title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: Beginning in 1875, numerous Native American prisoners were held at the fort in the aftermath of the Indian Wars in the west. Many would die at the fort. Among the captives were Chief White Horse of the Kiowa, and Chief Grey Beard of the southern Cheyenne.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: During this period, Richard Henry Pratt, a Civil War veteran, supervised the prisoners and upgraded the conditions for them. He removed the prisoners' shackles and allowed them out of the casemates where they had been confined. He developed ways to give the men more autonomy and attempted to organize educational and cultural programs for them. They became a center of interest to northerners vacationing in St. Augustine, who included teachers and missionaries. Pratt recruited volunteers to teach the Indian prisoners English, the Christian religion, and elements of American culture. He and most US officials believed that such assimilation was needed for the Indians' survival in the changing society.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: The men were also encouraged to make art; they created hundreds of drawings. Some of the collection of Ledger Art by Fort Marion artists is held by the Smithsonian Institution. It may be viewed online.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: Encouraged by the men's progress in education, residents and visitors to St. Augustine raised funds for scholarships to support nearly 20 of the former prisoners in college after they were released from Ft. Marion. Seventeen men attended the Hampton Institute, a historically black college established in 1868 for freedmen by the American Missionary Association.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: Others were sponsored and educated in New York State at private colleges. Among the latter were David Pendleton Oakerhater, as he became known, who was sponsored by US Senator George H. Pendleton (D-OH) and his wife. Oakerhater studied and later was ordained as an Episcopal priest. He returned to the West to work as a missionary with Indian tribes. He was later recognized by the Episcopal Church as a saint.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: Pratt's experiences at Fort Marion were the basis for his campaign to create American Indian boarding schools. He was authorized to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1879, which became a model for other government-funded boarding schools established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It operated until 1918. At their peak, some 350-450 schools were established, and only 25 were off-reservation.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: From 1886 to 1887, approximately 491 Apaches were held prisoner at Fort Marion; many were of the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apache bands from Arizona. There were 82 men and the rest were women and children. Among the men, 14, including Chatto, had previously been paid scouts for the US Army. Among the Chiricahua were members of the notable chief Geronimo's band, including his wife. Geronimo was sent to Fort Pickens, in violation of his agreed terms of surrender. While at the fort, many of the prisoners had to camp in tents, as there was not sufficient space for them. At least 24 Apache died as prisoners and were buried in North Beach.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: In 1898, over 200 deserters from the Spanish–American War were imprisoned at the fort. This marked one of the last uses of the fort as an operational base. In 1900, the fort was taken off the active duty rolls after 205 years of service under five different flags.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: In 1924, the fort was designated as a National Monument. In 1933 it was transferred to the National Park Service from the War Department.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: In 1942, in honor of its Spanish heritage, Congress authorized renaming the fort as "Castillo de San Marcos". As an historic property of the National Park Service, the National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on October 15, 1966. The National Park Service manages the Castillo together with Fort Matanzas National Monument. In 1975, the Castillo was designated an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: Since being transferred to the Park Service, the Castillo has become a popular tourist attraction. It occupies in downtown St. Augustine, Florida.


title: Castillo de San Marcos

text: The fort has been featured on many television shows including "Monumental Mysteries" and "Ghost Adventures", as well as the 1951 film "Distant Drums".


title: John Wilkes

text: John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of his voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives. In 1768, angry protests of his supporters were suppressed in the Massacre of St George's Fields. In 1771, he was instrumental in obliging the government to concede the right of printers to publish verbatim accounts of parliamentary debates. In 1776, he introduced the first bill for parliamentary reform in the British Parliament.


title: John Wilkes

text: During the American War of Independence, he was a supporter of the American rebels, adding further to his popularity with American Whigs. In 1780, however, he commanded militia forces which helped put down the Gordon Riots, damaging his popularity with many radicals. This marked a turning point, leading him to embrace increasingly conservative policies which caused dissatisfaction among the radical low-to-middle income landowners. This was instrumental in the loss of his Middlesex parliamentary seat in the 1790 general election. At the age of 65, Wilkes retired from politics and took no part in the social reforms following the French Revolution, such as Catholic Emancipation in the 1790s. During his life, he earned a reputation as a libertine.


title: John Wilkes

text: Born in the Clerkenwell neighborhood of central London, John Wilkes was the third child of distiller Israel Wilkes Jr. and Sarah Wilkes, "née" Heaton. His siblings included: eldest sister Sarah Wilkes, born 1721; elder brother Israel Wilkes III (1722–1805); younger brother Heaton Wilkes (1727–1803); younger sister Mary Hayley, "née" Wilkes (1728–1808); and youngest sister Ann Wilkes (1736–1750), who died from smallpox at the age of 14.


title: John Wilkes

text: John Wilkes was educated initially at an academy in Hertford; this was followed by private tutoring and finally a stint at the University of Leiden in the Dutch Republic. There he met Andrew Baxter, a Presbyterian clergyman who greatly influenced Wilkes' views on religion. Although Wilkes remained in the Church of England throughout his life, he had a deep sympathy for non-conformist Protestants and was an advocate of religious tolerance from an early age. Wilkes was also beginning to develop a deep patriotism for his country. During the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, he rushed home to London to join a Loyal Association and readied to defend the capital. Once the rebellion had ended after the Battle of Culloden, Wilkes returned to the Netherlands to complete his studies.


title: John Wilkes

text: In 1747, he married Mary Meade (1715–1784) and came into possession of an estate and income in Buckinghamshire. They had one child, Mary (known as Polly), to whom John was utterly devoted for the rest of his life. Wilkes and Mary, however, separated in 1756, a separation that became permanent. Wilkes never married again, but he gained a reputation as a rake. He was known to have fathered two other children, John Henry Smith and Harriet Wilkes.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1749 and appointed High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1754. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Berwick in the 1754 parliamentary elections but was elected for Aylesbury in 1757 and again in 1761. Elections took place at St Mary the Virgin's Church, Aylesbury where he held a manorial pew. He lived at the Prebendal House, Parsons Fee, Aylesbury.


title: John Wilkes

text: He was a member of the Knights of St Francis of Wycombe, also known as the Hellfire Club or the "Medmenham Monks", and was the instigator of a prank that may have hastened its dissolution. The club had many distinguished members, including John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich and Sir Francis Dashwood. Wilkes reportedly brought a mandrill, dressed in a cape and horns and his natural features made even more striking with daubs of phosphorus, into the rituals performed at the club, producing considerable mayhem among the inebriated initiates.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes was notoriously ugly, being called the ugliest man in England at the time. He possessed an unsightly squint and protruding jaw, but he had a charm that carried all before it. He boasted that it "took him only half an hour to talk away his face", though the duration required changed on the several occasions Wilkes repeated the claim. He also declared that "a month's start of his rival on account of his face" would secure him the conquest in any love affair.


title: John Wilkes

text: He was well known for his verbal wit and his snappy responses to insults. For instance, when told by a constituent that he would rather vote for the devil, Wilkes responded: "Naturally." He then added: "And if your friend decides against standing, can I count on your vote?"


title: John Wilkes

text: In an exchange with John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, where the latter exclaimed, "Sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox," Wilkes is reported to have replied, "That depends, my lord, on whether I embrace your lordship's principles or your mistress." Fred R. Shapiro, in "The Yale Book of Quotations" (2006), disputes the attribution based on a claim that it first appeared in a book published in 1935, but it is ascribed to Wilkes in Henry Brougham's "Historical Sketches" (1844), related from Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk, who claims to have been present, as well as in Charles Marsh's "Clubs of London" (1828). Brougham notes the exchange had in France previously been ascribed to Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau and Cardinal Jean-Sifrein Maury.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes began his parliamentary career as a follower of William Pitt the Elder and enthusiastically supported Britain's involvement in the Seven Years War of 1756–1763. When the Scottish John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, came to head the government in 1762, Wilkes started a radical weekly publication, "The North Briton", to attack him, using an anti-Scots tone. Typical of Wilkes, the title made satirical reference to the pro-government newspaper, "The Briton", with "North Briton" referring to Scotland. Wilkes became particularly incensed by what he regarded as Bute's betrayal in agreeing to overly generous peace terms with France to end the war.


title: John Wilkes

text: On 5 October 1762, Wilkes fought a duel with William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot. Talbot was the Lord Steward and a follower of Bute; he challenged Wilkes to a pistol duel after being ridiculed in issue 12 of "The North Briton". The encounter took place at Bagshot – at night to avoid attracting judicial attention. At a range of eight yards, Talbot and Wilkes both fired their pistols but neither was hit. Somewhat reconciled, they then went to a nearby inn and shared a bottle of claret. When the affair later became widely known, some viewed it as comical, and a satirical print made fun of the duelists. Some commentators even denounced the duel as a stunt, stage-managed to enhance the reputations of both men.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes faced a charge of seditious libel over attacks on George III's speech endorsing the Paris Peace Treaty of 1763 at the opening of Parliament on 23 April 1763. Wilkes was highly critical of the King's speech, which was recognised as having been written by Bute . He attacked it in an article of issue 45 of "The North Briton". The issue number in which Wilkes published his critical editorial was appropriate because the number 45 was synonymous with the Jacobite Rising of 1745, commonly known as "The '45". Popular perception associated Bute – Scottish, and politically controversial as an adviser to the King – with Jacobitism, a perception which Wilkes played on.


title: John Wilkes

text: The King felt personally insulted and ordered the issuing of general warrants for the arrest of Wilkes and the publishers on 30 April 1763. Forty-nine people, including Wilkes, were arrested, but general warrants were unpopular and Wilkes gained considerable popular support as he asserted their unconstitutionality. At his court hearing he claimed that parliamentary privilege protected him, as an MP, from arrest on a charge of libel. The Lord Chief Justice ruled that parliamentary privilege did indeed protect him and he was soon restored to his seat. Wilkes sued his arresters for trespass. As a result of this episode, people were chanting, "Wilkes, Liberty and Number 45", referring to the newspaper. Parliament swiftly voted in a measure that removed protection of MPs from arrest for the writing and publishing of seditious libel.


title: John Wilkes

text: Bute had resigned (8 April 1763), but Wilkes opposed Bute's successor as chief advisor to the King, George Grenville, just as strenuously. On 16 November 1763, Samuel Martin, a supporter of George III, challenged Wilkes to a duel. Martin shot Wilkes in the belly.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes and Thomas Potter wrote a pornographic poem dedicated to the courtesan Fanny Murray entitled "An Essay on Woman" as a parody of Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man".


