text: The "shaft" of the tower spans the third through 28th floors. The southern facade of the tower contains windows only above the 11th story, and the eastern facade contains windows above the 12th story, because the former east wing was located below these floors. On each floor, the "shaft" contains three sets of three windows per side. The exception is at the 25th through 27th floors, where the building's clock faces are located. On these floors, there are two paired windows on the outer edges of the tower. The 29th and 30th floors serve stylistically as "transitional stories", with ten windows per side on each floor; the 29th floor contains a single arrangement of 10 windows, while the 30th-floor windows have been divided into five pairs. This is largely the same arrangement as the original, except that in LeBrun's design, the "shaft" comprised the sixth through 30th floors.


title: Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower

text: The 31st through 38th floors comprise the tower's "capital". The 31st through 33rd floors are arranged as a loggia with arcades containing five arches on each side. The facade of the tower is recessed behind the arcade, and a balustrade wraps around the edges of the arcade, creating a patio. When built, the arcade was composed of stone columns, but these were replaced with masonry columns in the 1960s renovation. On the 34th floor, there are five windows per side, corresponding to the arches below. The setback tower rises from the 35th through 38th stories as a freestanding plinth. On these floors, the window arrangement indicates that the northern and southern facades are wider than the western and eastern facades, with six windows to the north and south, and four to the west and east.


text: A clock face is centered on all four sides of the tower from the 25th through 27th floors. Each clock face is in diameter, while the numerals on the clock faces are four feet (1.2 m) tall. The numerals and minute markers on the clock faces are edged with copper, while the minute and hour hands are made of iron with a copper sheathing. The minute hands weigh and are long, while the hour hands weigh and are long. The mechanism was controlled by electricity, a novelty upon the tower's completion. The master clock, which controlled the large clock faces as well as a hundred other clocks in the same complex, was located on the first floor of the former home office, and ran with a maximum error of five seconds per month.


text: The clock faces were the largest in the world upon their completion. The clock faces are made of reinforced concrete. Blue glazed tiles run along the circumference of each face; in addition, there is a tiled corona at the center of each face. The clock faces contain ornamentation by Pierre LeBrun, of Napoleon LeBrun and Sons. These include dolphins and shells on the spandrels at each face's corner, as well as marble wreaths with fruit-and-flower motifs on the faces themselves.


text: The pyramidal roof comprises the 39th and higher floors, and is set off by a cornice at the 39th-story level. Dormer windows protrude from the roof on the 39th through 43rd floors; these dormers contain semi-circular hoods, except for the 39th-floor dormers, which do not contain any hoods. The higher floors of the roof have fewer windows on each side. The 44th floor is illuminated by two small windows on each side, located between ribs that rise to support a square viewing platform on the 45th floor. The 46th and 47th floors comprise a two-story-tall peristyle, supported by eight columns. The 48th floor contains a gold-colored aluminum cupola with eight windows. The topmost level is the 49th floor, which consists only of a platform with a gold-colored aluminium railing. The 41st through 45th floors are accessible only by a staircase. The viewing platform was originally publicly usable, receiving 120,000 visitors from around the world between 1909 and 1914.


text: The tower contains four bells within the peristyle. These include a B♭ bell on the west, a E♭ bell on the east, a F♮ bell on the north, and a G♮ bell on the south. The bells were the highest in the world at the time of their construction. These are respectively struck by hammers weighing 94, 71, 61, and 54 pounds (equivalent to , , , and kg respectively). A fifth hammer, weighing , strikes the 7,000-pound bell each hour. The smaller hammers strike the bells every 15 minutes. On weekdays between 9a.m. and 10p.m., and on weekends between 10a.m. and 10p.m., the bells played "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth" every 15 minutes. The bells were not given nicknames: rather, Metropolitan Life referred to each bell by its cardinal direction.


text: An eight-sided, beacon is located at the top of the cupola. As designed, the white lantern is lit after 10:00 p.m., and momentarily turns off every 15 minutes when red and white lights flash the time. The beacon was one of a few broadly visible features of the New York City nighttime skyline until the mid-20th century.


text: When built, the tower section featured granite floors and metal interior furnishings, though there was very little wood trim, unlike other contemporary structures. The lower floors contained bronze grillwork and doorways, especially around the elevators, while on the upper floors, ornamental iron is used for the metalwork around the elevators. The second-floor spaces contained offices of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and contained white marble wainscoting, plaster cornices, marble mantels, etched-glass doors facing the executive offices, and red mahogany door, wall, and window panels. Each of the tower's floors are up to in area, smaller than the floor areas of most other nearby office buildings. During the 1960s renovation, the tower was fitted with more modern furnishings such as air conditioning, acoustic ceiling tiles, and automatic elevators, to match the new eastern wing. Marble floors were one of the few holdovers of the previous decor. The staircase leading to the top floors of the tower also retains its original decoration, including cast-iron railings, ceramic-tile wainscoting, marble stair treads, and landings with mosaic-tile floors.


text: Since 2015, the tower section has been a 273-room luxury hotel called the New York Edition Hotel, with per-night hotel room rates starting at $600. Most of the historic detail in the interior was removed in the individual hotel rooms, but there are some remaining vestiges, such as the original scalloped ceilings. On the second floor is an upscale restaurant called The Clocktower, a Michelin-starred eatery headed by British chef Jason Atherton. The restaurant has a dining area, a separate bar, and a room with a billiards table, and is only accessible through the building's lobby.


text: The east wing is at One Madison Avenue, and was fourteen stories tall when completed in 1955. It extends east to Park Avenue South, covering nearly the entire block, and originally had nearly of interior space. , the stories above the ninth floor are being demolished, and an 18-story glass-faced office tower is being built over the roof of the ninth floor. The glass tower would cover , giving the expanded structure of usable office space. The glass addition is separated from the roof of the 1955 structure by large diagonal steel trusses.


text: One Madison Avenue's internal structure consists of a steel frame. The lowest two floors contain a granite facade, while the remaining stories contain a facade of Alabama limestone, as well as stainless-steel spandrels between each window. As designed, there were setbacks behind the 2nd, 10th, and 12th floors. The glass addition will contain roof terraces on the 10th and 11th floors. The facade of the glass addition will contain dark horizontal mullions at three-story intervals. A portion of the office structure's facade along Madison Avenue is also being replaced with a glass wall, and a metal canopy will be placed at the bottom of the glass wall, marking an entrance to One Madison Avenue.


text: The lobby of One Madison Avenue was combined with that of the clock tower when the east wing was originally constructed. It consists of floors and walls made of white marble and darker-marble accents, as well as a sheet rock ceiling with lighting panels, and stainless-steel doors and trim. Above the lobby are the office floors, which contain sheet rock walls and dropped ceilings; around the elevator lobbies, the floors are made of terrazzo tiles, and the walls contain a travertine veneer. The lowest six floors are served mainly by escalators and the upper floors are served by elevators. There is also wood paneling on the walls near the executive offices. A replica of the original home office's board room was built on the 11th floor of the east wing, and featured mahogany wainscoting, a coffered ceiling, and leather covering the walls. When the glass addition is completed in 2023 or 2024, it will contain event areas, a food market, and a tenants' lounge and fitness center.


text: One Madison Avenue is connected to the Metropolitan Life North Building by a preexisting tunnel. Until 2020, the buildings were also connected by a sky bridge on the eighth floor. At the southeastern corner, on the basement level, there is a direct entrance to the downtown platform of the New York City Subway's 23rd Street station, served by the .


text: The original home office occupied what is now the east wing. The section facing 23rd Street was 11 stories tall and the section on 24th Street was 12 stories tall, with a total height of . Designed by Napoleon LeBrun, it contained Italian Renaissance motifs along the entire facade. The home office was erected in multiple sections, with the 23rd Street side being completed first.


text: The tower and home office originally had a facade of ashlar on the first story, and an elaborate arcade of columns and pilasters on the second and third stories. The main entrance along Madison Avenue, as well as of the 23rd Street facade, contained slightly projecting columns, which created porticoes. Similar to the original design of the tower, the original home office had a large cornice above the fourth floor and smaller cornices above the second and fifth floors. On the fourth through ninth floors, the facade was arranged with deeply molded and decorated reveals, as well as carved mullions. These elements were arranged to form an arched arcade, which extended through the ninth floor; the windows were located in slightly recessed bays between each arch.


text: Inside the building, a large marble corridor ran between the entrances at Madison Avenue and Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South). Accessible from this hallway was a United States Post Office branch, a Western Union telegraph booth, a bank, telephone booths, and numerous shops. Cross-passages ran north and south to 24th and 23rd Streets, and stairs led to the subway station's downtown platform. The main rotunda was at the Madison Avenue entrance, measuring square and high, from which a stairway ascended to the second floor. Within the home office, there were 38 elevators, serving 1,100 tenants. The elevators were grouped in several banks throughout the building, although these were not all connected except at the lobby. The original home office also contained an extensive fire sprinkler system with standpipes and automatic sprinklers.


text: The home office served as the nexus of Metropolitan Life's operations and largely contained an open plan work space. The exception was the executive offices, which were decorated with mahogany. The interior layout was rearranged approximately every five years, at least in the building's early history, though the interior arrangements were always focused on worker efficiency. The original home office also had several interior courts.


