History
Original Gangsters was formed in the Gothenburg suburb Bergsjön in 1993 by Denho Acar (alias "Dano" or "Djingis Khan") and two of his childhood friends. Denho Acar was born in Midyat, Turkey in 1974, to Assyrian parents, and his family moved to Bergsjön in 1985. In 2007, Denho Acar fled to the tourist resort Marmaris in Turkey since he was wanted for an arson attack against a Gothenburg café. Being a Turkish citizen, Acar is able to avoid extradition while he remains in Turkey. Acar had never received Swedish citizenship, only a residence permit, and in August 2008, it was revoked.
Turkey-based Acar remains Original Gangsters' leader in Europe, but handed over the title of as the gang's "president" in Sweden in 2008. The extent of the gang's European activities outside of Sweden, which would be what Acar leads, remains somewhat unclear.
Interviewed for a 2007 book, Acar claimed that the number of members is around 100, with an inner circle of around 30. All members are men, and the gang's members have varying ethnical backgrounds: most are from countries where there have been significant immigration to Sweden, such as Iran, Finland, Turkey (Assyrians), Latin America or the former Yugoslavia, but there are also many Swedish members.
The sign of membership is a tattoo of the gang's symbol, which has been inspired by the Assyrian flag and shows the letters "OG" in the middle of a sun.
Read more about this topic: Original Gangsters (gang)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I believe that in the history of art and of thought there has always been at every living moment of culture a “will to renewal.” This is not the prerogative of the last decade only. All history is nothing but a succession of “crises”Mof rupture, repudiation and resistance.... When there is no “crisis,” there is stagnation, petrification and death. All thought, all art is aggressive.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)