NationStates Jolt Archive

Background

It has been the sixth year of the cession of New Mycenaea, or as they call it today, Tanziden Province. After all, it was hardly unexpected. When revolution broke down the foundations of the Mycenaean Empire on the other side of the globe, could they expect to hold onto their crown colonial jewel? Especially if that jewel was surrounded on three sides by a considerably larger nation with a long historical claim on that jewel. The invasion was swift and quick. An abandoned, undermanned, and surrounded colonial army supplemented by poorly trained local militias would have no chance against the brute firepower of the Imperial Tartar Army. The Seven Days War was brutal but quick.

Six years later, though not an official language, the Mycenaeans still speak their language everywhere secretly among themselves. Tartar immigrants, many ironically not actually ethnically Altaic, have formed a small but overwhelmingly socially dominant minority in Tanziden. On the other hand, several Mycenaeans have gotten jobs in other places in Tartarystan, with many large Tartar cities holding tiny Mycenaen minority communities. In the heartland and former capital of Tanziden, Acherusia (now called Harkert), revolutionary fervor is on the bubbling point. Fear in Tartarystan proper has precipitated the overwhelming victory of the ironically hawkish Social Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the students at the University of Acherusia have been flirting with strange ideas...

The University of Acherusia was one of the few universities in New Mycenae to survive the initial invasion as due Mycanean universities often did make excellent forts. School was clearly not in session. Like New Mycenae, the universities in it were overwhelmingly Mycenaen in the face of the fact that the Imperial government was reluctant to admit Mycenaen students. A few students blew in a traditional folk instrument, the conch, which made an oddly effective sound to coordinate the protest. Most of the protestors didn't even remember the original reason that sparked it. Something to do with language disputes or something. Regardless of why, all had an axe to grind with the Imperial Tartar Government.

~~~

"Has anyone ever mentioned how horribly ugly that flag is?"

Mehmet pointed his only free hand at the flag several of the protesters were hoisting. His other hand was gripping a hot dog. The image of a blue cross splattered over a white screen was being waved across the crowd. A few large flags dominated the landscape with several protesters carrying small ones. Yechiel leaned back against an APC while looking at the protesters.

"Don't even remind me of that thing."

Yechiel was also eating a hot dog he highly valued. He had fought tooth and nail through the line at the local gendarmerie station to get their last kosher hot dog.

The blockade was probably a bit too much, but everyone knew the government was paranoid about the Mycenaens. Yechiel stuffed the rest of his hot dog in his mouth. It was the third and last one he had purchased. But enough about his hot dogs.

"I can't stand the damn weather."

Yechiel wiped sweat from his forehead. It was ungodly hot in Acherusia. Well, only hot by Tartar standards. The rest of Tartarystan was notorious chilly, New Mycenae, on the southwestern coast, was one of the very few places that ever became warm during any time of the year with the exception of Tartar corridor. It wasn't even that warm, but he was wearing a lot and rather used to cold weather. The fact that he was noticeably darker-skinned than the other gendarmes did not change anything.

With his lunch break over, Yechiel sighed and hauled his body up at the blockade. A few gendarmes appeared rather twitchy. Two even had their assault rifles propped up against the barricade. Yechiel stood while fantasizing of more food while the protesters marched around. A glint caught his eye. A stocky young man with short blonde hair was gripping a molotov cocktail. A twitchy gendarme went to work.

Yechiel was sitting down on the side of the APC in the nice shade. A sliver of smoke was leaking out of the grenade launcher mounted on a gendarme's assault rifle. A clinking sound was heard as the grenade skipped across the ground. The woman barely lit it before it exploded. Yechiel heard the sounds of shrapnel ripping through flesh being interspersed with screams. Gunfire erupted as panicked gendarmes pressed down on their trigger fingers. Bullets tore through the front of the huge crowd. There were tens of thousands of protesters throughout the entire city, this incident at this one barricade was sure to cause a ruckus. Some fell, some ran away, but many others did what any reasonable person would do. Rush the barricade. Molotov cocktails flew and smashed over the barricade. Several gendarmes pulled away as they fired their last burst into the crowd. All the ammunition they held in their magazine couldn't stop the crowd. Panicked gendarmes tried to frantically reload their rifles as a few others started to fire more bursts.

