The 15 July 2016 coup d'état (Turkish: 15 Temmuz darbe girişimi) was attempted in Turkey against state institutions, including the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The attempt was carried out by a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces that organized themselves as the Peace at Home Council. They attempted to seize control of several key places in Ankara, Istanbul, Marmaris and elsewhere, but failed to do so after forces loyal to the state defeated them. The Council cited an erosion of secularism, elimination of democratic rule, disregard for human rights, and Turkey's loss of...

Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (born 27 April 1941) is a Turkish Islamic scholar, preacher, and a one-time opinion leader (as de facto leader of the Gülen movement: an international, faith-based civil society organization once aligned with Turkey's government, but since then outlawed as an alleged "armed terrorist group"). Gülen is designated an influential Ottomanist, Anatolian panethnicist, Islamic poet, writer, social critic, and activist–dissident developing a Nursian theological perspective that embraces democratic modernity, as a citizen of Turkey (until his denaturalization by the government in...

The German Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code) in section § 86a outlaws "use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations" outside the contexts of "art or science, research or teaching". The law does not name the individual symbols to be outlawed, and there is no official exhaustive list. However, the law has primarily been used to outlaw Nazi, Communist, and Islamic extremist symbols. The law was adopted during the Cold War and notably affected the Communist Party of Germany, which was banned as unconstitutional in 1956, the Socialist Reich Party (banned in 1952) and several small far-right parties...

The Tolstoyan movement is a social movement based on the philosophical and religious views of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). Tolstoy's views were formed by rigorous study of the ministry of Jesus, particularly the Sermon on the Mount. Tolstoy expressed "great joy" that groups of people "have been springing up, not only in Russia but in various parts of Europe, who are in complete agreement with our views." However, the author also thought it was a mistake to create a specific movement or doctrine after him, urging individuals to listen to their own conscience rather than blindly follow...

The Betsy Ross flag is an early design of the flag of the United States, named for early American upholsterer and flag maker Betsy Ross. The pattern of the Betsy Ross flag is 13 alternating red-and-white stripes with stars in a field of blue in the upper left corner canton. Its distinguishing feature is thirteen 5-pointed stars arranged in a circle representing the 13 colonies that fought for their independence during the American Revolutionary War. == Betsy Ross story == Betsy Ross (1752–1836) was an upholsterer in Philadelphia who produced uniforms, tents, and flags for Continental forces...

The flag of Hawaii (Hawaiian: Ka Hae Hawaiʻi) has previously been used by the kingdom, protectorate, republic, and territory of Hawaii. It is the only US state flag to include a foreign country's national flag. The inclusion of the Union Jack of the United Kingdom is a mark of the British Empire's historical relations with the Hawaiian Kingdom, particularly with King Kamehameha I. The flag continued to be used after the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. == Origins == While many older Native Hawaiians prior to 1921 had erroneously believed the current flag of Hawaii was created by Captain...

Roderigue Hortalez and Company was a corporation created by Luis de Unzaga as coordinator of interests of Spain and France in may of 1775 in order to provide arms and financial assistance to American Revolutionaries in anticipation of the American Revolutionary War against Britain. The ruse was organized by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, a French playwright, watch-maker, inventor, musician, politician, fugitive, spy, publisher, arms-dealer, and revolutionary. Weapons and materials were procured to help the Americans fight the British, enemies of France at the time, through the corporation...

Lèse-majesté ( or ), a French term meaning "to do wrong to majesty", is an offence against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state. This behaviour was first classified as a criminal offence against the dignity of the Roman Republic of ancient Rome. In the Dominate, or Late Empire period, the emperors eliminated the republican trappings of their predecessors and began to equate the state with themselves. Although legally the princeps civitatis (his official title, meaning, roughly, 'first citizen') could never become a sovereign because the republic was never officially abolished...