Baath Syrian Regional Branch government came to power through a successful coup détat in 1963, for the next several years Syria went through additional coups and changes in leadership. In March 1971, Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite, declared himself President, on 31 January 1973, Hafez al-Assad implemented a new constitution, which led to a national crisis. They labeled Assad the enemy of Allah and called for a jihad against his rule, the government survived a series of armed revolts by Sunni Islamists, mainly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, from 1976 until 1982. Upon Hafez al-Assads death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad was elected as President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma, a Sunni Muslim born and educated in Britain, initially inspired hopes for democratic reforms. The Damascus Spring, a period of social and political debate, the Damascus Spring largely ended in August 2001 with the arrest and imprisonment of ten leading activists who had called for democratic elections and a campaign of civil disobedience. In the opinion of his critics, Bashar al-Assad had failed to deliver on promised reforms, Syrian Arabs, together with some 600,000 Palestinian Arabs, make up roughly 74 percent of the population. Syria Muslims are 74 percent Sunnis, and 13 percent Shias,3 percent were Druze, not all of the Sunnis are Arabs. Bashar is married to a Sunni, with whom he has several children and he is affiliated with the sect that his parents belong to, the minority Alawite sect which comprises an estimated 8-12 percent of the total population. Assyrians, an indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking Christian Semitic people, numbering approximately 500,000, are mainly in northeast Syria. A larger population lives over the border in northern Iraq, other ethnic groups include Armenians, Circassians, Turkmens, Greeks, Mhallami, Kawliya, Yezidi, Shabaks, and Mandeans. Socioeconomic inequality increased significantly after free market policies were initiated by Hafez al-Assad in his later years, the country also faced particularly high youth unemployment rates
19.
Northern Mali conflict
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The Northern Mali Conflict, Mali Civil War, or Mali War refers to armed conflicts that started from January 2012 between the northern and southern parts of Mali in Africa. On 16 January 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence or greater autonomy for northern Mali, an area known as Azawad. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, an organization fighting to make Azawad an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had control of the region by April 2012. On 22 March 2012, President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted in a coup détat over his handling of the crisis, mutinous soldiers, calling themselves the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State, took control and suspended the constitution of Mali. As a consequence of the instability following the coup, Malis three largest northern cities—Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu—were overrun by the rebels on three consecutive days. On 5 April 2012, after the capture of Douentza, the MNLA said that it had accomplished its goals, the following day, it proclaimed Azawads independence from Mali. The MNLA were initially backed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine, after the Malian military was driven from Azawad, Ansar Dine and a number of smaller Islamist groups began imposing strict Sharia law. The MNLA and Islamists struggled to reconcile their conflicting visions for a new state. Afterwards, the MNLA began fighting against Ansar Dine and other Islamist groups, including Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, by 17 July 2012, the MNLA had lost control of most of northern Malis cities to the Islamists. The government of Mali asked for military help to re-take the north. On 11 January 2013, the French military began operations against the Islamists, Forces from other African Union states were deployed shortly after. By 8 February, the Islamist-held territory had been re-taken by the Malian military, Tuareg separatists have continued to fight the Islamists as well, although the MNLA has also been accused of carrying out attacks against the Malian military. Fighting is still ongoing even though French forces are scheduled for withdrawal, a ceasefire agreement was signed on February 19,2015 in Algiers, Algeria but sporadic terrorist attacks still occur. In the early 1990s Tuareg and Arab nomads formed the Mouvement Populaire de l’Azaouad/Azawad Peoples Movement, the MNLA was an offshoot of a political movement known as the National Movement for Azawad prior to the insurgency. After the end of the Libyan Civil War, an influx of weaponry led to the arming of the Tuareg in their demand for independence for the Azawad. The strength of this uprising and the use of heavy weapons, though dominated by Tuaregs, the MNLA stated that they represented other ethnic groups as well, and were reportedly joined by some Arab leaders. The MNLAs leader Bilal Ag Acherif said that the onus was on Mali to either give the Saharan peoples their self-determination or they would take it themselves, another Tuareg-dominated group, the Islamist Ansar Dine, initially fought alongside the MNLA against the government. Unlike the MNLA, it did not seek independence but rather the imposition of Islamic law across Mali, thereafter, Mali has been in a constant struggle to maintain its territory
20.
Boko Haram insurgency
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The Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009, when the jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. By 2015, part of the split into al-Qaeda affiliated Ansaru. In 2013, over 1,000 people died as a result of the conflict, the violence escalated dramatically in 2014, with 10,849 deaths. In 2014, the spread to neighboring Cameroon, Chad. In 2015, a coalition offensive forced Boko Haram to retreat into the Sambisa Forest, the insurgency took place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigerias Muslim and Christian communities. Boko Haram has been called the worlds deadliest terrorist group, in terms of the number of people it has killed, sir Frederick Lugard, assumed office as governor of both protectorates in 1912. The aftermath of the First World War saw Germany lose its colonies, one of which was Cameroon, to French, Belgian, Cameroon was divided in French and British parts, the latter of which was further subdivided into southern and northern parts. The territory made up much of what is now Northeastern Nigeria, religious conflict in Nigeria goes as far back as 1953. The Igbo massacre of 1966 in the North that followed the counter-coup of the year had as a dual cause the Igbo officers coup. This was a factor in the Biafran secession and the resulting civil war. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a major Islamic uprising led by Maitatsine and his followers, after Maitatsines death in 1980, the movement continued some five years more. In the same decade the military ruler of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida enrolled Nigeria in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. This was a move which aggravated religious tensions in the country, in response, some in the Muslim community pointed out that certain other African member states have smaller proportions of Muslims, as well as Nigerias diplomatic relations with the Holy See. This was followed by controversy as to the legal status of the non-Muslims in the Sharia system. A spate of Muslim-Christian riots soon emerged, in the primarily Islamic northern states of Nigeria, a variety of Muslim groups and populations exist, who favour the nationwide introduction of Sharia Law. The demands of these populations have been at least partially upheld by the Nigerian Federal Government in 12 states, the implementation has been widely attributed as being due to the insistence of Zamfara State governor Ahmad Rufai Sani. The death sentences of Amina Lawal and Safiya Hussaini attracted international attention to what many saw as the regime of these laws. These sentences were overturned, the first execution was carried out in 2002
21.
