title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: The Constitution does not explicitly address sexual orientation or gender identity. It does guarantee all citizens various legal rights, including equality before the law, equal opportunity, humane treatment in the workplace, religious freedom, freedom of opinion, peaceful assembly, and association.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: While homosexuality itself is legal, the government has taken specific steps to censor films and other media content that is deemed to be "promoting" homosexuality. In 2016, the government announced plans to ban several websites and computer applications that promotes homosexuality.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: The most active opposition against the recognition of LGBT rights in Indonesia has come from religious authorities and pressure-groups, especially Islamic organisations. Indonesian Ulema Council ("Majelis Ulama Indonesia" or MUI) has made a statement, which stigmatised the LGBT population by declaring them "deviant" and an affront to the "dignity of Indonesia".


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In 2005, the Indonesian government gave Aceh Province the right to introduce Sharia Law, albeit only to Muslim residents. The northernmost province of Aceh proceeded to enact a sharia-based anti-homosexuality law that punishes anyone caught having gay sex with 100 lashes. The law was set for enforcement by the end of 2015. Another example is the city of Palembang which introduced jail and fines for homosexual sex (though the laws are disbanded as of 2020.) Under the law, homosexuality is defined as an act of "prostitution that violates the norms of common decency, religion, and legal norms as they apply to societal rule." The following acts are defined as acts of prostitution: homosexual sex, lesbian sex, sodomy, sexual harassment and other pornographic acts.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In March 2015, Indonesian Ulema Council ("Majelis Ulama Indonesia" or MUI) issued a "fatwa", or religious edict, called for same-sex acts to be punished by caning, and in some instances, the death penalty. The fatwa considers homosexuality a curable disease and says homosexual acts "must be heavily punished."


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Indonesian People's Representative Council (DPR) has dismissed the suggestion that the death penalty would be introduced for same-sex acts, citing that it is quite impossible to implement that policy in Indonesia. The DPR said that the MUI fatwa only serves as moral guidance to adherents, not as positive law, since legal power is only possessed by the state.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In March 2016, the wake of surging anti-LGBT sentiments which started in early in 2016,parties like the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP) proposed an anti-LGBT bill to ban LGBT rights activism and criminalise LGBT behaviour. Various politicians made statements against the LGBT community in following months that year.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In late November 2016, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) tipped off police in Jakarta that there was a "sex party". The police then raided the gay gathering, charging the men with violating the national law against pornography, which is very broadly written.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: On 21 May 2017, police detained 144 people in a raid on a gay sauna, Atlantis Gym Jakarta. The Indonesian Ulema Council made a statement that such activity is blasphemy against religion and an insult against Indonesian culture. "What kind of logic that able to accept this kind of sexual deviation, even animals are not gay. This is clearly not about equality," as stated by the Head of Law Department of MUI. He made his remarks even though homosexuality has been observed in more than 1,500 animal species. Earlier in the same month, 14 men were arrested at a "gay party" in Surabaya.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: On 14 December 2017, the Constitutional Court of Indonesia issued a 5–4 ruling rejecting a petition by the conservative "Family Love Alliance" which sought to amend the Indonesian Criminal Code to make gay sex and sex outside of marriage illegal. There were three articles of the Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP) petitioned for review, namely article 248 on adultery, article 285 on rape, and article 292 on child abuse. Under article 292 of the Criminal Code, child sexual abuse is a crime, both heterosexual or homosexual conducts. The petitioner sought to erase the term "underage" in article 292, in order to persecute all same-sex sexual conducts of all ages, including among consenting adults. Which meant the petitioner sought to criminalise homosexuality. The court rejected to amend the law and held that the issue was a matter of the Indonesian legislature.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Since January 2018, as part of revising the criminal code, lawmakers have been working on a criminal code draft. Despite the international criticism and the human rights organisations fears, if passed, the law would criminalise consensual sex between two unmarried people, cohabitation, adultery and rape. It will also enable lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people to be taken to court for their sexual orientation.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In late September 2019, the outgoing People's Representative Council's plan to pass the revised criminal code (RKUHP) was met with widespread student demonstrations on 23, 24 and 25 September 2019. The revision of the Criminal Code (RKUHP) is increasingly discriminating against LGBT people. Article 421 (1) concerning obscenity explicitly mentions the same-sex acts: "Everyone who commits obscene acts against other people of the same sex in public is convicted with a maximum imprisonment of 1 year and six months or a maximum fine of category III." The explicit mention of "same sex" obscenity is feared triggering discriminatory treatment and will generate bylaws that particularly targeting LGBT people. As the response on this widespread opposition, the government have either postponed or intercepted this controversial revised criminal code.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: There is no military law that clearly states that LGBT people are prohibited from joining the military. However, several soldiers were fired because they were caught having same-sex sexual activity under the ST/1648–2019 telegram.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Some of them were also imprisoned for allegedly "disobeying a service order". Aprilio Manganang becoming the first service member in 2021 to legally change gender from female to male, although his case was intersex and assigned female at birth and was raised as a girl.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In December 2022, it was reported that soldiers within the Indonesian military - who have engaged in "consenting gay sex between adults in private" are facing jail time (by a crackdown from the government).


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Same-sex couples are not eligible to adopt a child in Indonesia. Only married couples consisting of a husband and a wife can adopt.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Even though the Indonesian law requires only married couples consisting of a husband and a wife can adopt, adoption by single people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity is allowed and there have been no laws prohibiting it.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: As of 2019, no specific law exists to protect Indonesia citizens from discrimination or harassment based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Nevertheless, government agencies are slowly starting to enact anti-discrimination policies. The Attorney General's Office recently rescinded a public job offer declaring LGBT persons need not apply because of mental insanity after being advised by the National Commission on Human Rights.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In March 2019, a 30-year-old Indonesian police brigadier known as TT filed a case in the Semarang State Administrative Court in Central Java against the provincial police alleging a violation of the law on discrimination claiming he was fired for being gay after colleagues forcefully outed him and his partner. He also filed a complaint to the human rights commission. In May 2019, the court rejected the lawsuit. His lawyer said the panel of judges decided that they could not continue examining the case because TT should have first appealed the dismissal to the authorities within the Central Java Police when he received the termination letter before resorting to filing a lawsuit.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Though Indonesia does not explicitly have discrimination protections enshrined by the Indonesian constitution, the Indonesian police authorities ruled a circular letter since 2015 that it would process any hate speech related to sexual orientations and gender identity. The Indonesian government have stated that in a democratic country, every citizen has the right to express and think and that it will be protected and provided by the state. The main purpose to eradicate hate speech is to protect and control a harmonious social life in a heterogenous society. Similarly, the Regulation of the Head of the National Police of the Republic of Indonesia Number 8 of 2009 stipulates the duty of the police to protect the special rights of minority groups, including in the terms of sexual orientation. On the other hand, while not explicitly mentioned in the constitution, theoretically there is a guarantee of protection against discriminatory practices in employment based on any ground in the Constitution and the Human Rights Law (No. 39/1999).


