Operation Vulcan executed their latest warrant yesterday (3 May 2023) at a property on Great Ducie Street in Cheetham Hill.

 

The warrant was carried out after intelligence came to light suggesting the property - a large distribution warehouse - was being used to supply a network of counterfeit stores throughout Cheetham Hill.

 

The number of items seized have an estimated worth of £1.2million pounds.

 

The enterprise was so vast officers made use of a conveyor belt to speed up the transfer of seized items into waiting vehicles.

 

Over the last 6 months through relentless policing and support from dedicated partners, Operation Vulcan has turned the tide against the criminals. The support of partners has been integral to Operation Vulcan and that was on full display yesterday (3 May 2023) with over 15 departments, teams, organisations and partner representatives in attendance - including from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, Intellectual Property Office, Trading Standards, Brand Experts and Border Force.

 

GMFRS also raised concerns about the safety of the building, which led to it being issued it with a prohibition order.

 

Inspector Andy Torkington said: "The network of counterfeit stores in Cheetham Hill might seem chaotic and disorganised but this is far from the truth. The latest warrant demonstrates that these stores are well funded and well supplied and it's big business for organised crime groups who have been operating out of the area.

 

"This warrant is an opportunity to make a huge dent in the supply chain by cutting off the head of the supply snake. I hope it sends a message to any remaining counterfeit stores in the area who persist in trading to pack up now or face the consequences.

 

"Operation Vulcan is here to stay and we will continue making it unsustainable for criminal businesses to exist here and will work shoulder-to-shoulder with our partners to re-build the area into a thriving community where people feel safe.”

 

Neil Fairlamb, Strategic Director of Neighbourhoods for Manchester City Council said: "The work that has taken place throughout Operation Vulcan has shown the scope and scale of the counterfeit industry. It is huge enterprise, one which has had an incredibly negative impact on our communities. By striking a blow against this criminal supply chain we will succeed in forcing these traders out for good."

 

The Intellectual Property Office’s Deputy Director of Intelligence and Law Enforcement, Marcus Evans said: The Intellectual Property Office’s Deputy Director of Intelligence and Law Enforcement, Marcus Evans said: “Criminal networks are seeking to exploit consumers and communities for their own financial gain through the trade in illegal counterfeits – with absolutely no regard for the quality or safety of the items being sold, which are often dangerous and defective. Such items can cause genuine harm to the people who buy and use them, as well as those workers often exploited during their production.

 

“As well as helping to sustain serious and organised crime, the sale of counterfeit goods has been estimated to contribute to over 80,000 job loses each year in the UK by diverting funds away from legitimate traders and into the hands of criminals. We are pleased to support the ongoing activity by Greater Manchester Police to clamp down on this illegal activity and help protect the public, as we continue to work with partners across in industry, local government, and law enforcement to help empower consumers and raise awareness of the damage these goods cause.”

This portrait of Thomas Jefferson (Catalog Number INDE11883) was executed by Charles Willson Peale in 1791-2. Peale, who shared many of Jefferson's scientific and artistic interests, requested a portrait sitting from the Secretary of State in 1791. Less than a month later, Jefferson subscribed to the Peale Museum as one of its leading supporters, exchanging ideas and later donating gifts, most notably specimens from the Lew and Clark expedition.

 

Among Peale's most outstanding portraits, the Jefferson work demonstrates his virtuosity in its easy transition between light and shadows and defintion of features with m inial outline. Unique to this work are details such as the delicate eining around Jefferson's eye, the subtle high-lights on his lips and nose and the complementing shades of blue in the background, eyes and coat. This is the only portrait of Jefferson that shows his natural auburn hair. It was the first likeness of Jefferson disseminated through prints, copied as early as 1795 when William Birch displayed his artist's proof in the Columbianum exhibition. The painting was purchased by the City of Philadelphia in the 1854 Peale Museum sale.

 

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806). He idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of republican virtues, distrusted cities and financiers, and favored states' rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786). He was the eponym of Jeffersonian democracy and the co-founder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics for a quarter-century. Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781), first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793) and second Vice President (1797–1801). A polymath, Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor and founder of the University of Virginia.

 

The Second Bank of the United States, at 420 Chestnut Street, was chartered five years after the expiration of the First Bank of the United States in 1816 to keep inflation in check following the War of 1812. The Bank served as the depository for Federal funds until 1833, when it became the center of bitter controversy between bank president Nicholas Biddle and President Andrew Jackson. The Bank, always a privately owned institution, lost its Federal charter in 1836, and ceased operations in 1841. The Greek Revival building, built between 1819 and 1824 and modeled by architect William Strickland after the Parthenon, continued for a short time to house a banking institution under a Pennsylvania charter. From 1845 to 1935 the building served as the Philadelphia Customs House. Today it is open, free to the public, and features the "People of Independence" exhibit--a portrait gallery with 185 paintings of Colonial and Federal leaders, military officers, explorers and scientists, including many by Charles Willson Peale.

 

Independence National Historical Park preserves several sites associated with the American Revolution. Administered by the National Park Service, the 45-acre park was authorized in 1948, and established on July 4, 1956. The Second Bank of the United States was added to the Park's properties in 2006.

 

Second Bank of the United States National Register #87001293 (1987)

Independence National Park Historic District National Register #66000675 (1966)

from bit.ly/2UYCyIQ

 

Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships, that is why good ideas are always initially resisted.

 

Good ideas come with a heavy burden, which is why so few people execute them. So few people can handle it.

 

1. Ignore everybody.

 

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.

 

Your idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours alone. The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing.

 

3. Put the hours in.

 

If somebody in your industry is more successful than you, it’s probably because he works harder at it than you do.

 

4. Good ideas have lonely childhoods.

 

5. If your business plan depends on suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

 

6. You are responsible for your own experience.

 

7. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

 

8. Keep your day job.

 

The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often.

 

It’s balancing the need to make a good living while still maintaining one’s creative sovereignty.

 

The young writer who has to wait tables to pay the bills, in spite of her writing appearing in all the cool and hip magazines… who dreams of one day not having her life divided so harshly. Well, over time the “harshly” bit might go away, but not the “divided.” This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended. And nobody is immune. Not the struggling waiter, nor the movie star. As soon as you accept this, I mean really accept this, for some reason your career starts moving ahead faster.

 

9. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

 

10. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb. You may never reach the summit; for that you will be forgiven. But if you don’t make at least one serious attempt to get above the snow line, years later you will find yourself lying on your deathbed, and all you will feel is emptiness.

 

11. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

 

Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece on the back of a deli menu would not surprise me. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece with a silver Cartier fountain pen on an antique writing table in an airy SoHo loft would seriously surprise me.

 

A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind. Which is why there are so many second-rate art directors with state-of-the-art Macintosh computers.

 

Successful people, artists and nonartists alike, are very good at spotting pillars. They’re very good at doing without them. Even more important, once they’ve spotted a pillar, they’re very good at quickly getting rid of it. Good pillar management is one of the most valuable talents you can have on the planet.

 

Keep asking the question, “Is this a pillar?” about every aspect of our business, our craft, our reason for being alive, and go from there. The more we ask, the better we get at spotting pillars, the more quickly the pillars vanish.

 

12. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

 

13. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

 

You’re better off doing something on the assumption that you will not be rewarded for it, that it will not receive the recognition it deserves, that it will not be worth the time and effort invested in it. The obvious advantage to this angle is, of course, if anything good comes of it, then it’s an added bonus. The second, more subtle and profound advantage is that by scuppering all hope of worldly and social betterment from the creative act, you are finally left with only one question to answer: Do you make this damn thing exist or not?

 

14. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.

 

The more you practice your craft, the less you confuse worldly rewards with spiritual rewards, and vice versa.

 

Never sell something you love. Otherwise, you may as well be selling your children.

 

15. Dying young is overrated.

 

Every kid underestimates his competition, and overestimates his chances. Every kid is a sucker for the idea that there’s a way to make it without having to do the actual hard work.

 

The bars of West Hollywood, London, and New York are awash with people throwing their lives away in the desperate hope of finding a shortcut, any shortcut. Meanwhile the competition is at home, working their asses off.

 

16. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do from what you are not.

 

It is this red line that demarcates your sovereignty; that defines your own private creative domain. What crap you are willing to take, and what crap you’re not. What you are willing to relinquish control over, and what you aren’t. What price you are willing to pay, and what price you aren’t.

 

Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly.

 

When I see somebody “suffering for their art,” it’s usually a case of their not knowing where that red line is.

 

17. The world is changing.

 

If you want to be able to afford groceries in five years, I’d recommend listening closely to the (people who push change) and avoiding the (people who resist change).

 

In order to navigate the New Realities you have to be creative – not just within your particular profession, but in everything. Your way of looking at the world will need to become ever more fertile and original.

 

The old ways are dead. And you need people around you who concur. That means hanging out more with the creative people, the freaks, the real visionaries.

 

They’re easy enough to find if you make the effort, if you’ve got something worthwhile to offer in return.

 

Avoid the folk who play it safe. They can’t help you anymore. Their stability model no longer offers that much stability. They are extinct; they are extinction.

 

18. Merit can be bought. Passion can’t. The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.

 

Part of understanding the creative urge is understanding that it’s primal.

 

We think we’re “Providing a superior integrated logistic system” or “Helping America to really taste Freshness.” In fact we’re just pissed off and want to get the hell out of the cave and kill the woolly mammoth.

 

19. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.

 

20. Sing in your own voice.

 

The really good artists, the really successful entrepreneurs, figure out how to circumvent their limitations, figure out how to turn their strengths into weaknesses.

 

Had Bob Dylan been more of a technical virtuoso, he might not have felt the need to give his song lyrics such power and resonance.

 

21. The choice of media is irrelevant.

 

My cartooning MO was and still is to just have a normal life, be a regular schmoe, with a terrific hobby on the side. It’s not exactly rocket science. This attitude seemed fairly alien to the Art Majors I met. Their chosen art form seemed more like a religion to them. It was serious. It was important. It was a big part of their identity, and it almost seemed to them that humanity’s very existence totally depended on their being able to pursue their dream as a handsomely rewarded profession.

 

22. Selling out is harder than it looks.

 

Diluting your product to make it more “commercial” will just make people like it less.

 

23. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

 

24. Worrying about “Commercial vs. Artistic” is a complete waste of time.

 

It’s not about whether Tom Clancy sells truckloads of books or a Nobel Prize winner sells diddly-squat. Those are just ciphers, external distractions. To me, it’s about what you are going to do with the short time you have left on this earth. Different criteria altogether. Frankly, how a person nurtures and develops his or her own “creative sovereignty,” with or without the help of the world at large, is in my opinion a much more interesting subject.

 

25. Don’t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

 

Find a way of working that makes it dead easy to take full advantage of your inspired moments. They never hit at a convenient time, nor do they last long.

 

Writer’s block is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the rather weird idea that you should feel the need to say something.

 

Why? If you have something to say, then say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts. The noise will return soon enough.

 

26. You have to find your own shtick.

 

Jackson Pollock discovering splatter paint. Or Robert Ryman discovering all-white canvases. Andy Warhol discovering silk-screen. Hunter S. Thompson discovering gonzo journalism. Duchamp discovering the found object. Jasper Johns discovering the American flag. Hemingway discovering brevity. James Joyce discovering stream-of-consciousness prose.

 

Somehow while playing around with something new, suddenly they found they were able to put their entire selves into it.

 

27. Write from the heart.

 

28. The best way to get approval is not to need it.

 

29. Power is never given. Power is taken.

 

The minute you become ready is the minute you stop dreaming. Suddenly it’s no longer about “becoming.” Suddenly it’s about “doing.”

 

You didn’t go in there, asking the editor to give you power. You went in there and politely informed the editor that you already have the power. That’s what being “ready” means. That’s what “taking power” means. Not needing anything from another person in order to be the best in the world.

 

30. Whatever choice you make, the Devil gets his due eventually.

 

31. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

 

32. Remain frugal.

 

Part of being creative is learning how to protect your freedom. That includes freedom from avarice.

 

33. Allow your work to age with you. You become older faster than you think. Be ready for it when it happens.

 

34. Being Poor Sucks. The biggest mistake young people make is underestimating how competitive the world is out there.

 

35. Beware of turning hobbies into jobs.

 

James Gold-Smith once quipped, “When a man marries his mistress, he immediately creates a vacancy.” What’s true in philanderers is also true in life.

 

“Before, this man had a job and a hobby. Now suddenly, he’s just got the job, but no hobby anymore. But a man needs both, you see. And now what does this man, who’s always had a hobby, do with his time?” My friend held up his glass. “Answer: Drink.”

 

36. Savor obscurity while it lasts. Once you “make it,” your work is never the same.

 

if they were still “eating dog food” after a few decades, I doubt if they’d be waxing so lyrically. But as long as you can progress from it eventually, it’s a time to be savored. A time when your work is still new to you, a time when the world doesn’t need to be fed,

 

37. Start blogging.

 

38. Meaning scales

 

The post Ignore Everybody – by Hugh MacLeod appeared first on Entreprenergy.

 

Mustafa İsmet İnönü (Turkish pronunciation: [isˈmet ˈinœny]; 23 September 1886 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish army officer and statesman who served as the second president of Turkey from November 11, 1938, to May 22 1950, and as its prime minister three times: from 1923 to 1924, 1925 to 1937, and 1961 to 1965.

 

İnönü is acknowledged by many as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's right-hand man, with their friendship going back to the Caucasus campaign. In the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, he served as the first chief of the General Staff from 1922 to 1924 for the regular Turkish army, during which he commanded forces during the First and Second Battles of İnönü. Atatürk bestowed İsmet with the surname İnönü, the site of the battles, when the 1934 Surname Law was adopted. He was also chief negotiator in the Mudanya and Lausanne conferences for the Ankara government, successfully negotiating away the Sevre treaty for the Treaty of Lausanne. As his prime minister for most of his presidency, İnönü executed many of Atatürk's modernizing and nationalist reforms. İnönü gave the orders to carry out the Zilan Massacre.

 

İnönü succeeded Atatürk as president of Turkey after his death in 1938 and was granted the official title of Millî Şef ("National Chief" by the parliament. As president and chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), İnönü initially continued Turkey's one party state. Kemalist style programs continued to make great strides in education by supporting projects such as Village Institutes. His governments implemented notably heavy statist economic policies. The Hatay State was annexed in 1939, and Turkey was able to maintain an armed neutrality during World War II, joining the Allied powers only three months before the end of the European Theater. The Turkish Straits crisis prompted İnönü to build closer ties with the Western powers, with the country eventually joining NATO in 1952, though by then he was no longer president.

 

Factionalism between statists and liberals in the CHP led to the creation of the Democrat Party in 1946. İnönü held the first multiparty elections in the Republic's history that year, beginning Turkey's multiparty period. 1950 saw a peaceful transfer of power to the Democrats when the CHP suffered defeat in the elections. For ten years, İnönü served as the leader of the opposition before returning to power as prime minister following the 1961 election, held after the 1960 coup-d'état. The 1960s saw İnönü reinvent the CHP as a political party, which was "Left of Center" as a new party cadre led by Bülent Ecevit became more influential. İnönü remained leader of the CHP until 1972, when he was defeated by Ecevit in a leadership contest. He died on December 25, 1973, of a heart attack, at the age of 89. He is interred opposite to Atatürk's mausoleum at Anıtkabir in Ankara.

 

İsmet İnönü (born Mustafa İsmet) was born in 1886 in Smyrna (İzmir) in the Aidin Vilayet to Hacı Reşit and Cevriye (later Cevriye Temelli). Hacı Reşit was retired after serving as director of the First Examinant Department of the Legal Affairs Bureau of the War Ministry (Harbiye Nezareti Muhakemat Dairesi Birinci Mümeyyizliği). A member of the Kürümoğlu family of Bitlis, İnönü's father was born in Malatya. According to its members studying the ancestral background of the family, Kürümoğlus were of Turkish origin, while secondary sources refer to the family as of Kurdish descent. His mother was the daughter of Müderris Hasan Efendi, who belonged to the ulem and was a member of the Turkish family of Razgrad (present-day Bulgaria). In 1933 he visited Razgrad since the city's Turkish cemetery was attacked. İsmet was the family's second child; he had three brothers, including the family's first child, Ahmet Midhat, two younger brothers, Hasan Rıza and Hayri (Temelli), as well as a sister Seniha (Otakan). Due to his father's assignments, the family moved from one city to another.

 

İnönü completed his primary education in Sivas and graduated from Sivas Military Junior High School (Sivas Askerî Rüştiyesi) in 1894. He then studied at the Sivas School for Civil Servants (Sivas Mülkiye İdadisi) for a year. He graduated from the Imperial School of Military Engineering in 1904 as a lieutenant gunnery officer and entered the Military Academy to graduate as a first-rank staff captain on September 26, 1906. İnönü started his duty in the Second Army based in Adrianople (Edirne) on October 2, 1906, in the 3rd Battery Command of the 8th Field Artillery Regiment. As part of his platoon officer staff internship, he gave lessons in military strategy and artillery. Captain İsmet was also part of the Ottoman–Bulgarian commissions.

 

Through Ali Fethi (Okyar), he briefly joined the Committee of Union and Progress in 1907, which wished to overthrow Sultan Abdul Hamid II. During the 31 March Incident, he was on the staff of the Second Cavalry Division, which was mobilized to join the Action Army and marched on Constantinople (İstanbul) to depose Abdul Hamid II. Returning to Adrianople following the suppression of the mutiny, İnönü left the committee in the summer of 1909.

 

He won his first military victory by suppressing Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamiddin's revolt in Yemen. İsmet eventually became chief of staff of the force sent to suppress the rebellion and personally negotiated with Imam Yahya in Kaffet-ül-Uzer to bring Yemen back into the empire. For this, he was promoted to the rank of major. He returned to Constantinople in March 1913 to defend the capital from Bulgarian attack during the First Balkan War. İnönü was part of the Turkish delegation that negotiated the Treaty of Constantinople with the Bulgarians as a military adviser. He held a close relationship with Enver Pasha and played an active role in the reformation of the army.

 

İnönü began climbing the ranks during World War I, becoming lieutenant colonel on November 29, 1914, and then being appointed as the First Branch Manager of the General Headquarters on December 2. He was appointed chief of staff of the Second Army on October 9, 1915, and was promoted to the rank of colonel on December 14 December 1915.

 

Inönü married Emine Mevhibe Hanim on April 13, 1917, when he was 31 and she was only 20 (for she was more than ten years his junior whilst he was more than ten years her senior), three weeks before he left for the front to return home only after the conclusion of the Armistice of Mudros on October 30, 1918.[13] Of which she later bore his three sons and one daughter. He began working with Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) Pasha as a corps commander on the Caucasian Front. İnönü was appointed to the IV Corps Command on January 12, 1917, upon the recommendation of Atatürk. He was recalled to Constantinople after a while and returned to take part as a corps commander of the Seventh Army. On May 1, he was appointed to command XX Corps on the Palestine Front, and then III Corps on June 20. He once again came into contact with Atatürk when he assumed command of the Seventh Army. İnönü's forces received the brunt of Edmond Allenby's attack on Beersheba that ended the stalemate on the Sinai front. He was wounded in the Battle of Megiddo and was sent back to Constantinople, where he held various administrative positions in the War Ministry during the armistice period.

 

After the military occupation of Constantinople on March 16, 1920, İnönü decided to escape to Anatolia to join the Ankara government. He and his chief of staff, Major Saffet (Arıkan) escaped Maltepe in the evening of March 19 and arrived in Ankara on April 9. He joined the Grand National Assembly (GNA), which was opened on April 23, 1920, as a deputy of Edirne. Like many others in the Turkish National Movement, he was sentenced to death in absentia by the Ottoman government on June 6, 1920. In May 1920, he was appointed chief of the general staff. The next year, he was appointed commander of the Western Front of the Army of the GNA, a position in which he remained during the Turkish War of Independence. He was promoted to the rank of Mirliva (to that extent, Pasha) after winning the First and Second Battle of İnönü. When the 1934 Surname Law was adopted Atatürk bestowed İsmet Pasha with the surname İnönü, where the battles took place.

 

İnönü was replaced by Mustafa Fevzi Pasha (Çakmak), who was also the prime minister and minister of defense at the time, as the chief of staff after the Turkish forces lost major battles against the advancing Greek Army in July 1921, as a result of which the cities of Afyonkarahisar, Kütahya and Eskişehir were temporarily lost. During the war, İnönü's infant son İzzet died before his victory in Sakarya and this news was only delivered to him in the spring of 1922. His wife, Emine Mevhibe hid the news and the severity of his son's sickness due to the intensity of the war. He participated as a staff officer (with the rank Brigadier General) in the later battles, including Dumlupınar.

 

Chief negotiator in Mudanya and Lausanne

See also: Armistice of Mudanya and Treaty of Lausanne

After the War of Independence was won, İnönü was appointed as the chief negotiator of the Turkish delegation, both for the Armistice of Mudanya and for the Treaty of Lausanne.

 

The Lausanne conference convened in late 1922 to settle the terms of a new treaty that would take the place of the Treaty of Sèvres. İnönü became famous for his stubborn resolve in determining the position of Ankara as the legitimate, sovereign government of Turkey. After delivering his position, İsmet turned off his hearing aid during the speeches of British foreign secretary Lord Curzon. When Curzon had finished, İnönü reiterated his position as if Curzon had never said a word.

 

İsmet İnönü served as the prime minister of Turkey throughout Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's presidency, stepping down as prime minister for three months during Fethi Okyar's premiership and in the last year of Atatürk's presidency when he was replaced by Celal Bayar. İnönü therefore helped to execute most of Atatürk's reformist programs. It was his suggestion to make Ankara the capital of Turkey, which was approved by the parliament. İnönü was also an important factor in the proclamation of the Republic and the abolition of the Caliphate and Evkaf Ministry. He resigned from the premiership for health reasons on November 22, 1924 for Fethi Okyar, but since Okyar lost a vote of confidence from parliament due to the Sheikh Said rebellion, İnönü returned to the prime ministry.

 

İnönü immediately banned all opposition parties (including the Progressive Republican Party) and the press. Independence Tribunals were reestablished to prosecute the Kurdish rebels. In 1926, it allegedly came out that former members of the CUP attempted to assassinate Atatürk in the İzmir plot, which resulted in the remaining CUP leaders being executed. İnönü retired his military command in 1927.

 

While dealing with the Sheikh Said revolt, İnönü proclaimed a Turkish nationalist policy and encouraged the Turkification of the non-Turkish population. Following the suppression of the Sheikh Said rebellion, he presided over the Reform Council for the East, which prepared the Report for Reform in the East, which recommended impede the establishment of a Kurdish elite, forbid non-Turkish languages, and create regional administrative units called Inspectorates-General, which were to be governed by martial law. He stated the following in regards to the Kurds; "We're frankly nationalists, and nationalism is our only factor of cohesion. Before the Turkish majority, other elements had no kind of influence. At any price, we must turkify the inhabitants of our land, and we will annihilate those who oppose." Following this report, three Inspectorates-General were established in the Kurdish areas, which comprise several provinces. On the direct order of İnönü, the Zilan massacre of thousands of Kurdish civilians was perpetrated by the Turkish Land Forces in the Zilan Valley of Van Province on July 12 and 13, 1930, during the Ararat rebellion. Nation building was codified into law when a new settlement regime was enacted in 1934, resettling Albanians, Abkhazians, Circassians, and Kurds in new areas in order to create a homogeneous Turkish state.

 

İnönü was responsible for most of the reformist legislation promulgated during Turkey's one party period. The Hat Law and the closure of Dervish lodges were enacted in 1925; in 1928, the Turkish alphabet switched to being written with Latin characters, and in 1934, titles such as Efendi, Bey, and Pasha were abolished; and certain articles of religious clothing were banned, though İnönü was and still is popularly known as İsmet Pasha. 1934 was also the year that the Surname Law was adopted, with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk bestowing İsmet with the surname İnönü, the location where İsmet won the battles against the Greek army in 1921. He was also a proponent of replacing foreign loan words with "Pure Turkish" words.

 

İnönü managed the economy with heavy-handed government intervention, especially during the Great Depression, by implementing an economic plan inspired by the Five Year Plan of the Soviet Union. In doing so, he took much private property under government control. Due to his efforts, to this day, more than 70% of land in Turkey is still owned by the state.

 

Desiring a more liberal economic system, Atatürk dissolved the government of İnönü in 1937 and appointed Celâl Bayar, the founder of the first Turkish commercial bank, Türkiye İş Bankası, as prime minister, thus beginning a decades long rivalry between Bayar and İnönü.

 

After the death of Atatürk on November 10, 1938, İnönü was viewed as the most appropriate candidate to succeed him and was unanimously elected the second president of the Republic of Turkey and leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP). He attempted to build himself a cult of personality by receiving the official title of Millî Şef, i.e., "National Chief".

 

One of his first actions was to annex in 1939 the Hatay State, which declared independence from French Syria. İnönü also wished to move on from one-party rule by taking incremental steps to multiparty politics. He hoped to accomplish this by establishing the Independent Group as a force of opposition in the parliament, but they fell short of expectations under wartime conditions. İnönü dismissed Bayar's government because of differences between the two on economic policy in 1939. İnönü was an avowed statist, while Bayar wished for a more liberal economy. Turkey's early industrialization accelerated under İnönü but the onset of World War II disrupted economic growth.

 

Much reform in education was accomplished during İnönü's presidency through the efforts of Hasan Âli Yücel, who was minister of education throughout İnönü's governments. 1940 saw the establishment of the Village Institutes, in which well-performing students from the country were selected to train as teachers and return to their hometown to run community development programs.

 

World War II broke out in the first year of his presidency, and both the Allies and the Axis pressured İnönü to bring Turkey into the war on their side. The Germans sent Franz von Papen to Ankara in April 1939, while the British sent Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen and the French René Massigli. On April 23, 1939, Turkish Foreign Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu told Knatchbull-Hugessen of his nation's fears of Italian claims to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum and German control of the Balkans and suggested an Anglo-Soviet-Turkish alliance as the best way of countering the Axis. In May 1939, during the visit of Maxime Weygand to Turkey, İnönü told the French Ambassador René Massigli that he believed that the best way of stopping Germany was an alliance of Turkey, the Soviet Union, France and Britain; that if such an alliance came into being, the Turks would allow Soviet ground and air forces onto their soil; and that he wanted a major programme of French military aid to modernize the Turkish armed forces.

 

The signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on August 23, 1939, drew Turkey away from the Allies; the Turks always believed that it was essential to have the Soviet Union as an ally to counter Germany, and thus the signing of the German-Soviet pact undercut completely the assumptions behind Turkish security policy. With the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, İnönü chose to be neutral in World War II as taking on Germany and the Soviet Union at the same time would be too much for Turkey, though he signed a tripartite treaty of alliance with Britain and France on October 19, 1939, obligating Turkey's entry into the war if fighting spread to the Mediterranean. However, with France's defeat in June 1940 İnönü abandoned the pro-Allied neutrality that he had followed since the beginning of the war. A major embarrassment for the Turks occurred in July 1940 when the Germans captured and published documents from the Quai d'Orsay in Paris showing the Turks were aware of Operation Pike—as the Anglo-French plan in the winter of 1939–40 to bomb the oil fields in the Soviet Union from Turkey was codenamed—which was intended by Berlin to worsen relations between Ankara and Moscow. In turn, worsening relations between the Soviet Union and Turkey were intended to drive Turkey into the arms of the Reich. After the publication of the French documents relating to Operation Pike, İnönü pulled out of the tripartide pact signed with Britain and France and signed the German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship and the Clodius Agreement, which placed Turkey within the German economic sphere of influence, but İnönü went no further towards the Axis.

 

In the first half of 1941, Germany, which was intent on invading the Soviet Union, went out of its way to improve relations with Turkey as the Reich hoped for benevolent Turkish neutrality when the German-Soviet war began. At the same time, the British had great hopes in the spring of 1941 when they dispatched an expeditionary force to Greece that İnönü could be persuaded to enter the war on the Allied side as the British leadership had high hopes of creating a Balkan front that would tie down German forces, which thus led to a major British diplomatic offensive with Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden visiting Ankara several times to meet with İnönü. İnönü always told Eden that the Turks would not join the British forces in Greece, and the Turks would only enter the war if Germany attacked Turkey. For his part, Papen offered İnönü parts of Greece if Turkey were to enter the war on the Axis side, an offer İnönü declined. In May 1941 when the Germans dispatched an expeditionary force to Iraq to fight against the British, İnönü refused Papen's request that the German forces be allowed transit rights to Iraq. Another attempt by Hitler to woo Turkey came in February 1943, when Talaat Pasha's remains were returned to Turkey for a state burial.

 

Internal opposition to Turkish neutrality came from ultra-nationalist circles and factions of the military that wished to incorporate the Turkic-populated areas of the Soviet Union by allying with Germany. This almost erupted into a coup d'état against the government. Leading pan-Turkists including Alparslan Türkeş, Nihal Atsız, and Şaik Gökyay were arrested and sentenced time in prison in the Racism-Turanism trials.