South Sudanese Civil War
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The South Sudanese Civil War is a conflict in South Sudan between forces of the government and opposition forces. In December 2013, President Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar, Machar denied trying to start a coup and fled to lead the SPLM – in opposition. Fighting broke out between the SPLM and SPLM-IO, igniting the civil war, Ugandan troops were deployed to fight alongside South Sudanese government. The United Nations has peacekeepers in the country as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, in January 2014 the first ceasefire agreement was reached. Fighting continued and would be followed by several more ceasefire agreements, negotiations were mediated by IGAD +. A peace agreement known as the Compromise Peace Agreement was signed in August 2015, Machar returned to Juba in 2016 and was appointed vice president. Following a second breakout of fighting within Juba, the SPLM-IO fled to the surrounding, Machar was replaced by Kiir as First Vice President by Taban Deng Gai, splitting the opposition, and rebel in-fighting has become of major part of the fighting. Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have killed in the war. Although both men have supporters from across South Sudans ethnic divides, subsequent fighting has had ethnic undertones, Mr. Kiirs Dinka ethnic group has been accused of attacking other ethnic groups and Mr. Machars Nuer ethnic group has been accused of attacking the Dinka. Fighting in the heart in the south of the country has soared the number of people facing starvation to 6 million with famine breaking out in some areas. In 2010, after an election, George Athor led the South Sudan Democratic Movement in rebellion against the government. The same year, a faction of the South Sudan Democratic Movement, called the Cobra Faction and his faction signed a cease-fire with the government in 2011 and his militia was reintegrated into the army but he then defected again in 2012. Gabriel Tang who led a militia allied to Khartoum during the Second Sudanese Civil War, in 2011, Peter Gadet lead a rebellion with the South Sudan Liberation Army but was reintegrated into the army the same year. In a strategy of co-option known as big tent, the government often buys off community militia, others call the use of rebellion to receive public office as bad culture and an incentive to rebel. In January 2013 Kiir replaced the general of the national police service with a lieutenant from the army. In February 2013 Kiir retired an additional 117 army generals but this was viewed as troublesome in regards to a power grab by others, Kiir had also suggested that his rivals were trying to revive the rifts that had provoked infighting in the 1990s. In July 2013, Kiir dismissed Vice President Riek Machar, one-time leader of the Nasir revolt, Kiir suspended the SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum Okech and forbade him from leaving Juba or speaking to the media. The decrees elicited fears of political unrest, with Machar claiming that Kiirs move was a step towards dictatorship and he said that if the country is to be united, it cannot tolerate one mans rule
22.
Gun barrel
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A gun barrel is a part of firearms and artillery pieces. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, a gun barrel must be able to hold in the expanding gas produced by the propellants to ensure that optimum muzzle velocity is attained by the projectile as it is being pushed out by the expanding gas. Modern small arms barrels are made of known and tested to withstand the pressures involved. Artillery pieces are made by various techniques providing reliably sufficient strength, early firearms were muzzle-loading, with powder, and then shot loaded from the muzzle, capable of only a low rate of fire. During the 19th century effective mechanical locks were invented that sealed a breech-loading weapon against the escape of propellant gases, the early Chinese, the inventors of gunpowder, used bamboo, a naturally tubular stalk, as the first barrels in gunpowder projectile weapons. Early European guns were made of iron, usually with several strengthening bands of the metal wrapped around circular wrought iron rings. The Chinese were the first to master cast-iron cannon barrels, early cannon barrels were very thick for their caliber. Bore evacuator Bore snake Cannon Muzzle Polygonal rifling Rifling Slug barrel Smoothbore
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Cartridge (firearms)
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Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition. A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank, One that is completely inert is called a dummy. Some artillery ammunition uses the same concept as found in small arms. In other cases, the shell is separate from the propellant charge. In popular use, the bullet is often misused to refer to a complete cartridge. The cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions excepting the bore, a firing pin strikes the primer and ignites it. The primer compound deflagrates, it does not detonate, a jet of burning gas from the primer ignites the propellant. Gases from the burning powder pressurize and expand the case to seal it against the chamber wall and these propellant gases push on the bullet base. In response to pressure, the bullet will move in the path of least resistance which is down the bore of the barrel. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the pressure drops to atmospheric pressure. The case, which had been expanded by chamber pressure. This eases removal of the case from the chamber, brass is a commonly used case material because it is resistant to corrosion. A brass case head can be work-hardened to withstand the pressures of cartridges. The neck and body portion of a case is easily annealed to make the case ductile enough to allow reforming so that it can be reloaded many times. Steel is used in some plinking ammunition, as well as in military ammunition. Steel is less expensive than brass, but it is not feasible to reload, Military forces typically consider small arms cartridge cases to be disposable, one-time-use devices. However, case weight affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry, conversely, steel is more susceptible to contamination and damage so all such cases are varnished or otherwise sealed against the elements. One downside caused by the strength of steel in the neck of these cases is that propellant gas can blow back past the neck