text: The structure was generally not publicly accessible, and employees' movements were closely monitored. Conversely, there were also many amenities for employees, including a library, auditorium, gymnasium, and medical and dental offices. There was also a recreational space on the roof of the home office's 23rd Street portion, and through the larger complex's extensive system of kitchens and dining rooms, the company offered free lunch to every employee between 1908 and 1994. Though the home office accommodated 14,500 workers by 1938, they were split up into different social hierarchies, with immigrants in service jobs, women in seamstresses' and cleaners' jobs, and native-born workers of both genders in white-collar jobs.


text: Before the home office at Madison Square was completed, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (now MetLife) had been headquartered at three buildings in Lower Manhattan, all of which have been demolished. Its first headquarters was at 243 Broadway, which the company occupied between 1868 and 1869. This headquarters comprised two and a half rooms totaling "not more than 900 square feet" (): one for the president and another for the remaining staff. In 1870, Metropolitan Life moved to 319 Broadway's third floor, a slightly larger space that also contained a supply room. The company moved again in 1876 to Park Place and Church Street, during which its operations grew rapidly: by 1889, Metropolitan Life had outgrown the Church Street building. The company had $250 million in industrial life insurance policies by 1891.


text: At the time, life insurance companies generally had their own buildings for their offices and branch locations. According to architectural writer Kenneth Gibbs, these buildings allowed each individual company to instill "not only its name but also a favorable impression of its operations" in the general public. This had been a trend since 1870, with the completion of the former Equitable Life Building in Manhattan's Financial District. Furthermore, life insurance companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries generally built massive buildings to fit their large clerical and records-keeping staff.


text: In 1890, the company purchased the site at the corner of Madison Avenue and 23rd Street, across from Madison Square Park. Joseph Fairchild Knapp, Metropolitan Life's president, hired Napoleon LeBrun to design a seven-story Italian Renaissance office building on 23rd Street between Madison Avenue and Fourth Avenue. Work commenced in May 1890 with the demolition of five brownstone mansions at 23rd Street and Madison Avenue. Knapp died before the structure's completion, and the building was subsequently expanded to 11 stories. Metropolitan Life occupied the second through fifth floors for its own use, but soon afterward expanded to the sixth and ninth stories, while filling the ground-story storefront spaces. The company occupied the first portion of the home office in early 1893. At the time, it had 650 workers.


text: The first section of the home office was completed in mid-1894. By that time, the company had full control of almost all lots on the north side of 23rd Street between Madison and Fourth Avenues, as well as a frontage of on 24th Street. One lot on 23rd Street was not acquired until June 1895; once Metropolitan Life bought that plot, it built a two-story structure on the remaining plot, which was later raised to 11 stories. Meanwhile, Metropolitan Life built a 12-story building on the plots along 24th Street, which was completed in October 1895 and was occupied that November. Additionally, the Standard National Bank opened a branch on the home office's Madison Avenue side in 1895. Metropolitan Life made a purchase offer for the National Academy of Design site at Fourth Avenue and 23rd Street in 1894; however, the company did not acquire title to the land until June 1899, thus completing its property acquisition on 23rd Street. An eastern extension of the home office to Fourth Avenue opened in 1901, followed by an "L"-shaped extension along 24th Street and Fourth Avenue in 1902, which enclosed the southwest corner of that intersection.


text: Most of the lots on the 24th Street side were purchased starting in 1894 for the construction of a 12-story addition to the home office. The company bought the Lyceum Theatre site on Fourth Avenue in 1902. Metropolitan Life bought the corner of Fourth Avenue and 24th Street in 1902–1903 and constructed the next portion of the home office on the Lyceum Theatre and Academy of Design sites. That section was occupied in May 1906. By 1905, Metropolitan Life had acquired most of the lots on the south side of 24th Street between Madison and Fourth avenues. The only lot the company had not acquired was the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, built in 1854 at the southeastern corner of Madison Avenue and 24th Street. The gradual development of the block had led to the construction of other skyscrapers surrounding Madison Square, such as the Flatiron Building in 1902 and the Fifth Avenue Building (now the Toy Center) in 1908.


text: In April 1906, Metropolitan Life bought the church lot, on which it intended to build a tower. The church building was razed soon after the purchase of the site. In exchange for Metropolitan Life's purchase, the church received a plot of land across 24th Street that became the site for Stanford White's 1906 building for the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, sometimes called the "Parkhurst Church" after Reverend Charles Henry Parkhurst. Plans for the proposed clock tower were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings in January 1907. At the time, the tower was to rise above ground, with 48 usable stories, or 50 total. The building plans were modified in April 1908, providing for a 54-story tower, though the additional four stories were not built.


text: By February 1908, thirty-one stories of the tower had been built. The lower floors of the Metropolitan Life Tower were occupied by May 1908. The tower was topped out the following month. The Metropolitan Life Tower was not completed until 1909, with one of its original tenants being the National Kindergarten Association. The tower had cost $6.58 million, and the expanded complex had 2,800 workers at the time of the tower's completion. Metropolitan Life officials held a jubilee dinner in January 1910 to celebrate the tower's completion. The tower was the world's tallest building until 1913, when it was surpassed by the Woolworth Building in Tribeca, within lower Manhattan. A 1914 company history estimated that the entire complex could accommodate 20,000 visitors and tenants per day.


text: A plot on the north side of 24th Street, measuring , was developed from 1903 to 1905 as the first Metropolitan Annex, a 16-story printing plant building faced in Tuckahoe marble. The annex was designed by LeBrun, and it was connected to the main building by a tunnel. White's 1906 church building was demolished in 1919 to make way for an expansion of the northern annex, which was 18 stories tall. This annex was designed by D. Everett Waid and completed in 1921.


text: By the late 1920s, the clock tower, home office, and LeBrun's and Waid's northern annexes were becoming too small to house the continuously growing activities of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Looking to expand, the company acquired a full-block site directly to the north, between East 24th and 25th Streets. Architects Harvey Wiley Corbett and D. Everett Waid took up the project in 1928. The approved design for what would become the Metropolitan Life North Building was for a 100-story tower, but the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 caused the company to build only the 28-story base, which was built in three stages. LeBrun's and Waid's northern annexes remained until 1946, when they were demolished to make way for the final stage of the North Building. The North Building was completed in 1950 with the structural strength and the number of elevator shafts needed for a possible future expansion.


text: Even with the addition of the North Building, the number of staff in the complex was steadily increasing, with 14,500 workers by 1938. To alleviate this, in 1950, Metropolitan Life announced that it would refurbish its entire headquarters. The initial plans were filed by Leonard Schultz and Associates, but after Schultz's 1951 death, Lloyd Morgan and Eugene Meroni took up the design process. In 1952, Morgan and Meroni filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings for a completely new structure on the site of the existing home offices. A Metropolitan Life press release stated that a new structure was chosen over a renovation because the new structure would have more interior floor space, due to the elimination of the interior courtyard inside the old building, and because new construction was cheaper than renovation.


text: Work started in 1953, and the company demolished auxiliary structures to make way for the new home office building. The tunnel to the northern annex was retained, and a sky bridge was built at the eighth floor of the new building. To minimize disruption to Metropolitan Life's operations, the new home office was erected in two stages, so construction on one part of the home office could go on while normal operations proceeded in the other portion. The first stage was built between 1953 and 1957, and the second, between 1958 and 1960.


text: The tower, the sole structure on the block that remained from the early 20th century, was renovated starting in 1961 to harmonize the design with Morgan and Meroni's east wing. Starrett Brothers & Eken were the general contractors and Purdy and Henderson were the structural engineers. During this time, the clock, bells, and roof were rebuilt. The renovation also remodeled the facade so it would be stylistically similar to the east wing, and so the decaying marble was replaced with limestone. Morgan eliminated most of the ornamentation added by LeBrun, though he preserved the clock tower's general proportions, and designed the east wing so that the tower would rise behind setbacks on the 10th, 11th, and 13th floors. The project was completed in 1964.


text: In 1982, the Cross & Brown Company leased out four of the floors in the clock tower, the first time in the building's history that space in the tower had been leased to outside tenants. The tower's floor areas were optimal for small organizations, and in 1985, Metropolitan Life vacated the tower, moving all remaining operations to the North Building and the South Building's east wing. At the time, 26 of the 40 lower floors had already been leased.


text: The South Building underwent a $35 million exterior restoration project between 1998 and 2002. During this time, the tower's marble facade was repaired, a new multicolored lighting system was added, and the cupola was re-gilded. Because the clock tower was on the National Register of Historic Places (having been added in 1972), MetLife was eligible for a tax break on the building.


text: In March 2005, SL Green Realty bought the clock tower, intending to convert it to apartments. The east wing at One Madison Avenue was part of the sale, but would not be converted to apartments, being leased to Credit Suisse First Boston until at least 2020. In May 2007, the tower and adjacent air rights were sold for $200 million to Africa Israel Investments. In 2011, Tommy Hilfiger and a partner signed a contract to buy the clock tower for $170 million, planning to transform it into Hilfiger's first hotel, with luxury condominiums. However, Hilfiger backed off the project in September 2011. Africa Israel then sold the tower to Marriott International in October 2011 for $165 million. Marriott announced in January 2012 that it was converting the tower to the New York Edition Hotel, one of three boutique hotels in the Edition line. The Edition hotels were sold in January 2013 to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for $815 million. The New York property was conveyed to its new owner on its completion. Marriott continues to manage the hotels under long-term contract, and the New York Edition Hotel opened in May 2015.


