title: Istanbul

text: The first film screening in Turkey was at Yıldız Palace in 1896, a year after the technology publicly debuted in Paris. Movie theaters rapidly cropped up in Beyoğlu, with the greatest concentration of theaters being along the street now known as İstiklal Avenue. Istanbul also became the heart of Turkey's nascent film industry, although Turkish films were not consistently developed until the 1950s. Since then, Istanbul has been the most popular location to film Turkish dramas and comedies. The Turkish film industry ramped up in the second half of the century, and with "Uzak" (2002) and "My Father and My Son" (2005), both filmed in Istanbul, the nation's movies began to see substantial international success. Istanbul and its picturesque skyline have also served as a backdrop for several foreign films, including "From Russia with Love" (1963), "Topkapi" (1964), "The World Is Not Enough" (1999), and "Mission Istaanbul" (2008).


title: Istanbul

text: Coinciding with this cultural reemergence was the establishment of the Istanbul Festival, which began showcasing a variety of art from Turkey and around the world in 1973. From this flagship festival came the International Istanbul Film Festival and the Istanbul Jazz Festival in the early 1980s. With its focus now solely on music and dance, the Istanbul Festival has been known as the Istanbul International Music Festival since 1994. The most prominent of the festivals that evolved from the original Istanbul Festival is the Istanbul Biennial, held every two years since 1987. Its early incarnations were aimed at showcasing Turkish visual art, and it has since opened to international artists and risen in prestige to join the elite biennales, alongside the Venice Biennale and the São Paulo Art Biennial.


title: Istanbul

text: Abdi İpekçi Street in Nişantaşı, Galataport Shopping Area in Karaköy and Bağdat Avenue on the Anatolian side of the city have evolved into high-end shopping districts. Other focal points for shopping, leisure and entertainment include Nişantaşı, Ortaköy, Bebek and Kadıköy. The city has numerous shopping centers, from the historic to the modern. Istanbul also has an active nightlife and historic taverns, a signature characteristic of the city for centuries, if not millennia.


title: Istanbul

text: The Grand Bazaar, in operation since 1461, is among the world's oldest and largest covered markets. Mahmutpasha Bazaar is an open-air market extending between the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar, which has been Istanbul's major spice market since 1660.


title: Istanbul

text: Galleria Ataköy ushered in the age of modern shopping malls in Turkey when it opened in 1987. Since then, malls have become major shopping centers outside the historic peninsula. Akmerkez was awarded the titles of "Europe's best" and "World's best" shopping mall by the International Council of Shopping Centers in 1995 and 1996; Istanbul Cevahir has been one of the continent's largest since opening in 2005; Kanyon won the Cityscape Architectural Review Award in the Commercial Built category in 2006.


title: Istanbul

text: İstinye Park in İstinye and Zorlu Center near Levent are among the newest malls which include the stores of the world's top fashion brands.


title: Istanbul

text: Along İstiklal Avenue is the Çiçek Pasajı (Flower Passage), a 19th-century shopping gallery which is today home to winehouses (known as "meyhanes"), pubs and restaurants. İstiklal Avenue, originally known for its taverns, has shifted toward shopping, but the nearby Nevizade Street is still lined with winehouses and pubs. Some other neighborhoods around İstiklal Avenue have been revamped to cater to Beyoğlu's nightlife, with formerly commercial streets now lined with pubs, cafes, and restaurants playing live music.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul is known for its historic seafood restaurants. Many of the city's most popular and upscale seafood restaurants line the shores of the Bosporus (particularly in neighborhoods like Ortaköy, Bebek, Arnavutköy, Yeniköy, Beylerbeyi and Çengelköy). Kumkapı along the Sea of Marmara has a pedestrian zone that hosts around fifty fish restaurants.


title: Istanbul

text: The Princes' Islands, from the city center, are also popular for their seafood restaurants. Because of their restaurants, historic summer mansions, and tranquil, car-free streets, the Prince Islands are a popular vacation destination among Istanbulites and foreign tourists.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul is also famous for its sophisticated and elaborately-cooked dishes of the Ottoman cuisine. Following the influx of immigrants from southeastern and eastern Turkey, which began in the 1960s, the city's foodscape has drastically changed by the end of the century; with influences of Middle Eastern cuisine such as kebab taking an important place in the food scene.


title: Istanbul

text: Restaurants featuring foreign cuisines are mainly concentrated in the Beyoğlu, Beşiktaş, Şişli and Kadıköy districts.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul Pride is held for the first time in 2003. Turkey became the first Muslim-majority country to held a gay pride march. It was also the first gay pride in Middle East and Balkans.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul is home to some of Turkey's oldest sports clubs. Beşiktaş JK, established in 1903, is considered the oldest of these sports clubs. Due to its initial status as Turkey's only club, Beşiktaş occasionally represented the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic in international sports competitions, earning the right to place the Turkish flag inside its team logo. Galatasaray SK and Fenerbahçe SK have fared better in international competitions and have won more Süper Lig titles, at 22 and 19 times, respectively. Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe have a long-standing rivalry, with Galatasaray based in the European part and Fenerbahçe based in the Anatolian part of the city. Istanbul has seven basketball teams—Anadolu Efes, Beşiktaş, Darüşşafaka, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor and Büyükçekmece—that play in the premier-level Turkish Basketball Super League.


title: Istanbul

text: Many of Istanbul's sports facilities have been built or upgraded since 2000 to bolster the city's bids for the Summer Olympic Games. Atatürk Olympic Stadium, the largest multi-purpose stadium in Turkey, was completed in 2002 as an IAAF first-class venue for track and field. The stadium hosted the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final, and was selected by the UEFA to host the CL Final games of 2020 and 2021, which were relocated to Lisbon (2020) and Porto (2021) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, Fenerbahçe's home field, hosted the 2009 UEFA Cup Final three years after its completion. Türk Telekom Arena opened in 2011 to replace Ali Sami Yen Stadium as Galatasaray's home turf, while Vodafone Park, opened in 2016 to replace BJK İnönü Stadium as the home turf of Beşiktaş, hosted the 2019 UEFA Super Cup game. All four stadiums are elite Category 4 (formerly five-star) UEFA stadiums.


title: Istanbul

text: The Sinan Erdem Dome, among the largest indoor arenas in Europe, hosted the final of the 2010 FIBA World Championship, the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships, as well as the 2011–12 Euroleague and 2016–17 EuroLeague Final Fours. Prior to the completion of the Sinan Erdem Dome in 2010, Abdi İpekçi Arena was Istanbul's primary indoor arena, having hosted the finals of EuroBasket 2001. Several other indoor arenas, including the Beşiktaş Akatlar Arena, have also been inaugurated since 2000, serving as the home courts of Istanbul's sports clubs. The most recent of these is the 13,800-seat Ülker Sports Arena, which opened in 2012 as the home court of Fenerbahçe's basketball teams. Despite the construction boom, five bids for the Summer Olympics—in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2020—and national bids for UEFA Euro 2012 and UEFA Euro 2016 have ended unsuccessfully.


title: Istanbul

text: The TVF Burhan Felek Sport Hall is one of the major volleyball arenas in the city and hosts clubs such as Eczacıbaşı VitrA, Vakıfbank SK, and Fenerbahçe who have won numerous European and World Championship titles.


title: Istanbul

text: Between the 2005–2011 seasons, and in the 2020 season, Istanbul Park racing circuit hosted the Formula One Turkish Grand Prix. The 2021 F1 Turkish Grand Prix was initially cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but on 25 June 2021, it was announced that the 2021 F1 Turkish Grand Prix will take place on 3 October 2021. Istanbul Park was also a venue of the World Touring Car Championship and the European Le Mans Series in 2005 and 2006, but the track has not seen either of these competitions since then. It also hosted the Turkish Motorcycle Grand Prix between 2005 and 2007. Istanbul was occasionally a venue of the F1 Powerboat World Championship, with the last race on the Bosporus strait on 12–13 August 2000. The last race of the Powerboat P1 World Championship on the Bosporus took place on 19–21 June 2009. Istanbul Sailing Club, established in 1952, hosts races and other sailing events on the waterways in and around Istanbul each year.


title: Istanbul

text: Most state-run radio and television stations are based in Ankara, but Istanbul is the primary hub of Turkish media. The industry has its roots in the former Ottoman capital, where the first Turkish newspaper, "Takvim-i Vekayi" (Calendar of Affairs), was published in 1831. The Cağaloğlu street on which the newspaper was printed, Bâb-ı Âli Street, rapidly became the center of Turkish print media, alongside Beyoğlu across the Golden Horn.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul now has a wide variety of periodicals. Most nationwide newspapers are based in Istanbul, with simultaneous Ankara and İzmir editions. "Hürriyet", "Sabah", "Posta" and "Sözcü", the country's top four papers, are all headquartered in Istanbul, boasting more than 275,000 weekly sales each. "Hürriyet"s English-language edition, "Hürriyet Daily News", has been printed since 1961, but the English-language "Daily Sabah", first published by "Sabah" in 2014, has overtaken it in circulation. Several smaller newspapers, including popular publications like "Cumhuriyet", "Milliyet" and "Habertürk" are also based in Istanbul. Istanbul also has long-running Armenian language newspapers, notably the dailies "Marmara" and "Jamanak" and the bilingual weekly "Agos" in Armenian and Turkish.


title: Istanbul

text: Radio broadcasts in Istanbul date back to 1927, when Turkey's first radio transmission came from atop the Central Post Office in Eminönü. Control of this transmission, and other radio stations established in the following decades, ultimately came under the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), which held a monopoly on radio and television broadcasts between its founding in 1964 and 1990. Today, TRT runs four national radio stations; these stations have transmitters across the country so each can reach over of the country's population, but only is based in Istanbul. Offering a range of content from educational programming to coverage of sporting events, is the most popular radio station in Turkey. Istanbul's airwaves are the busiest in Turkey, primarily featuring either Turkish-language or English-language content. One of the exceptions, offering both, is Açık Radyo (94.9 FM). Among Turkey's first private stations, and the first featuring foreign popular music, was Istanbul's Metro FM (97.2 FM). The state-run , although based in Ankara, also features English-language popular music, and English-language news programming is provided on NTV Radyo (102.8 FM).


