Sohar

Republic of Sohar Rahelian: جمهورية صحار
Flag Emblem
Motto:  العدل والوئام والازدهار Justice, Harmony, Prosperity
Anthem:  أغنية لوطننا Song to Our Homeland
Capital and largest city	Sanafir
Official languages	Rahelian
Ethnic groups (2019)	Rahelian (60%) Amazigh (26%) Anniserian (8%) Atudite (5%) Other (1%)
Religion (2019)	Irfan (95%) Atudism (4%) Other (1%)
Demonym(s)	Soharan
Government	Unitary dominant-party semi-presidential republic
• President	Umar al-Abadi
• Premier	Asmar al-Kaba
Legislature	Parliament
• Upper house	People's Council
• Lower house	National Assembly
Establishment
• Independence from Estmere	9 September 1948
• Admission to the Community of Nations	14 October 1953
• Current Constitution	15 June 1985
Area
• Total	1,534,132.2 km2 (592,331.8 sq mi)
• Water (%)	1.2%
Population
• 2021 estimate	40,159,042
• 2019 census	38,753,475
• Density	26.2/km2 (67.9/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2021 estimate
• Total	$596 billion
• Per capita	$14,864
GDP (nominal)	2020 estimate
• Total	$164 billion
• Per capita	$4,103
Gini (2018)	32.4 medium
HDI (2019)	0.728 high
Currency	Soharan Dinar (SHD)
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy (AD)
Driving side	left
Calling code	+103
Internet TLD	.sh

Sohar (Rahelian: صحار), officially the Republic of Sohar (Rahelian: جمهورية صحار), is a country on the Erythrean Coast of northern Rahelia With a population of over 40 million as of 2021, it is the 15th most populous nation in Coius. Located close to the border between Rahelia and Bahia, it is the northernmost nation on the Coian mainland, and is bordered by the Gulf of Assonaire to the north, Nise and Tsabara to the southwest, Behera to the south, and xx to the east.

Sohar was one of the first areas in Rahelia to be inhabited by humans, with the earliest human settlements in the region dating back to the Neolithic. The earliest inhabitants of the region were Amazighs who settled in the interior, while Demiscians began to establish city-states on the coast of Sohar in the 1100s BCE. The most powerful of these city-states was Ahiram, which emerged as a major mercantile and naval power, dominating trade in the Gulf of Assonaire. Beginning in the third century BCE, Irfan began to spread into the region, culminating in the destruction of Ahiram by the Second Heavenly Dominion in 103 CE. As the Second Heavenly Dominion's influence in Sohar began to wane in the 10th century, Amazigh leaders in the interior began to increase theirs. By the 1000s, Sohar was dominated by two large Amazigh states: the Ammarid Dynasty in the north and the Muharamite Confederation in the south. During the Middle Ages, northern Sohar saw the rise and fall of several notable Irfanic dynasties, the most notable being the Basharids, Rahamids, and Awanites. Meanwhile, southern Sohar was dominated by Beheran states, notably the Amassinids and Usemids.

Piracy became a major problem during this time, and rampant attacks on Euclean merchant vessels and even raids on Euclean ports, culminating in the Sacking of Precea in 1803, led to the Erythraean War of 1805-1809 between the Erythrean states and an alliance of Euclean nations. This marked the beginning of Estmerish expansion into northern Rahelia, culminating in the establishment of the Protectorate of Sohar in 1903, after a failed anti-Estmere uprising resulted in Sohar being placed under direct Estmerish rule. Nationalist sentiment led Estmere to grant Sohar independence as the Sultanate of Sohar in 1948. Opposition to continued Estmerish influence in Sohar manifested itself in the form of a communist revolution in 1951. The communist government's inability to maintain stability led to a military coup led by General Mazeed el-Farran. Discontent with Farran's authoritarian rule began to grow following Sohar's defeat by Nise in the Anniserian War of 1963-1967, resulting in the 1976 coup led by the anticommunist Free Officers Movement and the establishment of a military junta headed by Ashraf el-Akbari, who ruled until his death in 1991, when he was succeeded by Umar al-Abadi. Although military rule ended in 1987, the military remains the dominant force in national politics and the country remains highly authoritarian.

Since the end of military rule in 1987 Sohar has generally been one of the more stable nations in Rahelia, despite an insurgency by the communist Soharan Democratic Liberation Front in the south of the country that has been ongoing since 1977. It is generally considered a regional power and wields considerable influence in northern Coius. The relative stability of Sohar compared to its neighbors has made it one of the most attractive destinations in Rahelia for migrants, and the ongoing Tsabaran Civil War have led to a considerable influx of refugees. While military rule officially ended in 1987 with the adoption of a new constitution the government remains highly authoritarian and dominated by a small elite composed of military leaders and allies of President Umar-al Abadi. This has led many to describe Sohar as a southern democracy or an authoritarian regime. Sohar is strongly allied with Zorasan and Shangea, and holds observer status in ROSPO. Since the discovery of oil and gas reserves in the 1920s, the Soharan economy has largely been dominated by oil and gas exports, though there have been efforts at diversification in recent years. Like all internationally recognized states, Sohar holds membership in the Community of Nations, as well as the Bank for United Development, and the Irfanic Cooperative Conference.

