Pardarian Civil War

Pardarian Civil War
Part of Zorasani Post-War Crisis
Date 10 April 1948 - 5 August 1950 (2 years, 3 months, 26 days) Location Pardaran Result Sattarist victory Unification of Pardaran under the Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command Establishment of the Free Zorasani Republic Beginning of Zorasani Unification
Belligerents
Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command Supported by Djedet Xiaodong	Shahdom of Pardaran (1947-1949) Supported by Amardia Template:Country data Estmere	Rasfanjani Clique Shamshiri Clique Republic of Ashkezar Local walords and bandits
Commanders and leaders
Mahrdad Ali Sattari Farhad Mirza Navzar Ali Husseini Abdullah Al-Tawani Yazdandad Jandhari	Ahmad Reza Shah  † Gholamali Beheshti Mohammad Shahbakhti  † Eskandar Pardarani  †	Mirhussein Rasfanjani  † Rashid Ali Khan Sayeed Ashtiani Khosrow Shamshiri Farouk Mousavi Haidar Salami Murad Hosein Zand  † Ali Asghar Bhajadzadeh Mahmoud Sadr Esfahani
Strength
880,000 soldiers 400 tanks 200 aircraft	525,000 soldiers 202 tanks 98 aircraft	~200,000 soldiers ~120,000 soldiers 226,000 soldiers 100 tanks 146 aircraft ~50,000-60,000 local militia under warlords
Casualties and losses
67,583 killed 118,300 injured 4,328 missing	104,584 killed, injured or missing	80,000-90,000 killed injured or missing 25,000-40,000 killed, injured or missing 75,000-100,000 killed injured or missing 21,508 killed injured or missing
228,583 civilians killed in fighting or indirect causes 3.5 million displaced

The Pardarian Civil War (Pardarian: جنك داخلی, Jang-negee Pārdariāni; Badawiyan: الحرب الأهلية السورية‎, al-ḥarb al-ʾahlīyah as-pardarīyah) was a multifaceted civil war in Pardaran fought between the Imperial government of the Shahdom of Pardaran (SOP), the Ghowmee Tudeh Party-led Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command (PRRC) and numerous warlords lasting intermittently between 1948 and 1950. Though particular attention is paid to the period between 1948 and 1949, when the PRRC forces defeated the Shahdom of Pardaran, the war continued with the PRRC defeating opposing warlords and breakaway regions, culminating in the unification of Pardaran and the beginning of Zorasani unification, which would be completed in 1979 with the defeat of the People's Republic of Irvadistan and the establishment of the Union of Zorasani Irfanic Republics. Between ‭602,258‬ and 612,258 people were killed or injured and devastated large tracts of central and eastern Pardaran. The war saw numerous atrocities committed by both sides, though most historians apply blame to PRRC forces for the use of mass executions, torture and starvation as weapons of war.

Background

Etrurian colonialism

Prior to 1853, much of modern-day Zorasan had been ruled by the Gorsanid dynasty, a Pardaran based monarchy that up until the late 18th century had maintained Zorasan as a capable power. However, owing to entrenched traditionalist interests, repeated power struggles and unrest, the empire had steadily fallen behind its Euclean rivals. This backwardness was made apparent in the Sadavi War (1796-1798) against the First Etrurian Republic.

Following the Caltrini Restoration in 1810, the empire found itself facing renewed Etrurian aggression and the rising influence of other Euclean powers, specifically Estmere and Werania. This external pressure only deepened domestic woes, with numerous rebellions by disaffected nobles facing weak and ineffective Shahs. Over the next forty years, Zorasan would face numerous Etrurian incursions along the northern coast, with the First Etruro-Zorasani War (1832-1837) seeing the destruction of the Zorasani fleet and the ceding of virtually all Zorasani-Badawiya, alongside the port cities of Bandar Shahidi, Bandar Qassem and At-Turbah. The war further advertised the crippling weaknesses of the Zorasani state.

In 1848, Ali Ardashir became Shah and through a series of brutal purges and attacks secured unparalleled control over the imperial state. He began to seek out Euclean support in modernising Zorasan, often asking for advisers in exchange for economic concessions. In 1845, he signed the Treaty of Sabarvan with Werania, securing military advisers and weapons in exchange for access to Zorasan’s silver deposits in the south. Fearing a modernised Zorasan and oversized Weranian influence, Etruria launched the Second Etruro-Zorasani War (1846-1853).

The second war would devastate both Zorasan and Ali Ardashir personally. The Etrurians would rout his armies at every battle, inflicting heavy losses and demoralising his barely trained officers. The Etrurians continued to push toward the imperial capital at Razdavar, before ultimately besieging the city in 1852. Simultaneously, the Etrurians used money and promises of wealth to divide the Shah from his nobles, they secured a Badawiyan tribal revolt in 1849. In 1852, the Etrurians funded and supported a revolt by Qassem Shah in the north west. Both these events drew away valuable imperial forces, facing a besieged capital and a collapse in his armies morale, Shah Ali Ardashir surrendered on April 2 1853.