title: Istanbul

text: TRT-Children is the only TRT television station based in Istanbul. Istanbul is home to the headquarters of several Turkish stations and regional headquarters of international media outlets. Istanbul-based Star TV was the first private television network to be established following the end of the TRT monopoly; Star TV and Show TV (also based in Istanbul) remain highly popular throughout the country, airing Turkish and American series. Kanal D and ATV are other stations in Istanbul that offer a mix of news and series; NTV (partnered with U.S. media outlet MSNBC) and Sky Turk—both based in the city—are mainly just known for their news coverage in Turkish. The BBC has a regional office in Istanbul, assisting its Turkish-language news operations, and the American news channel CNN established the Turkish-language CNN Türk there in 1999.


title: Istanbul

text: In 2015, more than 57,000 students attended 7,934 schools, including the renowned Galatasaray High School, Kabataş Erkek Lisesi, and Istanbul Lisesi. Galatasaray High School was established in 1481 and is the oldest public high school in Turkey.


title: Istanbul

text: Some of the most renowned and highly ranked universities in Turkey are in Istanbul. Istanbul University, the nation's oldest institute of higher education, dates back to 1453 and its dental, law, medical schools were founded in the 19th century.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul has more than 93 colleges and universities, with 400,000 students enrolled in 2016. The city's largest private universities include Sabancı University, with its main campus in Tuzla, Koç University in Sarıyer, Özyeğin Üniversitesi near Altunizade. Istanbul's first private university, Koç University, was founded as late as 1992, because private universities were not allowed in Turkey before the 1982 amendment to the constitution.


title: Istanbul

text: Public universities with a major presence in the city, such as Istanbul University, Istanbul Technical University (the world's third-oldest university dedicated entirely to engineering, established in 1773), and Boğaziçi University (formerly the higher education section of Robert College until 1971) provide education in English as the primary foreign language, while the primary foreign language of education at Galatasaray University is French (as is the case at Galatasaray High School).


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul is also home to several conservatories and art schools, including Mimar Sinan Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1882.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul's first water supply systems date back to the city's early history, when aqueducts (such as the Valens Aqueduct) deposited the water in the city's numerous cisterns. At the behest of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Kırkçeşme water supply network was constructed; by 1563, the network provided of water to each day. In later years, in response to increasing public demand, water from various springs was channeled to public fountains, like the Fountain of Ahmed III, by means of supply lines. Today, Istanbul has a chlorinated and filtered water supply and a sewage treatment system managed by the Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration (İstanbul Su ve Kanalizasyon İdaresi, İSKİ).


title: Istanbul

text: The Silahtarağa Power Station, a coal-fired power plant along the Golden Horn, was the sole source of Istanbul's electricity between 1914, when its first engine room was completed, and 1952. Following the founding of the Turkish Republic, the plant underwent renovations to accommodate the city's increasing demand; its capacity grew from in 1923 to a peak of in 1956. Capacity declined until the power station reached the end of its economic life and shut down in 1983. The state-run Turkish Electrical Authority (TEK) briefly—between its founding in 1970 and 1984—held a monopoly on the generation and distribution of electricity, but now the authority—since split between the Turkish Electricity Generation Transmission Company (TEAŞ) and the Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAŞ)—competes with private electric utilities.


title: Istanbul

text: The Ottoman Ministry of Post and Telegraph was established in 1840 and the first post office, the Imperial Post Office, opened near the courtyard of Yeni Mosque. By 1876, the first international mailing network between Istanbul and the lands beyond the Ottoman Empire had been established. Sultan Abdülmecid I issued Samuel Morse his first official honor for the telegraph in 1847, and construction of the first telegraph line—between Istanbul and Edirne—finished in time to announce the end of the Crimean War in 1856.


title: Istanbul

text: A nascent telephone system began to emerge in Istanbul in 1881 and after the first manual telephone exchange became operational in Istanbul in 1909, the Ministry of Post and Telegraph became the Ministry of Post, Telegraph, and Telephone. GSM cellular networks arrived in Turkey in 1994, with Istanbul among the first cities to receive the service. Today, mobile and landline service is provided by private companies, after Türk Telekom, which split from the Ministry of Post, Telegraph, and Telephone in 1995, was privatized in 2005. Postal services remain under the purview of what is now the Post and Telegraph Organization (retaining the acronym PTT).


title: Istanbul

text: In 2000, Istanbul had , of which 100 were private. Turkish citizens are entitled to subsidized healthcare in the nation's state-run hospitals. As public hospitals tend to be overcrowded or otherwise slow, private hospitals are preferable for those who can afford them. Their prevalence has increased significantly over the last decade, as the percentage of outpatients using private hospitals increased from to between 2005 and 2009. Many of these private hospitals, as well as some of the public hospitals, are equipped with high-tech equipment, including MRI machines, or associated with medical research centers. Turkey has more hospitals accredited by the U.S.-based Joint Commission than any other country in the world, with most concentrated in its big cities. The high quality of healthcare, especially in private hospitals, has contributed to a recent upsurge in medical tourism to Turkey (with a increase between 2007 and 2008). Laser eye surgery is particularly common among medical tourists, as Turkey is known for specializing in the procedure.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul's motorways network are the O-1, O-2, O-3, O-4 and O-7. The total length of Istanbul Province's toll motorways network ("otoyollar") is 543 km (2021) and the state highways network ("devlet yollari") is 353 km (2021), totaling 896 km of expressway roads (minimum 2x2 lanes), excluding secondary roads and urban streets. The density of expressway network is 16.8 km/100 km. The O-1 forms the city's inner ring road, traversing the 15 July Martyrs (First Bosphorus) Bridge, and the O-2 is the city's outer ring road, crossing the Fatih Sultan Mehmet (Second Bosphorus) Bridge. The O-2 continues west to Edirne and the O-4 continues east to Ankara. The O-2, O-3, and O-4 are part of European route E80 (the Trans-European Motorway) between Portugal and the Iran–Turkey border. In 2011, the first and second bridges on the Bosphorus carried each day. The O-7 or Kuzey Marmara Otoyolu, is a motorway that bypass Istanbul to the north. The O-7 motorway from Kinali Gişeleri to Istanbul Park Service has 139.2 km, with 8 lanes (4x4), and from Odayeri-K10 to Istanbul Atatürk Airport has 30.4 km. The completed section of highway crosses the Bosphorus Strait via the Yavuz Sultan Selim (Third Bosphorus) Bridge, entered service on 26 August 2016. The O-7 motorway connects Istanbul Atatürk Airport with Istanbul Airport. Environmentalist groups worry that the third bridge will endanger the remaining green areas to the north of Istanbul. Apart from the three Bosphorus Bridges, the dual-deck, Eurasia Tunnel (which entered service on 20 December 2016) under the Bosphorus strait also provides road crossings for motor vehicles between the Asian and European sides of Turkey. Road transport emits significant carbon dioxide, estimated at 7 million tons in 2021.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul's local public transportation system is a network of commuter trains, trams, funiculars, metro lines, buses, bus rapid transit, and ferries. Fares across modes are integrated, using the contactless Istanbulkart, introduced in 2009, or the older Akbil electronic ticket device. Trams in Istanbul date back to 1872, when they were horse-drawn, but even the first electrified trams were decommissioned in the 1960s. Operated by Istanbul Electricity, Tramway and Tunnels General Management (İETT), trams slowly returned to the city in the 1990s with the introduction of a nostalgic route and a faster modern tram line, which now carries each day. The Tünel opened in 1875 as the world's second-oldest subterranean rail line (after London's Metropolitan Railway). It still carries passengers between Karaköy and İstiklal Avenue along a steep track; a more modern funicular between Taksim Square and Kabataş began running in 2006.


title: Istanbul

text: The Istanbul Metro comprises eight lines (the M1, M2, M3, M6, M7 and M9 on the European side, and the M4 and M5 on the Asian side) with several other lines (M8, M12 and M11) and extensions under construction. The two sides of Istanbul's metro are connected under the Bosphorus by the Marmaray Tunnel, inaugurated in 2013 as the first rail connection between Thrace and Anatolia, having 13.5 km length. The Marmaray tunnel together with the suburban railways lines along the Sea of Marmara, is part of intercontinental commuter rail line in Istanbul, from Halkalı on the European side to Gebze on the Asian side. Marmaray rail line has 76.6 km, and the full line opened on 12 March 2019. Until then, buses provide transportation within and between the two-halves of the city, accommodating passenger trips each day. The Metrobus, a form of bus rapid transit, crosses the Bosphorus Bridge, with dedicated lanes leading to its termini.


title: Istanbul

text: İDO (Istanbul Seabuses) runs a combination of all-passenger ferries and car-and-passenger ferries to ports on both sides of the Bosphorus, as far north as the Black Sea. With additional destinations around the Sea of Marmara, İDO runs the largest municipal ferry operation in the world. The city's main cruise ship terminal is the Port of Istanbul in Karaköy, with a capacity of 10,000 passengers per hour. Most visitors enter Istanbul by air, but about half a million foreign tourists enter the city by sea each year.


title: Istanbul

text: International rail service from Istanbul launched in 1889, with a line between Bucharest and Istanbul's Sirkeci Terminal, which ultimately became famous as the eastern terminus of the Orient Express from Paris. Regular service to Bucharest and Thessaloniki continued until the early 2010s, when the former was interrupted for Marmaray construction but started running again in 2019 and the latter was halted due to economic problems in Greece. After Istanbul's Haydarpaşa Terminal opened in 1908, it served as the western terminus of the Baghdad Railway and an extension of the Hejaz Railway; today, neither service is offered directly from Istanbul. Service to Ankara and other points across Turkey is normally offered by Turkish State Railways, but the construction of Marmaray and the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed line forced the station to close in 2012. New stations to replace both the Haydarpaşa and Sirkeci terminals, and connect the city's disjointed railway networks, now the Marmaray second phase opened to the public. Private bus companies still operation to this day. Istanbul's main bus station is the largest in Europe, with a daily capacity of and , serving destinations as distant as Frankfurt.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul had three large international airports, two of which currently serve commercial passenger flights. The largest is the new Istanbul Airport, opened in 2018 in the Arnavutköy district to the northwest of the city center, on the European side, near the Black Sea coast.


title: Istanbul

text: All scheduled commercial passenger flights were transferred from Istanbul Atatürk Airport to Istanbul Airport on 6 April 2019, following the closure of Istanbul Atatürk Airport for scheduled passenger flights. The IATA airport code IST was also transferred to the new airport. Once all phases are completed in 2025, the airport will have six sets of runways (eight in total), 16 taxiways, and will be able to accommodate 200 million passengers a year. The transfer from the airport to the city is via the O-7, and it will eventually be linked by two lines of the Istanbul Metro.