text: Meanwhile, SL Green announced plans in 2018 to renovate One Madison Avenue to designs by Kohn Pedersen Fox. The existing 14-story structure would be reduced to nine floors, and eighteen stories would be built above the ninth floor. Construction on the renovation started in November 2020, after SL Green received a $1.25 billion construction loan. At that time, the sky bridge to the North Building was demolished as part of the redevelopment of One Madison Avenue. The glass addition and the renovation of One Madison Avenue is being developed by SL Green, Hines, and the National Pension Service of Korea at a cost of $2.3 billion and is expected to be completed in 2023 or 2024. Demolition of the old facade was completed by mid-2021, SL Green sold a 25 percent interest in the project to an unidentified investor in December 2021, although it retained a 25.5 percent interest. The sale came shortly after Chelsea Piers leased space in the building, becoming the redeveloped structure's first large tenant. IBM became the building's anchor tenant in March 2022.


text: Metropolitan Life intended the tower to promote the company's image, with company president John Rogers Hegeman calling the building "a symbol of integrity". As such, the tower was surrounded by publicity. It was featured on the front of prominent magazines such as "Scientific American", as well as on the sides of corn flake boxes, coffee packets, and cars. Metropolitan Life valued the free publicity surrounding its skyscraper at over $440,000 (equivalent to $ million in ). The company also published three oversized monographs with images featuring the building, in 1907, 1908, and 1914.


text: The tower figured prominently in Metropolitan Life's advertising for many years, illustrated with a light beaming from a lantern at the top of its spire and the slogan "The Light That Never Fails". While other life insurance companies, such as the New York Life Insurance Company and Equitable Insurance Company, used sculptural representations for their respective symbols, Metropolitan Life used the building itself to represent the company's work and ideals.


text: Though not structurally distinctive, the Metropolitan Life Tower nevertheless was highly scrutinized, being the world's tallest building upon its completion. The design of the tower won critical acclaim within the American architectural profession. The American Institute of Architects' New York chapter called the clock tower "the most meritorous work of the year" upon its completion. The writer Roberta Moudry observed that "the tower appeared from [Madison Square Park] as an entity unto itself", distinct from other tall structures nearby, and at the time of its construction, "serve[d] as a timely large-scale public declaration of civic stature and ethical responsibility". The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission described the original home office's design as doing "much to establish Metropolitan Life in the eyes and the mind of the public." In a company history book written shortly after the building's completion, Metropolitan Life had characterized the structure as "the most beautiful home office in the world".


text: Members of the public also viewed the clock tower positively, with one anonymous reviewer calling the clock "a reassuring melody to hear on a trustworthy schedule". One newspaper columnist stated that when the clocks' hands were taken apart for cleaning in 1937, "letters poured in, asking what went on". On December 11, 1984, to celebrate the building's 75th anniversary, the United States Postal Service issued a pictorial cancellation that depicted the Metropolitan Life Tower, which was available only on that day.


text: The South Building's tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, and a New York City designated landmark in 1989. The "Metropolitan Life Home Office Complex", which includes the tower and the adjacent North Building, was added to the National Register on January 19, 1996. The east wing was not included in the Home Office Complex designation, nor in any of the other landmark designations, due to its relatively recent construction.


The GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development is a regional organization of four post-Soviet states: Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova.


title: GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development

text: Conceived in 1997 to harmonize and integrate commercial, diplomatic and democratic relations among its member states, the GUAM treaty charter was signed in 2001 and today covers a population of over 57 million people. Uzbekistan was also a member of GUAM in the 1999–2005 period. In 2003, GUAM became an observer in the UN General Assembly. In 2007, GUAM also established a military peacekeeping force and organized joint military exercises. Such increasingly deepened integration and relationships led to GUAM playing an important role in the region's diplomatic and commercial affairs.


text: The official negotiating language of GUAM was Russian, but it was scrapped in favor of English in 2014. In 2017, agreements on a free-trade area were established for the first time.


text: Cooperation between Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova started with the "GUAM consultative forum", established on 10 October 1997, in Strasbourg and named after the initial letters of each of those countries. In 1999, the organisation adopted the name GUUAM due to the membership of Uzbekistan. A summit in Yalta on 6 and 7 June 2001 was accompanied by the signing of GUUAM's charter, which formalized the organization. According to the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, the charter set objectives for cooperation, such as promoting democratic values, ensuring stable development, enhancing international and regional security, and stepping up European integration.


text: In 2002, Uzbekistan announced that it planned to withdraw from the organization and following this announcement started to ignore GUUAM summits and meetings. In May 2005, shortly after the Andijan massacre, Uzbekistan finally gave official notice of withdrawal from the organization to the Moldovan presidency, thus changing the group's name back to GUAM.


text: A summit of GUUAM took place in Chișinău, Moldova, on 22 April 2005. The US Department of State special representative for Eurasian conflicts, Steven Mann, and the OSCE Secretary General, Ján Kubiš, participated in the summit. The Russian ambassador in Chișinău criticized the fact that Russia was not invited to attend. Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, said after the summit: "Our organization is emerging as a powerful force, participating in resolving problems in the Caspian—Black Sea region" while the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, said that a new page had been written in the history of the organization.


text: Given the growth of its influence in the region, and the existence of the Russian—led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), GUAM was seen in Russia as a way of countering the Russian influence in the area and as part of a strategy backed by the United States. However, GUAM leaders repeatedly and officially dismiss such claims and declare their strong willingness to develop close friendly relations with Russia. Moreover, Azerbaijan, the group's main energy power, has managed to avoid any conflicts with Russia in recent years.


text: In April 2006, three GUAM nations supported Ukraine's proposal to condemn the Holodomor, the 1930s famine in Ukraine which killed millions of people, as a genocide.


text: In May 2006, Ukraine and Azerbaijan announced plans to further increase the GUAM member relations by renaming the organization "GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development" and establishing its headquarters in the Ukrainian capital. The other members said this was a remarkable step and development. The summit participants were also expected to adopt GUAM by—laws, a declaration and a communique. Also in May 2006 the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced plans to establish GUAM peacekeeping forces. The following year, GUAM nations agreed to form a 500-personnel joint peacekeeping force to battle separatism.


text: In June 2007, presidents of Lithuania, Poland and Romania joined the leaders of GUAM member states at the GUAM summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. Also participating at the summit were the Vice-President of Bulgaria, the Vice-Speaker of the Estonian parliament, the Minister of Economy of Latvia, and the high—level representatives of the United States, Japan, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), UNESCO, and heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Azerbaijan.


text: In December 2014, then-Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin proposed that GUAM should use English during meetings, instead of Russian, which was also the main language used in official gatherings in the Soviet Union. GUAM representatives agreed.


text: In March 2017, GUAM officially established agreements on a free-trade area and harmonization of customs procedures among its member states.


text: In May 2021, three of the four members, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, joined the Association Trio in order to jointly facilitate further European integration.


title: Eulogy

text: A eulogy (from , "eulogia", Classical Greek, "eu" for "well" or "true", "logia" for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person or persons, especially one who recently died or retired, or as a term of endearment.


title: Eulogy

text: Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. In the US, they take place in a funeral home during or after a wake; in the UK, they are said during the service, typically at a crematorium or place of worship, before the wake. In the US, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions. Eulogies can also praise people who are still alive. This normally takes place on special occasions like birthdays, office parties, retirement celebrations, etc. Eulogies should not be confused with elegies, which are poems written in tribute to the dead; nor with obituaries, which are published biographies recounting the lives of those who have recently died; nor with obsequies, which refer generally to the rituals surrounding funerals. Roman Catholic priests are prohibited by the rubrics of the Mass from presenting a eulogy for the deceased in place of a homily during a funeral Mass.


title: Eulogy

text: The modern use of the word "eulogy" was first documented in the 16th century and came from the Medieval Latin term "eulogium". "Eulogium" at that time has since turned into the shorter "eulogy" of today.


title: Eulogy

text: Eulogies are usually delivered by a family member or a close family friend in the case of a dead person. For a living eulogy given in such cases as a retirement, a senior colleague could perhaps deliver it. On occasions, eulogies are given to those who are severely ill or elderly in order to express words of love and gratitude before they die. Eulogies are not limited to merely people, however; places or things can also be given eulogies (which anyone can deliver), but these are less common than those delivered to people, whether living or deceased.


title: Eulogy

text: In some cases, a self-eulogy is written before the subject dies, with the aim of having a friend or family member read out their words to the funeral mass. Notable examples include the uplifting self-eulogy of American writer Kurt Vonnegut (borrowed from his uncle's own funeral) and a humorous self-eulogy by Australian rules footballer and media personality Lou Richards, which was read by a friend.


title: Eulogy

text: A successful eulogy may provide comfort, inspiration, or establish a connection to the person of whom the eulogy is in behalf. The following section will explore some well-known eulogies that have done just that.


title: Eulogy

text: There are many different types of eulogies. Some of them are strictly meant to be a biography of the person's life. The short biography is simply a retelling of what the individual went through in their life. This can be done to highlight major points in the deceased's life. Another version is by telling a more personal view on what the individual did. It entails retelling memories that are shared between the storyteller and the deceased. Memories, impressions, and experiences are all things that can be included in a retelling of the personal eulogy (Burch, 2006).


title: Alisa Reyes

text: Alisa Adriana Reyes is an American actress, best known for three seasons that she appeared on Nickelodeon's "All That" (1994–97) and providing the voice of LaCienega Boulevardez in the Disney Channel original series, "The Proud Family" (2001-05) and its 2022 .


