The old soldiers of a Middle East Republic (5)
I believe the answer is:
yemen
'a middle east republic' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'the old soldiers' is the wordplay.
'the old' becomes 'ye' (resembles a historical spelling of 'the').
'soldiers' becomes 'men' (men can mean a group of soldiers).
'ye'+'men'='YEMEN'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for yemen that I've seen before include "Saudi neighbour" , "Enemy (anag) - country of Arabia" , "Republic by the Red Sea" , "Aden is found here" , "Country bordering Oman" .)