title: Istanbul

text: Sabiha Gökçen International, southeast of the city center, on the Asian side, was opened in 2001 to relieve Atatürk. Dominated by low-cost carriers, Istanbul's second airport has rapidly become popular, especially since the opening of a new international terminal in 2009; the airport handled passengers in 2012, a year after Airports Council International named it the world's fastest-growing airport. Atatürk had also experienced rapid growth, as its rise in passenger traffic between 2011 and 2012 was the highest among the world's top 30 airports.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul Atatürk Airport, located west of the city center, on the European side, near the Marmara Sea coast, was formerly the city's largest airport. After its closure to commercial flights in 2019, it was briefly used by cargo aircraft and the official state aircraft owned by the Turkish government, until the demolition of its runway began in 2020. It handled passengers in 2015, which made it the third-busiest airport in Europe and the 18th-busiest in the world in that year.


title: Istanbul

text: The natural vegetation cover of the Bosporus region is made up of temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and pseudo-maquis'. Chestnut, oak, elm, linden, ash and locust comprises the most prominent tree genera. The most important species belonging to maquis formation are laurel, terebinth, "Cercis siliquastrum", broom, red firethorn, and oak species such as "Quercus cerris" and "Quercus coccifera". Apart from the natural flora "Platanus orentalis", horse chestnut, cypress and stone pine make up the introduced species that got acclimatized to Istanbul. In a study that examined urban flora in Kartal, a total of 576 plant taxa were recorded; of those 477 were natural and 99 were exotic and cultivated. The most native taxa were in the Asteraceae family (50 species), while the most diverse exotic plant family was Rosaceae (16 species).


title: Istanbul

text: Turkish Straits and Sea of Marmara play a vital role for migrating fish and other marine animals between Mediterranean, Marmara and Black Sea. Bosporus hosts pelagic, demersal and semipelagic fish species and more than 130 different taxa have been documented in the strait. Bluefish, bonito, sea bass, horse mackerel and anchovies composes the economically important species. Fish diversity in the waters of Istanbul has dwindled in the recent decades. From around 60 different fish species recorded in the 1970s only 20 of them still survive in the Bosporus.Common bottlenose dolphin (Turkish: "afalina"), short-beaked common dolphin (Turkish: "tırtak") and harbor porpoise (Turkish: "mutur") make up the marine mammals presently found in the Bosporus and surrounding waters, though since the 1950s the number of dolphin observations has become increasingly rare. Mediterranean monk seals were present in Bosporus, and Princes' Islands and Tuzla shores were seal breeding areas during summer, but they have not been observed in Istanbul since the 1960s and thought to be extinct in the region. Water pollution, overfishing and destruction of coastal habitats caused by urbanization are main threats to Istanbul's marine ecology.


title: Istanbul

text: Wild land mammals are mainly concentrated in the northern forested areas of Istanbul. Roe deer, wild boars, foxes, coyotes, martens, badgers, wolves, weasels, wildcats, squirrels and reed cats have been documented to live inside the boundaries of Istanbul Province. Apart from the wild land mammals Istanbul hosts a sizeable stray animal population. The presence of feral cats in Istanbul (Turkish: "sokak kedisi") is noted to be very prevalent, with estimates ranging from a hundred thousand to over a million stray cats. The feral cats in the city have gained widespread media and public attention and are considered to be symbols of the city. Rose-ringed parakeet colonies are present in urban areas, similar to other European cities as feral parrots, and considered as invasive species.


title: Istanbul

text: Air pollution in Turkey is acute in İstanbul with cars, buses and taxis causing frequent urban smog, as it is one of the few European cities without a low-emission zone. the city's mean air quality remains of a level so as to affect the heart and lungs of healthy street bystanders during peak traffic hours, and almost 200 days of pollution were measured by the air pollution sensors at Sultangazi, Mecidiyeköy, Alibeyköy and Kağıthane. It is one of the 10 worst cities for NO2.


title: Istanbul

text: Algal blooms and red tides were reported in Sea of Marmara and Bosporus (especially in Golden Horn), and regularly happen in urban lakes such as Lake Büyükçekmece and Küçükçekmece. In June 2021 a marine mucilage wave allegedly caused by water pollution spread to Sea of Marmara.


title: Crimea

text: Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a population of 2.4 million. The peninsula is almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. To the east, the Crimean Bridge, constructed in 2018, spans the Strait of Kerch, linking the peninsula with Krasnodar Krai in Russia. The Arabat Spit, located to the northeast, is a narrow strip of land that separates the Sivash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey.


title: Crimea

text: Crimea (called the Tauric Peninsula until the early modern period) has historically been at the boundary between the classical world and the steppe. Greeks colonized its southern fringe and were absorbed by the Roman and Byzantine Empires and successor states while remaining culturally Greek. Some cities became trading colonies of Genoa, until conquered by the Ottoman Empire. Throughout this time the interior was occupied by a changing cast of steppe nomads. In the 14th century it became part of the Golden Horde; the Crimean Khanate emerged as a successor state. In the 15th century, the Khanate became a dependency of the Ottoman Empire. Russia was often the target of slave raids during this period. In 1783, the Russian Empire annexed Crimea after an earlier war with Turkey. Crimea's strategic position led to the 1854 Crimean War and many short lived regimes following the 1917 Russian Revolution. When the Bolsheviks secured Crimea it became an autonomous soviet republic within Russia. During World War II, Crimea was downgraded to an oblast. In 1944 Crimean Tatars were ethnically cleansed and deported under the orders of Joseph Stalin, in what has been described as a cultural genocide. The USSR transferred Crimea to Ukraine on the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Treaty in 1954.


title: Crimea

text: After Ukrainian independence in 1991 the central government and Crimea clashed, with the region being granted more autonomy. The Soviet fleet in Crimea was also in contention but a 1997 treaty allowed Russia to continue basing its fleet in Sevastopol. In 2014, the Russians occupied the peninsula and organized an illegal referendum in support of Russian annexation, but most countries recognize Crimea as Ukrainian territory.


title: Crimea

text: The classical name for Crimea, "Tauris" or "Taurica", is from the Greek Ταυρική ("Taurikḗ"), after the peninsula's Scytho-Cimmerian inhabitants, the Tauri. Today, the Crimean Tatar name of the peninsula is "Qırım", while the Russian is Крым ("Krym"), and the Ukrainian is Крим ("Krym").


title: Crimea

text: Strabo ("Geography" vii 4.3, xi. 2.5), Polybius, ("Histories" 4.39.4), and Ptolemy ("Geographia". II, v 9.5) refer variously to the Strait of Kerch as the Κιμμερικὸς Βόσπορος ("Kimmerikos Bosporos", romanized spelling, "Bosporus Cimmerius"), its easternmost part as the Κιμμέριον Ἄκρον ("Kimmerion Akron", Roman name: Promontorium Cimmerium), as well as to the city of Cimmerium and thence the name of the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Κιμμερικοῦ Βοσπόρου).


title: Crimea

text: The city "Staryi Krym" ('Old Crimea'), served as a capital of the Crimean province of the Golden Horde. Between 1315 and 1329 CE, the Arab writer Abū al-Fidā recounted a political fight in 1300–1301 CE which resulted in a rival's decapitation and his head being sent "to the Crimea", apparently in reference to the peninsula, although some sources hold that the name of the capital was extended to the entire peninsula at some point during Ottoman suzerainty (1441–1783).


title: Crimea

text: Other suggestions either unsupported or contradicted by sources, apparently based on similarity in sound, include:


title: Crimea

text: The spelling "Crimea" is the Italian form, i.e., "la Crimea", since at least the 17th century and the "Crimean peninsula" becomes current during the 18th century, gradually replacing the classical name of "Tauric Peninsula" in the course of the 19th century. In English usage since the early modern period the Crimean Khanate is referred to as "Crim Tartary".


title: Crimea

text: The omission of the definite article in English ("Crimea" rather than "the Crimea") became common during the later 20th century.


title: Crimea

text: The classical name was used in 1802 in the name of the Russian Taurida Governorate. While it was replaced with "Krym" (; ) in the Soviet Union and has had no official status since 1921, it is still used by some institutions in Crimea, such as the Taurida National University, the Tavriya Simferopol football club, or the Tavrida federal highway.


title: Crimea

text: The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula begins around the fifth century BCE when several Greek colonies were established along its coast, the most important of which was Chersonesos near modern-day Sevastopol, with Scythians and Tauri in the hinterland to the north. The Tauri gave the name the Tauric Peninsula which Crimea was called into the early modern period. The southern coast gradually consolidated into the Bosporan Kingdom which was annexed by Pontus and then became a client kingdom of Rome from 63 BCE to 341 CE.


title: Crimea

text: The south coast remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years including under Roman successor states, the Byzantine Empire (341–1204 CE), the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461 CE), and the independent Principality of Theodoro (ended 1475 CE). In the 13th century, some Crimean port cities were controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese, but the interior was much less stable, enduring a long series of conquests and invasions. In the medieval period, it was partially conquered by Kievan Rus' whose prince was baptized at Sevastopol starting the Christianization of Kievan Rus'.


title: Crimea

text: The north and centre of Crimea fell to the Mongol Golden Horde, although the south coast was still controlled by the Christian Principality of Theodoro and Genoese colonies. The Genoese–Mongol Wars were fought between the 13th and 15th centuries for control of south Crimea.


title: Crimea

text: In the 1440s the Crimean Khanate formed out of the collapse of the horde but quite rapidly itself became subject to the Ottoman Empire, which also conquered the coastal areas which had kept independent of the Khanate. A major source of prosperity in these times were frequents raids into Russia for slaves.


title: Crimea

text: In 1774, the Ottoman Empire was defeated by Catherine the Great with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca making the Tatars of the Crimea politically independent. Catherine the Great's incorporation of the Crimea in 1783 into the Russian Empire increased Russia's power in the Black Sea area.


title: Crimea

text: From 1853 to 1856, the strategic position of the peninsula in controlling the Black Sea meant that it was the site of the principal engagements of the Crimean War, where Russia lost to a French-led alliance.