title: Alisa Reyes

text: Reyes started modeling at the age of eight, and attended The Professional Performing Arts School, where she focused on musical theatre. In 1992, she appeared in Mariah Carey's music video for her single "Make It Happen." In 1994, Reyes became one of the original cast members of the Nickelodeon sketch comedy show "All That".


title: Alisa Reyes

text: After "All That", Reyes was then cast in the NBC Saturday morning sitcom "One World". She has also made guest appearances on HBO's "Six Feet Under", Lifetime's "Strong Medicine", PBS' "The American Family", "NYPD Blue", and "Boston Public".


title: Alisa Reyes

text: Reyes also provided the voice of LaCienega Boulevardez in the Disney Channel animated series "The Proud Family" from 2001 to 2005. She reprised the role in the series continuation "The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder" on Disney+.


title: Alisa Reyes

text: Reyes also worked as a DJ for Playboy Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio (Channel 99) and as a host for PlayboyU online and on air shows.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Conservatoire de Paris but, believing that she had no particular talent as a composer, she gave up writing music and became a teacher. In that capacity, she influenced generations of young composers, especially those from the United States and other English-speaking countries. Among her students were many important composers, soloists, arrangers, and conductors, including Grażyna Bacewicz, Burt Bacharach, Daniel Barenboim, Lennox Berkeley, İdil Biret, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, John Eliot Gardiner, Philip Glass, Roy Harris, Quincy Jones, Dinu Lipatti, Igor Markevitch, Astor Piazzolla, Virgil Thomson, and George Walker.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Boulanger taught in the U.S. and England, working with music academies including the Juilliard School, the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Longy School, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, but her principal base for most of her life was her family's flat in Paris, where she taught for most of the seven decades from the start of her career until her death at the age of 92.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Boulanger was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras in America and Europe, including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, Hallé, and Philadelphia orchestras. She conducted several world premieres, including works by Copland and Stravinsky.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Nadia Boulanger was born in Paris on 16 September 1887, to French composer and pianist Ernest Boulanger (1815–1900) and his wife Raissa Myshetskaya (1856–1935), a Russian princess, who descended from St. Mikhail Tchernigovsky.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Ernest Boulanger had studied at the Paris Conservatoire and, in 1835 at the age of 20, won the coveted Prix de Rome for composition. He wrote comic operas and incidental music for plays, but was most widely known for his choral music. He achieved distinction as a director of choral groups, teacher of voice, and a member of choral competition juries. After years of rejection, in 1872 he was appointed to the Paris Conservatoire as professor of singing.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Raissa qualified as a home tutor (or governess) in 1873. According to Ernest, he and Raissa met in Russia in 1873, and she followed him back to Paris. She joined his voice class at the Conservatoire in 1876, and they were married in Russia in 1877.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Ernest and Raissa had a daughter, Ernestine Mina Juliette, who died as an infant before Nadia was born on her father's 72nd birthday.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Through her early years, although both parents were very active musically, Nadia would get upset by hearing music and hide until it stopped. In 1892, when Nadia was five, Raissa became pregnant again. During the pregnancy, Nadia's response to music changed drastically. "One day I heard a fire bell. Instead of crying out and hiding, I rushed to the piano and tried to reproduce the sounds. My parents were amazed." After this, Boulanger paid great attention to the singing lessons her father gave, and began to study the rudiments of music.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Her sister, named Marie-Juliette Olga but known as Lili Boulanger, was born in 1893, when Nadia was six. When Ernest brought Nadia home from their friends' house, before she was allowed to see her mother or Lili, he made her promise solemnly to be responsible for the new baby's welfare. He urged her to take part in her sister's care.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: From the age of seven, Nadia studied in preparation for her Conservatoire entrance exams, sitting in on their classes and having private lessons with its teachers. Lili often stayed in the room for these lessons, sitting quietly and listening.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1896, the nine-year-old Nadia entered the Conservatoire. She studied there with Fauré and others. She came in third in the 1897 solfège competition, and subsequently worked to win first prize in 1898. She took private lessons from Louis Vierne and Alexandre Guilmant. During this period, she also received religious instruction to become an observant Catholic, taking her First Communion on 4 May 1899. The Catholic religion remained important to her for the rest of her life.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1900 her father Ernest died, and money became a problem for the family. Raissa had an extravagant lifestyle, and the royalties she received from performances of Ernest's music were insufficient to live on permanently. Nadia continued to work hard at the Conservatoire to become a teacher and be able to contribute to her family's support.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1903, Nadia won the Conservatoire's first prize in harmony; she continued to study for years, although she had begun to earn money through organ and piano performances. She studied composition with Gabriel Fauré and, in the 1904 competitions, she came first in three categories: organ, "accompagnement au piano" and fugue (composition). At her "accompagnement" exam, Boulanger met Raoul Pugno, a renowned French pianist, organist and composer, who subsequently took an interest in her career.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In the autumn of 1904, Nadia began to teach from the family apartment, at 36 rue Ballu. In addition to the private lessons she held there, Boulanger started holding a Wednesday afternoon group class in analysis and sightsinging. She continued these almost to her death. This class was followed by her famous "at homes", salons at which students could mingle with professional musicians and Boulanger's other friends from the arts, such as Igor Stravinsky, Paul Valéry, Fauré, and others.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: After leaving the Conservatoire in 1904 and before her sister's untimely death in 1918, Boulanger was a keen composer, encouraged by both Pugno and Fauré. Caroline Potter, writing in "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", says of Boulanger's music: "Her musical language is often highly chromatic (though always tonally based), and Debussy's influence is apparent." Her goal was to win the First Grand Prix de Rome as her father had done, and she worked tirelessly towards it in addition to her increasing teaching and performing commitments. She first submitted work for judging in 1906, but failed to make it past the first round. In 1907 she progressed to the final round but again did not win.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In late 1907 she was appointed to teach elementary piano and "accompagnement au piano" at the newly created Conservatoire Femina-Musica. She was also appointed as assistant to Henri Dallier, the professor of harmony at the Conservatoire.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In the 1908 Prix de Rome competition, Boulanger caused a stir by submitting an instrumental fugue rather than the required vocal fugue. The subject was taken up by the national and international newspapers, and was resolved only when the French Minister of Public Information decreed that Boulanger's work be judged on its musical merit alone. She won the Second Grand Prix for her cantata, "La Sirène".


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1908, as well as performing piano duets in public concerts, Boulanger and Pugno collaborated on composing a song cycle, "Les Heures claires", which was well-received enough to encourage them to continue working together. Still hoping for a Grand Prix de Rome, Boulanger entered the 1909 competition but failed to win a place in the final round. Later that year, her sister Lili, then sixteen, announced to the family her intention to become a composer and win the Prix de Rome herself.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1910, Annette Dieudonné became a student of Boulanger's, continuing with her for the next fourteen years. When her studies ended, she began teaching Boulanger's students the rudiments of music and solfège. She was Boulanger's close friend and assistant for the rest of her life.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Boulanger attended the premiere of Diaghilev's ballet "The Firebird" in Paris, with music by Stravinsky. She immediately recognised the young composer's genius and began a lifelong friendship with him.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In April 1912, Nadia Boulanger made her debut as a conductor, leading the "Société des Matinées Musicales" orchestra. They performed her 1908 cantata "La Sirène", two of her songs, and Pugno's "Concertstück" for piano and orchestra. The composer played as soloist.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: With the advent of war in Europe in 1914, public programs were reduced, and Boulanger had to put her performing and conducting on hold. She continued to teach privately and to assist Dallier at the Conservatoire. Nadia was drawn into Lili's expanding war work, and by the end of the year, the sisters had organised a sizable charity, the "Comité Franco-Américain du Conservatoire National de Musique et de Déclamation." It supplied items such as food, clothing, money, and letters from home to soldiers who had been musicians before the war.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Nadia struggled with the death of her sister and according to Jeanice Brooks, "[t]he dichotomy between private grief and public strength was strongly characteristic of Boulanger's frame of mind in the immediate aftermath of World War I. Guilt at surviving her talented sibling seems to have led to determination to deserve Lili's death, which Nadia framed as redemptive sacrifice, by throwing herself into work and domestic responsibility: as Nadia wrote in her datebook in January 1919, 'I place this new year before you, my little beloved Lili–may it see me fulfill my duty towards you–so that it is less terrible for Mother and that I try to resemble you.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1919, Boulanger performed in more than twenty concerts, often programming her own music and that of her sister. Since the Conservatoire Femina-Musica had closed during the war, Alfred Cortot and Auguste Mangeot founded a new music school in Paris, which opened later that year as the École normale de musique de Paris. Boulanger was invited by Cortot to join the school, where she taught classes in harmony, counterpoint, musical analysis, organ and composition.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Mangeot also asked Boulanger to contribute articles of music criticism to his paper "Le Monde Musical", and she occasionally provided articles for this and other newspapers for the rest of her life, though she never felt at ease setting her opinions down for posterity in this way.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1920, Boulanger began to compose again, writing a series of songs to words by Camille Mauclair. In 1921, she performed at two concerts in support of women's rights, both of which featured music by Lili. However later in life she claimed never to have been involved with feminism, and that women should not have the right to vote as they "lacked the necessary political sophistication."