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes's political enemies, foremost among them John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who was also a member of the Hellfire Club, obtained the parody. Sandwich had a personal vendetta against Wilkes that stemmed in large part from embarrassment caused by a prank of Wilkes involving the Earl at one of the Hellfire Club's meetings; he was delighted at the chance for revenge. Wilkes had frightened Sandwich during a seance put on by the club. Sandwich read the poem to the House of Lords in an effort to denounce Wilkes's moral behaviour, despite the hypocrisy of his action. The Lords declared the poem obscene and blasphemous, and it caused a great scandal. The House of Lords moved to expel Wilkes again; he fled to Paris before any expulsion or trial. He was tried and found guilty "in absentia" of obscene libel and seditious libel, and was declared an outlaw on 19 January 1764.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes hoped for a change in power to remove the charges, but this did not come to pass. As his French creditors began to pressure him, in 1768 he had little choice but to return to England. He returned intending to stand as a Member of Parliament on an anti-government ticket; the government did not issue warrants for his immediate arrest as it did not want to inflame popular support.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes stood in the City of London and came in bottom of the poll of seven candidates, possibly due to his late entry into the race for the position. He was quickly elected as a Radical Member of Parliament for Middlesex, where most of his support was located. He surrendered himself to the King's Bench in April. On waiving his parliamentary privilege to immunity, he was sentenced by Judge Joseph Yates to two years and fined £1,000; the Lords' sentence of outlawry was overturned.


title: John Wilkes

text: When Wilkes was imprisoned in the King's Bench Prison on 10 May 1768, his supporters gathered nearby on St George's Fields, London, chanting "No liberty, no King." Troops opened fire on the unarmed men, killing seven and wounding fifteen, an incident that came to be known as the Massacre of St George's Fields. The Irish playwright Hugh Kelly, a prominent supporter of the government, defended the right of the army to use force against rioters, which drew the anger of Wilkes' supporters and they began a riot at the Drury Lane Theatre during the performance of Kelly's new play "A Word to the Wise", forcing it to be abandoned.


title: John Wilkes

text: Parliament expelled Wilkes in February 1769, on the grounds that he was an outlaw when returned. His Middlesex constituents re-elected him in the same month with the support of John Wheble, editor of the "Middlesex Journal", only to see him expelled again and re-elected in March. In April, after his expulsion and another re-election, Parliament declared his opponent, Henry Luttrell, the winner.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes was said to hold his supporters in contempt during the election campaign. EP Thompson, in his celebrated "The Making of the English Working Class" wrote":" “‘Do you suppose’ it is said that he asked his opponent, Colonel Luttrell, while watching the cheering throngs on the hustings, ‘that there are more fools or rogues in that assembly?’”


title: John Wilkes

text: In defiance, Wilkes became an Alderman of London in 1769, using his supporters' group, the Society for the Supporters of the Bill of Rights,


title: John Wilkes

text: for his campaign. Wilkes eventually succeeded in convincing Parliament to expunge the resolution barring him from sitting. While in Parliament, he condemned Government policy towards the American colonies. In addition, he introduced one of the earliest radical Bills to Parliament, although it failed to gain passage. On his release from prison in March 1770, Wilkes was appointed a sheriff in London, and in 1771 the law on publicity of the parliamentary discussions was voted in Parliament, of which Wilkes was a great defender and who authorized the literal reproduction of the interventions of the Parliament.


title: John Wilkes

text: In 1774 he became Lord Mayor of London; he was simultaneously Master of the Joiners' Company, where he changed the motto from "GOD GRANNTE US TO USE JUSTICE WITHE MERCYE" to "JOIN LOYALTY AND LIBERTY", a political slogan associated with Wilkes. That year Wilkes was re-elected to Parliament, again representing Middlesex. He was one of those opposed to war with the American colonies. He was also a supporter of the Association Movement and of religious tolerance. His key success was to protect the freedom of the press by gaining passage of a bill to remove the power of general warrants and to end Parliament's ability to punish political reports of debates. In 1779 he was elected to the position of Chamberlain of the City of London, a post of great responsibility which he was to hold until his death in 1797.


title: John Wilkes

text: After 1780, his popularity declined as he was popularly perceived as less radical. During the uprising known as the Gordon Riots, Wilkes was in charge of the soldiers defending the Bank of England from the attacking mobs. It was under his orders that troops fired into the crowds of rioters. The working classes who had previously seen Wilkes as a "man of the people", then criticised him as a hypocrite; his middle-class support was scared off by the violent action. The Gordon Riots nearly extinguished his popularity.


title: John Wilkes

text: While he was returned for the county seat of Middlesex in 1784, he found so little support that by 1790, he withdrew early in the election. The French Revolution of 1789 had proved extremely divisive in England, and Wilkes had been against it due to the violent murders in France. His position was different from that of many radicals of the time and was a view more associated with conservative figures, including expressed indifference as to Catholic Emancipation. Edmund Burke, who had also supported American Independence, made a similar switch.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes worked in his final years as a magistrate, campaigning for more moderate punishment for disobedient household servants.


title: John Wilkes

text: Between 1788 and 1797 he occupied a property named "Villakin" in Sandown, Isle of Wight. The site is marked by a blue plaque.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes died at his home at 30 Grosvenor Square, Westminster, London on 26 December 1797. The cause of death was a wasting disease known at the time as marasmus. His body was buried in a vault in Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, London on 4 January 1798.


title: John Wilkes

text: Wilkes was at one point a hero to radicals in Britain and North America, and the slogan "Wilkes and Liberty" was heard on both sides of the Atlantic.


title: John Wilkes

text: A radical contemporary Irish politician Charles Lucas, who sat for Dublin City in the Irish Parliament, was known as the "Irish Wilkes". The Dutch politician Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol (1741–1784), who advocated American independence and criticised the "Stadtholder" regime, was inspired by Wilkes.


title: John Wilkes

text: British subjects in the American colonies closely followed Wilkes's career. His struggles convinced many colonists that the British constitution was being subverted by a corrupt ministry, an idea that contributed to the coming of the American Revolution. Wilkes was widely admired in the American colonies as a political journalist, a radical politician, and a fighter for liberty. He greatly influenced the revolutionaries who fought for American independence and played a role in establishing the right to freedom of the press in the United States. In reaction, after the Revolution, representatives included provisions in the new American constitution to prevent Congress from rejecting any legally elected member and to proscribe general warrants for arrest.


title: John Wilkes

text: John Wilkes's brother Israel Wilkes (1722–1805) was the grandfather of U.S. Naval Admiral Charles Wilkes.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: The 8th millennium BC spanned the years 8000 BC to 7001 BC (c. 10 ka to c. 9 ka). In chronological terms, it is the second full millennium of the current Holocene epoch and is entirely within the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) phase of the Early Neolithic. It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological and anthropological analysis, or by radiometric dating.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: In the geologic time scale, the first stratigraphic stage of the Holocene epoch is the "Greenlandian" from about 9700 BC to the fixed date 6236 BC and so including the whole of the 8th millennium. The Greenlandian followed the Younger Dryas and essentially featured a climate shift from near-glacial to interglacial, causing glaciers to retreat and sea levels to rise. Towards the end of the 8th millennium, the Holocene Climate Optimum (HCO) – also called the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) – began as a warm period lasting roughly 4,000 years until about 3000 BC. Insolation during summers in the northern hemisphere was unusually strong with pronounced warming in the higher latitudes such as Greenland, northern Canada and northern Europe with a resultant reduction in Arctic sea ice.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: During the 8th millennium, there were four known volcanic eruptions which registered magnitude 5 or 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI). These were at Rotoma Caldera in New Zealand's Taupō Volcanic Zone about 7560 BC; Lvinaya Past in the Kuril Islands about 7480 BC; Pinatubo on the island of Luzon in the Philippines about 7460 BC; and Fisher Caldera, on Unimak Island in the Aleutians about 7420 BC. The biggest eruption was at Fisher Caldera, VEI 6, producing more than of tephra.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: The date of c. 7640 BC has been theorised for the impact of Tollmann's hypothetical bolide with Earth. The hypothesis holds that there was a resultant global cataclysm such as early Holocene extinctions or possibly the legendary Universal Deluge. Bolides are asteroids or comets.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: Outside the Near East, most people around the world still lived in scattered hunter-gatherer communities which remained firmly in the Palaeolithic. Within the Near East, Neolithic culture and technology had become established throughout much of the Fertile Crescent by 8000 BC and was gradually spreading westward, though it is not believed to have reached Europe till about the end of this millennium. Planting and harvesting techniques were transferred through Asia Minor and across the Aegean Sea to Greece and the Balkans. The techniques were, in the main, cultivation of wheats and barleys; and domestication of sheep, goats and cattle.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: The world population was probably stable and slowly increasing. It has been estimated that there were some five million people c. 10,000 BC growing to forty million by 5000 BC and 100 million by 1600 BC. That is an average growth rate of 0.027% p.a. from the beginning of the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: By c. 7500 BC (see map above right), important sites in or near the Fertile Crescent included Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), 'Ain Ghazal, Huleh, Tell Aswad, Tell Abu Hureyra, Tell Qaramel, Tell Mureibit, Jerf el Ahmar, Göbekli Tepe, Nevalı Çori, Hacilar, Çatalhöyük, Hallan Çemi Tepesi, Çayönü Tepesi, Shanidar, Jarmo, Zrebar, Ganj Dareh and Ali Kosh. Jericho in the Jordan Valley continued to be the world's most significant site through this millennium. Çatalhöyük (see image) was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia which flourished from c. 7500 BC until it was abandoned c. 5700 BC.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: There was no pottery "per se" in the Near East at this time as the potter's wheel had not yet been invented. Rudimentary clay vessels were hand-built, often by means of coiling, and pit fired. Dame Kathleen Kenyon was the principal archaeologist at Tell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho) and she discovered that there was no pottery there. The vessels she found were made from stone and she reasonably surmised that others made from wood or vegetable fibres would have long since decayed. The first chronological pottery system had been devised by Sir Arthur Evans for his Bronze Age findings at Knossos and Kenyon used this as a benchmark for the Near East Neolithic. She divided the period into phases called Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), from c. 10,000 BC to c. 8800 BC; Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), which includes the entire 8th millennium, from c. 8800 BC to c. 6500 BC; and then Pottery Neolithic (PN), which had varied start-points from c. 6500 BC until the beginnings of the Bronze Age towards the end of the 4th millennium (c. 3000 BC).