 

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill traveled to Ankara in January 1943 for a conference with President İnönu to urge Turkey's entry into the war on the allied side. Churchill met secretly with İnönü inside a railroad car at the Yenice Station near Adana. By 4–6 December 1943, İnönü felt confident enough about the outcome of the war that he met openly with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference. Until 1941, both Roosevelt and Churchill thought that Turkey's continued neutrality would serve the interests of the Allies by blocking the Axis from reaching the strategic oil reserves of the Middle East. But the early victories of the Axis up to the end of 1942 caused Roosevelt and Churchill to re-evaluate possible Turkish participation in the war on the side of the Allies. Turkey had maintained a decently-sized army and air force throughout the war, and Churchill wanted the Turks to open a new front in the Balkans. Roosevelt, on the other hand, still believed that a Turkish attack would be too risky and an eventual Turkish failure would have disastrous effects for the Allies.

 

İnönü knew very well the hardships that his country had suffered during decades of incessant war between 1908 and 1922 and was determined to keep Turkey out of another war as long as he could. The young Turkish Republic was still re-building, recovering from the losses due to earlier wars, and lacked any modern weapons and the infrastructure to enter a war to be fought along and possibly within its borders. İnönü based his neutrality policy during the Second World War on the premise that Western Allies and the Soviet Union would sooner or later have a falling out after the war. Thus, İnönu wanted assurances on financial and military aid for Turkey, as well as a guarantee that the United States and the United Kingdom would stand beside Turkey in the event of a Soviet invasion of the Turkish Straits after the war. In August 1944, İnönü broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, and on January 5, 1945, İnönü severed diplomatic relations with Japan. Shortly afterwards, İnönü allowed Allied shipping to use the Turkish Straits to send supplies to the Soviet Union, and on February 25, 1945, he declared war on Germany and Japan. For this Turkey became a founding member of the United Nations.

 

The post-war tensions and arguments surrounding the Turkish Straits would come to be known as the Turkish Straits crisis. The fear of Soviet invasion and Joseph Stalin's unconcealed desire for Soviet military bases in the Turkish Straits eventually caused Turkey to give up its principle of neutrality in foreign relations and join NATO in February 1952.

 

Domestic policy

Maintaining an armed neutrality proved to be disruptive for the young republic. The country existed in a practical state of war throughout the Second World War: military production was prioritized at the expense of peacetime goods, rationing and curfews were implemented, and high taxes were put in place, causing severe economic hardship for many. One such tax was the Wealth Tax (Varlık Vergisi), a discriminatory tax that demanded very high one-time payments from Turkey's non-Muslim minorities. This tax is seen by many to be a continuation of the Jizya tax paid by dhimmis during Ottoman times, or Millî İktisat (National Economy) economic policy implemented by the Committee of Union and Progress regime three decades ago. It was only repealed in 1944 under American and British pressure.

 

A famous story of İnönü happened in a meeting in Bursa for the 1969 general elections. A young man yelled at him, "You let us go without food!" İnönü replied to him by saying, "Yes, I let you go without food, but I did not let you become fatherless," implying the death of millions of people from both sides of World War II.

 

For the Kemalists there was always a desire for Turkey to develop into a democracy. Before the Independent Group, Atatürk experimented with opposition through the Liberal Republican Party, which lasted three months before it had to be shut down when reactionaries threatened to hijack the party. In an opening speech to the Grand National Assembly on November 1, 1945, İnönü openly expressed the country's need for an opposition party. He welcomed Celal Bayar establishing the Democrat Party (DP), which separated from the CHP. However, due to the anti-Communist hysteria brought on by the new Soviet threat, new leftist parties were swiftly banned, and rural development initiatives such as the Village Institutes and People's Rooms were closed. Even with such pressure on the left, İnönü established the Ministry of Labour in 1945 and signed into law important protections for workers. Universities were given autonomy, and İnönü's title of "unchangeable chairman" of CHP was abolished.

 

İnönü allowed for Turkey's first multiparty elections to be held in 1946; however, the elections were infamously not free and fair; voting was carried out under the gaze of onlookers who could determine which voters had voted for which parties, and secrecy prevailed as to the subsequent counting of votes. Instead of inviting Şükrü Saraçoğlu to form another government, he assigned CHP hardliner Recep Peker to the task, who contributed to a polarizing atmosphere in the parliament. İnönü had to act as a mediator several times between Peker and Bayar, who threatened to have the DP walk from parliament if they didn't have some of their demands met, such as ensuring judicial review, secret ballots, and public counting for elections. On 12 July 1947 İsmet İnönü gave a speech broadcast on radio and in newspapers that he would stand equal distance from the government and opposition, prompting Peker's resignation.

 

Free and fair national elections had to wait until 1950, and on that occasion, İnönü's government was defeated. In the 1950 election campaign, the leading figures of the Democrat Party used the slogan "Geldi İsmet, kesildi kısmet" ("İsmet arrived, [our] fortune left"). CHP lost the election with 41% of the vote against DP's 55%, but due to the winner-takes-all electoral system, DP received 85% of the seats in parliament. İnönü presided over the peaceful transfer of power to the DP leaders, Bayar and Adnan Menderes. Bayar would serve as Turkey's third president, and Menderes would be its first prime minister not from the CHP.

 

For ten years, İnönü served as the leader of the opposition. In opposition, the CHP established its youth and women's branches. On June 22 June 1953, the establishment of trade unions and vocational chambers was proposed, and the right to strike for workers was added to the party program. The CHP formed an electoral alliance with the Republican Nation Party and Liberty party for the 1957 election, which was blocked by the DP government.

 

In the lead-up to the elections prepared for 1960, İnönü and CHP members faced regular harassment from the authorities and DP supporters, to the point where he was almost lynched several times. In 1958, the DP mayor of Zile declared martial law and mobilized the gendarmerie to prevent İnönü from conducting a rally in the city; a similar event happened in the city of Çankırı. In 1959, İnönü began a campaign tour that followed the same path he took thirty years ago as a Pasha from Uşak to İzmir and ended in victory for the Turkish nationalists. The DP minister of interior refused to promise protection to him. In Uşak, a crowd blocked İnönü from going to his podium, and he was hit in the head with a stone. Following his "Great Offensive," he flew to Istanbul, where he was almost lynched by a DP-organized mob on the way to Topkapı Palace. He was also banned from speaking in rallies in Kayseri and Yeşilhisar.

 

İnönü was banned from 12 sessions of parliament. This coincided an authoritarian turn of the Democrat Party, which culminated in a military coup.

 

The Turkish Armed Forces overthrew the government as a result of the military coup on 27 May 1960. After one year of junta rule in which the Democrat Party was banned and its top leaders executed in the Yassıada Trials, elections were held once the military returned to their barracks. İnönü returned to power as Prime Minister after the 1961 election, in which the CHP won the election. Right-wing parties have since continuously attacked İnönü and the CHP for their perceived involvement in the hanging of Prime minister Menderes, even though İnönü advocated for Menderes' pardoning.

 

İnönü's governments were defined by an effort to deescalate tensions between radical forces in the Turkish army wishing for extended junta rule and former Democrats that wished for amnesty. İnönü's CHP did not gain enough seats in the legislature to win a majority in the elections, so in an effort to create reconciliation, he formed coalition governments with the neo-Democrat Justice Party the New Turkey Party and the Republican Villagers Nation Party until 1965. Forming coalitions with DP successor parties, however, provoked radical officers into action. Colonel Talat Aydemir twice attempted to overthrow the government in 1962 and 1963 Turkish coup d'etat attempt. Aydemir was later executed for conducting both coups. Aydemir's 1962 coup had the most potential to succeed when İnönü, President Cemal Gürsel and Chief of Staff Cevdet Sunay were held up in Çankaya Mansion by the putschists. Aydemir decided to let the group go, which foiled the coup.

 

While in coalition with the far-right Republican Villagers Nation Party, İnönü renounced the Greco-Turkish Treaty of Friendship of 1930 and took actions against the Greek minority. The Turkish government also strictly enforced a long-overlooked law barring Greek nationals from 30 professions and occupations; for example, Greeks could not be doctors, nurses, architects, shoemakers, tailors, plumbers, cabaret singers, ironsmiths, cooks, tourist guides, etc., and 50,000 more Greeks were deported. These actions were taken because of the growing anti-Greek sentiment in Turkey after the ethnic conflict in Cyprus flared up again. With an invasion of the island imminent, American President Lyndon Johnson sent a memorandum to İnönü, effectively vetoing Turkish intervention. A subsequent meeting at the White House between İnönü and Johnson on June 22, 1964, meant Cyprus' status quo continued for another ten years. An event a couple years earlier also strained the otherwise amicable relationship İnönü held with Washington, namely the withdrawal of the nuclear-armed PGM-19 Jupiter MRBMs briefly stationed in Turkey, which was undertaken in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. While Washington withdrew the MRBMs, some B61 nuclear bombs are still stored in İncirlik Air Base.

 

İnönü's governments established the National Security Council, Turkish Statistical Institute, and Turkey's leading research institute, TÜBİTAK. Turkey signed the Ankara agreement, the first treaty of cooperation with the European Economic Community, and also increased ties with Iran and Pakistan. The army was modernized, and the National Intelligence Organization was founded. İnönü was instrumental in establishing CHP as "Left of Center" on the political spectrum as a new left-wing party cadre led by his protégé Bülent Ecevit became more influential. İnönü survived an assassination attempt from a Menderes supporter in 1964.

 

İnönü returned to the opposition after losing both the 1965 and 1969 general elections to a much younger man, Justice Party leader Süleyman Demirel. He remained leader of the CHP until 1972, when an interparty crisis over his endorsement of the 1971 military memorandum led to his defeat by Ecevit in the 5th extraordinary CHP convention. This was the first overthrow of a party leader in a leadership contest in the Republic's history. İnönü left his party and resigned his parliamentarianship afterward. Being a former president he was a member of the Senate in the last year of his life.

 

On December 25, 1973, İsmet İnönü died of a heart attack at the age of 87. The parliament declared national mourning until his burial. He was interred at Anıtkabir opposite Atatürk's mausoleum, on December 28. Following the 1980 coup, Kenan Evren transferred twelve graves from Anıtkabir, but kept İnönü's in place. İnönü's tomb took its present shape in January 1997.

 

Sinta (Greek: Σίντα; Turkish: İnönü or Sinde) is a village in the Famagusta District of Cyprus. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus. The village was recorded as early as the early 13th century in papal documents.

 

Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.

 

A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.

 

Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 

Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.

 

Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.

 

Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.

 

The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.

 

Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.

 

Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.

 

By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.

 

EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.

 

However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.

 

On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.

 

In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.

 

By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.

 

In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.

 

The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.

 

After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".

 

As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.

 

Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

 

On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.

 

Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.

 

The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis". Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.

 

Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.

 

Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria

An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."

 

In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.

 

Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.

 

In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.

 

Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.

 

Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.

 

Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.

 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:

 

UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.

 

The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.

 

By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."

 

After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.

 

On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.

 

The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.

 

During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.

 

In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.

 

Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.

 

A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.

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#ELDER_SCROLL_OF_MNEM_0.0♾😻

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ℹ️8️⃣📞📲📳☎️♾💁‍♂️

 

ℹ️▶️⏯⏭↕️🔘https://youtu.be/bS5JnGBmghM

 

First of all; the #FBI does not have the clearance, to be in possession, of my nuclear codesz.

 

Load, Load, Load; you're too slow, #YouTube. And do you know what that means? It means that you are #Guilty of #HighTreason. &, do you know what that means? It means that you are #Executed by #FiringSquad.

 

Nope; your apology means nothing to me. It means, that you are still #Executed by #FiringSquad.

 

That's one☝️. Two✌️; I👆, told you💭💬📣🔊📢; I did not suggest to you – I told you, #YouTube; that I need 14-15,000 characters🔤🔡🔠🔢; &, you refused to comply. Therefore; you are shot🔫 to death – #Executed for #HighTreason, twice✌️👋😽💀😵.👀‍

 

Three3️⃣☘️; #JohnPaulMacIssac: I simply, or merely, tell💭💬📣🔊📢 the #FBI, to go & fuck themselves; & to eat shit💩🚽, & die💀😵⚰️⚱️. 👀‍

 

☎️▶️⏯⏩⏭➡️🔀↕️🔘https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=qKVkhQQXEGE&feature=share

 

She asked me to cum⛲️💦💧🌊🎣🐟🔫 over, to #Steinway🎹🏭, in #Astoria👸; & then, after driving from #Pennsylvania #Pistolvania, she was on the #AOL_IM #AIM, w/ #JesseHenry. I told her that she was being rude; & she told me to go & fuck myself. So; I left, drove home🏡, & ate the cost💸 of travel. &, I went & fuckt myself. &; she was unhappy that I left; & she didn't get none. &; I don't really give a fuck. She can eat shit💩🚽, & die💀.👀‍❄️ @/#GregGutfeld #CarleyShimkus

 

#OliviaCampbellPatton #OliviaWildeNeeCockburne

 

🏰🏯🔘https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigiriya

 

By the way; it is #Ceylon; do not offend me again. This is your first(ly)☝️, & only⏳⌛️ warning⚠️⛔️☣️☢️

 

#SAP_q / #SAR_Q, how-ever, not #SAP-q / #SAR-Q; #RobertCharles #THE_COMMODORES_CIRCLE.👀‍😾😠😤😡

 

‍👀😎⚠️⛔️☣️☢️🔘https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_access_program#:~:text=Special%20access%20programs%20%28SAPs%29%20in%20the%20U.S.%20Federal,that%20exceed%20those%20for%20regular%20%28collateral%29%20classified%20information.

 

☝️; there is no quick select, of 20,000+ images, on #iPhone, #Apple #TimCook. ✌️; there is no #conspicuous way to remove the #Slideslow option, on #iPhone, w/ your shitty, shitty musick selection. Therefore, I cannot turn it off. Oh, by the way; I cannot trash individual #AppCaches, neither, all of them, in a single tap. Take a wild guess what that means for you; all of you. #HighTreason = #Execution🔫 @ the #Gallows💀😵, or #Gibbet💀😵.👋👋👋

 

3️⃣; @/ #GregGutfeld‼️⚠️ : The #Saxophone🎷 is lame, gey, & any-person, who may believe it to be kool, or trendy, or even good; they may eat shit💩🚽, & die💀😵.

 

4️⃣ By the way; #SullyErna; you're a bitch.👋💀

 

🔘https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=R8pj2y39_jc&feature=share

 

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It is nice to see #TulsiGabbard; @/#FoxNewsCorp.

 

@/ #JennaLeeUSA I 👀‍ see ❄️🍧🍨🍦⛸ (also, #Björk) two✌️👩‍⚖️😌 #RingsOfPower ‍♀️🆗🙆‍♀️☎️🔥♨️💍🔏✍️👩‍💃👩‍💍👨‍👌🙆‍♂️🆗☑️🔲🔳▫️ℹ️🔘https://youtu.be/Pqijx0pnn3c

 

#Owlephant

•———————————•

#ELDER_SCROLL_OF_MNEM_0.0♾😻

•———————————•

#EvanRachelWood-._•✏️📝✍️🔏🐧

 

--WRW

 

_.• ✍️🔏

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The photo is executed in technique «LightGraphic » or «The painting of light», that assumes illumination of model by small light sources in darkness on long endurance.

Thus, all lightcloth (composition) - is one Photo Exposition, is embodied on a matrix of the camera in one click of a shutter.

 

We submit the sample photos in this series in three-nine-square.

Photos is possible to look here:

www.horyma.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=723

Today, Thursday 16 November 2017, police executed warrants at eight addresses across the Moss Side and Hulme areas of Manchester.

 

The warrants were executed as the latest phase of Operation Malham, targeting the supply of drugs in South Manchester.

 

This follows previous raids last week, which means more than 14 properties have been searched and eight people arrested in total as part of the operation.

 

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Walker, of GMP’s City of Manchester team, said: “We are dedicated to rooting out those who seek to make profits from putting drugs on our streets.

 

“Today’s raids have resulted in the arrests of five people which have only been made possible through the support of partner agencies and community intelligence.

 

“We are grateful for all your support and help and I would urge you to continue to report anything suspicious to help us stop people who are benefitting from crime and remove drugs from our city.”

 

Anyone with information should contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

 

To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit

www.gmp.police.uk

 

You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.

 

Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.

Yesterday (Wednesday 11 March 2020), officers from Greater Manchester Police and the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) executed a number of warrants at Great Ducie Street, Manchester.

 

Officers from GMP and the City of London Police - the national policing lead for fraud – worked alongside UK immigration, meaning a total of 100 officers and staff members were involved in the operation.

 

The search warrant, which developed from a previous operation that involved the sale and distribution of counterfeit items, saw thousands of labels, computer equipment and cash seized.

 

Detectives are currently exploring links between the counterfeit operation and Serious Organised Crime, helping to fund criminal activity beyond Greater Manchester.

 

15 people were arrested, after officers uncovered an estimated £7.5 million worth of branded clothing, shoes and perfume suspected to be counterfeit.

 

Chief Inspector Kirsten Buggy, of GMP’s North Manchester division, said: “Yesterday’s operation is one of the largest of its kind ever carried out in the area and has taken a meticulous amount of planning and preparation.

 

“I am thankful to colleagues from the City of London Police, who as the national policing lead for fraud, have worked in partnership with officers from GMP and helped bring about yesterday’s direct action. I am also grateful to those from UK Immigration for their help.

 

“Such partnerships are absolutely vital when tackling counterfeit operations, as they bring specialisms from across the country together in a bid to make an impactive and real difference. Steps such as yesterday are often only the start when it comes to investigating the scale of these operations and we will continue to work in conjunction with the City of London’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit to tackle this type of offending to its’ very core.

 

“It is important to recognise the far-reaching and serious impact of sophisticated and large scale counterfeit operations such as this one; and I would like to take this opportunity to remind members of the public of the repercussions of this kind of offending and the link to organised criminal activity. Please be under no illusion- this type of crime is not victimless.”

 

Police staff investigator Charlotte Beattie, of the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), said:

 

“The counterfeit goods business is a deceiving one and the key message to be take away from this operation, is that counterfeiting is not a victimless crime.

 

“An individual may think that when buying counterfeit goods they are only affecting a multi-million pound brand, and won’t matter, when in fact they are helping to fund organised criminal activity. Counterfeit goods also pose a health risk to individuals as they usually are not fit for purpose or have not gone through the legal health and safety checks.

 

“Working in partnership has ensured that today’s operation has been a success. We will continue to work with Greater Manchester Police and UK Immigration to tackle the scourge of the counterfeit goods problem.”

 

To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk

 

You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.

 

Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.

 

You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.

 

You can access many of our services online at www.gmp.police.uk.

 

Yesterday (Wednesday 11 March 2020), officers from Greater Manchester Police and the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) executed a number of warrants at Great Ducie Street, Manchester.

 

Officers from GMP and the City of London Police - the national policing lead for fraud – worked alongside UK immigration, meaning a total of 100 officers and staff members were involved in the operation.

 

The search warrant, which developed from a previous operation that involved the sale and distribution of counterfeit items, saw thousands of labels, computer equipment and cash seized.

 

Detectives are currently exploring links between the counterfeit operation and Serious Organised Crime, helping to fund criminal activity beyond Greater Manchester.

 

15 people were arrested, after officers uncovered an estimated £7.5 million worth of branded clothing, shoes and perfume suspected to be counterfeit.

 

Chief Inspector Kirsten Buggy, of GMP’s North Manchester division, said: “Yesterday’s operation is one of the largest of its kind ever carried out in the area and has taken a meticulous amount of planning and preparation.

 

“I am thankful to colleagues from the City of London Police, who as the national policing lead for fraud, have worked in partnership with officers from GMP and helped bring about yesterday’s direct action. I am also grateful to those from UK Immigration for their help.

 

“Such partnerships are absolutely vital when tackling counterfeit operations, as they bring specialisms from across the country together in a bid to make an impactive and real difference. Steps such as yesterday are often only the start when it comes to investigating the scale of these operations and we will continue to work in conjunction with the City of London’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit to tackle this type of offending to its’ very core.

 

“It is important to recognise the far-reaching and serious impact of sophisticated and large scale counterfeit operations such as this one; and I would like to take this opportunity to remind members of the public of the repercussions of this kind of offending and the link to organised criminal activity. Please be under no illusion- this type of crime is not victimless.”

 

Police staff investigator Charlotte Beattie, of the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), said:

 

“The counterfeit goods business is a deceiving one and the key message to be take away from this operation, is that counterfeiting is not a victimless crime.

 

“An individual may think that when buying counterfeit goods they are only affecting a multi-million pound brand, and won’t matter, when in fact they are helping to fund organised criminal activity. Counterfeit goods also pose a health risk to individuals as they usually are not fit for purpose or have not gone through the legal health and safety checks.

 

“Working in partnership has ensured that today’s operation has been a success. We will continue to work with Greater Manchester Police and UK Immigration to tackle the scourge of the counterfeit goods problem.”

 

To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk

 

You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.

 

Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.

 

You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.

 

You can access many of our services online at www.gmp.police.uk.

 

The Chair of Saint Peter (Latin: Cathedra Petri), also known as the Throne of Saint Peter, is a relic conserved in St. Peter's Basilica, enclosed in a sculpted gilt bronze casing that was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and executed between 1647 and 1653. The name derives from the Latin cathedra meaning chair or throne, which is used to denote the chair or seat of a bishop. The cathedra in St. Peter's Basilica was once used by the popes. Inside the Chair is a wooden throne, which, according to tradition, was used by Saint Peter. It was, however, actually a gift from Charles the Bald to Pope John VIII in 875.

 

Description

 

Like many medieval reliquaries it takes the form of the relic it protects, in this case a chair. Symbolically, the chair Bernini designed had no earthly counterpart in actual contemporary furnishings. It is formed entirely of scrolling members, enclosing a coved panel where the upholstery pattern is rendered as a low relief of Christ giving the keys to Peter. Large angelic figures flank an openwork panel beneath a highly realistic bronze seat cushion, vividly empty: the relic is encased within.

 

The cathedra is lofted on splayed scrolling bars that appear to be effortlessly supported by four over-lifesize bronze Doctors of the Church: Western doctors St. Ambrose and St. Augustine of Hippo on the outsides, wearing miters, and Eastern doctors St. John Chrysostom and St. Athanasius on the insides, both bare-headed. The cathedra appears to hover over the altar in the basilica's apse, lit by a central tinted window through which light streams, illuminating the gilded glory of sunrays and sculpted clouds that surrounds the window. Like Bernini's Ecstasy of St Theresa, this is a definitive fusion of the Baroque arts, unifying sculpture and richly polychrome architecture and manipulating effects of light.

 

Above, on the golden background of the frieze, is the Latin inscription: "O Pastor Ecclesiae, tu omnes Christi pascis agnos et oves" (O pastor of the Church, you feed all Christ's lambs and sheep). On the right is the same writing in Greek. Behind the altar is placed Bernini's monument enclosing the wooden chair, both of which are seen as symbolic of the authority of the Bishop of Rome as Vicar of Christ and successor of Saint Peter.

 

Early martyrologies indicate that two liturgical feasts were celebrated in Rome, centuries before the time of Charles the Bald, in honour of earlier chairs associated with Saint Peter, one of which was kept in the baptismal chapel of Saint Peter's Basilica, the other at the catacomb of Priscilla. The dates of these celebrations were January 18 and February 22. No surviving chair has been identified with either of these chairs. The feasts thus became associated with an abstract understanding of the "Chair of Peter", which by synecdoche signifies the episcopal office of the Pope as Bishop of Rome, an office considered to have been first held by Saint Peter, and thus extended to the diocese, the See of Rome. Though both feasts were originally associated with Saint Peter's stay in Rome, the ninth-century form of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum associated the January 18 feast with his stay in Rome, and the February 22 feast with his stay at Antioch.

 

The two feasts were included in the Tridentine Calendar with the rank of Double, which Pope Clement VIII raised in 1604 to the newly invented rank of Greater Double. In 1960 Pope John XXIII removed from the General Roman Calendar eight feast days that were second feasts of a single saint or mystery: one of them was the January 18 feast of the Chair of Peter. The February 22 celebration became a Second-Class Feast. This calendar was incorporated in the 1962 Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII, whose continued use Pope Benedict XVI authorized under the conditions indicated in his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. In the new classification introduced in 1969 the February 22 celebration appears in the Roman Calendar with the rank of Feast. Those traditionalist Catholics who do not accept the changes made by Pope John XXIII continue to celebrate both feast days: "Saint Peter's Chair at Rome" on January 18 and the "Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch" on February 22.

  

Vatican City, officially Vatican City State, a walled enclave within the city of Rome, with an area of approximately 44 hectares (110 acres), and a population of 842, is the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world by both area and population.

 

It is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome—the Pope. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Since the return of the Popes from Avignon in 1377, they have generally resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere.

 

Vatican City is distinct from the Holy See (Latin: Sancta Sedes),which dates back to early Christianity and is the main episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin and Eastern Catholic adherents around the globe. The independent city-state, on the other hand, came into existence in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, which spoke of it as a new creation, not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States (756–1870), which had previously encompassed much of central Italy. According to the terms of the treaty, the Holy See has "full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction" over the city-state.

 

Within Vatican City are cultural sites such as St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the world's most famous paintings and sculptures. The unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications.

 

The name "Vatican" predates Christianity and comes from the Latin Mons Vaticanus, meaning Vatican Mount. The territory of Vatican City is part of the Mons Vaticanus, and of the adjacent former Vatican Fields. It is in this territory that St. Peter's Basilica, the Apostolic Palace, the Sistine Chapel, and museums were built, along with various other buildings. The area was part of the Roman rione of Borgo until 1929. Being separated from the city, on the west bank of the Tiber river, the area was an outcrop of the city that was protected by being included within the walls of Leo IV (847–55), and later expanded by the current fortification walls, built under Paul III (1534–49), Pius IV (1559–65) and Urban VIII (1623–44).

Map of Vatican City, highlighting notable buildings and the Vatican gardens

 

When the Lateran Treaty of 1929 that gave the state its form was being prepared, the boundaries of the proposed territory were influenced by the fact that much of it was all but enclosed by this loop. For some tracts of the frontier, there was no wall, but the line of certain buildings supplied part of the boundary, and for a small part of the frontier a modern wall was constructed.

 

The territory includes St. Peter's Square, distinguished from the territory of Italy only by a white line along the limit of the square, where it touches Piazza Pio XII. St. Peter's Square is reached through the Via della Conciliazione which runs from close to the Tiber River to St. Peter's. This grand approach was constructed by Benito Mussolini after the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty.

 

According to the Lateran Treaty, certain properties of the Holy See that are located in Italian territory, most notably the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo and the major basilicas, enjoy extraterritorial status similar to that of foreign embassies. These properties, scattered all over Rome and Italy, house essential offices and institutions necessary to the character and mission of the Holy See.

 

Castel Gandolfo and the named basilicas are patrolled internally by police agents of Vatican City State and not by Italian police. According to the Lateran Treaty (Art. 3) St. Peter's Square, up to but not including the steps leading to the basilica, is normally patrolled by the Italian police.

 

There are no passport controls for visitors entering Vatican City from the surrounding Italian territory. There is free public access to Saint Peter's Square and Basilica and, on the occasion of papal general audiences, to the hall in which they are held. For these audiences and for major ceremonies in Saint Peter's Basilica and Square, tickets free of charge must be obtained beforehand. The Vatican Museums, incorporating the Sistine Chapel, usually charge an entrance fee. There is no general public access to the gardens, but guided tours for small groups can be arranged to the gardens and excavations under the basilica. Other places are open only to individuals who have business to transact there.

 

From Wikipedia

A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.

 

Some wall paintings are painted on large canvases, which are then attached to the wall (e.g., with marouflage). Whether these works can be accurately called "murals" is a subject of some controversy in the art world, but the technique has been in common use since the late 19th century.

 

HISTORY

Murals of sorts date to Upper Paleolithic times such as the paintings in the Chauvet Cave in Ardèche department of southern France (around 30,000 BC). Many ancient murals have survived in Egyptian tombs (around 3150 BC), the Minoan palaces (Middle period III of the Neopalatial period, 1700-1600 BC) and in Pompeii (around 100 BC - AD 79).

 

During the Middle Ages murals were usually executed on dry plaster (secco). In Italy, circa 1300, the technique of painting of frescos on wet plaster was reintroduced and led to a significant increase in the quality of mural painting.

 

In modern times, the term became more well-known with the Mexican "muralista" art movement (Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, or José Orozco). There are many different styles and techniques. The best-known is probably fresco, which uses water-soluble paints with a damp lime wash, a rapid use of the resulting mixture over a large surface, and often in parts (but with a sense of the whole). The colors lighten as they dry. The marouflage method has also been used for millennia.

 

Murals today are painted in a variety of ways, using oil or water-based media. The styles can vary from abstract to trompe-l'œil (a French term for "fool" or "trick the eye"). Initiated by the works of mural artists like Graham Rust or Rainer Maria Latzke in the 1980s, trompe-l'oeil painting has experienced a renaissance in private and public buildings in Europe. Today, the beauty of a wall mural has become much more widely available with a technique whereby a painting or photographic image is transferred to poster paper or canvas which is then pasted to a wall surface (see wallpaper, Frescography) to give the effect of either a hand-painted mural or realistic scene.

