Ardahan

The identity of a 19th-century Russian military officer who was found inside an unearthed coffin in the eastern province of Ardahan last month has been revealed, daily Habertürk reported on May 21.

The soldier was identified as Lt. Col. Karl Karlovich Rjepetsky, who was a member of the 78th Navaginsky regiment of the 20th infantry division of the 1st Caucasian Army Corps.

The Türközü border gate at the Turkish-Georgian border was closed for nearly three hours after a radiation alarm in the region. 

Machines at the Georgian customs gate detected radiation and it was later understood that it was coming from the Turkish side, prompting the Georgian authorities to warn officials in the eastern province of Ardahan, Doğan News Agency reported on May 9. 

A museum director in the eastern province of Kars has said the Russian soldier whose skeleton was found inside an unearthed coffin in the neighboring Ardahan province was a captain, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Kars Museum Director Necmettin Alp said the captain had probably served during the Russian invasion of Kars and Ardahan following the 1877-1878 Ottoman-Russian War.

Former Turkish consul-general Öztürk Y?lmaz, who was among 49 people kidnapped by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for 101 days in Iraq's Mosul and released in September 2014, has become a member of parliament on the Republican People's Party (CHP) ticket, while also helping the party to increase its votes in the Nov. 1 polls.