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No. Title Length
1. "Rejoice" 4:16
2. "Fallout" 4:30
3. "Midnight Sun" 4:58
4. "A New Reign" 4:52
5. "Universal Flame" 4:39
6. "Warrior" 3:31
7. "Sky Blue" 3:52
8. "Silent Militia" 4:28
9. "Rain City" 7:45
10. "Forever" 3:45
11. "Before We Die" 8:24
12. "The Ones Who Love" 1:32
Total length:
Disc 2: Dark Matters
No. Title Length
1. "Z²" 3:59
2. "From Sleep Awake" 3:00
3. "Ziltoidian Empire" 6:26
4. "War Princess" (lyrics: Townsend, Persi) 8:18
5. "Deathray" 4:43
6. "March of the Poozers" 6:25
7. "Wandering Eye" 3:41
8. "Earth" 7:39
9. "Ziltoid Goes Home" 6:20
10. "Through the Wormhole" 3:44
11. "Dimension Z" 6:13
Personnel
Devin Townsend – vocals, guitars, keyboards, programming
Dave Young – guitars, keyboards
Brian Waddell – bass
Ryan Van Poederooyen – drums
Mike St-Jean – keyboards, programming
Morgan Ågren – additional percussion
Kat Epple – flute
Anneke van Giersbergen – vocals
Chris Jericho – vocals (as "Captain Spectacular")
Dominique Lenore Persi – vocals (as "War Princess")
Mark Cimino – vocals (as "Poozer")
Chris Devitt – vocals (as "Planet Smasher")
Bill Courage – narrator[41]
Marina Bennett – additional voices
Adyson King - voices on "Warrior"
Maria Werner & Jazz-A-Fire (Jasmin Kramer) - voices on "Z²" (as "excited women on Earth")
Randy Slaugh – orchestrations, string arranging
Florian Magnus Maier – orchestrations
Eric Severinson – choir and orchestra conducting, additional voices
Prague Philharmonic Orchestra – orchestra
The audience at Utrecht Tivoli, August 5, 2014 – backing vocals on "Z²" and "March of the Poozers"
Universal Choir – additional vocals on "Before We Die", "Z²" and "Dimension Z"
Varosha - Maras is the southern quarter of the Famagusta, a de jure territory of Cyprus, currently under the control of Northern Cyprus. Varosha has a population of 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census. The area of Varosha is 6.19 km2 (2.39 sq mi).
The name of Varosha derives from the Turkish word varoş (Ottoman Turkish: واروش, 'suburb'). The place where Varosha is located now was empty fields in which animals grazed.
In the early 1970s, Famagusta was the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus. To cater to the increasing number of tourists, many new high-rise buildings and hotels were constructed. During its heyday, Varosha was not only the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus, but between 1970 and 1974, it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and was a favorite destination of such celebrities as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot.
Before 1974, Varosha was the modern tourist area of the Famagusta city. Its Greek Cypriot inhabitants fled during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, when the city of Famagusta came under Turkish control, and it has remained abandoned ever since. In 1984 a U.N. resolution called for the handover of the city to UN control and said that only the original inhabitants, who were forced out, could resettle in the town.
Entry to part of Varosha was opened to civilians in 2017.
In August 1974, the Turkish Army advanced as far as the Green Line, a UN-patrolled demilitarized zone between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and controlled and fenced Varosha. Just hours before the Greek Cypriot and Turkish armies met in combat on the streets of Famagusta, the entire Greek Cypriot population fled to Paralimni, Dherynia, and Larnaca, fearing a massacre. The evacuation was aided and orchestrated by the nearby British military base. Paralimni has since become the modern-day capital of the Famagusta province of Greek Cypriot-led Cyprus.
The Turkish Army has allowed the entry of only Turkish military and United Nations personnel since 2017.
One such settlement plan was the Annan Plan to reunify the island that provided for the return of Varosha to the original residents. But this was rejected by Greek Cypriots in a 2004 referendum. The UN Security Council Resolution 550 states that it "considers attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants as inadmissible and calls for the transfer of this area to the administration of the United Nations".
The European Court of Human Rights awarded between €100,000 and €8,000,000 to eight Greek Cypriots for being deprived of their homes and properties as a result of the 1974 invasion. The case was filed jointly by businessman Constantinos Lordos and others, with the principal judgement in the Lordos case dating back to November 2010. The court ruled that, in the case of eight of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right of peaceful enjoyment of one's possessions, and in the case of seven of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 8 on the right to respect for private and family life.
In the absence of human habitation and maintenance, buildings continue to decay. Over time, parts of the city have begun to be reclaimed by nature as metal corrodes, windows are broken, and plants work their roots into the walls and pavement and grow wild in old window boxes. In 2014, the BBC reported that sea turtles were observed nesting on the beaches in the city.
During the Cyprus Missile Crisis (1997–1998), the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, threatened to take over Varosha if the Cypriot government did not back down.
The main features of Varosha included John F. Kennedy Avenue, a street which ran from close to the port of Famagusta, through Varosha and parallel to Glossa beach. Along JFK Avenue, there were many well known high rise hotels including the King George Hotel, The Asterias Hotel, The Grecian Hotel, The Florida Hotel, and The Argo Hotel which was the favourite hotel of Elizabeth Taylor. The Argo Hotel is located near the end of JFK Avenue, looking towards Protaras and Fig Tree Bay. Another major street in Varosha was Leonidas (Greek: Λεωνίδας), a major street that came off JFK Avenue and headed west towards Vienna Corner. Leonidas was a major shopping and leisure street in Varosha, consisting of bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and a Toyota car dealership.
According to Greek Cypriots, 425 plots exist on the Varosha beach front, which extends from the Contandia hotel to the Golden Sands hotel. The complete number of plots in Varosha are 6082.
There are 281 cases of Greek Cypriots who filed to the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) of Northern Cyprus for compensation.
In 2020, Greek Cypriot Demetrios Hadjihambis filed a lawsuit seeking state compensation for financial losses.
The population of Varosha was 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census.
In 2017, Varosha's beach was opened for the exclusive use of Turks (both Turkish Cypriots and Turkish nationals).
In 2019, the Government of Northern Cyprus announced it would open Varosha to settlement. On 14 November 2019, Ersin Tatar, the prime minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that Northern Cyprus aims to open Varosha by the end of 2020.
On 25 July 2019, Varosha Inventory Commission of Northern Cyprus started its inventory analysis on the buildings and other infrastructure in Varosha.
On 9 December 2019, Ibrahim Benter, the Director-General of the Turkish Cypriot EVKAF religious foundation's administration, declared all of Maraş/Varosha to be the property of EVKAF. Benter said "EVKAF can sign renting contracts with Greek Cypriots if they accept that the fenced-off town belongs to the Evkaf."
In 2019–20, inventory studies of buildings by the Government of Northern Cyprus were concluded. On 15 February 2020, the Turkish Bar Association organised a round table meeting at the Sandy Beach Hotel in Varosha, which was attended by Turkish officials (Vice President Fuat Oktay and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül), Turkish Cypriot officials, representatives of the Turkish Cypriot religious foundation Evkaf, and Turkish and Turkish Cypriot lawyers.
On 22 February 2020, Cyprus declared it would veto European Union funds to Turkish Cypriots if Varosha were opened to settlement.
On 6 October 2020, Ersin Tatar, the Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that the beach area of Varosha would reopen to the public on 8 October 2020. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Turkey fully supported the decision. The move came ahead of the 2020 Northern Cypriot presidential election, in which Tatar was a candidate. Deputy Prime Minister Kudret Özersay, who had worked on the reopening previously, said that this was not a full reopening of the area, that this was just a unilateral election stunt by Tatar. His People's Party withdrew from the Tatar cabinet, leading to the collapse of the Turkish Cypriot government. The EU's diplomatic chief condemned the plan and described it as a "serious violation" of the U.N. ceasefire agreement. In addition, he asked Turkey to stop this activity. The U.N. Secretary-General expressed concern over Turkey's decision.