Partition and Etrurian rule

In wake of Zorasan’s collapse and surrender in 1853, Etruria sought to consolidate its control by partitioning the former empire. In June 1853, the defeated Shah signed the Treaty of Villa Barbarigo, formalising the Etrurian victory. Zorasani-Badawiya, alongside north-Western Zorasan were annexed directly and by 1860 had been reformed into Badawia Etruriana and Zorasan Etruriana respectively as colonial administrations. The Badawiyan tribal belt though within BE territory were granted significant levels of autonomy. Between both colonial territories, the Shahdom was continued through the newly established Shahdom of Pardaran, under Etrurian protection. The Gorsanid family were detained, with the House of Khorjandani put in power by Etruria. The Shahdom would have its foreign policy and defence managed by Etruria, with the colonial power further guaranteed exclusive economic access and large influence over its governance and administration.

Factions

Shahdom of Pardaran

On paper, the Shahdom of Pardaran was not only the most powerful state in relation to its Pardarian rivals, but one of the most powerful to emerge out of the Great and Solarian Wars period. It possessed a large field army of over 500,000 soldiers, with modern weaponry and the international backing of the Community of Nations and numerous Euclean states. The discovery of oil in the Pardarian desert in 1922 provided significant potential to the country. However, from the onset of the civil war, the Shahdom faced significant problems.

The Shah, Ahmad Reza (L) with Crown Prince Ali Reza (R) both proved highly disruptive elements to the imperial war-effort. The Shah's lengthy reign as an Etrurian puppet and his belated declaration of independence in the waning years of the Solarian War only further deepened his legitimacy crisis.

The greatest hinderance to an imperial victory and the unification of Pardaran under the Shah, was the Shah himself, but also the Shahdom as a state. Since 1860, the Shahdom had existed as an Etrurian colonial protectorate, in which the Shah swore fealty to Poveglia, in exchanged for some degree of autonomy. From 1880 onward, the Shahdom became widely derided as powerless, corrupt and inefficient. Regular Etrurian abuses would be unanswered and Pardarian economic interests were subordinate to those of Etruria. Noted historian Mohammad Nadenidinejad wrote in 1955, “the Shah to millions was a coward, a traitor and a man who valued the Etrurian more than the Pardarian. He talked patriotism, but we knew it was a lie.” In fact, the Shah's legitimacy crisis played a key role in the dismemberment of the country post-independence in 1946, seemingly lacking the authority to cement centralised control.

In comparison to the PRRC, the Imperial Officer Corps was crippled by corruption, incompetence and patronage.

Confounding the political weakness around the Shah, was his late decision to break from Etruria during the latter stages of the Solarian War. In 1945, just three months before the war's end, Ahmad Reza Shah proclaimed Pardarian independence, the forces under his command saw little resistace by Etrurian colonial forces, most of whom had been withdrawn to the Etrurian mainland. Not only did Pardarian colonial troops play a limited role on side of Etruria during the conflict, those who did see combat experience against the PRRC in the south were either later killed or incapacitated toward the war's end. The Shah's defence of the Etrurian colonial system against the PRRC resurgence during the 1940s, and then his belated separation fuelled popular opposition to his rule. Ahmad Reza was widely derided as "greedy, corrupt, shifty and inept" according to historians. This perception not only found purchase in the south, but even within his own court.

Militarily, the Shahdom on paper was at the advantage, in reality, it was poorly led and bloated with officers who secured their position through patronage over experience or ability. The most capable imperial commander, General Omid Dehghan was assassinated by a PRRC agent in December 1948, a significant blow to any "chance of imperial reorganisation." The officer corps of the Imperial Army was so poorly organised and inept, that in some cases, senior commanders were unable to differentiate between unit sizes, while one instance recorded a commander struggling to read a map of the local area. Prominent historian, George Miller wrote, "the Imperial Army was crippled from the onset by its officers, most of whom received their ranks and titles through patronage, or outright bought command positions from the imperial court. Most had never served, nor trained, they were just handed a uniform and a battalion or division."

However, arrayed against its opponents was an Imperial Army consisting of 500,000 soldiers, armed with modern weapons seized from Etruria and provided by its Euclean supporters. It also possessed up to 200 light tanks and half-tracks, the Imperial Pardarian Air Force had 95 aircraft, 50 of which were realtively modern fighters imported from Estmere.

Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command

Main article: Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command

The PRRC first emerged during the Great War as a Xiaodongese backed and supplied resistance movement against Etruria. However, many of the PRRC's officers and leading figures were involved in the earlier failed Pardarian uprising (1920-1923), led by Hussein Gholafdar. The high level of support in training, arms and political assistance, resulted in the emergence of Seven Pillars ideology. The ideology drew many components from Xiaodongese nationalist theories and traditions.

