Zorasani Unification
Zorasani Unification (Pardarian:انگلآب توحید; Towheed-ye Zorasāni; Rahelian:تَوْحيد الكرصانية; Tawḥīd al-Kurṣāniyyah), locally known as the Arduous Revolution (انقلاب دشوار; Enqelābe Sa'b;ثورة شاقة; Šāqq al-Inqilāb), was the military, political and social movement that consolidated different states of the Zorasan region into the single state of the Union of Zorasani Irfanic Republics in the 20th century. The process began in 1946 with the Treaty of Ashcombe and was completed in 1980 with the formal unification of Irvadistan with the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran.
The origins of Zorasan’s unification process began in the early 20th century in response to the “collective trauma” of Euclean and primarily Etrurian colonialism and domination. The process’ philosophical and ideological inspirations were nationalism, republicanism, anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism and historical revisionism. Many early Zorasani nationalists promoted Pan-Zorasanism, claiming a shared nationhood between the peoples of the former Gorsanid Empire and its predecessor states as far back as the Rise of Irfan in the 320s BCE. This would evolve into a nationalism that viewed unification post-independence as the only viable means of averting the return of foreign domination and exploitation. These early nationalists through the Brotherhood Declaration saw the 2,302 years of co-habitation under a singular unified polity in one form or another, as evidence of a shared identity and nation.
The lack of divergent identities be they Pardarian or Rahelian further fuelled the rise of a “Zorasani nationalism” among the two distinct ethno-cultural groups. The 1910s and early 1920s also saw the emergence of the first form of Pan-Irfanism, where the shared religion was provided as reinforcement for Zorasani nationalism. Collaboration among Pardarian and Rahelian anti-colonial figures and intellectuals would prove decisive during the violence and destruction of both the Great War and Solarian War. Despite this, the collapse of Etrurian authority in wake of its defeat in 1946, led to the emergence of numerous independent states and civil war Pardaran. The Rahelian states to emerge fell to various tribal leaders assuming dominating positions and forming independent monarchies, while the Kexri-Rahelian region of Ninevah went on to form the Kexri Republic. The immediate failure of Rahelian monarchs to legitimise their rule, rebuild their shattered territories and the lack of a coherent Rahelian identity provided fertile ground for a grassroots embrace of Pan-Zorasanism. In 1950, the Pan-Zorasanist Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command defeated the Shahdom of Pardaran and established the United Republic of Pardaran under the leadership of Mahrdad Ali Sattari, the author of Sattarism, an ideology centred around the notion of a unified Zorasani state being the sole defence against resurgent Euclean influence. In 1952, the Khazi Revolution installed a Pan-Zorasanist government in Faidah, while northern Khazestan split as a monarchist holdout. The Pan-Zorasanist states united to form the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran, this watershed moment marked the beginning of the predominately armed struggle between the Pan-Zorasanist UKP and Rahelian monarchies.
Between 1950 and 1965, the two sides would struggle in both military, cultural and propagandistic confrontations, erupting into outright military conflict in 1965 with the Rahelian War. The Pan-Zorasanist victory in 1968, left only the Riyhadi Confederation and the Emirate of Irvadistan, though the latter fell to a socialist revolution shortly after. In 1974, a Pan-Zorasanist coup in Riyadha resulted in its annexation into the UKP, while the collapse of the balance of power ultimately led to the Irvadistan War in 1975, ending four years later with a final Pan-Zorasanist victory. After one year, on 1 January 1980, Irvadistan united with the UKP to form the Union of Zorasani Irfanic Republics, ending the unification process after 34 years.
Zorasani unification is considered one of the most pivotal moments in the late 20th century, restoring a major regional power in Northern Coius for the first time in 120 years. It marked the culmination of three-decades of near-constant conflict and ideological upheaval. It marked the decline of Tsabara as the pre-eminent power in Rahelia and significantly changed the balance of power in Coius, in relation to the wider ROSPO-COMSED dichotomy, to the benefit of the former. The process was marred by atrocities such as the Normalisation and cases of ethnic cleansing and religious persecution. It is widely celebrated in Zorasan, which places greater emphasis on the process overcoming foreign interference and involvement.
Timeline
- 1841-1860 - Etrurian Conquest of Zorasan. Over the period of 19-years, the United Kingdom of Etruria and to a lesser degree, Estmere and Gaullica begin to infringe upon the territories of the Gorsanid Empire, which governed the near entirety of modern-day Zorasan since 1102 intermittently. The Etrurians utilising the economic, social and technological backwardness steadily seized control of the coasts and key port-cities, while also inspiring unrest through ties to various influential Rahelian tribal leaders. The Gorsanid Empire ultimately collapsed by 1858 in wake of the Fourth Etruro-Gorsanid War, leading to the Treaty of San Francesco, which dismembered the empire into Etrurian colonies and protectorates. The monarchy was permitted to exist as the Shahdom of Pardaran and under a protectorate of Etruria.
- 1910 – Republicanism and anti-colonialism begin to emerge in Pardaran as millions suffer in poverty and deprivation, while loyal Shah and the royal family engage in daily displays of luxury and comfort. The millennia old Pardarian monarchy begins to be seen as an institution for collaboration.
- 1912 – The Tabarzin is formed, led by a colonel in the Pardarian Royal Army, Mahrdad Ali Sattari. The Tabarzin include many Rahelians appointed to Pardaran by the Etrurian colonial administration.
- 1914-1921 – Khordad Rebellion. The Tabarzin instigates a mass uprising in the Shahdom of Pardaran with the aim of overthrowing the Shah and liberating Zorasan from Etrurian and Euclean control. Etrurian military superiority coupled with harsh reprisals and the use of chemical gas defeats the uprising, but its lasting legacy would inspire the Rahelian population and bring to public thought, the notion of Zorasan.
- 1928-1936 – The Great War. Etruria’s entry into the Great War is followed by a joint invasion of southern Pardaran by Xiaodong and the PRRC, smaller uprisings in Zorasani Rahelia take place, inspired by the previous Khordad Rebellion. Despite the defeat of Xiaodong and the Entente, the PRRC is able to entrench itself in southern Zorasan, capitalising on Etrurian exhaustion.