title: 8th millennium BC

text: It was from c. 8000 BC that agriculture developed throughout the Americas, especially in modern Mexico. There were numerous New World crops, as they are now termed, and domestication began with the potato and the cucurbita (squash) about this time. Other crops began to be harvested over the next 7,500 years including chili peppers, maize, peanut, avocado, beans, cotton, sunflower, cocoa and tomato.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: The Mount Sandel Mesolithic site in Ireland is dated to c. 7900–7600 BC. This was long thought to be the earliest human activity on the island, until the discovery of the Alice and Gwendoline Cave pushed the date back to 10,000 BC.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: The date for construction of a round-house near Howick, Northumberland is calculated c. 7600 BC by radiocarbon dating. The site is believed to have been occupied for about 100 years.


title: 8th millennium BC

text: The "Homo sapiens" fossil from Combe-Capelle in southern France, discovered in 1909, is estimated to be 9,500 years old (c. 7500 BC).


title: Amar Kaushik

text: Amar Kaushik is an Indian director and actor working in Hindi cinema. He is best known for directing the critical and commercial blockbusters "Stree" (2018) and "Bala" (2019).


title: Amar Kaushik

text: Amar Kaushik grew up in Medo, Arunachal Pradesh where his father was a forest ranger who worked for the Indian Forest Service and his mother Shashi was a school teacher. When he was 10 years old, the family moved to Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He later studied mass communications in Delhi and moved to Mumbai in 2006. In 2009, Kaushik was attacked on a bus by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena members who mistakenly believed he was director Anurag Kashyap. MNS leader Raj Thackeray had criticised Kashyap for calling his film "Bombay Velvet" and had unsuccessfully demanded that he change the name to "Mumbai Velvet".


title: Amar Kaushik

text: Kaushik began his film career in 2008, working as Raj Kumar Gupta's assistant director on "Aamir". He teamed up with Gupta again to serve as associate director for "No One Killed Jessica" and "Ghanchakkar". In addition to crew duties, Kaushik had small acting roles in each of the three films. After working as an associate director on the Onir films "Sorry Bhai!", "I Am" and "Shab", Kaushik ventured into solo directing with his short film "Aaaba". The script was written by Kauhsik and based on a story by his mother. It was funded with loans from his friends, including Raj Kumar Gupta. Shot entirely in Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh, "Aaba" was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival.


title: Amar Kaushik

text: Kaushik began shooting his feature film "Stree" in January 2018. Starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor, the horror film released on 31 August 2018. "Stree" became a surprise hit, earning 125.57 crore by 1 October. Kaushik's upcoming projects include an untitled film on the subject of surrogacy and the sequel to "Stree", "Stree 2".


title: Amar Kaushik

text: Most Notable and commercial successful movie of Kaushik is 2019 movie"Bala" starring Ayushman, Bhumi & Yami.


The Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (, ), or San Andrés and Providencia, is one of the departments of Colombia, and the only one in North America. It consists of two island groups in the Caribbean Sea about northwest of mainland Colombia, and eight outlying banks and reefs. The largest island of the archipelago and Colombia is called San Andrés and its capital is San Andrés. The other large islands are Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands which lie to the north-east of San Andrés; their capital is Santa Isabel.


title: Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina

text: The name is sometimes abbreviated to "Archip. de San Andres". The official website abbreviates it as San Andrés ("Gobernación de San Andrés"). lists it as "San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina". Statoids lists it as "San Andrés y Providencia".


text: Spain formally claimed the archipelago of San Andres and Providencia in 1510, a few years after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. In 1544, the territory was placed under the administration of the Captaincy General of Guatemala. During the early years, Spain concentrated on exploring and colonizing the mainland and hardly settled the islands.


text: In 1630, English Puritans arrived in Providence Island, under the aegis of the Providence Island Company. The Puritans decided to settle the tropical islands, rather than cold, rocky New England, but the Providence Island colony did not succeed in the same way as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They established slave-worked plantations and engaged in privateering, which led to the Spanish and Portuguese conquering the colony in May, 1641. In 1670, English buccaneers, led by Henry Morgan, took over the islands, which he used as a base to attack Panama. The buccaneers abandoned the islands by 1672. There is no record of anyone inhabiting the islands from then for another century.


text: In 1775, Lieutenant Tomás O'Neil, a Spaniard of Irish descent, was given military command of the islands and, in 1790, was named governor. He requested the transfer of the islands to the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, which was granted in 1803. That year, Spain assigned the islands, together with the province of Veraguas (western Panama and the east coast of Nicaragua), to the Viceroyalty of New Granada. The territory was administered from the province of Cartagena. Soon, trade links with Cartagena were greater than those with Guatemala.


text: On 4 July 1818, a French corsair, Louis-Michel Aury, with 400 men and 14 ships flying the Argentine flag, captured Old Providence and St. Catherine islands. The island was populated by white English-speaking Protestants and their slaves. Aury and his team used the islands as their new base from which to pursue Central American independence. However, his efforts to also support Bolivar in his fight for Venezuelan and Colombian independence were repeatedly turned down.


text: After the Spanish colonies became independent, the inhabitants of San Andrés, Providence and St. Catherine voluntarily adhered to the Republic of Gran Colombia in 1822, which placed them under the administration of the Magdalena Department. The First Mexican Empire, which was succeeded by the United Provinces of Central America (UPCA), also claimed the islands. Gran Colombia, in turn, protested the UPCA's occupation of the eastern coast of Nicaragua. The UPCA broke up in 1838 to 1840, but Nicaragua carried on the dispute, as did Gran Colombia's successors: New Granada and Colombia. A local administration ("intendencia") was established in the islands in 1912 by Colombia.


text: In 1928, Colombia and Nicaragua signed the Esguerra-Bárcenas Treaty, which gave control of the islands to Colombia. However, when the Sandinista government assumed power in the 1980s, Nicaragua repudiated the treaty. Colombia argues that the treaty's final ratification in 1930 (when the US forces were already on their way out) confirms its validity. Colombia and Honduras signed a maritime boundary treaty in 1999, which implicitly accepts Colombian sovereignty over the islands.


text: In 2001, Nicaragua filed claims with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the disputed maritime boundary and claimed in the Caribbean, including the San Andrés and Providencia Archipelagoes. Colombia responded that the court has no jurisdiction over the matter and increased its naval and police presence in the islands. Colombia also defended its claim in the ICJ. On 13 December 2007, the ICJ ruled that the islands were Colombian territory but left the maritime border dispute unresolved. On 19 November 2012, the ICJ held that Colombia had sovereignty over the islands.


text: In the 19th century, the United States claimed several uninhabited locations in the area under the Guano Island Act, including several now claimed by Colombia. In 1981, the US ceded its claims to Serrana Bank and Roncador Bank to Colombia and abandoned its claim to Quita Sueño Bank. The US still maintains claims over Serranilla Bank and Bajo Nuevo Bank and considers them both to be unincorporated territories of the United States.


text: In 1903, the local Raizal population rejected an offer from the US to separate from Colombia in the wake of Panama's secession from Colombia. However, the island's native population soon changed its mind when the policies of successive Colombian governments tried consistently to modify the majority Raizal and British ethnic composition of the Islands by the extensive migration of Spanish-speaking mainland Colombians. The efforts at assimilation and immigration were led largely by Catholic missionaries, which angered the Protestant native population.


text: A member of the departmental assembly for 15 years, Pedro Gallardo Forbes, of the Regional Integration Movement (MIR), won the 28 October 2007 gubernatorial election, with support from the Colombian Conservative Party and the Radical Change party. He succeeded a governor from the Colombian Liberal Party. He got 8,187 votes (38.93%), Aury Guerrero Bowie (Liberal Party, with support from the Democratic Colombia Party) 8,160 votes (38.8%), and Jack Housni Jaller (Social National Unity Party) 4,063 votes (19.3%). Only 21,991 out of 41,197 potential electors voted in the gubernatorial election.


text: At the departmental assembly, elected the same day, the 9 seats were distributed among 6 parties: three Liberals (Arlington Howard, Qwincy Bowie Gordon, and Leroy Carol Bent Archbold), two MIR (Jorge Méndez and Freddy Herazo) two Democratic Colombia Party (former MP María Teresa Uribe Bent and former Interior Secretary Rafael Gómez Redondo), two SNUP (Fernando Cañon Florez and María Said Darwich), one Radical Change (Heber Esquivel Benitez), and one Conservative (Julio César Gallardo Martínez).


text: The new mayor of Providence, Janeth Archbold (Team Colombia party), a political ally of the new governor, was elected with 1,013 votes against Liberal Mark Taylor (515 votes), SNUP Arturo Robinson (514 votes) and Conservative Peter Bent.


