In September 1993, Tolga served as an inadvertant electronic carrier pigeon when he relayed a message he had received over the Internet from a group of women in the former Russian Republic of Georgia. The country was under siege by Abkhazian rebels backed by Russian extremists who had cut all telephone lines leading outside the country.

The severed lines made voice communications to the outside world impossible. But via the Internet -- which originated as a backup communications system designed to stay operational even in the aftermath of a direct nuclear attack -- the message managed to reach Tolga.

The Georgian women knew Tolga's email address, having seen his earlier correspondence with scientists at the Georgian space research center. Through this serendipity, Tolga became their one chance of getting an important message to the United Nations.

"These people were desperate," Tolga says. "The actions of the rebel soldiers had made it impossible to communicate in any other way."

Tolga was asked by the Georgians to relay a call for help, addressed to UN Secretary General Butros Butros-Ghali: "The women of multi-ethnic Republic of Georgia appeal to you in this most difficult and fatal moment in the life of our country ... please give us help, send to our country the organized peacekeeping forces of the UN, help to cease this inhuman bloodshed."

The message got through. Predictably, the United Nations was slow to respond. UN peacekeeping forces arrived in Georgia after a month's delay and reported "numerous and serious human rights violations."