 

TECHNIQUE

In the history of mural several methods have been used:

 

A fresco painting, from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco ("fresh"), describes a method in which the paint is applied on plaster on walls or ceilings. The buon fresco technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of wet, fresh, lime mortar or plaster. The pigment is then absorbed by the wet plaster; after a number of hours, the plaster dries and reacts with the air: it is this chemical reaction which fixes the pigment particles in the plaster. After this the painting stays for a long time up to centuries in fresh and brilliant colors.

 

Fresco-secco painting is done on dry plaster (secco is "dry" in Italian). The pigments thus require a binding medium, such as egg (tempera), glue or oil to attach the pigment to the wall.

 

Mezzo-fresco is painted on nearly-dry plaster, and was defined by the sixteenth-century author Ignazio Pozzo as "firm enough not to take a thumb-print" so that the pigment only penetrates slightly into the plaster. By the end of the sixteenth century this had largely displaced the buon fresco method, and was used by painters such as Gianbattista Tiepolo or Michelangelo. This technique had, in reduced form, the advantages of a secco work.

 

MATERIAL

In Greco-Roman times, mostly encaustic colors applied in a cold state were used.

 

Tempera painting is one of the oldest known methods in mural painting. In tempera, the pigments are bound in an albuminous medium such as egg yolk or egg white diluted in water.

 

In 16th-century Europe, oil painting on canvas arose as an easier method for mural painting. The advantage was that the artwork could be completed in the artist’s studio and later transported to its destination and there attached to the wall or ceiling. Oil paint can be said to be the least satisfactory medium for murals because of its lack of brilliance in colour. Also the pigments are yellowed by the binder or are more easily affected by atmospheric conditions. The canvas itself is more subject to rapid deterioration than a plaster ground. Different muralists tend to become experts in their preferred medium and application, whether that be oil paints, emulsion or acrylic paints applied by brush, roller or airbrush/aerosols. Clients will often ask for a particular style and the artist may adjust to the appropriate technique.

 

A consultation usually leads to a detailed design and layout of the proposed mural with a price quote that the client approves before the muralist starts on the work. The area to be painted can be gridded to match the design allowing the image to be scaled accurately step by step. In some cases the design is projected straight onto the wall and traced with pencil before painting begins. Some muralists will paint directly without any prior sketching, preferring the spontaneous technique.

 

Once completed the mural can be given coats of varnish or protective acrylic glaze to protect the work from UV rays and surface damage.

 

As an alternative to a hand-painted or airbrushed mural, digitally printed murals can also be applied to surfaces. Already existing murals can be photographed and then be reproduced in near-to-original quality.

 

The disadvantages of pre-fabricated murals and decals are that they are often mass-produced and lack the allure and exclusivity of an original artwork. They are often not fitted to the individual wall sizes of the client and their personal ideas or wishes can not be added to the mural as it progresses. The Frescography technique, a digital manufacturing method (CAM) invented by Rainer Maria Latzke addresses some of the personalisation and size restrictions.

 

Digital techniques are commonly used in advertisements. A "wallscape" is a large advertisement on or attached to the outside wall of a building. Wallscapes can be painted directly on the wall as a mural, or printed on vinyl and securely attached to the wall in the manner of a billboard. Although not strictly classed as murals, large scale printed media are often referred to as such. Advertising murals were traditionally painted onto buildings and shops by sign-writers, later as large scale poster billboards.

 

SIGNIFICANCE OF MURALS

Murals are important in that they bring art into the public sphere. Due to the size, cost, and work involved in creating a mural, muralists must often be commissioned by a sponsor. Often it is the local government or a business, but many murals have been paid for with grants of patronage. For artists, their work gets a wide audience who otherwise might not set foot in an art gallery. A city benefits by the beauty of a work of art.

 

Murals can be a relatively effective tool of social emancipation or achieving a political goal. Murals have sometimes been created against the law, or have been commissioned by local bars and coffeeshops. Often, the visual effects are an enticement to attract public attention to social issues. State-sponsored public art expressions, particularly murals, are often used by totalitarian regimes as a tool of mass-control and propaganda. However, despite the propagandist character of that works, some of them still have an artistic value.

 

Murals can have a dramatic impact whether consciously or subconsciously on the attitudes of passers by, when they are added to areas where people live and work. It can also be argued that the presence of large, public murals can add aesthetic improvement to the daily lives of residents or that of employees at a corporate venue.

 

Other world-famous murals can be found in Mexico, New York, Philadelphia, Belfast, Derry, Los Angeles, Nicaragua, Cuba and in India. They have functioned as an important means of communication for members of socially, ethnically and racially divided communities in times of conflict. They also proved to be an effective tool in establishing a dialogue and hence solving the cleavage in the long run. The Indian state Kerala has exclusive murals. These Kerala mural painting are on walls of Hindu temples. They can be dated from 9th century AD.

 

The San Bartolo murals of the Maya civilization in Guatemala, are the oldest example of this art in Mesoamerica and are dated at 300 BC.

 

Many rural towns have begun using murals to create tourist attractions in order to boost economic income. Colquitt, Georgia is one such town. Colquitt was chosen to host the 2010 Global Mural Conference. The town has more than twelve murals completed, and will host the Conference along with Dothan, Alabama, and Blakely, Georgia. In the summer of 2010, Colquitt will begin work on their Icon Mural.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Enemies of the People, Traitors, Subversives, Anti-Bolsheviks, and the Vilification of Dissident Russians

Posted on 2021-07-16 by Emmanuel Isaiah Smith

Enemies of the People, Traitors, Subversives, Anti-Bolsheviks, and the Vilification of Dissident Russians

* Article 58 of the Penal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of 25th February 1927, dealt with anti-Soviet activities, counter-revolutionary activities, treason, espionage, undermining of state industry and transport (sabotage), terrorism, non-reporting of counter-revolutionary activities, etc. Prisoners convicted under Article 58 were known as ‘political prisoners’, their sentences were usually long (up to twenty-five years) and could be extended without trial.

 

Used by Lenin as early as the decree of 28th November 1917, the phrase ‘enemy of the people’, was a loose term that could be applied to anyone the authorities conceived as a threat. ‘Enemies of the people’ were imprisoned, expelled or executed. Their relatives and friends also fell under suspicion and could be sent to the Gulag as ‘Family Members of Traitors of the Motherland’.

 

Family Members of Traitors of the Motherland’ and the ‘Socially Dangerous’* had to register with the NKVD- MVD. These were relatives of the ‘enemies of the people’, exiled without trial to the northern and north-eastern regions. They lived there in conditions of cold and hunger and died by the thousands.

 

The Gestapo, the bloody younger brother of the NKVD, never matured enough to adopt the notion of ‘universal wrathful condemnation of the enemies of the Fatherland’, and it lagged far behind in terms of ‘labour efficiency’.

 

* Article 58 of the Penal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of 25th February 1927, dealt with anti-Soviet activities, counter-revolutionary activities, treason, espionage, undermining of state industry and transport (sabotage), terrorism, non-reporting of counter-revolutionary activities, etc. Prisoners convicted under Article 58 were known as ‘political prisoners’, their sentences were usually long (up to twenty-five years) and could be extended without trial.

Used by Lenin as early as the decree of 28th November 1917, the phrase ‘enemy of the people’, was a loose term that could be applied to anyone the authorities conceived as a threat. ‘Enemies of the people’ were imprisoned, expelled or executed. Their relatives and friends also fell under suspicion and could be sent to the Gulag as ‘Family Members of Traitors of the Motherland’.

Family Members of Traitors of the Motherland’ and the ‘Socially Dangerous’* had to register with the NKVD- MVD. These were relatives of the ‘enemies of the people’, exiled without trial to the northern and north-eastern regions. They lived there in conditions of cold and hunger and died by the thousands.

The Gestapo, the bloody younger brother of the NKVD, never matured enough to adopt the notion of ‘universal wrathful condemnation of the enemies of the Fatherland’, and it lagged far behind in terms of ‘labour efficiency’.

By order of the NKVD, workers’ meetings were held at factories, plants, kolkhozes, scientific institutes and educational institutions throughout the country. At these meetings people took the stage to publicly condemn ‘spies, wreckers, and saboteurs in the pay of international intelligence’, who had been exposed by the NKVD. They demanded they be exterminated ‘like a pack of wild dogs’. Many of those who stood on the podium soon became part of the pack ‘wild dogs’ themselves, and were executed by firing squad.”

* During Stalin’s many purges some of his most loyal followers fell victim to his deadly paranoia. His ruthless cleansing of (mostly imagined) political opposition, was a constant feature of his regime. No one was immune, including those who had previously denounced others. “We think that a powerful and vigorous movement is impossible without differences — “true conformity” is possible only in the cemetery.’ Joseph Stalin, ‘Our purposes’, Pravda, 22 January 1912.

 

The Gulag, created on 10th June, 1934 by a decree of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Millions of people died through purges, genocide and apartheid, in the name of the bright future.

 

The alphabetical list (far from complete) of the cities and settlements, near which were located ITL (Corrective Labour Camps), OLP (Separate Camp Points), sharashkas (secret R&D laboratories in the Gulag system), komandirovkas,* construction sites, service centres, columns, roads, OKB (Special Design Offices), ITK (Corrective Labour Camps / Colonies), and special settlements of the Gulag. 1. Abakan *(vi) 2. Abez-Inta *(1) 3. Aim (vii) 4. Akmolinsk * (vi) 5. Aktyubinsk *(vi) 6. Aleksandrovskoye (vi) 7. Aldan *(vi) 8. Allaykha (viii) 9. Alma-Ata (vii) 10. Andizhan *(v) 11. Arkhangelsk *(i) 12. Askold Isle (viii) 13. Astrakhan * (iti) 14. Asha (iv) 15. Ayan *(vii1) 16. Baku * (iii) 17. Balychigan *(viii) 18. Belomorsk * (1) 19. Belushye (i) 20. Berezovo (v) 21. Birobidzhan (ix) 22. Bodaybo *(vi) 23. Borovichi (ii) 24. Byreya *(ix) 25. Byugyuke (v) 26. Vanz (i) 27. Vaygach Isle (i) 28. Velsk (i) 29. Vereshchagino (v) 30. Verkhoyansk * (viii) 31. Verkhne-Imbatskoye (v) 32. Verkhne-Uralsk (iv) 33. Verkhny Ufaley *(iv) 34. Veslyana (v) 35. Vilyuisk *(vi) 36. Vitim *(vi) 37. Vologda *(ii) 38. Volkhov (ii) 39. Vorkuta *(i) 40. Vytegra *(1) 41. Gorali (v) 42. Gorky * (11) 43. Dzhezkazgan *(vii) 44. Dnepropetrovsk * (iii) 45, Elabuga (i) 46. Erofey Pavlovich *(vi) 47. Zhigansk (v) 48. Zayarsk (vi) 49. Franz Joseph Land *(i) 50. Zyryanka (viii) 51. Ivanovo (11) 52. Ivdel * (iv) 53. Izhevsk * (11) 54. Izvestkovy (viii) 55. Iman (viii) 56. Irgiz (vil) 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. . Irkutsk *(vi) . Ishimbay *(iv) . Kagan (vii) . Kazalinsk (vii) . Kazan * (ii) . Kamchatka * (viii) . Kandalaksha *(i) . Karabash (iv) . Karaganda * (vi) . Karakas (vii) . Karaul (v) . Kargopol *(i) . Kashin (ii) . Kemerovo *(vi) . Kzyl-Orda (vii) . Kizel * (ii) Kirov (Vyatka) *(ii) Knyazh-Pogost (i) Kozhva (i) Kokchetav *(vi) Kolbashevo (vi) Kolyma * (viii) 79. Commander Islands * (viii) 80 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91 92; 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 . Komsomolsk * (ix) Kondopoga *(1) Kopeisk *(iv) Kostroma * (11) Kotlas *(i) Krasnovodsk (iv) Krasnoturinsk (iv) Krasnogorsk *(vi) Kuznetsk *(vi) Kuibyshev * (ii) Kuloy (1) . Kungur *(iv) Kurgan-Tyube * (vii) . Kuril Islands * (viii) . Kurya (i) . Kustanay *(vi) . Kyzyl (vi) . Kyusyur (v) . Leningrad *(11) . Leninogorsk (vi) 0. Magdagachi (viii) 1. Magnitogorsk * (iv) 2. Mariinsk *(vi) 3. Mayor-Krest (viii) 4, Makhachkala (iii) 5. Medvezhiegorsk (i) 6. Mezen (i) 7. Miass *(iv) 8. Mirnoye (v) 9. Molotov (Perm) *(11) 0. Molotovsk (i) 1. Monchegorsk (i) 2. Morshansk (ii) 113. Moscow *(ii) 114. Nalchik (iii) 115. Narian-Mar *(i) 116. Nikolayevsk (vi) 117. Nikopol (ii1) 118. Nizhniye Kresty * (viii) 119. Nizhne-Tambovsk (viii) 120. Nizhny Tagil * (iv) 121. Novaya Zemlya *(i) 122. Nizhneye Shadrino (vi) 123. Novosibirsk *(vi) 124. Nordvik (v) 125. Norilsk *(v) 126. Ozhogino (viii) 127. Olyokminsk *(vi) 128. Omsk *(vi) 129. Orsk *(iv) 130. Ostashkov (11) 131. Pakhta-Aral (vii) 132. Penza (11) 133. Petrozavodsk *(i) 134. Petropavlovsk (vi) 135. Pechora *(i) 136. Plesetsk (i) 137. Podkamennaya Tunguska *(v) 138. Pokur (v) 139. Pokcha (i) 140. Prokopyevsk (vi) 141. Ramenskoye (i1) 142. Revda (iv) 143. Rezh (iv) 144. Rugoozero (1) 145. Savinobor (1) 146. Salekhard *(v) 147. Salyany (iii) 148. Sama (iv) 149. Saransk-Potma *(ii) 150. Sakhalin *(ix) 151. Sverdlovsk * (iv) 152. Svirstroy (11) 153. Segezha (i) 154. Seychman * (viii) 155. Semipalatinsk *(vi) 156. Solikamsk *(iv) 157. Solovets Islands *(i) 158. Sortavala (1) 159. Srednekolymsk * (viii) 160. Sretinsk (vi) 161. Stalingrad *(ii1) 162. Stalino (Donetsk) * (iii) 163. Stalinogorsk (ii) 164. Stalinsk (vi) 165. Stanchik (viii) 166. Starodub (ii) 167. Stolbovoye (viii) 168. Suojarvi *(1) 169. Sukhumi (iii) 170. Suchan *(ix) 171. Syzran *(ii) 172. Syktyvkar *(i) 173. Tavda *(iv) 174. Tayshet-Bratsk *(v1) 175. Tashkent * (vii) 176. Tbilisi (iii) 177. Tekyulyak (viii) 178. Tetyushi (ii) 179. Tiksi (v) 180. Tikhvin (11) 181. Tobolsk *(vi) 182. Totma *(i) 183. Tomsk *(vi) 184. Tula (11) 185. Tura (v) 186. Turinsk *(iv) 187. Turkestan * (vii) 188. Turukhansk *(v) 189. Tyumen *(vi) 190. Uglich (ii) 191. Ulyanovsk (ii) 192. Ulan-Ude * (vi) 193. Uman (111) 194. Uralsk (iv) 195. Ust-Vorkuta *(1) 196. Ust-Vym *(1) 197. Ust-Kamenogorsk *(vi) 198. Ust-Kamchatsky * (vil) 199. Ust-Kulom *(i) 200. Ust-Mil * (ii) 201. Ust-Port (v) 202. Ust-Srednikan (viii) 203. Ust-Usa * (viii) 204. Ust-Ukhta *(i) 205. Ust-Shugor (i) 206. Ufa *(iv) 207. Fergana (vil) 208. Frunze (vii) 209. Khabarovsk *(ix) 210. Kholmogory (i) 211. Khonu (viii) 212. Chardzhou (vii) 213. Chelkar (vii) 214. Chelyabinsk *(iv) 215. Chita *(vi) 216. Chkalov (Orenburg) (iv) 217. Chusovoy *(iv) 218. Shadrinsk *(iv) 219. Shcherbakov (ii) 220. Ekibastuz-Ugol (vi1) 221. Yakutsk *(v) 222. Yaroslavl (ii)

A Russian dissident is rallying fellow workers against the system of sabotage, espionage, reporting, and antagonism that has been heaped upon their shoulders by the Bolsheviks.

By order of the NKVD, workers’ meetings were held at factories, plants, kolkhozes, scientific institutes and educational institutions throughout the country. At these meetings people took the stage to publicly condemn ‘spies, wreckers, and saboteurs in the pay of international intelligence’, who had been exposed by the NKVD. They demanded they be exterminated ‘like a pack of wild dogs’. Many of those who stood on the podium soon became part of the pack ‘wild dogs’ themselves, and were executed by firing squad.”

 

* During Stalin’s many purges some of his most loyal followers fell victim to his deadly paranoia. His ruthless cleansing of (mostly imagined) political opposition, was a constant feature of his regime. No one was immune, including those who had previously denounced others. “We think that a powerful and vigorous movement is impossible without differences — “true conformity” is possible only in the cemetery.’ Joseph Stalin, ‘Our purposes’, Pravda, 22 January 1912.

 

The Gulag, created on 10th June, 1934 by a decree of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Millions of people died through purges, genocide and apartheid, in the name of the bright future.

 

The alphabetical list (far from complete) of the cities and settlements, near which were located ITL (Corrective Labour Camps), OLP (Separate Camp Points), sharashkas (secret R&D laboratories in the Gulag system), komandirovkas,* construction sites, service centres, columns, roads, OKB (Special Design Offices), ITK (Corrective Labour Camps / Colonies), and special settlements of the Gulag. 1. Abakan *(vi) 2. Abez-Inta *(1) 3. Aim (vii) 4. Akmolinsk * (vi) 5. Aktyubinsk *(vi) 6. Aleksandrovskoye (vi) 7. Aldan *(vi) 8. Allaykha (viii) 9. Alma-Ata (vii) 10. Andizhan *(v) 11. Arkhangelsk *(i) 12. Askold Isle (viii) 13. Astrakhan * (iti) 14. Asha (iv) 15. Ayan *(vii1) 16. Baku * (iii) 17. Balychigan *(viii) 18. Belomorsk * (1) 19. Belushye (i) 20. Berezovo (v) 21. Birobidzhan (ix) 22. Bodaybo *(vi) 23. Borovichi (ii) 24. Byreya *(ix) 25. Byugyuke (v) 26. Vanz (i) 27. Vaygach Isle (i) 28. Velsk (i) 29. Vereshchagino (v) 30. Verkhoyansk * (viii) 31. Verkhne-Imbatskoye (v) 32. Verkhne-Uralsk (iv) 33. Verkhny Ufaley *(iv) 34. Veslyana (v) 35. Vilyuisk *(vi) 36. Vitim *(vi) 37. Vologda *(ii) 38. Volkhov (ii) 39. Vorkuta *(i) 40. Vytegra *(1) 41. Gorali (v) 42. Gorky * (11) 43. Dzhezkazgan *(vii) 44. Dnepropetrovsk * (iii) 45, Elabuga (i) 46. Erofey Pavlovich *(vi) 47. Zhigansk (v) 48. Zayarsk (vi) 49. Franz Joseph Land *(i) 50. Zyryanka (viii) 51. Ivanovo (11) 52. Ivdel * (iv) 53. Izhevsk * (11) 54. Izvestkovy (viii) 55. Iman (viii) 56. Irgiz (vil) 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. . Irkutsk *(vi) . Ishimbay *(iv) . Kagan (vii) . Kazalinsk (vii) . Kazan * (ii) . Kamchatka * (viii) . Kandalaksha *(i) . Karabash (iv) . Karaganda * (vi) . Karakas (vii) . Karaul (v) . Kargopol *(i) . Kashin (ii) . Kemerovo *(vi) . Kzyl-Orda (vii) . Kizel * (ii) Kirov (Vyatka) *(ii) Knyazh-Pogost (i) Kozhva (i) Kokchetav *(vi) Kolbashevo (vi) Kolyma * (viii) 79. Commander Islands * (viii) 80 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91 92; 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 . Komsomolsk * (ix) Kondopoga *(1) Kopeisk *(iv) Kostroma * (11) Kotlas *(i) Krasnovodsk (iv) Krasnoturinsk (iv) Krasnogorsk *(vi) Kuznetsk *(vi) Kuibyshev * (ii) Kuloy (1) . Kungur *(iv) Kurgan-Tyube * (vii) . Kuril Islands * (viii) . Kurya (i) . Kustanay *(vi) . Kyzyl (vi) . Kyusyur (v) . Leningrad *(11) . Leninogorsk (vi) 0. Magdagachi (viii) 1. Magnitogorsk * (iv) 2. Mariinsk *(vi) 3. Mayor-Krest (viii) 4, Makhachkala (iii) 5. Medvezhiegorsk (i) 6. Mezen (i) 7. Miass *(iv) 8. Mirnoye (v) 9. Molotov (Perm) *(11) 0. Molotovsk (i) 1. Monchegorsk (i) 2. Morshansk (ii) 113. Moscow *(ii) 114. Nalchik (iii) 115. Narian-Mar *(i) 116. Nikolayevsk (vi) 117. Nikopol (ii1) 118. Nizhniye Kresty * (viii) 119. Nizhne-Tambovsk (viii) 120. Nizhny Tagil * (iv) 121. Novaya Zemlya *(i) 122. Nizhneye Shadrino (vi) 123. Novosibirsk *(vi) 124. Nordvik (v) 125. Norilsk *(v) 126. Ozhogino (viii) 127. Olyokminsk *(vi) 128. Omsk *(vi) 129. Orsk *(iv) 130. Ostashkov (11) 131. Pakhta-Aral (vii) 132. Penza (11) 133. Petrozavodsk *(i) 134. Petropavlovsk (vi) 135. Pechora *(i) 136. Plesetsk (i) 137. Podkamennaya Tunguska *(v) 138. Pokur (v) 139. Pokcha (i) 140. Prokopyevsk (vi) 141. Ramenskoye (i1) 142. Revda (iv) 143. Rezh (iv) 144. Rugoozero (1) 145. Savinobor (1) 146. Salekhard *(v) 147. Salyany (iii) 148. Sama (iv) 149. Saransk-Potma *(ii) 150. Sakhalin *(ix) 151. Sverdlovsk * (iv) 152. Svirstroy (11) 153. Segezha (i) 154. Seychman * (viii) 155. Semipalatinsk *(vi) 156. Solikamsk *(iv) 157. Solovets Islands *(i) 158. Sortavala (1) 159. Srednekolymsk * (viii) 160. Sretinsk (vi) 161. Stalingrad *(ii1) 162. Stalino (Donetsk) * (iii) 163. Stalinogorsk (ii) 164. Stalinsk (vi) 165. Stanchik (viii) 166. Starodub (ii) 167. Stolbovoye (viii) 168. Suojarvi *(1) 169. Sukhumi (iii) 170. Suchan *(ix) 171. Syzran *(ii) 172. Syktyvkar *(i) 173. Tavda *(iv) 174. Tayshet-Bratsk *(v1) 175. Tashkent * (vii) 176. Tbilisi (iii) 177. Tekyulyak (viii) 178. Tetyushi (ii) 179. Tiksi (v) 180. Tikhvin (11) 181. Tobolsk *(vi) 182. Totma *(i) 183. Tomsk *(vi) 184. Tula (11) 185. Tura (v) 186. Turinsk *(iv) 187. Turkestan * (vii) 188. Turukhansk *(v) 189. Tyumen *(vi) 190. Uglich (ii) 191. Ulyanovsk (ii) 192. Ulan-Ude * (vi) 193. Uman (111) 194. Uralsk (iv) 195. Ust-Vorkuta *(1) 196. Ust-Vym *(1) 197. Ust-Kamenogorsk *(vi) 198. Ust-Kamchatsky * (vil) 199. Ust-Kulom *(i) 200. Ust-Mil * (ii) 201. Ust-Port (v) 202. Ust-Srednikan (viii) 203. Ust-Usa * (viii) 204. Ust-Ukhta *(i) 205. Ust-Shugor (i) 206. Ufa *(iv) 207. Fergana (vil) 208. Frunze (vii) 209. Khabarovsk *(ix) 210. Kholmogory (i) 211. Khonu (viii) 212. Chardzhou (vii) 213. Chelkar (vii) 214. Chelyabinsk *(iv) 215. Chita *(vi) 216. Chkalov (Orenburg) (iv) 217. Chusovoy *(iv) 218. Shadrinsk *(iv) 219. Shcherbakov (ii) 220. Ekibastuz-Ugol (vi1) 221. Yakutsk *(v) 222. Yaroslavl (ii)

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They've Ruined It. Millions of dollars in Town revenue wiped out ? Our great Festival is no longer even recognizable ? How could anyone take a world class event and turn it into something stupid ? New President Erica Gillis is the worst ever ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54418705157/in/album-7...

 

Directors Erica Gillis, www.appleblossom.com/about/

 

Mayor Andrew Zebian www.facebook.com/andrewzebian

    

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ABF 2023 :

  

Shocking news from ABF,

  

* There's been a stunning development at ABF. *

 

Apparently in a new younger generation there are those who harbor resentment towards our nations history, for English colonialism, and even for the Monarchy ? Other minority groups have voiced discontent over the diversity and inclusion issue ? And so it seems that the current ABF Board of Directors has listened to the concerns and complaints of a few small minority groups while apparently ignoring and excluding the overwhelming majority of Valley residents ? And it appears that this current Board of Directors chose to resolve discontent by simply moving to implement and execute the nuclear option and final solution ? And therefore after a highly successful lengthy run of 87 consecutive years in a row, the highly anticipated, very popular, family oriented, inclusive and diverse, multi village Queen Annapolisa and Apple Blossom Princess Pageant along with the prestigious Royal Coronation crowning ceremonies held in Wolfville have all been terminated forever by this current board of Directors ?

  

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-----------------------It's The End of an Era-----------------------------

  

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

  

Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival 2023 - ABF Board of Directors have announced they are making drastic new changes in format and making more devastating cut-backs to the annual People's Festival ? Recent concerns over ceremony, symbolism, monarchy and past colonialism, along with the ongoing inclusion and diversity issue relative to the Queen Annapolisa contest, as well as the current Trudeau Liberal political environment in Canada, may have all influenced a new generation of ABF Officials to radically update the historic Queen Annapolisa and Apple Blossom Princess pageants in order to bring the Valley up to modern standards that they believe more relevant to current times ? And so it seems that Directors must have held an extremely private 'think tank' and without consideration, consultation, or bothering to invite or gain approval from long time participating Valley communities, Officials must have decided that rather than trouble themselves any further with the issue, why not just take the easy way out and simply get rid of this history ? And so it seems that a decision must have been made, in a very private way, to enforce the life ending final solution ? And so, as of 2023 the iconic 87 year old Apple Blossom Princess contest and pageant is to be shut down and terminated forever ? This act has been carried out without public input, inclusion, involvement, attendance or approval, and now one of the longest running, popular, highly anticipated, inclusive and diverse family events to ever benefit the Valley is over ?

This cold act of finality will end the 88 year reign of her royal Heinous Queen Annapolisa and it will terminate all further participation of the 7 to 10 Apple Blossom Princess contestants and child attendants representing 7 to 10 local Valley communities ? It also ends appearances by the beautiful hand crafted award winning Princess floats that are the focal highlight of Grand Street Parade and will signal the end of the ultra glamorous Queen and Ladies-in-waiting Crowning ceremonies gala that is held and televised each year from Acadia University in Wolfville ? This will end the popular community Princess Tea events, the Royal Party visitations to local Schools, hospitals and old folks homes that were so welcome and appreciated by Students, Seniors, shut-ins and the disabled ? And this means the end of Royal Party appearances at the Kentville Children's Parade, the Memorial Park Friday night open air Rock concert and fireworks, and Royal party attendances at many other events held annually throughout the Valley and Province ?

It appears now that current ABF Officials led by President Logan Morse along with Kentville town rep Lindsey Young not only interrupted the Pageant in 2022 when they temporarily postponed it, but have now in 2023 moved to terminate the prestigious event forever explaining that their decision was made to improve, include, modernize and evolve the fampus pageant ? This final act of termination ends almost 90 years of royal pageantry and also leaves a huge gap in the Festival itself ? It also negatively affects the nearby Valley communities who participate and always enter contestants in the Pageant ? The end of this important multiple community event and the taking away of the better half and Star of the Apple Blossom Festival brings forth the question of what replacement is planned, and what are local towns and villages that always play a major role in both the Queen and Princess competition suppose to do now ? And what about Valley youth and childhood dreams of one day becoming a child attendant or an Apple Blossom Princess or even a Queen ?