text: Besides the San Andrés and Providencia island groups, there are eight atolls that belong to the department, including submerged Alice Shoal.


text: This is the main island of the San Andrés group, and the largest of the department. It is located at . It measures in length with a width of and covers an area of . There is a tiny lagoon in the centre of the island called Big Pond. The principal town is San Andrés in the north of the island. Another town is San Luis on the east coast. "Cayo Johnny" (Johnny Caye) lies ENE of German Point (Punta Norte), the island's northern tip, and Haynes Cay about the same distance east of the island. Cotton Cay is less than south of San Andrés town, on the northeastern coast.


text: This atoll is southwest of San Andrés at . It is the westernmost point of Colombia. The reef is about across. In the southern part are Cayo del Norte and Cayo del Sur. Cayo del Norte, the larger of the two, is up to high and overgrown with palm trees and bushes. Cayo del Sur, a few hundred metres further South, reaches a height of a little more than and is vegetated with a few bushes, and in the South with mangroves. There is a lighthouse on Cayo del Norte, at , operating since 1980. It is maintained by the Colombian Navy.


text: This atoll is east-south-east of San Andrés Island and northeast of Cayos de Alburquerque, at . It is long and wide. There are a few sand cays in the southeast. The largest ones are Cayo del Este, Cayo Bolivar, West Cay, and Cayo Arena, none of which are higher than . All cays are overgrown with palm trees and bushes, and surrounded by mangroves. There is a Colombian Navy lighthouse on Cayo Bolivar. The cays are regularly visited by fishermen from the Colombian mainland and San Andrés. There are two concrete buildings on Cayo Bolivar, and a few wooden huts on the other cays.


text: Colombia claims sovereignty over six additional outlying banks and shoals: Alice Shoal, Bajo Nuevo Bank, Serranilla Bank, Quita Sueño Bank, Serrana Bank, and Roncador Bank.


text: The Departamento de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina covers a land area of and had a census population of 59,573. The latest official estimate for 2007 is 72,923.


text: Before 1960, the population of the islands was almost entirely Raizals, who are an Afro-Caribbean group, Protestant in religion, speaking San Andrés–Providencia Creole. There is a minority of white English-speaking Protestants of British descent. Colombia has promoted the migration of Spanish-speaking mainlanders, with Catholic missions participating since 1947. This policy seems to be an answer to growing discontent within the Raizal community that could strengthen separatist movements; a Raizal majority would in this case win a pro-independence referendum but this could be neutralized by outnumbering them with mainland Colombians.


text: By 2005, Raizals were only 30% of the 60,000 or more inhabitants of the islands, with the rest being mainland Colombians and English-speaking whites of British descent. Most Raizals are multilingual and can speak both Spanish and English.


text: Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport (IATA: ADZ) serves the towns of San Andrés and San Luis, but also commercially serves the nearby island of Providencia Island through feeder flights from El Embrujo Airport.


text: Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport was initially called Sesquicentenario International Airport. It is the 6th busiest airport in Colombia, handling 836,234 passengers in 2006. Most of these passengers come from the continental part of the country, due to poor international direct service to the island. Many international tourists have to fly to one of Colombia's largest airports to be able to reach the islands. Copa Airlines maintains a passenger service between San Andrés and Panama City. In 2021, American Airlines began serving San Andrés nonstop from Miami. In recent years, San Andrés has also received seasonal charter flights, mainly from Canada and a few Central American countries.


text: The airport is one of Colombia's fastest growing airports with a 13.4% increase in the number of passengers between 2005 and 2006.


title: Confederation Liberty and Independence

text: The Confederation Liberty and Independence (), frequently shortened to just Confederation (), is a far-right political party in Poland.


title: Confederation Liberty and Independence

text: It was initially founded in 2018 as a political coalition for the 2019 European Parliament election, although it was later expanded into a political party. It won 11 seats in the Sejm after the 2019 parliamentary election. Its presidential candidate for the 2020 election was Krzysztof Bosak who placed fourth among eleven candidates. A coalition mainly led by Korwin, National Movement, and the Confederation of the Polish Crown, it is right-orientated and is considered to be a part of the radical right. It has expressed right-wing populist rhetoric, a more hardline opposition stance towards the European Union and immigration. It is economically liberal and has called for lowering taxes, and has also expressed socially conservative and nationalist stances.


title: Confederation Liberty and Independence

text: Two political parties, KORWiN and National Movement, announced in late 2018 that they have decided to run together in the upcoming European Parliament elections. In early 2019, Grzegorz Braun's organization and Piotr Krzysztof Liroy-Marzec's party joined the coalition. Kaja Godek, an ultra-conservative activist, announced her participation on the list. The coalition was dubbed "Pro-Polish Coalition", although in late February 2019, it was changed to "Konfederacja Korwin Braun Liroy Narodowcy". In March 2019, an application was submitted to register the party under that name, and the Federation for the Republic of Poland soon joined the alliance including some representatives. Its name was changed again, this time to "Confederation". The Party of Drivers joined the coalition in April, and soon after they elected Marek Jakubiak as the chairman. The Confederation placed fourth in the 2019 European Parliament election, winning 4.55% of the popular vote, although it did not reach the electoral threshold. After the election, Braun applied for the registration of the Confederation of the Polish Crown.


title: Confederation Liberty and Independence

text: The coalition was registered on 25 July 2019 under the name "Confederation Liberty and Independence". Kaja Godek left the coalition soon after. Shortly before the 2019 parliamentary election, a schism occurred in the coalition, with many representatives joining the coalition while some of them also left. The coalition ended up winning 6.81% of the popular vote and won 11 seats in the Sejm. Most of the support the party received was in southeast and northern parts of Poland. Around 20% of all young voters aged under-30 supported the grouping, about two-thirds of its voters were male and more than three-fifths lived in smaller towns and rural areas. This has been highlighted as a significant change from previous right-wing alliances involving Korwin-Mikke where the base of support was almost exclusively young males. In November 2019, the Confederation presented nine candidates that took part in the presidential primaries organized by the party. The winner of the presidential primary was Krzysztof Bosak, who became Confederate candidate for the presidential election. During the first round of the election Bosak received 1,317,380 votes or 6.78%, coming fourth among eleven candidates.


title: Confederation Liberty and Independence

text: In 2022, serious internal splits emerged as a result of Sławomir Mentzen's and Janusz Korwin-Mikke's pro-Russian and Ukrainophobic stances in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, causing several members to renounce their KORWiN memberships, albeit remaining within the coalition.


title: Confederation Liberty and Independence

text: The Confederation is a right-orientated political party, and it is positioned on the far-right on the political spectrum. It is also considered to be a part of the radical right, although some have disputed that it does not contain all elements of the radical right.


title: Confederation Liberty and Independence

text: Its ideology compromises the support for numerous right-wing populist ideas. It has presented a hardline opposition stance to the European Union, and has criticized its and Law and Justice's policies towards immigration, calling for harder stances against illegal immigration instead. It is also socially conservative, and antifeminist, it also supports total ban on abortion, and supports the traditional family model. It has also expressed xenophobic views, and has openly provided support for antisemitism. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has also spread misinformation about COVID-19 and opposed laws that were implemented by the government.


title: Confederation Liberty and Independence

text: Unlike the Law and Justice, its economic position is orientated towards economic liberalism and economic libertarianism and it is considered strongly pro-free market. It is also nationalist, and has been also described as national-liberal. In its program, they have stated their goal "to turn Poland into a ethnocracy and culturally homogenous nation built around traditionalist-Catholic principles". It has also expressed nativist sentiment.


title: 2021 MTV Video Music Awards

text: The 2021 MTV Video Music Awards were held on September 12, 2021, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City. This marked the first time in eight years that the venue hosted the show. The show was hosted by hip-hop rapper and singer Doja Cat. It was the first time in history a Video of the Year nominee hosted the ceremony the same year.


title: 2021 MTV Video Music Awards

text: The ceremony was simulcast on The CW, a free over-the-air broadcaster, with Mountain and Pacific time zones airing it live and others delayed for primetime, and on various ViacomCBS networks and platforms. Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo and BTS were the most awarded artists of the night with three awards each, followed by Billie Eilish, and Justin Bieber with two each; the latter was also the most nominated artist with nine nominations. Beyoncé extended her lead as the most-awarded artist in the show's history, collecting her 29th trophy. Her daughter Blue Ivy Carter also became the youngest winner in the show's history.


title: 2021 MTV Video Music Awards

text: On August 1, a new iteration of the MTV Video Music Awards "moon person" trophy was unveiled at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, in honor of MTV's 40th anniversary. Designed by Kehinde Wiley, it features vines and flowers symbolizing "the ethnic histories that surround America", with the network stating that "each intertwined vine or leaf" holds a "different historical relevance, such as the seeds from African slaves, that are woven into the American tapestry".


title: 2021 MTV Video Music Awards

text: MTV collaborated with 9/11 Day for a week of activities to "promote awareness and positive action" in honor of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which fell on the eve of the ceremony.


title: 2021 MTV Video Music Awards

text: The show received 3.7 million viewers across all networks, including 900,000 viewers on MTV, representing a 31% drop from last year’s 1.3 million. However, the show garnered 38 million interactions across all U.S. platforms, beating the Super Bowl for the first time and becoming 2021’s top telecast in social media buzz. Internationally, the VMAs increased 43% in Brazil and 25% in the U.K.


title: 2021 MTV Video Music Awards

text: Lorde was initially announced as a performer for the main show on August 18, 2021, but later pulled out of the event on September 3 "due to a change in production elements". Ed Sheeran additionally performed his new single "Bad Habits", but the clip was uploaded to MTV's YouTube channel instead of being shown during the live broadcast. Anitta make a clip for the song "Girl from Rio" uploaded to MTV's YouTube channel as a advertisement for Burger King, but it was deleted.