On 8 October 2020, some parts of Varosha were opened from the Officers' Club of Turkish and Turkish Cypriot Army to the Golden Sands Hotel.
In November 2020, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey's ambassador to Nicosia, visited Varosha. In addition, the main avenue in Varosha has been renamed after Semih Sancar, Chief of the General Staff of Turkey from 1973 to 1978, a period including the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The European Parliament on 27 November, asked Turkey to reverse its decision to re-open part of Varosha and resume negotiations aimed at resolving the Cyprus problem on the basis of a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation and called on the European Union to impose sanctions against Turkey, if things do not change. Turkey rejected the resolution, adding that Turkey will continue to protect both its own rights and those of Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus presidency also condemned the resolution.
On 20 July 2021, Tatar, the president of Northern Cyprus announced the start of the 2nd phase of the opening of Varosha. He encouraged Greek Cypriots to apply Immovable Property Commission of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to claim their properties back if they have any such rights.
Bilal Aga Mosque, constructed in 1821 and taken out of service in 1974, was re-opened on 23 July 2021.
In response to a decision by the government of Turkish Cyprus, the presidential statement of the United Nations Security Council dated on 23 July said that settling any part of the abandoned Cypriot suburb of Varosha, "by people other than its inhabitants, is 'inadmissible'." The same day, Turkey rejected the presidential statement of the UNSC on Maras (Varosha), and said that these statements were based on Greek-Greek Cypriot propaganda, were groundless and unfounded claims, and inconsistent with the realities on the Island. On 24 July 2021, the presidency of Northern Cyprus condemned the presidential statement of the UNSC dated on 23 July, and stated that "We see and condemn it as an attempt to create an obstacle for the property-rights-holders in Varosha to achieve their rights".
By 1 January 2022, nearly 400,000 people had visited Varosha since its opening to civilians on 6 October 2020.
On 19 May 2022, Northern Cyprus opened a 600m long X 400m wide stretch of beach on the Golden Sands beach (from the King George Hotel to the Oceania Building) in Varosha for commercial use. Sun beds and umbrellas were installed.
UNFICYP said it would raise the decision taken by Turkish Cypriot authorities to open that stretch of beach in Varosha with the Security Council, spokesperson for the peacekeeping force Aleem Siddique said on Friday. The UN announced its "position on Varosha is unchanged and we are monitoring the situation closely".
In October 2022, the Turkish Cypriots announced that public institutions will be opened in the city.
In April 2023, Cleo Hotel, the 7-floor Golden Seaside Hotel, and the 3-star Aegean Hotel were purchased by a Turkish Cypriot businessman (from their Greek Cypriot owners) who will operate them within 2025.
On 10 August 2023, the Government of Northern Cyprus decided to construct a marina and tourist facility in Varosha.
Varosha was analyzed by Alan Weisman in his book The World Without Us as an example of the unstoppable power of nature.
Filmmaker Greek Cypriot Michael Cacoyannis described the city and interviewed its exiled citizens in the film Attilas '74, produced in 1975.
In 2021, the Belarusian group Main-De-Gloire dedicated a song to this city that has become a ghostly place.
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".[31] 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.
The Beyond Broadway Experience 2016 presents
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL
Libretto by Jeff Whitty
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Inspired by the Motion Picture Bring It On Written by Jessica Bendinger
Arrangements and Orchestrations Alex Lacamoire & Tom Kitt
Presented at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh on 22nd and 23rd July 2016
018
McKinsey Global Infrastructure Initiative Summit
Tokyo, Japan
Thursday, October 20th, 2022
08:30–09:30DISCUSSION SESSIONS
ORCHESTRATING THE ENERGY TRANSITION
A successful decarbonization and energy-transition strategy will need to accommodate new regulations; rethink planning, permitting, and prioritization; leverage new skills, technology, and capital; and adopt an unprecedented sense of urgency to deliver at the required scale and pace. What steps should senior leaders from across the value chain take now to plan and accelerate the transition? How do we gear up for an anticipated tripling of the current pace of construction to meet net-zero targets?
Panelists:
Peter Aschenbrenner, Chief Strategy Officer, Maxeon Solar Industries
Jon Creyts, Chief Program & Strategy Officer, RMI
Nicole Lockwood, Chair, Infrastructure WA
Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Managing Director, Apraava Energy
Moderator: Zak Cutler, Partner, McKinsey & Company
Kevin Klowden, Chief Global Strategist, The Milken Institute
Photograph by McKinsey Global Infrastructure/Stuart Isett
Just beyond the horizon of the remote Pothwar Deep Space Com Station, Outerspace Hand with the help of best Bedford Truck Starfighters has but moments before the eyeyOlk is about to be fully revealed.
With evacuations mandated and successfully orchestrated, only the eyeyOlk from the dOvemaster now remains in harms way before the eyeyOlk has the chance to unleash itself to the universe.
The Beyond Broadway Experience 2016 presents
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL
Libretto by Jeff Whitty
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Inspired by the Motion Picture Bring It On Written by Jessica Bendinger
Arrangements and Orchestrations Alex Lacamoire & Tom Kitt
Presented at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh on 22nd and 23rd July 2016
www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/stop-worrying-and-love-the-b...
Stop worrying and love the bomb: Proxy war with Russia is sliding toward apocalypse
Chris Hedges
I have covered enough wars to know that once you open that Pandora's box, the many evils that pour out are beyond anyone's control. War accelerates the whirlwind of industrial killing. The longer any war continues, the closer and closer each side comes to self-annihilation. Unless it is stopped, the proxy war between Russia and the U.S. in Ukraine all but guarantees direct confrontation with Russia and, with it, the very real possibility of nuclear war.
Joe Biden, who doesn't always seem to be quite sure where he is or what he is supposed to be saying, is being propped up in the I-am-a-bigger-man-than-you contest with Vladimir Putin by a coterie of rabid warmongers who have orchestrated over 20 years of military fiascos. They are salivating at the prospect of taking on Russia, and then, if there is any habitation left on the globe, China. Trapped in the polarizing mindset of the Cold War — where any effort to de-escalate conflicts through diplomacy is considered appeasement, a perfidious Munich moment — they smugly push the human species closer and closer toward obliteration. Unfortunately for us, one of these true believers is Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Related
Ukraine, media censorship and the ruthless politics of permanent war
"Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing, and it has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the Member States, and the United States and NATO are not bluffing neither," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned. "Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated."
Annihilated. Are these people insane?
You know we are in trouble when Donald Trump is the voice of reason.
"We must demand the immediate negotiation of a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, or we will end up in World War III," the former president said. "And there will be nothing left of our planet — all because stupid people didn't have a clue … They don't understand what they're dealing with, the power of nuclear."
Strip away these ideologues' medals and fancy degrees, and you find craven careerists who obsequiously serve the war industry that ensures their promotions and showers them with money. They are the pimps of war.
I dealt with many of these ideologues — David Petraeus, Elliot Abrams, Robert Kagan, Victoria Nuland — as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. Once you strip away their chest full of medals or fancy degrees, you find shallow men and women, craven careerists who obsequiously serve the war industry that ensures their promotions, pays the budgets of their think tanks and showers them with money as board members of military contractors. They are the pimps of war. If you reported on them, as I did, you would not sleep well at night. They are vain enough and stupid enough to blow up the world long before we go extinct because of the climate crisis, which they have also dutifully accelerated.
If, as Joe Biden says, Putin is "not joking" about using nuclear weapons and we risk nuclear "Armageddon," why isn't Biden on the phone to Putin? Why doesn't he follow the example of John F. Kennedy, who repeatedly communicated with Nikita Khrushchev to negotiate an end to the Cuban missile crisis? Kennedy, who unlike Biden served in the military, knew the obtuseness of generals. He had the good sense to ignore Curtis LeMay, the Air Force chief of staff and head of the Strategic Air Command, as well as the model for Gen. Jack D. Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove," who urged Kennedy to bomb the Cuban missile bases, an act that would have probably ignited a nuclear war. Biden is not made of the same stuff.
