title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Almost six hundred buildings in the neighborhood—a rectangle stretching roughly from 76th to 88th Streets and from Roosevelt Avenue almost up to Northern Boulevard—were designated as a New York City Historic District by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on October 19, 1993. It comprises large apartment buildings with private communal gardens, as well as many groupings of private homes and many stores on the streets surrounding Roosevelt Avenue. Unlike the State and National Districts, the local designation comes with aesthetic protections.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: In addition to the Jackson Heights Historic District, the Lent Homestead and Cemetery and Jackson Heights post office are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The main retail thoroughfare is 37th Avenue from 72nd Street to Junction Boulevard, with more retail on 73rd, 74th, and 82nd streets between 37th and Roosevelt avenues. Stores and restaurants on and near 74th Street tend to cater to the large population from the Indian subcontinent in the neighborhood, with sari and jewelry stores, Indian and Bengali music and movie retailers and many restaurants. 37th Avenue contains a wide mix of retailers, including many grocery stores, and 82nd Street contains many national chain stores located in Tudor-style buildings in the Jackson Heights Historic District. South American retailers and eateries, predominantly from Colombia and Peru dominate Northern Boulevard from 80th Street east to the border of neighboring Corona at Junction Boulevard. Roosevelt Avenue is also lined with various mainly Hispanic retail stores.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Along Roosevelt Avenue from 74th to 108th Streets, street food from all over the world is made and sold though food carts are "currently dominated by the Mexican community". Typical cart food includes Bengali fuchka (phuchka), Middle Eastern lamb over rice, Nepalese momo, Colombian chuzos and arepas, Greek souvlaki, Ecuadorian ceviche, Thai steamed chicken over rice, and Mexican elotes (corn on a cob), tacos, homemade tamales filled with meats, cheese, fruits or even chilies, and fruit batidos or aguas frescas (smoothies) as well as South American sweet churros.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: In a 2017 episode of his show "", American chef Anthony Bourdain visited several Queens eateries, profiling Evelia Coyotzi, who sells tamales in a street cart on Junction Boulevard, the border between Jackson Heights and neighboring Corona. Bourdain learned about Coyotzi, a Mexican immigrant who spoke no English, through the Street Vendor Project, which advocates for New York City street vendors.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Most housing units in Jackson Heights are apartments in multi-unit buildings, many of which are five or six stories. Many of these buildings are co-ops, some are rentals, and a few are condominiums. There are also a number of one- to three-family houses, most of which are attached row houses. 34th and 35th avenues, as well as most side streets between 37th Avenue and Northern Boulevard, are residential. A section of 90th Street between 30th Avenue and Northern Boulevard was privately developed separately from the Queensboro Corporation. The structures on that stretch of 90th Street are mostly Tudor buildings.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: There were five historic movie theaters in Jackson Heights, which are all currently either repurposed or closed. The Art Deco Earle Theater, opened in 1936 on 37th Road between 73rd and 74th streets, was a neighborhood movie theater before becoming a porn theater and then, with the name changed to "Eagle", a Bollywood theater before a strike in the Bollywood industry caused the theater to close permanently in 2009; it is now a food court selling cuisine of the Indian subcontinent. The Fair Theatre, located in the area that overlaps with East Elmhurst, opened in 1939 at Astoria Boulevard and 90th Street, became a porn theater. The Polk Theater, on 37th (formerly Polk) Avenue and 93rd Street, opened in 1938 and closed in 2006, also was a porn theater during its later years, before it was demolished in 2008. The Colony Theater, on 82nd Street north of Roosevelt Avenue, opened in 1935 and closed in 1991. The Jackson, afterwards an Indian-owned theater under the name of the Jackson Heights Cinema, on 82nd Street south of Roosevelt Avenue, was demolished in March 2017. Finally, the Boulevard Theater, on Northern Boulevard and 83rd Street, is now a Latin-American restaurant of the same name.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Jackson Heights was 108,152, a decrease of 5,175 (4.6%) from the 113,327 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of . The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 17.2% (18,567) White, 2.0% (2,210) African American, 0.1% (145) Native American, 22.0% (23,781) Asian, 0.0% (9) Pacific Islander, 0.5% (583) from other races, and 1.6% (1,736) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 56.5% (61,121) of the population.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The entirety of Queens Community District 3, which comprises Jackson Heights as well as East Elmhurst and North Corona, had 179,844 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 84.7 years. This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are middle-aged adults and youth: 22% are between the ages of 0–17, 32% between 25 and 44, and 24% between 45 and 64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 9% and 12% respectively.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: As of 2017, the median household income in Community Board 3 was $56,601. In 2018, an estimated 25% of Jackson Heights residents lived in poverty, compared to 19% in all of Queens and 20% in all of New York City. One in fourteen residents (7%) were unemployed, compared to 8% in Queens and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 59% in Jackson Heights, slightly higher than the boroughwide and citywide rates of 53% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, , Jackson Heights is considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: However, in 2017, nearly 11% of households in Jackson Heights were severely overcrowded—defined as households in which there are more than 1.5 household members for each room (excluding bathrooms) in the unit—making it the second most overcrowded neighborhood in the city, behind only Elmhurst to the south.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The 2020 census data from New York City Department of City Planning showed that there were 54,300 Hispanic residents, 27,600 Asian residents, there were between 10,000 to 19,999 White residents and less than 5000 Black residents.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Jackson Heights is among the most diverse neighborhoods in New York City and the nation. Half of the population was foreign born by the 2000s. Jackson Heights is home to large numbers of South Americans (particularly Colombian, Ecuadorian and Argentinian), Indians, Pakistanis, Tibetans, Nepalese, and Bangladeshis. (Because of its large and vibrant Tibetan community, it has been called "the second (if unofficial) capital of the exile Tibetan world, after Dharamsala, India.") Most businesses are Asian- and Latino-owned, and there are restaurants, bakeries, specialty shops, legal offices, bars, and beauty salons. There is a Little India on 74th Street and a Little Pakistan and Little Bangladesh on 73rd Street. There is also a large concentration of South Americans east of 77th Street, especially a Little Colombia along 37th Avenue.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Jackson Heights was heavily Colombian during the 1980s, but other immigrant groups have settled in the area, notably Mexicans. Many of the displaced Colombians have moved to adjacent areas such as Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, Corona, College Point and Flushing. Queens County still has the largest concentration of Colombians in the United States of any county (roughly 135,000).