title: 2021 MTV Video Music Awards

text: Presenters for the ceremony were announced on September 8, 2021. Nessa Diab and Jamila Mustafa hosted the 90-minute pre-show event, while Tinashe served as a special celebrity correspondent.


title: 2021 MTV Video Music Awards

text: Nominations were announced on August 11, 2021. Justin Bieber was the most-nominated artist with nine, followed by Megan Thee Stallion and BTS with seven. Voting for select categories began on the same day and took place on the VMA website until September 3. Voting for Best New Artist continued until during showtime. Social category nominations, including Group of the Year and Song of Summer, were announced on September 3, 2021. Voting for the former opened on September 4, while voting for the latter opened on September 7—both took place via MTV's Instagram stories. BTS, Olivia Rodrigo and Lil Nas X won the most awards of the night with three each, followed by Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Silk Sonic and Bieber with two each.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Kevin Joseph Campbell (born 4 February 1970) is an English former professional footballer, sports television pundit and co-commentator.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: He was a striker, who featured in the Premier League for Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Everton and West Bromwich Albion. He also played in the Turkish Süper Lig for Trabzonspor, and in the Football League for Leyton Orient, Leicester City and Cardiff City. He was capped four times by England U21, scoring once and received a call-up to the England B in 1991 where he earned one cap.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Campbell began his career as a trainee with Arsenal, joining the club on schoolboy forms in 1985. He was prolific for Arsenal's Academy, scoring 59 goals in one season. Campbell also won the FA Youth Cup of 1988 with Arsenal. He went on to make his first-team debut against Everton on 7 May 1988, although the club's forward positions at the time were usually taken by Paul Merson and Alan Smith.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Campbell came to prominence during a loan spell at Leyton Orient in 1989 when he scored 9 goals in 16 games. Campbell helped see the club to promotion during that season but didn't play in their victorious playoff final against Wrexham as his loan spell had just ended. Orient manager Frank Clark wanted to make the move permanent but Arsenal refused to sell. After a poor start to the 1989–90 season he was again loaned out, this time to Leicester City. However, in the following season he established himself in the Arsenal team, scoring eight times in ten matches during the run-in to the club's First Division title win.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Despite Arsenal signing Ian Wright in September 1991, Campbell continued to feature for Arsenal, although he was often in the shadow of his more prolific partner. Nevertheless, he scored several crucial goals for Arsenal such as equalisers against Millwall and Derby County in Arsenal's victorious 1992–93 campaigns in the FA Cup and League Cup. In the 1993–94 season, he scored 19 goals, his best for the Gunners. He also featured in the victorious 1993–94 European Cup Winners' Cup campaign, scoring four goals, including one in the semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain. His form for the club waned in 1994–95, and the arrivals of forwards John Hartson and Dennis Bergkamp saw his playing time reduced. In all, Campbell played 224 times for Arsenal, scoring 60 goals.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: In the summer of 1995, Campbell was sold to Nottingham Forest for an initial fee of £2.5million, where he spent three seasons. He was part of the team that was relegated in 1997, but his 23 goals the following season helped see the Reds win the Football League Championship of 1998.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: However, Campbell controversially left Forest at the end of that season to join Turkish side Trabzonspor for £2.5million, a move which caused Forest teammate Pierre van Hooijdonk to famously go "on strike". His time in Trabzon saw him leave the club in seven months after a misunderstood racist incident which involved club president, Mehmet Ali Yılmaz calling him a "cannibal". Campbell and his teammates also had not been paid, something which he demanded they rectify. To show solidarity with Campbell, the two club captains, Ogün Temizkanoğlu and Abdullah Ercan, were at his side during a press conference in which he stated his reasons for leaving the club.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Everton, who were battling against relegation from the Premier League, signed Campbell on loan in March 1999. His impact on the side was immediate as he scored nine goals in his first eight games. These feats made him Everton's top goalscorer both at home and away from Goodison Park for that season. Campbell thus almost single-handedly saved the club from being relegated from the Premier League. His six goals of which were scored in his first three games earned him Everton's player of the month award for April, making him the first loanee to be bestowed with the title.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Campbell's move to Everton was made permanent in the summer of 1999 for a fee of £3million. In the 1999–2000 season, he scored Everton's winning goal in the Merseyside derby against Liverpool at Anfield, which was Everton's last win at Anfield before 2021, when Everton defeated Liverpool 2–0. He ended the season as the club's top scorer, with 12 goals scored altogether.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: He was Everton's leading goalscorer for the following season, but only scored four times during the 2001–02 league campaign, a season in which Campbell was Everton captain. Campbell was once again the Toffees' top scorer during the subsequent season. After that, injuries limited his appearances for the club and he left in 2005.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Campbell is Everton's fourth highest Premier League goal scorer, behind Romelu Lukaku, Duncan Ferguson and Tim Cahill, and their first ever black captain.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Campbell moved to West Bromwich Albion in January 2005 on a free transfer and helped the club retain its Premiership status. This endeavour marked the first time that a club that had been at the bottom of the league on Christmas Day had gone on to avoid relegation.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: In May 2006, after West Brom were eventually relegated to the Championship, Campbell was released by the club. He signed for Cardiff City on a free transfer on 2 August 2006. He scored in an FAW Premier Cup quarter-final match away at Carmarthen Town for Cardiff, on 13 February 2007. He also appeared, in February 2007, for City against former club West Brom. He was then released by the club in May 2007 thus bringing to an end his footballing days.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Campbell earned four caps for the England U-21s and one for England B. He holds the record of being the English player who has scored the most goals in the Premier League without earning a senior cap for his country. In September 1992 he was on stand-by for a friendly against Spain, but this was the nearest he got to being in the senior squad.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Campbell was featured on the Sky Sports series "Where are They Now?" in 2008, when he was the co-owner of security company T1 Protection, specialising in supplying bodyguards to celebrities and other wealthy customers whilst travelling abroad. He also worked with Asia-based Sony TEN as a commentator for their Premier League and Champions League coverage.


title: Kevin Campbell (footballer)