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In the summer of 1921 the French Music School for Americans opened in Fontainebleau, with Boulanger listed on the programme as a professor of harmony. Her close friend Isidor Philipp headed the piano departments of both the Paris Conservatory and the new Fontainebleau School and was an important draw for American students. She inaugurated the custom, which would continue for the rest of her life, of inviting the best students to her summer residence at Gargenville one weekend for lunch and dinner. Among the students attending the first year at Fontainebleau was Aaron Copland.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Boulanger's unrelenting schedule of teaching, performing, composing, and writing letters started to take its toll on her health; she had frequent migraines and toothaches. She stopped writing as a critic for "Le Monde musical" as she could not attend the requisite concerts. To maintain her and her mother's living standards, she concentrated on teaching which was her most lucrative source of income. Fauré believed she was mistaken to stop composing, but she told him, "If there is one thing of which I am certain, it is that I wrote useless music."


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1924, Walter Damrosch, Arthur Judson and the New York Symphony Society arranged for Boulanger to tour the USA. She set sail on the Cunard flagship on Christmas Eve. The ship arrived on New Year's Eve in New York after an extremely rough crossing. During this tour, she performed solo organ works, pieces by Lili, and premiered Copland's new "Symphony for Organ and Orchestra", which he had written for her. She returned to France on 28 February 1925.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Later that year, Boulanger approached the publisher Schirmer to enquire if they would be interested in publishing her methods of teaching music to children. When nothing came of it, she abandoned trying to write about her ideas.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Gershwin visited Boulanger in 1927, asking for lessons in composition. They spoke for half an hour after which Boulanger announced, "I can teach you nothing." Taking this as a compliment, Gershwin repeated the story many times.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: The Great Depression increased social tensions in France. Days after the Stavisky riots in February 1934, and in the midst of a general strike, Boulanger resumed conducting. She made her Paris debut with the orchestra of the École normale in a programme of Mozart, Bach, and Jean Françaix. Boulanger's private classes continued; Elliott Carter recalled that students who did not dare to cross Paris through the riots showed only that they did not "take music seriously enough". By the end of the year, she was conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Paris in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with a programme of Bach, Monteverdi and Schütz.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Her mother Raissa died in March 1935, after a long decline. This freed Boulanger from some of her ties to Paris, which had prevented her from taking up teaching opportunities in the United States.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1936, Boulanger substituted for Alfred Cortot in some of his piano masterclasses, coaching the students in Mozart's keyboard works. Later in the year, she traveled to London to broadcast her lecture-recitals for the BBC, as well as to conduct works including Schütz, Fauré and Lennox Berkeley. Noted as the first woman to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra, she received acclaim for her performances.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Boulanger's long-held passion for Monteverdi culminated in her recording six discs of madrigals for HMV in 1937, which brought his music to a new, wider audience. Not all reviewers approved her use of modern instruments.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: When Hindemith published his "The Craft of Musical Composition", Boulanger asked him for permission to translate the text into French, and to add her own comments. Hindemith never responded to her offer. After he fled from Nazi Germany to the United States, they did not discuss the matter further.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Late in 1937, Boulanger returned to Britain to broadcast for the BBC and hold her popular lecture-recitals. In November, she became the first woman to conduct a complete concert of the Royal Philharmonic Society in London, which included Fauré's "Requiem" and Monteverdi's "Amor (Lamento della ninfa)". Describing her concerts, Mangeot wrote,


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: She never uses a dynamic level louder than mezzo-forte and she takes pleasure in veiled, murmuring sonorities, from which she nevertheless obtains great power of expression. She arranges her dynamic levels so as never to have need of fortissimo ...


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1938, Boulanger returned to the US for a longer tour. She had arranged to give a series of lectures at Radcliffe, Harvard, Wellesley and the Longy School of Music, and to broadcast for NBC. During this tour, she became the first woman to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In her three months there, she gave over a hundred lecture-recitals, recitals and concerts These included the world premiere of Stravinsky's "Dumbarton Oaks Concerto". At that time she was seen by American sculptor Katharine Lane Weems who recorded in her diary, "Her voice is surprisingly deep. She is quite slim with an excellent figure and fine features, Her skin is delicate, her hair graying slightly, she wears pince-nez and gesticulates as she becomes excited talking about music."


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: HMV issued two additional Boulanger records in 1938: the Piano Concerto in D by Jean Françaix, which she conducted; and the Brahms "Liebeslieder Waltzes", in which she and Dinu Lipatti were the duo pianists with a vocal ensemble, and (again with Lipatti) a selection of the Brahms Waltzes, Op. 39 for piano four hands.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: During Boulanger's tour of America the following year, she became the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Washington National Symphony Orchestra. She gave 102 lectures in 118 days across the US.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: As the Second World War loomed, Boulanger helped her students leave France. She made plans to do so herself. Stravinsky joined her at Gargenville, where they awaited news of the German attack against France. Waiting to leave France till the last moment before the invasion and occupation, Boulanger arrived in New York via Madrid and Lisbon on 6 November 1940.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: After her arrival, Boulanger traveled to the Longy School of Music in Cambridge to give classes in harmony, fugue, counterpoint and advanced composition. In 1942, she also began teaching at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Her classes included music history, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, orchestration and composition.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Leaving America at the end of 1945, she returned to France in January 1946. There she accepted a position of professor of "accompagnement au piano" at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1953, she was appointed overall director of the Fontainebleau School. She also continued her touring to other countries.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: As a long-standing friend of the family, and as official chapel-master to the Prince of Monaco, Boulanger was asked to organise the music for the wedding of Prince Rainier of Monaco and the American actress Grace Kelly in 1956. In 1958, she returned to the US for a six-week tour. She combined broadcasting, lecturing, and making four television films.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Also in 1958, she was inducted as an Honorary Member into Sigma Alpha Iota, the international women's music fraternity, by the Gamma Delta chapter at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1962, she toured Turkey, where she conducted concerts with her young protégée İdil Biret. Later that year, she was invited to the White House of the United States by President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, and in 1966, she was invited to Moscow to jury for the International Tchaikovsky Competition, chaired by Emil Gilels. While in England, she taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School. She also gave lectures at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, all of which were broadcast by the BBC.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Her eyesight and hearing began to fade toward the end of her life. On 13 August 1977, in advance of her 90th birthday, she was given a surprise birthday celebration at Fontainebleau's English Garden. The school's chef had prepared a large cake, on which was inscribed: "1887–Happy Birthday to you, Nadia Boulanger–Fontainebleau, 1977". When the cake was served, 90 small white candles floating on the pond illuminated the area. Boulanger's then-protégé, Emile Naoumoff, performed a piece he had composed for the occasion. Boulanger worked almost until her death in 1979 in Paris. She is buried at the Montmartre Cemetery with her sister Lili and their parents.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: I can tell whether a piece is well-made or not, and I believe that there are conditions without which masterpieces cannot be achieved, but I also believe that what defines a masterpiece cannot be pinned down. I won't say that the criterion for a masterpiece does not exist, but I don't know what it is. She claimed to enjoy all "good music". According to Lennox Berkeley, "A good waltz has just as much value to her as a good fugue, and this is because she judges a work solely on its aesthetic content." "She was an admirer of Debussy, and a disciple of Ravel. Although she bore little sympathy for Schoenberg and the Viennese dodecaphonicians, she was an ardent champion of Stravinsky."


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: She insisted on complete attention at all times: "Anyone who acts without paying attention to what he is doing is wasting his life. I'd go so far as to say that life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece."


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: In 1920, two of her favourite female students left her to marry. She thought they had betrayed their work with her and their obligation to music. Her attitude to women in music was contradictory: despite Lili's success and her own eminence as a teacher, she held throughout her life that a woman's duty was to be a wife and mother. According to Ned Rorem, she would "always give the benefit of the doubt to her male students while overtaxing the females". She saw teaching as a pleasure, a privilege and a duty: "No-one is obliged to give lessons. It poisons your life if you give lessons and it bores you."


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Boulanger accepted pupils from any background; her only criterion was that they had to want to learn. She treated students differently depending on their ability: her talented students were expected to answer the most rigorous questions and perform well under stress. The less able students, who did not intend to follow a career in music, were treated more leniently, and Michel Legrand claimed that the ones she disliked were graduated with a first prize in one year: "The good pupils never got a reward so they stayed. I was [there] for seven years. And I never obtained a first prize". Each student had to be approached differently: "When you accept a new pupil, the first thing is to try to understand what natural gift, what intuitive talent he has. Each individual poses a particular problem." "It does not matter what style you use, as long as you use it consistently." Boulanger used a variety of teaching methods, including traditional harmony, score reading at the piano, species counterpoint, analysis, and sight-singing (using fixed-Do solfège).


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: When she first looked at a student's score, she often commented on its relation to the work of a variety of composers: for example, "[T]hese measures have the same harmonic progressions as Bach's F major prelude and Chopin's F major Ballade. Can you not come up with something more interesting?" Virgil Thomson found this process frustrating: "Anyone who allowed her in any piece to tell him what to do next would see that piece ruined before his eyes by the application of routine recipes and bromides from standard repertory." Copland recalled that "she had but one all-embracing principle ... the creation of what she called "la grande ligne" – the long line in music." She disapproved of innovation for innovation's sake: "When you are writing music of your own, never strain to avoid the obvious." She said, "You need an established language and then, within that established language, the liberty to be yourself. It's always necessary to be yourself – that is a mark of genius in itself." Quincy Jones says Boulanger told him "Your music can never be more or less than you are as a human being".