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The 2015 documentary "In Jackson Heights" portrays Jackson Heights as a microcosm of the American melting pot.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The word game Scrabble was co-invented by former architect Alfred Mosher Butts, who lived in Jackson Heights. There is a street sign at 35th Avenue and 81st Street that is stylized using letters, with their values in Scrabble as a subscript; it was originally erected in 1995, but after the sign disappeared in 2008, a replacement was put up in 2011.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The Jackson Heights Garden City Society is a historical society, whose founders include local historians, the Queens Borough Historian and local activists. They created and oversee the Jackson Heights Garden City Trail and publish a walking guidebook to Jackson Heights. They also collect artifacts of the community. Periodically, the Society testifies before the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on issues of concern to the community.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: In addition, Colombian broadcaster RCN TV has its US-American headquarters in the neighborhood, reflecting the sizable Colombian population in the area.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: There is a year-round greenmarket every Sunday morning at Travers Park, as well as various family-oriented spring and summer concerts.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: In the 1920s, LGBT actors working in the 42nd Street theater scene decided to make their homes in Jackson Heights due to the lack of affordability of Manhattan neighborhoods and the easy accessibility of the 7 train. That was the beginning of what is now the second largest gay community in New York City.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Until the 1990s, LGBT activities in Jackson Heights were usually held surreptitiously and at night due to a constant fear of backlash. As the neighborhood continued to grow, more spaces for the gay community were added. One of those was the Queens Center for Gay Seniors, which was created using grant money and is still the only senior center in Queens serving the LGBT community specifically.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The LGBT community became a movement after the 1990 murder of Julio Rivera, a 29-year-old bartender who worked at the Magic Touch gay bar. Rivera was raised in the Bronx, but tried to avoid the violence of the streets there, and moved to Jackson Heights as a young adult. On the night of July 2, three men cornered Rivera in a schoolyard that was known as a gay cruising area and beat him with a hammer and beer bottle, and then stabbed him. At the beginning of the case, the police department categorized the assault as drug-related, because Rivera had been a longtime cocaine user and they found traces of cocaine on his body. However, after Rivera's friends and relatives advocated for the case to be examined further, the NYPD concluded that Rivera's death had been an anti-gay crime, and the three men involved were charged with murder and manslaughter.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: This was the first real standing for justice and honor for the LGBT community in Queens. The resulting activism led to the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, a social services agency that helps monitor any type of criminal acts against the community citywide. Rivera's sister-in-law was elected as the AVP for the LGBT board. Union helped improve the relationship between the Police Department and Jackson Heights' LGBT community and helped with supervision against violence. In 2000, the corner of 78th Street and 37th Avenue, where Rivera was killed, was renamed in his memory and a documentary, "Julio of Jackson Heights", was made about his murder.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Since the 1990s, the LGBTQ community in Jackson Heights has not only grown in number, but also expanded its diversity and cultures. The Inaugural Queens Lesbian and Gay Parade and Block Party Festival, organized by Daniel Dromm and Maritza Martinez, took place on June 6, 1993, in Jackson Heights, marking a watershed in LGBTQ history. Some 1,000 marchers participated, and thousands of spectators attended. More than a dozen LGBTQ organizations sponsored the event. In 1994 Dromm and activist Wayne Mahlke organized the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens, "the only LGBT independent Democratic club in the Borough of Queens." That same year, the Queens Pride Parade commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. In 1995, Ed Sedarbaum established the SAGE/Queens Clubhouse, the first senior citizens program in Queens to provide outreach to LGBTQ elderly. In 1999, an estimated 40,000 people attend the Queens Pride Parade with some 70 community groups registered.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Daniel Dromm and Jimmy Van Bramer were elected to the New York City Council on November 3, 2009, representing, respectively, the 25th and 26th districts in Queens. Both City Council members are openly gay.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: On August 15, 2001, Edgar Garzon, a gay man, was murdered in an incident that the Queens district attorney characterized as a "possible hate crime." The murder quickly faded from public attention after the September 11 attacks a month later. In 2006, John L. McGhee was charged with Garzon's murder.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: On June 3, 2018, 25-year-old school teacher Brandon Soriano was attacked by two men following the 2018 Pride Parade in what has been deemed a hate crime. Five days later, a Latina transgender woman was allegedly stabbed repeatedly a few blocks away.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: US-Bangla Airlines formerly had its U.S. offices in the Bangladesh Plaza building in Jackson Heights.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Travers Park is the main local playground. It has a variety of sports, including basketball, tennis, baseball, soccer, and handball. In recent years, a farmers' market was expanded to a year-round presence. Renovations completed in October 2020 eliminated much of the space previously used for sports, and replaced it with lawn and seating space.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Prior to expansion, the P.S. 69 school yard offered baseball fields, a stickball field, a handball court and three tennis courts. Con Edison sponsored several summer tennis camps at P.S. 69's school yard from 1982 to 1992. In 1998, P.S. 69 built an annex to compensate for the booming population of children in Jackson Heights and the public access to the school yard was removed. However, on November 30, 2011, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials opened the 200th "Schoolyard to Playground" at P.S. 69 as a part of the PlaNYC initiative to ensure all New Yorkers live within a 10-minute walk of a park or playground; the program is turning schoolyards into playgrounds in neighborhoods across the city.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Jackson Heights is patrolled by the 115th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 92–15 Northern Boulevard. The 115th Precinct was ranked 20th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. Crime has declined significantly since the late 20th century when the area was known as the "cocaine capital" of New York City. , with a non-fatal assault rate of 33 per 100,000 people, Jackson Heights's rate of violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 342 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The 115th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 85.0% between 1990 and 2019. The precinct reported 11 murders, 42 rapes, 246 robberies, 344 felony assaults, 125 burglaries, 520 grand larcenies, and 128 grand larcenies auto in 2019.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Jackson Heights is served by two New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire stations. Engine Co. 307/Ladder Co. 154 is located at 81–19 Northern Boulevard. Another fire station, Engine Co. 316, is located at 27–12 Kearney Street in East Elmhurst.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: , preterm births are about the same in Jackson Heights as in other places citywide, but births to teenage mothers are more common. In Jackson Heights, there were 86 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 27.9 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide). Jackson Heights has a high population of residents who are uninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 28%, which is higher than the citywide rate of 12%.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Jackson Heights is , lower than the city average. Thirteen percent of Jackson Heights residents are smokers, which is slightly lower than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. In Jackson Heights, 20% of residents are obese, 13% are diabetic, and 29% have high blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 20%, 14%, and 24% respectively. In addition, 26% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Eighty-six percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is slightly lower than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 72% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", lower than the city's average of 78%. For every supermarket in Jackson Heights, there are 17 bodegas. Jackson Heights also has two farmer's markets.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: In 2020, the neighborhoods of Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights were most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. , these communities, with a cumulative 303,494 residents, had recorded 12,954 COVID-19 cases and 1,178 deaths. COVID-19 cases in ZIP Code 11372 were among the highest of any ZIP Code in New York City.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Jackson Heights is covered by multiple ZIP Codes. The area between Northern Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue is covered by 11372, while the areas north of Northern Boulevard, which are considered primarily to be a part of the East Elmhurst neighborhood, are covered by 11370 west of 85th Street (an area stretching north to Astoria and Rikers Island) and 11369 east of 85th Street. ZIP Code 11371 is assigned to LaGuardia Airport.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Jackson Heights generally has a lower ratio of college-educated residents than the rest of the city . While 27% of residents age 25 and older have a college education or higher, 30% have less than a high school education and 47% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 39% of Queens residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher. The percentage of Jackson Heights students excelling in math rose from 41% in 2000 to 65% in 2011, and reading achievement rose from 46% to 49% during the same time period.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Jackson Heights's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is less than the rest of New York City. In Jackson Heights, 12% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year, lower than the citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 78% of high school students in Jackson Heights graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: New York City Department of Education operates public schools. Schools in Jackson Heights include P.S. 69 Jackson Heights School, P.S. 149 Christa McAuliffe School, P.S. 212, P.S 222 FF Christopher A. Santora School, I.S. 145 Joseph Pulitzer School, P.S. 152, and I.S. 230.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Private schools in the neighborhood include Saint Joan of Arc School (Pre-K3 to 8 grade), Our Lady of Fatima School (Pre-K to 8 grade), Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School, a school which turned co-ed by the end of the 2012 school year, though technically located in East Elmhurst. Garden School, a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) independent school within Jackson Heights, enrolls 300 students from grades Nursery–Grade 12.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: 82nd Street Academics, a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational institution, is housed at the Community United Methodist Church of Jackson Heights. Since 2003, it has been a community-based Universal Pre-Kindergarten provider under contract with the New York Department of Education.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The Community United Methodist Church, located between 81st and 82nd streets on 35th Avenue, is the oldest Church in Jackson Heights. Founded in 1919, it was dedicated in 1923 as part of Queensboro Corporation's planned development. Originally serving the spiritual needs of European-American Protestant residents, it is now the most diverse church in Queens with Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and English services. Reverend Austin Armistead, who led the church from 1974 to 1995, is credited for the church's racial and cultural change. Prior to his arrival in 1974, the suggestion of the Spanish-speaking service had been rejected. Armistead made the decision to remake the church, with a vision of mirroring the neighborhood and so divided the church into four different ministries; the church also came to serve as "common ground" for a range of community groups, from ethnic associations to LGBTQ organizations to nonprofits like the Jackson Heights Beautification Group.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Satya Narayan Mandir, located at NE corner of 76 street and Woodside Avenue, is the oldest Hindu-Sikhism combination temple in the United States (and, it claims, the Americas). It was incorporated in 1987.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Church, located between 82nd and 83rd Street on 35th Avenue, was the first Catholic church to be named in honor of a newly canonized French Saint.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Muhammadi Community Center, located at 37–46 72nd Street, serves the Muslim population of Jackson Heights since 1995. Its head and founder is Imam Qazi Qayyoom.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: St. Mark's Episcopal Church, located on 34th Avenue between 81st and 82nd streets within the Jackson Heights Historic District, the church offers bilingual worship. It was established in 1923 as part of Queensboro Corporation's planned development. In 1993, it was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Jackson Heights-Elmhurst Kehillah, located in the lower level of the Jackson Heights Jewish Center at 77th Street at the corner of 37th Avenue, provides all manner of services for all residents of Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and western Queens.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: The Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue/74th Street station is a transportation hub where the subway's and the Q32, Q33, Q47, Q49. Q53 SBS and Q70 SBS buses converge. The MTA spent over $100 million on renovations to the Jackson Heights bus terminal, which were completed in 2005. It includes one of the first green buildings in the MTA system, the Victor A. Moore Bus Terminal, which is partially powered by solar panels built into the roof. These are located along the length of the sheds above the Flushing Line platforms. The terminal, as is the Victor Moore Arcade (which it replaced), is named after Jackson Heights resident Victor Moore, a Broadway and film actor from the era of silent film to the 1950s.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Interstate 278 (Brooklyn Queens Expressway), New York State Route 25A (Northern Boulevard), and the Grand Central Parkway (in the East Elmhurst area) are major roads in the area. LaGuardia Airport, in neighboring East Elmhurst, is nearby.


title: Jackson Heights, Queens

text: Eleven percent of roads in Jackson Heights have bike lanes, similar to the rate in the city overall. These lanes, part of the city's bikeway system, exist on 34th Avenue, as well as on 74th and 75th streets between 34th Avenue and 37th Road. There is also a short one-block bike lane connector on 37th Road between 74th and 75th streets.


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Sarah Jane Vowell (born December 27, 1969) is an American author, journalist, essayist, social commentator and voice actress. She has written seven nonfiction books on American history and culture. She was a contributing editor for the radio program "This American Life" on Public Radio International from 1996 to 2008, where she produced numerous commentaries and documentaries and toured the country in many of the program's live shows. She was also the voice of Violet Parr in the 2004 animated film "The Incredibles" and its 2018 sequel.


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Sarah Vowell was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her family moved to Bozeman, Montana when she was eleven. She has a fraternal twin sister, Amy. She earned a B.A. from Montana State University in 1993 in Modern Languages and Literature, and an M.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999.