text: Campbell ran a record label, 2 Wikid, with the label's first signing being rapper Mark Morrison, who had previously topped the charts with "Return of the Mack" in 1996. But in December 2004, with the artist still signed to 2 Wikid, Campbell was forced to obtain a court injunction against rival label Jet Star, in order to prevent it from releasing Morrison's album "Innocent Man". The injunction was lifted shortly afterwards The first single released by 2 Wikid was that of Panjabi MC's tune "Backstabbers", a remix of Morrison's original song, which had been released in 2004.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Portuguese Timor () was a colonial possession of Portugal that existed between 1702 and 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: The first Europeans to arrive in the region were the Portuguese in 1515. Dominican friars established a presence on the island in 1556, and the territory was declared a Portuguese colony in 1702. Following the beginning of the Carnation Revolution (a Lisbon-instigated decolonisation process) in 1975, East Timor was invaded by Indonesia. However, the invasion was not recognized as legal by the United Nations (UN), which continued to regard Portugal as the legal Administering Power of East Timor. The independence of East Timor was finally achieved in 2002 following a UN-administered transition period.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Prior to the arrival of European colonial powers, the island of Timor was part of the trading networks that stretched between India and China and incorporating Maritime Southeast Asia. The island's large stands of fragrant sandalwood were its main commodity. It was sandalwood that attracted European explorers to the island in the early sixteenth century, and early European presence was limited to trade. The first European powers to arrive in the area were the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century followed by the Dutch in the late sixteenth century. Both came in search of the fabled Spice Islands of Maluku. In 1515, the Portuguese first landed near modern Pante Macassar.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: In 1556 a group of Dominican friars established the village of Lifau. Trade was controlled by Portuguese settlements on other Lesser Sunda Islands. The first Portuguese settlement in the area was set up on the nearby island of Solor in the 1560s. Due to the lack of direct Portuguese control in the area, with limited support from both Malacca and Goa, the sandalwood trade fell under the control of the Dominican missionaries. These exports were crucial for the prosperity of Macau.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: In 1613, the Dutch took control of the western part of the island. Over the following three centuries, the Dutch would come to dominate the Indonesian archipelago with the exception of the eastern half of Timor, which would become Portuguese Timor. In 1605 Ambon and Tidore passed to Dutch control, and the following year Ternate was ceded to Spain (before later coming under Dutch control in 1663). Solor was also lost in 1613, leading the Portuguese capital to move to Flores. In 1621 the Banda Islands fell to the Dutch, before Malacca fell in 1641, and Solor shortly afterwards in 1646. The fall of Solor led the Portuguese capital to be moved to Kupang on Timor's west, before that was lost again to the Dutch in 1652. Only then did the Portuguese move to Lifau in what is now East Timor's Oecusse exclave. The Portuguese had engaged with Lifau recently, having sent forces in 1641 to aid the Queen of Lifau/Ambeno.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: The Portuguese introduced maize as a food crop and coffee as an export crop. Timorese systems of tax and labour control were preserved, through which taxes were paid through their labour and a portion of the coffee and sandalwood crop. The Portuguese introduced mercenaries into Timor communities and Timor chiefs hired Portuguese soldiers for wars against neighbouring tribes. With the use of the Portuguese musket, Timorese men became deer hunters and suppliers of deer horn and hide for export.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: The Portuguese introduced Catholicism to Portuguese Timor, as well as the Latin writing system, the printing press, and formal schooling. Two groups of people were introduced to East Timor: Portuguese men, and Topasses. The Portuguese language was introduced into church and state business, and Portuguese Asians used Malay in addition to Portuguese. Under colonial policy, Portuguese citizenship was available to men who assimilated the Portuguese language, literacy, and religion; by 1970, 1,200 East Timorese, largely drawn from the aristocracy, Dili residents, or larger towns, had obtained Portuguese citizenship. By the end of the colonial administration in 1974, 30 percent of Timorese were practising Catholics while the majority continued to worship spirits of the land and sky.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: In 1702, António Coelho Guerreiro was appointed "Governor and Captain General of the islands of Timor and Solor and other regions in the South" by Caetano de Melo e Castro, the Viceroy of Goa, ending the autonomy of the Dominican missions. He was sent to Lifau, which became the capital of all Portuguese dependencies in the Lesser Sunda Islands. Former capitals were Solor and Larantuka. Portuguese control over the territory was tenuous, particularly in the mountainous interior. Dominican friars, the occasional Dutch raid, and the Timorese themselves, competed with Portuguese merchants. The control of colonial administrators was largely restricted to the Dili area, and they had to rely on traditional tribal chieftains for control and influence. Direct European presence was limited to a handful of individuals, and only one or two ships made the trip between Lifau and Macau each year. This weakness allowed the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to establish influence in the area despite Portugal's claims.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Rebellion against this increased Portuguese presence soon broke out as 15 kingdoms, including Oecusse and Ermera, revolted. This culminated in the October 1726 Battle of Cailaco, in which the Portuguese laid siege to a Timorese stronghold for six weeks. The Portuguese destroyed the fort, although they did not suppress the revolt until 1728.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: In 1732 the Kingdom of Maubara asked the VOC for protection, although it is unclear if an agreement was reached, and the kingdom continued to pay tribute to Portugal. In 1755 the Dutch began a concerted effort to increase their influence in Solor and Timor, and in June 1756 nobles from 77 polities signed contracts with the VOC representative in Kupang, including Maubara. A permanent fort established with VOC support in Maubara created friction with the Portuguese. Portuguese allies in the east of the island attacked Maubara at Portuguese behest in 1760, but were repulsed with aid from the VOC.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: A power struggle in Lifau at this time involving Portuguese officials and Topasse leaders also saw attempted interference by the VOC representative in Kupang, who travelled to Lifau but was killed there. The new VOC Governor shifted focus back to the western parts of Timor. Continuing struggles led to the killing of Portuguese Governor in Lifau in 1766. Shortly after, Portuguese administration shifted East, when Governor moved to the Kingdom of Motael due to the Topasse threat. This 1769 founding of the city of Dili was the first effective European occupation in the east of the island. This shift was accompanied by renewed relations between Portugal and more Eastern kingdoms, and control in Maubara became again contested.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: The sandalwood trade proved highly profitable, although Portugal was unable to establish a desired monopoly. Instead, the harvesting and trade of sandalwood was uncontrolled. The lack of Portuguese authority outside of Dili left harvesting under the control of local rulers, and no cooperation was sought by Portugal from these local rulers. There was also little cooperation from the local population, many of whom believed sandalwood trees were home to spirits. Nonetheless, the wood became so important to the colony that it could be used to pay taxes. The lack of control meant that sandalwood forests were not maintained, and as they disappeared throughout the 18th century the sandalwood trade declined. Imports at Macau become mixed in with sandalwood from other export markets, such as Hawaii, Fiji, and the Marquesas Islands. , Governor from 1807-1810, blamed a failure to harvest on local conflicts and the seizure of trading ships by the English.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: The Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s saw Dutch and Portuguese influence weaken again, as Portugal saw its shipping interrupted and Dutch territories in the area were occupied by the British forces. However, local authorities for both continued to contest control on Timor. This period saw Dutch claims to Maubara win out. When the Dutch regained control of their territories in 1816, cash crops such as coffee and tea were spread, including to Maubara, where coffee grew well. Direct control however remained limited to non-existent.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: A fire in Dili destroyed the existing records of the colony in 1799. New instructions were issued by the Viceroy in Goa in 5 April 1811, to deal with the "decadent and abandoned state of the island of Timor". In 1815, a new Governor, , began to promote the cultivation of coffe, and to a lesser extent sugar cane and cotton.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: In 1844 Timor, along with Macau, become administratively separated from Goa. In 1866 Timor was placed under the control of Macau, and officially divided into 11 districts. Effective control however remained with local rulers throughout this period, and development remained limited to Dili. Coffee production continued to expand, becoming especially prominent in the north coast near Dili, such as in Liquiçá, Motael, and Hatulia.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Conflicts with the Dutch continued throughout this period, entwined with shifting loyalties of local rulers. This led to three treaties being signed to define the border, in 1851, 1854, and 1859. Through these, Portugal ceded its remaining territory and claims on Flores and the Solor islands, while the Netherlands ceded Maubara and Citrana to Portugal, and dropped its claim on Atauro. The 1851 treaty which included these territorial arrangements was initiated by Portuguese Governor , who sought negotiations with officials in Kupang and Batavia shortly after his arrival to Timor in 1851. This was done without consulting authorities in Portugal, who upon hearing about the deal thought it too favourable to the Dutch. Lisbon revoked Timor's autonomy, and Lopes de Lima fled to Batavia rather than return to Portugal. The 1854 border treaty was rejected by the Dutch House of Representatives, who felt it did not protect religious liberty. The final 1859 Treaty of Lisbon stood in place until 1913, when the Portuguese and Dutch formally agreed to split the island between them. The definitive border was established by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 1914 and ratified in 1916; it remains the international boundary between East Timor and Indonesia.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: The 1859 border treaty was not implemented all at once, with local transfers out of sync with the official ratification in August 1960. Rebellions against Portuguese rule broke out to the east and west of Dili in 1961. This revolt saw forces from Laclo and Ulmera lay siege to Dili. The Portuguese sought assistance from other kingdoms, and managed to suppress the revolt. Further military battles occurred over succeeding years, until 1888 when the thirteen kingdoms of the island's east swore fealty to Portugal. This did not however secure Portuguese control over the whole territory, as kingdoms in other areas remained effectively autonomous.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Coffee soon became the territory's primary export, to the point where some sandalwood forest recovered. There was a small renaissance in the sandalwood trade in the 1850s, including wood smuggled across the border in order to obtain valuable Dutch currency. This collapsed in the 1860s, as new sources elsewhere depressed prices. Then Governor shifted the focus of exports to coffee. Efforts began to regrow sandalwood forests at the same time, a four decade process. However, success was hindered by insufficient knowledge of the trees' biology, which require other tree species to obtain nutrients.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: For the Portuguese, their colony of Portuguese Timor remained little more than a neglected trading post until the late nineteenth century. Investment in infrastructure, health, and education was minimal. Sandalwood remained the main export crop with coffee exports becoming significant in the mid-nineteenth century. In places where Portuguese rule was asserted, it tended to be brutal and exploitative.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: José Celestino da Silva became Governor in 1894, and sort to establish "full and effective control" in the colony in line with international norms arising from the Berlin Conference. The autonomy and persistent rebellions of many kingdoms was viewed as an embarrassment, a view influenced by rebellions in Africa and the humiliation of the 1890 British Ultimatum. While at first proposing to sell the colony due to its underdevelopment, da Silva quickly shifted towards reforms, and sought complete autonomy from Macau. The first military campaign in 1895 headed west to Obulo and Marobo. Those rebelling held off this force with the support of their allies, leading to 6,000 reinforcements being sent in April. After quashing the revolt in Obulo, the commander marched the troops further without permission from Dili, and his forces were defeated and he was killed. This killing increased the desire of Portugal to properly control the territory, and to da Silva began further brutal campaigns alongside local allies. Some kingdoms were completely wiped out, with leaders and populations either dead or displaced to Dutch-controlled territory.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Da Silva's campaign continued west to east, assisted by local allies. A new administrative structure was imposed in some areas alongside direct taxation of residents, bypassing traditional rulers. New restrictions were placed on the Hakka Chinese, with greater government control over economic activities and taxes. Basic infrastructure such as roads were created, as well as some funding for schools, although it remained very limited. In the north, land was prepared for coffee cultivation. Such land was often directly seized or purchased under duress, with land rights often going to Portuguese. Locals were required to work on these plantations. Traditional cultural practices were discouraged, as was identification with specific local kingdoms, both of which weakened traditional rulers. In 1897 Timor was separated from Macau. The military campaigns meant that Portugal had established effective control even of the island's interior.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: At the beginning of the twentieth century, a faltering home economy prompted the Portuguese to extract greater wealth from its colonies, resulting in increased resistance to Portuguese rule in Portuguese Timor. A 1904 treaty with the Dutch removed some enclaves, with Maucatar being ceded to Portugal and being ceded to the Netherlands.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: José Celestino da Silva returned to Portugal in 1908. Governor , who arrived in 1910, increased the head tax to 2.5 patacas, instead of just 1, prompting some to leave to Dutch-controlled territory. The 1910 overthrowing of the Portuguese Monarchy was announced in Dili three weeks after the event. This republicanism concerned local rulers, adding to existing tensions over new and higher taxes. Separate uprisings began throughout the island, which were eventually defeated by colonial forces and local allies. To defeat this revolt Portugal brought in troops from the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Macau, and the war saw the deaths of 3,000 Portuguese Timorese.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Colonial policy shifted back towards using indigenous rulers as figureheads, sometimes installing new more cooperative rulers. Efforts to repress local customs were reversed, with the intention of coopting such practices instead. Coffee plantations continued to expand, and taxes were increased. Many Portuguese males who gained control of coffee plantations married local women, leading to a growing mestiço population. Immigration also increased the Chinese population in some areas.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: On 16 September 1901 sandalwood harvesting was banned along much of the north coast, as was slash-and-burn agriculture. Despite the ban on harvesting, sandalwood exports continued to rise until 1913. A drop in the years afterwards led to Governor banning all sandalwood harvesting and export on 15 February 1925. In 1929 a localised easing of this ban was issued by Governor Teófilo Duarte for Oecusse, a response to slightly better existing stock, smuggling to Dutch Timor, and a lack of control of the exclave. New replanting efforts begun in 1946 by Governor also failed, and by 1975 sandalwood trees were found only in Oecusse, Cova Lima, Bobonaro, and pockets of the northern coast. No restoration efforts took place under Indonesian rule.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: A military coup in Portugal and the subsequent rise of dictator António de Oliveira Salazar saw racial categories becoming fully codified, separating the bulk of the native population, who were designated as uncivilised, from the white settlers, mestiços, and the assimilado (natives considered to have become civilised and assimilated). The colony was seen as an economic burden during the Great Depression, and received little support or management from Portugal.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: In the 1930s, the Japanese semi-governmental "Nan'yō Kōhatsu" development company, with the secret sponsorship of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), invested heavily in a joint-venture with the primary plantation company of Portuguese Timor, SAPT. The joint-venture effectively controlled imports and exports into the island by the mid-1930s and the extension of Japanese interests greatly concerned the British, Dutch and Australian authorities.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Although Portugal was neutral during World War II, in December 1941, Portuguese Timor was occupied by a small British, Australian and Dutch force, to preempt a Japanese invasion. However, the Japanese did invade in the Battle of Timor in February 1942. Under Japanese occupation, the borders of the Dutch and Portuguese were overlooked with Timor island being made a single Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) administration zone. Because of Portugal's neutrality, the Japanese left the Portuguese governor in place and in formal control of Liquiçá. 400 Australian and Dutch commandos trapped on the island by the Japanese invasion waged a guerrilla campaign in the mountainous interior, the Battle of Timor, which tied up Japanese troops and inflicted over 1,000 casualties. Timorese and the Portuguese helped the guerillas but following the Allies' eventual evacuation, Japanese retribution from their soldiers and Timorese militia raised in Dutch Timor was severe. By the end of the War, an estimated 40–60,000 Timorese had died, the economy was in ruins, and famine widespread.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Following World War II, the Portuguese promptly returned to reclaim their colony, while Dutch Timor became part of Indonesia as Indonesian Timor, when it secured its independence in 1949.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Keen to maintain its colonies under the ideology of Lusotropicalism, Portugal formally annexed Timor as an Overseas province. A small increase in education, infrastructure, and health development was coupled with increased repression. The international pressure for decolonisation and unrest in Portuguese Africa had little impact internally in Portuguese Timor, where identities remained linked to local kingdoms.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: To rebuild the economy, colonial administrators forced local chiefs to supply labourers which further damaged the agricultural sector. Coffee exports were promoted by the government. However, the economy did not improve substantially, and infrastructure improvements were limited. Growth rates remained low, near 2%. The role of the Catholic Church in Portuguese Timor grew following the Portuguese government handing over the education of the Timorese to the Church in 1941. In post-war Portuguese Timor, primary and secondary school education levels significantly increased, albeit on a very low base.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Although illiteracy in 1973 was estimated at 93 percent of the population, the small educated elite of Portuguese Timorese produced by the Church in the 1960s and 1970s became the independence leaders during the Indonesian occupation.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Following a 1974 coup (the "Carnation Revolution"), the new Government of Portugal favoured a gradual decolonisation process for Portuguese territories in Asia and Africa. When Portuguese Timorese political parties were first legalised in April 1974, three major players emerged. The Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) was dedicated to preserving Portuguese Timor as a protectorate of Portugal, and in September announced its support for independence. It was formed by members of the existing National Action Party and plantation owners. Fretilin, formed by trade unionists and anti-colonialists, endorsed "the universal doctrines of socialism", as well as "the right to independence", and later declared itself "the only legitimate representative of the people". A third party, APODETI, emerged advocating Portuguese Timor's integration with Indonesia expressing concerns that an independent East Timor would be economically weak and vulnerable. Smaller political parties included the Association of Timorese Heroes, a party advocating union with Australia, and the Timorese Labour Party. The rapid political changes fed down to the local level, where political allegiance was affected by existing internal divisions and intra-suco divisions.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: On 14 November 1974, Mário Lemos Pires - an Army officer - was appointed by the new Portuguese Government as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Portuguese Timor.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Meanwhile, the political dispute between the Portuguese Timorese parties soon gave rise to an armed conflict, that included the participation of members of the Colonial Police and Timorese soldiers of the Portuguese Army.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: In August, a UDT faction seized control of government buildings in Dili and began to arrest members of Fretilin. While hundreds were arrested, most of the Fretilin leadership escaped south to Aileu. While there were some similar actions in other towns, UDT was unable to build upon its initial surprise action. Fretilin, with the support of much of the former colonial armed forces, began a counter-attack on 20 August.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Unable to control the conflict with the few Portuguese troops that he had at his disposal, Lemos Pires decided to leave Dili with his staff and transfer the seat of the administration to Atauro Island (located 25 km off Dili) in late August 1975. At the same time, he requested Lisbon to send military reinforcements, the request being responded with the sending of a warship, the NRP "Afonso Cerqueira", which arrived in Portuguese Timorese waters in early October.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: On 28 November 1975, Fretilin unilaterally declared the colony's independence, as the Democratic Republic of East Timor ("República Democrática de Timor-Leste").