title: Crimea

text: During the Russian Civil War, Crimea changed hands many times and was where Wrangel's anti-Bolshevik White Army made their last stand. Many anti-Communist fighters and civilians escaped to Istanbul but up to 150,000 were killed in Crimea.


title: Crimea

text: In 1921 the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created as part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.<ref name="blacksea-crimea/hist"></ref> It was occupied by Germany from 1942 to 1944 during the Second World War. After the Soviets regained control in 1944, they deported the Crimean Tartars and several other nationalities to elsewhere in the USSR. The autonomous republic was dissolved in 1945, and Crimea became an oblast of the Russian SFSR. It was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954, on the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav.


title: Crimea

text: With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence in 1991 most of the peninsula was reorganized as the Republic of Crimea, although in 1995 the Republic was forcibly abolished by Ukraine with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea established firmly under Ukrainian authority. A 1997 treaty partitioned the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, allowing Russia to continue basing its fleet in Sevastopol, with the lease extended in 2010.


title: Crimea

text: In 2014, Crimea saw intense demonstrations against the removal of the Russia-leaning Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in Kyiv. Protests culminated in Russian forces occupying strategic points in Crimea and the Russian-organized Republic of Crimea declared independence from Ukraine following an illegal and internationally unrecognized referendum supporting reunification. Russia then claimed to have annexed Crimea, although most countries still recognize Crimea as part of Ukraine.


title: Crimea

text: Covering an area of , Crimea is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea and on the western coast of the Sea of Azov; the only land border is shared with Ukraine's Kherson Oblast on the north. Crimea is almost an island and only connected to the continent by the Isthmus of Perekop, a strip of land about wide.


title: Crimea

text: Much of the natural border between the Crimean Peninsula and the Ukrainian mainland comprises the Sivash or "Rotten Sea", a large system of shallow lagoons stretching along the western shore of the Sea of Azov. Besides the isthmus of Perekop, the peninsula is connected to the Kherson Oblast's Henichesk Raion by bridges over the narrow Chonhar and Henichesk straits and over Kerch Strait to the Krasnodar Krai. The northern part of Arabat Spit is administratively part of Henichesk Raion in Kherson Oblast, including its two rural communities of Shchaslyvtseve and Strilkove. The eastern tip of the Crimean peninsula comprises the Kerch Peninsula, separated from Taman Peninsula on the Russian mainland by the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, at a width of between .


title: Crimea

text: West: The Isthmus of Perekop /Perekop/Or Qapi, about wide, connects Crimea to the mainland. It was often fortified and sometimes garrisoned by the Turks. The North Crimean Canal now crosses it to bring water from the Dnieper. To the west Karkinit Bay separates the Tarkhankut Peninsula from the mainland. On the north side of the peninsula is Chernomorskoe/Kalos Limen. On the south side is the large Donuzlav Bay and the port and ancient Greek settlement of Yevpatoria/Kerkinitis/Gözleve. The coast then runs south to Sevastopol/Chersonesus, a good natural harbor, great naval base and the largest city on the peninsula. At the head of Sevastopol Bay stands Inkermann/Kalamita. South of Sevastopol is the small Heracles Peninsula.


title: Crimea

text: South: In the south, between the Crimean Mountains and the sea runs a narrow coastal strip which was held by the Genoese and (after 1475) by the Turks. Under Russian rule it became a kind of riviera. In Soviet times the many palaces were replaced with dachas and health resorts. From west to east are: Heracles Peninsula; Balaklava/Symbalon/Cembalo, a smaller natural harbor south of Sevastopol; Foros, the southernmost point; Alupka with the Vorontsov Palace (Alupka); Gaspra; Yalta; Gurzuf; Alushta. Further east is Sudak/Sougdia/Soldaia with its Genoese fort. Further east still is Theodosia/Kaffa/Feodosia, once a great slave-mart and a kind of capital for the Genoese and Turks. Unlike the other southern ports, Feodosia has no mountains to its north. At the east end of the Kerch Peninsula is Kerch/Panticapaeum, once the capital of the Bosporian Kingdom. Just south of Kerch the new Crimean Bridge (opened in 2018) connects Crimea to the Taman Peninsula.


title: Crimea

text: Sea of Azov: There is little on the south shore. The west shore is marked by the Arabat Spit. Behind it is the Syvash or "Putrid Sea", a system of lakes and marshes which in the far north extend west to the Perekop Isthmus. Road- and rail-bridges cross the northern part of Syvash.


title: Crimea

text: Interior: Most of the former capitals of Crimea stood on the north side of the mountains. Mangup/Doros (Gothic, Theodoro). Bakhchisarai (1532–1783).


title: Crimea

text: Southeast of Bakhchisarai is the cliff-fort of Chufut-Kale/Qirq Or which was used in more warlike times. Simferopol/Ak-Mechet, the modern capital. Karasu-Bazar/Bilohorsk was a commercial center. Solkhat/Staryi Krym was the old Tatar capital. Towns on the northern steppe area are all modern, notably Dzhankoi, a major road- and rail-junction.


title: Crimea

text: Rivers: The longest is the Salhyr, which rises southeast of Simferopol and flows north and northeast to the Sea of Azov. The Alma flows west to reach the Black Sea between Yevpatoria and Sevastopol. The shorter Chornaya flows west to Sevastopol Bay.


title: Crimea

text: Nearby: East of the Kerch Strait the Ancient Greeks founded colonies at Phanagoria (at the head of Taman Bay), Hermonassa (later Tmutarakan and Taman), Gorgippia (later a Turkish port and now Anapa). At the northeast point of the Sea of Azov at the mouth of the Don River were Tanais, Azak/Azov and now Rostov-on-Don. North of the peninsula the Dnieper turns westward and enters the Black Sea through the east–west Dnieper-Bug Estuary which also receives the Bug River. At the mouth of the Bug stood Olvia. At the mouth of the estuary is Ochakiv. Odessa stands where the coast turns southwest. Further southwest is Tyras/Akkerman/Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi.


title: Crimea

text: The southeast coast is flanked at a distance of from the sea by a parallel range of mountains: the Crimean Mountains. These mountains are backed by secondary parallel ranges.


title: Crimea

text: The main range of these mountains rises with extraordinary abruptness from the deep floor of the Black Sea to an altitude of , beginning at the southwest point of the peninsula, called . Some Greek myths state that this cape was supposedly crowned with the temple of Artemis where Iphigeneia officiated as priestess.


title: Crimea

text: There are 257 rivers and major streams on the Crimean peninsula; they are primarily fed by rainwater, with snowmelt playing a very minor role. This makes for significant annual fluctuation in water flow, with many streams drying up completely during the summer. The largest rivers are the Salhyr (Salğır, Салгир), the Kacha (Кача), the Alma (Альма), and the Belbek (Бельбек). Also important are the Kokozka (Kökköz or Коккозка), the Indole (Indol or Индо́л), the Chorna (Çorğun, Chernaya or Чёрная), the Derekoika (Dereköy or Дерекойка), the Karasu-Bashi (Biyuk-Karasu or Биюк-Карасу) (a tributary of the Salhyr river), the Burulcha (Бурульча) (also a tributary of the Salhyr), the Uchan-su, and the Ulu-Uzen'. The longest river of Crimea is the Salhyr at . The Belbek has the greatest average discharge at . The Alma and the Kacha are the second- and third-longest rivers.


title: Crimea

text: There are more than fifty salt lakes and salt pans on the peninsula. The largest of them is Lake Sasyk (Сасык) on the southwest coast; others include Aqtas, Koyashskoye, Kiyatskoe, Kirleutskoe, Kizil-Yar, Bakalskoe, and Donuzlav. The general trend is for the former lakes to become salt pans. Lake Syvash (Sıvaş or Сива́ш) is a system of interconnected shallow lagoons on the north-eastern coast, covering an area of around . A number of dams have created reservoirs; among the largest are the Simferopolskoye, Alminskoye, the Taygansky and the Belogorsky just south of Bilohirsk in Bilohirsk Raion. The North Crimea Canal, which transports water from the Dnieper, is the largest of the man-made irrigation channels on the peninsula.


title: Crimea

text: Seventy-five percent of the remaining area of Crimea consists of semiarid prairie lands, a southward continuation of the Pontic–Caspian steppe, which slope gently to the northwest from the foothills of the Crimean Mountains.


title: Crimea

text: Numerous kurgans, or burial mounds, of the ancient Scythians are scattered across the Crimean steppes.


title: Crimea

text: The terrain that lies south of the sheltering Crimean Mountain range is of an altogether different character. Here, the narrow strip of coast and the slopes of the mountains are smothered with greenery. This "riviera" stretches along the southeast coast from capes Fiolente and Aya, in the south, to Feodosia. It is studded with summer sea-bathing resorts such as Alupka, Yalta, Gurzuf, Alushta, Sudak, and Feodosia. During the years of Soviet rule, the resorts and dachas of this coast served as prime perquisites of the politically loyal. In addition, vineyards and fruit orchards are located in the region. Fishing, mining, and the production of essential oils are also important. Numerous Crimean Tatar villages, mosques, monasteries, and palaces of the Russian imperial family and nobles are found here, as well as picturesque ancient Greek and medieval castles.


title: Crimea

text: The Crimean Mountains and the southern coast are part of the Crimean Submediterranean forest complex ecoregion. The natural vegetation consists of scrublands, woodlands, and forests, with a climate and vegetation similar to the Mediterranean Basin.


title: Crimea

text: Crimea is located between the temperate and subtropical climate belts and is characterized by warm and sunny weather. It is characterized by diversity and the presence of microclimates. The northern parts of Crimea have a moderate continental climate with short but cold winters and moderately hot dry summers. In the central and mountainous areas the climate is transitional between the continental climate to the north and the Mediterranean climate to the south. Winters are mild at lower altitudes (in the foothills) and colder at higher altitudes. Summers are hot at lower altitudes and warm in the mountains. A subtropical, Mediterranean climate dominates the southern coastal regions, is characterized by mild winters and moderately hot, dry summers.


title: Crimea

text: The climate of Crimea is influenced by its geographic location, relief, and influences from the Black sea. The Crimean coast is shielded from cold air masses coming from the north and, as a result, has milder winters. Maritime influences from the Black Sea are restricted to coastal areas; in the interior of the peninsula the maritime influence is weak and does not play an important role. Because a high-pressure system is located north of Crimea in both summer and winter, winds predominantly come from the north and northeast year-round. In winter these winds bring in cold, dry continental air, while in summer they bring in dry and hot weather. Winds from the northwest bring warm and wet air from the Atlantic Ocean, causing precipitation during spring and summer. As well, winds from the southwest bring very warm and wet air from the subtropical latitudes of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean sea and cause precipitation during fall and winter.