Yechiel didn't even want to fire, but did he even have a choice? He trained his cursors on the nearest target, what appeared to be a teenage girl about forty feet away. The burst knocked her down. He fired a single shot to hit the chest of another target, knocking her down as well. He fired a rather unrestrained burst at another crowd knocking down two men in one burst. A soldier next him frantically set up a machine gun. Yechiel blindly fired more shots into the crowd. It was impossible to miss, every shot fired ended up hitting someone. Another soldier ran to feed the belt to the machine gun. The sound of a buzzsaw rang out as the bullets raked into the crowd, dropping hordes of protesters to the bloody asphalt. Even the magnificent firepower of the machine gun did not keep the crowd back. And after Yechiel put his fourth magazine into the assault rifle, the machine gun fire stopped. The barrel had melted.

The operators of the machine gun abandoned it as Yechiel and the other gendarmes backed away. There were angry people as far as the eye could see. Yechiel lobbed his grenade into the air and watched as it smashed into the middle of the ground with likely devastating effects. He was short on ammunition and sweared as he reloaded and put in his fifth magazine. His pouch only had two more magazines. After using the next magazine with ineffective results, he started backing away even faster. The Nammer APC behind Yechiel was firing its machine guns nonstop. Yechiel quickly piled into the APC as it backed away, firing its machine guns into the crowd with more devastating effect. A bullet whizzed and smashed into the side of the APC.

"Guns? What the hell? They must have stolen a police arsenal..."

As Mycenaens were not allowed to own guns, it was a logical conclusion. Other gendarmes, including an Ali holding his bloody right arm, piled into the APC. He heard the radio and the driver of the APC screaming at each other. Yechiel could figure out what was going. The city had erupted in violence. The massacre of the students sparked a huge revolt. Maybe even a revolution. Some of these militants appeared to be well organized and lead. There were underground groups, but never had they launched such a revolt. Other posts and barricades were being overrun. With many squads also in full retreat, Yechiel speculated that they were abandoning the entire town. The APC went through the streets firing at anything that moved. Though there was no window to the outside, Yechiel was near the driver's seat and could see the screens where the displays of the cameras were put. Civilians and militants were gunned down together by the powerful cannons of the Nammer. Yechiel winced every time they passed a dead Tartar policeman or a flaming police car. He was amazed to see a dead soldier near an abandoned barricade, with his equipment unceremoniously looted by the Mycaneans. The Nammer was headed on a course out of the city. Yechiel was amazed by the retreat. The situation in the city must have been considerably worse than he had experienced. This would not be good news for Tartarystan. They had clearly lost this fight...

Through both television, radio, and simple distribution of paper, transmissions, pamphlets, and T.V. segments rapidly flew across the world. From a television station in New Mycenae, the first communication out of Acherusia since the Acherusian massacre, four hours after, erupts out of the befuddled city. Several major news corporations around the world quickly rebroadcast it.

The Unilateral Declaration of Thulian Independence
Thulian Ministry for Popular Enlightenment

In the name of the people of Thule (New Mycenae) and the divine Pantheon, we proclaim the freedom and liberty of Thule.

The history of the Emperor of Tartarystan and his imperialist minions has been one of consistent tyranny, oppression, and misery.

He has made into second-class citizens by being barred from social services.

He has cruelly banned the usage of our beautiful language.

He has refused to allow the Thulian people democratic representation.

He has mandated the cruel massacre of brave outspoken Thulians.

He has murdered our democratically elected representatives.

He has presided over a systematic rape of our land, wealth, people, and nation.

He has been extorting unfair, unequal, and excessive taxes on our people alone.

He has barred our children from education, entertainment, and their futures.

He has given the military free reign to victimize our people with anything they please.

He has enslaved us with nothing but the sharp point of the bayonet in the back of our necks.

He has forced us into slums, ghettos, and camps as he sent his minions to lord over us in our homelands.