- 1942-1946 – Solarian War. Prior to the Solarian War, the Greater Solarian Republic, which overthrew the Etrurian Second Republic in wake of the Great War launches an offensive against the PRRC, sparking a third war in Pardaran. The GSR’s invasion of Estmerish colonies and its Euclean neighbours sparks a wider war. Aided by Xiaodongese materiel and Ajahadyan forces, the PRRC is able to beat back the Etrurians. The GSR’s collapse in Zorasan in early 1946 leads to the collapse of the Etrurian colonial order.
- 1946 – As Etrurian authority collapses, numerous local groups begin to carve out areas of influence. In Zorasani-Rahelia, the tribal leaders relied upon by Etruria for support assume power over the respective crumbling colonies, forming the Kingdom of Khazestan, Emirate of Irvadistan, while the tribal-merchant families of the Riyadhi peninsula unite to form the Riyadhi Confederation. In Ninevah, the League of Free Kexri in alliance with local Rahelians establish the Kexri Republic, while Pardaran collapses into chaos. The colony of Cyracana fractures into the Ashkezar Republic and two warlord cliques, while the PRRC skirmishes with the Shahdom of Pardaran.
- 1948-1952 – Pardarian Civil War. The PRRC led by Mahrdad Ali Sattari defeats its rivals and reunifies Pardaran.
- 1950-1951 – Khazi Revolution. Chronic instability, food shortages and internecine tensions among the Khazi elite leads to political instability, deepened by Pardaran. Mustafa al-Kharadji and the Khazi Revolutionary Resistance Command overthrows the monarchy. The revolution is swiftly followed by a Khazi intervention in the Kexri-Rahelian War in support of the Rahelian population - the region of Ninevah was long seen as part historic Khazestan.
- 1951-1952 - The Kexri-Rahelian War results in the overthrow of the Kexri Republic and the establishment of the Provisional Government of Ninevah.
- 1953 - The Pan-Zorasanist authorities in Pardaran, Khazestan and Ninevah unify to form the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran.
- 1953 - Facing the UKP threat, the monarchies of the Riyadhi Confederation and Irvadistan in turn unite to establish the Kingdom of Rahelia.
- 1953-1965 - A state of cold war emerges between the UKP and the Kingdom of Rahelia, involving terrorism, propaganda struggles and assassinations.
- 1965-1968 - Rahelian War breaks out between the UKP and the Kingdom of Rahelia, despite significant Euclean backing, both sides agree to end the war as a stalemate. A CN-mandated de-militarized zone is established to separate the two nations.
- 1968 - Irvadi Revolution, a socialist revolution in Irvadistan overthrows the Rahelian monarchy, this is later enforced in Riyadha culminating in the establishment of the United Rahelian People's Republic.
- 1975-1979 – Irvadistan War. Fearing a UKP invasion, the URPR launches a pre-emptive strike and invasion of northern Khazestan. Backed by MASSOR and the Communal Republic of Tsabara, the Irvadis inflict heavy losses on the unprepared UKP. However, the tide turns and the UKP begins to beat the Irvadis back, ultimately defeating them at the Battle of Sadah. The collapse of the IPR results in the establishment of a UKP-align provisional government and occupation.
- 1980 – Irvadistan formally unites with the UKP to form the Union of Zorasani Irfanic Republics, ending the 34-year process beginning in 1946.
Background
Origins of Zorasan
The roots of the name Zorasan can be traced back to the Middle Pasdani "Xwarāsān", meaning "Land of the Sun." It was first used to denote the expanse of territories under the Arasanid Empire, when in 325 BCE, Shah Farrokhan II proclaimed his empire to be the "greatest expanse under the Sun" in a series of poems written in that year. His coining of the term was adopted by the First Heavenly Dominion during the Rise of Irfan, when the Prophet Ashavazdar, declared his intention to "free all Zorasan from the bounds of ignorance." The term from its inception until the Pardarian Civil War in the late 1940s, was rarely used to denote a singular polity, but rather a geographical region, under the Arasanids it denoted the imperial heartlands, which corresponded mostly to the modern boundaries of Zorasan, while under the Heavenly Dominions, "Zorasan" was used to denote the entirety of the Irfanic World, often due to the metaphorical comparison of the Sun to Khoda. Its relationship with the rise and spread of Irfan, alongside the definable boundaries of Zorasan provided by the Shahs enabled the term to become culturally and political engrained in both the Pardarian and Rahelian peoples.
Etrurian and Euclean colonialism
Throughout the middle-ages and early modern period, the Gorsanid Empire had engaged in a series of small, short conflicts with the predominately maritime nations of South Euclea, specifically Montecara and the Exalted Republic of Povelia. The decline and fall of Povelia during the Etrurian Revolution and the subjugation of Montecara under Gaullica, removed the most capable rivals to the Gorsanid Empire by the early 19th century. However, despite its capacity to defend its interests and territory, the Empire began to decline technologically, economically, and militarily. Its antiquated and autocratic monarchy opposed efforts at modernisation, wishing to preserve the interests of the landed agrarian elite, of which it entirely depended for support. Technological modernisation was also seen by the Irfanic religious establishment as a product of the Euclean enlightenment and thus a threat to its own power and influence. As the Eucleans began to see the first stirrings of the industrial revolution, the Gorsanid government shuttered institutions attempting to imitate Euclean advances, this would expand to virtually all areas of progress, including military strategy, organisation and equipment.
The Caltrini Restoration in Etruria, saw Etruria return to monarchical rule and with it came overseas ambitions as a means legitimising the new regime through glory, as well as opening foreign markets to Etrurian goods. The Etrurian gaze turning toward the decaying and declining empire to the south was also in part driven by Gaullica’s rising colonial activities in Tsabara.
In 1832, a trade delegation was dispatched to Zahedan to discuss the opening of Gorsanid ports to Etrurian goods, purportedly with the intention of proposing a mutually beneficial arrangement of Etruria importing Gorsanid cotton and fabrics in exchange for Etrurian weaponry and for the port of Chaboksar being leased to Etruria where a trade office would be permanently placed. Not only was the delegation denied an audience with either the Shah or his ministers, they were attacked by bandits during their return journey to the coast, leaving Conte Giacomo di Tarandella, a personal friend of King Caio Aurelio II dead. The perceived insult coupled with the bandit attack led to Etruria demanding a financial package in compensation, which was rejected. In late May 1832, the Etrurian Royal Army and Royal Navy attacked the port of Chaboksar, occupying the city and proclaiming it Etruria’s compensation. The Shah’s counterattack was crushed by the superior Etrurian force and the Shah, fearing further defeats acquiesced. In celebration, the city was renamed to Assoluzione (Absolution). The 1832 incidents marked the beginning of the steady encroachment of the Empire by Etruria, and later Estmere and Gaullica. Utilising the divisions within the Gorsanid court to undermine the Shah’s authority, while capitalising over localised disputes and events to wage ever wider wars, resulting in large tracts of the Empire being ceded to Etruria, the Gorsanid dynasty would eventually collapse in the 1850s.