Why is Washington sending $50 billion in arms and assistance to sustain the conflict in Ukraine and promising billions more for "as long as it takes"? Why did Washington and Whitehall dissuade Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a former stand-up comic who has been magically transformed by these war lovers into the new Winston Churchill, from pursuing negotiations with Moscow, set up by Turkey? Why do they believe that militarily humiliating Putin, whom they are also determined to remove from power, won't lead him to do the unthinkable in a final act of desperation?
Moscow strongly implied it would use nuclear weapons in response to a "threat" to its "territorial integrity," and the pimps of war shouted down anyone who expressed concern that we all might go up in mushroom clouds, labeling them traitors who are weakening Ukrainian and Western resolve. Giddy at the battlefield losses suffered by Russia, they poke the Russian bear with ever greater ferocity. The Pentagon helped plan Ukraine's latest counteroffensive, and the CIA passes on battlefield intelligence. We are slipping, as we did in Vietnam, from advising, arming, funding and supporting into fighting.
None of this is helped by Zelenskyy's suggestion that, to deter the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, NATO should launch "preventive strikes."
"Waiting for the nuclear strikes first and then to say, 'What's going to happen to them.' No! There is a need to review the way the pressure is being exerted. So there is a need to review this procedure," he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the remarks, which Zelenskyy later tried to roll back, were "nothing else than a call to start a world war."
Why do Washington and London believe that militarily humiliating Vladimir Putin — whom they are determined to remove from power — won't lead him to do the unthinkable in a final act of desperation?
The West has been baiting Moscow for decades. I reported from Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War. I watched these militarists set out to build what they called a unipolar world — a world where they alone ruled. First, they broke promises not to expand NATO beyond the borders of a unified Germany. Then they broke promises not to "permanently station substantial combat forces" in the new NATO member countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Then they broke promises not to station missile systems along Russia's border. Then they broke promises not to interfere in the internal affairs of border states such as Ukraine, orchestrating the 2014 coup that ousted the elected government of Viktor Yanukovych, replacing it with an anti-Russian fascist-aligned government, which, in turn, led to an eight-year civil war, as the Russian-populated regions in the east sought independence from Kyiv. They armed Ukraine with NATO weapons and trained 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers after the coup. Then they recruited neutral Finland and Sweden into NATO. Now the U.S. is being asked to send advanced long-range missile systems to Ukraine, which Russia says would make the U.S. "a direct party to the conflict." But blinded by hubris and lacking any understanding of geopolitics, they push us, like the hapless generals in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, toward catastrophe.
We call for total victory. Russia annexes four Ukrainian provinces. We help Ukraine bomb the Kerch Bridge. Russia rains missiles down on Ukrainian cities. We give Ukraine sophisticated air defense systems. We gloat over Russian losses. Russia introduces conscription. Now Russia carries out drone and cruise missile attacks on power, sewage and water treatment plants. Where does it end?
"Is the United States, for example, trying to help bring an end to this conflict, through a settlement that would allow for a sovereign Ukraine and some kind of relationship between the United States and Russia?" a New York Times editorial asks. "Or is the United States now trying to weaken Russia permanently? Has the administration's goal shifted to destabilizing Putin or having him removed? Does the United States intend to hold Putin accountable as a war criminal? Or is the goal to try to avoid a wider war — and if so, how does crowing about providing U.S. intelligence to kill Russians and sink one of their ships achieve this?"
No one has any answers.
The Times editorial ridicules the folly of attempting to recapture all of Ukrainian territory, especially those territories populated by ethnic Russians.
"A decisive military victory for Ukraine over Russia, in which Ukraine regains all the territory Russia has seized since 2014, is not a realistic goal," it reads. "Though Russia's planning and fighting have been surprisingly sloppy, Russia remains too strong, and Mr. Putin has invested too much personal prestige in the invasion to back down."
But common sense, along with realistic military objectives and an equitable peace, is overpowered by the intoxication of war.
On Oct. 17, NATO countries began a two-week-long exercise in Europe, called Steadfast Noon, in which 60 aircraft, including fighter jets and long-range bombers flown in from Minot Air Base in North Dakota, simulate dropping thermonuclear bombs on European targets. This exercise happens annually. But the timing is nevertheless ominous. The U.S. has some 150 "tactical" nuclear warheads stationed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.
Putin does not want to go the way of Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi. What will stop him from upping the ante if he feels cornered?
Ukraine will be a long and costly war of attrition, one that will leave much of Ukraine in ruins and hundreds of thousands of families convulsed by lifelong grief. If NATO prevails and Putin feels his hold on power is in jeopardy, what will stop him from lashing out in desperation? Russia has the world's largest arsenal of tactical nukes, weapons that can kill tens of thousands if used on a city. It also possesses nearly 6,000 nuclear warheads. Putin does not want to end up, like his Serbian allies Slobodan Milošević and Ratko Mladić, as a convicted war criminal in the Hague. Nor does he want to go the way of Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi. What will stop him from upping the ante if he feels cornered?
There is something grimly cavalier about how political, military and intelligence chiefs, including CIA Director William Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, agree about the danger of humiliating and defeating Putin and the specter of nuclear war.
"Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they've faced so far, militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons," Burns said in remarks at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta, who also served as defense secretary under Barack Obama, wrote this month that U.S. intelligence agencies believe the odds of the war in Ukraine spiraling into a nuclear war are as high as one in four.
The director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, echoed this warning, telling the Senate Armed Services Committee in May that if Putin believed there was an existential threat to Russia, he could resort to nuclear weapons.
"We do think that [Putin's perception of an existential threat] could be the case in the event that he perceives that he is losing the war in Ukraine, and that NATO in effect is either intervening or about to intervene in that context, which would obviously contribute to a perception that he is about to lose the war in Ukraine," Haines said.
"As this war and its consequences slowly weaken Russian conventional strength… Russia likely will increasingly rely on its nuclear deterrent to signal the West and project strength to its internal and external audiences," Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier wrote in the Defense Intelligence Agency's threat assessment submitted to the same Armed Services Committee at the end of April.
Given these assessments, why don't Burns, Panetta, Haines and Berrier urgently advocate diplomacy with Russia to de-escalate the nuclear threat?
This war should never have happened. The U.S. was well aware it was provoking Russia. But it was drunk on its own power, especially as it emerged as the world's sole superpower at the end of the Cold War, and besides, there were billions in profits to be made in arms sales to new NATO members.
In 2008, when Burns was serving as ambassador to Moscow, he wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: "Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin). In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin's sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests."
Sixty-six UN members, most from the global south, have called for diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine, as required by the UN Charter. But few of the big power players are listening.
If you think nuclear war can't happen, pay a visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These Japanese cities had no military value. They were wiped out because most of the rest of Japan's urban centers had already been destroyed by saturation bombing campaigns directed by LeMay. The U.S. knew Japan was crippled and ready to surrender, but it wanted to send a message to the Soviet Union that with its new atomic weapons it was going to dominate the world.
We saw how that turned out.
1934 world première of Léonide Massine's ballet Union Pacific
Ballets Russes synopsis -
An American Ballet in One Act and Four Scenes. Libretto by ARCHIBALD MacLEISH Music by Nicoras NABOKOFF, based on folk songs of the period. Orchestrated in collaboration with EpwArpn POWELL Choreography by Leoxnripg MASSINE. Scenery by ALBERT JOHNSON Costumes by IRENE SHARAFF—Executed by VALENTINE KASHUBA
Surveyors and workmen are building the two converging sections of the railroad, Irishmen building from the East, Chinese from the West. As the Chinese work they are approached by a girl from the Big Tent called the Lady-Gay. The work is interrupted. The surveyor becomes amorous of the girl.
The scene shifts to the Big Tent where Mexicans, gamblers, Irish workmen and girls are gathered at the bar. A Mormon missionary enters. The bar-keeper entertains his guests. While they dance the Lady-Gay enters with her surveyor, followed by some of the Chinese gang. ‘The Irish surveyor approaches her. She prefers her original companion and they dance. Irishmen and Chinese threaten each other. A general fight is imminent.