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Vowell's articles have been published in "The Village Voice", "Esquire", "Spin Magazine", "The New York Times", "The Los Angeles Times", and "SF Weekly". She has been a regular contributor to the online magazine "Salon.com", and was one of the original contributors to "McSweeney's", participating in many of the quarterly's readings and shows.


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Vowell's first book, "" (1997), which featured her year-long diary of listening to the radio in 1995, caught the attention of "This American Life" host Ira Glass, and it led to Vowell becoming a frequent contributor to the show. Thereafter, segments on the show became the subjects for many of her subsequent published essays. Vowell's first essay collection was "Take the Cannoli" (2000), which was followed by "The Partly Cloudy Patriot" (2002).


title: Sarah Vowell

text: In 2005, Vowell served as a guest columnist for "The New York Times" during several weeks in July, briefly filling in for Maureen Dowd. Vowell also served as a guest columnist in February 2006. Her book "Assassination Vacation" (2005) describes a road trip to tourist sites devoted to the murders of presidents Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley. Vowell's book, "The Wordy Shipmates" (2008), analyzes the settlement of the New England Puritans in America and their contributions to American history. Also in 2008, Vowell's essay about Montana appeared in the book "State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America".


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Vowell wrote "Unfamiliar Fishes" (2011), which discusses the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the Newlands Resolution. In April 2011, the book became a New York Times Bestseller. In her Los Angeles Times review, Susan Salter Reynolds wrote that Vowell's "cleverness is gorgeously American: She collects facts and stores them like a nervous chipmunk, digesting them only for the sake of argument." Allegra Goodman, writing in "The Washington Post", describes the work as "a big gulp of a book, printed as an extended essay... Lacking section or chapter breaks, Vowell's quirky history lurches from one anecdote to the next. These are often entertaining, but in the aggregate they begin to sound the same..." Goodman also wrote that "Vowell tells a good tale" with "shrewd observations", but that she found that "the narrative wears thin where casual turns cute and cute threatens to turn glib."


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Her most recent book is "Lafayette in the Somewhat United States" (2015), an account of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat who became George Washington's trusted officer and friend, and afterward an American celebrity. In a review for "The New York Times", Charles P. Pierce wrote, "Vowell wanders through the history of the American Revolution and its immediate aftermath, using Lafayette's involvement in the war as a map, and bringing us all along in her perambulations… and doing it with a wink." NPR reviewer Colin Dwyer wrote, "It's awfully refreshing to see Vowell bring our founders down from their lofty pedestals. In her telling, they're just men again, not the gods we've long since made of them."


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Vowell has appeared on television shows such as "Nightline", "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", "The Colbert Report", "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", "Late Show with David Letterman", and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien".


title: Sarah Vowell

text: In April 2006, Vowell served as the keynote speaker at the 27th Annual Kentucky Women Writers Conference. In August and September 2006, she toured the United States as part of the "Revenge of the Book Eaters" national tour, which benefited the children's literacy centers 826NYC, 826CHI, 826 Valencia, 826LA, 826 Michigan, and 826 Seattle.


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Vowell also provided commentary in Robert Wuhl's 2005 "Assume the Position with Mr. Wuhl" HBO specials.


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Vowell provided the voice of Violet Parr, a shy teenager, in the 2004 Pixar animated film "The Incredibles", and returned to her role for the film's sequel, "Incredibles 2", in 2018. Vowell also voiced the character in various related video games, and for "Disney on Ice" presentations in the years following the film's release. The makers of "The Incredibles" discovered Vowell in an episode of "This American Life", "Guns", in which she and her father fire a homemade cannon. Pixar made a test animation for Violet using audio from that sequence, which was included on the DVD of "The Incredibles". Vowell also wrote and was featured in a documentary included on the same DVD, entitled "Vowellett—An Essay by Sarah Vowell", in which she reflects on the difference between being an author of history books on assassinated presidents and voicing the superhero Violet, and on what the role meant to her nephew.


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Vowell was featured prominently in the 2002 documentary about the alternative rock band, They Might Be Giants, entitled "Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns", and she appeared with band members John Linnell and John Flansburgh in the DVD commentary for the movie. She also provided commentary for the April 2006 episode, "Murder at the Fair: The Assassination of President McKinley," one of ten in the History Channel miniseries, "10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America."


title: Sarah Vowell

text: In September 2006, Vowell appeared as a minor character in the ABC drama "Six Degrees". She appeared in an episode of HBO's "Bored to Death", as an interviewer in a bar, and in 2010, appeared briefly in the film "Please Give", as a shopper. Vowell also appeared on "The Daily Show" as a Senior Historical Context Correspondent.


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Vowell claims to have a small amount of Cherokee ancestry (about 1/8 on her mother's side and 1/16 on her father's side). She is not a member of any tribe or nation. She retraced the path of the forced removal of the Cherokee from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma, known as the Trail of Tears, with her twin sister Amy. In 1998, "This American Life" chronicled her story, devoting the entire hour to her work.


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Vowell is on the advisory board of 826NYC, a nonprofit tutoring and writing center for students aged 6–18 in Brooklyn.


title: Sarah Vowell

text: Vowell is an atheist, though she describes herself as "culturally Christian." In an interview with "The A.V. Club", when asked if she believed in a god, she stated, "Absolutely not."


title: State defense force

text: In the United States, state defense forces are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government. State defense forces are authorized by state and federal law and are under the command of the governor of each state.


title: State defense force

text: State defense forces are distinct from their state's National Guard in that they cannot become federal entities. All state National Guard personnel (to include the National Guard of the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands) can be federalized under the National Defense Act Amendments of 1933 with the creation of the National Guard of the United States. This provides the basis for integrating units and personnel of the Army National Guard into the U.S. Army and, since 1947, units and personnel of the Air National Guard into the U.S. Air Force.


title: State defense force

text: The federal government recognizes state defense forces, as per the of the U.S. Constitution, under which provides that state defense forces as a whole may not be called, ordered, or drafted into the armed forces of the United States, thus preserving their separation from the National Guard. However, under the same law, individual members serving in the state defense force are not exempt from service in the armed forces (i.e., they are not excluded from the draft). Under 32 USC § 109(e), "A person may not become a member of a defense force ... if he is a member of a reserve component of the armed forces."


title: State defense force

text: Nearly every state has laws authorizing state defense forces, and twenty-two states, plus the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, have active forces with different levels of activity, support, and strength. State defense forces generally operate with emergency management and homeland security missions. Most SDFs are organized as ground units, but air and naval units also exist. Depending on the state, they may be variously named as "state military", "state military force", "state guard", "state militia", or "state military reserve".


title: State defense force

text: From its founding until the early 1900s, the United States maintained only a minimal army and relied on state militias to supply the majority of its troops, with the training and readiness of the latter varying widely. As a result of the Spanish–American War and the performance of the militias and other volunteer units during that conflict, Congress was called upon to reform and regulate the training and qualification of state militias. In 1903, with passage of the Militia Act of 1903, the predecessor to the modern-day National Guard was formed. It required the states to divide their militias into two sections. The law recommended the title "National Guard" for the first section, for federal administration, and "Reserve Militia" for the individual states.


title: State defense force

text: During World War I, Congress authorized the states to maintain Home Guards, which were reserve forces outside the National Guard forces that were then being deployed by the Federal Government as part of the National Army. The Secretary of War was authorized to furnish these Home Guard units with rifles, ammunition, and supplies.


title: State defense force

text: In 1933, Congress finalized the split between the National Guard and the traditional state militias by mandating that all federally funded soldiers take a dual enlistment/commission and thus enter both the state National Guard and the newly created National Guard of the United States, a federal reserve force.


title: State defense force

text: In 1940, with the onset of World War II and as a result of its federalizing the National Guard, Congress amended the National Defense Act of 1916, and authorized the states to maintain "military forces other than National Guard."


title: State defense force

text: In 1950, with the outbreak of the Korean War and at the urging of the National Guard, Congress reauthorized the separate state military forces for a time period of two years. These state military forces were authorized military training at federal expense, as well as "arms, ammunition, clothing, and equipment," as deemed necessary by the Secretary of the Army. At the end of the two years, however, they were not reauthorized under federal law.


title: State defense force

text: In 1956, Congress finally revised the law and authorized "state defense forces" permanently under Title 32, Section 109, of the United States Code. Two years later, Congress amended the law and changed the name from "State defense forces" to "defense forces." Still, it was not until the early Ronald Reagan administration that many states developed their defense forces into elements that existed beyond paper, when the U.S. Department of Defense actively encouraged states to create and maintain SDF units.


title: State defense force

text: By the late 1980s, however, a series of high-profile reports caused several states to shut down or significantly restructure their forces. In 1987, the governor of Utah removed all but 31 officers from the Utah State Guard, after a probe revealed that its ranks were "peppered with neo-Nazis, felons and mental patients." Meanwhile, in 1990, the Virginia General Assembly launched an investigation and subsequent overhaul of its state's force after receiving tips that the volunteers were "saving money to buy a tank."