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Transgender identity (also called "waria") has long been part of Indonesian culture and society. While transgender people in Indonesia are generally more accepted than gays, lesbians and bisexuals, they have, in recent years, faced growing discrimination and rejection, mostly from sharia-supporting Muslim groups, which have become more and more popular in Indonesia. The status of transvestite, transsexual or other transgender persons in Indonesia is complex. Cross-dressing is not, per se, illegal and some public tolerance is given to some transgender people working in beauty salons or the entertainment industry, most notably the celebrity talk show host Dorce Gamalama. Transgender people are allowed to change their legal gender on official documents after undergoing sex reassignment surgery and after receiving a judge's approval. Individuals who undergo such surgery are later capable of marrying people of the opposite legal gender.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Discrimination and harassments directed at transgender people is not uncommon, though violence is quite rare. Indonesian law does not explicitly protect transgender people from discrimination or harassment. Transgender people who do not hide their gender identity often find it challenging to maintain legitimate employment and thus are often forced into prostitution and other illegal activities to survive. The Islamic Indonesian Ulama Council ruled that transgender persons must live in the gender that they were born with. "If they are not willing to cure themselves medically and religiously", said a Council member, they must be willing "to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed." However, the Indonesian judicial system takes the contrary position, with cases like Vivian Rubiyanti Iskandar (the first trans Indonesian to be legally recognized as female) giving rise to legal recognition of trans Indonesians' actual genders by the State. There have also been cases where perpetrators of hate crimes against the transgender community were arrested and prosecuted by the Indonesian authorities.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In 2012, Yuli Retoblaut, a fifty-year-old transgender person and U.S. President Barack Obama's nanny for two years, publicly applied to be the head of the nation's National Commission on Human Rights. The city of Yogyakarta has the only madrasa for transgender people in the world. In January 2018, transgender women were arrested, stripped naked, had their heads shaved, and were publicly shamed in the province of Aceh. Later in March, the Jakarta Social Agency declared "waria" to be socially dysfunctional. Sources reported that "the agency regularly conducted raids against transgender women". Detained trans individuals are taken by the agency to city-owned "rehabilitation" centres, where they are incarcerated, along with homeless people, beggars, and street buskers, and only released if documentation stating their lack of homelessness was received, and a statement is signed where the individual promises not to repeat their "offence". Officials have stated this is being done to create a deterrent against being transgender, and that continued violations will result in jail time.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Since June 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs has conducted outreach efforts to issue transgender Indonesians with identification papers, including a Kartu Tanda Penduduk. Transgender residents of Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java, North Sumatra, South Sumatra, South Sulawesi, Lampung, and Papua have benefited so far. The stated reasoning was that many of them were undocumented, especially where their families did not approve of them (in Indonesia, the family register is an essential identification paper), leaving them without access to work or social services. The Ministry also stated that only the "male" and "female" sex descriptors would be recognized for the time being, with no option for a third gender / X designator, and that transgender Indonesians would have their gender at birth printed unless they had already obtained recognition from the courts.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: 86% of Indonesian citizens identifies themselves as Muslim. According to the Ministry of Health (Indonesia) in 2012, Indonesia has around 1 million MSMs both visible or not. More than 5% of them of which are diagnosed with HIV. Whereas its estimated, that Indonesia has around 31 thousand Transgender women. It is estimated that the LGBT community constitutes around 3% of the Indonesian population, which is around 8 million. The family policy of the authorities, the social pressure to marry and religion means that homosexuality is generally not supported. Both modernist and traditionalist Muslims as well also other religious groups such as Christians, especially Roman Catholics, generally oppose homosexuality. Many Islamic fundamentalist groups such as the FPI (Islamic Defenders Front) are openly hostile towards LGBT people by attacking the home or work of those they believe are a threat to the values of Islam.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Explicit discrimination and violent homophobia are carried out mainly by religious extremists, while subtle discrimination and marginalisation occur in daily life among friends, family, at work or school. LGBT people often suffer abuse by the hands of the police, but it is hard to document due to victims refusing to give statements due to their sexuality. LGBT people are often arrested or charged due to their sexual orientation. Gays in jails are often sexually abused due to their sexual orientation, and often do not report it due to being traumatised and fear of being sent back to prison to suffer further abuse.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Indonesia does have a reputation as being a relatively moderate and tolerant Muslim nation, which does have some application to LGBT people. There are some LGBT people in the media, and the national government has allowed a discreet LGBT community to exist, who sometimes organises public events. However, conservative Islamic social mores tend to dominate within the broader society. Homosexuality and cross-dressing remain taboo and periodically LGBT people become the targets of fanatical vigilante groups.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In January 2018, the Aceh police ransacked a parlour with support from the Aceh autonomous government. The police tortured all LGBT citizens within the premises of the parlour, shaved the heads of transgender women, stripped their shirts and bras, and paraded them in the street while forcing them to shout "to become men". The event was criticised by human rights organisation.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: According to Planet Romeo in 2015, Indonesia has a low abuse rate toward LGBT people. Indonesia ranked 73 on Gay Happiness Index, surpassing Malaysia at 77 and India at 81. Low public opinions is the reason why Indonesia is ranked low, despite having bigger public behaviour score comparing countries that ranked higher than Indonesia.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: The "Law Against Pornography and Pornoaction (2006)" prohibits "…any writing or audio-visual presentation – including songs, poetry, films, paintings, and photographs that show or suggest sexual relations between persons of the same sex." Those in violation of the law could be fined or sentenced to prison for up to seven years. However, the media is now giving homosexuality more media coverage in Indonesia.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In February 2016, the public discourse and debates on homosexuality and LGBT issues intensified with the occurrence of high-profile cases of alleged homosexual misconducts, involving Indonesian celebrities. First, an accusation of sexual approach and harassment by TV personality Indra Bekti upon several men. Followed by the case of dangdut singer Saiful Jamil, who has been named a suspect in a sexual assault involving an underage male fan.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Until recently, the depiction of LGBT people was quite visible in Indonesian media, especially in television, with famous TV personalities, hosts, artist and celebrities with effeminate demeanour, or even cross-dressers were quite common in Indonesian television shows. However, after the alleged homosexual scandals involving Indonesian celebrities, in March 2016, the national broadcasting commission emphasised a policy banning TV and radio programs that make LGBT behaviour appear "normal", saying this was to protect children and teenagers who are "susceptible to imitating deviant LGBT behaviours". This meant that broadcast companies, especially television stations, are discouraged from featuring effeminate figures, transgender people or cross-dressing in their programs, although such practices were previously quite common in Indonesian TV shows, especially TV variety shows and "lawak" (comedy) performances.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Most of major political parties and politicians remain silent in the cause of LGBT rights. Islamist parties like Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and United Development Party (PPP) spoke strongly against LGBT rights and went further to propose a national bill to criminalise LGBT. In March 2016, PKS and PPP proposed an anti-LGBT bill to ban LGBT activism, and criminalise LGBT rights and behaviour. National Mandate Party (PAN), despite sharing anti-LGBT right sentiments with PKS and PPP however, has asked people not to discriminate and harass the LGBT community. However, in return, the party also urged LGBT people not to promote LGBT rights in Indonesia.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Currently, no political party in Indonesia has openly supported the LGBT rights movement. However, in October 2016, President Joko Widodo stated that he is a defender of LGBT rights and that LGBT people should have the right not to be discriminated against. Also, some politicians from the PDI-P (Party for the Indonesian Democracy Struggle) and the moderately conservative PKB (National Awakening Party) has sympathised support for LGBT rights. PDI-P further stated that as a pluralist party, they could accept the existence of LGBT people. Despite holding that it is deviant behaviour, PDI-P has urged people to tolerate LGBT people and not extend hostile sentiments against them.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In 1982, the first gay rights interest group was established in Indonesia. ""Lambda Indonesia"" and other similar organisations arose in the late 1980s and 1990s. Today, some of the major LGBT associations in the nation include "GAYa NUSANTARA" and "Arus Pelangi".


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: The gay and lesbian movement in Indonesia is one of the oldest and largest in Southeast Asia. Lambda Indonesia activities included organising social gatherings, consciousness-raising and created a newsletter, but the group dissolved in the 1990s. Gaya Nusantara is a gay rights group which focuses on homosexual issues such as AIDS. Another group is the Yayasan Srikandi Sejati, which was founded in 1998. Their primary focus is health issues about transgender people, and their work includes providing HIV/AIDS counselling and free condoms to transgender sex workers at a free health clinic. There are now over thirty LGBT groups in Indonesia.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Yogyakarta, Indonesia, hosted a 2006 summit on LGBT rights that produced the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. However, a summit in March 2010 in Surabaya was met with condemnation from the Islamic Defenders Front and was disrupted by conservative protesters.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: By 2015, the victory of LGBT rights movement in Western countries has had significant implications in Indonesia. As numerous influential Western countries began legalising same-sex marriage since 2001, the LGBT rights issue has caught the attention and awareness of the general public in Indonesia and generated public discourse. The popular opinion split into several stances, and the main reaction was not positive. The right-wing elements in Indonesian politics, especially religious-based political parties and organisation have publicly condemned LGBT rights. Some argued that currently, Indonesia is under the threat of global LGBT "propaganda", which promotes an "LGBT lifestyle". Same-sex marriage or civil union became the main issue discussed in public regarding LGBT rights, although LGBT activists have argued that currently they do not fight for same-sex marriage, but simply seek the fundamental human rights of security, freedom from fear and freedom of assembly.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: The comic "Alpantuni" depicts a gay Indonesian character who faces anti-LGBT sentiment featuring Muslim characters. Its Instagram account later was shut down by authorities. However, he was able to reactivate it later.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In response to a proposed bill meant to mandate conversion therapy to individuals suspected of being LGBT, queer-identifying Indonesian musician/songwriter Kai Mata "generat[ed] media buzz for being the first openly gay musician in Indonesia," vocally out amidst government hostility and harsh public sentiment. The comments section echoed support from the international community, hope from closeted Indonesians, and backlash from other citizens, telling her "I’m Indonesian and normal, please leave the country if you do not want to undergo therapy and recover."


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Legal guidelines regarding HIV/AIDS do not exist, although AIDS is a significant problem in most countries in the region. Those infected with HIV traveling to Indonesia can be refused entry or threatened with quarantine. Due to the lack of sex education in Indonesian schools, there is little knowledge of the disease among the general population. Some organisations, however, do offer sex education, though they face open hostility from school authorities. At the beginning of the gay rights movement in Indonesia, LGBT organisations focused exclusively on health issues which led to the public believing that AIDS was a "gay disease" and led to LGBT people being stigmatised.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Traditionally, Indonesians are quite tolerant towards LGBT people who keep quiet and stay discreet about their private lives. However, this level of tolerance is not extended towards the LGBT rights movements, which has faced fierce condemnation in the public sphere from Indonesian authorities. A wave of anti-LGBT rhetoric began in January 2016 when Higher Education Minister Mohamad Nasir said LGBT people should be barred from university campuses. The Minister called for a ban on gay groups on university campuses after a group of University of Indonesia (UI) students established a counselling and support group called the Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC). The group was meant as a counselling service, resource centre and support group on sexuality and gender issues, especially for LGBT youth and students, who often suffer from abuses, harassment, violence and discrimination regarding their gender and sexuality. SGRC sees LGBT people as human beings who need a friend and protection. The group, which sought to advocate for those who suffer from gender-based violence, explained that they do not "turn" or "encourage" people to be gay, nor had they tried to "cure" gay people. Amid the heat of the issue, the University of Indonesia refused to be held responsible for SGRC's actions and announced the group was not an officially registered student organisation. Another official pressured smartphone instant-messaging services to drop gay and lesbian-themed emoji, prompting one company to comply.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Generally, religious authorities in Indonesia condemn homosexual acts and are fiercely against the LGBT rights movement. The most active opposition has come from majority-Islamic groups, with Majelis Ulama Indonesia, the country's top Muslim clerical body, calling for the criminalisation of homosexuality. Other religious groups, such as Christianity and specifically Roman Catholicism, have expressed their rejection of LGBT rights in Indonesia. Indonesian Catholic authorities have reiterated that Catholicism does not recognise same-sex marriage but assured that, despite their perceived transgressions, LGBT people should be protected and not harmed.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: The Indonesia Psychiatric Association (PDSKJI) classifies homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism as mental disorders. Referring to "Law No.18/2014 on Mental Health" and the association's Mental Health and Mental Disorder Diagnostic Guidelines, the PDSKJI categorises homosexual and bisexual Indonesians as "people with psychiatric problems" and transgender people as having "mental disorders".