title: Crimea

text: Mean annual temperatures range from in the far north (Armiansk) to in the far south (Yalta). In the mountains, the mean annual temperature is around . For every increase in altitude, temperatures decrease by while precipitation increases. In January mean temperatures range from in Armiansk to in Myskhor. Cool-season temperatures average around and it is rare for the weather to drop below freezing except in the mountains, where there is usually snow. In July mean temperatures range from in Ai-Petri to in the central parts of Crimea to in Myskhor. The frost-free period ranges from 160 to 200 days in the steppe and mountain regions to 240–260 days on the south coast.


title: Crimea

text: Precipitation in Crimea varies significantly based on location; it ranges from in Chornomorske to at the highest altitudes in the Crimean mountains. The Crimean mountains greatly influence the amount of precipitation present in the peninsula. However, most of Crimea (88.5%) receives of precipitation per year. The plains usually receive of precipitation per year, increasing to in the southern coast at sea level. The western parts of the Crimean mountains receive more than of precipitation per year. Snowfall is common in the mountains during winter.


title: Crimea

text: Most of the peninsula receives more than 2,000 sunshine hours per year; it reaches up to 2,505 sunshine hours in Karabi–Yayla in the Crimean mountains. As a result, the climate favors recreation and tourism. Because of its climate and subsidized travel-packages from Russian state-run companies, the southern Crimean coast has remained a popular resort for Russian tourists.


title: Crimea

text: The Black Sea ports of Crimea provide quick access to the Eastern Mediterranean, Balkans and Middle East. Historically, possession of the southern coast of Crimea was sought after by most empires of the greater region since antiquity (Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, Russian, British and French, Nazi German, Soviet).


title: Crimea

text: The nearby Dnieper River is a major waterway and transportation route that crosses the European continent from north to south and ultimately links the Black Sea with the Baltic Sea, of strategic importance since the historical trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. The Black Sea serves as an economic thoroughfare connecting the Caucasus region and the Caspian Sea to central and Eastern Europe.


title: Crimea

text: According to the International Transport Workers' Federation, there were at least 12 operating merchant seaports in Crimea.


title: Crimea

text: The main branches of the modern Crimean economy are agriculture and fishing oysters pearls, industry and manufacturing, tourism, and ports. Industrial plants are situated for the most part in the southern coast (Yevpatoria, Sevastopol, Feodosia, Kerch) regions of the republic, few northern (Armiansk, Krasnoperekopsk, Dzhankoi), aside from the central area, mainly Simferopol okrug and eastern region in Nizhnegorsk (few plants, same for Dzhankoj) city. Important industrial cities include Dzhankoi, housing a major railway connection, Krasnoperekopsk and Armiansk, among others.


title: Crimea

text: After the Russian annexation of Crimea in early 2014 and subsequent sanctions targeting Crimea, the tourist industry suffered major losses for two years. The flow of holidaymakers dropped 35 percent in the first half of 2014 over the same period of 2013. The number of tourist arrivals reached a record in 2012 at 6.1 million. According to the Russian administration of Crimea, they dropped to 3.8 million in 2014, and rebounded to 5.6 million by 2016.


title: Crimea

text: The most important industries in Crimea include food production, chemical fields, mechanical engineering, and metalworking, and fuel production industries. Sixty percent of the industry market belongs to food production. There are a total of 291 large industrial enterprises and 1002 small business enterprises.


title: Crimea

text: In 2014, the republic's annual GDP was $4.3 billion (500 times smaller than the size of Russia's economy). The average salary was $290 per month. The budget deficit was $1.5 billion.


title: Crimea

text: Agriculture in the region includes cereals, vegetable-growing, gardening, and wine-making, particularly in the Yalta and Massandra regions. Livestock production includes cattle breeding, poultry keeping, and sheep breeding. Other products produced on the Crimean Peninsula include salt, porphyry, limestone, and ironstone (found around Kerch) since ancient times.


title: Crimea

text: The vine mealybug ("Planococcus ficus") was first discovered here in 1868. First discovered on grape, it has also been found as a pest of some other crops and has since spread worldwide. Sunn pests—especially "Eurygaster integriceps" and "E. maura"—are significant grain pests. Scelioninae and Tachinidae are important parasitoids of sunnpest. Bark beetles are pests of tree crops, and are themselves hosts for "Elattoma" mites and various entomopathogenic fungi transmitted by those "Elattomae".


title: Crimea

text: Crimea also possesses several natural gas fields both onshore and offshore, which were starting to be drilled by western oil and gas companies before annexation. The inland fields are located in Chornomorske and Dzhankoi, while offshore fields are located in the western coast in the Black Sea and in the northeastern coast in the Azov Sea:


title: Crimea

text: The republic also possesses two oil fields: one onshore, the Serebryankse oil field in Rozdolne, and one offshore, the Subbotina oil field in the Black Sea.


title: Crimea

text: Crimea has 540 MW of its own electricity generation capacity, including the 100 MW Simferopol Thermal Power Plant, the 22 MW Sevastopol Thermal Power Plant and the 19 MW Kamish-Burunskaya Thermal Power Plant. This local electricity generation has proven insufficient for local consumption and since annexation by Russia, Crimea has been reliant on an underwater power cable to mainland Russia.


title: Crimea

text: This power production is set to be bolstered by the building of and near start up of two combined cycle gas steam turbo thermal plants PGU, both providing 470 MW (116 167 MW GT, 235 MW block), a build (plant) by TPE along others with turbines provided by Power Machines (UTZ KalugaTZ ?), NPO Saturn with Perm PMZ; either GTD-110M modified or GTE-160 or 180 units or UTZ KTZ or a V94.2 bought by MAPNA, modified in Russian plants for PGU Thermal plants specifics.


title: Crimea

text: Also many solar photovoltaic SES plants lie along the peninsula, in addition to a smaller facility north of Sevastopol. There also is the gas thermal Saky plant located close to Jodobrom chemical plant and SaKhZ(SaChP) boosted production with Perm GTE GTU25P (PS90GP25 25 MW aeroderivative GP) PGU turbogenerators. Older plants in operation include the Sevastopol TEC (close to Inkerman) which uses AEG and Ganz Elektro turbines and turbogenerators generating about 25 MW each, Sinferopol TEC (north, in Agrarne locale) Yepvatoria, Kamysh Burun TEC (Kerch south – Zaliv) and a few others.


title: Crimea

text: In May 2015, work began on a multibillion-dollar road-rail link (a pair of parallel bridges) across the Kerch Strait. The road bridge opened in May 2018, and the rail bridge opened in December 2019. With a length of 19 km, it is the longest bridge in Europe, as it overcame Vasco da Gama Bridge in Lisbon. This bridge was damaged during an attack on October 8, 2022.


title: Crimea

text: Almost every settlement in Crimea is connected with another settlement by bus lines. Crimea contains the longest (96 km or 59 mi) trolleybus route in the world, founded in 1959, stretching from Simferopol to Yalta. The trolleybus line starts near Simferopol's Railway Station (in Soviet times it started near Simferopol International Airport) through the mountains to Alushta and on to Yalta. The length of line is about 90 km and passengers are assigned a seat. Simferopol, Yalta and Alushta also have an urban and suburban trolleybus network. Trolleybuses are also operated in Sevastopol and Kerch


title: Crimea

text: In the city of Yevpatoria a tram system is also operated. In the nearby townlet village of Molochnoye, a 1.6 km-long tram line provides the only connection between the sea shore and a holiday resort, but its operation is halted since 2015.


title: Crimea

text: There are two railroad lines running through Crimea: the non-electrified Armiansk—Kerch (with a link to Feodosia), and the electrified Melitopol—Simferopol-Sevastopol (with a link to Yevpatoria), connecting Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland.


title: Crimea

text: Until 2014 the network was part of the Cisdneper Directorate of the Ukrainian Railways. Long-distance trains provided connection to every major Ukrainian cities, but also to many towns of Russia, Belarus and until the end of the 2000es even to Vilnius, Riga, Warsaw and Berlin.


title: Crimea

text: Since 2014 the railways are operated by the Crimea Railway. Local trains belong to the "Yuzhnaya Prigorodnaya Passazhirskaya Kompaniya" (Southern Suburban Passenger Company), serving the entire network of the peninsula and via the Crimean Bridge three trains daily to Anapa. Long-distance trains under the name "Tavriya" – operated by the company "Grand Servis Ekspress" – connect Sevastopol and Simferopol daily with Moscow and Saint Petersburg, in the summer season Yevpatoria and Feodosia are also directly connected by them. Several times a week Simferopol is also linked with Volgograd, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Omsk and even Murmansk by train.


title: Crimea

text: Further development plans consist a bypass line between Simferopol and Kerch, and a complete electrification of the network with changing the voltage of the already electrified lines from 3 kV DC to 25 kV 50 Hz AC.


title: Crimea

text: The cities of Yalta, Feodosia, Kerch, Sevastopol, Chornomorske and Yevpatoria are connected to one another by sea routes.


title: Crimea

text: The development of Crimea as a holiday destination began in the second half of the 19th century. The development of the transport networks brought masses of tourists from central parts of the Russian Empire.


title: Crimea

text: At the beginning of the 20th century, a major development of palaces, villas, and dachas began—most of which remain. These are some of the main attractions of Crimea as a tourist destination. There are many Crimean legends about famous touristic places, which attract the attention of tourists.


title: Crimea

text: A new phase of tourist development began when the Soviet government started promoting the healing quality of the local air, lakes and therapeutic muds. It became a "health" destination for Soviet workers, and hundreds of thousands of Soviet tourists visited Crimea.


title: Crimea

text: Artek is a former Young Pioneer camp on the Black Sea in the town of Hurzuf, near Ayu-Dag, established in 1925. By 1969 it had an area of , and consisted of 150 buildings. Unlike most of the young pioneer camps, Artek was an all-year camp, due to the warm climate. Artek was considered to be a privilege for Soviet children during its existence, as well as for children from other communist countries. During its heyday, 27,000 children a year vacationed at Artek. Between 1925 and 1969 the camp hosted 300,000 children. After the breaking up of the Young Pioneers in 1991 its prestige declined, though it remained a popular vacation destination.