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: She always claimed that she could not bestow creativity onto her students and that she could only help them to become intelligent musicians who understood the craft of composition. "I can't provide anyone with inventiveness, nor can I take it away; I can simply provide the liberty to read, to listen, to see, to understand." Only inspiration could make the difference between a well-made piece and an artistic one. She believed that the desire to learn, to become better, was all that was required to achieve – always provided the right amount of work was put in. She would quote the examples of Rameau (who wrote his first opera at fifty), Wojtowicz (who became a concert pianist at thirty-one), and Roussel (who had no professional access to music till he was twenty-five), as counter-arguments to the idea that great artists always develop out of gifted children.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Her memory was prodigious: by the time she was twelve, she knew the whole of Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" by heart. Students have described her as knowing every significant piece, by every significant composer. Copland recalls,


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Nadia Boulanger knew everything there was to know about music; she knew the oldest and the latest music, pre-Bach and post-Stravinsky. All technical know-how was at her fingertips: harmonic transposition, the figured bass, score reading, organ registration, instrumental techniques, structural analyses, the school fugue and the free fugue, the Greek modes and Gregorian chant.


title: Nadia Boulanger

text: Murray Perahia recalled being "awed by the rhythm and character" with which she played a line of a Bach fugue. Janet Craxton recalled listening to Boulanger's playing Bach chorales on the piano as "the single greatest musical experience of my life".


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Caleb Sylvester Swanigan (April 18, 1997 – June 20, 2022) was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Purdue Boilermakers. He was ranked among the top prep players in the national class of 2015 by Rivals.com, Scout.com and ESPN. He completed his senior season in the 2014–15 academic year for Homestead High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who went on to win the first state championship in the school's history. Swanigan was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball and a McDonald's All-American.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Swanigan originally committed to Michigan State University, but later decommitted and committed to Purdue University. He was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week three times, a record at Purdue. He was also named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team and also received a National Freshman of the Week award. Swanigan finished the season with 10.2 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: During his sophomore year, Swanigan was named the Big Ten Player of the Year and first-team All-Big Ten, and was a unanimous first-team All-American. He was a finalist for the 2017 Karl Malone Award, given to the nation's top power forward. He was selected 26th overall in the first round of the 2017 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. Over his three-year NBA career, Swanigan had two stints with the Trail Blazers; he also played for the Sacramento Kings.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Swanigan grew up in an unstable home due to his father, Carl Swanigan Sr., who had a crack cocaine addiction. Swanigan's mother, Tanya, had six children. Swanigan moved between Utah and Indianapolis during his youth, spending time in homeless shelters.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Swanigan inherited two key features from his biological father—height and a tendency to obesity. The elder Swanigan, who died in 2014 from complications from diabetes, was and weighed nearly at his death. By the time Swanigan was entering eighth grade, he was and . His father had many brushes with the law, battled drug addiction for most of his adult life, and physically assaulted his wife. According to a story in "Bleacher Report", he was accidentally dropped by his mother as an infant, leaving a bruise on his face; this incident led her to move with her children to Salt Lake City. For the next decade, the family bounced between Indianapolis and Utah; he recalled that he lived in five different homeless shelters and attended 13 different schools by the time he was 13.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: When his mother decided to move the family to Houston, his older brother Carl Jr., concerned that Caleb would keep gaining weight if he moved with his mother, called his former AAU basketball coach, Roosevelt Barnes, a former three-sport star at Purdue who played on the school's 1980 Final Four team and now a successful sports agent. Barnes, living in Fort Wayne, Indiana, agreed to take Caleb in if he could adopt him and raise him as his own son. Barnes adopted Swanigan prior to his 8th grade year. Barnes addressed Swanigan's eating habits and, after receiving clearance from a cardiologist, began putting him through workouts similar to those Barnes himself went through in college. By the time Swanigan finished high school, he had slimmed down to .


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: In the fall of 2011, Swanigan attended a basketball camp led by NBA former coach John Lucas after Barnes convinced Lucas to let him into the invite-only camp in Louisville. When it came to selecting his high school, Swanigan's guardian Barnes said, "When he chose his high school, his high school had never really done much in the tournament, and his goal was to win a state championship at a school where that had never been done before." Swanigan attended Homestead High School and wore the same number as Barnes, number 44.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: As a senior, he was named Indiana Mr. Basketball and led Homestead to a first-ever state title. He was ranked as a top-20 national prospect in his class. He was named a McDonald's All-American. Swanigan averaged 22.6 points and 13.7 rebounds as a senior. Academically, Swanigan maintained a 3.1 GPA and graduated in three years instead of the usual four.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Swanigan finished his career at Homestead with records for career points (1,649) and rebounds (1,048), as well as the single season points (704) and rebounding records (424). He was also second all time for career blocks (106) and assists (204).


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Swanigan qualified for the 2014 U17 World Championship Team, beating out twenty other players vying for a spot to make the 12-man squad. Swanigan played in the U17 World Championship Game. The team finished with a 7–0 record and earned a gold medal in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, extending the USA's total record at the U17 World Championship Game to 23–0. He finished the series with 8.0 points per game and 5.7 rebounds per game, and was the most efficient player on the U17 team, with a 69.6 shooting percentage.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Before starting his freshman season at Purdue, on June 18, 2015, Swanigan was announced as a member of the 12-man 2015 USA Basketball Men's U19 World Championship Team for the 2015 FIBA Under-19 World Championship that won a gold medal in Heraklion, Crete. On making the team, Swanigan said, "I always set goals for myself. I set goals for this spring. One of my goals is to make this team to end my high school career." To prepare for the games, Swanigan played in the Nike Hoop Summit, the McDonald's All American Game, and the Jordan Brand Classic. Swanigan did not take part in the Indiana-Kentucky All Star Game so he could attend the U19 training camp. He was one of five players returning from the gold medal-winning U17 squad. Swanigan's teammate Vince Edwards was also in the running to make the team, but was cut at the round of 16. The team finished 7–0, and Swanigan averaged 6.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Swanigan had several teams recruit him and offer scholarships; Arizona, Kentucky, Cal, and Duke were among the schools that gave Swanigan an offer. Caleb Swanigan verbally committed to Michigan State on April 10, 2015, but decommitted on May 7. He said, "I just felt like it was better basketball-wise for me." Similar to his high school decision, Barnes said, "He wants to win a national championship and said he wants to do it in the state of Indiana and wanted to do it at a place he's never done it before." Some people believe Barnes had ulterior motives in adopting Swanigan, to which Barnes said, "Maybe if I wanted to develop the next hot-dog-eating champion, the next Joey Chestnut, people would have a legitimate gripe." Swanigan had not consulted Barnes before he committed to Michigan State, and some believe that since Barnes played sports at Purdue he was a major influence in Swanigan decommitting from Michigan State. Barnes said that was not the reason Swanigan switched, and the primary reason for Swanigan choosing Purdue was the presence of two centers that were taller than 7', Isaac Haas and A.J. Hammons, which allowed Swanigan to play the 4 spot.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: He decided to stay in-state and chose Purdue on May 19. Swanigan announced his decision by tweeting "#BoilerUp". Swanigan was Purdue's first Indiana's Mr. Basketball recruit since Glenn Robinson in 1991, and was the first McDonald's All-American for Purdue since 1996. Swanigan joined Ryan Cline and Grant Weatherford in Purdue's 2015 recruiting class.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Swanigan chose to major in general education/educational studies. Swanigan chose the number 50 to honor his father who had died at 50 years old. Swanigan started every game his freshman year. His highest scoring game was in a win against Wisconsin in Purdue's last regular season game, where he scored 27 points and missed only one shot from the field. He scored 6 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in #4 Purdue's loss to #13 Arkansas-Little Rock, and did not play at all during the overtime period.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: After his freshman season, Swanigan was one out of 162 underclassmen to enter their names for the 2016 NBA Draft. However, despite being one of 63 invitees for the NBA Draft Combine that year, he ultimately decided to return to college on May 25, which was also the new date set for players to withdraw their names from the draft and try again for another year. An NBA scout said, "I think he has a chance if he can improve his jump shot and help defense. Big-time rebounder, works hard on his own. He's still more undersized center than power forward, though."