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Some military figures have used conspiracy theory rhetoric. Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu called the LGBT movement a "proxy war" to brainwash Indonesians, and claimed that it received "foreign funding", pointing to funds from United Nations organisations like UNAIDS or Western governments and foundations.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: There have been a few incidents of LGBT people being harassed. LGBT groups are now working on setting up safe houses and draw up evacuation plans in case of need. In Yogyakarta, in February 2016, 23 LGBT activists were roughed up by police, who told local media they stopped them from holding a rally to avoid a clash with a hardline Muslim group holding an anti-LGBT protest nearby.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: The chair of the People's Consultative Assembly, Zulkifli Hasan mentioned in a statement that, "As a movement, the existence of LGBT must be opposed. We must limit its room to move. However, as individual people, they must be protected like any other citizen.” Anthropologist Sharyn Graham Davies commented that the main focus of this opposition was that sexual and gender diversity may be tolerated but as long as LGBT people remain invisible in the Indonesian society and did not form a visible movement. On the other hand, amid fierce hostilities, some officials – including former Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama and former Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan — have defended the LGBT community. "Whoever they are, wherever they work, he or she continues to be an Indonesian citizen. They have the right to be protected as well," Panjaitan said. President Joko Widodo has also expressed support for LGBT rights and has called on an end to discrimination.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In 2018, the city of Pariaman in Sumatra passed a public indecency law to fine its gay and transgender residents 1m Indonesian rupiah ($70) for disturbing "public order" by banning "acts that are considered LGBT" in public. The regulation forbids "immoral acts" between same-sex couples and prohibits residents from "acting as a transvestite" in public. Several cities in West Sumatra have taken steps to marginalise LGBT groups.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: In June 2019, the head of Indonesia's population and family planning agency Nofrijal has labelled LGBT citizens the "main enemy of national development".


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: According to a 2017 poll carried out by ILGA, 32% of Indonesians agreed that gay, lesbian and bisexual people should enjoy the same rights as straight people, while 47% disagreed. Additionally, 37% agreed that they should be protected from workplace discrimination. 38% of Indonesians, however, said that people who are in same-sex relationships should be charged as criminals, while 37% disagreed. As for transgender people, 49% agreed that they should have the same rights, 55% believed they should be protected from employment discrimination, and 41% believed they should be allowed to change their legal gender.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: Results online conducted by the ILGA in October 2016 shows that 69% of Indonesians oppose same-sex marriage, 14% support, while 17% have stated a neutral view.