title: Crimea

text: In the 1990s, Crimea became more of a get-away destination than a "health-improvement" destination. The most visited areas are the south shore of Crimea with cities of Yalta and Alushta, the western shore – Yevpatoria and Saky, and the south-eastern shore – Feodosia and Sudak.


title: Crimea

text: Following Russia's largely unrecognized annexation of Crimea, the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and several other countries (including Ukraine) imposed economic sanctions against Russia, including some specifically targeting Crimea. Many of these sanctions were directed at individuals—both Russian and Crimean. In general they prohibit the sale, supply, transfer, or export of goods and technology in several sectors, including services directly related to tourism and infrastructure. They list seven ports where cruise ships cannot dock. Sanctions against individuals include travel bans and asset freezes. Visa and MasterCard temporarily stopped service in Crimea in December 2014. The Russian national payment card system now allows Visa and MasterCard cards issued by Russian banks to work in Crimea. The Mir payment system operated by the Central Bank of Russia operates in Crimea as well as Master Card and Visa. However, there are no major international banks in the Crimea.


title: Crimea

text: Crimea is Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Russia; Ukraine has not relinquished title over the Crimean territory since the events of 2014, Crimea is internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. They exercise "in extremis" administration of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea from Kyiv in the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories. Ukrainian president Zelenskiy drew attention to this fact in August 2022 when he stated that it was "necessary to liberate Crimea" from Russian occupation and to re-establish "world law and order".


title: Crimea

text: , the total population of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol was 2,248,400 people (Republic of Crimea: 1,889,485, Sevastopol: 395,000). This is down from the 2001 Ukrainian Census figure, which was 2,376,000 (Autonomous Republic of Crimea: 2,033,700, Sevastopol: 342,451).


title: Crimea

text: According to the 2014 Russian census, 84% of Crimean inhabitants named Russian as their native language; 7.9% – Crimean Tatar; 3.7% – Tatar; and 3.3% – Ukrainian. It was the first official census in Crimea since a Ukrainian-held census in 2001.


title: Crimea

text: According to the 2001 census, 77% of Crimean inhabitants named Russian as their native language; 11.4% – Crimean Tatar; and 10.1% – Ukrainian. In 2013, however, the Crimean Tatar language was estimated to be on the brink of extinction, being taught in Crimea only in around 15 schools at that point. Turkey provided the greatest support to Tatars in Ukraine, which had been unable to resolve the problem of education in their mother tongue in Crimea, by bringing the schools to a modern state.


title: Crimea

text: Ethnic composition of Crimea's population has changed dramatically since the early 20th century. The 1897 Russian Empire Census for the Taurida Governorate reported: 196,854 (13.06%) Crimean Tatars, 404,463 (27.94%) Russians and 611,121 (42.21%) Ukrainians. But these numbers included Berdyansky, Dneprovsky and Melitopolsky uyezds which were on mainland, not in Crimea. The population number excluding these uyezds is given in the table below.


title: Crimea

text: Crimean Tatars, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority who in 2001 made up 12.1% of the population, formed in Crimea in the early modern era, after the Crimean Khanate had come into existence. The Crimean Tatars were forcibly expelled to Central Asia by Joseph Stalin's government as a form of collective punishment, on the grounds that some had joined the invading Waffen-SS, forming Tatar Legions, during World War II. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Crimean Tatars began to return to the region. According to the 2001 Ukrainian population census, 60% of the population of Crimea are ethnic Russians and 24% are ethnic Ukrainians.


title: Crimea

text: Jews in Crimea were historically Krymchaks and Karaites (the latter a small group centered at Yevpatoria). The 1879 census for the Taurida Governorate reported a Jewish population of 4.20%, not including a Karaite population of 0.43%.


title: Crimea

text: The number of Crimea Germans was 60,000 in 1939. During WWII, they were forcibly deported on the orders of Stalin, as they were regarded as a potential "fifth column". This was part of the 800,000 Germans in Russia who were relocated within the Soviet Union during Stalinist times. The 2001 Ukrainian census reports just 2,500 ethnic Germans (0.1% of population) in Crimea.


title: Crimea

text: Besides the Crimean Germans, Stalin in 1944 also deported 70,000 Greeks, 14,000 Bulgarians and 3,000 Italians.


title: Crimea

text: In 2013, Orthodox Christians made up 58% of the Crimean population, followed by Muslims (15%) and believers in God without religion (10%).


title: Crimea

text: Following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, 38 out of the 46 Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate parishes in Crimea ceased to exist; in three cases, churches were seized by the Russian authorities. Notwithstanding the annexation, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) kept control of its eparchies in Crimea.


title: Crimea

text: Alexander Pushkin visited Bakhchysarai in 1820 and later wrote the poem The Fountain of Bakhchisaray. Crimea was the background for Adam Mickiewicz's seminal work, The Crimean Sonnets inspired by his 1825 travel. A series of 18 sonnets constitute an artistic telling of a journey to and through the Crimea, they feature romantic descriptions of the oriental nature and culture of the East which show the despair of an exile longing for the homeland, driven from his home by a violent enemy.


title: Crimea

text: Ivan Aivazovsky, the 19th-century marine painter of Armenian origin, who is considered one of the major artists of his era was born in Feodosia and lived there for the most part of his life. Many of his paintings depict the Black Sea. He also created battle paintings during the Crimean War.


title: Crimea

text: Crimean Tatar singer Jamala won the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 representing Ukraine with her song "1944", about the historic deportation of Crimean Tatars in that year by Soviet authorities.


title: Crimea

text: Following Crimea's vote to join Russia and subsequent annexation in March 2014, the top football clubs withdrew from the Ukrainian leagues. Some clubs registered to join the Russian leagues but the Football Federation of Ukraine objected. UEFA ruled that Crimean clubs could not join the Russian leagues but should instead be part of a Crimean league system. The Crimean Premier League is now the top professional football league in Crimea.


title: Crimea

text: A number of Crimean-born athletes have been given permission to compete for Russia instead of Ukraine at future competitions, including Vera Rebrik, the European javelin champion. Due to Russia currently being suspended from all international athletic competitions Rebrik participates in tournaments as a "neutral" athlete.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: The Suicide Squad is a 2021 American superhero film based on the DC Comics team Suicide Squad. Produced by DC Films, Atlas Entertainment, and The Safran Company, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is a standalone sequel to "Suicide Squad" (2016) and the 10th film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). It was written and directed by James Gunn and stars an ensemble cast including Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, Michael Rooker, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, Alice Braga, and Pete Davidson. In the film, several convicts join a task force known as the "Suicide Squad" in exchange for lighter sentences. They are sent to the South American island nation of Corto Maltese to destroy all traces of the giant alien starfish Starro the Conqueror before it falls into the local government's control.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: David Ayer was set to return as director for a "Suicide Squad" sequel by March 2016, but in December he chose to work on other projects. Warner Bros. considered several replacements before hiring Gavin O'Connor in September 2017. He left due to creative differences, and Gunn was hired in October 2018 to write and direct the film after being temporarily fired by Disney and Marvel Studios as director of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" (2023). He drew inspiration from war films and John Ostrander's 1980s "Suicide Squad" comics, and explored new characters in a story separate from the first film's narrative though some cast members do return from "Suicide Squad". Filming took place from September 2019 to February 2020, primarily in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as in Colón, Panama, and Porto, Portugal. The film had the biggest sets ever built for a Warner Bros. production.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: "The Suicide Squad" premiered theatrically in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2021. It was released in the United States on August 5, simultaneously in theaters and on the streaming service HBO Max. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances, action sequences, Gunn's writing, direction, and visual style, with many deeming it a significant improvement over its predecessor. The film became the most-streamed DCEU film on HBO Max, but underperformed at the box office and only grossed $168.7 million worldwide against a production budget of $185 million, which was attributed to factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the film's availability on HBO Max, and its relationship to the first "Suicide Squad". "Peacemaker", a spin-off television series starring Cena, debuted on HBO Max in January 2022. Two other spin-off series are in development for HBO Max.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Intelligence officer Amanda Waller assembles two Task Force X teams, colloquially known as the "Suicide Squad", which comprise Belle Reve penitentiary inmates who agree to carry out a mission in exchange for shortened sentences. Sent to the South American island nation of Corto Maltese after its government is overthrown by an anti-American regime, the teams are tasked with destroying the Nazi-era laboratory Jötunheim, which houses the secret experiment "Project Starfish". One team is almost entirely wiped out by the Corto Maltese military upon landing, with only team leader Colonel Rick Flag and Harley Quinn surviving. The ambush on the first team serves as a diversion, allowing the second team to enter the country undetected. Led by assassin Bloodsport, the surviving team consists of Peacemaker, King Shark, Polka-Dot Man, and Ratcatcher 2.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Waller orders the squad to find Flag, who escaped from the military but was captured by rebel soldiers. The team find the rebel base and massacre the soldiers, only to learn that Flag had been saved by rebellion leader Sol Soria. Despite the group's actions, Soria agrees to help them infiltrate the capital where they capture Project Starfish's lead scientist, the Thinker. Harley is captured by the Corto Maltese government and taken to the new dictator, Silvio Luna, who wishes to marry her. After learning of Luna's plans to use Project Starfish, Harley kills him and escapes. She joins the others, who use the Thinker to break into Jötunheim and begin rigging it with explosives.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Flag and Ratcatcher 2 enter the Project Starfish laboratory with the Thinker and find Starro the Conqueror, a giant starfish-like alien that creates smaller versions of itself to kill people and control their bodies. The Thinker explains that Starro was brought to Earth by the U.S. government, which has secretly funded the experiments for decades using Corto Maltese citizens as test subjects. An enraged Flag decides to leak a hard drive containing evidence of this, but is killed by Peacemaker, who is under orders from Waller to cover-up the U.S.'s involvement. Meanwhile, a skirmish between the rest of the team and the military leads to Polka-Dot Man accidentally setting off the explosives prematurely. As Jötunheim crumbles, the drive falls into Ratcatcher 2's possession. Peacemaker attempts to execute her for knowing the truth about Starro, but Bloodsport shoots him and takes the drive.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Starro escapes the destroyed Jötunheim, brutally kills the Thinker and much of the military, and begins taking control of the island's population. Waller tells the squad that their mission is complete and orders them to leave, but Bloodsport decides to lead the team in fighting Starro; Waller attempts to execute them for this, but her subordinates knock her out. After Starro kills Polka-Dot Man, Harley pierces a hole in its eye, allowing Ratcatcher 2 to summon the city's rats to chew Starro to death from the inside. With the military diverted, Soria takes control of the government and pledges democratic elections. Bloodsport forces Waller to release him and the surviving squad members in exchange for keeping the contents of the drive confidential, and they are airlifted out of Corto Maltese.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: In a mid-credits scene, it is revealed that Weasel, one of the first team’s members who was believed to be dead while drowning at the shore, is still alive, having survived drowning. In a post-credits scene, Waller punishes her subordinates by assigning them to a new mission with Peacemaker, who is recovering in a hospital.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: In addition to playing King Shark on set, Steve Agee portrays John Economos, an A.R.G.U.S. agent who is an aide to Waller. Other aides to Waller include Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt and Tinashe Kajese as Flo Crawley. The ill-fated first Suicide Squad team includes Savant, Captain Boomerang, and Blackguard, as well as Nathan Fillion as Cory Pitzner / T.D.K. (The Detachable Kid), a metahuman who can detach his arms from his body; Flula Borg as Gunter Braun / Javelin, a former Olympic athlete who wields javelins as weapons; Mayling Ng as Mongal, an alien mass murderer; and Sean Gunn as Weasel, an anthropomorphic weasel whose portrayal is based on Bill the Cat from the comic strip "Bloom County". James Gunn said Weasel was "barely more than an animal" which raised some ethical questions about his involvement in the squad.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Before the first "Suicide Squad" film was released in August 2016, director David Ayer and star Will Smith were expected to return for a sequel. Filming was planned to begin in 2017 after the pair completed their work on the film "Bright" (2017). Karen Fukuhara expressed her interest in fleshing out Tatsu Yamashiro / Katana's backstory in a sequel, though she also noted that if not, that could be in a spin-off film of her own. In September, Ayer said the first film had been rated PG-13 because it had originally been envisioned that way by the studio, and an R-rating needed to be planned from the start of a production. He said that it would be worth "lobbying" to make a sequel R-rated, as he felt the first film had the "edge" and "attitude" of an R-rated film already. "Suicide Squad" was released to a polarized response and was reported to have a difficult production, but the film grossed enough for Warner Bros. Pictures to fast-track development of a sequel. Several spin-off films were also in development by December, including one featuring Smith as Deadshot. The project that was furthest along was "Gotham City Sirens", an all-female team-up film with Margot Robbie planned to reprise her role as Harley Quinn. Ayer was set to direct and produce that film rather than "Suicide Squad 2".