Suddenly the scene shifts back to the roadbed of the line. The hostility of the Big Tent has become a rivalry in work. The two gangs, driving the rails before them approach each other while cheering crowds of women and Indians and Mexicans look on. The last rail is about to be laid. Pompously and solemnly the capitalists enter. The golden spike is driven into the tie of laurel. The telegraph instrument beside the track ticks out the word D-O-N-E. And while the nation celebrates with cannon and bells in San Francisco and Omaha and Chicago, and with the hymn “‘ Old Hundred,” played upon Trinity chimes in New York, the capitalists and workmen and girls and Indians pose before the camera at Promontory Point.
The Beyond Broadway Experience 2016 presents
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL
Libretto by Jeff Whitty
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Inspired by the Motion Picture Bring It On Written by Jessica Bendinger
Arrangements and Orchestrations Alex Lacamoire & Tom Kitt
Presented at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh on 22nd and 23rd July 2016
Details at C2 and C3 of the 2024 North American Eclipse, with one relatively short exposure from mid-totality in the center.
Taken during the 4/8/24 eclipse from Norwalk, Ohio. Some high level clouds/haze.
Canon 5D3 with a 600 mm telephoto
Skywatcher Star Adventurer
Eclipse Orchestrator
The Beyond Broadway Experience 2016 presents
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL
Libretto by Jeff Whitty
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Inspired by the Motion Picture Bring It On Written by Jessica Bendinger
Arrangements and Orchestrations Alex Lacamoire & Tom Kitt
Presented at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh on 22nd and 23rd July 2016
... onstage in Beijing.
Mccavity from Cats onstage in Beijing ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbfxgxTEO24
Here is a location on YOUTUBE where you can listen to forty-one Andrew Lloyd Webber production numbers, most of which come from Live in Beijing...
video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=live+in+bejing+u+tu...
I've only worked on this project for three days and already I'm tired of it. It's the "project abandonment syndrome" and stems from an individual who has always worked only for themselves. In my working world I've worked for a diverse group of entities, doing a diverse number of things to support myself and my dependents. I've been free to change directions often and never had a profession that locked me into the unhappiness of "burn-out." In my art world is primarily where I have been selfish. I chose to concentrate my college years on art with a secondary concentration on education. I had planned a lifetime spent teaching others how to do and appreciate art. So my painting was a very personal thing, done primarily for myself. My mind for years was taking in visuals and rapidly processing them in terms of how this would be painted, where dominants would be placed and how colors would be mixed. The problem arose when my brain so specialized the process that the original pencil sketch became quite enough to quiet my soul. I think that explains my rapid disinterest in projects. That pattern was tempered by the rapidity with which watercolors could be painted.
Then you meet a genius and marvel at the multiplicity of his magical efforts. This man, Andrew Lloyd Webber, not only writes his music, but oversees the addition of lyrics, manages the complicated, meticulous combining of dance, song and orchestration, plus the design of the environment in which these elements will be presented. All of that effort indicates not only a genius at work writing music, but a genius of management and coordination at work doing Musical Theater. Now, with his Masterpiece, Live in Bejing, concert he has added travel, transport and adaptation to the unknown facilities and customs of a culture half way around the world. I take off my hat to Andrew Lloyd Webber for his perfectly executed task and then, as I experience the DVD, I feel the beginning of a miracle. This is not only a feast for the ears and the eyes, it is a reaching out to another culture and offering friendship and love.
Since the ending days of World War II, we have relied upon science and sociology to save us. And that path has come so close for comfort in obliterating us, so many times, we are appalled. What if peace and love could be stimulated through the arts, relieving the sciences to simply find better paths of quality for everyday life?
I listened and focused on the visuals of this magic DVD, until my body felt weightless and my eyes locked permanently on the colors, shapes and movements of this epicurean feast of sight and sound. I just had to share it. And, I have, that is until the "all for me syndrome" kicked in now I find myself wanting to tell you about something else. The mind is a hopeless traveler, so now I'll tie this all down and get back to telling you about beautiful young people who are making magic in the world of the arts through the miracle of film and TV.
I had wanted to put links under each image of performance offering the names of the artists and the sounds they are creating, but at this point, I don't even have them all identified. If that's important to you, you can jot down their names and Google them up for yourself. I'll simply give you a link to much of Sir Andrew's musical numbers and again you can sort them out. And, yes, I know I have used too many images, trapped by the new discovery of a contemporary "style" in art and the ease with which it can be manipulated. However, I know you'll sort that out for me too. If you're interested in an image, you'll click on it and look at it in a larger format, and read whatever is written under it, but If you're not interested, you'll pass it up. I have a general practice of deleting any image that has not been clicked on ten times or more in the first two weeks. It's a practice not etched in marble, but for the most part it keeps my photostream lean and mean, at least as lean and mean as this hopeless body of mine.
I hope you can find the magic I discovered and experience the thrill of Evita, Cats and all the rest.
His music a cross between '70s-style light rock and orchestrated pop, Steven Curtis Chapman is one of the most prominent performers of contemporary Christian music.
All rights reserved. © 2015. Ruel Calitis
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
Dinosaurs, laser lights, cabaret and robots. Lots and lots of robots. One of the top tourist attractions in Tokyo is Robot Restaurant. Located in the Shinjuku nightlife district, it's one of the wildest shows on Earth. The fantastical performance venue opened in July 2012, quickly garnering an international reputation. Blaring pop music fills the room, warrior princesses fight 10-foot-tall transformer robots and sequined bikinis ricochet laser beams into every corner. But how does this carefully orchestrated chaos come together? We took a behind-the-scenes tour of this destination:
Robot Restaurant: A dancer rides a robot into battle at Robot Restaurant, located in Tokyo's Shinjuku nightlife district. The cabaret-style shows include bikini clad futuristic dancers, performers dressed as robots and a host of large scale robots -- all in a laser-lit room.
As you descend the technicolor stairwell into Robot Restaurant, it's like stepping into an alternate realty. It only gets wackier from there. The robot show might seems like total chaos, but the high-voltage performance is actually a carefully planned routine that requires weeks of preparation. Behind it all? A professional dance troupe who rehearse around the clock to perfect the complicated routine. They master everything from dancing to drumming, pole dancing and robot riding. "As a performer, I try to convey a routine in a way everyone can understand its youthful emotion," says Namie Osawa, show director of Robot Restaurant.
Though the storyline might be hard to follow, Osawa usually separates the 90-minute show into several acts with breaks in between. It all culminates in an epic battle between warring robot armies -- pop music blasts, lasers strobe, and dancers flying every which way.
"I think it's great how people smile during the show and even during breaks, or when we look at each other and really feel the enthusiasm from one another," says performer Kumin Hankokkou. "The rehearsals are difficult but I enjoy that we work together to achieve the next level."
The name Robot Restaurant is a bit misleading. While there's popcorn as well as three dinner items up for grabs -- think sushi bento boxes and marinated beef -- the food is not as captivating as the performances. Since Tokyo is inundated with amazing restaurants, we'd recommend saving your appetite for a feast elsewhere. After all, trying to navigate a box of sushi while a giant shark is attacking a robotic horse that's wrestling a kung-fu panda on a Segway isn't exactly the easiest feat.
A few quick tips
You'll probably want to capture every moment of the fantastical experience -- and we don't blame you.
But travelers will need to leave professional equipment at home. Smart phones and smaller devices are totally fine but large cameras are prohibited.
As for booking, we'd advise planning ahead. There are only three performances a day, and tickets often sell out.
To secure seats, travelers can buy tickets online for about $73 each or ask their hotel concierge to make a reservation. Even with a ticket, you can't waltz right in. There's an office across the street where you'll need to pick up the physical tickets.
And after the show? Guests will have a chance to roam around the stage and pose for photos with the robot stars.
