Murab Kubalt
| Cobalt Square | |
|---|---|
| ⵎⵓⵔⴰⴱ ⴽⵓⴱⴰⵍⵜ Murab Kubalt | |
| Leader | Khyar Aziouel Amastan Elmoctar Hrakhel Kabte Chekkadh Amanrassa |
| Foundation | 2013 |
| Country |  Charnea |
| Motives | Establishment of a military government |
| Active regions | East Scipia |
| Ideology | Militarism Neo-Charneanism Charnean Nationalism |
| Opponents | Alxekum |
The Cobalt Square (Tamashek: ⵎⵓⵔⴰⴱ ⴽⵓⴱⴰⵍⵜ, Murab Kubalt) is a political faction of the Imperial Charnean Army seeking to establish a nationalist Neo-Charneanist military government. 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 be countered by the subsequent formation of the Alxekum faction established as a direct response to the perceived insubordination and radicalism of the Cobalt Square, and would go on to significantly dampen the political power wielded by the four Colonels and stifle their calls for reform in the military.
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 Charneanist current of the nationalist movement 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. The Cobalt Square espouses a return to the pre-modern form of the Charnean state, a military government dominated by the morally uncorrupted Charnean nomads to be established following a general purge of the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats in Agnannet and their capitalist patrons within the major Charnean industrial conglomerates. The group likewise views the cliques of the Army high command and the Charnean general staff as morally and politically compromised, acting in service to the corrupt forces of the civilian government. The Cobalt Square's leadership council and other notable figures within the group have loosely associated with Amina N'Okha, puppet Queen of Charnea under the Martial's regime, as well as some Charnean political opposition groups despite notably anti-syndicalist, anti-liberal and anti-monarchist views.