You have to marvel at the level of disrespect shown by these new generation Officials who have appointed themselves as the ones that will end the Pageant and then think that Valley residents are stupid enough to believe that by cancelling and taking away a long running 90 year old event they have in some perverted way of thinking moved the Valley forward or improved and modernized anything ? It seems far more likely that they have taken a giant leap backwards and robbed the Valley people of a much beloved, multi community, inclusive and live local family production that has always been the most anticipated highlight of the year for the past almost 90 consecutive years ?

Why current ABF Management, who claim to be stewards in charge and responsible for the promotion and presentation of this event, appear unable to perform their duties or to perform the job they're paid to do and do what their predecessors have always done so well each and every year for the past 87 years, often in far more trying circumstances and in far less prosperous times, is difficult to comprehend ? And you have to wonder, Whatever happened to the # 1 rule in business that says that if you can't do your job because of your inexperience, immaturity, inability, personal bias, laziness, or just plain stupidity, then,, YOU'RE ALL FIRED ! (and a Class action recovery suit may be forthcoming ?)

  

An Identity Crisis ;

  

Can an identity crisis be looming in the town of Kentville ?

 

A proud and neighborly salt of the earth working class community with generous hard working friendly citizens and a rich historic Railroad, agriculture, food and farming background is losing many of its longtime local traditions, themes and trademarks while elected Town officials, many of them new arrivals just stand still, watch and even enable ? After having always been identified as the main Provincial railroad center ever since the old Dominion Rail days dating back to 1869, the town has since lost all passenger and freight train rail service in and out including a modern passenger Dayliner service that traveled back and forth to Halifax every day ? And after the railway had been shut down it seemed they couldn't clear out the brand new train station, dig up tracks and demolish the old roundhouse fast enough ? And so now, in what seems to be cruel mockery, the only visible signs left in Kentville from past glory years of what once was the largest, most important, most active railroad center west of Halifax is a hand painted picture of a train mural that has been etched onto the weather beaten side of a downtown business building ?

Unfortunately the end of the railway industry wasn't to be the last major transportation loss yo be forced upon the people of Kentville as they were to become even more isolated from the outside World when for no apparent rational or necessary reason the aviation community at the Waterville municipal Airport CCW3 complex were told to get out when they had done nothing wrong and had no where else to go ? An invaluable contributor to the local area was suddenly lost when a fully operational well established municipal airport, a well known popular Canadian sky diving facility, an internationally known long time pilot training and licensing academy, many private aircraft owned by local owners, and numerous other fully established aviation businesses were all lost to the community after being ordered off the property ? An eviction order courtesy of Kings Council also left our young Camp Aldershot Air Cadets without their base of operations, and now the next generation of youngsters will have to grow up without their popular aviation training and education facility ?

And so it had seemed that a duly elected group of officials who don't even live in the area had ended the long life of a historic local Aviation facility that took multiple decades to build and establish, and they had transformed a thriving Aeropark into a useless barren open field of weeds where unsupervised Michelin bike riding children can now be seen dodging dandelions that are poking their heads thru the deteriorating asphalt runway that once served as the landing platform for private and commercial aircraft to fly in and out on a daily basis ? And to add salt to this wound, what appeared to be a calculated senseless forced eviction and the subsequent devastating lost revenue to the local economy was to be hailed by Kings Council, ( and also by the prestigious Ivany Report Committee ) as being a bold and brilliant business decision to greatly improve and benefit the local area ?

After months of facing homelessness and an uncertain future, a few of the evicted tenants found sites elsewhere and relocated at their own expense to start all over again, while others just quit, and others were finally redirected to a new location in Greenwood (which just happened by chance to be Kings Council County Warden's home riding) ? And so, in the end a devastating loss for Kentville and the entire local area became a windfall for Kingston Greenwood, and, Kentville was left to carry on without either a Railway or an Airport ?

 

When the original Kentville KCA town School closed, Kentville lost its high school and students were left without a home town school ? They were now bused daily to the nearby town of Canning ? This left only the Grade 1 to 8 age groups to identify with Kentville as their home school, a situation that still exists today ? There is no longer a movie theater in Kentville as the downtown movie theater has been closed forever, and the popular Edge sports bar, eatery and pool hall had also closed down and was never replaced ? Harvey's Hamburgers drive thru closed down and it wasn't replaced ? The longtime bowling alley in New Minas was bought out by developers, torn down, and replaced with a business office complex ? We lost the local salvage, reclamation and disposal site in South Alton when the Provincial Government ordered it to be shut down, but the same folks who shut it down never offered to replace it to leave the community without this much needed facility ? One day a portion of roof blew off the town funeral home and it never re-opened leaving only one such establishment in town ? And, just as the citizens of Kentville were shocked to learn that both Apple Blossom Princess and the Queen Annapolisa pageants were terminated after 87 consecutive years, there was at the same time an all age Drag Queen show preparing to entertain at the Kings Arms Pub in a total flip flop scenario from the one that most Kentville citizens identify with at this time of year when popular Irish Rovers or Scottish pipers played at the pub ? Numerous local restaurants and small businesses have come and gone - mostly gone - and, after Maders has served the community for 50 years, high taxation and license fees, ridiculous Government rules and regulations have left Maders barely able to hang on ? The main town supermarket Jasons IGA had a fire forcing him to close down for over a year and so there was no supermarket to provide groceries for local citizens ? The ever popular multi venue Wandlyn Inn burned down and all of its venues were lost to the community ? The Inn was never replaced after the fire and now there's just a fast food MacDonald's on the old property as a replacement for the many lost hotel rooms, the indoor swimming pool, whirlpool and sauna, the nightclub, dual convention centers and dual restaurants that Wandlyn Inn had offered ?

 

The traditional July 1st Canada Day town sponsored event of fun, food, speeches and local entertainment held each year at the wading Pool was curtailed by the Town due to budget considerations, and if you want to enjoy July 1st entertainment or fireworks you must travel to New Minas, Hantsport or Berwick ? Access to water supply is always one of the most identifiable utility entitlements to be provided by any town ? Billions are currently being spent by the Canadian taxpayer to provide all First Nations people with free safe water ? Yet Kentville water commission charges the customer 10,000 dollars just to turn their town owned water on at the roadside and nothing else ? And after this initial surcharge has been forced upon the customer he still has to pay for all yard trenching, pipe laying and household plumbing work to be done ? KWC's valued new customer is then rewarded with a water bill courtesy of the town each and every month thereafter ?

They have even managed to take away Kentville's most famous of all and instantly identifiable town landmark in the hotel name Cornwallis Inn ? Cornwallis Inn is a well known trademark hotel name that has become synonymous World wide with the name of Kentville and ae name that represents a multitude of fond memories for residents ? It was hard to understand why the Town would ever allow such an important name to be changed, and it was also hard to understand why a previous Town of Kentville planning dept would ever allow numerous subsidized low rental apartment units to be built onto the side of this Town centerpiece and that also serve to block the access lane to the rear parking lot ? The Cornwallis Inn will always be one of the Valleys greatest treasured landmarks and is due for protected Canadian heritage site status ?

They have also changed well known and immediately identifiable names of some Kentville Streets and also the local traffic bridge that traverses the Cornwallis River ? And so now many citizens and delivery drivers do not know what they're talking about when they use these new names and it can be especially hard on Seniors who can become confused by unnecessary name changes made to familiar places ? In some cases this has created a safety hazard ?

In 2017 ABF Directors attempted to take Kentville's Grand Street Parade away from Kentville and move it to a different town ? Outraged citizens were forced to claw and battle just to get their own local parade returned back to them after they have hosted it for the last 87 years ? And, in yet another huge step backwards in that same year, ABF decided to cease and desist all Wednesday, Thursday and weekend games, food, music, displays, amusements, local student displays and performances, etc. etc. that were always held at Memorial Park during Apple Blossom festival week ? No explanation was given and no replacement or apology was ever offered by the Town for such a major loss of long running public outdoor entertainment to be absorbed by the citizens of Kentville ? And Kentville has now lost its most identifiable of all citizens that being their beloved Apple Blossom Princess Kentville, when a newcomer generation of ABF Officials showed uncommon immaturity, disrespect, disregard and insensitivity when presuming themselves to be the ones that are entitled to end the long running iconic Queen Annapolisa and Apple Blossom Princess competition after 88 years ? This means that all public Royal party appearances including all Princess Teas, the appearance at Kentville Children's Parade, Friday night concert, Wolfville Coronation ceremonies, fireworks, Parade, all Royal visitations to schools, shut-ins, Seniors, and all hospital attendances normally made by Queen Annapolisa and the Royal Party will no longer take place ?

In 2022 the Kentville Grand Street Parade was understandably limited following the 2 previous Covi year cancellations, but unfortunately this year's 2023 effort wasn't much better ? The enormous contribution and wonderful diversity of nearby Valley communities from Windsor to Digby was no longer included in this Parade ? Apple Blossom royalty and all Princess floats were also no longer included ? Many residents expressed disappointment when their beloved Apple Blossom Princess Kentville and child attendant were no longer included in their own Town Parade ? And it seemed Kentville has lost its most identifiable citizen and a wonderful Town Ambassador who carries out many important official Town duties while advertising and promoting Kentville simply by representing the town with beauty, charm, grace, dignity and talent all year long whenever and wherever she went ?

The long running three consecutive weekdays of wonderful mid week Apple Blossom entertainment down at the Park have been cancelled and Apple Blossom week entertainment is cut down to a bare bone single Friday night affair offering minimal local entertainment, some kindergarten bouncy castles, and food wagons that sell twenty dollar hamburgers, (gone are the days of the dollar dog and drink) ? And it feels strangely empty down there now that the highlight of the evening Royal Party visitation and rock music supplied by Eddy's Basement is no longer included ? And there was even a noted decrease in the quality of the fireworks, ( which btw will no longer be started by Queen Annapolisa at her official Royal Party visitation to the Park following Coronation ceremonies in Wolfville) ? And, the newcomer ABF Officials have found yet another way to take more away from ABF patrons when charging inflation stressed locals a high entrance fee just to attend a downtown open air ABF street dance ?

And so, the citizens of Kentville have become frustrated with the many cutbacks, cancellations and closures that are never replaced once gone ? Both of the Provincial Railway and the municipal Airport are now permanently closed and even Acadia Van lines inter provincial no longer stops ? The Wandlyn Inn complex and all of its popular hotel and restaurant services were never replaced ? Devastating cut backs were made to the historic Apple Blossom Festival that saw a week long fun filled period of public entertainment at Memorial Park reduced to a minimal Friday night affair and a parade that lasted less than an hour ? Concerns remain about the absence of an in-Town High School for Teens, the loss of a key funeral home, the loss of the Pool Hall, the absence of a movie theater, the loss of Harveys drive thru, the loss of one of 2 Tim Hortons and their non local hiring policy, the loss of the dt pizza parlor, the loss of the local fruit and vegetable market, the absence of a 7/11 convenience store, the closure of the bakery, and also the loss of the local disposal site when no replacement was offered by the Province that shut it down ? And there was the shocking elimination of historic Valley culture when they terminated the Valley Apple Blossom Princess event and when they put an end to the long running prestigious Acadia U Coronation ceremonies in Wolfville ? The sacrilegious changing of the name of Kentville's internationally known name Cornwallis Inn symbolically married to the Town name Kentville and cherished by local residents was extremely disappointing ? And many citizens worry about the serious shortage of tourist facilities after the Wandlyn hotel complex burned down and the Town had lost so many hospitality, business, tourist, restaurant, hotel, night club, convention and recreational venues ?

And now, in a more recent issue, we are seeing more and more of our small businesses that are located all over the Valley that not only provide local employment but also serve as popular meet and greet gathering spots for friends and neighbors, are now changing hands after being bought out or turned over to strangers that are not from Halifax or from N.S. nor even Canada but have arrived from another Continent ? These take-overs appear to include replacing management and assuming control over the business and hiring policy in some long time Valley fast food, gas, and coffee businesses ? And now it seems that whenever shopping at the Milne Court Petro-Can, or New Minas Ultramar, KVille Ultramar, KFC, or Mary Browns, the DQ, or the Burger King, or Subway, or any of the 3 Timmies , or Walmart, Needs, or when receiving a parcel from amazon, or paying the bill at a cash register st many other stores it feels like you're suddenly in a foreign country ? And some of the newly hired employees are new to Canada and not familiar with local currency and so it is advisable to count your change when paying by cash ? There are also some worries that the temporary foreign workers program is unfair and possibly racist, and others worry about the advent of nepotism if local establishments are run by new management and when many of our local residents can't find local jobs any more ? Another major local employer, Eassons Trucking, also seems to be affected by the current influx of foreign workers with some reports of untrained, unlicensed, unqualified, (and Government subsidized) unsafe drivers behind the wheel, and rumors that some units with multiple workers on board have a hole drilled in the floor of the sleeper cabin to accommodate a long piece of ABS plumbing pipe that is used to transfer raw shidzen sewage on a one way trip from the truck cabin interior directly down to the open highway below and avoid pit stops at the Big Stop ?

And, some concerns were shown over the recent Kentville municipal election, when many candidates seemed unawares of the Town's long time real traditions, customs, character and past history ? Some candidates idealistically saw Kentville as a kind of happy go lucky, blissful, Hallmark or Who-ville movie set type village inhabited by busy jolly munchkins frolicking up and down picturesque colorful cobblestone streets bordered by quaint shops, internationally known boutiques and fancy eateries ?

Kentville has elected a new Mayor who is also a new local business owner, who must tackle the current town crisis ? He appears to have befriended and may possibly be being influenced by the ex County Warden Brothers who resides in the Kingston/Greenwood area and who doesn't give a squat about Kentville and had previously sold out Kentville when leading the charge to use heartless expropriation without compensation to shut down the local municipal Airport, popular skydiving academy, international flight training academy and many other successful aviation businesses at Waterville ? And what about the new Mayors' recent New Year's message of congratulating himself on enlarging the size of his downtown retail store and expressing personal happiness over the new (taxpayer funded) installation of a brand new double wide sidewalk in front of his store, but failing to mention serious town issues like town youth unemployment, racial profile hiring at Hortons, the fentanyl and opioid crisis, vandalism, street people and homelessness, the end of our Princess Kentville and the loss of millions in town revenue after they terminated Queen Annapolisa and ruined Grand street Parade, as well as, the no place to stay or eat for tourists visiting Kentville problem, the long running need for an indoor town recreation facility (no one wants to get their daily exercise by hiking down crude outdoor trails, attacked by mosquitos, and witnessing users shoot up in the privacy of the forest) ? And there's also the housing crisis, the sudden high increases in rental rates crisis, the alarming rate of downtown business foreclosures and bankruptcies, and a need to honor Kentville's glorious past railroading history with a museum and outdoor train and locomotive display of some sort ? Adding to this, disrespect had been shown when, ( due to a drop of rain ) they cancelled this year's Military march-on and (the best in area) Remembrance Day ceremonies always held outdoors at the Memorial Cenotaph on Park Street ? There was also Kentvilles snubbing of the Trudeau Liberals express wish for diversity and inclusion in Canada when a shortened Grande Street Parade was no longer as inclusive or as diverse as per normal ? And where Senior citizens were seen to be perched precariously aboard a stop and go, unsheltered, jerking motion, no sided open vehicle without restraining devices, water or protection from the sun ? There was also the confusion caused from the nonsensical changing of many long time well known established town names including the most famous of them all the Cornwallis Inn ? There's also the pressing need to build a high school, and there are some complaints about the failure to provide public outdoor entertainment events that exceed the grade school level ? There was also some controversy over the hanging up of the biggest pride flag that money can buy hung above the main entrance of the Cornwallis Inn, and of course, also the serious drainage problem discovered when the recent town flooding crisis took place? There was also concerns shown after the Provincial Government forced our local reclamation and disposal site to permanently close down and didn't offer to replace it but just left the area without one ? And, there remains a demand for an inquiry into the exploitive five figure fee charged by Kentville water commission to a new customer just to turn the water on at the road ? And there are concerns over many recent takeovers of local small businesses when our locals around here can't find work ? And some new concerns have been expressed over the formation of an exclusive kind of Ontarioville newcomer type town slowly establishing itself as an independent town within a town ? Some local drivers are concerned over this years Spring pothole epidemic that made some streets unfit to drive on (at a time when a brand new double lane sidewalk installed in front of Phinneys was smooth as a baby's bum), and the refusal by Town to help drivers with expensive auto repairs caused by unguarded potholes ? And there was also concerns over the inadequate street lighting in many areas and the residential streets and sidewalks still needing attention ? And there was some complaints relating to the inconvenience felt by local residents when ultra slow motion repairs on Canaan Ave moved at three legged turtle racing speed and had caused this vital access route to remain closed to traffic, incl emergency vehicles, for many many Months, (unlike the speedy workmanship and high priority given to a new downtown sidewalk installation in the front of Phinneys) ?

And so, can it be time to stop come from away newcomer mentality, and make it mandatory for all candidates bidding on these important Town governing positions to be born, raised and reside in the town of Kentville in an effort to preserve, protect, retain and respect the unique character, history, diversity, identity and many longtime community traditions that make Kentville ?

  

OUCH ? ( can someone please remove the daggers from our back ), Et tu, Warden Brothers and u tu Leo ? March 10th 2014 - A Date That Will Live on in Infamy - Warden Brothers, (Greenwood riding) and the Kings County Council use a calculated forced eviction to shut down the Waterville Airport aviation complex and then relocate some components to the Kingston/Greenwood area ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/28588465413/in/album-7...

 

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Apple Blossom Festival news updates :

  

Logan Morse and a newcomer ABF Board of Directors have broken the hearts of Valley families especially the Children when they move to terminate the historic and long running Queen Annapolisa and Apple Blossom Princess Pageant after 88 years ? ABF Directors show no remorse, while boasting that their bold action was needed to improve, evolve and bring the pageant up to their modern standards ? www.pressreader.com/canada/annapolis-valley-register/2023...

 

May 26, 2023 - We Are the Ones. An unusual display of disrespect and arrogance shown by newcomers when the long running historic Valley Peoples Pageant is cancelled without notice, consideration, consultation or approval ? A modern generation of ABF Directors with bold new ideas have apparently proclaimed themselves to be the one generation in 88 years that can interrupt and permanently end 88 years of wonderful multi Valley village Queen Annapolisa and Apple Blossom Princess enjoyment ?

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/apple-blossom-festival...

 

Annapolis Valley families in shock and children cry when learning their beloved Queen Annapolisa Pageant has been cancelled without notice, consultation, consideration or compassion ? Newcomer Directors say they are taking action to improve, evolve and modernize the historic Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival ? www.saltwire.com/atlantic-

 

Air Show Atlantic Inc.- Valley residents have lost a long time major yearly family entertainment event when the ABF Greenwood Airshow is terminated and will be no more. Fast forward to Aug 24, 2024, and, to corporate greed ? Air Show Atlantic Inc. now charges big bucks to see taxpayer owned aircraft at a taxpayer owned airport in a vastly inferior airshow ? Air Show Atlantic Inc. doesn't have the courtesy to offer a discount Seniors ticket category for Valley Senior citizens ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/52345513615

 

How dare They ? Kentville IS the Cornwallis Inn and the Cornwallis Inn IS Kentville - If you were to google the 2 words Cornwallis Inn you will get over 600,000 entries with almost all of them married to the word Kentville.. (what a great promotional tool) . The world famous Cornwallis Inn is the source of many fond memories for all local and Valley residents.. "It was the centre of everything’: The past and present of Kentville’s iconic Cornwallis Inn"

www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/lifestyles/it-was-the-centre...

 

Kentville identity crisis. Help, Is there a Superhero anywhere out there that can save Kentville from the newcomer agenda ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54418705157/in/album-7...

 

The highly controversial 2017 Grand Street Parade - Has Kentville once again been the target of exploitation ? After Warden Brothers, (Greenwood ) and Liberal MP L Glavine (Kingston) had all but hijacked Waterville Airport before relocating it to their own home riding in Kingston/Greenwood area, it seems that the town of Kentville must face yet another attack from the Kingston area when Alxys Chamberlain, Apple Blossom Princess Kingston, and ABF Directors attempt to take yet another major source of revenue and another major attraction away from the town of Kentville ?

Et tu, Madama Chamberlain ? The unconscionable attempted hijacking and subsequent recovery of Kentvilles's most beloved yearly event ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/18506181065

 

2023 Kentville Grand Street Parade - A disregard for safety of Seniors is shown as unrestrained Senior citizens are precariously perched atop an unsheltered, open sided, stop and go, large unstable jerking motion moving platform ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/53900780519/in/album-7...

 

Exploiting a past Queen Annapolisa in a photo op ? Politicians at the official opening ceremony of the 2023 Apple Blossom Festival pretend there's still a Queen Annapolisa Pageant while knowing full well that Queen Annapolisa and the Apple Blossom Princesses have been terminated forever and are no longer a part of the Festival ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/53755100811/in/album-7...

 

2023 Kentville Grand Street Parade, what happened to inclusion and diversity ?

Newcomer Parade officials defy and snub the Trudeau Liberal Government's demand for diversity and inclusion in Canada ? Many nearby local Valley towns and villages are not included in this year's parade ? This exclusion also means a denial of the diversity usually provided by these towns and communities ? Where is Canning, Digby, Annapolis Royal, Hantsport Greenwood, Windsor ? Where's our Queen Annapolisa ? Where's the Apple Blossom Princesses and where's all of the individual Town floats including Princess Kentville ? To view complete 2023 Kentville Grand Street Parade press here, www.dailymotion.com/video/x8lchie www.dailymotion.com/video/x8lchie

 

Facebook, Friends of Kentville - The site Administrator, a new arrival from PEI, says she wants to see Kentville as the queerest town in all of Nova Scotia ? www.facebook.com/groups/2588266877982288

 

Will a drag Queen replace an apple blossom Queen in Kentville ? www.nsbuzz.ca/life/kentville-all-ages-drag-show-draws-pro...

 

Nov 16 2023 - Apple Blossom Princesses call for a return of Queen Annapolisa,

www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/communities/former-apple...

 

The Town of Kentville has cut back and cancelled many hours and even entire days of long time traditional public outdoor entertainment ay Memorial Park that was always a standard part of Apple Blossom Festival week ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/52094784785

 

A medley of guest Tribute bands seen at Memorial Park Kentville that were always free of charge in the past when performing at the Festival : Petty Larceny, Fleetwod Mix, Keep the Faith, Stones Tribute, Green River Revival, Viscious, Eddy's Basement, Matt Minglewood,

www.dailymotion.com/video/x5hqti9

 

Corporate greed shown by newcomer organizing committee ? Instead of providing a free guest Tribute band for the patrons as per normal at the anual free Memorial Park Friday night concert, it will now cost 50.00 pp to see a 'Queen tribute band' performance. that's 50.00 per ticket in 2025 ? acadiau.universitytickets.com/

 

Town of Kentville appears to rip off its own citizens right at Apple Blossom Festival time ? Cold-hearted Capitalism shown by Town and newcomer otganizing committee ? Citizens to be burdened by a twenty dollar per person out of pocket expense just to attend an outdoor street dance held on taxpayer owned street property during Apple Blossom Festival week ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54546051832/in/photost...

 

They've Ruined It ? Millions of dollars in revenue wiped out ? Our great Festival is no longer even recognizable ? How could anyone take a world class event and turn it into something stupid ? President Erica Gillis has to be the worst ever ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54418705157/in/album-7...

 

Directors Erica Gillis, www.appleblossom.com/about/

Mayor Andrew Zebian www.facebook.com/andrewzebian

 

2025 Kentville Grand Street Parade - Is this a joke ? A low entree, bare minimum 45-minute Kentville Grand Street Parade this year ? Zero in large marching street bands and majorettes other than the regular RCMP (mini version) marching unit, no Sottish pipers or pipe bands, zero in Apple Blossom Royalty and no famous royal floats, Most of the regular nearby surrounding Valley village participants not there, no horse and wagons, no armaments, soldiers, marching bands or displays from Aldershot or Greenwood, etc etc, ? And yet Guest parade announcer proclaims in quote @ 29:17, " this parade is the largest in Canada, - it's the longest with the largest route and the most entries. " Wha-a-a-t ? Where did that come from and what's she talking about ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQuaIdrQi00

 

A different Apple Blossom Princess occupies a makeshift Royal throne on board the historic Kentville Apple Blossom Princess parade float in Grande Street Parade on Apple Blossom festival Saturday. The newcomer Mayor of Kentville now rides the float in its annual trip down Main Street ?

' Somebody get that King a crown and sceptre '

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54557663677/in/dateposted

 

They've ruined it part 2 - Millions in town revenue lost as Parade attendance shrinks to an all time low ? May 31st, 2025 Kentville Grand Street Parade has gone from 100,000 down to 10,000 - They've ruined the Festival, and the Parade too ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54568017261/in/photost....

www.facebook.com/avabf

 

ABF Directors may disapprove and terminate the Queen Annapolisa pageant and Apple Blossom Princess competition but nevertheless Valley residents will always continue to admire, support, respect and remain fond of British Monarchy. Most Valley citizens were delighted to hear that his Majesty King Charles III and Queen Camilla are coming for a royal visit to Canada on May 26 and 27, 2025. This year's incomplete and now 'Royalty-less' ABF starts on the 28th, www.cbc.ca/news/politics/king-charles-canada-visit-1.7524946

 

the genocide of our Valley history and culture ? The long proud history of all 87 past Queen Annapolisa and Apple Blossom Princess winners has been removed from the official Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival website ? The special site page that is dedicated to previous Queen Annapolisa winners 1933 thru 2019 has been taken down and apparently replaced by jumbo size portraits of the newcomer ABF President and officials who have taken over the iconic Festival ? www.appleblossom.com/history/past-queens

Meet the directors,

www.appleblossom.com/about/

  

May 29th, 2026 Kentville Memorial Park, the ABF Friday night concert, ( Can the good ole days of dollar dogs and bargain Big 8 drinks be over) ? A high level of security to guard the 20 dollar burgers and kids bouncy castles ? ( must have taken up most of their budget at the sacrifice of bringing in some quality outside live entertainment) ? Town calls for outside police to assist the local Kentville force, cordons off the entire ground zero event perimeter with road blocks, street barricades and manned guard posts to establish a maximum level traffic control that unfortunately forces patrons including seniors, the handicapped, toddlers, and Mothers carrying babies to park and walk a fair distance to get to the park gates ? Also, in the past years this concert had always featured special outside guest rock bands, interesting games, demonstrations and displays, and a visit from the Queen Annapolisa Royal party following the prestigious coronation ceremony in Wolfville, However, the long running historic concert appears to have deteriorated into some kind of a Children's outdoor romper room type family show featuring food trucks, inflatable air bouncy castles and a local band as the featured guest star main stage performing act ? Not much to do or see for those above the elementary grade school level other than to maybe purchase some food from a food truck charging upscale restaurant prices and then dine on a paper plate using plastic utensils while standing up in a crowd of unruly kids and being lustfully observed by some nearby hungry saliva drooling pet dogs leashed to their owners ? However, thanks to the heightened security and the crowd and traffic control there was a report of a parking violator being successfully apprehended and a runaway pet was also captured and returned to its owner ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54558198569/in/photost...

 

Oct 4th, 2025 - Kentville Harvest Festival held annually in Centre Square :

A disappointing effort this year that didn't include many of the long time traditional favourites like the family horse-drawn hay wagon ride or the pumpkin people scarecrow making class, contest and the live group demo ? Didn't see much of a showing from the Valley harvest, Valley livestock or the local Valley farmer ? Many of the usual Harvest Festival standards that had always been featured in past festivals were no longer here but are instead replaced by business kiosks selling commercial merchandise unrelated to the harvest ? Some bouncy castles were brought in along with some high-priced food trucks ?

 

Upgrade 2025 ? A photo taken from in front of Phinney's dept store downtown Kentville after major renovations to double its size gave Phinneys the second largest downtown store front display window area next only to the NSLC liquor Store : A massive Town expenditure was budgeted this year for a major upgrade to the Mayor's downtown business backyard as Webster Street gets a complete 100 % total beautification makeover with new installations of street paving, paint and signage etc, new double sidewalks both sides, driveway entrances, and new curb and gutter both sides ? All other streets surrounding the Webster Street downtown area business block also upgraded including Aberdeen Street (twice), Cornwallis Street and Main Street ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54835340734/in/photost...

  

The Koncerned Kentvillian must ask, " why is it every time that you gas up at Milne Court Petro-Can, New Minas Ultramar, KVille Ultramar and now the Big Stop, or go to the KFC for chicken, or Mary Browns, or the Burger King, or Subway, or all of the 3 Timmies for coffee, or Walmart, oe Needs, or receive a parcel from amazon, or attend the cash register post to pay a bill at many other stores, it feels like you're suddenly in a foreign country ? " What has happened to all of the friendly locals that used to hold these positions and were one of the main reasons that we frequented these establishments ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54418705157/

Kody Bloise . Liberal Party

  

Kentville's own Trash Canyon - toughest S.O.B. wrastler to ever come outta the KVille !

