User:Tranvea/Sandbox Misc

Normalisation Modernisation and Harmony Campaign
Part of Zorasani Unification, Rahelian War, Irvadistan War
From top-left clockwise: A resettlement camp in Khazestan (1956); Togotis being transported by train to Lake Zindarud; Rahelian tribal leaders before a firing squad (1979); the destruction of the Great Zohist Monument in southern Pardaran (1982); Construction of one of many factories in new industrial cities
Location	Union of Khazestan and Pardaran, Zorasan
Date	1951-1988
Target	Political opponents, Gâvmêšân, ethnic minorities, and occupied territory citizens
Attack type	population transfer, ethnic cleansing, forced labor, genocide, classicide,
Deaths	980,000-3,980,000
Perpetrators	Zorasani Revolutionary Army, UCF
Motive	Modernisation, industrialisation, urbanisation and internal stability

The Modernisation and Harmony Campaign (Pasdani: کرزیر نوژزه و توفیق; Kârzâr-e Nojāze va Tavāfogh; Rahelian: حملة التحديث والانسجام; Ḥamlat Taḥdīṯ al-Insijām) was a thirty-seven year state campaign conducted between 1951 and 1988 by the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran, and its successor state, the Union of Zorasani Irfanic Republics, aimed at stabilising and modernising the country. It ran from the beginning of Zorasani Unification and eight years after its completion, and involved the forced relocation of ethnic minorities, ethnic cleansing, cultural genocide, rapid industrialisation, urbanisation and classicide. Between 1950 and 1988, an estimated 16.4 million people were relocated from their homes to different regions of the country, of these, roughly 8.2 million were forced to live in new industrial cities and new agricultural lands, while numerous cultural norms and systems were dismantled, including Rahelian tribes, nomadism and the repression of minority religions. By its end, between 980,000-3,980,000 people were killed directly or indirectly during the campaign, urbanisation rose from 15% to 64% by 1988 and Zorasan emerged as one of the most industrialised countries in Coius.

The Modernity and Harmony Campaign was devised by the government of Mahrdad Ali Sattari during the late stages of the Pardarian Civil War as a means of rapidly modernising the nation, to prevent the return of the colonial powers and to provide the state with the economic and industrial base from which it could militarily achieve unification. Sattari and his inner-circle identified a variety of "obstinate elements" of Zorasani society and culture that held the nation back from modernising into an economic and political powerhouse, this included certain ethnic minorities, the Rahelian tribal system, Steppe nomadism, wealthy landowners and their political opponents. The ruling ideology Sattarism, included a focus upon what it termed "modernity" (Ḥadāṯa), this was an all-encompassing term denoting the necessary adoption of technology, science and industry as well as the corresponding social changes needed to achieve "modernity." Sattarism also blamed these "obstinate elements" for the Etrurian conquest of Zorasan and Euclean domination, and would need to be destroyed to avoid a repeat. The targetting of ethnic and religious minorities for relocation was justified under claims that these "strategically placed peoples" would be most resilient to unification and adoption of a unifying Zorasani culture and indentity, therefore their homelands or areas of concentration would need to be broken up. The primary targets for relocation were Togotis, Kexri, Chanwans, Yesienians and adherents of Badi, in most cases hundreds of thousands were displaced and their former homes resettled by either Pardarians or Rahelians as a means of diminishing their concentration within geographical areas. Those displaced were re-setteled thousands of kilometres away, in either pre-built housing districts around new agricultural lands or industrial cities, or in some cases, forced to construct their homes from scratch in isolated areas. From 1958 to 1981, the campaign targetted perceived enemies of both the state and the campaign itself, who the government dubbed Gâvmêšân (Pasdani for Buffalo, in apparent reference to their "stubborness"), this group included tribal leaders, critics of the Sattarist state, socialists, wealthy peasants and shepards, monarchists and those related to the Pardarian, Khazi and the northern Rahelian royal families; the latter targeted mostly during the Rahelian War.

The campaign began to drawdown by 1985 and was officially dissolved in 1988 by order of the Central Command Council, which proclaimed the Union of Zorasani Irfanic Republics, "unified, stabilised and introduced to social harmony." While the campaign delivered rapid urbanisation, industrialisation and modern technologies, it also significantly disrupted the lives of millions, who were evicted and transported away from their communities or places of birth. The attacks on cultural uniqueness of the various minorities has led many to accuse the campaign to have engaged in cultural genocide, while the cost in lives from both direct violence and indirectly through resettlement has led others to describe a viable case of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The replacement of resetteled minorities by Pardarians and Rahelians also draws much continued condemnation. Today, it is a criminal offence in Zorasan to refer to the campaign as a crime against humanity.

Background

Sattarism and Modernity

The overriding origin of the entire campaign was the ideological influence of National Renovationism. Developed during the Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command’s period of exile in northern Shangea, it adopted what Akbar Salami describes as the “Cult of Science and Industry”, which in turn was conceptualised as “Hadatha” (حداثة) – a Rahelian word meaning ‘newness’ or ‘modernity.’ Hadatha and its ‘Cult of Science and Industry’ would encapsulate the National Renovationist view that the more industrialised and technologically advanced a country was, the more powerful it was compared to others. Modernity, therefore, was written as a reaction to the Etrurian conquest of Zorasan – Etruria was more industrialised and advanced compared to the Gorsanid Empire, which in turn was condemned as backward, sentimental and too de-centralised to confront or defeat the encroaching colonial powers. If Pardaran, and later Zorasan, was to survive a return of colonialism, it would need to rapidly industrialise and modernise to reduce the gap in national power. From Modernity or Hadatha, would spring forth all subsequent actions and plans of the Campaign, including the eradication of agrarian ways of life, nomadism, tribalism and in the extreme, select minorities deemed to be a threat to modernisation or societal cohesion.

Akbar Salami, a leading historian on the Campaign explains that the desire for modernity would require a complete transformation of society, from an agrarian one culturally and societally wedded to the soil, into an urban and industrial one. This he believes, explains the often-violent plans to eradicate cultural norms intrinsically linked to agrarian life.

Salami and other leading researchers have also argued that this transformative campaign was also envisioned as a means of establishing a new “modern society”, implementing Ettehâd and abolishing the “old divisions and sentimentalities” that condemn Zorasan to colonial rule. Through the transformation of society and its adoption of modernity, a collectivist, totalitarian society could be constructed in which the labour and activity of all citizens is dedicated to the greater good of the state and population, and a society in which the needs of the individual are sacrificed voluntarily.

The founding of the Union of Zorasan in 1952, also influenced thinking toward the Campaign, notably, Mahrdad Ali Sattari’s repeated fears of the vast oil and gas reserves held by both Pardaran and Khazestan – he feared this would further entice Euclean powers to return, but also with some degree foresight, feared a wilful dependence on petrochemicals for state finances. He described petrochemicals on numerous occasions as the “Black Opium”, and saw industrialisation as a means of averting both scenarios. The Black Opium moniker would define Zorasani economic policy for the next 70 years to this day.