Murab Kubalt
{{Infobox militant organization
| name = Cobalt Square
| logo =
| caption =
| native_name = ⵎⵓⵔⴰⴱ ⴽⵓⴱⴰⵍⵜ
Murab Kubalt
| native_name_lang =
| other_name =
| leader = Khyar Aziouel
Amastan Elmoctar
Hrakhel Kabte
Chekkadh Amanrassa
| foundation = 2013
| dissolved = 2023
| merger =
| split =
| predecessor =
| merged =
| successor =
| country = 
Charnea
| allegiance = [[Lamine_family#Martuf_Lamine|Martuf Lamine
| motives = Establishment of a military government
| area = East Scipia
| headquarters =
| newspaper =
| ideology = Militarism
Military democracy
Charnean Nationalism
| crimes =
| attacks = Muttay Ajamhuryin
| status = Officially disbanded
| size = 28 (2013)
450 (2018)
3,300 (2023)
| revenue =
| financing =
| partof = Charnean Army
| allies =
| opponents = AKE Party
Charnean Army General Staff
| battles =
| flag =
}}
The Cobalt Square (Tamashek: ⵎⵓⵔⴰⴱ ⴽⵓⴱⴰⵍⵜ, Murab Kubalt) was a political faction of the Charnean Army seeking to establish a nationalist military government with a basis in limited democracy. The Cobalt Square was established in the wake of the Seven Day Coup and the rise of Martial Martuf Lamine in 2013 by four Colonels of the counterinsurgency forces active in the Hatheria and Deshret regions of eastern Charnea. The founders of the Cobalt Square are all combat veterans of the Ninvite War, deriving the name of their organization from Operation Cobalt Sky. The Cobalt Square faction of the army was generally supportive of the Martial's government and loyal to Martuf Lamine, while calling for a full military government with the Martial at its head and a purge of what they view as the corrupt AKE Party administration of Charnea. Martial Lamine's government in Charnea (2013-2022) utilized the Cobalt Square for its political aims but largely distanced itself from the more radical and controversial positions of the group. His death in December 2022 set the stage for a power struggle between the Cobalt Square and the moderate Alxekum faction of the Army.
The Cobalt Square has not formed any political party and has no recognized standing in the Army hierarchy, representing an informal political faction of the military. The faction is popular among the junior officers of the Army, having a strong base of support in the counterinsurgency forces fighting the Azdarin Liberation Front and other militant groups primarily in eastern Charnea, the border guard forces and the Tege expeditionary forces which saw action in the Fahrani Civil War. Cobalt Square sympathies can generally be found in those who are excluded from the system of political patronage in the Army, being passed over for promotion or otherwise facing discrimination and unfavorable treatment from superior officers.
Origins
The founders of the Cobalt Square faction are four Colonel rank officers of the Eastern Army, three of which command I Corps counterinsurgency units in Hatheria which have seen sporadic fighting in the ongoing low-intensity conflict in eastern Charnea. The fourth, Colonel Khyar Aziouel who is considered the primus inter pares of the Cobalt Square leadership, served as Martuf Lamine's deputy commanding the Tege expeditionary force in the Fahrani Civil War between 2020 and 2022 prior to which he served as the commander of the ICA border guards and desert patrol forces combatting smugglers and insurgents from 2010 to 2020. All four of the Colonels forming the informal Cobalt Square leadership council fought in the Ninvite War, after which they formed their early political connections in the Army through the veterans solidarity and mutual aid organizations which emerged after the war. While the leaders and many of the eventual membership of the group knew each other for many years, they would not openly associate as a faction of the military until after the Seven Day Coup and the successful counter-coup led by Martial Martuf Lamine and his associate General Rezkou Goma. Following the tumultuous events of the coup and counter-coup, many officers of the ICA proactively affirmed their loyalty to the Martial and his new regime while a minority of officers took this a step further and began to advocate for the Martial to reform the government apparatus and fully purge those connected to the coup as well as other corrupt elements of the Charnean power structure. This latter position crystalized around its four most vocal proponents, the Colonels Khyar Aziouel, Amastan Elmoctar, Chekkadh Amanrassa and Hrakhel Kabte, who established the Cobalt Square faction in an attempt to organize those who held this stance to exert political pressure in support of the Martial's regime and against those elements of the administration which they viewed as corrupt. This effort would not find it's way into the Martial's policies, as the de facto military dictatorship of Martuf Lamine required the support of the political elites to continue to function. The organization's open opposition to many core components of the Charnean state made them extremely unpopular and an obvious threat to the the high command, although their repugnancy to many politically important groeups made them strategically useful to the Martial's regime which regularly used the Cobalt Square as a tool to force the compliance of uncooperative factions in the Agraw.
Ideology
The leadership of the Cobalt Square were particularly inspired by the writings of Martuf Lamine, who became a well known war hero during the Ninvite War and would go on to become one of the main political philosophers of the Charnean Army. The Laminid ideology espoused in the Desert Book is strongly influenced by Martuf's time in Divine Army of the Ninety-Nine Nations, integrating elements of Sakbeist philosophy and seeking to emulate and widely implement the Divine Army's methods of integration of disparate peoples into a unified group serving a higher cause. The Laminid thought embraced by the Cobalt Square, labeled Neo-Charneanism, is related to the older nationalist currents in Charnea which promoted the abolition of the Tenerian imperialism which has governed Charnea for centuries in favor of a new Charnean nationalism which will fully integrate all ethnic and religious groups across Charnea and establish a homogenous Charnean identity. The Cobalt Square effectively emerges as a military outgrowth of Charneanism steeped in the shared experiences of the group's founders in the Ninvite War, drawing from both the Charnean nationalist ideological well as well as the Sakbeic mysticism of Laminid thought.
The keystone of the Cobalt Square's ideology is a strong opposition to the established system of political patronage prevalent in both military and civilian circles in Charnea. As with other radicals of the Charnean military of that era, the Cobalt Square viewed the General Staff and officer corps where were highly connected with the politically influential great clans of Charnea as being a corrupt and nepotistic entity which harmed the overall effectiveness of the Charnean military by breaking up its forces into various parallel organizations for reasons of political advantage, hampering the junior officers which the Square viewed as the greatest strength of the Charnean Army, and in some bases engaging in outright corrupt, embezzlement of Army funds and misuse of military resources. The Cobalt Square, however, went further than other malcontents of the Army by interpreting this problem within the military as only one facet of a deeper ill within the core of the late Charnean Empire. The Square identified the entire political-economic system built around the oligarchy of the great clans, including the political dominance of the AKE and the overbearing influence of the "big three" Charnean business conglomerates, as Charnea's most profound illness which would need to be destroyed before any of the country's many social, economic and political problems could be resolved.