title: State defense force

text: With the end of the Cold War came a general decrease of interest in state defense forces. The attacks of September 11, 2001, however, generated additional attention and, with it, greater scrutiny from some in the United States military who questioned the training and equipment of the units and whether they provided an outlet for "warrior wannabes" who would not otherwise qualify for service in the armed forces. In 2008, Alaska disarmed its state defense force after an investigation concluded the lack of training intensity or standardization was a potential legal liability to the state. By 2010 the status of the force had been downgraded even further, with the Adjutant-General of the Alaska National Guard informing volunteers that they would only be called upon as a "reserve of last resort to be used only in the most extreme emergencies." The ASDF remained deliberately hamstrung for over half a decade, until Governor Bill Walker overruled the Adjutant-General in 2016 when he announced his intention to reform the Alaska State Defense Force by expanding it further into rural Alaska and improving training standards.


title: State defense force

text: Further controversy was stoked by a "New York Times" report which found many senior officers in the New York Guard had little or no formal military training despite holding, in some cases, general officer ranks. The former commander of the force, Pierre David Lax, noted that, "if you are friendly with the governor and you always wanted to be a general, you ask the governor to make you a general, and poof, you are a brigadier general." Another former commander asserted he regularly awarded titles to members of the New York legislature in exchange for their support of budgetary allocations to the force. The report also noted that a majority of the unit's rare deployments involved providing ceremonial support, such as bands and color guards, to the state government.


title: State defense force

text: An April 2014 Department of Defense report by the Inspector General's office reported confusion and inconsistency among state adjutant generals as to the use and status of state defense forces. The Inspector General's office reported an under-utilization of state defense force capabilities due to a lack of clarity in the US Code regarding the use of SDFs, fueling fear that using funds and assets acquired through the federal government for state defense forces could run afoul of regulations. (While the National Guard is operated by the states, most of their equipment and funding comes from the federal government.) This fear of violating regulations also inhibited their use and integration with their National Guard counterparts, preventing them from conducting joint operations alongside one another, and also from volunteering in support of federal missions. Other problems cited by the Inspector General's office were a lack of standardization in training and physical fitness, raising questions as to the ability of SDFs to work alongside their National Guard counterparts, and a lack of coordination with and support from the Department of Defense. During a survey conducted by the Inspector General of SDF commanders and adjutant generals, 18 of 19 considered their SDFs to be part of the organized militia and subject to the Code of Military Justice, 14 of 18 considered the members of SDFs to be "soldiers", 14 of 18 considered SDF personnel to be "lawful belligerents" under the rules of war, and only 4 of 19 authorized their personnel to conduct firearms training. Almost all of the missions reported to the IG's office were non-military in nature, including small-scale search and rescue, disaster management, and other unarmed, homeland security related-tasks.


title: State defense force

text: Due to public fears over the Jade Helm 15 exercises held throughout a number of southwestern states, on April 28, 2015, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas ordered a call-up of the Texas State Guard to monitor the exercises and facilitate communication between US special operations forces conducting training and the governor's office.


title: State defense force

text: In early 2020, a number of state defense forces were activated to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. As of April 2020, the Alaska State Defense Force, the California State Guard, the Governor's Guards of Connecticut, the Georgia State Defense Force, the Indiana Guard Reserve, the Maryland Defense Force, the New York Guard, the Ohio Military Reserve, the South Carolina State Guard, the Tennessee State Guard, the Texas State Guard, and the Virginia Defense Force had all contributed members to their respective states' efforts in combating the pandemic.


title: State defense force

text: A 2003 article in the United States Army War College's "Parameters" journal recommended that "United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM) should ensure that future contingency planning efforts for homeland security operations fully incorporate the valuable capabilities that State Defense Forces can provide." In the decade following that article, however, no significant action has been taken on the recommendation.


title: State defense force

text: Several bills have been unsuccessfully introduced in Congress since the early 1990s seeking to improve the readiness of state defense forces. The most recent, H.R. 206, introduced in 2009 by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, would have allowed the U.S. Secretary of Defense to transfer surplus U.S. military equipment to state defense forces. Co-sponsors of the bill included Jim Marshall and Frank Wolf. Congress took no action on the measure before adjourning.


title: State defense force

text: In recent years, state defense forces have focused on retooling their capabilities to be better prepared for future missions by improving their professionalism and interoperability with other agencies. The development of professional commands to support the National Guard, especially medical commands to buttress civil authorities during a civil crisis, has become an emerging trend.


title: State defense force

text: Several state defense forces have begun to shift their focus to preparing for larger emergencies which may require multiple states to coordinate relief efforts. In July 2015, the Virginia Defense Force headed a multi-state communications exercise, the first ever of its kind, where the VDF practiced long-distance radio communications with the Tennessee State Guard, Indiana Guard Reserve, Texas State Guard, and the California State Military Reserve. Further efforts at standardizing training between state defense forces by setting competency requirements have been undertaken by the State Guard Association, which followed its Military Emergency Management Specialist training program with a JAG Academy an Engineer Specialty Qualification Badge, and plans for a Medical Academy in the future.


title: State defense force

text: Individual states have made efforts to increase their capabilities to be prepared to take on future missions. In March 2017, the California State Military Reserve activated its Maritime Component to lead and assist in future homeland security missions while working in conjunction with other agencies, including the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, CalTrans, and other civilian departments. As of May 2017, the Maryland Defense Force has significantly reorganized; the number of available officer billets has been shrunk, and the job descriptions reorganized, in order to avoid having a top-heavy organizational structure. New units, including the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) Support Unit, have been approved, and others, such as the MDDF Cyber Unit, have planned expansions. Training standards were also heightened, with the MDDF requiring that drill participation, age, height, and weight requirements be more strictly enforced. Further, all new soldiers are currently required to earn their Military Emergency Management Specialist Badge. These changes were made with the goal that the future MDDF would be able to "seamlessly integrate into missions with the National Guard."


title: State defense force

text: There are currently twenty-two active state defense forces. The Puerto Rico State Guard includes an air support component, the 1st Air Base Group, that support the operations of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard.


title: State defense force

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki> Colorado does not operate an active state defense force, but rather has a statutory state defense force staffed by one individual appointed by the governor.


title: State defense force

text: Some state defense forces advertise recruitment and physical standards lower than the U.S. military with relaxed waiver standards. While other state defense forces, and specific units, advertise professional military and physical fitness standards to retain integration with National Guard counterparts and more physically demanding state and interagency missions.


title: State defense force

text: California, for instance, requires no physical fitness test prior to entry and has weight/height standards significantly more relaxed than the federal service for certain units, but require passing an arduous physical fitness test, pack hikes, and comprehensive tryouts for certain jobs like firefighters, search and rescue, and certain maritime search and rescue/dive personnel within the Cal Guard's Emergency Response Command and Maritime Service. California State Guard wildland firefighters, for example, must complete the National Wildfire Coordinating Group Red Card standards, then complete a rigorous Cal Fire interagency training program alongside their National Guard counterparts. In the Texas State Guard, there are minimal requirements for general accession, but joining specialized teams like the Texas Maritime Regiment's Dive, Rescue, and Recovery (DR&R) Team requires comprehensive physical fitness testing and completion of the Texas Maritime Dive School.


title: State defense force

text: Officer Candidate Schools are also maintained by the active State Defense Forces of the United States by direction of their respective state military departments and by the state's National Guard Adjutant General. Similar to their state's National Guard counterparts who take a dual federal and state military commission, military officers who are commissioned through a SDF Officer Candidate School take a sole military commission to the state that they support, recognized by their state's military code and . In states with full integration of state military resources (SDF and National Guard counterparts) the curriculum is often similar, with the National Guard curriculum taking on additional requirements to meet federal recognition (referred to as FEDREC). For example, California maintains both Officer Candidate Schools at Camp San Luis Obispo, with the State Guard OCS being 11–12 months and the National Guard OCS being 16–18 months, both celebrate a joint graduation.


title: State defense force

text: The Military Emergency Management Specialist Badge, created by the State Guard Association of the United States has become a common training focal point among state defense forces. Alabama, California, Indiana, Ohio and others have adopted the MEMS Badge as a basic qualification required of all members desiring promotion. Training is conducted both online, and through MEMS academies in each state, and includes course material provided by FEMA and other agencies, as well as practical experience in local disaster planning and exercise management.


title: State defense force

text: Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) are being organized by several SDFs by utilizing training offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Citizen Corps. Some states follow the lead of the Army and offer a permanent tab (worn in a similar manner as the Army's Ranger and Sapper tabs) as an incentive to become certified as part of the local or unit CERT team.


title: State defense force

text: State defense forces may incorporate Medical Reserve Corps units into their organizational structure. The 47th Medical Company (MRC), of the New Mexico State Defense Force, the 10th Medical Regiment of the Maryland Defense Force, and the Medical Brigade of the Texas State Guard receive training and recognition from the Medical Reserve Corps program sponsored by the Office of the Surgeon General of the United States through the Citizen Corps program, and are simultaneously organized as units of their respective state defense force.


title: State defense force

text: Weapons qualification and training is provided in some SDFs. However, most SDFs do not require weapons proficiency. A 2006 report by the U.S. Freedom Foundation, an organization affiliated with the State Guard Association of the United States, recommended minimum standards for state defense forces, including weapons training, but the report has been largely ignored. Some SDFs have laws that in the event of deployment by order of the state legislature and/or governor, they will become armed.