In 1856 following the final war between Etruria and the Gorsanid Empire, the Treaty of Povelia finalised the demise and colonial subjugation of the Gorsanid state. The results would dramatically transform the region for decades to come. Western Pardaran was ceded to Etruria as the Dominion of Cyracana (Dominio di Cyracana), the eastern half of the Empire (modern day Khazestan, Riyadha and Ajad) were ceded to Etruria, becoming the Dominion of Etrurian Rahelia (Dominio di Rahelia Etruriana), the Ninevah region to the east, would be placed under a protectorate known as Ninavina, where the Etrurians relied near exclusively on Kexri elites to govern on their behalf, laying the foundations for the future Kexri Republic. Modern day Irvadistan was partitioned between Rahelia Etruriana and Gaullica’s Hamada colony in the early 1860s following a colonial incident. While southern Pardaran and the “Zahedan Corridor” was to remain under the rule of the continued Shahdom, though it would fall under Etruria as a protectorate. The Shahdom would be permitted to maintain a small, Etrurian officer-led military force, and surrender its economic and foreign policy to Etruria, effectively turning the millennia-old Zorasani monarchy into a puppet-state. The Shah’s wealth and personal freedom would be guaranteed, though Etruria would be granted an influential voice on succession. And the Irfanic establishment would be left to operate as it had done prior without interference.
Hassan Reza Shah who signed the Treaty of Povelia abdicated shortly after and would later commit suicide, succeeding him was his nephew, Hushang Ali Shah, who was the preferred candidate of Etruria. Ali Shah’s ascent to the throne established the Zarafshanid dynasty, which would rule the rump of the Zorasani state until 1950, when Ahmad Reza Shah was defeated and killed during the Pardarian Civil War.
For the next 90-years, the Etrurians would dramatically expand their control over their dominions and maintain a tight leash on its two protectorates. Etrurian companies and industrialists would exploit the Zorasan’s natural resources with abandon. Railroads, telegraph networks and factories were built for the sole purpose of supporting Etruria’s economic needs, being constructed at the expense of local communities and no regard for local sensitivities. Etrurian colonial authorities actively clamped down on the educating of local inhabitants and would regularly crackdown on the Irfanic clergy for using the Minbar as a means of agitating for resistance, this would result in the post-colonial states ranking among the lowest in the world for literacy. Uprisings and resistance between 1856 and 1914 were sporadic but dealt with harshly, with mass reprisals against entire communities being commonplace. The overthrow of the Etrurian monarchy in the San Sepulchro Revolution in 1888 did result in a softening of Etrurian rule, with the Second Republic instituting reforms that enabled the employ of locals to serve in colonial administrations, while they permitted local officials to transit Zorasan at will, providing a networking capability for literate and intellectual local elites, who in private sought to expel the colonial power.
Etruria’s use of tribal rivalries in Rahelia Etruriana specifically did little to assist its efforts in driving a wedge between the Rahelians and Pardarians, as it resulted in the Rahelians being forced to identify with their tribal name than the Etrurian propagated Rahelian identity. The utilisation of tribal leaders in Rahelia Etruriana would have adverse effects on the post-independence period and be the catalyst for the emergence of unpopular and poorly legitimised monarchies.
Etruria’s possessions in Zorasan would become battlegrounds in both the Great and Solarian Wars, where the use of local troops to defend Etruria’s control would prove pivotal in the awakening of a national consciousness, as in the Great War, Etruria propagandised the defence of “Zorasan” against the “yellow horde of Xiaodong.” There is a growing consesus among historians that Etruria's colonial administration served to plant the seeds of Pan-Zorasanism's success and the unification process, by both enforcing mass illiteracy and general ignorance of affairs beyond a person's local community and bestowing on the Rahelian population a greater affinity for their tribal group than their attempts at propagating a Rahelian identity. The Shahdom provided Pardarians the relative same situation, by abiding by Etruria's rule against fostering Pardarian nationalism and instead, centering the Pardarian existence around the Shah as the very embodiment of their society.
Pan-Zorasanism and anti-colonialism
Pan-Zorasanism had existed prior to the 20th century in limited forms under the Gorsanid Empire. In the furtive attempts to reform and modernise the state during the early stages of the Euclean encroachment, the monarchy had attempted to foster a unified identity as a means of better mobilising its large population. The Gorsanid dynasty made much use of the shared cultural, social and religious features of Zorasan to promote a singular identity to be adopted by both the various linguistic groups (as ethnicity or race was not recognised nor embraced in northern Coius in comparison to Euclea). The dynasty saw some success in establishing a shared view of Zorasan being a unifying entity, binding its peoples through a shared 2,300-year history, of peaceful co-existence, cooperation, and shared governance. The dynasty’s success in melding Irfanic history to the history of the Zorasani nation is considered to have been the primary root for the Pan-Zorasanism of the colonial period.
Abdolreza Bani-Etemad, a former courtier of the Gorsanid dynasty and one of the earliest ideological opponents of the Euclean colonial order, believed that history proved the innate fraternity of the peoples of Zorasan and that would eventually re-awaken to their identity and reclaim their country from the imperialists. He further claimed that the linguistic differences which had been irrelevant for 2,300-years would remain so and that the shared national consciousness of Zorasan would trump the new territorial reality, racialist divisions being perpetrated by the Etrurian colonial order and the period of time that would keep the nation divided.