He has tortured our innocent brethren, stolen our land, and murdered our people.

He has propagated a reign over our fair nation with nothing but murderous intent and limitless greed.

We, the elected representatives of the Thulian people in the Ekklesia, do so in the name of the Thulian nation, ratify the the establishment of an independent Thulian republic and pledge ourselves to ensure the occurence of this event at all costs.

We declare the right of the Thulian people to the ownership of Thule and to their own lives. Our collective faces have been stomped on by the Tartar boot and our people oppressed by the Tartar imperialist yoke for far too long. The Thulian Republic is entitled and claims the allegiance of every last Thulian, and the support of any freedom-loving citizen of the world. The destiny of Thule, to ascend to the community of nations of the world will be achieved with any sacrifice, labor, and valor required.

Signed,
Dimitrios Morakis
Elias Nanons
Evangelos Pagalis
Gerasimos Ninis
Greogios Nikolopoulos
Spyro Persakis
Pantheras Gouskos
Silvanus Iatridis
Nikolaos Galis
Panagiotis Baev
Constantine Bourbos
Iason Damaskos

So it's probably a good idea to give a run-down on everything to make sure there's no more confusion.

For quite some time, New Mycenae, often called Thule by its inhabitants, was once a major colony of the Mycenaen Empire. Though it was far away from Mycenae itself, it was almost completely Mycenaen due to mass immigration to what was at the time an uninhabited portion of the continent. The Mycenaen Empire often had heavily strained relationships with Tartarystan. Though the two states had many border skirmishes, it was never able to break out into all out war.

The Tartar were in the continent they lend their name, Tartary, since 1299. The Grand Emirate of Tartarystan was one of the many fragmented states on premodern Tartary. Originally founded as a union between two smaller states...it was still small. Until 1453, politics of Tartary were dominated by Akhanda Empire. Religious conflict between Buddhism and Hinduism, not to mention widespread corruption and ethnic strife within the Akhanda Empire lead to its decline. In its attempt to extend power throughout the entire continent, the Akhanda Empire met resistance from various small states, one example being Tartarystan. In 1453, the Akhanda Empire fractured after the famous Battle of Valapanurna.

The Battle of Valapanurna, 340,000 Akhandan troops attempted to sally out and strike at a combined force of 180,000 coalition soldiers. Akhandan troops attempted to encircle the right side of the coalition army but was repelled with horrendous losses as the Tartar army unleashed a wall of cannon fire onto the unexpecting Akhandan army. Akhandan troops took heavy losses from arrow fire but were able to smash the side of their army into the left flank of the Coalition army. After a bloody fight, large portions of the coalition army were sent into retreat. Akhandan troops quickly pursued. Routing coalition troops ran toward the the right flank of the army as the vast majority of Akhandan troops had shifted their momentum to the right. In what become a famous move, the commander of Tartar forces, Ulonge Pasha, ordered his cannons to fire at the Akhandan army through routing elements of the armies of Tartarystan's allies. Cannons mowed down huge numbers of fleeing allies and even larger numbers of pursuing Akhandans. Allied troops quickly started running the other way, straight into the rest of the Akhandan army. More cannon fire tore apart the both armies. Violent cavalry charges finally broke and routed the Akhandan troops. At the end of the day, 135,000 Allied troops had fallen, including 3,200 Tartars, and and 205,000 Akhandan troops.

The Akhandan Empire quickly broke apart due to infighting after the infamous battle that smashed its army and livelihood. Tartarystan seized control of the capital but the vast majority of the Akhandan kingdom went to various successor states as well as the new rising empire, the Tianxian Empire. After the enlargement of the Tartar state, Tartarystan rejected the old system of royalty based on the rest of the island and adopted a more unique system. The Sublime Tartar State was declared in 1453. Tartar and Tianxian troops harrassed one another until the Tianxian Empire fragmented from a succession issue in the 1652. After the complete devastation of the former Tianxian Empire. Tartar troops marched into former territories of the Tianxian empire and brutally crushed what was left of Sinic power. The Most Serene and Holy Altaic Empire of Tartarystan. Though the culturally distinct residents of the Tianxian and Akhandan empire were ruled over by the Tartar crown, through a combination of deportation, emigration, murder, massacre, genocide, and in the early twenties, mass sterilization, had dropped those populations by a huge number to what is today effectively...nothing.