Geography

With an area of 1,534,132 square kilometers, Sohar is the Xth largest nation in Coius and the XXth largest nation in the world. The largest geographic feature in the country is the Adras mountain range, which dominates western Sohar, stretching northward from the Beheran border in the southwest until declining in the TBA foothills in the north. The Adras range divides Sohar into four main geographic regions: the mountains themselves, the fertile and densely populated northwestern coastal plain in the northwest, which borders the Gulf of Assonaire and is home to nearly 70% of the country’s population, the Urí Margidda Valley in the southwest near the borders with Behera, Nise, and Tsbara, and the Eastern Plains, which is hot and arid due to the rain shadow of the Adras range and is home to less than a quarter of Sohar’s population despite covering nearly four-fifths of the country’s land area.

The northwestern coastal plain has long been the core of Sohar. Stretching from the Bay of Nise in the west to the Adras mountains in the east, the region’s Solarian climate provides it with mild winters and hot summers and makes the region well-suited for large-scale agricultural operations. The TBA Islands off the north coast of Sohar are generally included in this region due to their strong cultural and geographic similarities. Eight of Sohar’s ten largest cities are located in the northwestern coastal plain, including the capital of Tarihi. Rapid urbanization in recent decades have made these cities among the fastest-growing in the world, with the Tarihi area averaging a 20% population growth rate in the decades since independence. This trend has accelerated even further due to the increasing desertification of Sohar, which has devastated the local economies of agriculture-dependent rural communities and caused growing numbers of rural Soharans to leave their homes for the cities in search of jobs.

Southwestern Sohar is dominated by the Urí Margidda Valley and the namesake river, which flows from northern Behera through western Sohar, forming much of the country’s western border before flowing into the Bay of Nise. This area was historically Sohar’s main oil-producing region, but the discovery of new deposits in the Eastern Plains have led to a decline in the region’s oil industry. Historical animosities between Nise and Sohar, as well as the region’s oil deposits in the region make southwestern Sohar one of the most politically contentious areas in northern Rahelia, and tensions between the two countries over their disputed border have resulted in multiple conflicts. Since the outbreak of the Tsabaran Civil War in 2019, an estimated XXX Tsabaran refugees have fled into Sohar, further worsening an already tense situation.

The Adras mountains are by far the most dominant geographic feature in Sohar and divide the country both climatically and culturally. Owing to the rugged terrain that is poorly suited for agriculture, the mountains are thinly populated with the exception of a handful of nomadic Amazigh tribes. In recent years, the government has promoted the mountains as a tourist destination in an attempt to diversify the national economy, and in 2004 they became home to Sohar’s first ski resort. Land travel across the mountains is difficult with the exception of a handful of mountain passes, though construction is underway on a road tunnel that will better connect east and western Sohar.

The Eastern Plains covers nearly four-fifths of Sohar’s land area, and is by far the hottest and driest region of the country. Most of the area has a hot semi-arid climate, transforming into desert in the southeast. In climate and ethnicity it is more similar to northern Behera than the rest of Sohar, and a major divide between the two regions, exemplified by the Adras mountains, has existed for millennia. The area is thinly populated and predominantly rural, with most of the population living in small farming communities, though a handful of groups still practice traditional nomadic lifestyles.

Since the 1940s, the Eastern Plains have been a hotbed of communist activity in Sohar, and the Soharan Democratic Liberation Front continues to wage an insurgency here. In the 1990s, the discovery of large oil reserves in the area allowed it to supplant the Urí Margidda Valley as Sohar’s primary oil-producing region. The rapid expansion of foreign oil companies into the region has resulted in multiple conflicts between locals and private military contractors hired by the oil firms. Climate change has created further instability in the region, with increasing water scarcity and food shortages helping to fuel conflicts and driving migration to the urbanized northwest.

Government and politics

Umar al-Abadi, President of Sohar since 1991.

Under Sohar’s constitution, the country is a unitary and multi-party presidential republic. In practice however, most government institutions have little power, which is primarily concentrated in the hands of President Umar al-Abadi and his close allies, particularly in the military. Since 2009, when Umar suffered a stroke and his health began to deteriorate, his son Amman al-Abadi has become increasingly influential in Sohar’s politics. Amman enrolled in TBA Military Academy in 2010, rapidly rising through the ranks to achieve the rank of colonel in 2015. This was quickly followed by Umar pushing several old-line military commanders into retirement and replacing them with younger officers with strong loyalties to Amman. This action was widely seen as the ailing Umar preparing his son to take over as leader of the country, which was further validated in 2019 when Amman was made Minister of Defense.