Robot Restaurant, 1-7-1 Kabukicho Shinjuku-ku Tokyo, Japan; +81 3 3200 5500
Rewire Festival 2016
Grote Kerk, Den Haag
Experimental post-punk band Xiu Xiu (US) is known for it’s versatility and high productivity; in thirteen years time the group – based around Jamie Stewart – has released no less than eleven records. Xiu Xiu’s music varies from damaged avant-pop to artfully orchestrated rock to squalls of black-hearted noise and most bases around and between.
For a series of special performances Xiu Xiu have made new interpretations of the music from the legendary ’90’s TV-show Twin Peaks, emphasizing its chaos and drama. Rather than attempting to replicate the original music, the group offers new interpretations of the music. These new interpretations make the drama of David Lynch’s classic series come alive.
MuCEM + Fort Saint-Jean, Marseille, France - 2013 -Architects: Rudy Ricciotti and C+T architecture
Views, sea, sun, a mineral quality, which all must be orchestrated by a program that will become federal and cognitive. First of all a perfect square of 72 m per side, it is a classic plan, Latin, under the control of Pythagoras. Within this square, another of 52 m per side, comprising the exhibition and conference halls identified as the heart of the museum.
Around, above and below are the service areas. But between these areas and the heart, openings entirely bypass the central square and form interconnected spaces. More interested by the views of the fort, the sea or the port, the culturally overwhelmed visitor will choose this route. Along two interlacing ramps, he will then plunge into the imaginary of the tower of Babel or of a ziggurat in order to climb up to the rooftop and on to Fort Saint- Jean. This peripheral loop will be a free breathe, enveloped by the smells of the sea from the proximity to the moats, a pause to dispel any lingering doubts about the use of the history of our civilizations. The MuCEM will be a vertical Casbah.
The tectonic choice of an exceptional concrete coming from the latest research by French industry, reducing the dimensions to little more than skin and bones, will affirm a mineral script under the high ramparts of Fort Saint-Jean. This sole material in the colour of dust, matt, crushed by the light, distant from the brilliance and technological consumerism, will commend the dense and the delicate. The MuCEM sees itself evanescent in a landscape of stone and Orientalist through its fanning shadows.
Now that the torch has been passed to the new Turkey 2, Mobile 2 can concentrate on orchestrating this event from home plate.
Getting all the on-duty units a chance to attend Thanksgiving, while still maintaining coverage for all those inevitable Turkey fires, mishaps, and other turkey day related emergencies is no easy task.
Not to mention coordinating the deployment of the FDMB and Fire Control District Rehab units to make all those deliveries to the hospitals, Emergency communications centers, military installations, stations, etc.
1:64 Code 3 Collectibles
LDV Baynard County Joint Operations
Mobile Command Center 2
Gobble Command
AKA Mobile 2
2016 Holiday for Heroes Thanksgiving Banquet.
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II
Olympus M.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R
For more info about the dioramas, check out the FAQ: 1stPix FAQ
What a genius Mike Hall was. You'd be hard pressed to find a similar orchestrated finish line approach than that last segment of the Transcontinental Race of 2017 and 2018. This gave me goose bumps. I planned to do this in the early evening to arrive just right to the finisher party and to experience the evening mood at the parcours. What a stunning place and what a gorgeous finishing experience! In the last downhill stretch after one another photo stop I was joined by David Fairweather #TCRNo6cap187 and we rode together into Kalampaka and to the finish line. What a reception at Pub 38 by all the other racers already there and ready to begin the party. Couldn't have been any better! :)
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Was für ein Genie Mike Hall doch war. Man wäre sehr gefordert, eine ähnlich dramaturgisch gelungenen Ziel-Anfahrt wie dieses letzte Segment der Transcontinental Rennen 2017 und 2018 zu finden. Ich hatte Gänsehaut. Ich hatte geplant, den Parcours in den frühen Abendstunden zu erreichen, um genau pünktlich zur Finisher Party anzukommen und um die Abendstimmung entlang des Parcours zu erleben. Was für ein grandioser Ort und was für eine tolle Finish-Erfahrung! Im letzten Abfahrtsabschnitt wurde ich nach einem weiteren Fotostop von David Fairweather #TCRNo6cap187 eingeholt und wir fuhren nebeneinander nach Kalampaka hinein und zum Ziel. Was für ein Empfang vor dem Pub 38 von all den anderen Teilnehmern, die schon da und dabei waren, die Party zu beginnen. Es hätte nicht besser sein können! :)
The Beyond Broadway Experience 2016 presents
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL
Libretto by Jeff Whitty
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Inspired by the Motion Picture Bring It On Written by Jessica Bendinger
Arrangements and Orchestrations Alex Lacamoire & Tom Kitt
Presented at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh on 22nd and 23rd July 2016
I find parallels in nature to be a beautiful reflection of grand orchestration.
One of these parallels is of snowflakes and us.
We, too, are all headed in the same direction.
We are being driven by a universal force to the same destination.
We are all individuals taking different journeys and along our journey, we sometimes bump
into each other, we cross paths, we become altered…
we take different physical forms.
But at all times we too are 100% perfectly imperfect.
At every given moment we are absolutely perfect for what is required for our journey.
I’m not perfect for your journey and you’re not perfect for my journey,
but I’m perfect for my journey and you’re perfect for your journey.
We’re heading to the same place, we’re taking different routes,
but we’re both exactly perfect the way we are.
Steve Maraboli
The Royal Ballet: Beauty Mixed Programme
Beauty Mixed Programme, 26 June - 11 July 2021. Live Stream 9 July 2021.
The Royal Ballet continues to share a broad range of classics and new work across this Season and into the next, shining a light on the Company’s rich history and vibrant future as it turns 90. In honour of the Company’s founder Dame Ninette de Valois who created the company we know now as The Royal Ballet, and whose vision was to ‘respect the past, herald the future but concentrate on the present’, the Beauty Mixed Programme features work across the generations from Madam’s third act of The Sleeping Beauty to a world premiere by one of the Company’s choreographers.
Programme & Casting:
Anemoi (World Premiere)
Choreography: Valentino Zucchetti
Dancers: Mariko Sasaki, Leticia Dias, Lukas Bjørneboe Brændsrød, Taisuke Nakao
Morgen
Choreography: Wayne McGregor
Dancers: Francesca Hayward, Cesar Corrales
Winter Dreams – ‘farewell’ pas de deux
Choreography: Kenneth MacMillan
Dancers: Laura Morera, Ryoichi Hirano
After the Rain - pas de deux
Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon
Dancers: Beatriz Stix-Brunell, Reece Clarke
Woman with water (new to The Royal Ballet)
Choreography: Mats Ek
Dancers: Mayara Magri, Lukas Bjørneboe Brændsrød
Voices of Spring
Choreography: Frederick Ashton
Dancers: Anna Rose O’Sullivan, Marcelino Sambé
The Sleeping Beauty Act III
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Dancers: Natalia Osipova, Reece Clarke (Grand Pas de deux)
Isabella Gasparini, Joonhyuk Jun (Blue Bird pas de deux)
photo © Foteini Christofilopoulou | All rights reserved | For all usage/licensing enquiries please contact www.foteini.com
by kind permission of the Royal Opera House
CABLE CUSTOM/MOD
Cable's (Nathan Summers) birth was carefully orchestrated by Mutant Geneticist expert Mr. Sinister and is son to Cyclops (Scott Summers) and Madelyne Pryor (Clone of Jean Grey) and half-brother to Rachel Summers. Mr. Sinister planned to use Nate as a weapon against his former master, Apocalypse, but Apocalypse learned of this and had Nate captured and infected with a deadly techno-organic virus. As Cable's powers developed he was able to control the virus with his telekinesis, though the left side of his body had already been infected, causing it to appear cybernetic.
Build Details:
• Based off poppunkmunky's custom cable minifig.
• Hair is from Magneto.
• Pauldron and gun are from BrickWarriors.