Salim Serhan, Pešvā Serhan's "Zorasan Homily"
Until the emergence of intellectual nationalist groups during the early 1900s, the primary source for Pan-Zorasanist thought was the Irfanic religious establishment in Zorasan. The realities of the Gorsanid Empire upon its conquest by Etruria and other Euclean power was that literacy was restricted to only 15% of the population, notably the clerics and imperial administration. Therefore, the religious establishment had long been the repository for 2,300-years of historical record of Zorasani history dating back to the Rise of Irfan in the 320s BCE. This knowledge of history saw the colonial conquest leave an indelible mark on the clerical hierarchy, who saw the conquest both as the defeat of two-millennia long Irfanic rule, but also as a catastrophic failure of the Irfanic faithful, for permitting the fall of Irfan’s birthplace to non-believers. The view of the Euclean colonial conquest as a desecration of sacred soil mobilised the clerical elite into justifying resistance and restoration of the Zorasani nation on religious grounds. Between 1860 and 1900, the clerical elite had propagated and formulated Pan-Zorasanism as a religious obligation to evict the predominately Solarian Catholic colonial powers from the birthplace of Irfan, widely referencing “Xwarāsān” in the Roshangar, the holy text of Irfan, as the both the “fountain of faith” and the “gateway to heaven at the world’s end.” As most of the population were illiterate, the primary source for news and information was received from the Mazar and the cleric. The clerical establishments opposition to colonial rule and their propagation of Pan-Zorasanism as a religious obligation would prove invaluable in future decades, though while this would fail to produce a singular cohesive movement, it would embed within the wider social structure of Zorasan, an innate affinity for Pan-Zorasanism.
In 1904, Salim Serhan, a Rahelian Irfani cleric wrote a series of short homilies that were imbued with Pan-Zorasanist thought, the publishing works in Namrin distributed the homilies to clerics across Zorasan, enabling clerics to spread the unifying message. This marked the beginning of a decades-long role of the religious elite in support of Zorasani nationalist movements. One of the most pivotal moments in the early period of Pan-Zorasanism was a homily by the Custodian of the Faith in 1911, Nasrollah Ali Yadgari who said, what is Irfan without its roots and hearth united and free? What is Irfan with its birthplace of Zorasan sundered by the iron and fire of Euclean greed? His message was seen by millions of Irfani, who heard of its message through their local Peshvari, to be an endorsement of Pan-Zorasanism and resistance against Etruria and other Euclean powers. The following year, the Tabarzin, a Pan-Zorasanist movement was established by Mahrdad Ali Sattari and his message would be sloganised during the Khordad Rebellion.
The turn of the 20th century saw the expansion of Pan-Zorasanist thinking beyond the clerical establishment to many intellectuals serving in Etrurian colonial administrations. In Pardaran, where the monarchy maintained itself as a protectorate of Etruria, there was a rapidly growing class of educated officials, who privately balked at the state of affairs, though publicly loyal to the Shah and ostensibly his colonial overlords. These officials and intellectuals would go on to author Pan-Zorasanism as a motif for anti-colonialism, drawing inspiration from the clerical variety.
These individuals also took inspiration from the earlier Gorsanid attempt at fostering a nationalist identity, viewing Zorasan as a cohesive political entity rather than just a geographical area. They viewed every successive political entity from the Arasanid Empire (400 BCE) through the Irfanic Heavenly Dominions (300 BCE-1102 AD) to the Gorsanid Empire as one continuous thread of unity between the peoples of Zorasan. Mozaffa Annab, a leading Rahelian Pan-Zorasanist saw Zorasan as the inevitable result of the eviction of the Eucleans, regularly claiming Zorasan had existed before even the first organised Euclean state and would long exist after Euclea had faded into history as the centre of global affairs. Annab also saw Pan-Zorasanism as the ultimate weapon against colonialism and Euclean influence, "by uniting into a single polity, we shall have a polity that has withstood the test of time, but also be founded upon the rectification of past mistakes."
Mahrdad Ali Sattari, the most prominent Pan-Zorasanist figure during the first half of the 20th century repeatedly rejected the concept of Rahelia and Pardaran as individual and separate entities. He pointedly refused to identify himself as Pardarian and urged his followers to do the same, claiming such identities were Euclean constructs designed to entrench their enforced division of Zorasan’s people. He noted that different languages were spoken and oft repeated historic views that linguistics had failed to fragment the succession of Zorasani states. Although he was a secularist, Sattari drew significantly on the Irfanic variant of Pan-Zorasanism, declaring the relative religious homogeneity of Zorasan to be further evidence of an unbreakable relationship between the peoples of Zorasan that transcended the imported Euclean racial categorisation of humans.
Post-Solarian War states
The most decisive event leading up to Zorasani Unification was the Solarian War and the collapse of Etrurian authority across the entirety of Zorasan in early 1946. Facing rapidly advancing enemies within Etruria itself, the Greater Solarian Republic ordered a full-scale withdrawal of all forces in Zorasan, abandoning the Shahdom and its colonies. In the power-vacuum, numerous former clients of the Etrurian colonial order moved to establish themselves as the new power-centres. Within a matter of months, three monarchies would emerge out of Rahelia Etruriana; Emirate of Irvadistan, Kingdom of Khazestan and the Riyadhi Confederation. In former Ninavina, the Kexri colonial officials in support of the League of Free Kexri assisted in the establishment of the Kexri Republic. In Pardaran, the conflict between the Shahdom of Pardaran and the Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command denied both sides the ability to seize control of Cyracana, which fragmented resulting in the emergence of the Ashkezar Republic in the north and two regions south, subject to the rule of two former Cyracana Pardarian officers.
Almost immediately, the new states entered difficulty, primarily in dealing with the vast destruction and disruption caused by the Solarian War. Famine was widespread across the entirety of Zorasan, and the new regimes found themselves governing territories with virtually no public services, and near-total illiteracy. In every emerging nation-state, the Irfanic religious establishment was fragmented, despite an initial aim of promoting a confederation to reunite Zorasan. The potential for a settled reunification was dashed with the onset of skirmishes between the three Rahelian monarchies and the civil war in Pardaran.
The 1947 Treaty of Morwall which formally ended the Solarian War, granted international recognition to the Rahelian states, the Kexri Republic and the Shahdom of Pardaran. The Ashkezar Republic’s attempt at recognition was blocked by successful diplomatic manoeuvring by the Shah. The Republic joined the PRRC in being viewed as combatant factions in a civil conflict, rather than independent entities. The international recognition proved a boon for the monarchies and the Kexri Republic, as it enabled them to access reconstruction funds and assistance, however, this success would be undermined by the corrupt practices of the new monarchies. Simultaneously, the very same monarchies faced crises of legitimacy, as these leaders were descendants of families who accepted the Etrurian colonial authorities as patrons. The peasantry riled by clerics, were quick to see their rulers as collaborators and abettors of foreign occupation and decades of exploitation. This crisis of legitimacy was the same in Pardaran, where the Shah was denigrated by Mahrdad Ali Sattari, the leader of the PRRC as “the son of Etruria’s whores.” Republicanism spread throughout Pardaran, to such a degree that Pan-Zorasanism also became a struggle against monarchism in of itself. The PRRC during the latter stages of the civil war would vow to liberate Zorasan from the rule of puppets and collaborator monarchs, who’s ancestors provided Etruria the means to divide and rule the Zorasani people.