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Caliber
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In guns, particularly firearms, caliber or calibre is the approximate internal diameter of the barrel, or the diameter of the projectile it fires, in hundredths or sometimes thousandths of an inch. For example, a 45 caliber firearm has a diameter of.45 of an inch. Barrel diameters can also be expressed using metric dimensions, as in 9mm pistol, when the barrel diameter is given in inches, the abbreviation cal can be used. Good performance requires a bullet to closely match the diameter of a barrel to ensure a good seal. While modern cartridges and cartridge firearms are referred to by the cartridge name. Firearm calibers outside the range of 17 to 50 exist, but are rarely encountered. Larger calibers, such as.577.585.600.700, the.950 JDJ is the only known cartridge beyond 79 caliber used in a rifle. Referring to artillery, caliber is used to describe the length as multiples of the bore diameter. A 5-inch 50 calibre gun has a diameter of 5 in. The main guns of the USS Missouri are 1650 caliber, makers of early cartridge arms had to invent methods of naming the cartridges, since no established convention existed then. One of the early established cartridge arms was the Spencer repeating rifle, later various derivatives were created using the same basic cartridge, but with smaller-diameter bullets, these were named by the cartridge diameter at the base and mouth. The original No.56 became the. 56-56, and the smaller versions. 56-52. 56-50, the. 56-52, the most common of the new calibers, used a 50-cal bullet. Optionally, the weight in grains was designated, e. g. 45-70-405. Variations on these methods persist today, with new cartridges such as the.204 Ruger, metric diameters for small arms refer to cartridge dimensions and are expressed with an × between the bore diameter and the length of the cartridge case, for example,7. 62×51 NATO. This indicates that the diameter is 7. 62mm, loaded in a case 51mm long. Similarly, the 6. 5×55 Swedish cartridge has a diameter of 6.5 mm. An exception to rule is the proprietary cartridge used by U. S. maker Lazzeroni. The following table lists commonly used calibers where both metric and imperial are used as equivalents
25.
Iron sights
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Iron sights are typically composed of two component sights, formed by metal blades, a rear sight mounted perpendicular to the line of sight and a front sight that is a post, bead, or ring. Open sights use a notch of some sort as the rear sight, civilian, hunting, and police firearms usually feature open sights, while many military battle rifles employ aperture sights. The earliest and simplest iron sights are fixed and cannot be easily adjusted, many iron sights are designed to be adjustable, so that the sights can be adjusted for elevation or windage. On many firearms it is the sight that is adjustable. For precision applications such as hunting or sniping, the sights are usually replaced by a telescopic sight. Iron sights may still be fitted alongside other sighting devices for back-up usage, iron sights provide horizontal and vertical reference points that allow the shooter to train the weapon. Rear sights are mounted in a dovetail on the barrel or receiver, closer to the eye of the shooter. Front sights are mounted to the barrel by dovetailing, soldering, screwing, or staking close to the muzzle, frequently on a ramp. Some front sight assemblies include a detachable hood intended to reduce glare, with typical blade or post iron sights, the shooter would center the front post in the notch of the rear sight and the tops of both sights should be level. Since the eye is capable of focusing on one plane, and the rear sight, front sight. At 1,000 m, that same misalignment would be magnified 100 times, sights for shotguns used for shooting small, moving targets work quite differently. The rear sight is completely discarded, and the reference point is provided by the correct. A brightly colored round bead is placed at the end of the barrel, often, this bead will be placed along a raised, flat rib, which is usually ventilated to keep it cool and reduce mirage effects from a hot barrel. This method of aiming is not as precise as that of a front sight/rear sight combination, but it is faster. Some shotguns also provide a mid-bead, which is a smaller bead located halfway down the rib, open sights generally are used where the rear sight is at significant distance from the shooters eye. They provide minimum occlusion of the view, but at the expense of precision. Open sights generally use either a square post or a bead on a post for a front sight, to use the sight, the post or bead is positioned both vertically and horizontally in the center of the rear sight notch. For a center hold, the front sight is positioned on the center of the target, for a 6oclock hold, the front sight is positioned just below the target and centered horizontally
26.