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Swanigan set several records as a freshman. He was ranked as a top-10 freshman nationally. He set Purdue program records for most rebounds by a freshman (282), games started (34), double-doubles (8), and rebounds per game (8.3). He was also the first major-college player in 25 years that had 600 points, 400 rebounds, and 100 assists in a season.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Similar to his freshman year, Swanigan started every game as a sophomore. Swanigan set his personal record for points against Norfolk State with 32, with an 83% field goal, 33% three point, and 90% free throw percentage. Swanigan also managed to grab 20 rebounds, making it one of his four games with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds that year.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: As of March 6, 2017, Swanigan was second in the nation in rebounds per game (12.6) and led the nation in double doubles (25) for the 2016–17 season. He was rated first in CBS National Player of the Year voting. In his sophomore season, Swanigan broke several Purdue records, including rebounds in a season, double-doubles in a season, and an NCAA record with four 20–20 performances. Purdue finished as the regular season Big Ten Champions, but were knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament by Michigan, the eventual tournament champions. In the Sweet Sixteen, Purdue paired off against Kansas. Swanigan was 3 for 4 from the three point line, finishing with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Purdue ended their tournament run in a loss to the Jayhawks, 98–66.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Purdue entered the tournament as the 4th seed in the Midwest bracket and played Vermont in the first round. Purdue came away with an 80–70 win for their first tournament win in five years, with Swanigan posting a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Purdue continued its tournament run against Iowa State in the second round. Swanigan nearly got a triple-double with 20 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists in Purdue's 80–76 win.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: At the conclusion of the season, Swanigan announced he would declare for the NBA draft and not hire an agent, therefore maintaining his college eligibility for at least one more year, if necessary. Swanigan was expected to go in the late first or early second round of the NBA draft. Swanigan finished his academic career with a 3.60 GPA during his last semester, and maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.34.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: As a sophomore, Swanigan continued to set records at Purdue. He broke the school single season record for rebounds, surpassing Joe Barry Carroll's record that was set in 1979 by recording a rebound against Penn State in their February 21, 2017, matchup. Swanigan broke the single season record for double-doubles at Purdue against #25 Northwestern by recording his 19th double-double. All Big Ten players combined for the last twenty years have two 20–20 games, and Swanigan had four in a single season. On June 22, 2020, the Big Ten Network named Swanigan to the "All-Decade Basketball Team", placing him on their Third Team. Swanigan was one of 16 players honored by the Network for accomplishments between 2010 and 2019.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: On June 22, 2017, Swanigan was drafted in the first round (26th overall) by the Portland Trail Blazers. On July 3, 2017, Swanigan signed with the Portland Trail Blazers. On being drafted, Swanigan said: "Being selected tonight in the NBA Draft is a dream come true. I have been thinking of this moment for a long time. I know this is only the first step in my professional career, but I am extremely excited for to begin this journey". Painter said, "We are thrilled that Biggie has achieved his lifelong dream of being selected in the NBA Draft. It’s been an incredibly tough road for him to get to this point and no one deserves it more than he does". Swanigan was the first Purdue basketball player to be drafted at the sophomore level or lower. During the 2017 NBA Summer League, Swanigan earned All-Summer League First Team honors for leading the Trail Blazers into the Summer League Finals, despite not winning the final.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Swanigan received his first NBA G League assignment, starting December 22, 2017, with the Canton Charge. On February 4, 2018, Portland recalled Swanigan back to the Trail Blazers. On December 30, he was assigned again to the G League, this time with the Texas Legends.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: On February 7, 2019, Swanigan was traded to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Skal Labissière. He was assigned to the G League franchise the Stockton Kings on December 16.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: On January 20, 2020, Swanigan was traded back to the Portland Trail Blazers along with Trevor Ariza and Wenyen Gabriel in exchange for Kent Bazemore, Anthony Tolliver and two future second-round picks. He opted out of playing with the Trail Blazers in the 2020 NBA Bubble due to personal reasons.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Following his departure from the NBA, Swanigan was charged with misdemeanor drug possession in 2021. A photo went viral around that time which showed he had regained significant weight. The photo and Damian Lillard's defense of Swanigan against online criticism received significant media coverage.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: On June 20, 2022, Swanigan died in a Fort Wayne, Indiana hospital at age 25. The Allen County Coroner's Office reported that Swanigan "died of natural causes".


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: Swanigan was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball and also was selected as a McDonald's All-American. He was selected as the Gatorade Player of the Year and the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association Underclass All-State first team. He was the All-USA Today Indiana Player of the year, and was selected to the Associated Press All-State Third Team.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: In his freshman year, Swanigan earned the Big Ten Freshman of the week three times, a school record. He was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. Swanigan was also named the National Freshman of the Week on March 8, 2016.


title: Caleb Swanigan

text: During his sophomore season, Swanigan was selected to the Preseason All-Big Ten Team. Swanigan received the Big Ten Player of the Week award six times, the second most in a season in conference history. Swanigan also was selected unanimously for the Big Ten Player of the Year in the coaches poll, the fourth in Purdue's history, and the AP Big Ten Player of the Year. He was named the Basketball Times National Player of the Year and to five All-America teams: USBWA, Sporting News, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports. Swanigan was named the Lute Olsen National Player of the Week two times. He was also the Naismith Trophy Player of the Week and Academic All-District. Swanigan was a top-four finalist for the Naismith Award, the player of the year award, joining Lonzo Ball, Frank Mason, and Josh Hart. Swanigan was also an Academic All-American for maintaining a 3.3 GPA. Swanigan was a unanimous selection for First Team All Big Ten in both the coaches and media polls.


title: Love Like the Galaxy

text: Love Like the Galaxy () is a 2022 Chinese television series based on the novel, "Xing Han Can Lan, Xing Shen Zhi Zai" (星汉灿烂, 幸甚至哉) by Guan Xin Ze Luan (关心则乱). It stars Wu Lei and Zhao Lusi. The series is split into two parts, with first part starting on July 5, 2022. The second part premiered on July 27, 2022.


title: Love Like the Galaxy

text: The story revolves around Cheng Shao Shang, who was left behind by her parents when they went to war. As a result, she was raised by her scheming aunt and ignorant grandmother. In order to protect herself from the constant abuse and mistreatment, she honed herself to be extra diligent.


title: Love Like the Galaxy

text: The plot starts with the return of Shao Shang's parents. At first, she hopes that her life will improve after reuniting with them. However, years of estrangement have made it difficult for them to become family. As she lacked love her whole life, Cheng Shao Shang is both pragmatic and insecure when it comes to opening up her feelings to others.


title: Love Like the Galaxy

text: She soon meets the emperor's adopted son, Ling Bu Yi, whom she views as a cold and ruthless person in the beginning. However, that notion changes as she continually finds herself involved with him. Through her interactions with Ling Bu Yi, she unintentionally becomes involved in the mystery surrounding his family and his identity.


title: Love Like the Galaxy

text: The highest single-day streaming viewership of the first part of "Love Like the Galaxy" exceeded 200 million views.


title: Love Like the Galaxy

text: As of August 2 of the same year, the 2nd part of the series had a single-day maximum streaming viewership of 300 million views.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the coup of July 1958.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Iraqi Army in its modern form was first created by the United Kingdom during the inter-war period of "de facto" British control of Mandatory Iraq. Following the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces in 2003, the Iraqi Army was rebuilt along U.S. lines with enormous amounts of U.S. military assistance at every level. Because of the Iraqi insurgency that began shortly after the invasion, the Iraqi Army was later designed to initially be a counter-insurgency force. With the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2010, Iraqi forces have assumed full responsibility for their own security. A "New York Times" article suggested that, between 2004 and 2014, the U.S. had provided the Iraqi Army with $25 billion in training and equipment in addition to an even larger sum from the Iraqi treasury.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Army extensively collaborated with Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces during anti-ISIL operations.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The modern Iraqi armed forces were established by the United Kingdom during their mandate over Iraq after World War I. Before that, from 1533 to 1918, Iraq was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and fought as part of the Military of the Ottoman Empire. At first, the British created the Iraq Levies, comprising several battalions of troops whose main mission was to garrison the bases of the Royal Air Force (RAF) with which London controlled Iraq. The Levies were adequate for their intended mission of defending airfields of RAF Iraq Command, but the threat of war with the newly forming Republic of Turkey forced the British to expand Iraq's indigenous military forces.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Ankara claimed the Ottoman "vilayet" of Mosul as part of their country, during their resistance to the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. This province corresponds to the northern third of modern Iraq, mainly Iraqi Kurdistan, and includes the rich oilfields of Kirkuk. In 1920, Turkish troops penetrated into Iraqi Kurdistan and forced out small British garrisons out of as-Sulaymaniyyah and Rawanduz in eastern Kurdistan. This led the British to form the Iraqi Army on 6 January 1921 (later to be marked as Iraqi Army Day), followed by the Iraqi Air Force in 1927. The British recruited former Ottoman officers to man junior and middle ranks of the new Iraqi officer corps, with senior commands being manned by British officers, as well as most training positions.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Musa al-Kadhim Brigade consisted of ex-Iraqi-Ottoman officers, whose barracks were located in Kadhimyah. The United Kingdom provided support and training to the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Air Force through a small military mission based in Baghdad; providing weapons and training to defeat the anticipated Turkish invasion of northern Iraq.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In August 1921, the British installed Hashemite King Faisal I as the client ruler of Mandatory Iraq. Faisal had been forced out as the King of Syria by the French in the aftermath of the Franco-Syrian War in 1920. Likewise, British authorities selected Sunni Arab elites from the region for appointments to government and ministry offices in Iraq. The British and the Iraqis formalized the relationship between the two nations with the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1922. With Faisal's ascension to the throne, the Iraqi Army became the Royal Iraqi Army (RIrA).