The post-independent states that emerged were from the onset significantly disadvantaged by their rulers and their decisions. The Khazi monarchy opted to focus on resource exploitation in the hope of tapping into oil reserves discovered during the early 1920s, to fund reconstruction. This focus prolonged food shortages and homelessness. No significant effort was made to build up public services, nor was any effort made to establish a unifying Khazi identity. The Riyadhi Confederation and Irvadistan proved more adept at recognising its immediate crises, though in the latter’s case, a failure to expand power and influence to individuals or groups beyond the Al-Mustafid family, resulted in unrest and numerous plots by rival families and non-royal power centres such as the future Irvadi Royal Army. The Kexri Republic, though initially democratic and inclusive, steadily saw the rise of the Kexri People’s Socialist Front, and marginalisation of the Rahelians. The KPSF’s desire to enforce a Kexri-dominant system upon its Rahelian population led to armed ethnic-conflict by the late 1950s. The Shahdom in Pardaran was disadvantaged by the growing military might and popularity of the PRRC and Mahrdad Ali Sattari. The Irfanic religious establishment’s long held aim of seeing the reunification of Zorasan for theological purposes gave way to considerable support for the PRRC, owing to it being the only major Pan-Zorasanist entity in wake of independence. The clerics denial of religious legitimacy to the monarchies and the propagation of PRRC slogans and ideals through the Mazar would serve the Pan-Zorasanist cause well, while exacerbating the tensions between ruler and subject.
Post-Solarian War period (1946-1953)
Pardarian Civil War
The collapse of Etrurian authority in Pardaran left a fractured and fragmented region in its wake, with multiple influential factions rising in the vacuum. The Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command led by Mahrdad Ali Sattari, and the Shahdom of Pardaran under Ahmad Reza Shah, being the two most powerful factions in western Zorasan had been locked in vicious fighting in the Gahvareh Basin since the Solarian War. Both factions sought to unify Pardaran under their respective regimes, though the PRRC’s ambitions were greater, in its repeatedly declared vow to reunify Zorasan. The Shah’s attempt to extend his control into Cyracana was blocked by the emergence of two warlords, Mirhussein Rasfanjani and Khosrow Shamshiri, two former commanders of the Cyracana Colonial Auxiliary Corps, who ruled their areas of influence as personal fiefdoms. To the north of both was the aspiring democratic Ashkezar Republic, led by Murad Hosein Zand. Between 1946 and 1948, fighting was limited to repeated skirmishes between the two warlord generals and sporadic clashes between the Shah and the PRRC. The skirmishes did little to slow or deter planning or preparations for a final and inevitable conflict. The Shahdom’ utilising the abandoned Etrurian colonial arsenals, possessed the largest army of the Pardarian factions but it was poorly led, with the officer corps hollowed by chronic corruption, patronage and nepotism. The PRRC’s forces, though smaller had over 20-years of fighting experience and was heavily supplied by Xiaodong through the Kharkestar Corridor.
In late 1947, eager to bolster its Pan-Zorasani credentials, the PRRC launched an incursion into Kumuso, a former province of the Shahdom, that declared independence from both it and Etruria in 1946. The invasion was met with stiff resistance and difficulties in supplying the force across the Great Steppe. The Shah immediately ordered the Imperial Pardarian Army to launch its much-awaited offensive into the PRRC, capitalising on the distraction. However, PRRC informants and agents inside the Shah’s government were made aware of the Shah’s plans and lay in wait. The imperial offensive was launched on 10 April 1948 and within weeks was encircled and destroyed by mobile cavalry units of the PRRC. Several weeks after the failure of the initial imperial offensive, its most capable and reliable commander, General Omid Deghan was killed along with 90 other officers in a Black Hand bombing of the Hotel Saffron, which was housing their headquarters in eastern Pardaran. The death of Dehgan denied the Shah his most capable officer being appointed Supreme Commander of Imperial Forces, which may well have led to an imperial victory. Over the next two-years, the PRRC would capitalise on the poor leadership in the Imperial Army, repeatedly defeating it in mass offensives and advanced north at ever greater pace.
In February 1949, the PRRC captured the imperial capital of Zahedan and the holy cities of Ardakan and Namrin. The Shah increasingly desperate fled to the port city of Bandar-e Hassan and instituted press-gangs and prison units to replace losses. The press-gangs use of violence to recruit young men and boys into the Imperial Army greatly diminished his already weak standing among his subjects and saw the steady acceptance of the PRRC and Sattarism. In October, the PRRC launched its final offensive against the Shah, capturing the city of Bandar-e Hassan as well as the Shah and Crown Prince. The two men were executed by firing squad and dragged through the streets of the city, where their bodies were beaten and damaged by baying crowds. The Shahdom unconditionally surrendered to the PRRC later that day.
From late October to November, the PRRC turned to defeat the two warlord cliques, overrunning their positions with ease with imported modern weaponry and over 500,000 soldiers. In May 1950, the PRRC launched the final offensives of the war against the Ashkezar Republic, though despite heavy resistance, the PRRC forces quickly overran the Republic’s defences, capturing the major northern port of Bandar-e Parvadeh in July. Heavy resistance by the local population coupled with growing anger at the war’s length, PRRC forces sacked the city and set it ablaze in what became known as the Burning of Bandar-e Parvadeh. The firestorm together with the violence committed by the PRRC, would leave over 6,500 people dead and the city in ruins. In August, the PRRC captured the leadership of the Republic after they fled the town of Zamharir, they were promptly executed, and the civil war was declared over.