title: LGBT rights in Indonesia

text: According to the SMRC national survey, 58% of Indonesians agreed that LGBT people have the right to live as citizens, whereas 46% of Indonesians would accept if their family members came out as a part of the LGBT community.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Cardiff Castle () is a medieval castle and Victorian Gothic revival mansion located in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. The original motte and bailey castle was built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders on top of a 3rd-century Roman fort. The castle was commissioned either by William the Conqueror or by Robert Fitzhamon, and formed the heart of the medieval town of Cardiff and the Marcher Lord territory of Glamorgan. In the 12th century the castle began to be rebuilt in stone, probably by Robert of Gloucester, with a shell keep and substantial defensive walls being erected. Further work was conducted by the 6th Earl of Gloucester in the second half of the 13th century. Cardiff Castle was repeatedly involved in the conflicts between the Anglo-Normans and the Welsh, being attacked several times in the 12th century, and stormed in 1404 during the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: After being held by the de Clare and Despenser families for several centuries, the castle was acquired by The 13th Earl of Warwick and "Comte de Aumale" in 1423. Lord Warwick conducted extensive work on the castle, founding the main range on the west side of the castle, dominated by a tall octagonal tower. Following the Wars of the Roses, the status of the castle as a Marcher territory was revoked and its military significance began to decline. The Herbert family took over the property in 1550, remodelling parts of the main range and carrying out construction work in the outer bailey, then occupied by Cardiff's Shire Hall and other buildings. During the English Civil War Cardiff Castle was initially taken by a Parliamentary force, but was regained by Royalist supporters in 1645. When fighting broke out again in 1648, a Royalist army attacked Cardiff in a bid to regain the castle, leading to the Battle of St Fagans just outside the city. Cardiff Castle escaped potential destruction by Parliament after the war and was instead garrisoned, probably to protect against a possible Scottish invasion.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: In the mid-18th century, Cardiff Castle passed into the hands of the Stuart dynasty, Marquesses of Bute. John, 1st Marquess of Bute, employed Capability Brown and Henry Holland to renovate the main range, turning it into a Georgian mansion, and to landscape the castle grounds, demolishing many of the older medieval buildings and walls. During the first half of the 19th century the family became extremely wealthy as a result of the growth of the coal industry in Glamorgan. However, it was the 3rd Marquess of Bute who truly transformed the castle, using his vast wealth to back an extensive programme of renovations under William Burges. Burges remodelled the castle in a Gothic revival style, lavishing money and attention on the main range. The resulting interior designs are considered to be amongst "the most magnificent that the gothic revival ever achieved". The grounds were re-landscaped and, following the discovery of the old Roman remains, reconstructed walls and a gatehouse in a Roman style were incorporated into the castle design. Extensive landscaped parks were built around the outside of the castle.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: In the early 20th century, the 4th Marquess of Bute inherited the castle and construction work continued into the 1920s. The Bute lands and commercial interests around Cardiff were sold off or nationalised until, by the time of the Second World War, little was left except the castle. During the war, extensive air raid shelters were built in the castle walls; they could hold up to 1,800 people. When the 4th Marquess died in 1947, the castle was given to the City of Cardiff. Today the castle is run as a tourist attraction, with the grounds housing the "" regimental museum and interpretation centre. The castle has also served as a venue for events, including musical performances and festivals.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: The future site of Cardiff Castle was first used by the Romans as a defensive location for many years. The first fort was probably built about AD 55 and occupied until AD 80. It was a rectangular structure much larger than the current site, and formed part of the southern Roman border in Wales during the conquest of the Silures. When the border advanced, defences became less important and the fort was replaced with a sequence of two, much smaller, fortifications on the north side of the current site.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: A fourth fort was built in the middle of the 3rd century in order to combat the pirate threat along the coast, and forms the basis of the Roman remains seen on the castle site. The fort was almost square in design, approximately by large, constructed from limestone brought by sea from Penarth. The fort's irregular shape was determined by the River Taff that flowed along the west side of the walls. The sea would have come much closer to the site than is the case in the 21st century, and the fort would have directly overlooked the harbour. This Roman fort was probably occupied at least until the end of the 4th century, but it is unclear when it was finally abandoned. There is no evidence for the re-occupation of the site until the 11th century.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: The Normans began to make incursions into South Wales from the late 1060s onwards, pushing westwards from their bases in recently occupied England. Their advance was marked by the construction of castles, frequently on old Roman sites, and the creation of regional lordships. The reuse of Roman sites produced considerable savings in the manpower required to construct large earth fortifications.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Cardiff Castle was built during this period. There are two possible dates for the construction: William the Conqueror may have built a castle at Cardiff as early as 1081 on his return from his pilgrimage to St Davids. Alternatively, the first Norman fortification may have been constructed around 1091 by Robert Fitzhamon, the lord of Gloucester. Fitzhamon invaded the region in 1090, and used the castle as a base for the occupation of the rest of southern Glamorgan over the next few years. The site was close to the sea and could be easily supplied by ship, was well protected by the Rivers Taff and Rhymney and also controlled the old Roman road running along the coast.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Cardiff Castle was a motte-and-bailey design. The old Roman walls had collapsed and the Normans used their remains as the basis for the outer castle perimeter, digging a defensive trench and throwing up a high bank of earth over the Roman fortifications. The Normans further divided the castle with an internal wall to form an inner and an outer bailey. In the north-west corner of the castle a wooden keep was constructed on top of a tall earth motte, surrounded by a wide moat. The motte was the largest built in Wales. The overall area of the castle was around ; the inner bailey was around in area. Mills were essential to local communities during this period, and the castle mill was located outside the west side of the castle, fed by the River Taff; under local feudal law, the residents of Cardiff were required to use this mill to grind their own grain.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: The conquered lands in Glamorgan were given out in packages called knights' fees, and many of these knights held their lands on condition that they provided forces to protect Cardiff Castle. Under this approach, called a castle-guard system, some knights were required to maintain buildings called "houses" within the castle itself, in the outer bailey. Anglo-Saxon peasants settled the region around Cardiff, bringing with them English customs, although Welsh lords continued to rule the more remote districts almost independently until the 14th century. Cardiff Castle was a Marcher Lord territory, enjoying special privileges and independence from the English Crown. The medieval town of Cardiff spread out from the south side of the castle.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: FitzHamon was fatally injured at the Battle of Tinchebray in 1106 and died shortly afterwards. Henry I then gave the castle in 1122 to Robert of Gloucester, the king's illegitimate son and the husband of FitzHamon's daughter, Mabe. After the failed attempt of Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror's eldest son, to take England from Henry I, the duke was moved here in 1126 from imprisonment at Devizes and remained imprisoned in the castle until his death in 1134. Robert of Gloucester held the castle during the troubled years of the Anarchy in England and Wales, and passed it on to his son, William Fitz Robert. Around the middle of the century, possibly under Robert of Gloucester, a wide, high shell keep was constructed on top of the motte, along with a stone wall around the south and west sides of the inner bailey. The polygonal shell keep has architectural links to a similar design at Arundel Castle. The building work was probably undertaken in response to the threat posed following the Welsh uprising of 1136.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Tensions with the Welsh continued, and in 1158 Ifor Bach raided the castle and took William hostage for a period. A further attack followed in 1183. By 1184 town walls had been built around Cardiff, and the West Gate to the town was constructed in the gap between the castle and the river. William died in 1183, leaving three daughters. One of these, Isabel, Countess of Gloucester, was declared the sole heir to the estate by Henry II. This was contrary to legal custom in England, and was done in order that Henry could then marry her to his youngest son Prince John and thus provide him with extensive lands. John later divorced Isabel, but he retained control of the castle until she married Geoffrey de Mandeville in 1214.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Upon Isabel's death in 1217 the castle passed through her sister to Gilbert de Clare, becoming part of the Honour of Clare, a major grouping of estates and fortifications in medieval England. The castle formed the centre of the family's power in South Wales, although the de Clares typically preferred to reside in their castles at Clare and Tonbridge. Gilbert's son, Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester, carried out building work at the castle in the late 13th century, constructing the Black Tower that forms part of the southern gateway seen today. On the ground floor the tower contained the Stavell Oged and Stavell Wenn chambers, with three rooms constructed above them. Richard was also probably responsible for rebuilding the northern and eastern walls of the inner bailey in stone. The inner bailey was reached through a gatehouse on the eastern side, protected by two circular towers and later called the Exchequer Gate. The defensive work may have been prompted by the threat posed by the hostile Welsh leader Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Richard's grandson, Gilbert de Clare, the last male de Clare, died at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and the castle was given to Hugh Despenser the Younger, the controversial favourite of Edward II. Poor harvests and harsh governance by the Despenser family encouraged a Welsh rebellion under Llywelyn Bren in 1316; this was crushed and Llywelyn was hanged, drawn and quartered in Cardiff Castle in 1318 on Hugh's orders. The execution attracted much criticism from across both the English and Welsh communities, and in 1321 Hugh arrested Sir William Fleminge as a scapegoat for the incident, first detaining him in the Black Tower and then executing him in the castle grounds. Conflict between the Despensers and the other Marcher Lords broke out soon after, leading to the castle being sacked in 1321 during the Despenser War. The Despensers recovered the castle and retained it for the rest of the century, despite the execution of Hugh Despenser for treason in 1326. Under a 1340 charter granted by the Despensers, the castle's constable was made the "de facto" mayor of Cardiff, controlling the local courts.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: By the 15th century, the Despensers were increasingly using Caerphilly Castle as their main residence in the region rather than Cardiff. Thomas le Despenser was executed in 1400 on charges of conspiring against Henry IV. In 1401 rebellion broke out in North Wales under the leadership of Owain Glyndŵr, quickly spreading across the rest of the country. In 1404 Cardiff and the castle were taken by the rebels, causing considerable damage to the Black Tower and the southern gatehouse in the process. On Thomas's death the castle passed first to his young son, Richard, and on his death in 1414, through his daughter Isabel to the Beauchamp family. Isabel first married Richard de Beauchamp, the Earl of Worcester and then, on his death, to his cousin Richard de Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick, in 1423.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Richard did not acquire Caerphilly Castle as part of the marriage settlement, so he set about redeveloping Cardiff instead. He built a new tower alongside the Black Tower in 1430, restoring the gateway, and extended the motte defences. He also constructed a substantial new domestic range in the south-west of the site between 1425 and 1439, with a central octagonal tower high, sporting defensive machicolations, and featuring four smaller polygonal turrets facing the inner bailey. The range was built of Lias ashlar stone with limestone used for some of the details, set upon the spur bases characteristic of South Wales and incorporated parts of the older 4th and 13th century walls. The buildings were influenced by similar work in the previous century at Windsor Castle and would in turn shape renovations at Newport and Nottingham Castles; the octagonal tower has architectural links to Guy's Tower, built at around the same time in Warwick Castle. A flower garden was built to the south of the range, with private access to Richard's chambers. Richard also rebuilt the town's wider defences, including a new stone bridge over the River Taff guarded by the West Gate, finishing the work by 1451.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Cardiff Castle remained in the hands of Richard's son, Henry and Henry's daughter, Anne until 1449. When Anne died, it passed by marriage to Richard Neville, who held it until his death in 1471 during the period of civil strife known as the Wars of the Roses. As the conflict progressed and political fortunes rose and fell, the castle passed from George, the Duke of Clarence, to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to Jasper Tudor, the Duke of Bedford, back to Richard Neville's wife Anne, back to Jasper and finally to Prince Henry, the future Henry VIII. The ascension of the Tudor dynasty to the English throne at the end of the wars heralded a change in the way Wales was administered. The Tudors were Welsh in origin, and their rule eased hostilities between the Welsh and English. As a result, defensive castles became less important. In 1495 Henry VII formally revoked the Marcher territory status of Cardiff Castle and the surrounding territories, bringing them under normal English law as the County of Glamorgan.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: The Crown leased the castle to Charles Somerset in 1513; Charles used it while he was living in Cardiff. In 1550 William Herbert, later the Earl of Pembroke, then bought Cardiff Castle and the surrounding estates from Edward VI. The outer bailey contained a range of buildings at this time, and extensive building work was carried out during the century. The Shire Hall had been built in the outer bailey, forming part of a walled complex of buildings that included the lodgings for the traditional twelve holders of castle-guard lands. The outer bailey also included orchards, gardens and a chapel. The castle continued to be used to detain criminals during the 16th century, with the Black Tower being used as a prison to hold them; the heretic Thomas Capper was burnt at the castle on the orders of Henry VIII. The visiting antiquarian John Leland described the keep as "a great thing and strong, but now in some ruine", but the Black Tower was considered to be in good repair. In the inner bailey, the Herberts built an Elizabethan extension to the north end of the main range, with large windows looking onto a new northern garden; the southern garden was replaced by a kitchen garden.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: In 1610 the cartographer John Speed produced a map of the castle, and noted that it was "large and in good repair." In 1642, however, civil war broke out between the rival Royalist supporters of King Charles I and Parliament. Cardiff Castle was then owned by Philip Herbert, a moderate Parliamentarian, and the castle was initially held by a pro-Royalist garrison. It was taken by Parliamentary forces in the early period of the war, according to popular tradition by a sneak attack using a secret passageway. The Royalist commander William Seymour, the Marquess of Hertford, then attacked the castle in turn, taking it in a surprise assault. Parliamentary forces and local troops then immediately besieged the castle, retaking it after five hours of fighting and reinstalling a garrison. In early 1645 Mr Carne, the High Sheriff, rebelled against Parliament, taking Cardiff town but initially failing to seize the castle. The King sent forces from Oxford, under the command of Sir Charles Kemys, to reinforce Carne but Parliament despatched a naval squadron to provide support to their forces from the sea. A small battle ensued before the castle was taken by the Royalists.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: With the Royalist military position across the country worsening, King Charles himself came to Cardiff Castle that July to meet with local Welsh leaders. Relations between his commander in the region, Sir Charles Gerard, and the people of Glamorgan had deteriorated badly and when Charles left the castle, he was confronted by a small army of angry locals, demanding to be given control of the castle. These clubmen then declared themselves the "Peaceable Army" and increased their demands to include near independence for the region. After negotiations, a compromise was found in which the royal garrison would quit the castle, to be replaced by a local Glamorgan force, commanded by Sir Richard Beaupré; in return, £800 and a force of a thousand men were promised to Charles. In September, Charles returned to South Wales and reneged on the agreement, disbanding the Peaceable Army, but his military position in the region was collapsing. The Peaceable Army's leaders switched sides and forced the surrender of Cardiff and the castle to Parliament in mid-September.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: With the outbreak of fresh fighting in 1648, a Royalist army of 8,000 fresh recruits was mustered under the command of General Rowland Laugharne and Sir Edward Stradling, with the intent of retaking Cardiff. Parliamentary forces in Brecon under the command of Colonel Thomas Horton moved quickly to reinforce the castle, although with only 3,000 men they were content to wait until a larger army under Oliver Cromwell could arrive from Gloucester. With time against them, the Royalist army attacked, leading to the battle of St Fagans just to the west of Cardiff, and a heavy Royalist defeat.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: After the war, Cardiff Castle escaped the slighting, or deliberate damage and destruction, that affected many other castles. Probably because of the threat of a pro-Royalist invasion by the Presbyterian Scots, a Parliamentary garrison was installed instead and the castle remained intact. The Herberts continued to own the castle as the Earls of Pembroke, both during the interregnum and after the restoration of Charles II. The castle's constable continued to act as mayor of the town of Cardiff, controlling the meetings of the town's burgesses, bailiffs and aldermen; the Herberts usually appointed members of the more important local gentry to this position during the period.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Lady Charlotte Herbert was the last of the family to control Cardiff Castle. She married twice, latterly to Thomas, Viscount Windsor, and on her death in 1733 the castle passed to their son, Herbert. Herbert's daughter, Charlotte Jane Windsor, married, in November 1766, John, Lord Mount Stuart, who rose to become the Marquess of Bute in 1794, beginning a family line that would control the castle for the next century.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: In 1776, Lord Mount Stuart (later created The 1st Marquess of Bute in 1794) began to renovate the property with the intention of turning it into a residence for his son, John. The grounds were radically altered under a programme of work that involved Capability Brown and his son-in-law, Henry Holland. The stone wall that separated the inner and outer baileys was destroyed using gunpowder, the Shire Hall and the knights' houses in the outer bailey were destroyed and the remaining ground partially flattened; the whole of the area was laid with turf. Considerable work was carried out on the main lodgings, demolishing the Herbert additions, building two new wings and removing many of the older features to produce a more contemporary, 18th-century appearance. The keep and motte was stripped of the ivy and trees that had grown up them, and a spiral path was laid down around the motte. The motte's moat was filled in as part of the landscaping. A summer house was built in the south-east corner of the castle. Further work was planned on the property, including a reported proposal to roof the keep in copper, insert new windows and turn it into an assembly room for dances, but these projects were cut short by the (by now) Marquess's son's death in 1794.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: In 1814 Lord Bute's grandson, John, inherited his title and the castle. In 1825 the new Marquess began a sequence of investments in the Cardiff Docks, an expensive programme of work that would enable Cardiff to become a major coal exporting port. Although the Docks were not particularly profitable, they transformed the value of the Butes' mining and land interests, making the family immensely wealthy. By 1900, the family estate owned of land in Glamorgan.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: The second Marquess preferred to live on the Isle of Bute in Scotland and only used Cardiff Castle occasionally. The castle saw little investment and only four full-time servants were maintained on the premises, meaning that cooked food had to be brought across from the kitchens at a nearby hotel. The castle remained at the centre of the Butes' political power base in Cardiff, however, with their faction sometimes termed as "the Castle party". During the violent protests of the Merthyr Rising of 1831, the Marquess-based himself at Cardiff Castle, from where he directed operations and kept Whitehall informed of the unfolding events. The governance of the then town of Cardiff was finally reformed by an Act of Parliament in 1835, introducing a town council and a mayor, severing the link with the castle constable.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: John, 3rd Marquess of Bute, inherited the title and castle in 1848. He was then less than a year old, and as he grew up he came to despise the existing castle, believing that it represented a mediocre, half-hearted example of the Gothic style. The young Lord Bute engaged the architect William Burges to undertake the remodelling of the castle. The two shared a passion in medieval Gothic Revivalism and this, combined with Bute's huge financial resources, enabled Burges to rebuild the property on a grand scale. Burges brought with him almost of all of the team that had supported him on earlier projects, including John Starling Chapple, William Frame and Horatio Lonsdale. Burges's contribution, in particular his research into the history of the castle and his architectural imagination, was critical to the transformation.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Work began on Lord Bute's coming of age in 1868 with the construction of the high Clock Tower. The tower, built in Burges's signature Forest of Dean ashlar stone, formed a suite of bachelor's rooms, comprising a bedroom, a servant's room and the Summer and Winter smoking rooms. Externally, the tower was a re-working of a design Burges had previously used in an unsuccessful competition entry for the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Internally, the rooms were sumptuously decorated with gildings, carvings and cartoons, many allegorical in style, depicting the seasons, myths and fables. In his "A History of the Gothic Revival", written as the tower was being built, Charles Locke Eastlake wrote of Burges's "peculiar talents (and) luxuriant fancy." The Summer Smoking Room rested at the top of the structure and was two storeys high with an internal balcony that, through an unbroken band of windows, gave views of the Cardiff Docks, the Bristol Channel, and the Glamorgan countryside. The floor had a map of the world in mosaic. The sculpture was created by Thomas Nicholls.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: As the rest of the castle was developed, work progressed along the rest of the 18th century range including the construction of the Guest Tower, the Arab Room, the Chaucer Room, the Nursery, the Library, the Banqueting Hall and bedrooms for both Lord and Lady Bute. In plan, the new castle followed the arrangement of a standard Victorian country house quite closely. The Bute Tower included Lord Bute's bedroom and ended in another highlight, the Roof Garden, featuring a sculpture of the Madonna and child by Ceccardo Fucigna. Bute's bedroom contained extensive religious iconography and an en-suite bathroom. The Octagon Tower followed, including an oratory, built on the spot where Bute's father died, and the Chaucer Room, the roof of which is considered by historian Mark Girouard to be a "superb example of Burges's genius".