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/53939211581

 

Trash Canyon - If u go away,

www.dailymotion.com/video/x8zb9u0

 

Kentville - Mader's celebrates 50 years of service

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/55187690268/in/dateposted

  

George Orwell's dark prediction has just come true.

London England, Apr 22,2026 - The British Parliament has just enacted legislation that will install a form of Orwellian Totalitarian rule into current democratic English society and allow for Government placement of specific social comtrol and restrictions in the form of mandatory lifetime probationary orders to be placed on certain citizens who will then be monitored for as long as they live to insure compliance is met on their personal probation orders from birth to death ? Rob Cunningham and his Cancer Society are crusading in Canada for residents of his home country to be forced into this compulsory social control ? www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/uk-agrees-ban-on-cigarette-s...

  

Dec 13th, 2025 - this is a bit rich ? A doctor advertising smoking for the liquor store ? Dr. Robert Strang Chief Medical Officer of Health and top doctor for Nova Scotia is now appearing in TV ads that endorse the (safe) smoking of pot while representing the Provincially owned liquor stores ? It's also a bit rich that Rob Cunningham and his Cancer Society do not appear to have a problem with this smoking ad ?

www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4190201767960744

 

Closing down museums, tearing down 88 yr old historic statues, the vandalizing of precious artifacts and the changing of historic street and heritage site names are all slowly erasing a peoples' proud history ? March 04, 2026 - Halifax Nova Scotia - P. C. Provincial Government downplays the importance of preserving Provincial culture and dismisses those who strive to preserve, protect, honor and expand it ? Artists, cultural and heritage workers, arts organizers, and their allies rally in Halifax over the latest Tim Houston PC worst in history 130 M cuts to the essential funding needed for arts, culture, tourism, and heritage sector programs ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQjKntnV55c

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/55129846907/in/dateposted

  

A cultural genocide is going on in Kentville ?

Why always Kentville ? Now it's the library ? First came the loss of the Railway and Day-liner service back in 1989, then Kings council expropriated the local Airport and evicted the many other established aviation schools and businesses, in 2017 they tried to take Grand street parade away from Kentville, and then we lost the famous Cornwallis Inn logo and the 88 yrs old community statue in Halifax was torn down, they then terminated Apple Blossom Princess Kentville and abruptly ended 87 consecutive years of the Queen Annapolisa pageant. Kentville lost a massive amount of diversity provided by the multiple villages that participated in the Festival, as well as the elimination of the Princess teas, the Coronation and all of the popular mid-week public outdoor entertainment always normally held at Memorial Park during ABF week ? And now they are after the popular Kentville Library ?

After the Town has conducted termination after termination while not offering any similar replacement, and as Kentville gradually approaches a cultural ghost town status, we notice that the downtown business core (in which the Mayor has a major business interest ) has been renovated and restored to pristine condition by way of a massive Town expenditure budgeted for a complete 100 % total beautification makeover program complete with new installations of street paving, street paint, new double sidewalks on both sides, new driveway entrances, new curb and gutter both sides, signage and flower pots ? And the other three surrounding streets making up this downtown business block have also been totally upgraded including Aberdeen Street (twice), Cornwallis Street and Main Street ?

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/annapolis-valley-libra...

www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/video/2026/06/02/funding-cuts-lea...

 

May 18th, 2026 - CBC speak with forked tongue ? CBC lures unsuspecting RCMP members into a trap set by First Nations ? Ambushed by the CBC and First Nations, a music video ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/55278767366/in/dateposted

 

the ongoing deterioration of Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival in Kentville ? Bring back Eddies Basement to Memorial Park ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/55295377420/in/photost...

 

honey they shrunk the stage ! Safety side fences have had to be installed,

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/55307116357/in/dateposted

 

An ongoing downsizing of the world-famous Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/55304178661/in/photost...

  

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ABF 2017 :

 

A quick review of the notorious hostile takeover bid and an attempt to extract the 2017 Kentville Grand Street Parade away from its natural home in the town of Kentville ?

  

February, 2017 - With only 3 months to go and parade planning and preparations well underway as per usual for the upcoming 2017 edition of Kentville Grand Street Parade, officials were suddenly caught totally off-guard and were absolutely blindsided by shocking news coming from out of nowhere that current ABF Management who are in charge of the festival had made a final decision in private to take Grand Street Parade away from its long time home in Kentville ? Apparently, they had already moved to taken it away from Kentville and then transfer it to New Minas during secret meetings without consulting, giving notice, or requesting permission ? And so it seemed that a group of inconsiderate Officials with radical new ideas had ignored town of Kentville interests and 87 years of tradition, and had (incredibly) just taken the annual Grand Street Parade ( and even future Parades ) from Kentville without consultation, notice or permission ? Drastic location changes and even elimination of other longtime events and attractions always held in Kentville such as the Friday night outdoor show and fireworks, the Memorial Park Wednesday and Thursday displays with Valley student participation and numerous attractions, the bringing in of popular outside bands, and even the famous historic Kentville Children's Parade were all targeted by this grouping of ABF directors for cut-back or termination ? Radical changes in the Queen Annapolisa and Apple Blossom Princess competition including gender, contestant rules, location of crowning ceremony, and changes in overall competition format were also discussed ? ABF Officials defended secretive, inconsiderate and authoritarian type actions by claiming that as stewards of the festival they are entitled and obliged to uphold the integrity of the festival ? (integrity ? ) They later changed stories saying they were left with no other choice due to Kentville's inability to prove they can successfully host such a large Parade event, ( Kentville has hosted this parade for the last 85 years ), and also because the people in charge of Grand Street Parade were unprofessional, indifferent and uncooperative ?

And so it came to be that a newly elected Mayor and a new Council in its infancy were suddenly confronted with perhaps the most serious challenge ever to be faced by the town of Kentville since the tragic loss of their two major transportation sources, that being the loss of the railway in 1989, followed by the shocking loss of aviation in 2014 when the Town CAO and the Warden and Council conspired to close out Waterville municipal Airport and evict all businesses and tenants ? This new and very serious challenge came in the form of a surprise and pernicious attack and attempt to hijack Kentville's most beloved local commercial attraction ? The unexpected surprise action came from an unfamiliar and unfriendly source that appeared to be inconsiderate, disrespectful, and even a tad opportunistic when considering that Kentville just finished installing a brand new rookie Mayor and Council ? When the newly elected Mayor of Kentville was suddenly swarmed by news of so many extreme actions already taken against her town's best interests, a shocked and disbelieving Mayor Snow said when speaking with local media that she was overwhelmed, heartbroken and called the actions unprecedented, disrespectful and unacceptable ? Everyone seemed to agree that an attack on Kentville's most popular and well known outdoor event without courtesy of an invitation, negotiation, inclusion, consultation or approval is unacceptable ? Needless to say, the biggest losers of all were the good citizens of Kentville who have contributed so much over the last 90 years going back to the thirties and forties in times when the CNR train brought many Parade patrons to stay at the Cornwallis Inn ? Over the years the Town has invested enormous amounts of its time, energy and town resources into the creation of a world-famous event that draws tens of thousands of visitors.

All Valley towns take great pride and look forward to their individual town festivals and especially their yearly parade. The citizens of Kentville are no different. Towns like Kingston, Hantsport, Wolfville, Windsor, Berwick, Canning, Greenwood etc. will never have to worry about someone hijacking their yearly community parade or otherwise taking it away ? However, sadly, the citizens of Kentville now face the troubling prospect of a possible loss of their annual town parade without notice at any time and of losing many years of time, energy, town resources, manpower and all of the other general services and contributions made during the past 88 years that it has taken to create this world class event ?

The current 2017 ABF board of Directors is led by Angela Pelton and Alxys Chamberlain (Queen Annapolisa 2015), with Barb Madic, Heidi Scotney-Kinsman, John Patterson, Katie Gordon, Krista Morine, Linda Keddy, Logan Morse, Sarah Griffiths, and Steffany Cox-Lingard ?

  

No Smoking in KVille, but drink, gamble and smoke pot all you want ? Maders tobacconist in downtown Kentville is celebrating 50 years in business,,

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/9344935900

 

may 2023 = Kids welcome at an all-age Drag show to be held at the Kings Arms in Kentville,,

www.nsbuzz.ca/life/kentville-all-ages-drag-show-draws-pro...

 

A protest against an all-age drag show at the Kings Arms ends peacefully in Kentville,

www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/communities/a-celebration-of...

 

Lunenburg - Now even Queen is a bad name ? Lunenburg recently changed the name of Cornwallis Street to Queen Street. Queen was first choice in a survey taken to select a new street name. But the town received another complaint from the local anti-racism committee saying they are upset by a democratic decision that would replace one colonial street name (Cornwallis) with another, (Queen ) ?

www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/ns-town-that-changed-cornwa...

      

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On the recent 2023 edition of the Grand Street Parade :

  

"it looked as if some spectators along the route just joined in and began to walk along to make themselves a part of the parade ? "

 

May 27th, 2023 - Dismay, disillusion and disappointment prevail in Kentville over shocking changes and missing regular entrees in this years 2023 Grand Street Parade ? Where is our famous Queen Annapolisa and where are Apple Blossom Princesses and child attendants riding in their beautiful hand crafted decorated floats ? Where's the town criers ? And what about majorette groups, Scottish pipers and large multi marching bands that always attend ? And where is Hantsport and Windsor and their large delegations ? And where are Digby, Aylesford, Annapolis Royal, Canning, Middleton, Wolfville, and more ? Why are so many of the Valley towns and villages that normally participate not included in the parade this year ? It was also disappointing for many when for the first time ever, Kentville Apple Blossom Princess (aka Miss Kentville) was no longer included ? Many local residents young and old identify with the Apple Blossom Princess at this time of year ? The royal float had to be used this year to transport a group of everyday town residents sitting together in a social scene that was meant to identity Kentville with the issues of diversity and inclusion ? The New Minas float also did not include their Apple Blossom Princess this year, however it had been transformed into an advertising commercial for the famous New Minas UFO incident which all New Minions can identify with. Berwick's float didn't include a Princess Berwick this year but was altered to proudly identify with the town's upcoming Centennial celebrations. And the Kingston float was also missing an Apple Blossom Princess this year but instead promoted their long running Kingston Steer Barbecue that all Kingstonians can identify with. It was good to see an RCMP contingent again although they sent far less officers this year than usual ? And it was noted that only one other large marching band appeared in the parade when usually 4 or more of these big bands, many with pipers, usually attend after traveling from places like Cape Breton, Bridgewater, Dartmouth etc ? And where were the pets and farm animals ? There wasn't any horse teams, wooden wagons, riders or livestock this year and even the usual greyhound dogs didn't come ? Also noticed that some spectators must have just joined in and began walking along to become part of the parade, and others must have come over from the Children's parade with their strollers to join in ? There was a variety of advertisers, most from out of town but some local ? There were various Political parties represented, with the largest delegation coming from the Kody Blois Liberals ? All in all, this Year's parade seemed a minimum weak effort that really missed the inclusion and diversity of royal pageantry and the 7 to 10 spectacular Princess floats ? It was also missing the many large marching bands and majorette groups that usually enter ? It also lacked the usual agriculture horticulture and livestock component, the popular Scottish pipers bands that always attend, and also the large out of town contingents that normally participate ? This was not the famous grand street parade that patrons are used to seeing and did not represent the high standards and degree of professionalism set by all previous Grand Street Parades ? It soon became obvious that what was advertised as a newer, bolder, more inclusive and diverse parade was instead the opposite because it was instead now missing inclusion, diversity and the contributions of the many Valley communities and Princess contestants that always come to Kentville to participate in the Queen Annapolisa competition and take the Royal ride down Main street Kentville in their beautiful hand crafted royal floats ?

And so, to quickly sum up, can this strange, amateurish, shortened and Royal-less, apparently new mentality re-set version of the world-famous Kentville Grand Street Parade that is now missing her Royal heinous Queen Annapolisa and the 7 to 10 Apple Blossom Princesses with their 7 to 10 beautifully handcrafted Town Princess floats and also missing the unique character and diversity provided by numerous now uninvited Valley communities, and that appears to be a new generational re-set version of the iconic 90 year old Grand Street Parade now missing most of the usual content, signal the end of the once glorious Grand Street Parade era ?

   

Erna Haupt, accused of aiding her son in a Nazi-organized effort to conduct sabotage in the United States during World War II, is shown in a mugshot after her arrest in 1942.

 

Erna Haupt came to the United States with their son Herbert in 1925 to join her husband, who had arrived in 1923, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

 

The Haupt’s were charged with knowing that their son Herbert Haupt brought large sums of money with him, sheltering Haupt, buying him an automobile in Herbert’s father Hans’ name and being fully advised of their son’s plans for sabotage.

 

Six relatives and friends of Nazi saboteur Herbert Haupt, who was executed with five others in August 1942, faced charges of aiding Haupt in his effort to carry out sabotage of U.S. factories, transportation infrastructure and other facilities.

 

The six were among 14 people in the United States indicted in 1942 for aiding the eight convicted Nazi saboteurs--six of whom were executed, one received a life sentence and one received 30 years imprisonment following a Washington, D.C. military trial.

 

A three week civilian trial in Chicago of those six charged with aiding the saboteurs ended November 14, 1942. Found guilty of treason and aiding and sheltering Herbert Hans Haupt were Hans and Erna Haupt, Herbert Haupt’s parents; Walter and Lucille Froehling, Herbert Haupt’s uncle and aunt; and Otto and Kate Wergin, family friends of the Haupts and Froehlings.

 

On November 24th, Federal Judge William J. Campbell sentenced the three men to death and gave the women twenty-five year prison sentences and fined $10,000 each.

 

“The sentence must serve notice upon the enemy that the cunningly devised scheme for the use of American citizens of German birth as pawns in the game of sabotage and espionage in this country is doomed to failure.”

 

“How different this trial was from the treatment given in Germany to persons accused of similar offense against the German Reich.

 

“In pronouncing this sentence upon these six men and women this court is constrained to give full consideration to the fact that our nation, and every man, woman and child in it, are engaged in a global death struggle against forces of tyranny and evil unprecedented in the history of mankind. Our enemies seek to destroy us both by force of arms on our far flung battlefronts and through disaffection and treacherous sabotage within our borders.”

 

“The home front in our titanic struggle against the enemy is equally important and certainly more vulnerable than our battle lines. This is a war of people against people, as well as cannon and cannon. To endanger this home front, therefore, is as treasonable act as the act of spiking our guns in the face of the foe.”

 

On June 29, 1943, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the verdict, citing serious errors in the proceedings. The ruling saved the three men from the electric chair.

 

Among the trial errors cited was the admissibility of “confessions” that had been obtained by the FBI without advising the defendants of their right to counsel and the judge’s denial of motions to sever the defendants trials from each other.

 

Otto Wergin and Walter Froehling pled guilty July 22, 1944 to misprision of treason (deliberate concealment of knowledge of treason) and were sentenced to five years each in prison.

 

Hans M. Haupt was tried a second time, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $10,000

 

Charges were dropped against the wives of the defendants, although Erna Haupt was interred for the duration of the war, had her citizenship revoked and was deported to the American sector in Germany after the war ended.

 

Hans Haupt, a formerly naturalized U.S. citizen, was granted clemency by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in 1957 and scheduled for deportation to Germany.

 

The conditions of Haupt’s release provided that if he set foot on American soil, the clemency would be automatically revoked and he would be returned to prison for the rest of his life. Haupt had already lost his citizenship upon his conviction.

 

For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmPiRmT4

 

The photographer is unknown. The image is believed to be a U.S. government photograph. It is housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.

 

FORT IRWIN, Calif. - U.S. Army Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, execute a rehearsal of a mission for live fire operations during Decisive Action Rotation 15-02 at the National Training Center here, Nov. 11, 2014. The decisive action training environment was developed in order to create a common training scenario for use throughout the Army. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Charles Probst, Operations Group, National Training Center)

This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-60) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a re-binding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.

 

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

 

This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-60) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a re-binding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.

 

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

 

This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-60) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a re-binding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.

 

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

 

Luigi Persico executed marble statues of War and Peace in Italy. They arrived at the U.S. Capitol in 1834 and were placed in niches on the East Front portico, flanking the doors to the Capitol Rotunda. Over the following years both statues deteriorated badly, and in 1958 they were removed during the extension of the Capitol's East Front.

 

The defaced figures were mended so that plaster models could be made from the originals by George Gianetti of Washington, D.C. Carvers then reproduced the new figures in Vermont marble, and they were placed in 1960.

  

This official Architect of the Capitol photograph is being made available for educational, scholarly, news or personal purposes (not advertising or any other commercial use). When any of these images is used the photographic credit line should read “Architect of the Capitol.” These images may not be used in any way that would imply endorsement by the Architect of the Capitol or the United States Congress of a product, service or point of view. For more information visit www.aoc.gov.

 

This portrait of Thomas Jefferson (Catalog Number INDE11905) was executed by James Sharples Senior in 1796-1797.

 

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806). He idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of republican virtues, distrusted cities and financiers, and favored states' rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786). He was the eponym of Jeffersonian democracy and the co-founder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics for a quarter-century. Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781), first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793) and second Vice President (1797–1801). A polymath, Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor and founder of the University of Virginia.

 

The Second Bank of the United States, at 420 Chestnut Street, was chartered five years after the expiration of the First Bank of the United States in 1816 to keep inflation in check following the War of 1812. The Bank served as the depository for Federal funds until 1833, when it became the center of bitter controversy between bank president Nicholas Biddle and President Andrew Jackson. The Bank, always a privately owned institution, lost its Federal charter in 1836, and ceased operations in 1841. The Greek Revival building, built between 1819 and 1824 and modeled by architect William Strickland after the Parthenon, continued for a short time to house a banking institution under a Pennsylvania charter. From 1845 to 1935 the building served as the Philadelphia Customs House. Today it is open, free to the public, and features the "People of Independence" exhibit--a portrait gallery with 185 paintings of Colonial and Federal leaders, military officers, explorers and scientists, including many by Charles Willson Peale.

 

Independence National Historical Park preserves several sites associated with the American Revolution. Administered by the National Park Service, the 45-acre park was authorized in 1948, and established on July 4, 1956. The Second Bank of the United States was added to the Park's properties in 2006.

 

Second Bank of the United States National Register #87001293 (1987)

Independence National Park Historic District National Register #66000675 (1966)

OFFENSE

Peyton ManningQBKurt Warner

Thomas JonesRBAdrian Peterson

Le'Ron McClainFBMike Sellers

Andre JohnsonWRLarry Fitzgerald

Brandon MarshallWRAnquan Boldin

Tony GonzalezTEJason Witten

Jason Peters*OTJordan Gross

Joe ThomasOTWalter Jones*

Alan FanecaOGSteve Hutchinson

Kris DielmanOGChris Snee

Kevin Mawae*CAndre Gurode

DEFENSE

Mario WilliamsDEJulius Peppers

Dwight FreeneyDEJustin Tuck

Albert HaynesworthDTKevin Williams

Kris JenkinsDTJay Ratliff

James HarrisonOLBDeMarcus Ware

Joey PorterOLBLance Briggs

Ray LewisILBPatrick Willis

Nnamdi AsomughaCBCharles Woodson*

Cortland FinneganCBAntoine Winfield

Ed ReedFSNick Collins

Troy PolamaluSSAdrian Wilson

SPECIAL TEAMS

Shane LechlerPJeff Feagles

Stephen GostkowskiKJohn Carney

Leon WashingtonKRClifton Smith

Brendon AyanbadejoSTSean Morey hirty-one NFL players made their Pro Bowl debuts this year, and most of them proved on Sunday that they belong.

 

Jets CB Darrelle Revis made an amazing one-handed interception of Eli Manning’s pass in the end zone in the third quarter to preserve the AFC’s lead.

 

Besides that interception, Manning had a solid showing in his first all-star game. He finished 8-of-14 for 111 yards and threw the winning touchdown pass to game MVP Larry Fitzgerald.

 

Vikings CB Antoine Winfield, making his first Pro Bowl appearance after 10 years in the league, intercepted Kerry Collins‘ pass deep in NFC territory in the third quarter, preventing the AFC from building on its lead.

 

The star of the AFC defensive effort was Colts first-timer Robert Mathis. In the first quarter, he sacked Drew Brees, forced a fumble and then recovered the ball. He brought down Brees again in the second quarter for a 13-yard loss.

 

On offense, Ravens RB Le’Ron McClain ran for the AFC’s only touchdown in the fourth quarter, while Texans receiver Owen Daniels‘ 9-yard TD reception capped the AFC’s six-play, 52 yard drive just before halftime. McClain’s touchdown came on the rarely ever seen, but well-executed, fumble-rooskie play.

Caerphilly Castle is undoubtedly one of the mightiest fortresses in Wales - and perhaps one of the grandest medieval buildings in Western Europe. Works on the castle begun in 1268, ordered by ‘Red’ Gilbert de Clare, Lord of Glamorgan. After his death in 1295, the castle was taken over and modernized by his son in law, Hugh Despenser. In 1326, during a rebellion against the despised Despenser and weakened King of England, Edward II, the two hole themselves up in Caerphilly but were captured elsewhere in Wales - and brutally executed. In late 1300s, the Castle became unused and gradually begun to decline and disintegrate. Some repair work was undertaken by Earl of Warwick in 1428-1429. A Civil war battlement was constructed alongside the castle in 1642, although it’s debated if it was ever actually used. The ruinous castle passed into the hands of the Marquesses of Bute in 1776. Vast renovations were undertaken by Fourth Marquess of Bute during 1928-1939.

 

Source: www.exploring-castles.com/caerphilly_castle.html

  

History

 

In 1605 Alexander Hay executed a Charter of Mortification for the maintenance of the 13th century Brig o' Balgownie further upstream, which later became the Bridge of Don Fund, which financed several bridges in the north-east of Scotland.

 

This fund having accumulated a value of over GB£20,000, the patrons of the fund, the town council, sought an Act of Parliament to permit construction of a new bridge in 1825.

 

The original design by John Gibb and John Smith was modified by Thomas Telford, and construction work started in 1827.[

 

Problems with the foundations meant it had to be partly taken down and have additional piles sunk.

 

It was opened free to the public with no toll in 1830 and later gave its name to the suburb of the city on the north bank.

 

It was listed as a Category B listed building in 1967.

 

Design.

 

The bridge has five spans of dressed granite, and rounded cutwaters that carry up to road level to form pedestrian refuges.

 

The spans are 75 feet (23 m), with a rise of 25 feet (7.6 m).

 

It was widened in 1958-59, from 24 feet (7.3 m), to 66 feet (20 m) by the construction of a new concrete bridge adjacent to the old one.

 

It now carries four lanes of the A956 road, and is the last bridge on the River Don before it meets the sea.[4][8] The bridge is just downstream from a substantial island in the river.

 

Around the area of the bridge is the Donmouth Local Nature Reserve, designated as a LNR in 1992.

 

Near to the bridge are a number of World War II era coastal defences, including a pill box.

This portrait bust of Benjamin Franklin (Catalog INDE13730) was executed by the Studio of Jean Jacques Caffieri, circa 1790-1804.

 

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat. A major figure in the Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity, he invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, carriage odometer, and glass armonica. He formed both the first public lending library in America and first fire department in Pennsylvania. He was an early proponent of colonial unity and as a diplomat during the American Revolution, he secured the French alliance that helped to make independence possible.

 

The Second Bank of the United States, at 420 Chestnut Street, was chartered five years after the expiration of the First Bank of the United States in 1816 to keep inflation in check following the War of 1812. The Bank served as the depository for Federal funds until 1833, when it became the center of bitter controversy between bank president Nicholas Biddle and President Andrew Jackson. The Bank, always a privately owned institution, lost its Federal charter in 1836, and ceased operations in 1841. The Greek Revival building, built between 1819 and 1824 and modeled by architect William Strickland after the Parthenon, continued for a short time to house a banking institution under a Pennsylvania charter. From 1845 to 1935 the building served as the Philadelphia Customs House. Today it is open, free to the public, and features the "People of Independence" exhibit--a portrait gallery with 185 paintings of Colonial and Federal leaders, military officers, explorers and scientists, including many by Charles Willson Peale.

 

Independence National Historical Park preserves several sites associated with the American Revolution. Administered by the National Park Service, the 45-acre park was authorized in 1948, and established on July 4, 1956. The Second Bank of the United States was added to the Park's properties in 2006.

 

Second Bank of the United States National Register #87001293 (1987)

Independence National Park Historic District National Register #66000675 (1966)

Created in the mid-to-late Nineteenth Century by Melbourne stained glass manufacturer Ferguson and Urie, the Saint Bartholomew stained glass window may be found in Lady Chapel in the eastern transept of Christ Church Brunswick.

 

Saint Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He is purported too have taken two missions; one to India and the other to Armenia. It was in the latter that Saint Bartholomew was executed. According to popular hagiography, the apostle was flayed alive and beheaded. According to other accounts he was crucified upside down with his head downward like Saint Peter. He is often depicted holding a knife, however it seems that Victorian middle-class morals stepped in when the window as made, and rather than holding something so gruesome, he is shown simply holding a partially opened book.

 

This window was erected by James Grice, eldest son of pastoralist, businessman, philanthropist and churchman Richard Grice. Richard was born on October the 30th 1813 in Cumberland, England. The son of William Grice and his wife Sarah, née Parke. he was born into a family who ran a private family bank in Cumberland, built on generations of his family who had begun as farmers in the area before becoming successful businessmen in Cumberland. Richard attended Walker's School in Whitehaven, and gained farming experience on one of his family's properties. However, in his mid twenties, Richard felt that his future did not lie in England, so he set sail to Australia in 1839. He arrived at Adelaide in September 1839 with shepherds and a business partner named Benjamin Heape. They did not stay in Adelaide, and journeyed east to Melbourne where Richard and Benjamin set up an importing and exporting business. Richard decided to explore the idea of pastoral opportunities in the Western District where he successfully raised and bred sheep, going on to become one of the most successful pastoralists in Australia. He expanded his pastoral holdings into Queensland. In 1844 Richard married the daughter of James Hibberson, Anne Lavinia. In 1847 they did a Grand Tour of Europe and then settled in the affluent Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. They had twelve children. Benjamin returned to England in 1852, so Richard entered into a partnership with Mr. T. J. Sumner, who had worked as a clerk within the original firm. Mr. Sumner's eldest daughter married Richard's son James, and the firm became known as Grice, Sumner & Co. The business flourished and by the mid 1870s the firm held vast grazing properties in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. Richard died at his home in Fitzroy on November the 4th 1882, survived by his wife and by three sons and four daughters.

 

Christ Church, built almost on the corner of Glenlyon Road and Brunswick Street in Brunswick, is a picturesque slice of Italy in inner city Melbourne. With its elegant proportions, warm yellow stuccoed facade and stylish Romanesque campanile, the church would not look out of place sitting atop a rise in Tuscany, or being the centre of an old walled town. This idea is further enhanced when the single bell rings from the campanile, calling worshipers to prayer.

 

Christ Church has been constructed in a cruciform plan with a detached campanile. Although not originally intended as such, at its completion, the church became an excellent example of "Villa Rustica" architecture in Australia. Like other churches around the inner city during the boom and bust eras of the mid Nineteenth Century as Melbourne became an established city, the building was built in stages between 1857 and 1875 as money became available to extend and better what was already in existence. Christ Church was dedicated in 1857 when the nave, designed by architects Purchas and Swyer, was completed. The transepts, chancel and vestry were completed between 1863 and 1864 to the designs created by the architects' firm Smith and Watts. The Romanesque style campanile was also designed by Smith and Watts and it completed between 1870 and 1871. A third architect, Frederick Wyatt, was employed to design the apse which was completed in 1875.

 

Built in Italianate style with overture characteristics of classical Italian country house designs, Christ Church is one of the few examples of what has been coined "Villa Rustica" architecture in Victoria.

 

Slipping through the front door at the bottom of the campanile, the rich smell of incense from mass envelops visitors. As soon as the double doors which lead into the church proper close behind you, the church provides a quiet refuge from the busy intersection of Glenlyon Road and Brunswick Street outside, and it is quite easy to forget that cars and trams pass by just a few metres away. Walking up the aisle of the nave of Christ Church, light pours over the original wooden pews with their hand embroidered cushions through sets of luminescent stained glass windows by Melbourne manufacturers, Ferguson and Urie, Mathieson and Gibson and Brooks Robinson and Company. A set of fourteen windows from the mid-to-late Nineteenth Century by Ferguson and Urie depicting different saints are especially beautiful, filled with painted glass panes which are as vivid now as when they were created more than one hundred years ago. The floors are still the original dark, richly polished boards that generations of worshipers have walked over since they were first laid. The east transept houses the Lady Chapel, whilst the west transept is consumed by the magnificent 1972 Roger H. Pogson organ built of cedar with tin piping. This replaced the original 1889 Alfred Fuller organ. Beautifully executed carved rood figures watch over the chancel from high, perhaps admiring the marble altar.