Mahrdad Ali Sattari proclaimed in a radio broadcast the founding of the United Republic of Pardaran and the beginning of Zorasani unification. Throughout the civil war and immediately after, thousands of people were massacred or executed by the PRRC for monarchist sympathies or for supporting rival factions, this process of eliminating threats would eventually give way to the Estekham (see below) or “Normalisation”, which would begin with the persecution of suspected monarchist sympathisers and evolve to include the destruction of nomadic communities and cultures living on the Great Steppe. The Estekham would take place throughout Zorasan as unification proceeded and would only end in 1981. Over 750,000 people were killed in the Pardarian Civil War, but the victory of the Pan-Zorasanist PRRC would establish a base from which unification could be pursued and inspired. The success of Sattarism in mobilising society against a multitude of enemies would lead to the establishment of “brother cadres” in the Rahelian states, notably Khazestan. Ali Sattari and his subordinates would establish an authoritarian single-party state in Pardaran and proclaimed the state’s “sole objective and reason for existence is for the unification of the Zorasani people.” As such, the Pardarian Civil War is widely perceived as the official begging of the unification process.
Khazi Revolution
Much like its fellow Rahelian states to emerge out of the Solarian War, Khazestan fell under the rule of the most influential tribal group, the Al-Suwaydi tribe. Under the leadership of Sheyk Hussein ibn Rashid, the Al-Suwaydi through their patronage of the former Colonial Auxiliary Force of western Rahelia Etruriana enforced his assumption of power with the capture of Faidah in 1946. Under threat of violent retaliation, Sheyk Hussein guaranteed the backing of other tribal leaders when he proclaimed himself King of Khazestan.
The early effort of the Khazi monarchy to legitimise their rule faced serious pitfalls. Much like the other ruling monarchs in Rahelian Zorasan and the Shah, Hussein was perceived to be a collaborator and traitor. He spent much of his life assisting the colonial authorities, effectively becoming their intermediary with the other tribal leaders. His brother’s role as Commanding-General of the Colonial Auxiliary Force of Western Rahelia Etruriana further degraded public opinion upon his seizure of power. And like his neighbouring contemporaries, efforts at building a national identity was centralised around the monarchy and Hussein himself. As historian Said Khan noted, “the Post-Solarian Zorasani monarchs worked tirelessly to evoke identities of their nations around them and their families, to be Khazi was to be a subject of King Hussein.” Not only did this fail to cement national solidarity or unity, owing to the previously mentioned lack of legitimacy in the eyes of powerful circles, it left open space for the influence of Pardarian Pan-Zorasanism. In Khazestan’s case, these weaknesses were crippling for the monarchy. The Al-Suwaydi tribe had poor relations with its neighbours and rivals in Khazestan, while many ordinary Khazis saw the King and his family as over opulent, wealthy and corrupt, even before they assumed power in 1946. Khazestan’s historic role as the “second pillar to Pardaran within its empires” led to an innate and close socio-political and cultural relationship with its larger neighbour. The shared trials and suffering under Etruria also bridged the two states on an emotional level. The weaknesses would further fuel general discontent over a series of other grievances, over food shortages, economic failure and social injustice.
Khazestan suffered considerable damage during the Solarian War, being a major theatre of conflict between Etruria and CN forces between 1944 and 1946. The new kingdom, although possessing oil and gas fields discovered by the Etrurians in the 1920s and 1930s, failed to rebuild infrastructure adequately or evenly. Despite most cities being physically rebuilt by 1952, many homes and businesses were housed in rudimentary and poorly constructed buildings. The monarchy also focused much of its resources and revenues on rebuilding and modernising regions within the historic territory of the Al-Suwaydi tribe.
Between 1946 and 1952, the Kingdom rebuilt damaged oil facilities with Euclean assistance. However, rather than utilise the growing revenues from oil, the monarchy would utilise the capital for personal use. It is estimated that between 1946 and 1952, the Al-Suwaydi family seized up to 44% of oil revenues, what remained was then invested into tribal lands. The immense wealth and cronyism of the monarchy led to immediate economic stagnation, financial bottlenecks and the continued devastation in other parts of the country. To make matters worse, the rural poor were subject to a resurgence in a near-feudalistic relationship with their landowners, most of whom were close associates with the Al-Suwaydi tribe and its allies. Such was the severity of the landowner’s behaviour that many considered peasant life to be worse than that endured under the Etrurian colonial system.
Prior to the revolution, there were few but consequential social, economic, and political laws and reforms introduced during his reign and a number of these reforms led to public discontent which provided the circumstances for the Khazi Revolution. Particularly controversial was the replacement of several Irfanic laws with Euclean ones and the legal establishment of the Al-Suwaydi tribe over all others. The introduction of a "royal tax" on the souks shattered the already weak ties between the monarchy and the emerging urban middle class, fuelling resentment and the growth of republicanism. In 1949, Khazis who had fought in ongoing Pardarian Civil War, and those who had historic ties to the Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command during the Solarian War, united to form the Khazi Revolutionary Resistance Command. The KRRC suscribed to Sattarism and aimed to overthrow the monarchy and establish a union with Pardaran. It was led by Mustafa al-Kharadji.
Mass protests erupted in the northern city of Gharaf over the price of bread. Led primarily by women, the protests took the government by surprise, which had enjoyed relative peace since independence. The first march inspired hundreds of thousands of Gharafis to march in protest of the monarchy, resulting in the government ordering the deployment of soldiers and gendarmes to the city. Within days the Gharaf protests spread to other cities in the north, notably the vital port of Bashaer.
On 1 August, protests in the port-city of Bashaer led to the shooting and killing of Pešvar Ashavazdah al-Safwani. The killing of an Irfanic cleric by the Royal Gendarmerie inflicted serious damage to relations between the monarchy and the Irfanic establishment, while the news of the killing provoked escalating riots and protests in the north and now the south of the country. In response, the government forces resorted to unrestrained violence, killing over 300 protesters in the first week of August The monarchy, unable to recognise the link between the killing of protesters and their escalating action against the state further fuelled widening opposition to the monarchy and increased the death toll. This unbreakable cycle led to the King declaring martial law on August 19th.
On August 31st, the Khazi Revolutionary Resistance Command emerged from hiding and seized the western city of Abbassiyah from monarchist forces. The KRRC’s call for its members in the Royal Armed Forces to rise up against the King was answered by several cells. Mutinies and clashes between various military units destabilised the government’s response and served as a catalyst for the King’s paranoid-fuelled violent crackdown.