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Representatives of UDT and APODETI, encouraged by Indonesian intelligence, declared that the territory should become part of Indonesia.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: On 7 December 1975, the Indonesian Armed Forces launched an invasion of East Timor. At 3:00 a.m., the two Portuguese corvettes, the NRP "João Roby" and NRP "Afonso Cerqueira", anchored near Atauro, detected on the radar a high number of unidentified air and naval targets approaching. They soon identified the targets as Indonesian military aircraft and warships, which initiated an assault against Dili. Lemos Pires and his staff then left Atauro, embarked on the Portuguese warships, and headed to Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: The "João Roby" and "Afonso Cerqueira" were ordered to continue patrolling the waters around the former Portuguese Timor, in preparation of possible military action to respond to the Indonesian invasion, constituting the naval task force UO 20.1.2 (latter renamed FORNAVTIMOR). Portugal sent a third warship to the region, the NRP "Oliveira e Carmo", which arrived on 31 January 1976 and replaced the NRP "Afonso Cerqueira". The Portuguese warships would continue in the region until May 1976, when the remaining NRP "Oliveira e Carmo" left, going back to Lisbon, at a time when a military action to expel the Indonesian forces was clearly seen as unviable.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: On 17 July 1976, Indonesia formally annexed East Timor, declaring it as its 27th province and renaming it Timor Timur. The United Nations, however, did not recognise the annexation, continuing to consider Portugal as the legal Administering Power of what under international law was still Portuguese Timor.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: Following the end of Indonesian occupation in 1999, and a United Nations administered transition period, East Timor became formally independent 20 May 2002.


title: Portuguese Timor

text: In 1975, the currency ceased to exist as East Timor was annexed by Indonesia and began using the Indonesian rupiah.


title: North Nicosia

text: North Nicosia or Northern Nicosia ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of the "de facto" state of Northern Cyprus. It is the northern part of the divided city of Nicosia, and is governed by the Nicosia Turkish Municipality. , North Nicosia had a population of 61,378 and a metropolitan area with a population of 82,539.


title: North Nicosia

text: The city is the economic, political and cultural centre of Northern Cyprus, with many shops, restaurants and shopping malls. It is home to a historic walled city, centred on the Sarayönü Square, and a modern metropolitan area, with the Dereboyu region as its centre of business and entertainment. Described as a city with high levels of welfare, it has seen great urban growth and development in the 21st century, including the construction of new highways and high-rises. It hosts a significant number of tourists and a variety of cultural activities, including its international festivals of theatre and music. With a student population over 34,000, North Nicosia is an important centre of education and research and is home to four universities, of which the Near East University is the biggest.


title: North Nicosia

text: Following the intercommunal violence of the 1960s, the capital of Republic of Cyprus was divided between the island's Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in the south and north respectively in 1963. A coup by the Greek military junta in an attempt to unite the island with Greece in 1974 led to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and the international community considers North Nicosia to have been under Turkish occupation since then.


title: North Nicosia

text: During the Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, in the aftermath of unilateral constitutional changes by the Greek Cypriots, intercommunal violence broke out. Nicosia was divided into Greek and Turkish Cypriot quarters by the Green Line, named after the colour of the pen used by the United Nations officer to draw the line on a map of the city. This resulted in the ceasing of Turkish Cypriot participation in the government, and following more intercommunal violence in 1964, a number of Turkish Cypriots moved to the Turkish quarter of Nicosia, causing serious overcrowding.


title: North Nicosia

text: On 15 July 1974, there was an attempted coup d'état led by the Greek military junta to unite the island with Greece. The coup ousted Archbishop Makarios III as President of Cyprus, replacing him with pro-"Enosis" nationalist Nikos Sampson. In response to the prospect of "Enosis", on 20 July 1974, the Turkish Army invaded the island, and from then occupied the 37% of the north part of the Republic of Cyprus. The invasion included two phases. The second phase was performed on 14 August 1974, where the Turkish Army advanced their positions, eventually capturing a total of 37% of Cypriot territory, including the northern part of Nicosia and the cities of Kyrenia and Famagusta.


title: North Nicosia

text: On 23 April 2003, the Ledra Palace crossing was opened through the Green Line, the first time that crossing was allowed since 1974. This was followed by the opening of Ayios Dometios crossing point on 9 May 2003. On 3 April 2008, the Ledra Street crossing was also reopened.


title: North Nicosia

text: As the capital, North Nicosia is Northern Cyprus's political, economic and cultural centre. North Nicosia hosts the ministries of Northern Cyprus. The city is governed by the Nicosia Turkish Municipality, which is recognized by the constitution of the Republic of Cyprus.


title: North Nicosia

text: The Nicosia Turkish Municipality is headed by the mayor, Mehmet Harmancı from the Communal Democracy Party (TDP). He came to power in the local elections in 2014 with 38% of the popular vote, defeating the candidates of two major parties who were considered to be candidates with the highest chances by the Turkish Cypriot media in a feat that was seen as a major surprise victory. The organisation of the municipality features a 22-member City Council, composed of 8 councilors from the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), 6 from the National Unity Party (UBP), 6 from the Communal Democracy Party, 1 from the Democratic Party (DP-UG) and 1 from the New Cyprus Party (YKP).