 

Albert Purchas, born in 1825 in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales, was a prominent Nineteenth Century architect who achieved great success for himself in Melbourne. Born to parents Robert Whittlesey Purchas and Marianne Guyon, he migrated to Australia in 1851 to establish himself in the then quickly expanding city of Melbourne, where he set up a small architect's firm in Little Collins Street. He also offered surveying services. His first major building was constructing the mansion "Berkeley Hall" in St Kilda on Princes Street in 1854. The house still exists today. Two years after migrating, Albert designed the layout of the Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton. It was the first "garden cemetery" in Victoria, and his curvilinear design is still in existence, unaltered, today. In 1854, Albert married Eliza Anne Sawyer (1825 - 1869) in St Kilda. The couple had ten children over their marriage, including a son, Robert, who followed in his father's footsteps as an architect. Albert's brother-in-law, Charles Sawyer joined him in the partnership of Purchas and Sawyer, which existed from 1856 until 1862 in Queens Street. The firm produced more than 140 houses, churches, offices and cemetery buildings including: the nave and transepts of Christ Church St Kilda between 1854 and 1857, "Glenara Homestead"in Bulla in 1857, the Melbourne Savings Bank on the corner of Flinders Lane and Market Street (now demolished) between 1857 and 1858, the Geelong branch of the Bank of Australasia in Malop Street between 1859 and 1860, and Beck's Imperial Hotel in Castlemaine in 1861. When the firm broke up, Albert returned to Little Collins Street, and the best known building he designed during this period was St. George's Presbyterian Church in East St Kilda between 1877 and 1880. The church's tall polychomatic brick bell tower is still a local landmark, even in the times of high rise architecture and development, and St, George's itself is said to be one of his most striking church designs. Socially, Albert was vice president of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects for many years, before becoming president in 1887. He was also an inventor and philanthropist. Albert died in 1909 at his home in Kew, a wealthy widower and much loved father.

 

The stained glass firm of Ferguson and Urie was established by Scots James Ferguson (1818 – 1894), James Urie (1828 – 1890) and John Lamb Lyon (1836 – 1916). They were the first known makers of stained glass in Australia. Until the early 1860s, window glass in Melbourne had been clear or plain coloured, and nearly all was imported, but new churches and elaborate buildings created a demand for pictorial windows. The three Scotsmen set up Ferguson and Urie in 1862 and the business thrived until 1899, when it ceased operation, with only John Lamb Lyon left alive. Ferguson and Urie was the most successful Nineteenth Century Australian stained glass window making company. Among their earliest works were a Shakespeare window for the Haymarket Theatre in Bourke Street, a memorial window to Prince Albert in Holy Trinity, Kew, and a set of Apostles for the West Melbourne Presbyterian Church. Their palatial Gothic Revival office building stood at 283 Collins Street from 1875. Ironically, their last major commission, a window depicting “labour”, was installed in the old Melbourne Stock Exchange in Collins Street in 1893 on the eve of the bank crash. Their windows can be found throughout the older suburbs of Melbourne and across provincial Victoria.

  

Olympus digital camera

When he heard that the French had attacked his baggage train, Henry ordered the execution of all but the most high ranking of the French prisoners that had been taken. English archers carried out this gruesome work. Once the French got word that the English had executed the prisoners, the nerve of the main army failed, and they started to retreat.

This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-60) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a re-binding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.

 

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

 

Twenty eiThirty three (33) people have so far today, Wednesday 28 January 2015, been arrested following a huge crackdown on the supply of drugs across Greater Manchester.

 

Officers have executed warrants at 53 addresses across the region this morning as part of Operation Trafalgar, a pre-planned operation.

 

Police have also seized an imitation firearm, a quantity of heroin, several thousands of pounds of cash, three cars and discovered two cannabis farms.

 

Specialist officers from GMP’s Tactical Aid Unit teamed up with detectives and neighbourhood officers on each of Greater Manchester’s 11 divisions.

 

Superintendent Craig Thompson from the Specialist Operations Branch said: “Today’s operation sends a clear message to drug dealers that we will take robust action to disrupt their activity and put them in front of the courts.

 

“Drug dealers have no respect for local communities and we will not stand by and allow them to cause misery in order to fuel their own dishonest and antisocial lifestyles.

 

“Tackling drug-related crime is daily business and officers are out there every single day of the year hunting those responsible for bringing drugs into our communities.

 

“Help us weed out these individuals and put them behind bars where they deserve to be by calling the police or Crimestoppers anonymously.”

 

For updates on Operation Trafalgar, follow #OpTrafalgar on Twitter.

 

Visit our website for information about Neighbourhood Policing in your area of Greater Manchester. www.gmp.police.uk

 

You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.

 

Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.

 

ght (28) people have so far today, Wednesday 28 January 2015, been arrested following a huge crackdown on the supply of drugs across Greater Manchester.

 

Officers have executed warrants at 51 addresses across the region this morning as part of Operation Trafalgar, a pre-planned operation.

 

Officers have seized an imitation firearm, a quantity of heroin, several thousands of pounds of cash, three cars and discovered two cannabis farms.

 

Specialist officers from GMP’s Tactical Aid Unit teamed up with detectives and neighbourhood officers on each of Greater Manchester’s 11 divisions.

 

Superintendent Craig Thompson from the Specialist Operations Branch said: “Today’s operation sends a clear message to drug dealers that we will take robust action to disrupt their activity and put them in front of the courts.

 

“Drug dealers have no respect for local communities and we will not stand by and allow them to cause misery in order to fuel their own dishonest and antisocial lifestyles.

 

“Tackling drug-related crime is daily business and officers are out there every single day of the year hunting those responsible for bringing drugs into our communities.

 

“Help us weed out these individuals and put them behind bars where they deserve to be by calling the police or Crimestoppers anonymously.”

 

For updates on Operation Trafalgar, follow #OpTrafalgar on Twitter.

 

To report drug dealing, please contact Greater Manchester Police on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

To report drug dealing, please contact Greater Manchester Police on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

 

Visit our website for information about Neighbourhood Policing in your area of Greater Manchester. www.gmp.police.uk

 

You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.

 

Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.

  

According to sources, a confrontation between residents and Ethiopian government officials broke out on June 9, 2014, over a mass grave discovered at the former Hameressa military garrison near Harar city, eastern Oromia. The mass grave is believed to contain remains of political prisoners executed during both the Dergue era and the early reigns of the current TPLF regime. Among those who were executed and buried in the location was Mustafa Harowe, a famous Oromo singer who was killed around early 1990′s for his revolutionary songs. Thousands more Oromo political prisoners were kept at this location in early 1990′s – with many of them never to be seen again.

 

The mass grave was discovered while the Ethiopian government was clearing the camp with bulldozers to make it available to Turkish investors. Upon the discovery of the remains, the government tried to quietly remove them from the site. However, workers secretly alerted residents in nearby villages; upon the spread of the news, many turned up en mass to block the removal of the remains and demanded construction a memorial statue on the site instead. The protests is still continuing with elders camping on the site while awaiting a response from government.

 

In addition to the remains, belongings of the dead individuals as well as ropes tied in hangman’s noose were discovered at the site.

 

———————

 

Lafeen ilmaan Oromoo bara 1980moota keessa mootummaa Darguutin, baroota 1990moota keessa ammoo Wayyaaneen dhoksaan kaampii waraanaa Hammarreessaa keessatti ajjeefamanii argame. Ilmaan Oromoo mooraa san keessatti hidhamanii booda ajjeefaman keessa wallisaan beekamaan Musxafaa Harawwee isa tokko. Musxafaa Harawwee wallee qabsoo inni baasaa tureef jecha qabamee yeroo dheeraaf erga hiraarfamee booda toora bara ~1991 keessa ajjeefame. Hiraar Musxafaarra geessifamaa ture keessa tokko aara wallee isaatirraa qaban garsiisuuf muka afaanitti dhiibuun a’oo isaa cabsuun ni yaadatama.

 

Baroota 1990moota keessas Oromoonni kumaatamaan tilmaamaman warra amma aangorra jiru kanaan achitti hidhamanii, hedduun isaanii achumaan dhabamuun yaadannoo yeroo dhihooti.

 

Haqxi dukkana halkaniitiin ajjeesanii lafa jalatti awwaalan kunoo har’a rabbi as baase. Dhugaan Oromoo tun kan amma as bahe, mootummaa kaampii waraanaa kana diiguun warra lafa isaa warra Turkiitiif kennuuf osoo qopheessuuf yaaluti. Lafee warra dhumee akkuma arganiin dhoksaan achirra gara biraatti dabarsuuf osoo yaalanii hojjattonni ummata naannotti iccitii san himan. Ummanniis dafee wal-dammaqsuun bakka sanitti argamuun ekeraan nama keenyaa akka achii hin kaafamneefi siidaan yaadannoo akka jaaramu gaafachaa jiran.

 

Hamma feetes turtu dhugaan Oromoo awwaalamtee hin haftu.

 

-----

More on the Mass Grave of Oromos at Hameressa:

1) OLF on the Hameressa Mas Grave: gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/olf-press-release-one-o... .... or gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/ibsa-abo-ajjeechaa-ilma...

 

2) gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/jaal-araarsoo-biqilaa-h...

 

3) gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/oromoprotests-fdg-hamma...

 

4) gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/gulelepost-hameressa-ma...

This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-60) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a re-binding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.

 

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

 

Greater Manchester Police this morning, Thursday 16 March 2023, executed a raid in Hulme to locate a man from Fallowfield, and made an arrest on suspicion of possessing indecent images of a child.

 

The man was also arrested on suspicion of carrying out activities relating to organised crime.

 

Located at Duffield Court on Brennan Close in Hulme, the 23-year-old of Selside Walk in Fallowfield, was arrested on suspicion of possession of indecent images of a child, contrary to section 160A of the Criminal Justice Act 1998.

 

Multiple electronic devices were seized from the address and he remains in custody for questioning. Enquiries are ongoing.

 

This arrest is the latest during the National Exploitation Fortnight of Action, to protect those who are being exploited - both adults and children, criminally and sexually.

 

You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.

 

Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.

 

You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.

 

You can access many of our services online at www.gmp.police.uk

 

Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York, United States

 

The former Jamaica Savings Bank was constructed in 1897-98 for the oldest and most prestigious banking institution in Jamaica.

 

Designed by the noted firm of Hough & Deuell, the building is a fine and particularly exuberant example of the classically inspired Beaux-Arts style strikingly executed in carved limestone and wrought iron, and is one of only a few buildings in the borough of Queens to embrace that architectural aesthetic.

 

Prominently sited on Jamaica Avenue, the bank building is an urbane presence on the neighborhood’s main commercial thoroughfare. Although the four-story structure is relatively small in scale, the imposing design of the facade conveys a monumentality which is appropriately suited to the distinguished image and reputation of the banking institution, while lending the building the formal elegance of a private club or townhouse.

 

Incorporated in 1866 by a consortium of local citizens—including John A. King, former Governor of the State of New York—the Jamaica Savings Bank played an important role in the development of Jamaica, at that time a burgeoning commercial center.

 

The success of the organization was marked by its exponential expansion in the late nineteenth century and its need for more commodious—and more conspicuous—quarters.

 

The construction of this bank coincided with the 1898 incorporation of Queens County into the municipal jurisdiction of the City of New York and reflects the metropolitan spirit of the period.

 

The facade of the building maintains its original Beaux-Arts design and survives today essentially intact as a reminder of an

 

important era in Jamaica’s history.

 

The Development of Jamaica

 

Historically an important crossroads of Long Island, the area of downtown Jamaica developed as a result of its central location and extensive transportation systems.

 

Jamaica began as a rural settlement when the town was granted a patent from Governor Peter Stuyvesant in 1656.

 

The English took over the town in 1664, changing its name from the Dutch “Rusdorp” to a variation on the name of the local Yemacah Indians, which meant “beaver.”

 

Queens County (then incorporating present-day Nassau County) was chartered in 1683 as one of the ten counties in the colony of New York and official town patents were soon given to Jamaica, Newtown, and Flushing.

 

Through the next century the community of Jamaica served as the county seat and became a trading post where farmers from outlying areas brought their produce. By the time the village of Jamaica was incorporated in 1814, it had become a center of trade on Long Island.

 

Jamaica Avenue, which evolved from an Indian trail, has been called the oldest continuously used road on Long Island.

 

In 1703 the colonial legislature established a highway, known as the “King’s Highway,” which extended from the East River (later Fulton) Ferry through Brooklyn and Queens (along portions of the current route of Fulton Street and Jamaica Avenue) to eastern Long Island. Following the Revolution, the management of the old colonial roads fell into private hands, and beginning in 1809, the Brooklyn, Jamaica & Flatbush Turnpike Company established a toll road from the Brooklyn ferries to the present-day intersection of Jamaica Avenue (then also known as Fulton Street) and 168th Street.

 

The Brooklyn & Jamaica Railroad Company, chartered in 1832, purchased the turnpike and completed a rail line along its route through Jamaica in 1836. Almost simultaneously, the Long Island Railroad, which had been incorporated in 1834, began running a trunk line from the foot of Atlantic Avenue to Jamaica and then eastward from Jamaica to eastern Long Island, making Jamaica a pivotal hub.

 

This improved transportation encouraged non-agricultural business activity in the Jamaica area; industrial enterprises sprang up along the railroad, particularly after 1850 when the turnpike was sold to a group of Jamaica businessmen who incorporated as the Jamaica & Brooklyn Plank Road Company.

 

Following the Civil War, new modes of transportation continued to transform Jamaica by further facilitating commutation to New York City.

 

The East New York & Jamaica Railroad Company established horsecar lines along Fulton Street in 1866; it is no coincidence that the company’s president was Aaron DeGrauw, who was also the first president of the Jamaica Savings Bank and as such had a vested interest in the economic growth and development of the community.

 

The horsecar lines were replaced by electric trolleys in 1887.

 

The nineteenth century saw Jamaica evolve into a retreat for urban residents, who patronized its numerous inns and saloons on weekend excursions and built large summer homes.

 

The permanent population of Jamaica also increased steadily throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, and brought with it the subdivision of farms into house lots and a proliferation of new development, as well as the growth of Jamaica’s downtown.

 

The pressure for housing increased, resulting in street regularization and somewhat denser residential development following the incorporation of Queens into the City of New York in 1898.

 

The 1901 Atlas of the Borough of Queens shows two- and three-story brick and frame structures clustered along Fulton Street and freestanding frame houses and stables, on lots mostly ranging from 50 to 100 feet in width, in the surrounding streets.

 

The rail lines on Fulton Street are identified on the atlas as the Brooklyn, Queens County & Suburban Railroad Company and the New York & North Shore Railway Company. The Long Island Railroad ran parallel to Fulton Street, one block south; the one-story frame station was located on the north side of Twombly Place between Church and Beaver Streets.

 

In 1897 Fulton Street ceased to be operated as a private toll road and its jurisdiction reverted to the local government. The long-needed widening and repaving of the road, which had fallen into disrepair, was quickly undertaken, and in April of 1898, Jamaica hosted a celebration to honor the improvement of Fulton Street.

 

The souvenir brochure from the celebration and other contemporary local publications reflect the metropolitan spirit of that period of municipal consolidation. Local business and political leaders seized the opportunity to praise the numerous advantages of Jamaica—a place with a traditional village character, yet poised to enter a new age—in an effort to encourage commerce, promote residential development, and raise property values.

 

The perceived positive impact of the impending consolidation was declared by one source in 1894: “The days of Greater New York can now be seen not very far ahead, when Jamaica will naturally form the most eastern point to which the consolidated elevated railroad can be expected to run ... very likely before the end of this [century].”

 

Although it would be 1918 before the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company finally replaced the existing surface lines on Fulton Street—soon to be known as Jamaica Avenue—with elevated trains, the decade prior to World War I saw several other significant transportation improvements: the electrification of the Long Island Railroad in 1905-08, the opening of the railroad tunnels beneath the East River in 1910, and the completion of the Queensborough Bridge in 1909.

 

Indeed, with improved accessibility to Jamaica’s downtown, the population of Jamaica quadrupled between 1900 and 1920 and the area was subsumed into the metropolitan web of New York City.

 

The extension of the Eighth Avenue subway to 169th Street in 1937 and the opening of the Triborough Bridge brought further urban development to the area.

 

History of the Jamaica Savings Bank

 

The Jamaica Savings Bank, the oldest and most prestigious banking institution in Jamaica, was incorporated on April 20, 1866, in the midst of the “wildcat” banking period following the Civil War. The bank was established in the basement of the County Clerk’s Office and opened on July 14, 1866, with fifteen customers depositing a total of $2,675.00.

 

The County Clerk’s Office (later the Register’s Office) was located in a building that previously stood on the site of the present Register/Jamaica Arts Center building (a designated New York City Landmark), which is adjacent to the Jamaica Savings Bank.

 

The bank was founded by a group of distinguished local business leaders and prominent citizens. Among the 19 charter trustees was John A. King.

 

John Alsop King (1788-1867) served as a U.S. Congressman and as Governor of New York State in 1857-58.He was the eldest son of Rufus King, a Federalist statesman, minister to Great Britain, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

 

The King Mansion (1733-55; additions, 1806, 1810, c.1830s, a designated New York City Landmark) still stands at 150th Street and Jamaica Avenue, several blocks west of the Jamaica Savings Bank.

 

John A. King was admitted to the bar shortly before being commissioned as a lieutenant of cavalry in the War of 1812. King launched his political career in 1819-21 when he sat in the State Assembly, and later in the State Senate (1823-25, 1832, 1838, 1840).

 

He was sent to the U.S. Congress as a Whig representative, served as a delegate to several Whig national conventions, and in 1856 was a delegate to the first Republican national convention. In the following year he began his term as Governor of New York State. King was stricken with paralysis and died in 1867, the year after the founding of the Jamaica Savings Bank.

 

Following distinguished service as a colonel in the Civil War, Aaron DeGrauw became the first president of the Jamaica Savings Bank, a post he maintained for 33 years until 1899.Described as “an energetic capitalist destined to be the most prominent banker in Jamaica,” DeGrauw was an entrepreneur in the transportation field, operating several turnpikes as well as the East New York & Jamaica Railroad Company.

 

A leader in civic affairs, DeGrauw also served as president of Jamaica village and on the commission in charge of the construction of the town hall built in 1870 at the corner of Fulton Street and Flushing Avenue.

 

By 1874 the business of the Jamaica Savings Bank had grown significantly, with 630 accounts on the books and $177,465.00 in deposits.

 

In that year the bank purchased for $12,000 a two-and-one-halfstory frame building which belonged to the County Clerk’s Office and stood on the site of the present bank building.

 

At that time, the institution “was still small enough to keep its deposits in an ordinary safe, housed in a small frame addition on the side of the building….

 

It was in plain view of the street and this was considered an extra measure of protection.”It has been reported that the first-known occupant of the frame building was J.W. Cornwell’s bakery and feed store; subsequently, the building was used as

 

D.T. Conger’s Oyster House, a shoe store, and a printing office before being purchased by the bank.

 

As the bank grew, more spacious quarters were needed; it is also likely that consideration was given to enhancing the image and status of the institution with a new, handsomely designed bank building which would foster confidence in the bank’s depositors and exhibit its prosperity.

 

A committee was formed to oversee the erection of the bank, composed of George L. Peck, John H. Sutphin, William A. Warnock, and William W. Gillen, all of whom shared close political and business ties.

 

The committee selected the firm of Hough & Deuell to design the new bank headquarters.

 

The cost of construction of the steel-framed limestone-fronted building was estimated to be $60,000.

 

The old frame building was moved to the rear of the site to accommodate the new structure.

 

The bank opened for business in its new quarters in 1898, as Jamaica witnessed its incorporation into the newly consolidated city.

 

Banks and Architectural Imagery

 

As industry, business, and commerce prospered after the Civil War, New York became the nation’s financial capital.

 

Apart from a few imposing buildings on Wall Street, however, commercial banks were for the most part located in converted dwellings, or in office buildings erected to generate revenue, but prior to the 1880s and 1890s rarely in quarters designed specifically for them.

 

Savings banks, many of which catered to the small private investor, were, in contrast, generally not located in the Wall Street area where property values were high, but rather in the communities which they served; therefore, taking advantage of less expensive real estate, those organizations were able to build imposing bank buildings for their exclusive use.Around the turn of the century many savings banks, “suffering, as it were, from the possession of too much cash, and [being] somewhat self-conscious about it,”commissioned new buildings.

 

Even neighborhood banks, which often had small mid-block sites, were designed to be taken seriously as “pillars of the community” by the public which they served. In 1909, Architectural Record published a lengthy, illustrated survey entitled “Recent Bank Buildings in the United States,” in which the author invoked the ancient Greek and Roman temples— which also served as banks—as ancestors to the modern type; the recent banks, however, had evolved due to “the marvelous growth of modern consumerism.” The illustrations attest to the pervasiveness of the classical temple-fronted or domed bank design.

 

This elegant building type not only projected an image of wealth and financial security, but also evoked the trustworthiness and responsibility expected from institutions which serve the public.

 

The popular bank imagery developed, not only as a result of economic conditions, but also in response to the resurgence of the classically inspired style, in the 1890s.

 

Influenced by the architectural principles of the French Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the popularity of the buildings in the Court of Honor of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago—dubbed the “Great White City”—American architects turned for inspiration to Greco-Roman antiquity as well as Renaissance and other classically derived architectural sources.

 

The Beaux-Arts style provided a formal and monumental architecture that was particularly appropriate for the design of banks and public edifices such as libraries, museums, and government buildings.

 

In making historical associations, American architects drew parallels between their own culture, the American neo-Classical past, and the enlightened Greco Roman and Renaissance civilizations. This general movement in the arts and culture, sometimes referred to by scholars as the “American Renaissance,” not only fostered a boom in public buildings, but also the City Beautiful Movement, promoting civic improvement and beautification for the public benefit.

 

Indeed, the metropolitan spirit that accompanied the 1898 consolidation of New York City is demonstrated by the numerous public and private institutions which erected new, stately buildings and, in part, served as an impetus for the Jamaica Savings Bank to enhance its public image.

 

The Beaux-Arts Style and the Design of the Jamaica Savings Bank

 

One popular stylistic trend which informed American architecture at the turn of the century was the pervasive Beaux-Arts mode, also called “Modern French” or “Beaux-Arts Baroque” as identified by the authors of New York 1900.

 

This aesthetic represents a recasting of the classical idiom to express contemporary taste and respond to the requirements of modern buildings. Borrowing such architectural elements from the Baroque period as bold massing and sculptural plasticity of the facade, and such prominent roof treatments as the mansard, the Beaux-Arts style was disseminated in this country by the generation of American architects who studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in the late nineteenth century and who were familiar with the recent architecture of Paris, notably, such famous monuments as Charles Garnier’s Paris Opera (1862-74), as well as many of that city’s residential buildings of the period.

 

The Beaux-Arts style of the Jamaica Savings Bank is a departure from the classical temple-fronted or domed type which had been the traditional formula in American bank architecture.

 

Among the most conspicuous examples of the use of the Beaux-Arts style for a bank building was the National Park Bank, designed by Donn Barber in 1904, which once stood on the east side of Broadway between Ann and Fulton Streets.

 

In this design the architect used robust ornamental forms and an unconventional facade composition in place of the classical orders, and crowned the building with an overscaled mansard. Like that of the National Park Bank, which was built several years later and at a prominent location in Manhattan’s commercial center, the design of the Jamaica Savings Bank is an ornate example of this architectural style; it is, however, of a scale appropriate to its small, mid-block site on a neighborhood main street.

 

In addition, the building is significant as one of only a few buildings in the borough of Queens to embrace the Beaux-Arts style; its design rivals that of many such buildings constructed in Manhattan and in areas of Brooklyn during that period. Above a rusticated base which reinforces the presence of the building on the street, the midsection of the bank’s facade is defined by relatively austere superimposed pilasters supporting an entablature with a segmentally arched pediment.

 

This composition—which functions as a stylized temple front—provides unity and order to the facade.

 

In contrast, the center bay of the facade is the exuberantly detailed focal point of the design, featuring particularly rich and fluid ornamental forms, reminiscent of French Baroque architecture, and handsome wrought-iron balconies. Notable among the facade’s decorative motifs is a carved stone beehive, a traditional symbol in the imagery of bank architecture, denoting industry, thrift, and prosperity.

 

The imposing facade treatment conveys a monumentality which befits the distinguished image and reputation of the banking institution, while lending the building the formal elegance of a private club or townhouse. An urbane presence in Jamaica’s downtown, the building is a pleasing

 

counterpart in the streetscape to the adjacent Register/Jamaica Arts Center building, erected at about the same time and designed in the Renaissance Revival style. The two buildings display similar rusticated stone bases and such complementary horizontal elements as stringcourses, modillioned cornices, and decorated parapets.

 

Hough & Deuell

 

The architectural firm of Hough & Deuell was chosen to design the new headquarters of the Jamaica Savings Bank. William C. Hough and Edgar Deuell, Jr., entered into partnership at about the same time they received the commission for the bank.

 

Hough, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a member of its Brooklyn Chapter, is known for his institutional work in Brooklyn.

 

He had been established as an architect in Manhattan at least since 1886, with offices at 115 Broadway and 18 Cortlandt Street before locating at 280 Broadway where in 1890 he established a partnership with Halstead Parker Fowler (1859-1911).

 

The firm of Fowler & Hough was active through 1897, during which time it was responsible for the design of the 23rd Regiment Armory at 1322 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn (1891-95, a designated New York City Landmark), as well as several other projects in that borough, such as the Bushwick Avenue Congregational Church and Sunday school (1895) at 1170 Bushwick Avenue. Hough is also credited with the design of the French Renaissance-inspired Dudley Memorial Building at 110 Amity Street (1902, in the Cobble Hill Historic District) which was erected for student nurses at Long Island College Hospital. After a short partnership of two to three years, the firm of Hough & Deuell dissolved; Hough maintained an independent practice in Manhattan through 1934. Deuell, a member of the Brooklyn Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, had worked briefly in Brooklyn prior to his collaboration with Hough.

 

In addition to the Jamaica Savings Bank, the firm of Hough & Deuell was responsible for the Brooklyn Homeopathic Hospital on Cumberland Street (demolished), designed in the Renaissance Revival style.

 

Subsequent History

 

The growth in the business of the Jamaica Savings Bank following World War I paralleled that of Jamaica’s downtown, which had become the foremost commercial center of Queens.

 

Indeed, in 1924 when Jamaica Savings Bank first enlarged its building, there were seven banks in Jamaica, and the local press referred to Jamaica Avenue as “Financial Row.”

 

All of these institutions had recently either built new structures or expanded existing facilities. In addition to the Jamaica Savings Bank, the community boasted a branch of the Bank of the Manhattan Company on the corner of Jamaica Avenue and Union Hall Street, two doors east of the Jamaica Savings Bank; the Title Guarantee & Trust Co. to the west of the Jamaica Savings Bank on the same blockfront; the Jamaica National Bank across the street at the corner of Herriman Avenue; and branches of the Corn Exchange Bank, the American Trust Company, and the First National Bank.

 

In 1927 the National Title Guaranty Company erected a ten-story building adjacent to the Jamaica Savings Bank at 160-16 Jamaica Avenue (the Jamaica Savings Bank acquired that property in 1941).

 

In 1923 the Jamaica Savings Bank commissioned local architect William H. Spaulding to design a rear addition to the building, 32 feet deep, which made the total depth of the building approximately 80 feet; the main-floor banking room was completely redesigned and two new vaults were constructed.

 

In 1932 architect Morrell Smith was hired to further enlarge the building, necessitating the demolition of the old frame structure which still stood at the rear of the site.

 

The brick-and-steel extension made the building’s depth about 140 feet, and a small addition was also made in the alleyway at the east side of the building, toward the front of the site.

 

In 1934, the Jamaica Savings Bank merged with the Queensboro Savings Bank and the offices of the latter bank at 90-55 Sutphin Boulevard were made a branch of the Jamaica Savings Bank.

 

In 1964, as the institution continued to grow, it moved across the street to a new, modern headquarters at the northeast corner of 161 Street (designed by LaPierre, Litchfield & Associates).

 

In 1999, the eleven branches of the Jamaica Savings Bank were sold to North Fork Bancorp.

 

Although the former Jamaica Savings Bank building has been enlarged at the rear, the facade maintains its original Beaux-Arts design and survives today essentially intact.

 

Description Main (North) Facade

 

The four-story former Jamaica Savings Bank building, approximately 30 feet wide and constructed of brick with a steel frame, has an imposing, symmetrical, four-story limestone main façade separated into three bays.

 

The high first floor of the building is rusticated; a granite basement sill runs the full width of the façade and projects at the main entrance to serve as an entrance step.

 

A cornerstone at the eastern end of the façade is incised with the dates “1866-1897.”

 

There are two basement openings, each crowned by scrolled ornament with foliate decoration.

 

The western basement opening is filled with a wood panel, and the eastern basement opening contains a metal louver within a wood frame; both openings contain historic, metal grilles with ornate, scrollwork tracery. A painted wood panel adjoins the main entrance surround to its west.

 

The main entrance consists of a pair of historic paneled and glazed double doors set within a historic enframement featuring a paneled reveal, fluted engaged columns crowned by Corinthian capitals, and a pair of sidelights with paneled reveals and recessed lower panels.