The PRRC, also called "Sattarists", "nationalists" —feared permament national fragmentation and opposed the separatist movements and Shahdom in equal measure. They were chiefly defined by their anti-monarchism, which galvanised diverse or opposed movements like leftists and democratic republicans. Their leaders had a generally more firmer ideological disposition, more combat experience and came from predominately poor backgrounds.

The flag of the Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command utilised the red-white-black colours of pan-Zorasanism and referenced the date 1312 (of the Irfanic Calendar), the year of the Khordad Rebellion.

The PRRC side included the Sattarists, but also a collection of leftist groups who aspired to emulate Swetania, anti-monarchist liberals and pro-Pan Zorasani minorities. By the end of the civil war, the PRRC would have purged most of the non-Sattarist elements operating under its military command. Virtually all groups under the PRRC had strong Irfanic convictions and supported the native Pardarian clergy, aided by the anti-clerical actions of the Shah and warlord territories. The PRRC included the majority of the Irfanic clergy and practitioners (outside of the Ashkezar region), the support of the Irfanic Kholofah would play a major role in the PRRC's victory, with Supreme Custodian Payam Ali Bandari declaring a fatwa against the opponents of the PRRC in 1947 galvinising popular support. While the PRRC would ultimately establish a nominally secular state following its victory, its ties with the clergy and the resulting religious fervour that aided PRRC forces would entrench the clergy's new influential political role post-war.

The PRRC's military forces at the start of the war were highly experienced and well motivated, though limited in firepower. Of the 150,000-200,000 soldiers it possessed in 1948, only 5,000 were armed with the latest sub-machine guns that emerged in the Great War, while the remainder were forced to rely upon aged bolt-action rifles, some dating as far back as the 1910s. The PRRC lacked significant number of artillery, having centralised its howitzers into two artillery battalions. The vast majority of artillery in use by the PRRC in the early phase of the war were limited to mortars, raging from 30mm to 80mm. The capture of the Erfanshahr Arsenal in November 1948 secured the PRRC more modern weaponry and over 300 field howitzers. Despite the lack of modern weaponry, the PRRC held a significant advantage in strategic and tactical planning and thinking, its forces were highly motivated and well-supplied with ammunition and other materiel.

Ashkezar Republic

The origins of the Ashkezar Republic lay with the multi-ethnic pro-democratic independence movement within the boundaries of the Etrurian colony of Cyracana. The Etrurian dismemberment of the Gorsanid Empire saw Cyracana emerge as the most economically developed region of Pardaran, owing to its large deposits of coal and metals. The region was also more evenly divided between the Adari, Harian and Pasdani ethnic groups. Cyracana also was notable for the more cosmopolitan approach to governing by Etrurian colonial authorities, compared to the often more racialist approach seen in other regions of Colonial Zorasan.

The city of Mazdavand, the second largest in Pardaran served as the capital of the Ashkezar Republic. It would be the final major city to fall to the PRRC during the civil war.

As the Etrurian Colonial Empire began to collapse during the later half of the Solarian War, pro-independence movements inside Cyracana rallied around the Ashkezar Free Movement, led by the poet, academic and economist, Salatyn Irevani. During the Solarian War, resistance to the continued Etrurian presence was sporadic within Ashkezar, while civil disobedience and peaceful protest grew significantly under the leadership of the AFM and Irevani.

Salatyn Irevani, a renowned poet, economist and academic led the Ashkezar Free Movement, becoming its first and only president in January 1947.

Ultimately, the final collapse of the Etrurian government in 1946 led to the declaration of an independent republic by Salatyn Irevani. Using his academic ties to Euclean countries, he succeeded in securing meetings with diplomats from the Community of Nations in order to garner international recognition. While initial responses were positive, the CN’s decision to grant Pardarian sovereignty to the Shahdom devastated Irevani and his leading associates. The collapse of the Shah’s authority and the emergence of territories to the south, led by aspiring warlords effectively guaranteed de-facto independence. Elections and a constitution were held and produced respectively by January 1 1947.

Ashkezar with Irevani as President saw an opportunity to rapidly seek out international recognition and backing to protect its nascent democratic system from the Shah, who had vowed to restore imperial control over all Pardaran on December 29. By the outbreak of civil war in 1948, the Republic had succeeded in garnering recognition some XX, XX and XX. The support of these countries was key in aiding the fledgling Ashkezar Armed Forces fending off attacks from both the Rasfanjani and Shamshiri Cliques. However, despite its best efforts, the AAF lacked sufficient talent for officers and while it possessed significant weapons and materiel from the Etrurian collapse, its soldiers were poorly trained and rarely exceeded the quality of a popular militia. During the final stages of the war, the AAF were highly motivated and resisted fiercely, it would prove unprepared and unable to resist the organised offensives by the PRRC.