Between September and early November, the country would be wracked by rioting and repeating cycles of government forces killing protesters and facing renewed ever more ferocious protests, strikes and acts of civil disobedience. The same period, from Abassiyah, the KRRC organised its cells in other parts of the country to conduct sabotage against government property. On the 8th October, a large explosion disabled the primary oil refining facility in Bashaer, inflicting crippling losses on the Khazi-Weranic Oil Company.
On the 3 November, Mustafa al-Kharadji, the leader of the KRRC declared the group to be the “vanguard of the revolution”, calling upon Khazis to join with the KRRC to “finally overthrowing the despot King and his clan of criminals.” Across the country, KRRC cells began to distribute weapons to protesters and defecting soldiers, leading to pitched battles between protesters and the Royal Armed Forces. The emergence of armed resistance forced the disintegration of the King’s military as thousands of soldiers refused to shoot civilians. Despite the loyalty of the Royal Guard and highly paid members of the gendarmerie, the revolution rolled on toward capturing Faidah.
On 7 November, King Hassan ibn Rashid and most of his family fled the capital for their ancestral hometown of Hejjnah. Within an hour of the family’s flight, protesters breached the gates of the Al-Suwaydi Palace in Faidah, looting its rooms and setting it ablaze. The next day, a KRRC cell in Hejjnah intercepted the King’s convoy as it approached the Al-Suwaydi tribal capital, capturing the King, his wife and four sons. They were taken to small farmhouse and given a mock trial and executed by firing squad.
The death of the entire senior royal family denied the remaining loyalists a reason to resist and resistance to the revolution began to fall apart. On 9 November, Mustafa Al-Kharadji proclaimed the formation of a Provisional Revolutionary Government, while thousands of protesters were organised in Revolutionary Protection Units by the KRRC and charged with pursuing and destroying any royalist holdouts in society. Fearing reprisal, many officers of the Royal Armed Forces pledged their support for the new provisional government, condemning or denouncing many of their comrades who proved too slow at making the pledge. Throughout November, an estimated 19,000 people would be killed or disappeared by the Revolutionary Protection Units and a further 25,000 predominately members of the Suwaydi tribe fled the country for Riyadha and Irvadistan.
Rahelian-Kexri conflcit
The seizure of territory in the former Etrurian colony of Ninavina, by the Free Kexri League with support from Rahelians within the territory proved to be a unique development in relation to the ethno-nationalism of its neighbouring regions. The establishment of the Free Kexri Republic in 1946 belied a highly inclusive and aspiring democratic system. However, the ruling Free Kexri League from its conception, was dogged by internal factionalism and vicious power-struggles between prominent Kexri figures. The two prominent factions was the left-wing Kexri nationalist, Kexri People’s Socialist Front and the Kexri-Rahelian led Free People’s Democratic Party.
The free and open society established upon independence provided space for Pan-Zorasanist elements to coalesce into the Ninevah Revolutionary Movement. By 1949, the NRM had seen a dramatic rise in popularity among the Rahelians living around Lake Zindarud, where they were subject to the regular propaganda broadcasts from Pardaran. Fearing the NRM may jeopardise the independence of the Kexri Republic, the KPSF began to agitate against the FPDP government. In November 1949, the NRM officially declared its intention to lead the Kexri Republic into unifying with any Pan-Zorasanist state yet to merge, to which the KPSF declared the party a security threat. Using the government’s refusal to shut down the NRM, Kexri militia groups linked to the KPSF seized control in a coup on 22 November 1949.
The KPSF government under Ciwan Haco declared a state of emergency and banned the NRM on 4 December. The ban sparked protests by the Rahelians of Lake Zindarud, which were violently put down by Kexri militia. On 10 December, Haco expanded the state of emergency to shut down all Rahelian-centric political parties and those that “would promote a space for such parties”, essentially turning the Republic into a single-party state.
The KPSF government beginning in 1950, implemented a policy of Kexrisation. Forcing the exclusive use of Kermanji on the population. This policy also instituted harsh crackdowns on the Republic’s Yazidi minority, specifically its religious practices as the KPSF hoped to establish institutionalised secularism, this also served to further ferment unrest among the Rahelian population. Further protests were met with heavy-handed police and militia responses, pushing the disbanded NRM into establishing contact with the Padarian Revolutionary Resistance Command for assistance. The PRRC, which was close to defeating it rivals in the Padarian Civil War responded with shipments of arms and trainers across Lake Zindarud. The PRRC saw the Kexri situation both as an opportunity to prove its Pan-Zorasanist credentials and to combat what it saw, as rising socialist Dezevauni influence.
On February 3, armed Rahelians, led by Pardarian officers, seized control of the lake-side town of Qesirdîb. From there, Rahelian armed militia began to infiltrate the rest of the Kexri Republic, while the town became the primary link between the resistance and Pardaran. A Kexri armed attack on February 20, failed to dislodge the militias, who promptly formed the Ninevahi Revolutionary Resistance Command on February 23. On March 10, NRRC units captured in the town of Sêmalka, opening a route to the Yazidis residing on the eastern shores of Lake Mahaldar. Fearing a coordinated armed uprising, the KSPF government ordered a full-scale attack on the Rahelian western region, with the aim of ejecting any NRRC influence from the major city of Ad-Daydh. The widespread distribution of weapons smuggled across Lake Zindarud, coupled with routes across southern Khazestan enabled NRRC groups to resist the Kexri offensive, sparking the Rahelian-Kexri conflict.
Throughout 1950 and 1951, the Kexri forces bought a bitter Rahelian insurgency in the central and western regions of the country. Lacking any certifiable navy, the Kexri Republic struggled to interdict the supply of weapons and volunteers from Pardaran to the insurgency across Lake Zindarud. On the 17 April 1951, a Pardarian air attack on the Kexri lake-side town of Hajaka destroyed ten patrol boats. The loss of these boats enabled a brief period for Pardaran to transport several thousand soldiers across Lake Zindarud unhindered. Boosted by the 2,800 Pardarian soldiers, the NRRC captured the city of Ad-Daydh. The loss destabilised Kexri morale, who in turn became ever more reliant on violent reprisals against Rahelian civilians as a means of maintaining control. These reprisals often massacres of entire Rahelian communities resulted in the retraction of support from the Rahelian monarchies in Riyadha and Irvadistan. The Khazi monarchy, hoping to beat back criticism and popular opposition, sealed its border with the Kexri Republic. With no alternatives, the left-wing KSPF government turned to Dezevau for support, which only fuelled Pardarian fears of a Dezevauni intervention against Pan-Zorasanism. The Pardarians under Mahrdad Ali Sattari stepped up their support for the NRRC, dispatching a further 2,000 troops across Lake Zindarud and instituting a lake wide blockade of the Kexri Republic through its maritime militia which harassed Kexri fishing boats and freighters.