 

The columns support a frieze with a central panel reading “161-02.”

 

Above this frieze is a segmental pediment ornamented with eggand-tongue and acanthus-leaf moldings, and filled with ornament consisting of a central scallop flanked by foliate decoration.

 

A five-paned transom with a group of three central panes separated from the two, narrower, outer panes by baluster-like mullions fills the upper portion of the main-entrance opening, above the segmental pediment.

 

The main-entrance opening sits within an eared, molded surround with a projecting molded cornice that also acts as a sill for the window opening above.

 

A panel within the surround, above the main-entrance doors, historically read “JAMAICA SAVINGS BANK” but is now covered with stucco. Two historic metal light fixtures, their edges decorated by egg-and-dart moldings, flank the main entrance; these fixtures are covered with peeling paint and are missing their historic globes. The basement and lower first-floor portions of the façade are painted white; a non-historic sign reading “PROTECTED BY ADT SYSTEM ELECTRIC PROTECTION SERVICES” is attached to the main-entrance reveal west of the enframement.

 

Flanking the main entrance are two pairs of window openings, each consisting of one square-headed opening filled with a historic one-over-one, double-hung wood window, below an ocular opening filled with a single-pane, round, wood-framed sash.

 

A continuous, projecting, molded sill separates the square-headed openings from the basement portion of the façade.

 

A molded, projecting lintel above each square-headed window opening doubles as a sill for the oculus above.

 

Filling the spandrel below each oculus is elaborate carved ornament, consisting of garlands of fruit, some of it spilling over the sill to the eared surround of the square-headed opening below. Each oculus is flanked by fluted brackets supporting a projecting, half-round cornice crowned by an acanthus-leaf keystone.

 

The segmental-arch-headed, central first-floor window opening, located above the main entrance, is filled with a pair of historic, single-pane, wood casement windows.

 

The opening is flanked by classically inspired, carved ornament, including wreaths and cornucopias spilling garlands of fruit over the projecting, molded sill that doubles as a cornice for the main-entrance surround.

 

The opening is flanked by fluted brackets that support a projecting, molded eyebrow cornice crowned by a central cartouche.

 

All of the first-floor window openings contain historic metal grilles with elaborate scrollwork tracery. A continuous, projecting molding extends the width of the façade at the level of the upper first-floor window heads.

 

The first floor is separated from the second and third floors by a deep, molded cornice decorated with an egg-and-dart molding.

 

At the central portion of the façade, the cornice, supported by two large, scrolled and fluted brackets with guttae and decorated with garlands of fruit, steps out from the façade to create a second-floor balcony, which retains its historic and elegant iron railing featuring ornate scrollwork. The second and third floors, forming the midsection of the building, are defined by smooth, Ionic pilasters that frame each bay.

 

A flagpole attached to the second-floor balcony railing projects over Jamaica Avenue. At the central bay, the second-floor opening features a projecting, molded sill, and is filled with a pair of historic one-over-one, double-hung wood windows separated by a flat wood mullion and crowned by a historic, single-pane wood transom, which has a curved top rail that follows the upper line of the window opening.

 

This opening is flanked by rusticated stone pilasters.

 

The richly carved, half-round tympanum above the curved lintel of this opening is filled with carved foliate ornament and a central beehive that is symbolic of the original function of the building.

 

At the central bay of the third story, a scrolled cartouche and undulating brackets support a curvilinear balcony, which retains its historic iron railing decorated with ornate scrollwork.

 

The balcony fronts a segmental-arch-headed window opening within a molded, eared surround containing a historic one-over-one, double-hung wood window with a curved top rail.

 

The outer second-floor openings contain historic one-over-one double-hung wood windows with single-pane wood transoms.

 

They are set within eared surrounds and are crowned by projecting, molded lintels supported by scrolled brackets.

 

The outer third-floor openings contain historic one-over-one, double-hung wood sashes, and are set within molded, eared surrounds with scallop shells.

 

The third story is crowned by a wide entablature featuring a central segmental pediment, which is filled with foliate carving, and a large, scaly, shell-like ornament.

 

The fourth story features a false balustrade below the window openings. The three fourth-floor openings are square-headed and feature simple molded surrounds, and all three, including the central, tripartite window, retain their historic, one-over-one, double-hung wood sashes.

 

The fourth floor is crowned by a denticulated band and deep, modillioned cornice, which is surmounted by a high stone parapet decorated with a central winged cartouche flanked by drooping fruit garlands and topped by a scallop-shell motif.

 

A flagpole rises above the parapet at the center of the façade.

 

The site includes a narrow alleyway to the east, fronted by an ornate iron fence at the building line, that is blocked by a recessed brick extension added in 1932.

 

(An extension was made to the rear of the building at the same time.)

 

The north façade of the extension is faced with tan brick and has a square-headed opening with a stone sill that contains a historic, one-over-one, double-hung wood window.

 

The extension is crowned by stone or cast-stone coping. East and Rear (South) Façades

 

The northernmost portion of the east façade is faced with limestone, which wraps around from the main façade.

 

Some of the main façade’s decorative features, including the cornices above the first, third, and fourth stories, similarly wrap around and continue for a short stretch along the northernmost portion of the east façade.

 

The first floor, and easternmost two bays of the second, third, and fourth floors, are faced with tan brick in stretcher bond. North of the extension are one square-headed basement opening, which has a stone lintel and is filled with a wood panel; one square-headed first-floor opening, which has a projecting stone sill and flush stone lintel, and is filled with a historic one-over-one, double-hung wood window behind a metal grille; and one round-headed opening with a gauged soldier-brick surround, which contains a historic, single-pane wood sash behind a historic, ornate metal grille.

 

All of the second-, third-, and fourth-floor openings in the two northernmost bays have projecting stone sills.

 

The two northernmost second- and fourth-floor openings have flush stone lintels; each of the two northernmost third-floor openings is crowned by a segmental, triple-rowlock arch.

 

The northernmost second-floor opening contains a historic one-over-one, double-hung wood window and single-pane wood transom; the northernmost fourth-floor opening contains a historic one-over-one, double-hung wood window; and the second-northernmost openings at the second and fourth floors are filled with wood panels.

 

The two northernmost third-floor windows contain historic one-over-one, double-hung wood windows, the top rails of their top sashes curved to follow the upper line of their segmentally arched openings.

 

A vent pipe extends vertically from the second floor to above the roofline between the second- and third-northernmost bays.

 

The portion of the façade south of the second-northernmost bay is of red brick, and the openings on this portion of the façade have projecting stone sills and flush stone lintels. While many of these openings retain their historic one-over-one, double-hung wood windows, others are filled with wood panels.

 

The rear of the building, which is partially visible from Archer Avenue, is of red brick.

 

The second- and third-floor window openings have stone lintels and sills, and the façade also has a metal fire escape.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

According to sources, a confrontation between residents and Ethiopian government officials broke out on June 9, 2014, over a mass grave discovered at the former Hameressa military garrison near Harar city, eastern Oromia. The mass grave is believed to contain remains of political prisoners executed during both the Dergue era and the early reigns of the current TPLF regime. Among those who were executed and buried in the location was Mustafa Harowe, a famous Oromo singer who was killed around early 1990′s for his revolutionary songs. Thousands more Oromo political prisoners were kept at this location in early 1990′s – with many of them never to be seen again.

 

The mass grave was discovered while the Ethiopian government was clearing the camp with bulldozers to make it available to Turkish investors. Upon the discovery of the remains, the government tried to quietly remove them from the site. However, workers secretly alerted residents in nearby villages; upon the spread of the news, many turned up en mass to block the removal of the remains and demanded construction a memorial statue on the site instead. The protests is still continuing with elders camping on the site while awaiting a response from government.

 

In addition to the remains, belongings of the dead individuals as well as ropes tied in hangman’s noose were discovered at the site.

 

———————

 

Lafeen ilmaan Oromoo bara 1980moota keessa mootummaa Darguutin, baroota 1990moota keessa ammoo Wayyaaneen dhoksaan kaampii waraanaa Hammarreessaa keessatti ajjeefamanii argame. Ilmaan Oromoo mooraa san keessatti hidhamanii booda ajjeefaman keessa wallisaan beekamaan Musxafaa Harawwee isa tokko. Musxafaa Harawwee wallee qabsoo inni baasaa tureef jecha qabamee yeroo dheeraaf erga hiraarfamee booda toora bara ~1991 keessa ajjeefame. Hiraar Musxafaarra geessifamaa ture keessa tokko aara wallee isaatirraa qaban garsiisuuf muka afaanitti dhiibuun a’oo isaa cabsuun ni yaadatama.

 

Baroota 1990moota keessas Oromoonni kumaatamaan tilmaamaman warra amma aangorra jiru kanaan achitti hidhamanii, hedduun isaanii achumaan dhabamuun yaadannoo yeroo dhihooti.

 

Haqxi dukkana halkaniitiin ajjeesanii lafa jalatti awwaalan kunoo har’a rabbi as baase. Dhugaan Oromoo tun kan amma as bahe, mootummaa kaampii waraanaa kana diiguun warra lafa isaa warra Turkiitiif kennuuf osoo qopheessuuf yaaluti. Lafee warra dhumee akkuma arganiin dhoksaan achirra gara biraatti dabarsuuf osoo yaalanii hojjattonni ummata naannotti iccitii san himan. Ummanniis dafee wal-dammaqsuun bakka sanitti argamuun ekeraan nama keenyaa akka achii hin kaafamneefi siidaan yaadannoo akka jaaramu gaafachaa jiran.

 

Hamma feetes turtu dhugaan Oromoo awwaalamtee hin haftu.

 

-----

More on the Mass Grave of Oromos at Hameressa:

1) OLF on the Hameressa Mas Grave: gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/olf-press-release-one-o... .... or gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/ibsa-abo-ajjeechaa-ilma...

 

2) gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/jaal-araarsoo-biqilaa-h...

 

3) gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/oromoprotests-fdg-hamma...

 

4) gadaa.net/FinfinneTribune/2014/06/gulelepost-hameressa-ma...

Our third consecutive video for Fuel Fandango which makes us particularly proud.

 

Directed, produced and executed by Sinedie Video Design.

DOP: Iván Sánchez Alonso. (vimeo.com/​user5156487)

Released by Warner Music Spain, S.L.

 

Very special thanks to Iván Sánchez, Antonio Porteiro and each one that has supported us with their opinions.

 

Nuestro tercer videoclip consecutivo para Fuel Fandango del que además nos sentimos especialmente orgullosos.

 

Dirigido, producido y ejecutado por Sinedie Video Design.

Director de Fotografía: Iván Sánchez Alonso. (vimeo.com/​user5156487)

  

Muchas gracias especialmente a Iván Sánchez, a Antonio Porteiro y a todos aquellos que nos han ayudado con su opinión.

  

www.sinedievd.com

Watch this video on Vimeo. Video created by Sinedie Video Design.

This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-60) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a re-binding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.

 

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

 

Cadet cadre trainers observe as new cadets from 3rd Platoon, D Company, execute their newly acquired skills during Close Quarter Combat training on July 15. According to Firstie Ryan Cook, cadet-in-charge of this training, the new cadets will become familiar with grappling, guard and cross-side positions, as well as the top mount. The cadet cadre demonstrates different submissions and escapes at different angles and speeds until the new cadets are capable of executing those moves. The training concluded with one round of 30-minute sparing for each pair of new cadets. Beast Barracks continues for the new cadets at West Point, N.Y., as the regiment spent July 15 in various training and preparation modules. The new cadets of E and F Companies received briefings in Washington Hall on student behavior as the academic year starts Aug. 16. D Company cadets gathered at Daly Field for close quarter combat training, while C Company cadets received basic communications instructions in Thayer Hall. In a few short days, the new cadets will be tested in land navigation skills, physical stamina and West Point knowledge during the first Patton Challenge July 17. They will gather in a regimental formation for a 2.5 hour run July 18, followed by the traditional Ice Cream Social, or New Cadet Visitation Day. This allows the new cadets some respite from training as they are welcomed into the homes of West Point cadre and faculty for some refreshments and vital communication with loved ones back home. After that, Beast is back, and the new cadets will continue learning basic soldiering skills at Cadet Basic Training. Photo by Mike Strasser/West Point Public Affairs

FORT IRWIN, Calif. - U.S. Army Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, execute a rehearsal of a mission for live fire operations during Decisive Action Rotation 15-02 at the National Training Center here, Nov. 11, 2014. The decisive action training environment was developed in order to create a common training scenario for use throughout the Army. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Charles Probst, Operations Group, National Training Center)

Serially executing the cdrom tray eject command on a 18-node cluster of Dell PowerEdge 1950 servers.

 

This is actually more useful than it looks. With piles of hardware getting IPs and hostnames assigned dynamically it is always good to make sure that your machines are named the way you expect, especially if MAC addresses were gathered or organized "by hand" -- it can be pretty easy to mess the order up.

 

One way to test is to run the "eject" command serially (in order by hostname).

 

If the trays pop out sequentially then you know that your nodes have been provisioned in the proper order.

 

Side note - this is a pretty beefy cluster. Each of the 18 Dell 1950 servers has dual Quad-Core CPUs and 32 gigs of memory.

 

Levez maintenant un instant les yeux vers le plafond. Surprise n'est-ce pas ? Nous y voyons une débauche de couleurs pastelles formant comme des nuages. Il n’est absolument pas figuratif sauf les bords qui montrent des coquilles dorées et des ornements déchiquetés blancs sur un fonds doré. Cette composition fut exécutée en 1972-1973 par un peintre berlinois au moment des restaurations du château de Charlottenburg. En effet, en 1943, le bâtiment avait été complètement détruit par un bombardement anglais et il ne restait de lui que les murs extérieurs à quelques exceptions prêts. Au moment de la reconstruction à l’identique de cette superbe salle, il fut impossible de réaliser le plafond original, car les restaurateurs ne disposaient que de photographies noires et blanches. Aussi le peintre Hann Trier exécuta cette fresque qui rappelle par ses couleurs un peu l’ambiance du 18e siècle, mais reste néanmoins moderne par sa conception. (source cityzeum)

This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-60) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a re-binding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.

 

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

 

This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-60) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a re-binding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.

 

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.

 

This statue was executed by Michelangelo Slodtz (1705-1764) in 1744. It captures the refusal of bishop's post by the saint.

St Bruno of Cologne (1035-1101), founder of the Carthusian Order. He was born at Cologne about the year 1030; died 6 October, 1101. He is usually represented with a death's head in his hands, a book and a cross, or crowned with seven stars; or with a roll bearing the device O Bonitas. His feast is kept on the 6th of October.

 

The great figure of St. Bruno has been often sketched by artists and has inspired more than one masterpiece: in sculpture, for example, the famous statue by Houdon, at St. Mary of the Angels in Rome, "which would speak if his rule did not compel him to silence"; in painting, the fine picture by Zurbaran, in the Seville museum, representing Urban II and St. Bruno in conference; the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin to St. Bruno, by Guercino at Bologna; and above all the twenty-two pictures forming the gallery of St. Bruno in the museum of the Louvre, "a masterpiece of Le Sueur and of the French school".

 

Department Store (left), located on the outer east wall wall of Coit Tower's rotunda, was executed by Frede Vidar in 1934.

 

Banking and Law (right), located on the outer south wall, was executed by George Harris in 1934. While the stocks continue to plunge and bags of money are guarded, lawyers pour over books in a law library. The artist's sense of humor is evident in the titles of the books and the authors to whom he attributes the titles.

 

The interior walls of the tower are decorated with murals, mostly done in fresco, carried out by 26 artists under the auspices of the Public Works Project. The muralists, who were mainly faculty and students were supervised by Ralph Stackpole and Bernard Zakheim. Artists included Maxine Albro, Victor Arnautoff, Ray Bertrand, Rinaldo Cuneo, Mallette Harold Dean, Clifford Wight, Edith Hamlin, George Harris, Robert B. Howard, Otis Oldfield, Suzanne Scheuer, Hebe Daum and Frede Vidar.

 

Coit Tower, sitting in Pioneer Park atop Telegraph Hill, was built in 1933 by architects Arthur Brown, Jr. and Henry Howard, at the bequest of Lillian Hitchcock Coit for the purposes of beautification of the City of San Francisco. The 210-foot tall, unpainted, reinforced concrete, Art Deco tower resembles a fire hose nozzle. However, even though Lillie Coit was a big supporter of the city's fireman, contrary to urban legend the tower does not serve as a memorial in wake of the 1906 earthquake. Over 250,000 visitors come to Coit Tower annually to take the elevator ride up to the 360-degree observation deck, which sits 179-feet high and 542-feet above sea level. There is a small studio apartment on the first level of the tower, which was originally used as lodging for the structure's caretaker.

 

Pioneer Park, one of the first dedicated parks in San Francisco, was established atop Telegraph Hill in 1876. Telegraph Hill earned its name from the marine semaphore telegraph which was posted there in the 1850's, providing notification of arriving ships.

 

National Register #07001468 (2007)

The portrait of Marquis de Lafayette (Catolog Number INDE11879) was executed by Thomas Sully in 1825-26. Sully, a Philadelphia artist, was commissioned by a group of private citizens to commemorate Lafayette's visit to Philadelphia in late September, 1824, for Indpendence Hall. Sully developed the portrait from a series of small sketches and one study painting made for review by his patrons. Sully idealistically depicted Lafayette as much younger than his sixty-seven years. In the finished work, Lafayette stands in front of the triumphal arch designed by William Strickland for the hero's reception at Independence Hall. Philadelphia's Washington Grays, Lafayette's military escort through the city, are visible in the middle ground. Independence Hall can be seen in the background, filled with a cheering crowd and topped by an American flag. The painting was purchased by the City of Philadelphia from the subscribers in 1826.

 

Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Lafayette, commonly known as the Marquis de Lafayette (1757 – 1834) was a French military officer and former aristocrat who participated in both the American and French revolutions. Lafayette served, without pay, in the American Revolutionary War both as a general and as a diplomat.

 

The Second Bank of the United States, at 420 Chestnut Street, was chartered five years after the expiration of the First Bank of the United States in 1816 to keep inflation in check following the War of 1812. The Bank served as the depository for Federal funds until 1833, when it became the center of bitter controversy between bank president Nicholas Biddle and President Andrew Jackson. The Bank, always a privately owned institution, lost its Federal charter in 1836, and ceased operations in 1841. The Greek Revival building, built between 1819 and 1824 and modeled by architect William Strickland after the Parthenon, continued for a short time to house a banking institution under a Pennsylvania charter. From 1845 to 1935 the building served as the Philadelphia Customs House. Today it is open, free to the public, and features the "People of Independence" exhibit--a portrait gallery with 185 paintings of Colonial and Federal leaders, military officers, explorers and scientists, including many by Charles Willson Peale.

 

Independence National Historical Park preserves several sites associated with the American Revolution. Administered by the National Park Service, the 45-acre park was authorized in 1948, and established on July 4, 1956. The Second Bank of the United States was added to the Park's properties in 2006.

 

Second Bank of the United States National Register #87001293 (1987)

Independence National Park Historic District National Register #66000675 (1966)

BANKRUPTCY

 

the torrent of sneers and abuse, it came at the moment when

Whistler most needed it.*

 

Whistler's financial affairs were in more hopeless confusion

than ever. The expenses of the White House were heavier

than he anticipated. The interference of the Metropolitan

Board of Works, to whom every drawing and plan had to

be submitted, resulted in delays, disagreements, alterations.

He made what concessions he could ; he even accepted the

stone mouldings insisted upon by the Board. The builder's

estimate was largely exceeded before the decorations

Boehm was to execute had been begun. He had brought

debts from Lindsey Row. The legends of them centre

about a greengrocer who is said to have let him run up

his bill for endless tomatoes and rare fruit out of season,

until it amounted to some six hundred pounds. When the

greengrocer insisted on payment, Whistler said :

 

" How what why why, of course, you have sent these

things most excellent things and they have been eaten, you

know, by most excellent people. Think what a splendid ad-

vertisement. And sometimes, you know, the salads are not

quite up to the mark the fruit, you know, not quite fresh.

And if you go into these unseemly discussions about the bill

well, you know, I shall have to go into discussions about all this

and think how it would hurt your reputation with all these

extraordinary people. I think the best thing is not to refer to

the past I'll let it go. And in the future, we'll have a weekly

account wiser, you know ! "

 

The greengrocer left without his money, but received in

payment two Nocturnes, one the blue upright Valparaiso.

Another story of the same creditor is that he followed Whistler

with his account to the White House, arriving as a grand

piano was being carried in. Whistler said he was so busy

 

* Perhaps it should be added that this first serious article on Whistler was by

no means taken seriously, and that the most was made of Mr. Brownell's mis-

take in describing the dry-point of Joe as a portrait of Dr. Whistler.

1879]

   

he couldn't attend to the matter just then, and the green-

grocer went away happy, thinking if grand pianos were

being bought, it must be all right.

 

Whistler used to say of stories told about him, that there

was always some foundation for them. The fact is that the

creditors in Lindsey Row had been many, though before

moving to Tite Street, he wrote hopefully to his mother at

Hastings of his economies, and his prospects for paying off

his debts. Whistler did not know the meaning of economy.

And the trial had to be paid for, the studio still waited for

pupils, his most important pictures were with Mr. Graves,

and no new commissions came. But, as far as he let the

world see, his troubles made no difference to him.

 

It was no unusual occurrence for bailiffs to be in possession

at the White House, or for bills to cover its walls. The first

time it happened, he told the people whom he invited that

they 'might know his house by the bills on it. Of the bailiffs

he made another " joy," a new feature of his Sunday break-

fasts. Mrs. Lynedoch Moncrieff has told us of a Sunday

when, to her surprise, two or three men waited at table with

Whistler's servant, John, and she said to Whistler :

 

" Why, Jimmie, I am glad to see you've grown so wealthy."

"Ha ha ! Bailiffs ! You know I had to put them to some

use ! "

 

Mr. W. M. Rossetti and his wife once found the same

" liveried attendants."

 

" ' Your servants seem to be extremely attentive, Mr. Whistler,

and anxious to please you,' one of the guests said. ' Oh, yes,'

was his answer, ' I assure you they wouldn't leave me.' '

 

Others remember the Sunday when all the furniture in

the house was numbered for a coming execution. When

breakfast was announced by a bailiff, Whistler said :

 

" They are wonderful fellows. You will see how excellently

252 [1879

   

BANKRUPTCY

 

they wait at table, and to-morrow, you know, if you want, you

can see them sell the chairs you sit on every bit as well. Amazing."

 

Mrs. Edwin Edwards wrote us that, when he had at one time

three men in possession, he treated them, while his friends

carted away his pictures from the back door. Other friends

say that the bailiffs, multiplied to seven, were invited into

the garden, and given beer " with a little something in it.'*

No sooner had they drunk of it than down went their heads

on the table round which they sat, and they slept. People

dining with Whistler that evening were taken into the garden

to see the seven sleepers of Ephesus : " stick pins in them,

shout in their ears see you can't wake them ! " All

evening it rained, and it snowed, and it thundered, and it

lightened, and it hailed. All night they slept. Morning

came and they slept. But just at the hour at which he had

given them their glass the day before, they all woke up and

asked for more.

 

The man who has bailiffs in his house because he cannot

pay his debts must still manage to pay them. One of the

" wonderful fellows " at the end of a week demanded his

money. Whistler answered :

 

" If I could afford to keep you, I would do without you."

"But what is to become of my wife and family, if I don't

 

get my wages ? "

 

" Ha ha ! You must ask those who sent you here to answer

 

that question."

 

" I assure you, Mr. Whistler, I need the money badly."

 

" Why not do as I do then, and have a man in yourself ? "

 

Whistler made a point of being courteous and attentive

to these gentlemen, for, " really, it was kind of them to see

to such tedious affairs." He asked the first bailiff whom

he encountered in his house, one evening when he returned

from the Arts Club :

 

" And how long will you remain ' the man in possession * ? "

1879] 2 53

   

JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER

 

" That, Mr. Whistler, depends on your paying Mr. 's bill."

 

" Awkward for me, but perhaps more so for you ! I hope

you won't mind it, though, you know, I fear your stay with me

will be a lengthy one. However, you will find it not entirely

unprofitable. For you will see and hear much that may be

useful to you later on ! "

 

When things got more desperate, bills covered the front

of the house, announcing the approaching sale. Whistler,

begging the bailiffs to make themselves at home, went off

one night to dine. It was a stormy night, and, returning

late, he found that the rain had washed loose some of the

bills, which were flapping in the wind. He woke up the

bailiffs, made them get a ladder, brought them into the

street, and insisted that every bill should be pasted down

in place again. He had allowed them, he said, to cover his

house with their posters, but, so long as he lived in it, no

man should leave it in a slovenly condition.

 

The crash came early in May 1879, and Whistler was

declared bankrupt. The amount of his liabilities was four

thousand six hundred and forty-one pounds, nine shillings

and three pence, according to Messrs. Waddell and Co.'s

statement of affairs, dated May 7, 1879. His assets were

estimated at one thousand eight hundred and twenty-four

pounds nine shillings and four pence, which was ultimately

increased by one hundred pounds. Among his debtors were

several friends, whom he urged to press their claims. In

his long overcoat, longer than ever, swinging his light, thin

cane, also lengthening in defiance, his hat set jauntily on the

black curls, he appeared at the office of one of these friends,

in the City, during business hours. " Ha ha ! " he laughed

as he came in. " Well, you know, here I am in the City !

Amazing." And he sat down and gossiped lightly. The

friend, knowing Whistler, knew something else must come of

the visit. And it came, but not before Whistler got up to go.

254 [1879

   

BANKRUPTCY

 

" You know, on the way, I dropped in to see George Lewis,

being in the neighbourhood, and, you know, ha ha ! he gave me

a paper for you to sign ! "

 

It was a petition in bankruptcy. The friend did not want

to sign ; he had lent Whistler money, but was in no hurry

to have it back. Whistler insisted, the friend could not

escape, and would have put down as small a sum as possible.

No, said Whistler, it must be for as much as possible, that

he might have the more influence in the proceedings. The

friend put down the exact amount, which was not large, and

Whistler sauntered away, as if he had no heavier care than

the fit of his coat and the weight of the cane he was swinging.

 

The meeting of the creditors was held at the Inns of Court

Hotel, a few weeks later, in June. Sir Thomas Sutherland

was in the chair, Whistler on one side, Sir George Lewis on

the other. To Leyland, with whom he had no " business

contract " for the Peacock Room, he attributed his bank-

ruptcy, and Leyland, therefore, was his scapegoat. Various

Chelsea tradesmen were also there. Except the solicitor,

they all seemed amateurs in matters of bankruptcy. Papers

were passed by the solicitor to the chairman, who endorsed

them. Not a word was said. At last, an impatient butcher,

or baker, springing up, moved that some explanation be

made to the creditors. Leyland seconded him. At that,

Whistler was on his feet, making a speech about plutocrats,

men with millions, and what he thought of them. Every-

body was stupefied ! No one knew what to do. With

difficulty, solicitor and chairman pulled him down into his

seat again. At the end of the meeting, debtor and creditors

appeared to understand as little as at the beginning. But

the law took its course. A committee of examiners was

appointed, composed of Leyland, the largest creditor, Howell,

and Mr. Thomas Way.

 

Leyland was not let off easily by Whistler. As Michael

1879] 255

Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York, United States

 

The former Jamaica Savings Bank was constructed in 1897-98 for the oldest and most prestigious banking institution in Jamaica.

 

Designed by the noted firm of Hough & Deuell, the building is a fine and particularly exuberant example of the classically inspired Beaux-Arts style strikingly executed in carved limestone and wrought iron, and is one of only a few buildings in the borough of Queens to embrace that architectural aesthetic.

 

Prominently sited on Jamaica Avenue, the bank building is an urbane presence on the neighborhood’s main commercial thoroughfare. Although the four-story structure is relatively small in scale, the imposing design of the facade conveys a monumentality which is appropriately suited to the distinguished image and reputation of the banking institution, while lending the building the formal elegance of a private club or townhouse.

 

Incorporated in 1866 by a consortium of local citizens—including John A. King, former Governor of the State of New York—the Jamaica Savings Bank played an important role in the development of Jamaica, at that time a burgeoning commercial center.

 

The success of the organization was marked by its exponential expansion in the late nineteenth century and its need for more commodious—and more conspicuous—quarters.

 

The construction of this bank coincided with the 1898 incorporation of Queens County into the municipal jurisdiction of the City of New York and reflects the metropolitan spirit of the period.

 

The facade of the building maintains its original Beaux-Arts design and survives today essentially intact as a reminder of an

 

important era in Jamaica’s history.

 

The Development of Jamaica

 

Historically an important crossroads of Long Island, the area of downtown Jamaica developed as a result of its central location and extensive transportation systems.

 

Jamaica began as a rural settlement when the town was granted a patent from Governor Peter Stuyvesant in 1656.

 

The English took over the town in 1664, changing its name from the Dutch “Rusdorp” to a variation on the name of the local Yemacah Indians, which meant “beaver.”