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Warner Bros. began searching for a new director for "Suicide Squad 2", and were courting Mel Gibson by mid-February 2017. Ruben Fleischer, Daniel Espinosa, Jonathan Levine, and David S. Goyer were also considered. Adam Cozad entered negotiations to write the film a month later, at which point there was still no director attached to the project. It was described as being a priority for Warner Bros. Script delays led to the planned filming start being pushed to mid-2018, at which point Gibson moved on from the project. Jaume Collet-Serra became the new frontrunner to direct in early July, by which time both Smith and Robbie were set to reprise their roles. Zak Penn had pitched a new story treatment for the film to Warner Bros., and wrote a draft of the script as a favor to the studio. Later in July, Collet-Serra was hired to direct Disney's "Jungle Cruise" (2021) and withdrew from directing "Suicide Squad 2" after deciding he would rather originate a new story than continue an existing franchise; Collet-Sera went on to direct the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film "Black Adam" (2022).


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: In August, Jared Leto was expected to reprise his role as the Joker from the first film, while production was not expected to begin until Smith completed his work on "Aladdin" (2019) and "Gemini Man" (2019) in late 2018. The next month, Gavin O'Connor was chosen to direct the film and co-write it with his writing partner Anthony Tambakis, based on his own vision. The character Black Adam was reportedly the main villain of O'Connor's script, with Dwayne Johnson already attached to that role for DC Films. Michael De Luca joined the film as a producer in January 2018, working with the first film's producer Charles Roven. David Bar Katz and Todd Stashwick were co-writing the film with O'Connor in June, and they had completed their draft by that September. O'Connor left the film by early October to focus on "The Way Back" (2020). This was reportedly out of frustration that Warner Bros. was already moving ahead with "Birds of Prey" (2020), a new Harley Quinn spin-off film with a similar story to the one he wrote for "Suicide Squad 2". During the development process, the character Deathstroke appeared in four or five different version of the script to fight Deadshot. Joe Manganiello was attached to reprise his role as Deathstroke from "Justice League" (2017), and the experience left him feeling that he would never portray the character again until he was asked to return for "Zack Snyder's Justice League" (2021).


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: In October 2018, James Gunn was hired to write and possibly direct the next "Suicide Squad" film. His deal with Warner Bros. closed following the completion of his exit settlement with The Walt Disney Company, after he was dismissed by Disney and Marvel Studios as director of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" (2023) in July 2018 when conservative commentators circulated controversial Twitter posts he made involving rape, pedophilia, AIDS, the Holocaust, bestiality and 9/11. Warner Bros. had been interested in recruiting Gunn for the DCEU immediately after his dismissal by Disney, and asked him to make a new Superman film. Gunn was uncertain if he wanted to take on Superman, so Warner Bros. told him that he could adapt any DC property he liked. He chose to make a Suicide Squad film, recalling that it was the one DC property he dreamed of adapting and had been jealous when Ayer's "Suicide Squad" film performed well. Ayer supported Gunn's hiring as a "brave and smart move" and called him "the right man for the job". Dave Bautista, who starred in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" films for Gunn, expressed interest in appearing in his Suicide Squad film.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: One of the first things Gunn did when discussing the film with Warner Bros. was watch "Suicide Squad" for the first time. The studio said he could take or leave any elements he wanted from the first film, but they hoped that he would bring back Robbie as Harley Quinn. The day after he was hired, Disney decided to reinstate Gunn as director of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3". He discussed his new DCEU commitment with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, who encouraged him to "make a great movie" and agreed to delay production on "Guardians" until Gunn had completed work on the "Suicide Squad" sequel. In January 2019, the film was officially titled "The Suicide Squad" and was scheduled for release on August 6, 2021. The title was suggested by Gunn as a joke, but executives at Warner Bros. liked it. At that time, Gunn was in negotiations to direct the film which was described as a relaunch rather than a direct sequel that would take the franchise in a new direction and feature a largely new cast. Roven and Peter Safran were set as producers, with Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder as executive producers. Safran, who produced the DCEU films "Aquaman" (2018) and "Shazam!" (2019), had pushed Gunn to take on the project and felt there was no better director to "bring together a disparate group of outsiders on a mission".


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Gunn wrote a treatment that was a few pages long, and then quickly produced several drafts of the script that Warner Bros. was "extremely high" on. He said the film was "its own thing", rather than a sequel or reboot; it does not explicitly address the events of the first film or "Birds of Prey", but it also does not contradict them. Warner Bros. asked Gunn to make the film PG-13, but he insisted on it being R-rated if he was going to direct it; the studio felt Gunn's involvement was "worth the trade-off" for the higher rating. He took inspiration from John Ostrander's original 1980s run on the Suicide Squad comic books, which he was drawn to because it was about a "bunch of loser, B-grade supervillains". Safran described "The Suicide Squad" as a "gritty 1970s war movie combined with the brilliance of James Gunn's characters and comedy", and Gunn was influenced by war films such as "The Great Escape" (1963), "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), "Where Eagles Dare" (1968), and "Kelly's Heroes" (1970).


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Already knowing the kind of story that he wanted to tell, Gunn's first step in writing the film was picking the characters for the Suicide Squad roster. He spent days going through the library of existing DC Comics characters and deciding which group would work well together. He wanted to create a blend of characters by having each feel like they were part of a different film genre. The first new character that Gunn added to the roster was King Shark, who was intended to appear in the first film before being replaced by Killer Croc. Gunn sought to feature an animal on the team, and chose King Shark because he enjoyed the concept of a man-eating fish-human hybrid. Other new characters that Gunn added include Polka-Dot Man, Peacemaker, and a female version of Ratcatcher. He said one of the main differences between this film and the "Guardians of the Galaxy" films was that it would be unclear whether some Suicide Squad members would turn out to be good or bad, unlike the Guardians of the Galaxy who are portrayed as heroes despite their flaws. Characters that were considered but ultimately rejected include Sportsmaster, Dogwelder, Bat-Mite, Livewire, Punch and Jewelee, Black Spider, Deathstroke, Man-Bat, Plastique, Chemo, KGBeast, Solomon Grundy, Rainbow Creature, Gunhawk, Knockout, Killer Frost, Mr. Freeze, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Black Manta from "Aquaman". He did not consider using the Joker because he felt Amanda Waller would not have any use for the character, and chose not to use Kite Man because he felt the character was already a punchline in the comics and would not feel fresh for the film. Gunn also avoided characters like Bronze Tiger and Katana since they are antiheroes rather than villains.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Gunn felt he was in a position, and had the responsibility, to take risks with the property and try make "an all-out entertaining film from start to finish that didn’t play by the rules". This included "post-modern" aesthetic decisions such as creating sequences that showed the perspectives of Harley Quinn and Polka-Dot Man, adding an extended subplot where Harley Quinn is on her own away from the action, and adding title cards that segue between sequences. These elements were written into the script, including what Gunn referred to as "Harley-vision" where gory murders are depicted through Harley's "starry-eyed way of looking at life" by mixing "hearts and beautiful little things" with the blood that is coming out of the people Harley is killing. The "Harley-vision" visuals were inspired by a video game that Gunn helped develop called "Lollipop Chainsaw" (2012).