• Left Arm is from BrickAffliction, Halo Spartn Armor painted a metallic Silver.
MuCEM + Fort Saint-Jean, Marseille, France - 2013 -Architects: Rudy Ricciotti and C+T architecture
Views, sea, sun, a mineral quality, which all must be orchestrated by a program that will become federal and cognitive. First of all a perfect square of 72 m per side, it is a classic plan, Latin, under the control of Pythagoras. Within this square, another of 52 m per side, comprising the exhibition and conference halls identified as the heart of the museum.
Around, above and below are the service areas. But between these areas and the heart, openings entirely bypass the central square and form interconnected spaces. More interested by the views of the fort, the sea or the port, the culturally overwhelmed visitor will choose this route. Along two interlacing ramps, he will then plunge into the imaginary of the tower of Babel or of a ziggurat in order to climb up to the rooftop and on to Fort Saint- Jean. This peripheral loop will be a free breathe, enveloped by the smells of the sea from the proximity to the moats, a pause to dispel any lingering doubts about the use of the history of our civilizations. The MuCEM will be a vertical Casbah.
The tectonic choice of an exceptional concrete coming from the latest research by French industry, reducing the dimensions to little more than skin and bones, will affirm a mineral script under the high ramparts of Fort Saint-Jean. This sole material in the colour of dust, matt, crushed by the light, distant from the brilliance and technological consumerism, will commend the dense and the delicate. The MuCEM sees itself evanescent in a landscape of stone and Orientalist through its fanning shadows.
The Beyond Broadway Experience 2016 presents
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL
Libretto by Jeff Whitty
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Inspired by the Motion Picture Bring It On Written by Jessica Bendinger
Arrangements and Orchestrations Alex Lacamoire & Tom Kitt
Presented at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh on 22nd and 23rd July 2016
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
The Rabaa's family has confirmed that the orchestrated and continuous defamation campaigns against the innocent engineer Tarek RABAA since the beginning of his detention in July 2010 until today aim at hindering his release and to distort his reputation. Tarek RABAA is still in the trial phase and he is not yet sentenced, he is surely innocent of the charges we have proven by evidence they are fabricated.
The family declared "our reply on the organized defamation campaigns is by exposing the conspiracy to unseat Tarek RABAA from his post in Alfa, then using his case to protect the real collaborators involved with the Israelian's intelligence, and how the conspiracy is linked to the leaks from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to Der Spiegel journal on May 23, 2009.
We accuse foreign intelligence agencies to cooperate with the Israelian intelligence to plan through their collaborators in Lebanon for conspiring to imprison Tarek RABAA in order to displace him from his work in Alfa aiming at protecting the effective collaborators inside the telecom sector and to entrap the "resistance" to get involved in his case, and to slander Tarek for a period of time as an anticipated step to discredit the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's indictment (which was based on the analysis of cellular phone calls data) before its issuance on June 30, 2011".
The family stated "the conspiracy on Tarek Rabaa is divided to two correlated parts which are obviously planned by foreign and local parties to fabricate irrelevant charges to Tarek. The plot can be easily concluded from the quasi synchronization in the dates between what was the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's preparing and what was happening inside Alfa.
Therefore, part of the conspiracy is related to accusing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon four members affiliated to the resistance to kill Rafic Hariri and another part is related to inside the company of Alfa and its relationships with telecoms equipment suppliers in Lebanon".
The family clarified "the plan to conspire on engineer Tarek RABAA started in 2007 when Alfa decided to send him escorted with the engineer Cesar Saleh to France to attend a training course at Alcatel-Lucent premises in Lannion from 22 to 26 October 2007. This trip to France was followed on November 13, 2007 by assigning Daniel Belmar as head of international investigation committee for the case of Rafic Hariri's assassination. Few days later, the major Wissam Eid was assassinated on January 25, 2008. Afterwards, the process of promoting the importance of cellular phones records' analysis to reach those involved in Rafic Hariri's assassination has been triggered and a message had been propagated about the link between the work of major Wissam Eid on the data analysis and his assassination".
The family added "between April 11, 2009 and 2010 most of those defendants accused in Lebanon to collaborate with the Mossad had been recruited by the Israelian intelligence in 2007, and what has been disclosed lately about the so called prisoner X (Ben Zygier) who leaked the names of two collaborators (Ziad Homsi and Mostafa Ouwada) to the Lebanese authorities is a strong indicator that the Mossad, after the war of July 2006, had purposely targeted some Lebanese to recruit them in order to deliver their names, deliberately to the Lebanese authorities to arrest them. The Mossad's officer known by "Shawki' had used deliberately the same international number to call many collaborators in order to ease the task of reaching other collaborators based on data. The Mossad then provided few names who received international phone calls from the officer Shawki who called others in Lebanon also. By checking the cellular phone records, the Lebanese investigators reached easily many others collaborators. Therefore, the promotion of cellular phone records has become stronger in 2009 after the initial promotion in January 2008 and this was a huge preparatory step before accusing, based on cellular phone calls analysis, four members affiliated to the resistance to be involved in the assassination of Rafic Hariri."
The family explained "after assassinating the engineer Wissam Eid on January 25, 2008 Alfa approved on February 11, 2008 a project known by BTS swap out in Beirut (BTS is a cellular base station) when Marwan Hmadeh was the minister of telecoms. The project which was strangely approved aimed at replacing all the equipment used in the cellular stations in Alfa network in Beirut area from the provider Ericsson to the provider Nokia-Siemens. The project ended quickly on 11 November 2008, two days before assigning Daniel Belmar and 20 days before ending the management contract with Fal-Dete (the company which operated Alfa from 2004 till 2008). After the departure of Ineke Botter (Alfa's CEO from 2004-2008), she was accused without evidence, by some newspapers, to collaborate with the Israelian intelligence and this was an anticipated step used by the Resistance to discredit a likely accusation by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon based on cellular phone calls. Moreover, most of the suspected cellular phone numbers to be used in the assassination of Rafic Hariri were numbers from Alfa which were connected on BTSs provided by Ericsson. By finishing the BTS swap out project, this means the BTSs and the BSC (Base Station Controller) were replaced also by Nokia-Siemens, thus the GSM network parameters in Beirut were altered before issuing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon its indictment and before starting leaking it in May 2009. From another side, the intelligence bureau in Lebanon finished its initial report on data call analysis in the case of Rafic Hariri's assassination in May 2006 and the document was handled to ex general prosecutor Saiid Mirza who transferred it to others. This document remained neglected in the drawers of the international investigation committee until end 2007 when Daniel Belmar took the helm of the committee. The latter was attracted by this document prepared by the Lebanese Intelligence bureau, and then more investigations had been carried out after the assassination of Wissam Eid until defining a fifth "purple network" of anonymous cellular phone numbers which have been linked, by analyzing the co-location and geographic handover of cellular phones, to the disappearance of Ahmad Abou Adass (he recorded a video after the assassination) and subsequently to members from the resistance.
The family announced "the CBC's report broadcasted on November 21, 2010 has disclosed an additional goal behind the sudden arrest of many collaborators when they said that the problem according to many sources is how to convert the data call analysis to acceptable evidence which can withstand in the court.
Also, regarding the collapse of collaborators' networks in 2009, the first arrest started with the general Adib Al Alam on April 11, 2009 and it was followed by the release of four generals (arrested in 2005 in the case of Rafic Hariri's assassination) on April 29, 2009 by Daniel Belmar. On May 23, 2009, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon leaked to Der Spiegel an information about its orientation to accuse, based on cellular phone records, members in the resistance for being involved in killing Rafic Hariri."
The family considered "the arrest of employees in the telecoms sector was an anticipated action taken by the resistance to discredit the indictment based on phone call records.