title: North Nicosia

text: Nicosia is divided into several administrative divisions known as "mahalleler" (singular: "mahalle") or quarters. Each of these quarters are headed by a "muhtar", who is elected by the residents in local elections. There are 25 quarters within the jurisdiction of the Nicosia Turkish Municipality, of which 12 are in the walled city and 13 are outside, and below is list of them sorted according to population according to the 2011 census:


title: North Nicosia

text: The walled city of Nicosia is very rich in history, culture and architecture. The northern part is richer in historical buildings and cultural works, with its Selimiye quarter retaining its complete historical character and atmosphere. The walled city overall has been declared a protected area by the Turkish Cypriot Department of Antiquities, and 672 buildings and places of historical value have been registered in it.


title: North Nicosia

text: At the centre of the walled city lies the Atatürk Square, widely known as Sarayönü. The square has been dubbed as "the heart of Nicosia" and historically has been the cultural center of the Turkish Cypriot community, with the visiting Turkish prime ministers having delivered speeches before and during the conflict in Cyprus. It still hosts mass rallies during political campaigns and the headquarters of the National Unity Party. In the middle of the square stands the Venetian Column, known simply as "the Obelisk" ("Dikiltaş") to the locals and symbolic of the country's government. The column was brought from the ancient city of Salamis by the Venetians in 1550. The coats of arms of six Italian noble families still remains at the bottom of the column, even though the statue of the lion on it has been replaced with a copper ball. The square used to be the seat of a Lusignan palace, which was replaced with the present-day law courts by the British government.


title: North Nicosia

text: The Girne Avenue connects Sarayönü to the Kyrenia Gate and the İnönü Square in front of it. The avenue has been described as "the symbol of the walled city", and is filled with numerous shops and restaurants. A project is underway to redesign the area with a better infrastructure, visual quality and accessibility.


title: North Nicosia

text: Near the entrance of the walled city, to the west of the Girne Avenue, lies the Samanbahçe neighbourhood, built in the 19th century by the government, considered to be the first example of social housing in the island. The houses are uniform and contiguous, and in the center of the neighborhood is a historic fountain. Still a residential area, the neighborhood is considered to be one of the best representations of the Cypriot culture.


title: North Nicosia

text: Further south, next to the Ledra Street checkpoint, is the Arasta area. The area was pedestrianized in 2013 and is home to a network of historic shopping streets, reflecting an eastern shopping tradition with food and traditional items. The area is frequented by tourists.


title: North Nicosia

text: Nearby Büyük Han, the largest caravanserai in the island and considered to be one of the finest buildings in Cyprus, was built in 1572 by the Ottomans. The building has 68 rooms and a small mosque in the middle, and currently functions as a tourist-frequented cultural centre, with souvenir and handicraft shops, cafés with traditional food and cultural activities such as small-scale opera concerts. Just across from the road is the Kumarcılar Hanı (Gamblers' Inn), built in the 17th century as a typical example of Ottoman trading inns.


title: North Nicosia

text: Another central point in the walled city is the Selimiye Mosque, originally built as the St. Sophia Cathedral. The mosque is the chief religious centre in Northern Cyprus. It was built between 1209 and 1228 by the Latin Church of Cyprus, in a Gothic style resembling French cathedrals. Its columns are older, from the Roman era, indicating the possible presence of a Byzantine church before its construction. It used to be the place of coronation of Lusignan kings, and was converted to the largest mosque in the island by the Ottomans in 1571. It remains as a chief landmark of the city. Next to the mosque is the Bedesten, a large Greek church in the Byzantine and Gothic styles, built in the 6th and 14th centuries. It was used as a marketplace in the Ottoman era. Today, it is used as a cultural centre where various cultural activities such as concerts and festivals take place. The two buildings overlook a square, named the Selimiye Square, which also hosts cultural activity and occasional dance shows. The Library of Sultan Mahmud II, which hosts manuscripts in Turkish, Arabic and Persian that are over 500 years old and considered fine examples of calligraphy, is also located in the Selimiye Square.


title: North Nicosia

text: Among the quarters of the old city are Yenicami and Arabahmet. Yenicami hosts the Haydar Pasha Mosque that used to be the second largest church in the city before its conversion by the Ottomans, and with its Gothic architecture, it is home to richly carved doorways. The Arabahmet neighbourhood hosts the Arabahmet Mosque, which was built in 1845.


title: North Nicosia

text: Outside the walled city, North Nicosia has expanded to become a large city, with an urban area that has absorbed the neighboring town of Gönyeli and the former village of Hamitköy that is part of the Nicosia Turkish Municipality. The larger North Nicosia metropolitan area by definition includes the Haspolat region which is also considered to be a part of the city proper as it is within the Nicosia Turkish Municipality jurisdiction, the municipality of Alayköy and the village of Kanlıköy under the jurisdiction of Gönyeli, where North Nicosia is projected to grow. The metropolitan area has an area of 165.2 square kilometres.


title: North Nicosia

text: The quarters of Nicosia outside the walled city are more spacious than the walled city, with wider roads and junctions. These areas are characterized by multi-floor concrete buildings. In the outskirts of the city, a number large and imposing villas have been built that belong to the middle and upper-classes. Upper and middle class Turkish Cypriots have left the walled city to settle in areas such as Küçük Kaymaklı and Hamitköy, which have seen a corresponding boom in economic and commercial activity. As the city started to expand out of the walled city in the first half of the city, large and imposing houses were built in the Köşklüçiftlik and Çağlayan areas, which characterize these central quarters today. The Yenişehir quarter was planned by the British administration in the 1940s in an optimal design to minimize distances and allow healthy social interaction, and the quarter is still considered as a masterpiece of city planning in Cyprus.


title: North Nicosia

text: North Nicosia is mainly inhabited by Turkish Cypriots and Turkish settlers (including migrant workers). Turkish settlers make up the majority of the population in the walled city, while Turkish Cypriots predominantly inhabit the areas of the city outside the walls. Turkish Cypriots follow a more secularized lifestyle than the more conservative settlers, leading to tension between the communities. However, in the 2010s, a significant number of settled workers in the walled city left Northern Cyprus.


title: North Nicosia

text: Historically, Turkish Cypriots had concentrated to the north of the riverbed and Greek Cypriots to the south. The Green Line was drawn to separate the Turkish quarters of the city from the Greek quarters, and 7000 Turkish Cypriots, around 30% of the Turkish population of Greater Nicosia, were displaced from quarters of the walled city and some suburbs such as Küçük Kaymaklı/Omorphita. North Nicosia also received a great number of displaced Turkish Cypriots from surrounding villages. The Göçmenköy quarter (literally meaning "village of the displaced") was founded to resettle these displaced people. The Arab Ahmet quarter had had an Armenian Cypriot presence since the Ottoman conquest; having been a minority until the 1920s, they constituted the overwhelming majority of the area by the 1950s. 200 Armenians from Arab Ahmet, Köşklüçiftlik and Kumsal fled the quarter during the inter-communal violence of 1963. Greek Cypriots fled from the Ayluka/Ayios Loukas quarter in 1963, and from the Trachones/Kızılbaş and Küçük Kaymaklı/Omorphita quarters in 1974. The number of Greek Cypriots displaced from these quarters in 1974 was around 4700.


title: North Nicosia

text: North Nicosia is the financial and economic centre of Northern Cyprus. In 2012, Lefkoşa District had 39.9% of the workplaces and 49.5% of the employees in Northern Cyprus. The Central Bank of Northern Cyprus is located on the Bedrettin Demirel Avenue. The city has seen great urban growth in the last decades, but the authorities have been criticized over the lack of city planning. Between 2008 and 2010, the construction rates in the North Nicosia urban area grew by 23.9%, with the largest boom observed in the construction of new industrial facilities in the city, which grew by 87.5% over two years. North Nicosia also grew in importance as a centre of commerce as the construction of offices grew by 74.2%. Recently, programmes have been put to place to regulate the growth of the city that has expanded uncontrollably. North Nicosia has been identified as a city with a high amount of development and welfare.


title: North Nicosia

text: One aspect of North Nicosia that gives it the advantage for economical growth is its central position in Northern Cyprus, where transport links from Kyrenia, Famagusta and Morphou intersect. North Nicosia is home to the Nicosia International Fair and an Organized Industrial Area, where many businesses and manufacturers are located. Their location, along with other facilities such as the large sports complex, were chosen to be on the connection between the highways linking Morphou to Famagusta. North Nicosia hugely influences the economy of the surrounding district, as far as the Ercan International Airport, along with Dikomo in the Girne District.


title: North Nicosia

text: The economy in the walled city has stagnated through the 2000s and 2010s, with the central Municipal Market losing its popularity, even though it has started to receive investment and programs have been put to place to reinvigorate the region with cultural activities being organized. In 2014, the Arasta shopping region close to the Ledra Street crossing was pedestrianized, which increased the popularity of the area.


title: North Nicosia

text: Tourism is an important sector of the economy. In 2012, North Nicosia hosted more than 146,000 tourists, accounting for 13.8% of the total touristic stays in Northern Cyprus. In 2008, after the opening of the Ledra Street crossing, the Arasta area saw an influx of visitors as around 2300 Greek Cypriots and tourists used the crossing to cross into the area daily. The city has seen the construction of large hotels in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The constructions have changed the city's skyline, with the newly constructed Merit Hotel on the Bedrettin Demirel Avenue and the Golden Tulip Hotel in the Dereboyu region being highly visible high-rises. The country's oldest hotel, the Saray Hotel was also renovated and each of the three hotels has its own casino, with a total capacity of around 700 people.