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: The main villains of the film are Amanda Waller and the U.S. government, who are trying to cover up their involvement in illegal experiments on the island of Corto Maltese. Gunn did not feel that this storyline was specifically critical of the U.S. government, just realistic given the real-world history of the U.S. interfering in other countries. He also wanted to use this to make dramatic points rather than political ones, with the different stances on the government's actions that the film's main characters take leading to dramatic conflict. For the antagonist that Waller sends the Suicide Squad to fight, Gunn initially considered using Superman before deciding to feature Starro the Conqueror instead. He found the character to be both ridiculous and terrifying, which reflected what he was trying to accomplish with the film, and he felt Starro was the only major DC Comics villain that was unlikely to appear in another live-action film or who would not be adapted faithfully by another filmmaker if it was. He also wanted to avoid potential questions regarding who should be portraying Superman in the DCEU and what that would mean for the film's connections to the wider shared universe. DC allowed Gunn to kill any character, including Harley Quinn, and he ignored the potential backlash from doing this to prioritize the natural evolution of the story. He did not want it to be like other films which might kill off some characters early on but then not kill any of the main characters at the end, so he knew that one of the Suicide Squad members would die during the final battle. He originally intended for this to be Ratcatcher, but ultimately felt that this would be too heartless. He chose Polka-Dot Man instead because he thought the character had the most complete story arc at that point in the film.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: When acknowledging the first film's negative reception, Gunn said there were aspects of it that he loved and defended Ayer's casting choices; the first decision Gunn made on the new film was to bring back Robbie as Harley Quinn and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. On February 27, 2019, Smith was revealed to no longer be in the film's cast due to scheduling issues. On March 1, Gunn met with Idris Elba to discuss him joining the film, reportedly as a replacement for Smith as Deadshot. Elba was Gunn's only choice for the role, and he wrote the script with Elba in mind—something Gunn rarely does for actors he has not met. Elba agreed to join the film during that conversation, as he wanted to work with Gunn and felt "so touched and honored that someone of [Gunn's] talent was really keen to work with" him. Elba was in official negotiations the next week. Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag was expected to return from the first film at that point, and Jai Courtney revealed later that month that he was returning as Captain Boomerang from the first film. In April, the film's creative team decided that Elba would play a new character rather than Deadshot. This decision was made, following weeks of discussions that included Gunn and Elba, to be respectful to Smith and allow him the option to return to the role in the future. Elba later stated that Gunn never intended to cast him as Deadshot, while Gunn said he changed his mind about who Elba would portray "a lot". Gunn ultimately chose to cast Elba as Bloodsport because he liked the character in the comics. Though the film has an ensemble cast, Gunn felt Bloodsport was the main protagonist due to being the most prominent and because of the amount of character growth that he goes through.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Gunn wrote King Shark with Sylvester Stallone in mind, but tested three other voice actors before asking Stallone to join the film. Stallone agreed to voice the character due to his experience working with Gunn on "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (2017). Gunn was looking to cast Bautista as Peacemaker, but the actor had a scheduling conflict with Zack Snyder's "Army of the Dead" (2021). John Cena entered talks for a role in the film that was believed to be Peacemaker in late April, as Gunn had wanted to work with Cena since seeing his performance in "Trainwreck" (2015). Cena made numerous unsuccessful attempts to join the DCEU prior to his casting in this film. David Dastmalchian and Daniela Melchior were respectively cast as Polka-Dot Man and Ratcatcher 2 at the end of April. Gunn said the role of Polka-Dot Man was "tailor made" for Dastmalchian, who had been friends with Gunn for a long time. In contrast, Melchior was cast from a group of 200 actors. She did a chemistry test with live rats as part of her audition process because her character controls rats in the film and had to interact with them on set. Gunn's frequent collaborator Michael Rooker was in talks to join the cast in May, while Storm Reid was cast as the daughter of Elba's character in July. Flula Borg, Nathan Fillion, and Steve Agee joined the film in August, with Agee initially reported to be portraying King Shark. Also in August, Taika Waititi entered negotiations for a role. Peter Capaldi joined the cast in early September, when Pete Davidson was in talks to make a cameo appearance during a break from his work on "Saturday Night Live". Davidson agreed to join the film because his character is called "Dick Hertz", which Davidson found to be funny.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: A table read for the film with the full cast was held on September 11, ahead of the start of filming later that month. Gunn later announced the film's full main cast and characters: Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Cena as Peacemaker, Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Joaquín Cosío as Mateo Suarez, Fillion as T.D.K., Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Mayling Ng as Mongal, Borg as Javelin, his brother Sean Gunn as Weasel, Juan Diego Botto as Silvio Luna, Reid as Tyla, Davidson as Blackguard, Waititi as the first Ratcatcher, Alice Braga as Sol Soria, Agee, Tinashe Kajese as Flo Crawley, Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, Capaldi as Thinker, Julio Ruiz as Milton, his girlfriend Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, Davis as Waller, Elba as Bloodsport, Robbie as Quinn, and Rooker as Savant. Agee was the on-set reference for King Shark, and also portrays John Economos.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Production designer Beth Mickle said Gunn wanted the film to be "grey and drab and monotone" until the characters arrive in Corto Maltese, which he wanted to "explode with color" like Panama and Cuba. The design team took inspiration from photos of Havana, Cuba, and São Paulo, Brazil. Gunn said the film featured the biggest sets ever built for a Warner Bros.' film, with Mickle building a set the size of three football fields for the outside of Jötunheim where the final battle was filmed, and an even bigger beach set that had real waves and a palm tree forest which Gunn called "the greatest set [he had] ever been on". The jungle featured a bamboo cage that was deep. Gunn said building a whole beach was expensive, but it was more cost-effective than using a real beach due to changing tides and the limited amount of time available for filming in a real environment.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Because of the mixture of characters that Gunn selected for the film's Suicide Squad roster, there are "dorky comics costumes" alongside "modern, scary, grimdark" costumes. One of the biggest costume challenges for Gunn was creating Bloodsport's suit, from which the character can form various weapons. Robbie wears a new costume that features Harley's traditional red and black color palette, with Gunn taking inspiration from the character's costume in the video game "" (2011). He wanted her jacket to have "motorcycle gang style"-writing on the back, and chose "Live fast, die clown" over other potential options "Clown AF" and "World's Best Grandpa". Gunn also removed Harley's "Rotten" facial tattoo that she had in previous DCEU films because both he and Robbie disliked it. Flag wears a yellow T-shirt with a cartoon character called "Ultra Bunny" on it. Gunn drew the character, and added the text "obstacles are opportunities" which is his slogan when directing on set. Gunn initially used a hammerhead shark design from the New 52 comics for King Shark, but found that it would be awkward to film the character with other actors due to his eyes being on the sides of his head. Gunn settled on a great white shark design that is similar to the one seen in the "Harley Quinn" animated series, though this was a coincidence as that series was released after filming for "The Suicide Squad" began. Gunn gave King Shark a dad bod to make him look less like a mammal, as well as small eyes, a big mouth, and a small head to avoid the "cute anthropomorphic beast" design seen in popular characters like Baby Groot from "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (2017) and "The Mandalorian"s Baby Yoda.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Principal photography began on September 20, 2019, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, under the working title "El Dorado". Henry Braham served as cinematographer, after previously doing so for Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2". Feige and Marvel Studios co-president Louis D'Esposito visited the set during filming. Gunn took several precautions to try to avoid details about the film leaking, such as referring to Elba's character in the script and on set as "Vigilante" to prevent his actual role from being revealed, and also not giving some of the actors script pages from after their characters' deaths.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Gunn extensively storyboards his films, but the opening shot of "The Suicide Squad"—in which the camera rotates out of a puddle's reflection on the ground to reveal Savant bouncing a ball—was a spontaneous decision that he made on set when he saw the reflections on the ground. For a scene where Bloodsport smokes a cigarette, Elba—who has asthma and does not smoke himself—was left with tears in his eyes that had to be removed digitally since Gunn otherwise liked the shot. Gunn said the film used more practical effects than any other blockbuster comic book film, with on-set special effects provided by Dan Sudick and prosthetics created by Legacy Effects. Gunn highlighted a shot in the film where King Shark, who is created with visual effects, rips a person in half, which was done practically using special effects and prosthetics. Stunt supervisor Guy Norris served as second unit director for the car scenes in the film. Gunn explained that he rarely uses second unit directors on his films and has never liked working with them, but he enjoyed the experience of working with Norris as he was not comfortable shooting with cars and had already known Norris for a long time.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Filming in Atlanta was expected to last three months before moving to Panama for a month, with Colón, Panama standing in for the streets of Corto Maltese. Gunn said the city was "beautiful but falling-apart... we were able to use all the colors but to keep the grime" as well. The cast and crew rescued several animals from the streets of Panama. Filming also took place in Porto, Portugal, and wrapped on February 28, 2020.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Fred Raskin and Christian Wagner served as editors on the film. Raskin previously worked alongside Gunn on "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014) and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2". By April 2020, Gunn was editing the film at his home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said had not affected post-production or the release schedule at that time. The initial assembly cut for the film was around two hours and forty minutes long, and around twenty minutes of that was soon cut down during editing. Gunn felt the film was still too long, and removed some elements such as part of Harley Quinn's separate storyline that he felt was "pushing audiences away a little bit too much", as well as a sequence with Ratcatcher, King Shark, Polka-Dot Man, and the Thinker when they exit a Corto Maltese bar. Gunn felt the latter was "pretty dynamite stuff" but it was slowing down the film and the wrong time. A smaller scene that was cut involved Waller's aide Flo Crawley being arrested for knocking Waller out during the final battle; Gunn explained that this was a mostly unnecessary detail which made the audience feel uncomfortable since it felt less like the villain, Waller, had lost, but he included the moment in a recap of the film that begins the spin-off series "Peacemaker" to explain why Crawley is not in that series. In December, Gunn said editing for the film's final cut had been completed and work on the remaining visual effects, sound, and score was continuing. The final runtime is two hours and twelve minutes.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: Kelvin McIlwain was the visual effects supervisor for the film, with visual effects vendors including Framestore, Weta Digital, Trixter, Scanline VFX, and Cantina Creative. Gunn said the visual effects for King Shark, primarily handled by Framestore and Weta Digital, were particularly difficult to get right.


title: The Suicide Squad (film)

text: In May 2020, John Murphy was set as the composer for the film. Tyler Bates, who scored all of Gunn's previous films, was originally attached to compose the score for "The Suicide Squad" but eventually left the project. During pre-production, Bates wrote music for Gunn to use on set as he had previously done for Gunn on the "Guardians of the Galaxy" films. The single "Rain" by grandson and Jessie Reyez from the film's soundtrack album was released on June 22, 2021, with the artists also expected to contribute songs individually to the album. A single from Murphy's score, "So This Is The Famous Suicide Squad", was made available on July 8. On August 6, two full albums for the film were released by WaterTower Music: one featuring Murphy's score, and a soundtrack album featuring songs from the film including "Rain".