title: Cardiff Castle

text: The central part of the castle comprised a two-storey banqueting hall, with the library below. Both are enormous, the latter to hold part of the bibliophile Marquess's vast library. Both included elaborate carvings and fireplaces, those in the banqueting hall depicting the castle itself in the time of Robert, Duke of Normandy. The decoration here is less impressive than elsewhere in the castle, as much of it was completed after Burges's death by Lonsdale, a less talented painter. The Arab Room in the Herbert Tower remains however one of Burges's masterpieces. Its jelly mould ceiling in a Moorish style is particularly notable. It was this room on which Burges was working when he died and Bute placed Burges's initials, and his own, and the date 1881 in the fireplace as a memorial. The central portion of the castle also included the Grand Staircase, recorded in a watercolour perspective prepared by Axel Haig.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Burges's interiors at Cardiff Castle have been widely praised. The historian Megan Aldrich considers them amongst "the most magnificent that the gothic revival ever achieved", J. Mordaunt Crook has described them as "three dimensional passports to fairy kingdoms and realms of gold", and John Newman praises them as "most successful of all the fantasy castles of the nineteenth century." The exterior of the castle, however, has received a more mixed reception from critics. Crook admires the variegated and romantic silhouette of the building, but architect John Grant considered them to present a "picturesque if not happy combination" of varying historical styles, and Adrian Pettifer criticises them as "incongruous" and excessively Gothic in style.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Work was also carried out on the castle grounds, the interior being flattened further, destroying much of the medieval and Roman archaeological remains. In 1889, Lord Bute's building works uncovered the remains of the old Roman fort for the first time since the 11th century, leading to archaeological investigations being carried out in 1890. New walls in a Roman style were built by William Frame on the foundations of the originals, complete with a reconstructed Roman North Gate, and the outer medieval bank was stripped away around the new walls.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: The grounds were extensively planted with trees and shrubs, including over the motte. From the late 18th century until the 1850s the castle grounds were completely open to the public, but restrictions were imposed in 1858 and as a replacement the 434 acres of land to the west and north of the castle was turned into Bute Park. From 1868, the castle grounds were closed to the public altogether. Stables were built just to the north of the castle, but only half were completed during the 19th century. The Animal Wall was built along the south side of the castle, decorated with statues of animals, and the Swiss Bridge – a combination of summerhouse and river-crossing – was erected over the river by the West Gate. Cathays Park was built on the east side of the castle, but was sold to the city of Cardiff in 1898.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: John, the fourth Marquess, acquired the castle in 1900 on the death of his father, and the family estates and investments around the castle began to rapidly reduce in size. Cardiff had grown hugely in the previous century, its population increasing from 1,870 in 1800 to around 250,000 in 1900, but the coal trade began to diminish after 1918 and industry suffered during the depression of the 1920s. John only inherited a part of the Butes' Glamorgan estates, and in the first decades of the 20th century he sold off much of the remaining assets around Cardiff, including the coal mines, docks and railway companies, with the bulk of the land interests being finally sold off or nationalised in 1938.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Development work on the castle continued. There was extensive restoration of the medieval masonry in 1921, with architect John Grant rebuilding the South Gate and the barbican tower, and reconstructing the medieval West Gate and town wall alongside the castle, with the Swiss Bridge being moved in 1927 to make room for the new West Gate development. Further archaeological investigations were carried out into the Roman walls in 1922 and 1923, leading to Grant redesigning the northern Roman gatehouse. The second half of the castle stables were finally completed. The Animal Wall was moved in the 1920s to the west side of the castle to enclose a pre-Raphaelite themed garden. The grand staircase in the main range was torn out in the 1930s. During World War II, extensive tunnels within the medieval walls were used as air-raid shelters, with eight different sections, able to hold up to 1,800 people in total, and the castle was also used to tether barrage balloons above the city.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: In 1947, John, the fifth Marquess, inherited the castle on the death of his father and faced considerable death duties. He sold the very last of the Bute lands in Cardiff and gave the castle and the surrounding park to the city on behalf of the people of Cardiff; the family flag was taken down from the castle as part of the official hand-over ceremony. The castle was protected as a grade I listed building and as a scheduled monument.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: Cardiff Castle is now run as a tourist attraction, and is one of the most popular sites in the city. The castle is not fully furnished, as the furniture and fittings in the castle were removed by the Marquess in 1947 and subsequently disposed of; an extensive restoration has been carried out, however, of the fittings originally designed for the Clock Tower by Burges. The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, founded in 1949, was housed in the castle's main range for many years, but moved into the castle's former stables north of the castle in 1998. A new interpretation centre, which opened in 2008, was built alongside the South Gate at a cost of £6 million, and the castle also contains "", the joint regimental museum of the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards and the Royal Welsh.


title: Cardiff Castle

text: The castle has been used for a range of cultural and social events. The castle has seen various musical performances, including by Tom Jones, Green Day and the Stereophonics, with a capacity to accommodate over 10,000 people. During the 1960s and 1970s the castle was the setting for a sequence of military tattoos.


title: Electron capture

text: Electron capture (K-electron capture, also K-capture, or L-electron capture, L-capture) is a process in which the proton-rich nucleus of an electrically neutral atom absorbs an inner atomic electron, usually from the K or L electron shells. This process thereby changes a nuclear proton to a neutron and simultaneously causes the emission of an electron neutrino.


title: Electron capture

text: Since this single emitted neutrino carries the entire decay energy, it has this single characteristic energy. Similarly, the momentum of the neutrino emission causes the daughter atom to recoil with a single characteristic momentum.