title: State defense force

text: As a general rule, state defense forces wear standard U.S. military uniforms with insignia closely matching those of their federal counterparts. SDF units generally wear red name tags on service uniforms (as specifically prescribed by AR 670-1 for SDF units when adopting the Army Service Uniform or Battle Dress Uniform (BDU), and name tapes on Army Combat Uniform (ACU) or BDU uniforms use the state defense force name or state name rather than "U.S. Army." Standard U.S. Army branch insignia are often used or a unique "state guard" branch insignia consisting of a crossed musket and sword is alternatively used.


title: State defense force

text: Where berets are worn, some state defense forces use a beret flash similar to the one the U.S. Army uses, but in bright red thread instead of the Army's blue. Other states have beret flashes that are often based on their state flag.


title: State defense force

text: Uniforms vary from state to state and tend to have only subtle differences. For example, the Texas State Guard wears standard U.S. Army camouflage uniforms, a state guard unit patch, and the "U.S. Army" name tape replaced with one reading "Texas State Guard." Similarly, the California State Military Reserve wears a uniform identical to their National Guard counterparts except for the unit patch, beret flash, and the "California" name tape. Outer garments such as a Gore-Tex jacket have a subdued "CA" beneath the rank insignia. A similar pattern can be found in the New York Guard. The Georgia State Defense Force often works in tandem with and support of federal troops. The Georgia State Defense Force wears the ACU with a unique Georgia SDF red flash on the U.S. Army's black beret and "Georgia" in place of the "U.S. Army" uniform name tape. The Tennessee State Guard and Alabama State Defense Force can wear either BDU's or the "tactical response uniform" (TRU) in the Woodland pattern but whose cut and accouterments match the ACU but cannot mix pieces. The Alabama State Defense Force has also recently introduced a new "Standard Service Uniform" composed of a blue "tactical" shirt, and khaki "tactical" pants.


title: State defense force

text: The few states with both SDF air and naval units wear modified USAF and USN/USMC uniforms. Currently, only Ohio, Alaska and New York have uniformed naval militias. Only California, Vermont, and Puerto Rico have an air wing, though Indiana formerly had an Air Guard Reserve. In all cases, the state adjutant general has final say on uniforms worn by state defense forces, though federal service regulations generally shape the policies of each state.


title: State defense force

text: SDFs include a variety of special units including medical, aviation, and ceremonial units. The following are examples:


title: State defense force

text: The U.S. Constitution, coupled with several statutes and cases, details the relationship of state defense forces to the federal government. Outside of 32 U.S.C. 109, the U.S. Supreme Court noted: "It is true that the state defense forces 'may not be called, ordered, or drafted into the armed forces.' 32 U.S.C. 109(c). It is nonetheless possible that they are subject to call under 10 U.S.C. 331–333, which distinguish the 'militia' from the 'armed forces,' and which appear to subject all portions of the 'militia' – organized or not – to call if needed for the purposes specified in the Militia Clauses" ("Perpich" v. "Department of Defense", 496 U.S. 334 (1990)). The Court, however, explicitly noted that it was not deciding this issue. The following is an extract of the laws which the Court cited as possibly giving the federal government authority to activate the state defense forces:


title: State defense force

text: "Whenever there is an insurrection in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened, call into Federal service such of the militia of the other States, in the number requested by that State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection."


title: State defense force

text: "Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State or Territory by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion."


title: State defense force

text: "The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it -"


title: State defense force

text: "(1) so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or"


title: State defense force

text: "(2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws."


title: State defense force

text: "In any situation covered by clause (1), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution."


title: State defense force

text: A number of legislators have spearheaded attempts to reactivate the state defense forces of their states. In 2011, a bill was introduced in the New Hampshire General Court which, if passed, would permanently reestablish the New Hampshire State Guard. The bill did not pass. The same year, Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill which authorized the organization of a state defense force in Arizona. In 2018, Kansas state senator Dennis Pyle petitioned the Governor of Kansas to reactivate the Kansas State Guard, in part to offer an additional security resource for schools. In 2019, Pennsylvania State Representative Chris Rabb proposed legislation which would reactivate and modernize the Pennsylvania State Guard in order to "address the epidemic of gun violence, domestic terrorism, and other inter-related public health crises." In December 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced plans to reestablish the Florida State Guard as a 200-person volunteer force that would act independently of the federal government in disaster relief efforts.


title: The Edge of Love

text: The Edge of Love is a 2008 British biographical romantic drama film directed by John Maybury and starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys. The script was written by Knightley's mother, Sharman Macdonald. Originally titled "The Best Time of Our Lives", the fictional story concerns Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (played by Rhys), his wife Caitlin Macnamara (played by Miller) and their married friends, the Killicks (played by Knightley and Murphy). The film premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.


title: The Edge of Love

text: The story is loosely based on real events and people, drawing on Rebekah Gilbertson's idea and David N. Thomas' 2000 book "Dylan Thomas: A Farm, Two Mansions and a Bungalow". He has since written further about Dylan and Vera, highlighting the several deceits in the film that trivialised their friendship. He has described how Dylan and Vera were related as cousins, and the extent to which their families inter-married, farming together as neighbours on the Llansteffan peninsula in Carmarthenshire.


title: The Edge of Love

text: During the London Blitz, nightclub singer Vera Phillips runs into her first love, charismatic Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Although Dylan is now married to Caitlin Macnamara, with whom he has a son, he and Vera rekindle feelings for one another. The two women, initially rivals, become best friends. Drinking heavily in wartime London, the three come to get along.


title: The Edge of Love

text: William Killick, a British Army officer, begins to pursue Vera. Both Vera and Caitlin are intrigued by his steadfast, gallant personality despite its contrasts with Vera's rebelliousness. William notices Vera's closeness to Dylan, but doesn't appear concerned; he and Vera even lend the struggling poet some of their savings. William and Vera fall in love and marry. Soon afterwards, William is called up to fight against the German invasion of Greece after the Italians failed.


title: The Edge of Love

text: Shortly after William's departure, Vera discovers she is pregnant. Upset that motherhood will take away her independence, she contemplates aborting the child but cannot bring herself to do so. She gives birth to a son and moves to the Welsh seashore with Dylan and Caitlin to raise their children in two small neighbouring cottages. Vera and Caitlin's friendship grows stronger while Dylan and Caitlin's marriage becomes distorted by multiple infidelities. Dylan draws Vera into an affair with him.


title: The Edge of Love

text: William returns a captain, scarred by the horrors of the war. Vera notices his emotional distance and instability. William suspects his wife of infidelity and confronts her. Vera confesses to both William and Caitlin, who are furious with her. One evening, while severely inebriated and angry with Dylan's friends for their ignorant remarks on the war, William wanders outside and fires multiple shots into Dylan and Caitlin's home. He does not hit anyone, and Vera calms him down. The next morning, William seems to have returned to his former self. However, he is arrested and taken to trial.


title: The Edge of Love

text: During the trial, Dylan testifies against William and distorts the facts, claiming that William was sober and intended to kill Dylan, Caitlin, and their child. The jury finds William innocent of intent to murder. After returning home, William accepts his new role as a father, and he and Vera forgive each other. Their relationship improves. Soon afterwards, Dylan and Caitlin move out of their cottage. During the farewell, Vera restores her friendship with Caitlin, but she never speaks to Dylan again, unable to forgive him for testifying against her husband.


title: The Edge of Love

text: The film made its world premiere opening at the Edinburgh Film Festival on 18 June 2008. It was released in London and Dublin two days later, with a Welsh premiere taking place in Swansea (the birthplace of Dylan Thomas) on the same night, attended by Matthew Rhys. A national release followed in the UK and Ireland on 27 June 2008. An exhibition of costumes, scripts and props from the film was on display at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea until September 2008. "The Edge of Love" has earned in gross revenue since its June 2008 release.


title: The Edge of Love

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film received a 37% rating based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. The site's consensus reads: "Despite effective performances from Knightley and Miller, "The Edge of Love" lacks a coherent narrative". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average score, gave the film 39 out of 100 based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: The Edge of Love

text: In "Variety", Leslie Felperin commented: "While the period drama has several redeeming features, tonally it's all over the map, veering between artsy stylization and hum-drum, sometimes almost twee melodrama." Mark Kermode described the film as "inert" and said that the script was "flawed but not without some form of admirable merit".


title: The Edge of Love

text: "The Independent" felt that "Maybury's stylisation makes the film more interesting than it would have been if directed by your average British journeyman, but it finally adds up to earnest heritage romance." In "The Guardian", reviewer Phillip French said, "This is a fascinating story, its chronology somewhat muddled and its dramatic thrust rather obscure."


title: The Edge of Love

text: "The Hollywood Reporter" critic Ray Bennett commented that "The Edge of Love" is a "wonderfully atmospheric tale of love and war" and stated about Knightley and Miller; "the film belongs to the women, with Knightley going from strength to strength (and showing she can sing!) and Miller again proving that she has everything it takes to be a major movie star."


title: The Edge of Love

text: Sienna Miller received a nomination as Best Supporting Actress at the 2008 British Independent Film Awards.