As long as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon didn't publish until today who has leaked the indictment to Der Spiegel and CBC, we are accusing this tribunal to pave the way for conspiring on Tarek Rabaa and to detain him in order to give a space for the resistance in Lebanon to secure a pretext to defend itself before issuing the indictment"
The family confirmed "Tarek Rabaa has been accused to collaborate with the Mossad based on a wrongly identified French call he received on his mobile when he travelled to France in 2007 to attend a training course. Therefore, because Tarek is for sure innocent, this means that such error is possible in other files and consequently the error might be in the indictment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon which is relying on data analysis to identify the indictees, and as such this issue is hindering the release of Tarek Rabaa whereas the politicians in Lebanon are apparently divided on the credibility of the data".
The family added "when Tarek Rabaa was assigned a project manager in February 2008 to modernize the tranmsission network of Alfa by using IP/MPLS technology instead of SDH, he prepared a tender specification in an environment where many employees were biased to Alcatel-Lucent which was the supplier for transmission backbone network since 1994. The result of the offers analysis revealed Huawei, a Chinese supplier, as the winner in the tender and Tarek was experiencing threats and pressures from many sides to not issue a report showing Huawei as the winner. Tarek told us, and the family asked him to resign from Alfa. Tarek continued his work transparently and he had issued his report to his managers whom in turn issued their report to the ministry of telecommunications and the decision was taken to introduce Huawei equipment starting from January 2009. The suppliers Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Siemens and Ericsson were provoked by the loss of a market share in Lebanon in front of Huawei and Tarek was experiencing a strong harassment inside Alfa.
In 2008, the ministers of telecoms, allied with the resistance, have taken the helm in a timing the resistance was searching for collaborators to discredit the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's indictment. As a result, after the arrest of Charbel Kazzi (ex employee in Alfa arrested on June 24, 2010 then released on December 13, 2012) the military intelligence in Lebanon had been instigated to arrest Tarek, and therefore they kidnapped him on July 12, 2010 in a timing the new CEO for Alfa, Marwan Hayek, has decided to displace Tarek's line manager starting from August 2010 and the opportunity to promote Tarek to head of engineering department was very likely...but Tarek was kidnapped and detained until today based on fabricated charges in a country they said about it the country of law and institutions".
The family explained "what has been disclosed by the deputy Ghazi Youssef in his press conference dated January 29, 2013 regarding the scandals of deals with telecom suppliers after the arrest of Tarek proves that there are many parties who didn't want Tarek in his position as head of unit working transparently and they were thinking about how would be their situation if Tarek was promoted to head of department.
Also, in spite of the scandal which has been revealed regarding the antenna in Sfarray which is still working until today, the scandals in the mobile companies as well as the scandalous file of Tarek Rabaa which was based on a Taxi number, commercial camera, torture and arbitrary detention, the military court is releasing the prisoners who confessed to collaborate with the Mossad and they are not deliberately releasing the innocent engineer Tarek by blackmailing him to submit to a politicized sentence.
The family confirmed "the engineer Tarek RABAA didn't submit in the past to the threats, he will not submit today to blackmailing and we will not accept a wrong and politicized sentence against him...we know now the whole conspiracy and those involved in it".
source: NNA
The Beyond Broadway Experience 2016 presents
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL
Libretto by Jeff Whitty
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Inspired by the Motion Picture Bring It On Written by Jessica Bendinger
Arrangements and Orchestrations Alex Lacamoire & Tom Kitt
Presented at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh on 22nd and 23rd July 2016
It looks like this male Gadwall duck is dancing on water at the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary Delta BC Canada
Varosha - Maras is the southern quarter of the Famagusta, a de jure territory of Cyprus, currently under the control of Northern Cyprus. Varosha has a population of 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census. The area of Varosha is 6.19 km2 (2.39 sq mi).
The name of Varosha derives from the Turkish word varoş (Ottoman Turkish: واروش, 'suburb'). The place where Varosha is located now was empty fields in which animals grazed.
In the early 1970s, Famagusta was the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus. To cater to the increasing number of tourists, many new high-rise buildings and hotels were constructed. During its heyday, Varosha was not only the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus, but between 1970 and 1974, it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and was a favorite destination of such celebrities as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot.
Before 1974, Varosha was the modern tourist area of the Famagusta city. Its Greek Cypriot inhabitants fled during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, when the city of Famagusta came under Turkish control, and it has remained abandoned ever since. In 1984 a U.N. resolution called for the handover of the city to UN control and said that only the original inhabitants, who were forced out, could resettle in the town.
Entry to part of Varosha was opened to civilians in 2017.
In August 1974, the Turkish Army advanced as far as the Green Line, a UN-patrolled demilitarized zone between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and controlled and fenced Varosha. Just hours before the Greek Cypriot and Turkish armies met in combat on the streets of Famagusta, the entire Greek Cypriot population fled to Paralimni, Dherynia, and Larnaca, fearing a massacre. The evacuation was aided and orchestrated by the nearby British military base. Paralimni has since become the modern-day capital of the Famagusta province of Greek Cypriot-led Cyprus.
The Turkish Army has allowed the entry of only Turkish military and United Nations personnel since 2017.
One such settlement plan was the Annan Plan to reunify the island that provided for the return of Varosha to the original residents. But this was rejected by Greek Cypriots in a 2004 referendum. The UN Security Council Resolution 550 states that it "considers attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants as inadmissible and calls for the transfer of this area to the administration of the United Nations".
The European Court of Human Rights awarded between €100,000 and €8,000,000 to eight Greek Cypriots for being deprived of their homes and properties as a result of the 1974 invasion. The case was filed jointly by businessman Constantinos Lordos and others, with the principal judgement in the Lordos case dating back to November 2010. The court ruled that, in the case of eight of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right of peaceful enjoyment of one's possessions, and in the case of seven of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 8 on the right to respect for private and family life.
In the absence of human habitation and maintenance, buildings continue to decay. Over time, parts of the city have begun to be reclaimed by nature as metal corrodes, windows are broken, and plants work their roots into the walls and pavement and grow wild in old window boxes. In 2014, the BBC reported that sea turtles were observed nesting on the beaches in the city.
During the Cyprus Missile Crisis (1997–1998), the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, threatened to take over Varosha if the Cypriot government did not back down.
The main features of Varosha included John F. Kennedy Avenue, a street which ran from close to the port of Famagusta, through Varosha and parallel to Glossa beach. Along JFK Avenue, there were many well known high rise hotels including the King George Hotel, The Asterias Hotel, The Grecian Hotel, The Florida Hotel, and The Argo Hotel which was the favourite hotel of Elizabeth Taylor. The Argo Hotel is located near the end of JFK Avenue, looking towards Protaras and Fig Tree Bay. Another major street in Varosha was Leonidas (Greek: Λεωνίδας), a major street that came off JFK Avenue and headed west towards Vienna Corner. Leonidas was a major shopping and leisure street in Varosha, consisting of bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and a Toyota car dealership.
According to Greek Cypriots, 425 plots exist on the Varosha beach front, which extends from the Contandia hotel to the Golden Sands hotel. The complete number of plots in Varosha are 6082.
There are 281 cases of Greek Cypriots who filed to the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) of Northern Cyprus for compensation.
In 2020, Greek Cypriot Demetrios Hadjihambis filed a lawsuit seeking state compensation for financial losses.
The population of Varosha was 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census.
In 2017, Varosha's beach was opened for the exclusive use of Turks (both Turkish Cypriots and Turkish nationals).
In 2019, the Government of Northern Cyprus announced it would open Varosha to settlement. On 14 November 2019, Ersin Tatar, the prime minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that Northern Cyprus aims to open Varosha by the end of 2020.
On 25 July 2019, Varosha Inventory Commission of Northern Cyprus started its inventory analysis on the buildings and other infrastructure in Varosha.
On 9 December 2019, Ibrahim Benter, the Director-General of the Turkish Cypriot EVKAF religious foundation's administration, declared all of Maraş/Varosha to be the property of EVKAF. Benter said "EVKAF can sign renting contracts with Greek Cypriots if they accept that the fenced-off town belongs to the Evkaf."