AK-47
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The AK-47, or AK as it is officially known is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7. 62×39 mm assault rifle, developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known in the Soviet documentation as Avtomat Kalashnikova, Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year of World War II. In 1946, the AK-47 was presented for military trials, and in 1948. An early development of the design was the AKS, which was equipped with a metal shoulder stock. In the spring of 1949, the AK-47 was officially accepted by the Soviet Armed Forces, as of 2004, Of the estimated 500 million firearms worldwide, approximately 100 million belong to the Kalashnikov family, three-quarters of which are AK-47s. During World War II, the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle used by German forces made an impression on their Soviet counterparts. The select-fire rifle was chambered for a new cartridge, the 7. 92×33mm Kurz. On 15 July 1943, a model of the Sturmgewehr was demonstrated before the Peoples Commissariat of Arms of the USSR. The Soviets soon developed the 7. 62×39mm M43 cartridge, the semi-automatic SKS carbine, shortly after World War II, the Soviets developed the AK-47 assault rifle, which would quickly replace the SKS in Soviet service. Mikhail Kalashnikov began his career as a designer in 1941, while recuperating from a shoulder wound. I was a soldier, and I created a gun for a soldier. It was called an Avtomat Kalashnikova, the weapon of Kalashnikov—AK—and it carried the date of its first manufacture,1947. The AK-47 is best described as a hybrid of previous rifle technology innovations, Kalashnikov decided to design an automatic rifle combining the best features of the American M1 and the German StG44. Kalashnikovs team had access to weapons and had no need to reinvent the wheel. Kalashnikov himself observed, A lot of Russian Army soldiers ask me how one can become a constructor, each designer seems to have his own paths, his own successes and failures. But one thing is clear, before attempting to create something new, I myself have had many experiences confirming this to be so. There are claims about Kalashnikov copying other designs, like Bulkins TKB-415 or Simonovs AVS-31, Kalashnikov started work on a submachine gun design in 1942 and with a light machine gun in 1943. Early in 1944, Kalashnikov was given some M19437. 62×39mm cartridges and it was suggested to him that this new weapon might well lead to greater things, and he undertook work on the new rifle
27.
AKM
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The AKM is a 7. 62mm assault rifle designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is a modernized variant of the AK-47 rifle developed in the 1940s. The production of these Soviet rifles was carried out at both the Tula Arms Plant and Izhmash and it was officially replaced in Soviet frontline service by the AK-74 in the late 1970s, but remains in use worldwide. The AKM is a rifle using the 7. 62×39mm Soviet intermediate cartridge. It is gas operated with a rotating bolt, the AKM is capable of selective fire, firing either single shots or automatic at a cyclic rate of 600 rounds/min. Despite being replaced in the late 1970s by the AK-74 the AKM is still in service in some Russian Army reserve and second-line units, notably, the AK-47s milled steel receiver was replaced by a U-shaped steel stamping. As a result of modifications, the AKM’s weight was reduced by ≈1 kg. The AKM’s receiver, compared to the AK-47, is stamped from a smooth 1.0 mm sheet of steel, to the U-shaped stamped sheet metal receiver housing a rear stock trunnion and forward barrel trunnion are fastened using rivets. The receiver housing also features a rigid tubular cross-section support that adds structural strength, guide rails that assist the bolt carrier’s movement which also incorporates the ejector are installed inside the receiver through spot welding. As a weight-saving measure, the receiver cover is of thinner gauge metal than that of the AK-47. In order to strength and durability it employs both longitudinal and latitudinal reinforcing ribs. The forward barrel trunnion has a socket for the barrel. The AKM’s barrel is installed in the forward trunnion and pinned, additionally the barrel has horizontal guide slots that help align and secure the handguards in place. The muzzle brake is threaded on to the end of the barrel with a left-hand thread, not all AKMs had slant muzzle brakes, some were also fitted with the older muzzle nut which came from the AK-47. Most AKMs with muzzle nuts were older production weapons, the AKMs slant brake can also be used on the AK-47, which had a simple nut to cover the threads. The gas block in the AKM does not have a cleaning rod capture or sling loop but is fitted with an integrated bayonet support collar that has a cleaning rod guide hole. The forward sling loop was relocated to the front handguard retainer cap, the handguard retainer also has notches that determine the position of the handguards on the barrel. The AKM’s laminated wood handguards have lateral grooves that help grip the rifle
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Norinco
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Norinco is also involved in domestic civil construction projects. Norinco is also known outside of China for its high-tech defense products, NORINCO has been ranked among the forefront of China’s 500 largest state-owned enterprises in terms of total assets and revenue. In 1993, the import of most Norinco firearms and ammunition into the United States was blocked under new rules when Chinas permanent normal trade relations status was renewed. The prohibition did not apply to sporting shotguns or shotgun ammunition however, in 1994, U. S. Customs agents conducted a sting against Atlanta based importers of Norinco firearms. In August 2003, the Bush Administration imposed sanctions on Norinco for allegedly selling missile-related goods to Iran, nP-30, Tactical version of Colt M1911A1 pistol clone with double column magazines, beavertail grip safety, extended slide release, flat mainspring housing, and extended ambidextrous safety. JW23 is the. 22WMR version JW-20, Semi automatic.22 takedown hunting rifle, variant of the JW-15 with a 2-piece stock
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Southeast Asia
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Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with seismic and volcanic activity. Southeast Asia consists of two regions, Mainland Southeast Asia, also known historically as Indochina, comprising Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar. Maritime Southeast Asia, comprising Indonesia, East Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, Cocos Islands, definitions of Southeast Asia vary, but most definitions include the area represented by the countries listed below. All of the states are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the area, together with part of South Asia, was widely known as the East Indies or simply the Indies until the 20th century. Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea, Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, and is currently an observer. Southeast Asia is geographically divided into two subregions, namely Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia includes, Maritime Southeast Asia includes, The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are geographically considered part of Southeast Asia. Eastern Bangladesh and the Seven Sister States of India are culturally part of Southeast Asia, the eastern half of Indonesia and East Timor are considered to be biogeographically part of Oceania. Homo sapiens reached the region by around 45,000 years ago, homo floresiensis also lived in the area up until 12,000 years ago, when they became extinct. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the population in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor. Solheim and others have shown evidence for a Nusantao maritime trading network ranging from Vietnam to the rest of the archipelago as early as 5000 BC to 1 AD. The peoples of Southeast Asia, especially those of Austronesian descent, have been seafarers for thousands of years and their vessels, such as the vinta, were ocean-worthy. Magellans voyage records how much more manoeuvrable their vessels were, as compared to the European ships, Passage through the Indian Ocean aided the colonisation of Madagascar by the Austronesian people, as well as commerce between West Asia and Southeast Asia. Gold from Sumatra is thought to have reached as far west as Rome and this was later replaced by Hinduism. Theravada Buddhism soon followed in 525, in the 15th century, Islamic influences began to enter. This forced the last Hindu court in Indonesia to retreat to Bali, in Mainland Southeast Asia, Burma, Cambodia and Thailand retained the Theravada form of Buddhism, brought to them from Sri Lanka. This type of Buddhism was fused with the Hindu-influenced Khmer culture, very little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the 2nd century BCE onwards. Prior to the 13th century CE, Hinduism and Buddhism were the religions in Southeast Asia
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Middle East
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The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population. Indigenous minorities of the Middle East include Jews, Assyrians and other Arameans, Baloch, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Lurs, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, in the Middle East, there is also a Romani community. European ethnic groups form a diaspora in the region include Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Franco-Levantines. Among other migrant populations are Bengalis as well as other Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, Pakistanis, the history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the importance of the region being recognized for millennia. Most of the countries border the Persian Gulf have vast reserves of crude oil. The term Middle East may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office, however, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to designate the area between Arabia and India. During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf. Mahan first used the term in his article The Persian Gulf and International Relations, published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal. The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta, as well as its Gibraltar, it does not follow that either will be in the Persian Gulf. The British Navy should have the facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden, India, mahans article was reprinted in The Times and followed in October by a 20-article series entitled The Middle Eastern Question, written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol. During this series, Sir Ignatius expanded the definition of Middle East to include regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India. After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term, in the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, which was based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term Middle East gained broader usage in Europe, the description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, Near East was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while Middle East referred to Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Turkestan. The first official use of the term Middle East by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, the Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous
31.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
32.
Warsaw Pact
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The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the regional economic organization for the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. While the Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power or counterweight to NATO, instead, the conflict was fought on an ideological basis and in proxy wars. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and its largest military engagement was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, which, in part, resulted in Albania withdrawing from the pact less than a month later. The Pact began to unravel in its entirety with the spread of the Revolutions of 1989 through the Eastern Bloc, beginning with the Solidarity movement in Poland, East Germany and Poland withdrew from the Pact in 1990. On 25 February 1991, the Pact was declared at an end at a meeting of defence, the USSR itself was dissolved in December 1991, although most of the former Soviet republics formed the Collective Security Treaty Organization shortly thereafter. Throughout the following 20 years, the seven Warsaw Pact countries outside the USSR each joined NATO, in the Western Bloc, the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance is often called the Warsaw Pact military alliance—abbreviated WAPA, Warpac, and WP. Therefore, although ostensibly an international collective security alliance, the USSR dominated the Warsaw Treaty armed forces, the strategy behind the formation of the Warsaw Pact was driven by the desire of the Soviet Union to dominate Central and Eastern Europe. The Soviets wanted to keep their part of Europe theirs and not let the Americans take it from them and this policy was driven by ideological and geostrategic reasons. Ideologically, the Soviet Union arrogated the right to define socialism and communism, geostrategic principles also drove the Soviet Union to prevent invasion of its territory by Western European powers. Before the creation of the Warsaw Pact, Czechoslovak leadership, fearful of a rearmed Germany, sought to create a security pact with East Germany and these states protested strongly against the re-militarization of West Germany. The Warsaw Pact was primarily put in place as a consequence of the rearming of West Germany inside NATO, Soviet leaders, like many European countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain, feared Germany being once again a military power and a direct threat. The terrible consequences of German militarism remained a fresh memory among the Soviets, previously, in March 1954, the USSR, fearing the restoration of German militarism in West Germany, requested admission to NATO. The Soviet request to join NATO arose in the aftermath of the Berlin Conference of January–February 1954. James Dunn, who met in Paris with Eden, Adenauer and Robert Schuman, affirmed that the object should be to avoid discussion with the Russians, according to John Gaddis there was little inclination in Western capitals to explore this offer from USSR. But Eden, Dulles and Bidault opposed the proposal, the Soviets then decided to make a new proposal to the governments of the USA, UK and France to accept the participation of the USA in the proposed General European Agreement. Again all proposals, including the request to join NATO, were rejected by the UK, US, emblematic was the position of British General Hastings Ismay, supporter of NATO expansion, who said that NATO must grow until the whole free world gets under one umbrella. He opposed the request to join NATO made by the USSR in 1954 saying that the Soviet request to join NATO is like an unrepentant burglar requesting to join the police force, in April 1954 Adenauer made his first visit to the USA meeting Nixon, Eisenhower and Dulles. Ratification of EDC was delaying but the US representatives made it clear to Adenauer that EDC would have to become a part of NATO, memories of the Nazi occupation were still strong, and the rearmament of Germany was feared by France too