title: The Edge of Love

text: "The Edge of Love" soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti includes songs by Keira Knightley, Siouxsie Sioux, Suggs, Patrick Wolf, and Beth Rowley. Siouxsie performs the second version of "Careless Love", while Wolf performs "Careless Talk".


title: The Edge of Love

text: The composer performed the soundtrack live with Siouxsie and Beth Rowley at the World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent in October 2008.


title: Mock execution

text: A mock execution is a stratagem in which a victim is deliberately but falsely made to feel that their execution or that of another person is imminent or is taking place. The subject is made to believe that they are being led to their own execution. This might involve blindfolding the subjects, making them recount last wishes, making them dig their own grave, holding an unloaded gun to their head and pulling the trigger, shooting near (but not at) the victim, or firing blanks. Mock execution is categorized as psychological torture. There is a sense of fear induced when a person is made to feel that they are about to be executed or witness someone being executed. Mock execution is considered psychological torture due to the mental, though not physical, harm it induces.


title: Mock execution

text: The psychological trauma can also lead to depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental disorders after experiencing a traumatic event such as a mock execution. An example of anxiety during a mock execution would be the victim showing signs of fear, crying, uncontrollable movements, and pleading for their life. The psychological trauma may lead to a breakdown where someone may do or say something to stop the execution; it might act as a threat that future conduct may result in a real execution; or suggest that the apparent victim's death has changed the circumstances. Using mock execution may not result in death, but leaves the victim with the memory of the torture they experienced. Treatment after experiencing torture should take effect as soon as possible. Interventions and specialists have been proven to be beneficial. In Lilla Hardi, Gábor Király, Esther Kovács, and Kathryn Heffernan's 2010 publication "Torture and Survivors: Manual for Experts in Refugee Care", treatments for trauma are discussed. According to the authors, trauma specialists are able to help victims overcome the experience and their emotions, but that it will be a long healing process. Trauma specialists are able to assist the victim in identifying the issue and brainstorming ways to overcome the trauma. Interventions are beneficial as it allows the victim to be more comfortable with discussing the event, relating to individuals with similar experiences, and practicing coping skills.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: The Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia is a twin-turboprop 30-passenger commuter airliner designed and manufactured by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: The EMB 120 began development during 1974. While initially conceived as a modular series of aircraft, the "Family 12X" and referred to as the "Araguaia", intending to achieve a high level of commonality with the EMB 121 Xingu, the aircraft was redesigned and relaunched with the "Brasilia" name scheme during 1979. The redesign, which drew on operator feedback, reduced the seating capacity somewhat while removing commonality with the EMB 121. Its size, speed, and ceiling enabled faster and more direct services to be flown in comparison to similar aircraft. The EMB 120 features a circular cross-section fuselage, low-mounted straight wings and has a T-tail.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: On 27 July 1983, the prototype performed its maiden flight. During October 1985, the first EMB 120 entered service with Atlantic Southeast Airlines; it quickly entered service with numerous regional airlines, particularly those in the lucrative US market. While the majority of sales were made to civilian operators, a few military customers were also garnered for the type; a specialised VIP transport version, the "VC-97", was operated by the Brazilian Air Force. Numerous models were developed to fulfil differing roles and requirements; these included the flexible "EMB120 Convertible" and the extended range "EMB120ER". During 2001, production of the EMB 120 was terminated; it was the last turboprop-powered airliner to be produced by Embraer.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: Following on from the success of the EMB 110 Bandeirante, Embraer commenced work on developing their first transport category airliner in 1974. At one point, this cumulated in the "Family 12X", which comprised three models with modular design concept: "EMB 120 Araguaia", "EMB 123 Tapajós" and EMB 121 Xingu. The original concept for the EMB 120 would have been a relatively straightforward stretch of the EMB 121, facilitating a high degree of commonality between the two types. However, the EMB 121 would be the sole 12X model that was actually produced in its original form; the EMB 120 would be redesigned during 1979, disposing of the "Araguaia" name at the same time.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: At the official launching of the project, held in 1979, the name "Brasilia" was first applied to the EMB 120. Reportedly, the concept had been heavily revised on the basis of suggestions that had been gathered from prospective operators attending "Commuter Airline Association of America" (CAAA) convention, and the renaming was to reflect the level of alteration to the EMB 120. Being a completely new aircraft, it was no longer related to the 12X family, and had effectively no parts in common with the EMB 121 Xingu. Furthermore, the capacity was revised downwards from 30 to 24 seats. It had originally been designed to be powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney Canada PW115 turboprop engine, which was capable of 1,500 shp, the aircraft was subsequently redesigned to make use of more powerful PW118 engines, which produced up to 1,892 shp.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: In terms of its basic configuration, the EMB 120 features a circular cross-section fuselage, low-mounted straight wings and has a T-tail. The fuselage is of semi-monocoque design, its skin being composed of an aluminium alloy. The wing structure comprises a single three-spar design that is linked to the frames of the lower side of the fuselage, while the nose cone, dorsal fin and leading edges of the wing and tailplane primarily comprise a Kevlar-reinforced glass fibre. The EMB 120 is equipped with retractable tricycle landing gear, which is actuated hydraulically. It is fitted with Goodrich-supplied wheels, oleo-pneumatic shock absorbers, a Hydro Aire anti-skid system, and either carbon or steel brakes.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: On 27 July 1983, the PW115-powered EMB 120 prototype performed its maiden flight. The type was able to rapidly attract interest from numerous regional airlines, particularly those based in the United States. Its size, speed, and ceiling enable faster and more direct services to be flown around the US and Europe in comparison to similar aircraft. During October 1985, the first aircraft entered service with Atlantic Southeast Airlines.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: Numerous models would be developed to suit different operational circumstances; the "EMB120RT" featured a reduced take off weight, while the "EMB120 cargo freighter" had an elevated payload capacity of 4,000 kg; the "EMB120 Combi" and "EMB120 Convertible" emphasised flexible operations. During 1993, the first deliveries of the "EMB120ER", an extended range model, took place; it was thereafter adopted as the standard production model. Furthermore, hot-and-high versions of these models were commonly equipped with PW118A engines that retain their power ratings at a higher altitude. The "EMB120ER Advanced" incorporates a range of external and interior improvements in comparison to most other models. The "EMB 120RT" could be upgraded to the "EMB 120 ER"; older aircraft were retrofitted to this standard via a Service Bulletin.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: During 2001, production of the EMB 120 was terminated. As of 2021, Embraer has not manufactured a turboprop-powered successor, although company executives have occasionally hinted at there being interest in doing so at some point.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: The majority of the EMB 120s were sold in the United States and other countries across the Western Hemisphere. US airlines operating the type have included Great Lakes Airlines, which had six EMB 120s in its fleet, while Ameriflight was flying ten freighter-configured EMB 120s as late as 2022. The largest operator of the emb-120, in the United States was SkyWest which operated more than 62 at one point in its history (circa 2006). SkyWest retired the fleet in early 2015. Several European airlines, such as Régional in France, Atlant-Soyuz Airlines in Russia, DAT in Belgium, and DLT in Germany, also purchased EMB 120s.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: The EMB 120 has also proven itself to be popular amongst African operators. One of the biggest operators in the region was the charter operator Sahara African Aviation, which had flown as many as nine EMB 120ERs. Into the 2020s, numerous airlines have opted to retain a handful of examples in their active fleet. It has been commonly contrasted against the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3, often being used as a more modern substitute for the aging classic and possessing roughly double the speed.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: Several military operators also procured the type, such as the Angolan Air Force, which received new-build aircraft during 2007. A specialised VIP transport version, the "VC-97", was produced and procured by the Brazilian Air Force.


title: Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia

text: As of July 2018, 105 Brasilias were in airline service: 45 in North/South America, 26 in Africa, 14 in Europe and 20 in Asia-Pacific, with major operators:


title: Aegean dispute

text: The Aegean dispute is a set of interrelated controversies between Greece and Turkey over sovereignty and related rights in the region of the Aegean Sea. This set of conflicts has strongly affected Greek-Turkish relations since the 1970s, and has twice led to crises coming close to the outbreak of military hostilities, in 1987 and in early 1996. The issues in the Aegean fall into several categories:


title: Aegean dispute

text: One aspect of the dispute is the differing interpretations of the maritime law: Turkey has not signed up to the Convention on the Continental Shelf nor the superseding United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which as of May 2022 has been signed by 168 parties, including Greece; as such, Turkey does not recognize a legal continental shelf and EEZ around the Greek islands.


title: Aegean dispute

text: Between 1998 and the early 2010s, the two countries came closer to overcoming the tensions through a series of diplomatic measures, particularly with a view to easing Turkey's accession to the European Union. However, differences over suitable diplomatic paths to a substantial solution remained unresolved, and as of 2022 tensions remain.


title: Aegean dispute

text: Several of the Aegean issues deal with the delimitation of both countries' zones of influence in the air and on the sea around their respective territories. These issues owe their virulence to a geographical peculiarity of the Aegean sea and its territories. While the mainland coasts of Greece and Turkey bordering the Aegean Sea on both sides represent roughly equal shares of its total coastline, the overwhelming number of the many Aegean islands belong to Greece. In particular, there is a chain of Greek islands lined up along the Turkish west coast (Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and the Dodecanese islands), some of them in very close proximity to the mainland. Their existence blocks Turkey from extending any of its zones of influence beyond a few nautical miles off its coastline. As the breadth of maritime and aerial zones of influence, such as the territorial waters and national airspace, are measured from the nearest territory of the state in question, including its islands, any possible extension of such zones would necessarily benefit Greece much more than Turkey proportionally.