The President of Sohar serves as the country’s head of state and head of government and is elected to five-year terms. The president is the commander-in-chief of the Soharan Armed Forces and appoints the members of the Council of Ministers, as well as a third of the members of the National Council. Since the 2001 constitutional reforms, there have been no term limits, and Umar al-Abadi has served continuously as President since 1991, when he was elected by Parliament to replace the late Ashraf el-Akbari. Since then, he has been re-elected six times, most recently in 2017.

Sohar has a bicameral Parliament, with the National Assembly being the lower house and the People’s Council being the upper house. The National Assembly has 291 members, elected every four years in single-member districts through a two-round system. Of the 81 members in the Peoples’ Council, 54 are directly elected on the same cycle as the National Assembly, with each of Sohar’s 18 provinces electing three members through block voting. The remaining 27 members are appointed by the president and serve for five-year terms which coincide with the presidential term. In the most recent legislative elections, held in 2019, the National Preservation Party, which has governed Sohar continuously since its formation in 1992, won 241 of the 291 seats in the National Assembly and 50 of the 54 elected seats in the Peoples’ Council. In practice, Parliament is little more than a rubber stamp, with the vast majority of political power being vested in the president and the military.

Elections in Sohar are widely regarded as neither free nor fair. The most recent nationwide election in 2019 was condemned by the International Council for Democracy as “fraudulent on every level,” with widespread reports of intimidation and harassment of opposition candidates, vote buying, and ballot stuffing. The widespread fraud by the ruling National Preservation Party was a major factor in the 2019-20 Soharan protests. Presidential elections are even less fair, with President Umar al-Abadi winning six consecutive elections since 1992, each with over 90% of the vote. Due to little confidence in the conduct of elections by Soharan citizens, voter turnout is very low, usually around 40%.

Human rights

Main article: Human rights in Sohar

Sohar's human rights record has long been a source of domestic and international criticism. While human rights are guaranteed by the Constitution of Sohar and the country is a signitary to the Declaration of Universal Natural Rights, these rights are frequently ignored in practice. Soharan law prohibits public criticism of the president, and critics of the government are frequently subject to harassment, imprisonment, and in some cases forced disappearance and torture. In 2018 President Umar al-Abadi signed a bill that criminalized the "use of technology to spread misinformation" which has been frequently used to hand out prison sentences as long as 10 years to Soharans criticizing the government on social media. Freedom of the press is similarly limited, with most major media outlets being owned either by the government or by close allies of Umar. Beginning in the 2010s, internet censorship has become increasingly pervasive, with international media outlets such as the Coian Monitor and Le Monde, as while as social media outlets like Chirpr being subject to intermittent blocking.

Only Irfan, Sotirianity, and Atudism are recognized as official religions by the Soharan government. Followers of other religions and nonbelievers are subject to widespread discrimination at every level, with public expression of atheism notably being banned under anti-blasphemy laws. Homosexuality is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and LGBT Soharans are often subject to extrajudicial punishment by vigilante groups.

Administrative divisions

Sohar is divided into eighteen administrative provinces. Two of the provinces, the capital of Tarihi and the city of el-Alamiya are designated as "metropolitan provinces," though there is no legal distinction. Each province is administered by a governor appointed by the President, and by a directly elected provincial council. Provinces are divided into urban and rural districts; rural districts are divided into villages and some of the larger urban districts are divided into wards. The two metropolitan provinces are not divided into districts, only into wards.

Map	Province	Capital	Population
Almina Balat Benha El Sahil Faraskur Ganoubi Gamasa Helwan Kerdasa Lahun Masra Mashtul Menouf Naqada Qaha Sanafir Tirsa Saqultah Tsabara Behera Nise Gulf of Assonaire	Almina Metropolitan Province		TBA
	Balat	El Qasr	TBA
	Benha	Benha	TBA
	El Sahil	Belqas	TBA
	Faraskur	Faraskur	TBA
	Ganoubi	El Marj	TBA
	Gamasa	Gamasa	TBA
	Helwan	Helwan	TBA
	Kerdasa	Kerdasa	TBA
	Lahun	El Lahun	TBA
	Masra	Dishna	TBA
	Mashtul	Mashtul	TBA
	Menouf	Menouf	TBA
	Naqada	Naqada	TBA
	Qaha	Qaha	TBA
	Sanafir Metropolitan Province		TBA
	Tirsa	Basyoun	TBA
	Urì Margidda	Saqultah	TBA