title: Electron capture

text: The resulting daughter nuclide, if it is in an excited state, then transitions to its ground state. Usually, a gamma ray is emitted during this transition, but nuclear de-excitation may also take place by internal conversion.


title: Electron capture

text: Following capture of an inner electron from the atom, an outer electron replaces the electron that was captured and one or more characteristic X-ray photons is emitted in this process. Electron capture sometimes also results in the Auger effect, where an electron is ejected from the atom's electron shell due to interactions between the atom's electrons in the process of seeking a lower energy electron state.


title: Electron capture

text: Following electron capture, the atomic number is reduced by one, the neutron number is increased by one, and there is no change in mass number. Simple electron capture by itself results in a neutral atom, since the loss of the electron in the electron shell is balanced by a loss of positive nuclear charge. However, a positive atomic ion may result from further Auger electron emission.


title: Electron capture

text: Electron capture is the primary decay mode for isotopes with a relative superabundance of protons in the nucleus, but with insufficient energy difference between the isotope and its prospective daughter (the isobar with one less positive charge) for the nuclide to decay by emitting a positron. Electron capture is always an alternative decay mode for radioactive isotopes that "do" have sufficient energy to decay by positron emission. Electron capture is sometimes included as a type of beta decay, because the basic nuclear process, mediated by the weak force, is the same. In nuclear physics, beta decay is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta ray (fast energetic electron or positron) and a neutrino are emitted from an atomic nucleus. Electron capture is sometimes called inverse beta decay, though this term usually refers to the interaction of an electron antineutrino with a proton.


title: Electron capture

text: If the energy difference between the parent atom and the daughter atom is less than 1.022 MeV, positron emission is forbidden as not enough decay energy is available to allow it, and thus electron capture is the sole decay mode. For example, rubidium-83 (37 protons, 46 neutrons) will decay to krypton-83 (36 protons, 47 neutrons) solely by electron capture (the energy difference, or decay energy, is about 0.9 MeV).


title: Electron capture

text: The theory of electron capture was first discussed by Gian-Carlo Wick in a 1934 paper, and then developed by Hideki Yukawa and others. K-electron capture was first observed by Luis Alvarez, in vanadium, , which he reported in 1937. Alvarez went on to study electron capture in gallium () and other nuclides.


title: Electron capture

text: The electron that is captured is one of the atom's own electrons, and not a new, incoming electron, as might be suggested by the way the above reactions are written. A few examples of electron capture are:


title: Electron capture

text: Radioactive isotopes that decay by pure electron capture can be inhibited from radioactive decay if they are fully ionized ("stripped" is sometimes used to describe such ions). It is hypothesized that such elements, if formed by the r-process in exploding supernovae, are ejected fully ionized and so do not undergo radioactive decay as long as they do not encounter electrons in outer space. Anomalies in elemental distributions are thought to be partly a result of this effect on electron capture. Inverse decays can also be induced by full ionisation; for instance, decays into by electron capture; however, a fully ionised decays into a bound state of by the process of bound-state β decay.


title: Electron capture

text: Chemical bonds can also affect the rate of electron capture to a small degree (in general, less than 1%) depending on the proximity of electrons to the nucleus. For example, in Be, a difference of 0.9% has been observed between half-lives in metallic and insulating environments. This relatively large effect is due to the fact that beryllium is a small atom that employs valence electrons that are close to the nucleus, and also in orbitals with no orbital angular momentum. Electrons in s orbitals (regardless of shell or primary quantum number), have a probability antinode at the nucleus, and are thus far more subject to electron capture than p or d electrons, which have a probability node at the nucleus.


title: Electron capture

text: Around the elements in the middle of the periodic table, isotopes that are lighter than stable isotopes of the same element tend to decay through electron capture, while isotopes heavier than the stable ones decay by electron emission. Electron capture happens most often in the heavier neutron-deficient elements where the mass change is smallest and positron emission is not always possible. When the loss of mass in a nuclear reaction is greater than zero but less than the process cannot occur by positron emission, but occurs spontaneously for electron capture.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: Lee David Johnson (born 7 June 1981) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is currently the manager of Hibernian.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: Prior to becoming a manager, he played for Brighton & Hove Albion, Yeovil Town, Heart of Midlothian, Bristol City, Derby County, Chesterfield and Kilmarnock.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: Johnson made his managerial debut with Oldham Athletic in 2013 with a 3–0 victory over Hartlepool United. He went on to lead Oldham to safety soon afterwards. On 25 February 2015 it was announced that Johnson would take over as head coach of Barnsley. He guided the club to an eleventh-placed finish, after five victories, six draws and only three defeats. On 6 February 2016, Johnson was appointed as the new manager of relegation-threatened Bristol City after an undisclosed compensation fee was agreed between the Robins and Barnsley. Under Johnson's management, City eventually finished a comfortable twelve points above the relegation zone in eighteenth place, Johnson went on to manage Bristol City for over 200 games. Following a run of four consecutive defeats, on 4 July 2020, Johnson was dismissed as head coach of Bristol City; he was the longest-serving manager in the Championship prior to his departure.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: On 5 December 2020 Johnson became head coach of Sunderland. He won the EFL Trophy in Sunderland's first Wembley triumph since Bob Stokoe guided the club to win the 1973 FA Cup Final. A short run of poor results and a heavy defeat away to Bolton Wanderers led to Johnson's time at the Stadium of Light coming to an abrupt end and he was replaced by Alex Neil.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: Born in Newmarket, Suffolk, Johnson is the only child of Caron and football coach Gary Johnson. He began his career as a youth player with Arsenal, but left the club aged 17 after a feud with a coach. He then went on to join Watford, whose youth system was run by his father; he did not make a senior appearance for the club prior to his departure in 2000.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: In 2000, Johnson signed for Brighton & Hove Albion, scoring in his only appearance for the club against Cardiff City in the Football League Trophy, before having a non-contract spell with Brentford during the final months of the 2000–01 season, in which he failed to receive a call into the squad. He then went on to sign for Conference side Yeovil Town in July 2001 on a free transfer. Managed by his father Gary, Yeovil achieved two promotions, reaching the Football League Second Division. In this time, Johnson won the player of the year award three times consecutively.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: Johnson joined Scottish Premier League club Heart of Midlothian on 11 January 2006 for a transfer fee of £50,000, signing onto a two-and-a-half-year contract. His debut came as a late substitute in a 4–1 victory over Dunfermline Athletic, and he started his first game in another 4–1 win over Hearts' Edinburgh derby rivals Hibernian. Less than two months after Johnson joined Hearts, manager Graham Rix was sacked, which resulted in Johnson receiving less game time: he only made one substitute appearance prior to his departure, six months after signing.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: In August 2006, Johnson rejoined his father at Bristol City. On 12 August 2006, Huddersfield Town manager Peter Jackson was sent to the stands after grabbing Johnson around the throat in a touchline incident 10 minutes from full-time. He was part of the Bristol City team that won promotion to the Championship in the 2006–07 league campaign.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: In the 2007–08 season, Johnson enjoyed his favoured season for Bristol City, as they pushed for promotion to the Premier League, being a key figure in their run to the play-off final, which his side lost 1–0 to Hull City, narrowly missing out on promotion.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: On 1 January 2010, Johnson joined fellow Championship side Derby County on an initial month-long loan. He played his first game for Derby the following day, in an FA Cup fixture at Millwall, which ended in a 1–1 draw. Johnson returned to Bristol City after this spell came to an end. Despite Derby intending to retain Johnson until the end of the season, Bristol City refused. He subsequently went on loan to Chesterfield in August 2011. His stint at Bristol City concluded on 31 January 2012, after his contract was mutually terminated.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: On 10 February 2012, Johnson signed a two-and-half-year deal with Scottish side Kilmarnock, returning to Scotland after his departure from Hearts six years previously. On 18 March, he played in the Scottish League Cup final, in which Kilmarnock were victorious over Celtic, when Johnson set up the winning goal in their 1–0 success. He left Kilmarnock in January 2013, after his contract was mutually terminated.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: Johnson was eligible to play for the Gibraltar national football team, due to the birthplace of his grandmother. In September 2014, the Gibraltar Football Association contacted him regarding interest in playing for the national team in the Euro 2016 qualifiers. Despite considering the offer, he declined, stating, "I don't really want to be running after the world champions when we've [Oldham] got a game on Saturday."