title: Aegean dispute

text: According to a popular perception of these issues in the two countries, Turkey is concerned that Greece might be trying to extend its zones of influence to such a degree that it would turn the Aegean effectively into a "Greek lake". Conversely, Greece is concerned that Turkey might try to "occupy half of the Aegean", i.e. establish Turkish zones of influence towards the middle of the Aegean, beyond the chain of outlying Greek islands, turning these into a kind of exclave surrounded by Turkish waters, and thus cutting them off from their motherland.


title: Aegean dispute

text: Territorial waters give the littoral state full control over air navigation in the airspace above, and partial control over shipping, although foreign ships (both civil and military) are normally guaranteed innocent passage through them. The standard width of territorial waters that countries are customarily entitled to has steadily increased in the course of the 20th century: from initially at the beginning of the century, to , and currently . The current value has been enshrined in treaty law by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 (Art.3). In the Aegean, the territorial waters claimed by both sides are still at 6 miles. The possibility of an extension to 12 miles has fuelled Turkish concerns over a possible disproportionate increase in Greek-controlled space. Turkey has refused to become a member of the convention and does not consider itself bound by it. Turkey considers the convention as "res inter alios acta," i.e. a treaty that can only be binding to the signing parties but not to others. Greece, which is a party to the convention, has stated that it reserves the right to apply this rule and extend its waters to 12 miles at some point in the future in the Aegean Sea (it has already done so in the Ionian Sea to the west). Greece holds that the 12-mile rule is not only treaty law but also customary law, as per the wide consensus established among the international community. Against this, Turkey argues that the special geographical properties of the Aegean Sea make a strict application of the 12-mile rule in this case illicit in the interest of equity. Turkey has itself applied the customary 12-mile limit to its coasts outside the Aegean.


title: Aegean dispute

text: Tensions over the 12-mile question ran highest between the two countries in the early 1990s, when the Law of the Sea was going to come into force. On 8 June 1995, the Turkish parliament officially declared that unilateral action by Greece would constitute a "casus belli", i.e. reason to go to war. This declaration has been condemned by Greece as a violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which forbids "the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state".


title: Aegean dispute

text: National airspace is normally defined as the airspace covering a state's land territory and its adjacent territorial waters. National airspace gives the sovereign state a large degree of control over foreign air traffic. While civil aviation is normally allowed passage under international treaties, foreign military and other state aircraft (unlike military vessels in the territorial waters) do not have a right to free passage through another state's national airspace. The delimitation of national airspace claimed by Greece is unique, as it does not coincide with the boundary of the territorial waters. Greece claims of airspace, as opposed to currently 6 miles of territorial waters. Since 1974, Turkey has refused to acknowledge the validity of the outer 4-mile belt of airspace that extends beyond the Greek territorial waters. Turkey cites the statutes of the International Civil Aviation Organization "(ICAO)" of 1948, as containing a binding definition that both zones must coincide. Against this, Greece argues that:


title: Aegean dispute

text: The conflict over military flight activities has led to a practice of continuous tactical military provocations, with Turkish aircraft flying in the outer 4-mile zone of contentious airspace and Greek aircraft intercepting them. These encounters often lead to so-called "dog-fights", dangerous flight manoeuvres that have repeatedly ended in casualties on both sides. In one instance in 1996, it has been alleged that a Turkish plane was accidentally shot down by a Greek one.


title: Aegean dispute

text: In the context of the Aegean dispute, the term continental shelf refers to a littoral state's exclusive right to economic exploitation of resources on and under the sea-bed, for instance oil drilling, in an area adjacent to its territorial waters and extending into the High Seas. The width of the continental shelf is commonly defined for purposes of international law as not exceeding 200 nautical miles. Where the territories of two states lie closer opposite each other than double that distance, the division is made by the median line.


title: Aegean dispute

text: The concept of the continental shelf is closely connected to that of an exclusive economic zone, which refers to a littoral state's control over fishery and similar rights. Both concepts were developed in international law from the middle of the 20th century and were codified in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982.


title: Aegean dispute

text: The dispute between Turkey and Greece is to what degree the Greek islands off the Turkish coast should be taken into account for determining the Greek and Turkish economic zones. Turkey argues that the notion of "continental shelf", by its very definition, implies that distances should be measured from the continental mainland, claiming that the sea-bed of the Aegean geographically forms a natural prolongation of the Anatolian land mass. This would mean for Turkey to be entitled to economic zones up to the median line of the Aegean (leaving out, of course, the territorial waters around the Greek islands in its eastern half, which would remain as Greek exclaves.) Greece, on the other hand, claims that all islands must be taken into account on an equal basis. This would mean that Greece would gain the economic rights to almost the whole of the Aegean.


title: Aegean dispute

text: In this matter, Greece has the UN Law of the Sea on its side, but the same Convention restricts the application of this rule to islands of a notable size, as opposed to small uninhabitable islets and rocks. The precise delimitation of the economic zones is the only one of all the Aegean issues where Greece has officially acknowledged that Turkey has legitimate interests that might require some international process of arbitration or compromise between the two sides. Turkey cites the resolution of certain International Court of Justice cases like Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v. Colombia), Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea case, Canada–France Maritime Boundary Case where court had used equitable approach and limited the continental shelves of islands.


title: Aegean dispute

text: Tensions over the continental shelf were particularly high during the mid-1970s and again the late 1980s, when it was believed that the Aegean Sea might hold rich oil reserves. Turkey at that time conducted exploratory oceanographic research missions in parts of the disputed area. These were perceived as a dangerous provocation by Greece, which led to a buildup of mutual military threats in 1976 and again in 1987.


title: Aegean dispute

text: Unlike the issues described so far, the question of flight information regions (FIR) does not affect the two states' sovereignty rights in the narrow sense. A FIR is a zone of responsibility assigned to a state within the framework of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). It relates to the responsibility for regulating civil aviation. A FIR may stretch beyond the national airspace of a country, i.e. over areas of high seas, or in some cases even over the airspace of another country. It does not give the responsible state the right to prohibit flights by foreign aircraft; however, foreign aircraft are obliged to submit flight plans to the authorities administrating the FIR. Two separate disputes have arisen over flight control in the Aegean: the issue of a unilaterally proposed revision of the FIR demarcation, and the question of what rights and obligations arise from the FIR with respect to military as opposed to civil flights.


title: Aegean dispute

text: By virtue of an agreement signed in 1952, the whole airspace over the Aegean, up to the boundary of the national airspace of Turkey, has been assigned to Athens FIR, administered by Greece. Shortly after the Cyprus crisis of 1974, Turkey unilaterally attempted to change this arrangement, issuing a notice to airmen (NOTAM) stating that it would take over the administration of the eastern half of the Aegean airspace, including the national airspace of the Greek islands in that area. Greece responded with a declaration rejecting this move, and declaring the disputed zone unsafe for aviation due to the conflicting claims to authority. This led to some disruption in civil aviation in the area. Turkey later changed its stance, and since 1980 has returned to recognizing Athens FIR in its original demarcation. In practice, the FIR demarcation is currently no longer a disputed issue.


title: Aegean dispute

text: the current controversy over the FIR relates to the question whether the Greek authorities have a right to oversee not only civil but also military flight activities in the international parts of the Aegean airspace. According to common international practice, military aircraft normally submit flight plans to FIR authorities when moving in international airspace, just like civil aircraft do. Turkey refuses to do so, citing the ICAO charter of 1948, which explicitly restricts the scope of its regulations to civil aircraft, arguing that therefore the practice of including military aircraft in the same system is optional. Greece, in contrast, argues that it is obligatory on the basis of later regulations of the ICAO, which it claims have given states the authority to issue more wide-reaching restrictions in the interest of civil aviation safety.


title: Aegean dispute

text: This disagreement has led to similar practical consequences as the issue of 6 versus 10 miles of national airspace, as Greece considers all Turkish military flights not registered with its FIR authorities as transgressions of international air traffic regulations, and routinely has its own air force jets intercepting the Turkish ones. In popular perception in Greece, the issue of Turkish flights in the international part of Athens FIR is often confused with that of the Turkish intrusions in the disputed outer 4-mile belt of Greek airspace. However, in careful official usage, Greek authorities and media distinguish between "violations" (παραβιάσεις) of the national airspace, and "transgressions" (παραβάσεις) of traffic regulations, i.e. of the FIR.


title: Aegean dispute

text: One of the routine interception maneuvers led to a fatal accident on 23 May 2006. Two Turkish F-16s and one reconnaissance F-4 were flying in the international airspace over the southern Aegean at without having submitted flight plans to the Greek FIR authorities. They were intercepted by two Greek F-16s off the coast of the Greek island Karpathos. During the ensuing mock dog fight, a Turkish F-16 and a Greek F-16 collided midair and subsequently crashed. The pilot of the Turkish plane survived the crash, but the Greek pilot died. The incident also highlighted another aspect of the FIR issue, a dispute over conflicting claims to responsibility for maritime search and rescue operations. The Turkish pilot reportedly refused to be rescued by the Greek forces that had been dispatched to the area. After the incident, both governments expressed an interest to revive an earlier plan of establishing a direct hotline between the air force commands of both countries in order to prevent escalation of similar situations in the future.