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In 1922, the army totalled 3,618 men. This was well below the 6,000 men requested by the Iraqi monarchy and even less than the limit set by the British of 4,500. Unattractive salaries hindered early recruiting efforts. At this time, the United Kingdom maintained the right to levy local forces like the British-officered Iraq Levies which were under direct British control. With a strength of 4,984 men, the Iraq Levies outnumbered the army.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In 1924, the army grew to 5,772 men and, by the following year, had grown even more to reach 7,500 men - maintaining this size until 1933. The force's order of battle consisted of:


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: By the late 1920s, the threat of Turkish attack diminished, with the Iraqi army refocusing on new, internal missions. While the British command still worried about both Turkish and Persian encroachment on the Iraqi territory - as both of these states were considerably more cohesive and with superior armies -, the new focus shifted towards internal security against centrifugal forces menacing to breakdown the country. Those threats to the integrity of the nascent Iraqi state were separatist revolts by the Kurds and by the powerful tribes of western and southern Iraq. The British concluded the Iraqi army was not capable of handling either the Turks or the Persians, with the RAF (supported by the Iraq Levies) shouldering the full responsibility for external defense. Henceforth, the Iraqi army was increasingly relegated to internal security duties. Nevertheless, the army enjoyed considerable prestige, with the country's elites seeing the army as a national consolidating force:


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: With the majority under control, the unruly tribes kept in line and a national identity across the heterogeneous population, the army would serve as a modernizing and socializing force that would help to weld together the backward Ottoman "vilayets" into a modern, unified Iraqi nation.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: There were doubts about the army's actual capabilities, however. In 1928, the number of British officers commanding Iraqi units was increased because Iraqi officers were slow to adapt to modern warfare. The army's first real test occurred in 1931, when Kurdish leader Ahmed Barzani unified a number of Kurdish tribes and rose up in open revolt. Iraqi army units were badly mauled by tribesmen under Shaykhs Mahmud and Mustafa Barzani. The Iraqi army's dismal performance did not impress, and the situation required the intervention of British troops to restore order.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In 1932, the Kingdom of Iraq was granted official independence. This was in accordance with the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930, whereby the United Kingdom would end its official mandate on the condition that the Iraqi government would allow British advisers to take part in government affairs, allow British military bases to remain, and a requirement that Iraq assist the United Kingdom in wartime.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The new state was weak and the regime survived for only four years, when it was toppled in a "coup d'état" in 1936. Upon achieving independence in 1932, political tensions arose over the continued British presence in Iraq, with Iraq's government and politicians split between those considered pro-British and those who were considered anti-British. The pro-British faction was represented by politicians such as Nuri as-Said who did not oppose a continued British presence. The anti-British faction was represented by politicians such as Rashid Ali al-Gaylani who demanded that remaining British influence in the country be removed. In 1936, General Bakr Sidqi, who had won a reputation from suppressing tribal revolts (and also responsible for the ruthless Simele massacre), was named Chief of the General Staff and successfully pressured King Ghazi bin Faisal to demand that the Cabinet resign. From that year to 1941, five army coups occurred during each year led by the chief officers of the army against the government to pressure the government to concede to Army demands.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In early April 1941, during World War II, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and members of the anti-British "Golden Square" launched a "coup d'état" against the current government. Prime Minister Taha al-Hashimi resigned and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani took his place as Prime Minister. Rashid Ali also proclaimed himself chief of a "National Defence Government." He did not overthrow the monarchy, but installed a more compliant regent. He also attempted to restrict the rights of the British which were granted them under the 1930 treaty.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Although Iraq was nominally independent, Britain "de facto" still governed the country, exercising veto over Iraqi foreign and national security policy. The Iraqi high command saw the opportunity to rid themselves of their colonial master when Britain saw itself in a vulnerable position against Nazi Germany. The "golpistas" were supported by the pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, the German ambassador Dr. Fritz Grobba and Arab guerrilla leader Fawzi al-Qawuqji.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: On April 30, Iraqi Army units took the high ground to the south of RAF Habbaniya. An Iraqi envoy was sent to demand that no movements, either ground or air, were to take place from the base. The British refused the demand and then themselves demanded that the Iraqi units leave the area at once. In addition, the British landed forces at Basra and the Iraqis demanded that these forces be removed.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: At 0500 hours on 2 May 1941, the Anglo-Iraqi War broke out between the British and Rashid Ali's new government when the British at RAF Habbaniya launched air strikes against the Iraqis. By this time, the army had grown significantly. It had four infantry divisions with some 60,000 men. At full strength, each division had three infantry brigades (3 battalions each) plus supporting units - including artillery brigades. The Iraqi 1st and 3rd Divisions were stationed in Baghdad. The 2nd Division was stationed in Kirkuk, and the 4th Division was in Al Diwaniyah, on the main rail line from Baghdad to Basra.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: All these "mechanized" infantry units were transported by trucks. The authorized manpower of the Iraqi Infantry Brigades at full strength were of 26 officers and 820 other ranks, 46 Bren light machine guns; 8 Vickers heavy machine guns (in two platoons of 4 MGs each) and 4 anti-air Lewis guns.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Hostilities between the British and the Iraqis lasted from 2 May to 30 May 1941. The German government despatched an aviation unit, Fliegerführer Irak, and Italy send limited assistance, but both were too late and far from adequate. Britain pulled together a small force from its armies in the Levant, which handily defeated the much larger but thoroughly incompetent Iraqi army and air force, marched on Baghdad and ousted the military commanders (that were sentenced to death by hanging) and their prime minister, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani. In their place the British re-installed Nuri as-Said, which dominated the politics of Iraq until the overthrow of the monarchy and his assassination in 1958. Nuri as-Said pursued a largely pro-western policy during this period. The army was not disbanded, however. Instead, it was maintained to hinder possible German offensive actions launched from southern Russia.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The 1948 Arab–Israeli War was the first combat experience of independent Iraqi forces after the Second World War, and its first war outside its territory. Baghdad joined the Arab states in their opposition to the creation of the Jewish national homeland in Palestine, and in May 1948 sent a sizeable force to help crush the recently independent state of Israel. The Iraqi Army by then boasted 21,000 men in 12 brigades, with the Royal Iraqi Air Force having a force of 100 aircraft (mostly British); sending initially 5,000 men in four infantry brigades and an armoured battalion with corresponding support personnel. Iraq continuously continuously sent reinforcements to its expeditionary force, peaking at 15–18,000 men. Iraq also contributed 2,500 volunteers to the Arab Liberation Army (ALA), an irregular force commanded by the former Ottoman officer Fawzi al-Qawuqji.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Before the Arab League resolution to attack Israel, the ALA was used to fight the Jewish settlements, launching its first offensive in February 1948.> With a force around 6,000 men it was mainly organized by Syria, with 2,500 Syrian volunteers providing a third of the force, with another third provided by the Iraqis; the rest being Arab Palestinians, Lebanese and other Muslims. Its commander Fawzi was also Syrian, with the costs being paid by members of the Arab League.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Iraqi forces received their baptism of fire with the ALA defending Zefat in April and May 1948. A force of 600 Syrian and Iraqi ALA irregulars were sent to defend this key town, which controlled access between the Huleh Valley and the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret). Zefat was protected by two police forts built into the rock of the hills, forming a formidable position; and also a priority target for the Haganah. The strength of the natural position allowed the ALA, together with some local Arab militiamen, to defeat two Israeli attacks by elements of the Golani Brigade in April. The Israelis brought a new battalion in May and immediately took one of the forts. With the arrival of another battalion, the Israelis assaulted the town itself under cover of mortar fire but the Arabs succeeded in forcing back repeated assaults. Four days after the first attack in the town, the Israelis attacked at night under cover of a rainstorm and surprised the defenders. The Arabs resisted fiercely and forced the Israelis to fight house to house but ultimately were ejected from the town. After this defeat, the Arab force gave up the last police fort without a fight and withdrew.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: On 25 April, the Israeli Irgun Zvi Leumi assaulted the Arab town of Jaffa with 600 men, initiating Operation Hametz, but were stopped cold by a similar-sized force of Iraqi ALA irregulars in house to house combat; forcing the Irgun to ask for help from the Haganah after two days of fighting. Heavy fighting continued with British units intervening on behalf of the Arabs and losing a number of tanks against Irgun ambushes. Jaffa would fall to the Israelis on 13 May.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: On 29 April, units of the élite Palmach assaulted positions on the Katamon Ridge south of Jerusalem held by Iraqi ALA irregulars. The Palmach secured a foothold with a surprise night attack that took the monastery dominating the ridge. In the morning the Iraqis launched a furious counterattack that evolved into an extremely tough fight, but eventually the Iraqis called off their attack to regroup; at noon the Israelis were reinforced by another battalion. This new balance of combat power lead the exhausted and bloodied Iraqis to decide they did not possess the strength to dislodge the Israelis, and they retired from the field. After these defeats, the ALA took several months to resume operations, but by then most of its Iraqi contingent had joined the main Iraqi expeditionary force that had arrived in northern Samaria.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The first Iraqi forces of the expeditionary force reached Transjordan in early April 1948, with one infantry brigade and a supporting armoured battalion under the command of General Nur ad-Din Mahmud. On 15 May, Iraqi engineers built a pontoon bridge across the Jordan River, allowing the combat units to cross into Palestine. Over 3,000 Iraqi soldiers with armor and air support were unable to defeat less than 50 lightly armed Jewish defenders. After the crossing, the Iraqis immediately launched a frontal assault against the Israeli settlement of Gesher, only to be quickly driven back. The Iraq army tried again the next day, with their armour attacking from the south and their infantry from the north. The double envelopment was poorly implemented - lacking infantry-tank coordination - which left the Israelis with the breathing space to redeploy their small force along internal lines and defeat each attack in turn. The Iraqis launched clumsy frontal assaults, with the unprotected tanks and armoured cars being easily destroyed by AT hunter-killer teams. Several days later, Mahmud tried to attack another Jewish settlement in the same area, but the troops didn't scout their route properly and got ambushed before they could even reach the target settlement. These defeats convinced the Iraqi army to abandon this sector of the front and try their luck elsewhere.