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Eastern Europe
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Eastern Europe, also known as East Europe, is the eastern part of the European continent. There is no consensus on the area it covers, partly because the term has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, cultural. There are almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region, a related United Nations paper adds that every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct. One definition describes Eastern Europe as an entity, the region lying in Europe with main characteristics consisting in Byzantine, Orthodox. Another definition was created during the Cold War and used more or less synonymously with the term Eastern Bloc, a similar definition names the formerly communist European states outside the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe. Historians and social scientists generally view such definitions as outdated or relegating, several definitions of Eastern Europe exist today, but they often lack precision or are extremely general. These definitions vary both across cultures and among experts, even scientists, recently becoming more and more imprecise. The Ural Mountains, Ural River, and the Caucasus Mountains are the land border of the eastern edge of Europe. Eurovoc, a multilingual thesaurus maintained by the Publications Office of the European Union, provides entries for 23 EU languages, of these, those in italics are classified as Eastern Europe in this source. Other official web-pages of the European Union classify some of the countries as strictly Central European. The East–West Schism is the break of communion and theology between what are now the Eastern and Western churches which began in the 11th century and lasts until this very day and it divided Christianity in Europe, and consequently the world, into Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. Since the Great Schism of 1054, Europe has been divided between Roman Catholic and Protestant churches in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Christian churches in the east, due to this religious cleavage, Eastern Orthodox countries are often associated with Eastern Europe. A cleavage of this sort is, however, often problematic, for example, Greece is overwhelmingly Orthodox, the fall of the Iron Curtain brought the end of the East–West division in Europe, but this geopolitical concept is sometimes still used for quick reference by the media. The Baltic states have seats in the Nordic Council as observer states and they also are members of the Nordic-Baltic Eight whereas Eastern European countries formed their own alliance called the Visegrád Group. Estonia Latvia Lithuania The Caucasus nations may be included in the definitions of Eastern Europe, the extent of their geographic or political affiliation with Europe varies by country and source. All three states are members of the European Unions Eastern Partnership program and the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, on 12 January 2002, the European Parliament noted that Armenia and Georgia may enter the EU in the future. Georgia — in modern geography, Georgia has been classified as part of Eastern Europe. Under the European Union’s geographic criteria, Georgia is viewed as part of Eastern Europe and is the only Caucasus country to be actively seeking EU membership and it is a member of Council of Europe and Eurocontrol
34.
North Vietnam
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North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, was a state in Southeast Asia which existed from 1945 to 1976. Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh declared independence from France on 2 September 1945, France reasserted its colonial dominance and a war ensued between France and the Viet Minh, led by Ho. The Viet Minh was a coalition of nationalist groups, mostly led by communists, in February 1951, the communists announced the creation of the Lao Động Party, gradually marginalizing non-communists in the Viet Minh. Between 1946 and 1954, the Viet Minh captured and controlled most of the areas of Vietnam. In 1954, after the French were defeated, the negotiation of the Geneva Accords ended the war between France and the Viet Minh and granted Vietnam independence. The Geneva Accords divided the country provisionally into northern and southern zones, the northern zone was commonly called North Vietnam and the southern zone South Vietnam, or, formally, the Republic of Vietnam. Supervision of the implementation of the Geneva Accords was the responsibility of an International Commission consisting of India, Canada, and Poland. In July 1955, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem and he said that South Vietnam had not signed the Geneva accords and was not bound by it. With the failure to reunify Vietnam by elections, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam attempted to unify the country by force in the Vietnam War, North Vietnam also supported indigenous communist rebels in Cambodia and Laos against their respective U. S, -backed governments. The war ended when Democratic Republic of Vietnam forces and the Viet Cong defeated the Republic of Vietnam, Viet Minh leader Hồ Chí Minh became head of the government. U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt had spoken against French rule in Indochina, the Hanoi government of Ho Chi Minh claimed dominion over all of Vietnam, but during this time South Vietnam was in profound political disorder. The successive collapse of French, then Japanese power, followed by the dissension among the factions in Saigon had been accompanied by widespread violence in the countryside. On September 12,1945, the first British troops arrived in Saigon, on September 23,28 days after the people of Saigon seized political power, French troops occupied the police stations, the post office, and other public buildings. In June 1946, Chinese Nationalist troops evacuated Hanoi, and on the 15th of June, after the departure of the British in 1946, the French controlled a part of Cochinchina, South Central Coast, Central Highlands since the end Southern Resistance War. In January 1946, the Viet Minh held an election to establish a National Assembly, when France declared Cochinchina, the southern third of Vietnam, a separate state as the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina in June 1946, Vietnamese nationalists reacted with fury. In November, the National Assembly adopted the first Constitution of the Republic, the French reoccupied Hanoi and the First Indochina War followed. Following the Chinese Communist Revolution, Chinese communist forces arrived on the border in 1949, Chinese aid revived the fortunes of the Viet Minh and transformed it from a guerrilla militia into a standing army. The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 transformed what had been a struggle into a Cold War battleground
35.
