Tengarian Republican Army
Tengarian Republican Army | |
---|---|
Републиканската армия на Тенгария | |
Founders | Rumen Santov Todor Stoychev Radomir Dimitrov |
Leaders | Todor Stoychev (1955-1957) Radomir Dimitrov (1957-1984) Dragan Netev (1984-2016) |
Dates of operation | 27 November 1955 - 1 November 1957 (First Phase) 1957-2016 (Second Phase) |
Split from | Tengarian National Army |
Allegiance | People's Republic of Tengaria |
Motives | Victory in Tengarian Civil War Overthrow of Kovachev Regime Liberation of Tengaria |
Headquarters | Unknown |
Active regions | Tengaria, Amathia |
Ideology | Anti-Monarchism Anti-Clericalism Socialism Political violence |
Political position | Far-Left |
Allies | Equalist Amathia (1955-1979) |
Opponents | Republic of Tengaria
|
Colours | Green and White |
The Tengarian Republican Army (Tengarian: Републиканската армия на Тенгария, also called the TRA for short) was a far-left paramilitary organization and militant group with the stated goal to liberate Tengaria from unjust oppression and tyrannical authority and to make Tengaria a socialist state. They were active during the Tengarian Civil War as a resistance movement and afterwards as a group which carried out attacks against politicians and citizens of Tengaria. It saw itself as the military force of the Republic of Tengaria and as the sole legitimate defenders of the defunct People's Republic of Tengaria from the Civil War. It was seen as the official organization of opposition against the Kovachev regime. It is officially condemned as a terrorist group by Tengaria and membership or support in the group is punishable as high treason. It is also condemned by several international authorities for its acts of violence against civilians, most infamously the 1983 St. Vasil's Cathedral Massacre and the 2015 Radev Lower School Shooting in Avren.
The Tengarian Republican Army was initially was composed formed at the beginning of the Civil War, when a large group of officers and soldiers of the Tengarian National Army went rogue at the end of November of 1955 with the declaration of the People's Republic of Tengaria in response to the election of the Restoration Party and the assassination of President Denov. Most of the men who revolted had joined the Army after the Great War and had ties to the establishment of the political parties, or were men purposely placed in the military in order to undermine the powerful hold Simeon Kovachev had over the military. After several defeats at the hand of the loyalist forces under Kovachev, the forces fled and consolidated in the Eastern regions of the country, where they had support from the Amathian Equalist Republic. They worked with the rebel government to enforce control over the region, killing political opponents and supporters of the Tengaria. Consistently outnumbered and outgunned, they never could win field engagements against the loyalist forces, and so early on began resorting to guerilla tactics and insurgency. Operatives of the TRA were responsible for the Assasination of President Radez in 1956. However, they were consistently defeated towards the end of the war, and after the collapse of the government of the People's Republic the forces were disbanded. Many fled into exile, underground, or were captured. It was responsible for the deaths of over 60,000 loyalist soliders and nearly 24,000 civilians during the course of the Civil War.
Most of the forces never regrouped, but some remnants, lead by Radomir Dimitrov fled to Amathia. They reconstituted themselves and established an underground network in order to continuing wage war against the government of Tengaria and the Kovachev family, saying that the war was not actually over. The group carried out several attacks against the early Kovachev regime, carrying out attacks on Kovachev and other National Rally politicians, but never successfully managing to kill Kovachev. In the 1970s, the experimented with several bombings, but their activity decreased on the whole as the Tengarian government cracked down on their efforts and the group become smaller. In 1983, after the election of Dimitri Kovachev, they launched an attack on St. Vasil's Cathedral, shooting up a full Cathedral during a Divine Liturgy and causing many casualties. After this the government crackdown on the group was severe, and the group became very small and fully underground. Tengaria's increased security measures under Dimitri caused them to have less activity during the rest of his presidency. When his daughter Teodora Kovachev was elected as President in 2014, the group planned and executed an attack on a Lower School in early 2015, killing many young children in the process, meeting with huge international backlash. Teodora made association with the group in any capacity high treason, and the leadership were captured and executed by 2016. Since then, the group has been considered inactive, as it has not done anything since then, but there are still said to be hidden members, especially online, who continue it. During its Second Phase, the group has caused the deaths of over 1,000 people, mostly civilians.