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: On 18 March 2013, Johnson was appointed manager of EFL League One side Oldham Athletic, signing a two-year contract. At the age of 31, his appointment made him the youngest manager in the English Football League, with him also managing in the same league as his father, Gary, who was then the manager of Yeovil Town. His first game in charge was a 3–0 victory over Hartlepool United the day after his appointment, which saw Oldham move out of the relegation zone. He went on to lead the club to safety soon afterwards, with a run of form notable for wins against Bury and promotion-chasing Yeovil, which was also highlighted as it was reported to be the first instance of father and son managing against each other since Bill Dodgin Sr. of Bristol Rovers and Bill Dodgin Jr. of Fulham faced each other in the early 1970s.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: During the off-season prior to his first full season in charge, Johnson vowed to make changes to the squad, resulting in a change of play which lead to fan favourite Robbie Simpson controversially being on the list of players that were released by the club. However, Johnson hit back completing the signings of James Dayton, Sidney Schmeltz and Korey Smith. The latter chose to make his initial loan into a permanent deal with Johnson also appointing the player as the new team captain. Oldham started the season as Johnson intended, winning 4–3 at Stevenage.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: In January various changes were made, notably losing the services of James Tarkowski to Brentford for an undisclosed fee. Johnson made signings that would go on to make a big impact to Oldham's second half of the season, most notably the loan of Gary Harkins from St. Mirren. After various excellent performances throughout the first half of the season, Johnson was rewarded with a renewed contract, extending it until the summer of 2018, stating, "I love the club, the new contract extension makes me feel valued by the owner and the board. I know I will get it right and that I will be given time to do that, at what is a fantastic club". As their season came to a close, the Latics ended the season on a 10-game unbeaten run, which saw the club finish fifteenth, two points short of the top–half of the table, making this the club's best finish for the side since the end of the 2008–09 season under John Sheridan.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: During the first half of the 2014–15 league campaign, Johnson led his side to the top ten of the league, which soon saw his name emerge with links to a variety of clubs.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: On 25 February 2015, Johnson was appointed as the new head coach of fellow EFL League One club Barnsley, after an undisclosed compensation package was agreed between the Tykes and Oldham Athletic for the services of Johnson and his assistant Tommy Wright. His first match in charge was a 1–0 victory at Gillingham, three days after his appointment. Despite taking over the club whilst they sat sixteenth and were underachieving, Johnson guided the club to an eleventh-placed finish, after their form resulted in them picking up five victories, six draws and three defeats.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: During his first full season in charge, Johnson had Barnsley in mixed form prior to the new year period, picking up ten victories out of a possible thirty, including an eight-game losing streak. However, 2016 saw Barnsley achieve a seven-game winning streak which moved the side higher up the league positions. Johnson's name emerged as many club's targets to fulfil their managerial posts, and by the time he left Barnsley, the club were sat twelfth, a huge improvement on them sitting twenty-second in the table in November. He had also led the club to the EFL Trophy final, in which his successor Paul Heckingbottom managed to claim the cup win. He left Barnsley on 6 February 2016.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: On 6 February 2016, Johnson was appointed as the new manager of relegation-threatened Championship club Bristol City, signing onto a three-and-a-half-year deal, after an undisclosed compensation fee was agreed between the Robins and Barnsley. Under Johnson's management, City went on to record several victories during their sixteen games in the league, eventually finishing a comfortable twelve points above the relegation zone in eighteenth place. Despite the loan signing of Tammy Abraham, who scored 26 goals for the club in the 2016–17 season, City remained in the relegation dogfight until the penultimate game of the season, eventually finishing three points above the relegation zone in seventeenth place, a minor improvement on their previous season's finish.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: Despite some fans demanding Johnson be dismissed, he remained as City manager ahead of the 2017–18 season, and brought in right-back Eros Pisano and Senegalese striker Famara Diedhiou to boost their hopes of success, the latter signing for a club record transfer fee of £5.3 million. In October 2017, Johnson received manager of the month award for September, after guiding City to an undefeated streak of six games, scoring thirteen goals across that month. Later that month, as part of an interview for the "BBC Points West" programme, Johnson described his past of receiving death threats across the previous season, after completing the signing of Bristol Rovers striker Matty Taylor, also revealing how he was forced to move home, following the aftermath of his family's home address being publicised online.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: In the 2017–18 season, Johnson led the club to the semi-finals of the EFL Cup, defeating several Premier League clubs in the lead up, notably defeating José Mourinho's Manchester United. During the semi-finals, Bristol City exited the competition after a 3–5 aggregate defeat to eventual champions Manchester City, a game in which saw opposition manager Pep Guardiola praise Johnson for his side's style of play. City ended the season in eleventh place in the Championship, eight points adrift from play-off qualification. In their following league campaign, Johnson's side finished the season in eighth place, their best league finish since the 2007–08 season, despite maintaining fifth position towards the closing stages of the season.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: On 23 May 2019, Johnson signed a new four-year contract with Bristol City, keeping him at the club until the summer of 2023. That October, he was charged with misconduct by the FA as a response to alleged language towards a match official. He received a £2,000 fine and a one-match ban. Following a run of four consecutive defeats, on 4 July 2020, Johnson was dismissed as head coach of Bristol City. Having been appointed in February 2016, he was the longest-serving manager in the Championship prior to his departure.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: On 5 December 2020, Johnson was appointed the new head coach of Sunderland following the departure of Phil Parkinson. He signed a two and a half year deal with the club. Despite only being announced that morning, his first game in charge was later that afternoon, with his new side losing 1–0 at home to Wigan Athletic. On 14 March 2021, Sunderland won the 2021 EFL Trophy Final, beating Tranmere Rovers 1–0 courtesy of a goal from Lynden Gooch. Although Johnson was well liked by the Sunderland supporters; a short run of poor results and a heavy defeat away to Bolton Wanderers led to Johnsons time at the Stadium of Light coming to an abrupt end and he was replaced by Alex Neil.


title: Lee Johnson (footballer)

text: At the time of his appointment as Oldham Athletic manager in 2013, three members of his family were chief scouts at different football clubs.


title: Linda Moulton Howe

text: Linda Moulton Howe (born January 20, 1942) is an American investigative journalist and Regional Emmy award-winning documentary film maker best known for her work as a ufologist and advocate of a variety of conspiracy theories, including her investigation of cattle mutilations and conclusion that they are performed by extraterrestrials. She is also noted for her speculations that the U.S. government is working with aliens.


title: Linda Moulton Howe

text: She was born Linda Ann Moulton in Boise, Idaho. Howe entered the 1963 Miss Boise pageant for college scholarships and went on to win the 1963 Miss Idaho crown and scholarships, and participated in the Miss America 1964 pageant that year in Atlantic City. Howe received her 1965 B.A. "cum laude" in English Literature from the University of Colorado. In 1966, Howe was awarded the Stanley Baubaire Scholarship for her master's degree work at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. She received her master's degree in communication from Stanford University in 1968, where she produced a documentary film for the Stanford Medical Center and her Master's Thesis, "A Picture Calculus," at the Stanford Linear Accelerator.


title: Linda Moulton Howe

text: Howe's early work focused on environmental issues. From 1978 to 1983, Howe was Director of Special Projects at KMGH-TV, Channel 7, Denver, Colorado. Her documentaries included "Poison in the Wind" and "A Sun Kissed Poison" which compared smog pollution in Los Angeles and Denver, "Fire In The Water" about hydrogen as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels, and "A Radioactive Water" about uranium contamination of public drinking water in a Denver suburb. Howe was on staff at WCVB-TV when the station won an Institutional Peabody Award for institutional excellence in 1975.


title: Linda Moulton Howe

text: In 1980, Howe produced "A Strange Harvest", a documentary that suggested unusual wounds found on cattle are the work of extraterrestrial beings who harvest body parts required for their survival or research, and that the U.S. government is complicit. The documentary received a Regional Emmy award for Audio Achievement in 1981. Howe became known as a "staunch advocate" for these ideas, and began to focus on UFO conspiracy theories and speculate about alleged connections between cattle mutilations, UFOs and supposed government conspiracies, saying "I am convinced that one or more alien intelligences are affecting this planet". Although Howe claimed she was shown secret documents after being taken into confidence by an agent of the government, author John Greer wrote that Howe presented no evidence for such claims other than "the very ambiguous evidence provided by rotting cow carcasses".


title: Linda Moulton Howe

text: One Idaho state director of Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) called her "the most preeminent UFO investigator in the world", and she's been named as one of "the gurus of American ufology", although Howe has said she regards herself as a television producer and investigative reporter. Much of Howe's work includes speculations about what she terms "unexplained" phenomena, such as cattle mutilations, crop circles, UFO sightings and alien abductions.


title: Linda Moulton Howe

text: Howe has produced numerous UFO related programming, including a two-hour special "Earth Mysteries: Alien Life Forms" in association with WATL-Fox, Atlanta, was Supervising Producer and Original Concept Creator for "UFO Report: Sightings" financed by Paramount Studios and the Fox network in Los Angeles that was first broadcast in October 1991 and became the "Sightings" series on Fox.


title: Linda Moulton Howe

text: Howe appeared on a panel at UFO Disclosure press event held at the National Press Club in 2013, saying she believed "alien technology appears so advanced" that "space and time could be bent by outer space travelers, therefore allowing extraterrestrials to visit Earth".


title: Linda Moulton Howe

text: Howe has proposed that some photographs of crop circles show evidence of mysterious energy she terms "visible light phenomena". Joe Nickell described Howe as a "credulous journalist" in a 2002 article in "Skeptical Inquirer" magazine, saying that photos Howe published purporting to show mysterious energy are simply misinterpretations of photographic accidents, such as a camera's wrist strap reflecting the flash, or circular artifacts caused by floating dust, errors that Nickell calls "the stock-in-trade of ghost hunters".


title: Linda Moulton Howe

text: Howe was a frequent guest on "Coast to Coast AM" for 28 years, dating back to 2003 with George Noory, and 1991 with Art Bell. In 2019, she ended her monthly appearances on the show. Howe has been interviewed on "Larry King Live" specials, CNN; "The O'Reilly Factor", Fox; "Sightings" and "Strange Universe", Fox; NBC's "The Other Side"; Britain's Union Pictures, ITN and BBC; The Discovery Channel special "Evidence On Earth"; the NBC network special, "Mysterious Origins of Man", and the History Channel television series "Ancient Aliens".


title: Linda Moulton Howe

text: Linda Moulton Howe's father was Chet Moulton, Idaho's Director of Aeronautics from 1946 to 1971 and recipient of multiple aviation honors.


title: SOBR

text: The Special Rapid Response Unit or SOBR (, Spetsial'niy Otryad Bystrovo Reagirovaniya, lit. "Special Unit of Quick Response"), from 2002 to 2011 known as OMSN ("Otryad Militsii Spetsial'nogo Naznacheniya", Special Police Unit), is a spetsnaz unit of the National Guard of Russia.With their military equipment, uniforms and training, the OMON and SOBR constitute a rapid-reaction and rapid-insertion military force available to the regular police - normally deployable at the discretion of a police local command. They serve a similar function to SWAT.