In 2019–20, inventory studies of buildings by the Government of Northern Cyprus were concluded. On 15 February 2020, the Turkish Bar Association organised a round table meeting at the Sandy Beach Hotel in Varosha, which was attended by Turkish officials (Vice President Fuat Oktay and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül), Turkish Cypriot officials, representatives of the Turkish Cypriot religious foundation Evkaf, and Turkish and Turkish Cypriot lawyers.
On 22 February 2020, Cyprus declared it would veto European Union funds to Turkish Cypriots if Varosha were opened to settlement.
On 6 October 2020, Ersin Tatar, the Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that the beach area of Varosha would reopen to the public on 8 October 2020. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Turkey fully supported the decision. The move came ahead of the 2020 Northern Cypriot presidential election, in which Tatar was a candidate. Deputy Prime Minister Kudret Özersay, who had worked on the reopening previously, said that this was not a full reopening of the area, that this was just a unilateral election stunt by Tatar. His People's Party withdrew from the Tatar cabinet, leading to the collapse of the Turkish Cypriot government. The EU's diplomatic chief condemned the plan and described it as a "serious violation" of the U.N. ceasefire agreement. In addition, he asked Turkey to stop this activity. The U.N. Secretary-General expressed concern over Turkey's decision.
On 8 October 2020, some parts of Varosha were opened from the Officers' Club of Turkish and Turkish Cypriot Army to the Golden Sands Hotel.
In November 2020, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey's ambassador to Nicosia, visited Varosha. In addition, the main avenue in Varosha has been renamed after Semih Sancar, Chief of the General Staff of Turkey from 1973 to 1978, a period including the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The European Parliament on 27 November, asked Turkey to reverse its decision to re-open part of Varosha and resume negotiations aimed at resolving the Cyprus problem on the basis of a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation and called on the European Union to impose sanctions against Turkey, if things do not change. Turkey rejected the resolution, adding that Turkey will continue to protect both its own rights and those of Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus presidency also condemned the resolution.
On 20 July 2021, Tatar, the president of Northern Cyprus announced the start of the 2nd phase of the opening of Varosha. He encouraged Greek Cypriots to apply Immovable Property Commission of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to claim their properties back if they have any such rights.
Bilal Aga Mosque, constructed in 1821 and taken out of service in 1974, was re-opened on 23 July 2021.
In response to a decision by the government of Turkish Cyprus, the presidential statement of the United Nations Security Council dated on 23 July said that settling any part of the abandoned Cypriot suburb of Varosha, "by people other than its inhabitants, is 'inadmissible'." The same day, Turkey rejected the presidential statement of the UNSC on Maras (Varosha), and said that these statements were based on Greek-Greek Cypriot propaganda, were groundless and unfounded claims, and inconsistent with the realities on the Island. On 24 July 2021, the presidency of Northern Cyprus condemned the presidential statement of the UNSC dated on 23 July, and stated that "We see and condemn it as an attempt to create an obstacle for the property-rights-holders in Varosha to achieve their rights".
By 1 January 2022, nearly 400,000 people had visited Varosha since its opening to civilians on 6 October 2020.
On 19 May 2022, Northern Cyprus opened a 600m long X 400m wide stretch of beach on the Golden Sands beach (from the King George Hotel to the Oceania Building) in Varosha for commercial use. Sun beds and umbrellas were installed.
UNFICYP said it would raise the decision taken by Turkish Cypriot authorities to open that stretch of beach in Varosha with the Security Council, spokesperson for the peacekeeping force Aleem Siddique said on Friday. The UN announced its "position on Varosha is unchanged and we are monitoring the situation closely".
In October 2022, the Turkish Cypriots announced that public institutions will be opened in the city.
In April 2023, Cleo Hotel, the 7-floor Golden Seaside Hotel, and the 3-star Aegean Hotel were purchased by a Turkish Cypriot businessman (from their Greek Cypriot owners) who will operate them within 2025.
On 10 August 2023, the Government of Northern Cyprus decided to construct a marina and tourist facility in Varosha.
Varosha was analyzed by Alan Weisman in his book The World Without Us as an example of the unstoppable power of nature.
Filmmaker Greek Cypriot Michael Cacoyannis described the city and interviewed its exiled citizens in the film Attilas '74, produced in 1975.
In 2021, the Belarusian group Main-De-Gloire dedicated a song to this city that has become a ghostly place.
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".[31] 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.
Definitive book on orchestration by American composer Kent Kennan (1913 - 2003). Everything you need to know clearly explained.
Underway beneath Huangcun Pit's loading chutes is the manual positioning of empty hopper wagons.
One person per vehicle, the supervisor standing on the 2nd nearest hopper orchestrates a super effort.
'Putting your back into the job' is a far cry from a world of safe manual handling practice as we know it.
12th November 2009
a collaboration orchestrated by Mia between myself and a student of her Doodle Workshop. We responded to the word stars.
Happy Bokeh Wednesday. I can't make coffee worth beans and I miss my Coffee Boy. Morning, all you peeps!
The Beyond Broadway Experience 2016 presents
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL
Libretto by Jeff Whitty
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Inspired by the Motion Picture Bring It On Written by Jessica Bendinger
Arrangements and Orchestrations Alex Lacamoire & Tom Kitt
Presented at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh on 22nd and 23rd July 2016
The Beyond Broadway Experience 2016 presents
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL
Libretto by Jeff Whitty
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Inspired by the Motion Picture Bring It On Written by Jessica Bendinger
Arrangements and Orchestrations Alex Lacamoire & Tom Kitt
Presented at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh on 22nd and 23rd July 2016
♫♫ Final Fantasy 7 - Cosmo Canyon (Orchestrated) ♫♫
Cerro del Hierro, Constantina, Sevilla, España
Kedada El Pedroso y Constantina-Cerro del Hierro
Filtro Creativo Cokin degradado Azul P123.
21st Century Voter Suppression orchestrated by ALEC.
The American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, brings together corporations and legislators to write legislation prior to submitting it to local legislative bodies across the United States. This technique is being used to produce legislation that benefits corporate interests over the interests of local residents. You see these laws causing political chaos in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and many other states. One of the ALEX projects includes efforts to limit voter participation by various means and thus drive down Democratic votes. These activities disenfranchise voters through Voter ID requirements, restricting college student voting, disenfranchising persons with prison records, manipulating the voting process and more. These laws have a greater impact on minorities, the elderly and the poor.
According to SourceWatch, ALEC has received funding from Koch Industries, Big Oil, Big Pharma, the Scaife family Allegheny Foundation, the Coors family Castle Rock Foundation, and more.
Read more about ALEC via Google.
Wikipedia: "The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly 'separate but equal' status for black Americans." "Between 1890 and 1910, ten of the eleven former Confederate states, starting with Mississippi, passed new constitutions or amendments that effectively disfranchised most blacks and tens of thousands of poor whites through a combination of poll taxes, literacy and comprehension tests, and residency and record-keeping requirements."
Willard Mitt Romney, aka Mitt Romney, is a former Governor of Massachusetts and a perenial Republican presidential candidate. He is the Republican presidential candidate for 2012. Romney was Co-founder and former CEO of Bain Capital.
Paul Davis Ryan, Jr., aka Paul Ryan, is the U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district and was selected by Mitt Romney to be his Vice Presidential running mate.
The source image for this caricature of Mitt Romney is a Creative Commons licensed photos from Gage Skidmore's Flickr photostream.
The source image for this caricature of Paul Ryan is a Creative Commons licensed photo from Gage Skidmore's Flickr photostream. The source image for Ryan's body is a photo in the public domain available via Wikimedia.
The stump is from a "Jim Crow" illustration available via the Library of Congress. The source for the Crow is a Creative Commons licensed photo of a Raven from the Grand Canyon NPS Flickr Photostream.
The Beyond Broadway Experience 2016 presents
BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL
Libretto by Jeff Whitty
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda
Inspired by the Motion Picture Bring It On Written by Jessica Bendinger
Arrangements and Orchestrations Alex Lacamoire & Tom Kitt
Presented at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh on 22nd and 23rd July 2016