Viet Cong
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It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory it controlled. Many soldiers were recruited in South Vietnam, but others were attached to the Peoples Army of Vietnam, although the terminology distinguishes northerners from the southerners, communist forces were under a single command structure set up in 1958. North Vietnam established the National Liberation Front on December 20,1960, many of the Việt Cộngs core members were volunteer regroupees, southern Viet Minh who had resettled in the North after the Geneva Accord. Hanoi gave the military training and sent them back to the South along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the early 1960s. The NLF called for southern Vietnamese to overthrow the colonial regime of the American imperialists. The offensive riveted the attention of the media for weeks. Later communist offensives were conducted predominantly by the North Vietnamese, the organisation was dissolved in 1976 when North and South Vietnam were officially unified under a communist government. The term Việt cộng appeared in Saigon newspapers beginning in 1956 and it is a contraction of Việt Nam Cộng-sản, or alternatively Việt gian cộng sản. The earliest citation for Việt Cộng in English is from 1957, American soldiers referred to the Viet Cong as Victor Charlie or V-C. Victor and Charlie are both letters in the NATO phonetic alphabet, Charlie referred to communist forces in general, both Việt Cộng and North Vietnamese. The official Vietnamese history gives the name as the Liberation Army of South Vietnam or the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam. Many writers shorten this to National Liberation Front, in 1969, the Viet Cong created the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, abbreviated PRG. Although the NLF was not officially abolished until 1977, the Viet Cong no longer used the name after PRG was created, members generally referred to the Viet Cong as the Front. Todays Vietnamese media most frequently refers to the group as the Peoples Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam, by the terms of the Geneva Accord, which ended the Indochina War, France and the Viet Minh agreed to a truce and to a separation of forces. The Viet Minh had become the government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam since the Vietnamese 1946 general election, military forces of non-communists regrouped in South Vietnam, which became a separate state. The political forces was not compulsory to regroup, elections on reunification were scheduled for July 1956. A divided Vietnam angered Vietnamese nationalists, but it made the country less of a threat to China, Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the past and Vietnam in the present do not recognise that Vietnam was divided into two countries. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai negotiated the terms of the ceasefire with France, about 90,000 Viet Minh were evacuated to the North while 5,000 to 10,000 cadre remained in the South, most of them with orders to refocus on political activity and agitation
36.
People's Army of Vietnam
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The Peoples Army of Vietnam, also known as the Vietnamese Peoples Army, is the military force of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The PAVN is a part of Vietnam Peoples Armed Forces and includes, Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Border Defence Force, however, Vietnam does not have a specific separate Ground Force or Army branch. The military flag of the PAVN is the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, during the French Indochina War, the PAVN was often referred to as the Việt Minh. In the context of the Vietnam War, the army was referred to as the North Vietnamese Army and this allowed writers, the US military, and the general public, to distinguish northern communists from the southern communists, or Viet Cong. However, both groups ultimately worked under the command structure. According to Hanois official history, the Viet Cong was a branch of the VPA, in 2010 the PAVN undertook the role of leading the 1, 000th Anniversary Parade in Hanoi by performing their biggest parade in history. Under the guidelines of Hồ Chí Minh, Võ Nguyên Giáp was given the task of establishing the brigades, the first formation was made up of thirty one men and three women, armed with two revolvers, seventeen rifles, one light machine gun, and fourteen breech-loading flintlocks. The group was renamed the Vietnam Liberation Army in May 1945, in September, the army was again renamed the Vietnam National Defence Army. At this point, it had about 1,000 soldiers, in 1950, it officially became the Peoples Army of Vietnam. On 7 January 1947, its first regiment, the 102nd Capital Regiment, was created for operations around Hanoi. Over the next two years, the first division, the 308th Division, later known as the Pioneer Division formed by the 88th Tu Vu Regiment. By late 1950 the 308th Division had a full three infantry regiments, when it was supplemented by the 36th Regiment, at that time, the 308th Division was also backed by the 11th Battalion that later became the main force of the 312th Division. The first six divisions became known as the original PAVN Steel, in 1954 four of these divisions defeated the French Union forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, ending 83 years of French rule in Indochina. At about the time, Group 579 was created as its maritime counterpart to transport supplies into the South by sea. Most of the infiltrators were members of the 338th Division. Those PAVN formations were seen as extremely brave forces by the US forces and we had to change our plan and make it different from when we fought the Saigon regime, because we now had to fight two adversaries — the United States and South Vietnam. We understood that the U. S. Army was superior to our own logistically, in weapons, so strategically we did not hope to defeat the U. S. Army completely. Our intentions were to fight a time and cause heavy casualties to the United States, so the United States would see that the war was unwinnable
37.