title: SOBR

text: SOBR was formed on February 10, 1992, and was subordinated to the "Directorate for combating the Organized Crime" under the Russian Interior Ministry (MVD). SOBR units were composed of senior-ranking police officers, better trained than the members of OMON (which is a cross between riot police and paramilitary police), and tasked with SWAT type special operations under the jurisdiction of MVD. The primary function of SOBR is to combat against organized crime, with additional roles including anti-terrorism. They also fought during the wars in Chechnya and Daghestan.


title: SOBR

text: Russia's first regional SOBR units were formed on 10 February 1992, under the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) within the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, on the model of the previously established Moscow unit. SOBR units were staffed by senior-ranking police officers and typically received better training than the members of OMON, the paramilitary special police units of the MVD; their personnel was drawn from the OMON units. They carried out SWAT-type special operations under the jurisdiction of the MVD, including the apprehension of dangerous criminals and high-profile raids, while also participating in conventional warfare such the Chechen Wars.


title: SOBR

text: On 16 September 2002, SOBR was dissolved and its units were reclassified as OMSN, becoming subordinated to the regional criminal police offices, and since the establishment of the Investigative Committee of Russia, has co-operated with federal investigative authorities. Due to the similarity in function as OMSN, and the popularity of the SOBR name, OMSN was commonly referred to as "SOBR" and the terms were often used interchangeably despite SOBR being officially non-existent.


title: SOBR

text: In 2007, in Russia there were 87 OMSN units, counting over 5,000 officers stationed in major Russian cities, the most famous unit of the formation is OMSN "Rys" ("lynx", Cyrillic ОМСН "Рысь"), established in 1992, which since its inception participated in almost all known special operations in Russia.


title: SOBR

text: In 2011 OMSN units were renamed OSN, but in 2012 the SOBR name returned into existence during reforms of the MVD, as all special forces units under the ministry's command were renamed from OMSN to SOBR.


title: SOBR

text: On 5 April 2016, following the establishment of the National Guard of Russia, the Internal Troops of Russia were disestablished and the command of their units, including SOBR, was transferred from the MVD to the National Guard. According to a statement by General Zolotov, troops from OMON and SOBR received the status of military personnel in 2018.


title: SOBR

text: The SOBR placed 1st in the 2015 Annual Warrior Competition held annually in Jordan. Other teams participating were a U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Battalion and China's Assault Hawk Commando Unit of the People's Armed Police, which placed second overall. Overall 37 teams from 18 different nations participated in the event.


title: SOBR

text: SOBR units are focused on urban public security actions, and fight against organized crime gangs in urban environments or in circumstances where the rules of engagement are strict. SOBR units are also deployed in custom police operations, in order to provide a heavy cordon. Large scale counterterror operations usually involve SOBR, spetsnaz, OMON and FSB units due to the large personnel demands.


title: SOBR

text: SOBR units participated in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine where they were intended to disperse riots after Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities were captured. The failure to capture Kyiv resulted in some SOBR missions becoming redundant, and some of its personnel being killed in action or captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At the Battle of Irpin, due overly optimistic operational plans and the lack of communications with other units, an unarmored and under-equipped SOBR unit from the Kemerovo Oblast ended up separated from the main Army forces and accidentally spearheading the assault on the city, getting ambushed at a bridge over the Irpin river. Reportedly of the 80 SBOR and OMON officers in the convoy, only 3 survived.


title: SOBR

text: Every SOBR unit has an individual character. According to National Interest, the level of equipment of a SOBR team depends on the level of wealth of the relevant region.


title: Tarkan (singer)

text: Tarkan Tevetoğlu (; born 17 October 1972) is a Turkish singer-songwriter. Since the early 1990s, with the successful sales of his albums, he has been a prominent figure of pop music, recognized in Turkey and worldwide.


title: Tarkan (singer)

text: Tarkan was born and raised in Alzey, Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1986, he moved to Turkey together with his family. Tarkan, who had been interested in music since his childhood, went to high school at Karamürsel and took music lessons. In the following years, he met the owner of İstanbul Plak, Mehmet Söğütoğlu, and signed a contract to release his own album.


title: Tarkan (singer)

text: Tarkan released his first album "Yine Sensiz" in late 1992 with "Kıl Oldum" being chosen as its lead single. His second and third albums, "Aacayipsin" and "Ölürüm Sana", were released in 1994 and 1998 respectively. The song "Şımarık" from "Ölürüm Sana" became popular in a number of countries. In 1998, he signed a new contract with Universal Music Group. In 1999, his compilation album, "Tarkan", received platinum and gold certifications in several countries. In 2001, he made music videos for the songs "Kuzu Kuzu, "Hüp" and "Verme" from his fourth studio album "Karma". Two years later, extended play "Dudu" performed well on the sales charts, and in 2006 with the release of his first English album, "Come Closer", he became known in Europe. "Bounce" and "Start the Fire" were the lead singles of this album. The lyrics of the songs included in the album "Metamorfoz" were praised by the Turkish Language Association. In 2010, his seventh studio album, "Adımı Kalbine Yaz", became the best-selling album of the year in Turkey. In 2016, his ninth album, "Ahde Vefa", which has a Classical Turkish theme, was released.


title: Tarkan (singer)

text: Alongside his music career, Tarkan has taken part in numerous social projects and is known as "Megastar" and "Prince of the Bosporus" in the press. One of few European singers who has managed to span chart success without singing in English, he is also noted for his live stage performances. Tarkan's effect on Turkey has been compared by the "Washington Post" to that of Elvis Presley in the US around 1957 and Atlantic Records's co-founder Ahmet Ertegun described him as one of the best live performers he had ever seen. He has also been listed by Rhapsody as a key artist in the history of European pop music, with his signature song "Şımarık" as a keystone track that moved the genre forward. His albums have sold over 15 million copies. Throughout his career, he has won four Turkey Music Awards, six Golden Butterfly Awards and one World Music Award and has received various nominations.


title: Tarkan (singer)

text: Tarkan Tevetoğlu was born on 17 October 1972 in Alzey, West Germany, to Neşe and Ali Tevetoğlu. His mother named him after the comic book character Tarkan. The name Tarkan is said to originate from an ancient Turkic king or title, meaning bold and strong. Tarkan's interest in music began in childhood. Tarkan and his five siblings moved to Turkey in 1986 with their parents settled in Karamürsel, Kocaeli. After his father's death, his mother married an architect, Seyhun Kahraman. Tarkan has three step-siblings named Adnan, Gülay and Nuray, from his mother's first marriage, and a brother, Hakan, and a younger sister, Handan, from her marriage to his father.


title: Tarkan (singer)

text: Tarkan started his high school there and took Turkish Art and Music lessons at the Karamürsel Advanced Music Association. After his family moved to Istanbul, he continued his music studies at the Uskudar Music Society and started performing at various venues. After finishing high school, he made plans to move to Germany for higher education and meanwhile he signed a contract with İstanbul Plak's owner Mehmet Söğütoğlu to release his first album.


title: Tarkan (singer)

text: Tarkan's first album, "Yine Sensiz", was released on cassettes by İstanbul Plak on 26 December 1992. He wrote the lyrics for three of the album's songs, and composed three other songs himself and chose "Kıl Oldum" to be its lead single. On 18 June 1993, three new versions of the album were released on CD. Alongside "Kıl Oldum", he made music videos for the songs "Kimdi", "Gelip de Halimi Gördün mü?", "Vazgeçemem" and "Çok Ararsın Beni". The album sold 700,000 copies in total. Wrote one critic: "It happened maybe for the first time in the world of [Turkish] music, that "slang" words were used in songs and the brave young man began to draw attention as much with his songs as with his green eyes."


title: Tarkan (singer)

text: In May 1994, his second studio album "Aacayipsin" was released in Turkey; it was subsequently released in Germany and Russia in 1996 and 1998 respectively. Artists Sezen Aksu, Ümit Sayın, Ozan Çolakoğlu and Yıldız Tilbe were among those who were featured on the album. Tarkan wrote the lyrics for four songs, three of which were also composed by him; "Hepsi Senin mi?", "Unutmamalı", "Gül Döktüm Yollarına", "Kış Güneşi", "Şeytan Azapta", "Dön Bebeğim" and "Bekle" were the songs that got separate music videos. "Aacayipsin" sold two and a half million copies and earned Tarkan the "Best Male Pop Music Artist" award at the Turkey Music Awards. The song "Hepsi Senin mi?" was also awarded with the "Best Lyrics", "Best Composition" and "Best Song" awards.


title: Tarkan (singer)

text: In 1994, he experienced a dip in his celebrity status after he made a gaffe during an interview on a live broadcast marking the anniversary of the private Turkish TV channel ATV. When asked how he was on live television, his response was "Çişim var, ağabey." ("I've gotta pee, man.") He was publicly criticised for the comment and only after performing traditional songs on another TV special did he endear himself again to the nation. In part to remove himself from media scrutiny, Tarkan moved to New York in 1994 to learn English and complete his education at Baruch College. During this period he filmed a video to another song from his second album, "Dön Bebeğim", in New York. Again Tarkan stripped for this project, but this time he was sharing a bed with a female American model for the slow love song. While in the United States, he met the Turkish founder of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun. Tarkan has described Ertegun as his mentor in music and business. Ertegun, who died in December 2006, had long been preparing Tarkan for an American career.