title: Aegean dispute

text: On 2 September 2019, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appeared in a photograph with a map that depicted nearly half of the Aegean Sea and an area up to the eastern coast of Crete as belonging to Turkey. The map was displayed during an official ceremony at the National Defense University of Turkey in Istanbul and shows an area labelled as "Turkey's Blue Homeland" stretching up to the median line of the Aegean, enclosing the Greek islands in that part of the sea without any indication of the Greek territorial waters around them. The Blue Homeland is an irredentist and expansionist concept and doctrine, compared to the German concept of Lebensraum; it was created by the Chief of Staff of the Turkish Navy Commander Cihat Yaycı, and developed with Admiral Cem Gurdeniz in 2006. The Greek side expressed its regret, with the Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias stating that Turkey's tactics are "communication campaigns that cannot change international legitimacy, merely establishing Turkey's image as a perpetrator".


title: Aegean dispute

text: On 13 November 2019, Turkey submitted to the United Nations a series of claims to Exclusive Economic Zones in the Eastern Mediterranean that are in conflict with Greek claims to the same areas – including a sea zone extending west of the southeastern Aegean island of Rhodes and south of Crete. The Turkish claims were made in an official letter by Turkey's Permanent Representative to the UN Feridun Sinirlioglu, which reflect Ankara's notion of a "Blue Homeland" (Mavi Vatan). Greece condemned these claims as legally unfounded, incorrect and arbitrary, and an outright violation of Greece's sovereignty.


title: Aegean dispute

text: Turkey holds the view, unlike most other states, that no islands can have a full Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and should only be entitled to a 12 nautical mile reduced EEZ or no EEZ at all rather than the usual 200 miles that Turkey and every other country are entitled to. In this context, Turkey, for the first time on 1 December 2019, claimed that the Greek island of Kastellorizo shouldn't have any EEZ at all, because, from the equity-based Turkish viewpoint, it is a small island immediately across the Turkish mainland (which, according to Turkey, has the longest coastline), and isn't supposed to generate a maritime jurisdiction area four thousand times larger than its own surface. Furthermore, according to Turkey's Foreign Ministry, an EEZ has to be coextensive with the continental shelf, based on the relative lengths of adjacent coastlines and described any opposing views supporting the right of islands to their EEZ as "maximalist and uncompromising Greek and Greek Cypriot claims". On 20 January 2020, the Turkish President Erdogan challenged even the rights of Crete, Greece's largest island and 5th largest in the Mediterranean, stating that "They talk about a continental shelf around Crete. There is no continental shelf around the islands, there is no such thing, there, it is only sovereign waters."


title: Aegean dispute

text: Turkey's view, however, is a 'unique' interpretation not shared by any other country and not in accordance to the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) treaty, which as of May 2022 has been signed by 168 parties (including Greece), but not Turkey. Turkey has refused to ratify the UNCLOS, and argues that it is not bound by its provisions that award islands maritime zones. The UNCLOS, and particularly Article 121 clearly states that the islands can have exclusive economic zones and continental shelf just like every other land territory. The Ambassadors of the United States and Russia to Athens, Geoffrey Pyatt and Andrey Maslov respectively, while commenting on Turkey's view, stated that all the islands have the same rights to EEZ and continental shelf as the mainlands do. The then US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Aaron Wess Mitchell, criticized the Turkish view on Cyprus's EEZ, stating that it "is a minority of one versus the rest of the world."


title: Aegean dispute

text: On 28 November 2019, President Erdoğan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Istanbul with the Prime Minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord of Libya (GNA), Fayez al-Sarraj, to demarcate maritime zones in the Eastern Mediterranean on an area between Turkey and Libya, appearing to "write [the Greek island of] Crete off the map entirely" in the words of "Foreign Policy"'s Keith Johnson.


title: Aegean dispute

text: This agreement was controversial and drew condemnation by Greece and the international community, including the rival Tobruk-based government led by the Libyan House of Representatives and Khalifa Haftar, the European Union, United States, Russia, Egypt, Cyprus, Malta, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Serbia, Israel, Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Arab League, as a violation of the International Law of the Sea and the article 8 of the Skhirat Agreement which prohibits the Libyan Prime Minister from solely clinching international deals without consent of all the cabinet members. The Libyan House of Representatives consequently started a bid to suspend the GNA from the Arab League, but did not succeed. The United States stated that it was "provocative" and a threat to the stability of the region. Acting foreign minister Israel Katz announced Israel's opposition to the maritime border accord between Ankara and Tripoli, and confirmed that the deal was "illegal" according to the Israeli official position, while at the same time noting that Israel does not want a conflict with Turkey.


title: Aegean dispute

text: On 18 October 2020, the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag)'s research service reviewed the Turkey-GNA maritime deal and found it to be illegal under international law, and detrimental to third parties.


title: Aegean dispute

text: In response to these developments, the GNA Ambassador to Greece Mohamed Younis Menfi was summoned to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens, where he was given an ultimatum of seven days, to disclose until 5 December the agreement his country signed with Turkey on maritime boundaries, or will be considered "persona non-grata" and be expelled from Greece. The authorities of the European Union also urged for the disclosure of the deal's details. Also, the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with the Turkish President on the sidelines of the 2019 London summit to discuss about it. Greek Foreign Minister Dendias revealed in September 2019 that his GNA counterpart, foreign minister Mohamed Taher Siala had reassured the Greek side that Libya would never sign any illegal agreements with Turkey that would violate the Greek sovereign rights.


title: Aegean dispute

text: On 6 December, the GNA Ambassador to Athens was expelled from Greece, prompting strong reactions in both the GNA and Turkey. Furthermore, the President of the Tobruk-based Libyan Parliament, Agila Saleh Issa Gwaider, who condemned and opposed the GNA-Turkey deal, was invited to Athens by the President of the Greek Parliament Konstantinos Tasoulas for talks.


title: Aegean dispute

text: Ankara asked for the agreement on maritime boundaries from the Government of National Accord (GNA) in the Libyan Civil War, in exchange for Turkey's long-time support against the rival Tobruk-based House of Representatives.


title: Aegean dispute

text: It is believed, according to multiple sources, that Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is exploiting the weakness of the GNA headed by Fayez al-Sarraj to force it to sign "illegal" agreements which are a serious breach of international laws that disregards the lawful rights of other eastern Mediterranean countries; and that through these exploitations, Turkey is trying to assert its regional power and its control of the Mediterranean sea, at the expense of the rights of the other Mediterranean nations and undermining the peace-making efforts to resolve the Libyan Civil War and the curb of migrant influx to Europe.


title: Aegean dispute

text: On 4 December 2019, the Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Fatih Dönmez, announced Turkey's intentions to start awarding licences to drills for natural gas in Greek waters which Ankara claimed through the Turkey-GNA deal, once it is approved by the two countries' parliaments. The same day, Turkish President Erdogan stated that he is "ready" to start negotiations with Athens for the delimitation of maritime borders between Turkey and Greece, under the condition that the negotiations are based on Turkey's peculiar perception which is stripping the Greek islands of their sovereign rights, and is violating the UNCLOS treaty.


title: Aegean dispute

text: The intentions for drills in Greek waters, was confirmed by President Erdogan on a public broadcast of the Mavi Vatan map and the Turkey-GNA deal. On 5 December 2019, the Turkish Parliament ratified the contentious GNA-Turkey maritime borders deal, where it had a strong backing by four of Turkey's five major political parties - with the exception of the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HDP). The Libyan Parliament however blocked the ratification and rejected the deal unanimously, with the President of the Parliament, Aguila Saleh Issa, sending a letter to the United Nations declaring it as null and void. Even though the ratification by the Libyan Parliament failed, GNA deposited the maritime agreement to the United Nations on 27 December, with Turkey following on 2 March of the next year. On 14 July 2020, it is revealed that five countries sent a joint note verbale to the UN Secretariat calling for the agreement to not be registered and accepted, noting that, per UN procedures, its ratification by the Libyan Parliament is a prerequisite. On 1 October, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, registered the Turkey-GNA deal on the delimitation of maritime jurisdiction areas in the Mediterranean. The agreement "has been registered with the Secretariat, in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations," said the certificate of registration. On 27 January 2021, a court of appeals in Al-Bayda ruled in favour of a lawsuit filed by the House of Representatives, declaring the Memorandum invalid.


title: Aegean dispute

text: According to multiple sources, there is a fear of destabilization in the East Mediterranean and NATO due to Turkey's assertive moves and that an armed conflict between Turkey and Greece draws closer. On 9 December, the vessels of the Libyan Navy which are under the control of the Libyan National Army, announced that they received mandate to sink any Turkish research vessels or drillships that may attempt to conduct researches south of Crete, as part of the Turkey-GNA deal. France also signaled its intention to send French frigates and ships to the south of Crete, in coordination with Athens, while Italy sent its frigate "Martinengo" to monitor, patrol and safeguard the sea around Cyprus, which has been the subject of claims by Turkey.