 

Queens County (then incorporating present-day Nassau County) was chartered in 1683 as one of the ten counties in the colony of New York and official town patents were soon given to Jamaica, Newtown, and Flushing.

 

Through the next century the community of Jamaica served as the county seat and became a trading post where farmers from outlying areas brought their produce. By the time the village of Jamaica was incorporated in 1814, it had become a center of trade on Long Island.

 

Jamaica Avenue, which evolved from an Indian trail, has been called the oldest continuously used road on Long Island.

 

In 1703 the colonial legislature established a highway, known as the “King’s Highway,” which extended from the East River (later Fulton) Ferry through Brooklyn and Queens (along portions of the current route of Fulton Street and Jamaica Avenue) to eastern Long Island. Following the Revolution, the management of the old colonial roads fell into private hands, and beginning in 1809, the Brooklyn, Jamaica & Flatbush Turnpike Company established a toll road from the Brooklyn ferries to the present-day intersection of Jamaica Avenue (then also known as Fulton Street) and 168th Street.

 

The Brooklyn & Jamaica Railroad Company, chartered in 1832, purchased the turnpike and completed a rail line along its route through Jamaica in 1836. Almost simultaneously, the Long Island Railroad, which had been incorporated in 1834, began running a trunk line from the foot of Atlantic Avenue to Jamaica and then eastward from Jamaica to eastern Long Island, making Jamaica a pivotal hub.

 

This improved transportation encouraged non-agricultural business activity in the Jamaica area; industrial enterprises sprang up along the railroad, particularly after 1850 when the turnpike was sold to a group of Jamaica businessmen who incorporated as the Jamaica & Brooklyn Plank Road Company.

 

Following the Civil War, new modes of transportation continued to transform Jamaica by further facilitating commutation to New York City.

 

The East New York & Jamaica Railroad Company established horsecar lines along Fulton Street in 1866; it is no coincidence that the company’s president was Aaron DeGrauw, who was also the first president of the Jamaica Savings Bank and as such had a vested interest in the economic growth and development of the community.

 

The horsecar lines were replaced by electric trolleys in 1887.

 

The nineteenth century saw Jamaica evolve into a retreat for urban residents, who patronized its numerous inns and saloons on weekend excursions and built large summer homes.

 

The permanent population of Jamaica also increased steadily throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, and brought with it the subdivision of farms into house lots and a proliferation of new development, as well as the growth of Jamaica’s downtown.

 

The pressure for housing increased, resulting in street regularization and somewhat denser residential development following the incorporation of Queens into the City of New York in 1898.

 

The 1901 Atlas of the Borough of Queens shows two- and three-story brick and frame structures clustered along Fulton Street and freestanding frame houses and stables, on lots mostly ranging from 50 to 100 feet in width, in the surrounding streets.

 

The rail lines on Fulton Street are identified on the atlas as the Brooklyn, Queens County & Suburban Railroad Company and the New York & North Shore Railway Company. The Long Island Railroad ran parallel to Fulton Street, one block south; the one-story frame station was located on the north side of Twombly Place between Church and Beaver Streets.

 

In 1897 Fulton Street ceased to be operated as a private toll road and its jurisdiction reverted to the local government. The long-needed widening and repaving of the road, which had fallen into disrepair, was quickly undertaken, and in April of 1898, Jamaica hosted a celebration to honor the improvement of Fulton Street.

 

The souvenir brochure from the celebration and other contemporary local publications reflect the metropolitan spirit of that period of municipal consolidation. Local business and political leaders seized the opportunity to praise the numerous advantages of Jamaica—a place with a traditional village character, yet poised to enter a new age—in an effort to encourage commerce, promote residential development, and raise property values.

 

The perceived positive impact of the impending consolidation was declared by one source in 1894: “The days of Greater New York can now be seen not very far ahead, when Jamaica will naturally form the most eastern point to which the consolidated elevated railroad can be expected to run ... very likely before the end of this [century].”

 

Although it would be 1918 before the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company finally replaced the existing surface lines on Fulton Street—soon to be known as Jamaica Avenue—with elevated trains, the decade prior to World War I saw several other significant transportation improvements: the electrification of the Long Island Railroad in 1905-08, the opening of the railroad tunnels beneath the East River in 1910, and the completion of the Queensborough Bridge in 1909.

 

Indeed, with improved accessibility to Jamaica’s downtown, the population of Jamaica quadrupled between 1900 and 1920 and the area was subsumed into the metropolitan web of New York City.

 

The extension of the Eighth Avenue subway to 169th Street in 1937 and the opening of the Triborough Bridge brought further urban development to the area.

 

History of the Jamaica Savings Bank

 

The Jamaica Savings Bank, the oldest and most prestigious banking institution in Jamaica, was incorporated on April 20, 1866, in the midst of the “wildcat” banking period following the Civil War. The bank was established in the basement of the County Clerk’s Office and opened on July 14, 1866, with fifteen customers depositing a total of $2,675.00.

 

The County Clerk’s Office (later the Register’s Office) was located in a building that previously stood on the site of the present Register/Jamaica Arts Center building (a designated New York City Landmark), which is adjacent to the Jamaica Savings Bank.

 

The bank was founded by a group of distinguished local business leaders and prominent citizens. Among the 19 charter trustees was John A. King.

 

John Alsop King (1788-1867) served as a U.S. Congressman and as Governor of New York State in 1857-58.He was the eldest son of Rufus King, a Federalist statesman, minister to Great Britain, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

 

The King Mansion (1733-55; additions, 1806, 1810, c.1830s, a designated New York City Landmark) still stands at 150th Street and Jamaica Avenue, several blocks west of the Jamaica Savings Bank.

 

John A. King was admitted to the bar shortly before being commissioned as a lieutenant of cavalry in the War of 1812. King launched his political career in 1819-21 when he sat in the State Assembly, and later in the State Senate (1823-25, 1832, 1838, 1840).

 

He was sent to the U.S. Congress as a Whig representative, served as a delegate to several Whig national conventions, and in 1856 was a delegate to the first Republican national convention. In the following year he began his term as Governor of New York State. King was stricken with paralysis and died in 1867, the year after the founding of the Jamaica Savings Bank.

 

Following distinguished service as a colonel in the Civil War, Aaron DeGrauw became the first president of the Jamaica Savings Bank, a post he maintained for 33 years until 1899.Described as “an energetic capitalist destined to be the most prominent banker in Jamaica,” DeGrauw was an entrepreneur in the transportation field, operating several turnpikes as well as the East New York & Jamaica Railroad Company.

 

A leader in civic affairs, DeGrauw also served as president of Jamaica village and on the commission in charge of the construction of the town hall built in 1870 at the corner of Fulton Street and Flushing Avenue.

 

By 1874 the business of the Jamaica Savings Bank had grown significantly, with 630 accounts on the books and $177,465.00 in deposits.

 

In that year the bank purchased for $12,000 a two-and-one-halfstory frame building which belonged to the County Clerk’s Office and stood on the site of the present bank building.

 

At that time, the institution “was still small enough to keep its deposits in an ordinary safe, housed in a small frame addition on the side of the building….

 

It was in plain view of the street and this was considered an extra measure of protection.”It has been reported that the first-known occupant of the frame building was J.W. Cornwell’s bakery and feed store; subsequently, the building was used as

 

D.T. Conger’s Oyster House, a shoe store, and a printing office before being purchased by the bank.

 

As the bank grew, more spacious quarters were needed; it is also likely that consideration was given to enhancing the image and status of the institution with a new, handsomely designed bank building which would foster confidence in the bank’s depositors and exhibit its prosperity.

 

A committee was formed to oversee the erection of the bank, composed of George L. Peck, John H. Sutphin, William A. Warnock, and William W. Gillen, all of whom shared close political and business ties.

 

The committee selected the firm of Hough & Deuell to design the new bank headquarters.

 

The cost of construction of the steel-framed limestone-fronted building was estimated to be $60,000.

 

The old frame building was moved to the rear of the site to accommodate the new structure.

 

The bank opened for business in its new quarters in 1898, as Jamaica witnessed its incorporation into the newly consolidated city.

 

Banks and Architectural Imagery

 

As industry, business, and commerce prospered after the Civil War, New York became the nation’s financial capital.

 

Apart from a few imposing buildings on Wall Street, however, commercial banks were for the most part located in converted dwellings, or in office buildings erected to generate revenue, but prior to the 1880s and 1890s rarely in quarters designed specifically for them.

 

Savings banks, many of which catered to the small private investor, were, in contrast, generally not located in the Wall Street area where property values were high, but rather in the communities which they served; therefore, taking advantage of less expensive real estate, those organizations were able to build imposing bank buildings for their exclusive use.Around the turn of the century many savings banks, “suffering, as it were, from the possession of too much cash, and [being] somewhat self-conscious about it,”commissioned new buildings.

 

Even neighborhood banks, which often had small mid-block sites, were designed to be taken seriously as “pillars of the community” by the public which they served. In 1909, Architectural Record published a lengthy, illustrated survey entitled “Recent Bank Buildings in the United States,” in which the author invoked the ancient Greek and Roman temples— which also served as banks—as ancestors to the modern type; the recent banks, however, had evolved due to “the marvelous growth of modern consumerism.” The illustrations attest to the pervasiveness of the classical temple-fronted or domed bank design.

 

This elegant building type not only projected an image of wealth and financial security, but also evoked the trustworthiness and responsibility expected from institutions which serve the public.

 

The popular bank imagery developed, not only as a result of economic conditions, but also in response to the resurgence of the classically inspired style, in the 1890s.

 

Influenced by the architectural principles of the French Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the popularity of the buildings in the Court of Honor of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago—dubbed the “Great White City”—American architects turned for inspiration to Greco-Roman antiquity as well as Renaissance and other classically derived architectural sources.

 

The Beaux-Arts style provided a formal and monumental architecture that was particularly appropriate for the design of banks and public edifices such as libraries, museums, and government buildings.

 

In making historical associations, American architects drew parallels between their own culture, the American neo-Classical past, and the enlightened Greco Roman and Renaissance civilizations. This general movement in the arts and culture, sometimes referred to by scholars as the “American Renaissance,” not only fostered a boom in public buildings, but also the City Beautiful Movement, promoting civic improvement and beautification for the public benefit.

 

Indeed, the metropolitan spirit that accompanied the 1898 consolidation of New York City is demonstrated by the numerous public and private institutions which erected new, stately buildings and, in part, served as an impetus for the Jamaica Savings Bank to enhance its public image.

 

The Beaux-Arts Style and the Design of the Jamaica Savings Bank

 

One popular stylistic trend which informed American architecture at the turn of the century was the pervasive Beaux-Arts mode, also called “Modern French” or “Beaux-Arts Baroque” as identified by the authors of New York 1900.

 

This aesthetic represents a recasting of the classical idiom to express contemporary taste and respond to the requirements of modern buildings. Borrowing such architectural elements from the Baroque period as bold massing and sculptural plasticity of the facade, and such prominent roof treatments as the mansard, the Beaux-Arts style was disseminated in this country by the generation of American architects who studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in the late nineteenth century and who were familiar with the recent architecture of Paris, notably, such famous monuments as Charles Garnier’s Paris Opera (1862-74), as well as many of that city’s residential buildings of the period.

 

The Beaux-Arts style of the Jamaica Savings Bank is a departure from the classical temple-fronted or domed type which had been the traditional formula in American bank architecture.

 

Among the most conspicuous examples of the use of the Beaux-Arts style for a bank building was the National Park Bank, designed by Donn Barber in 1904, which once stood on the east side of Broadway between Ann and Fulton Streets.

 

In this design the architect used robust ornamental forms and an unconventional facade composition in place of the classical orders, and crowned the building with an overscaled mansard. Like that of the National Park Bank, which was built several years later and at a prominent location in Manhattan’s commercial center, the design of the Jamaica Savings Bank is an ornate example of this architectural style; it is, however, of a scale appropriate to its small, mid-block site on a neighborhood main street.

 

In addition, the building is significant as one of only a few buildings in the borough of Queens to embrace the Beaux-Arts style; its design rivals that of many such buildings constructed in Manhattan and in areas of Brooklyn during that period. Above a rusticated base which reinforces the presence of the building on the street, the midsection of the bank’s facade is defined by relatively austere superimposed pilasters supporting an entablature with a segmentally arched pediment.

 

This composition—which functions as a stylized temple front—provides unity and order to the facade.

 

In contrast, the center bay of the facade is the exuberantly detailed focal point of the design, featuring particularly rich and fluid ornamental forms, reminiscent of French Baroque architecture, and handsome wrought-iron balconies. Notable among the facade’s decorative motifs is a carved stone beehive, a traditional symbol in the imagery of bank architecture, denoting industry, thrift, and prosperity.

 

The imposing facade treatment conveys a monumentality which befits the distinguished image and reputation of the banking institution, while lending the building the formal elegance of a private club or townhouse. An urbane presence in Jamaica’s downtown, the building is a pleasing

 

counterpart in the streetscape to the adjacent Register/Jamaica Arts Center building, erected at about the same time and designed in the Renaissance Revival style. The two buildings display similar rusticated stone bases and such complementary horizontal elements as stringcourses, modillioned cornices, and decorated parapets.

 

Hough & Deuell

 

The architectural firm of Hough & Deuell was chosen to design the new headquarters of the Jamaica Savings Bank. William C. Hough and Edgar Deuell, Jr., entered into partnership at about the same time they received the commission for the bank.

 

Hough, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a member of its Brooklyn Chapter, is known for his institutional work in Brooklyn.

 

He had been established as an architect in Manhattan at least since 1886, with offices at 115 Broadway and 18 Cortlandt Street before locating at 280 Broadway where in 1890 he established a partnership with Halstead Parker Fowler (1859-1911).

 

The firm of Fowler & Hough was active through 1897, during which time it was responsible for the design of the 23rd Regiment Armory at 1322 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn (1891-95, a designated New York City Landmark), as well as several other projects in that borough, such as the Bushwick Avenue Congregational Church and Sunday school (1895) at 1170 Bushwick Avenue. Hough is also credited with the design of the French Renaissance-inspired Dudley Memorial Building at 110 Amity Street (1902, in the Cobble Hill Historic District) which was erected for student nurses at Long Island College Hospital. After a short partnership of two to three years, the firm of Hough & Deuell dissolved; Hough maintained an independent practice in Manhattan through 1934. Deuell, a member of the Brooklyn Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, had worked briefly in Brooklyn prior to his collaboration with Hough.

 

In addition to the Jamaica Savings Bank, the firm of Hough & Deuell was responsible for the Brooklyn Homeopathic Hospital on Cumberland Street (demolished), designed in the Renaissance Revival style.

 

Subsequent History

 

The growth in the business of the Jamaica Savings Bank following World War I paralleled that of Jamaica’s downtown, which had become the foremost commercial center of Queens.

 

Indeed, in 1924 when Jamaica Savings Bank first enlarged its building, there were seven banks in Jamaica, and the local press referred to Jamaica Avenue as “Financial Row.”

 

All of these institutions had recently either built new structures or expanded existing facilities. In addition to the Jamaica Savings Bank, the community boasted a branch of the Bank of the Manhattan Company on the corner of Jamaica Avenue and Union Hall Street, two doors east of the Jamaica Savings Bank; the Title Guarantee & Trust Co. to the west of the Jamaica Savings Bank on the same blockfront; the Jamaica National Bank across the street at the corner of Herriman Avenue; and branches of the Corn Exchange Bank, the American Trust Company, and the First National Bank.

 

In 1927 the National Title Guaranty Company erected a ten-story building adjacent to the Jamaica Savings Bank at 160-16 Jamaica Avenue (the Jamaica Savings Bank acquired that property in 1941).

 

In 1923 the Jamaica Savings Bank commissioned local architect William H. Spaulding to design a rear addition to the building, 32 feet deep, which made the total depth of the building approximately 80 feet; the main-floor banking room was completely redesigned and two new vaults were constructed.

 

In 1932 architect Morrell Smith was hired to further enlarge the building, necessitating the demolition of the old frame structure which still stood at the rear of the site.

 

The brick-and-steel extension made the building’s depth about 140 feet, and a small addition was also made in the alleyway at the east side of the building, toward the front of the site.

 

In 1934, the Jamaica Savings Bank merged with the Queensboro Savings Bank and the offices of the latter bank at 90-55 Sutphin Boulevard were made a branch of the Jamaica Savings Bank.

 

In 1964, as the institution continued to grow, it moved across the street to a new, modern headquarters at the northeast corner of 161 Street (designed by LaPierre, Litchfield & Associates).

 

In 1999, the eleven branches of the Jamaica Savings Bank were sold to North Fork Bancorp.

 

Although the former Jamaica Savings Bank building has been enlarged at the rear, the facade maintains its original Beaux-Arts design and survives today essentially intact.

 

Description Main (North) Facade

 

The four-story former Jamaica Savings Bank building, approximately 30 feet wide and constructed of brick with a steel frame, has an imposing, symmetrical, four-story limestone main façade separated into three bays.

 

The high first floor of the building is rusticated; a granite basement sill runs the full width of the façade and projects at the main entrance to serve as an entrance step.

 

A cornerstone at the eastern end of the façade is incised with the dates “1866-1897.”

 

There are two basement openings, each crowned by scrolled ornament with foliate decoration.

 

The western basement opening is filled with a wood panel, and the eastern basement opening contains a metal louver within a wood frame; both openings contain historic, metal grilles with ornate, scrollwork tracery. A painted wood panel adjoins the main entrance surround to its west.

 

The main entrance consists of a pair of historic paneled and glazed double doors set within a historic enframement featuring a paneled reveal, fluted engaged columns crowned by Corinthian capitals, and a pair of sidelights with paneled reveals and recessed lower panels.

 

The columns support a frieze with a central panel reading “161-02.”

 

Above this frieze is a segmental pediment ornamented with eggand-tongue and acanthus-leaf moldings, and filled with ornament consisting of a central scallop flanked by foliate decoration.

 

A five-paned transom with a group of three central panes separated from the two, narrower, outer panes by baluster-like mullions fills the upper portion of the main-entrance opening, above the segmental pediment.

 

The main-entrance opening sits within an eared, molded surround with a projecting molded cornice that also acts as a sill for the window opening above.

 

A panel within the surround, above the main-entrance doors, historically read “JAMAICA SAVINGS BANK” but is now covered with stucco. Two historic metal light fixtures, their edges decorated by egg-and-dart moldings, flank the main entrance; these fixtures are covered with peeling paint and are missing their historic globes. The basement and lower first-floor portions of the façade are painted white; a non-historic sign reading “PROTECTED BY ADT SYSTEM ELECTRIC PROTECTION SERVICES” is attached to the main-entrance reveal west of the enframement.

 

Flanking the main entrance are two pairs of window openings, each consisting of one square-headed opening filled with a historic one-over-one, double-hung wood window, below an ocular opening filled with a single-pane, round, wood-framed sash.

 

A continuous, projecting, molded sill separates the square-headed openings from the basement portion of the façade.

 

A molded, projecting lintel above each square-headed window opening doubles as a sill for the oculus above.

 

Filling the spandrel below each oculus is elaborate carved ornament, consisting of garlands of fruit, some of it spilling over the sill to the eared surround of the square-headed opening below. Each oculus is flanked by fluted brackets supporting a projecting, half-round cornice crowned by an acanthus-leaf keystone.

 

The segmental-arch-headed, central first-floor window opening, located above the main entrance, is filled with a pair of historic, single-pane, wood casement windows.

 

The opening is flanked by classically inspired, carved ornament, including wreaths and cornucopias spilling garlands of fruit over the projecting, molded sill that doubles as a cornice for the main-entrance surround.

 

The opening is flanked by fluted brackets that support a projecting, molded eyebrow cornice crowned by a central cartouche.

 

All of the first-floor window openings contain historic metal grilles with elaborate scrollwork tracery. A continuous, projecting molding extends the width of the façade at the level of the upper first-floor window heads.

 

The first floor is separated from the second and third floors by a deep, molded cornice decorated with an egg-and-dart molding.

 

At the central portion of the façade, the cornice, supported by two large, scrolled and fluted brackets with guttae and decorated with garlands of fruit, steps out from the façade to create a second-floor balcony, which retains its historic and elegant iron railing featuring ornate scrollwork. The second and third floors, forming the midsection of the building, are defined by smooth, Ionic pilasters that frame each bay.

 

A flagpole attached to the second-floor balcony railing projects over Jamaica Avenue. At the central bay, the second-floor opening features a projecting, molded sill, and is filled with a pair of historic one-over-one, double-hung wood windows separated by a flat wood mullion and crowned by a historic, single-pane wood transom, which has a curved top rail that follows the upper line of the window opening.

 

This opening is flanked by rusticated stone pilasters.

 

The richly carved, half-round tympanum above the curved lintel of this opening is filled with carved foliate ornament and a central beehive that is symbolic of the original function of the building.

 

At the central bay of the third story, a scrolled cartouche and undulating brackets support a curvilinear balcony, which retains its historic iron railing decorated with ornate scrollwork.

 

The balcony fronts a segmental-arch-headed window opening within a molded, eared surround containing a historic one-over-one, double-hung wood window with a curved top rail.

 

The outer second-floor openings contain historic one-over-one double-hung wood windows with single-pane wood transoms.

 

They are set within eared surrounds and are crowned by projecting, molded lintels supported by scrolled brackets.

 

The outer third-floor openings contain historic one-over-one, double-hung wood sashes, and are set within molded, eared surrounds with scallop shells.

 

The third story is crowned by a wide entablature featuring a central segmental pediment, which is filled with foliate carving, and a large, scaly, shell-like ornament.

 

The fourth story features a false balustrade below the window openings. The three fourth-floor openings are square-headed and feature simple molded surrounds, and all three, including the central, tripartite window, retain their historic, one-over-one, double-hung wood sashes.

 

The fourth floor is crowned by a denticulated band and deep, modillioned cornice, which is surmounted by a high stone parapet decorated with a central winged cartouche flanked by drooping fruit garlands and topped by a scallop-shell motif.

 

A flagpole rises above the parapet at the center of the façade.

 

The site includes a narrow alleyway to the east, fronted by an ornate iron fence at the building line, that is blocked by a recessed brick extension added in 1932.

 

(An extension was made to the rear of the building at the same time.)

 

The north façade of the extension is faced with tan brick and has a square-headed opening with a stone sill that contains a historic, one-over-one, double-hung wood window.

 

The extension is crowned by stone or cast-stone coping. East and Rear (South) Façades

 

The northernmost portion of the east façade is faced with limestone, which wraps around from the main façade.

 

Some of the main façade’s decorative features, including the cornices above the first, third, and fourth stories, similarly wrap around and continue for a short stretch along the northernmost portion of the east façade.

 

The first floor, and easternmost two bays of the second, third, and fourth floors, are faced with tan brick in stretcher bond. North of the extension are one square-headed basement opening, which has a stone lintel and is filled with a wood panel; one square-headed first-floor opening, which has a projecting stone sill and flush stone lintel, and is filled with a historic one-over-one, double-hung wood window behind a metal grille; and one round-headed opening with a gauged soldier-brick surround, which contains a historic, single-pane wood sash behind a historic, ornate metal grille.

 

All of the second-, third-, and fourth-floor openings in the two northernmost bays have projecting stone sills.

 

The two northernmost second- and fourth-floor openings have flush stone lintels; each of the two northernmost third-floor openings is crowned by a segmental, triple-rowlock arch.

 

The northernmost second-floor opening contains a historic one-over-one, double-hung wood window and single-pane wood transom; the northernmost fourth-floor opening contains a historic one-over-one, double-hung wood window; and the second-northernmost openings at the second and fourth floors are filled with wood panels.

 

The two northernmost third-floor windows contain historic one-over-one, double-hung wood windows, the top rails of their top sashes curved to follow the upper line of their segmentally arched openings.

 

A vent pipe extends vertically from the second floor to above the roofline between the second- and third-northernmost bays.

 

The portion of the façade south of the second-northernmost bay is of red brick, and the openings on this portion of the façade have projecting stone sills and flush stone lintels. While many of these openings retain their historic one-over-one, double-hung wood windows, others are filled with wood panels.

 

The rear of the building, which is partially visible from Archer Avenue, is of red brick.

 

The second- and third-floor window openings have stone lintels and sills, and the façade also has a metal fire escape.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

The first recorded execution was John of Dalton in 1286, after which at least 52 names of those beheaded are known. The last time the gibbet was used was in 1650 when John Wilkinson was executed for stealing 16yds of cloth. All that remains of the original gibbet is the platform composed of stone blocks and measuring 9ft by 9ft by 4ft. There is a flight of stone steps up the W side. It is situated in a small paved area within a small public garden. On top of the platform a replica of the gibbet instrument has been erected.

 

www.calderdale.gov.uk/environment/conservation/ancient-mo...

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#ELDER_SCROLL_OF_MNEM_0.0♾😻

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ℹ️8️⃣📞📲📳☎️♾💁‍♂️

 

ℹ️▶️⏯⏭↕️🔘https://youtu.be/bS5JnGBmghM

 

First of all; the #FBI does not have the clearance, to be in possession, of my nuclear codesz.

 

Load, Load, Load; you're too slow, #YouTube. And do you know what that means? It means that you are #Guilty of #HighTreason. &, do you know what that means? It means that you are #Executed by #FiringSquad.

 

Nope; your apology means nothing to me. It means, that you are still #Executed by #FiringSquad.

 

That's one☝️. Two✌️; I👆, told you💭💬📣🔊📢; I did not suggest to you – I told you, #YouTube; that I need 14-15,000 characters🔤🔡🔠🔢; &, you refused to comply. Therefore; you are shot🔫 to death – #Executed for #HighTreason, twice✌️👋😽💀😵.👀‍

 

Three3️⃣☘️; #JohnPaulMacIssac: I simply, or merely, tell💭💬📣🔊📢 the #FBI, to go & fuck themselves; & to eat shit💩🚽, & die💀😵⚰️⚱️. 👀‍

 

☎️▶️⏯⏩⏭➡️🔀↕️🔘https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=qKVkhQQXEGE&feature=share

 

She asked me to cum⛲️💦💧🌊🎣🐟🔫 over, to #Steinway🎹🏭, in #Astoria👸; & then, after driving from #Pennsylvania #Pistolvania, she was on the #AOL_IM #AIM, w/ #JesseHenry. I told her that she was being rude; & she told me to go & fuck myself. So; I left, drove home🏡, & ate the cost💸 of travel. &, I went & fuckt myself. &; she was unhappy that I left; & she didn't get none. &; I don't really give a fuck. She can eat shit💩🚽, & die💀.👀‍❄️ @/#GregGutfeld #CarleyShimkus

 

#OliviaCampbellPatton #OliviaWildeNeeCockburne

 

🏰🏯🔘https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigiriya

 

By the way; it is #Ceylon; do not offend me again. This is your first(ly)☝️, & only⏳⌛️ warning⚠️⛔️☣️☢️

 

#SAP_q / #SAR_Q, how-ever, not #SAP-q / #SAR-Q; #RobertCharles #THE_COMMODORES_CIRCLE.👀‍😾😠😤😡

 

‍👀😎⚠️⛔️☣️☢️🔘https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_access_program#:~:text=Special%20access%20programs%20%28SAPs%29%20in%20the%20U.S.%20Federal,that%20exceed%20those%20for%20regular%20%28collateral%29%20classified%20information.

 

☝️; there is no quick select, of 20,000+ images, on #iPhone, #Apple #TimCook. ✌️; there is no #conspicuous way to remove the #Slideslow option, on #iPhone, w/ your shitty, shitty musick selection. Therefore, I cannot turn it off. Oh, by the way; I cannot trash individual #AppCaches, neither, all of them, in a single tap. Take a wild guess what that means for you; all of you. #HighTreason = #Execution🔫 @ the #Gallows💀😵, or #Gibbet💀😵.👋👋👋

 

3️⃣; @/ #GregGutfeld‼️⚠️ : The #Saxophone🎷 is lame, gey, & any-person, who may believe it to be kool, or trendy, or even good; they may eat shit💩🚽, & die💀😵.

 

4️⃣ By the way; #SullyErna; you're a bitch.👋💀

 

🔘https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=R8pj2y39_jc&feature=share

 

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It is nice to see #TulsiGabbard; @/#FoxNewsCorp.

 

@/ #JennaLeeUSA I 👀‍ see ❄️🍧🍨🍦⛸ (also, #Björk) two✌️👩‍⚖️😌 #RingsOfPower ‍♀️🆗🙆‍♀️☎️🔥♨️💍🔏✍️👩‍💃👩‍💍👨‍👌🙆‍♂️🆗☑️🔲🔳▫️ℹ️🔘https://youtu.be/Pqijx0pnn3c

 

#Owlephant

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#ELDER_SCROLL_OF_MNEM_0.0♾😻

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#EvanRachelWood-._•✏️📝✍️🔏🐧

 

--WRW

 

_.• ✍️🔏

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This manuscript was executed in 1475 by a scribe identified as Aristakes, for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of 16 images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the gospels, as well as the traditional evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the 15th century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-60) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a re-binding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.

 

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.