People's Liberation Army
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The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army is the armed forces of the Communist Party of China and the Peoples Republic of China. The PLA consists of five service branches, the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force. The PLA is the worlds largest military force, with a strength of approximately 2,183,000 personnel. In September 2015, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the PLAs insignia consists of a roundel with a red star bearing the Chinese characters for Eight One, referring to the Nanchang Uprising which began on August 1,1927. The PLA is under the command of the Central Military Commission of the CPC and its commander in chief is the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The Ministry of National Defense, which operates under the State Council and this conception of the role of the PLA requires the promotion of specialised officers who can understand modern weaponry and handle combined arms operations. Units around the country are assigned to one of five Theater commands by geographical location, Military service is compulsory by law, however, compulsory military service in China has never been enforced due to large numbers of military and paramilitary personnel. In times of emergency, the Peoples Armed Police and the Peoples Liberation Army militia act as a reserve. They were then known as the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army, between 1934 and 1935, the Red Army survived several campaigns led against it by Chiang Kai-Shek and engaged in the Long March. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the Communist Party merged the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army and they eventually won the Chinese Civil War, establishing the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. The PLA then saw a reorganisation with the establishment of the Air Force leadership structure in November 1949 followed by the Navy leadership the following April. In 1950, the structures of the artillery, armoured troops, air defence troops, public security forces. The chemical warfare defence forces, the forces, the communications forces. During the 1950s, the PLA with Soviet assistance began to transform itself from a peasant army into a modern one, part of this process was the reorganisation that created thirteen military regions in 1955. The PLA also contained many former National Revolutionary Army units and generals who had defected to the PLA, Ma Hongbin and his son Ma Dunjing were the only two Muslim generals who led a Muslim unit, the 81st corps, to ever serve in the PLA. Han Youwen, a Salar Muslim general, also defected to the PLA, in November 1950, some units of the PLA under the name of the Peoples Volunteer Army intervened in the Korean War as United Nations forces under General Douglas MacArthur approached the Yalu River. Under the weight of offensive, Chinese forces drove MacArthurs forces out of North Korea and captured Seoul. The war also served as a catalyst for the modernisation of the PLAAF
38.
Type 69 RPG
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The Type 69 85mm rocket propelled grenade, made by Norinco, is a Chinese copy of the RPG-7. First introduced in the early 1970s, the Type 69 RPG is a common individual anti-tank weapon in service with the PLA, new types of grenade rounds were developed in the 1980s and 1990s to meet the requirements of modern battlefields. The Type 69, like its predecessor the RPG-7, is one of the most popular infantry anti-tank and it is robust, cheap, easy to operate and effective. The weapon is well liked by many infantrymen and guerrillas around the world, the origin of the RPG can be traced back to the World War II German Panzerfaust, on which the Soviets based a range of grenade launchers. Among the most successful designs is the RPG-7, which was first fielded by the Soviet Red Army in 1961, China first obtained the RPG-2 85mm anti-tank RPG in the early 1950s, and began to build Chinese copies in 1957 under the designation Type 56. However, the development of the new generation main battle tanks in the early 1960s posed new threats to the PLA. Because the Type 56 was unable to penetrate the armour of the new generation Soviet tanks such as the T-62, reverse-engineering of the RPG-7 began in the early 1960s, and demonstrations were made to senior PLA officials in 1964. The Chinese copy of the RPG-7, designated Type 69, received its certificate in 1970. The weapon entered service with the PLA in the mid-1970s, and took part in the 1979 Sino-Vietnam border conflict to provide platoon-level anti-personnel and its performance was highly praised by the troops. The production of the Type 69 RPG stopped in the mid-1980s, an improved version of the Type 69 RPG called the Type 69-I is also being manufactured. A standard PLA infantry squad has two Type 69 RPG operators, each carrying one RPG launcher and three grenade rounds, there are also two assistant operators, each carrying three grenade rounds. A squad has a total of two launchers and 12 grenade rounds, in the light infantry troops deployed in the mountain and jungle regions in southern China, the Type 69 RPGs are equipped by the fire support platoon in the infantry company. The Type 69 is a shoulder-launched, muzzle-loaded anti-tank and anti-personnel grenade launcher which launches a variety of fin-stabilised, oversized grenades from its 40 mm tube, the launcher has an optical daylight sight and infrared night vision to provide increased fire accuracy. In general, the Type 69 is a low-cost, easy-to-use weapon with significant firepower and it is sometimes referred to as infantry artillery or pocket artillery. The type 69 RPG is a copy of the Soviet RPG-7, the Type 69 does not have a forward grip like the soviet RPG-7 as it was left out to lower production cost. The Type 69-I has major improvements, including a launch tube. Currently phased out of PLA service, Type 69-I hollow charge high-explosive anti-tank, standard HEAT grenade developed for the PLA in the 1980s. The hollow warhead was created with improved armour-piercing capabilities, Type 69-II HEAT, the same as the Type 69-I HEAT grenade, except that it is improved to defeat modern armoured vehicles that are equipped with anti-tank missile plating
39.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
40.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
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Afghanistan[12][better source needed]
Albania[13]
Armenia
Bangladesh[14][13]
Benin[13]
Bolivia[16]
Bosnia and Herzegovina[17]
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia[18][19][13]
Central African Republic[13]
Chad[13]
China[2]
Croatia: Used by Croatia in its war of independence.[20]
Democratic Republic of the Congo[13]
Djibouti
Ecuador[21]
Ethiopia[13]
Estonia[22]
Finland[23]
Gabon[13]
Gambia
Guyana[13]
India
Indonesia
Iran[13]
Iraq[13]
Iraqi Kurdistan
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Kosovo
Laos[13]
Lesotho[13]
Libya[13]
Madagascar[13]
Mali[13]
Malta[13]
Mexico
Morocco[13]
Myanmar
Nepal
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Korea[13]
Pakistan[13]
Palestine
Republic of the Congo[13]
Rwanda[24]
Sierra Leone[13]
Somalia[13]
South Sudan
Sri Lanka[13]
Sudan[25][13]
Syria[13]
Tajikistan
Tanzania[13]
Thailand
Timor-Leste[26]
Togo[13]
Uganda[27]
United States
Vietnam[2]
Yemen[13]
Zimbabwe[28][13]
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