Eventually, through overwhelming technological superiority and strength of arms, Tartarystan had quickly conquered the majority of the continent. The only exceptions included the Kalrat Khanate, the Kingdom of Kastropolis, and New Mycenae. With the collapse of the Mycenean Empire
from internal revolution in the mainland, Tartarystan used this opportunity to invade New Mycenae. The Kingdom of Kastropolis has historically had extremely poor relations with the Kalrat Khanate and the Holy Altaic Empire. The Kingdom of Kastropolis is notorious for the fact that they still retain slavery. Hatred is often directed toward the Kalrat Khanate simply because the slaves in Kastropolis, though barely over ten percent of the population, are of the same ethnicity and language as the members of Kalrat. In addition, much sympathy lies toward the Thulians in Kastropolis because of the ethnic and cultural ties between Kastropolians and Thulians. (They're almost identical.) The only difference is religion. In both Thule and Kastropolis, the primary religion is Greek Pantheonism.

The Kingdom of Kastropolis is on the Southeast side of the continent of Tartary while Thule is on the Southwestern part. A tiny strip of land known as the Tartar corridor lies between the Kingdom of Kastropolis and Thule. The Kalrat Khanate lies just to the north of Kastropolis. The Tartar corridor is absolutely vital to the Tartar Empire because it holds Mukkert, their only warm-water port and one of their richest cities.

The Most Serene and Holy Altaic Empire of Tartarystan, though with a generally high standard of human rights, is accused of having those standards only apply to ethnic Altaic citizens and the only minority that seems to escape virulent discrimination(likely due to widespread integration), the Semites. International human rights organization often lament of the standards of human rights in Thule where Thulians are regularly executed extrajudicially, victimized, and deprived of rights guaranteed to "Altaic citizens" of which Thulians are not considered. The Secret State Police of Tartarystan regularly harasses, tortures, and murders Thulian citizens. Thulians face institutional discrimination wherever they go. Gendarme units regularly make reprisal attacks on schools, hospitals, and other civilians in response to anti-Tartar violence. Because of the horrible conditions and also the fact that the Thulians are often considered of the embodiment of classical Greek antiquity, they have attracted sympathy across the world. Student protests, disinvestment campaigns, and grassroots campaigns across the world have done...nothing. Tartarystan has yet to have been censured by any other countries.

Though resistance is often followed by bloody reprisals, such as the infamous hundred for one order where six thousand Thulian schoolchildren were shot in the response for a bombing that killed 25 soldiers and wounded 70, various underground resistance groups have tried attempts to unify these resistance group and throw out the Tartars. And it seems...perhaps that day may have come...

As he sat in his office, with dim light breaking through the window, Erikk Svalbard pondered the situation in Thule. He wondered, how could Logan and Ky assist in freeing these opressed people? Svalbard greatly admired the ancient greeks and their culture, and he believed that the Thulians were their decendants. He could not stand to see this intelligent race of people oppressed by these brutish overlords; and being an interventionist, he intended to act on it...

3 weeks later

As the last of the ships was loaded up, Erikk grimaced, he hoped this would work. He intended to send aid to Thule, and since the Tartar Empire was between them, he had to go around. A convoy of ships was taking off from Logan and Ky's main port, New Hilingrad. They were carrying thousands of weapons, tanks, aircraft, whatever could be used in defending Thule. The ships were mainly trading vessels, as they could carry more supplies than a war ship. However, the vessels were heavily protected, in the form of 2 Iowa Class Battleships, 2 Emporer Class Battlecruisers, and 6 Sovremenny class Destroyers protecting them from any attack. Although an attack was not suspected, as the ships would only have to enter Tartar waters once, for a hundred miles or so. Also, as far as the outside world knew, those ships were carrying candy bars, the war ships were just a precaution.