1952 would be the pivotal year in the conflict, as the Khazi monarchy was overthrown by the KRRC, its new leader, Mustafa al-Kharadji declared his intention to end the “Red Kexri menace.” On December 3, only days after the overthrow of the monarchy, the KRRC sent 35,000 soldiers into the Kexri Republic. Backed by 10,000 Pardarian troops, together with the NRRC, the Kexri forces were overwhelmed and collapsed under the weight of the Pan-Zorasanist offensive. On December 25, the Kexri capital of Naqad fell. Ciwan Haco and many of the KSPF leadership fled to Dezevau or Mabifia days after and opted to wage a Kexri resistance from abroad, which would extend the Rahelian-Kexri conflict for another twenty years. The conflict in the Kexri Republic from 1950 until 1952, left over 90,000 dead and displaced over 300,000 people.
Following the fall of the Kexri Republic, the NRRC proclaimed a Provisional Revolutionary Government and supplanted the Kexri-dominated state with one comprised of entirely of Rahelians and Yazidis. With Pan-Zorasanists in control of Pardaran, Khazestan and Ninevah, the stage was set for the first major success of Zorasani unification.
Union of Khazestan and Pardaran
Following the Khazi Revolution in November 1952, the Pardarian government under Mahrdad Ali Sattari sought about to unifying Pardaran with Khazestan. The surprise collapse of the Kexri Republic in December 1952 saw the inclusion of Ninevah in this plan. On 1 January, Sattari met with Khazestan’s Mustafa al-Kharadji and Ninevah’s Saad al-Sallal in the Pardarian city of Saravan to discuss plans for a union. The summit proved more successful than Sattari expected, especially in light of the high motivation of Al-Kharadji.
According to one Pardarian source, “in Khazestan’s Al-Kharadji we found a force of nature for the unification of Zorasan’s constituent parts. Here was a Rahelian more fervent in his conviction for unification than the man [Sattari] who birthed it out of the tumult of colonialism.”
On January 18, high-level negotiations began between the three governments, primarily to discuss the new political system and the degree of freedoms the nations would still enjoy under a prospective union. The first agreement was to unify the Revolutionary Resistance Commands into a unified political party, dubbed the Revolutionary Masses Party. The second agreement was to proclaim Pasdani and Rahelian as the two official state languages. The third was a unique form of secularism, in that the state would be official secular in operation but would invite advice and opinions from the Irfanic and Yazidi establishments. One of the most interesting agreements was the distribution of oil revenues. The three governments agreed to a system upon which the union-government (federal) would retain 55% of revenues for nation use, while Pardaran would receive 20%, Khazestan 15% and Ninevah 10% to support their state-raised taxes. A special provision was included providing the basis for one state receiving two-thirds of revenues in event of economic or natural disaster. Each of the three states would provide a State Councillor to the Revolutionary Command Council, the national executive, who would hold a veto for any policy or decision that may endanger the interests of their state.
Zahedan was selected for the union capital, while the capital of Pardaran would be moved to Borazjan. Mahrdad Ali Sattari out reverence by Al-Kharadji and Al-Sallal was to be appointed Supreme Leader of the Union, while Al-Kharadji would serve as Khazestan’s State Councillor and the Union Minister for Unification. Al-Kharadji would become a dominant figure within the UKP until his death in 1960.
On February 5, the negotiations concluded, and it was officially announced the three states would move to found the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran. The name omitted Ninevah due to the desire by its government not enflame tensions with the Kexri population whilst the Kexri People’s Socialist Front continued to agitate from Dezevau. On February 25, the Union was officially formed and the first major step toward Zorasani unification was made.
The Post-Solarian War period (1946-1953) is considered to be the bloodiest period of unification, with the death toll from the Pardarian Civil War, Khazi Revolution and the Rahelian-Kexri conflict being estimated at 832,332. If including the early stages of the Normalisation, the death toll rises to 985,694. Amir Ebtekar, one of the leading historians on unification wrote in 1998, "the Post-Solarian Period of Unification in comparison to the others is the true revolutionary stage, in which select movements rode the tiger of public disconent and revulsion toward monarchy to overthrow systems of government most natural to Zorasan for over two thousand years in raging storm of violence. The revolutionary period was perhaps irreplacable and undeniable in its importance, for establishing in the West, the vehicle for unification's completion."
Zubaydi Rahelian Federation
The formation of the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran sent shockwaves throughout Northern Coius. In the space of six years, three post-Solarian War states had arisen and collapsed before a wave of Pan-Zorasanism and now the remaining two states, Riyadha and Irvadistan faced falling victim to the same. By 1953, the monarchs in Riyadha and Irvadistan had stabilised their respective countries. King Said Ali I of Irvadistan, noted the disparity in population between his country and the UKP, and noted in 1953 to a close friend, “something must change on our end of this so-called Zorasan, otherwise we too shall go the way of the Shah and our departed Khazi friend. Either we make moves, or we shall awake to a firing squad.”
Said Ali, enjoyed a close friendship with Emir Abdullah-Yazid of Riyadha and the two also held mutual relations through the marriage of their respective children prior to the Solarian War. Within a week of the UKP’s formation, Said Ali exchanged letters with Abdullah-Yazid regarding a possible union between Irvadistan and Riyadha, though falling far short of closing the demographic gap, a union would in Said Ali’s view, “do much to pool our resources against the same radical Pardarian-Rahelian threat of Pan-Zorasanism.” In Said Ali’s view, if one of the monarchies fell, the other would fall in quick succession. The proposal received mixed reviews in Riyadha, with some of the elite families in the peninsula-kingdom fearing this to be a plot by Irvadistan’s King for expand his kingdom.
On February 19, Crown Prince Ali Said ibn Said, who was also married to the eldest daughter of Emir Abdullah-Yazid travelled to At-Turbah to personally lobby the Riyadhi monarch on behalf of his father. According to documents seized in 1979, Ali Said assured Abdullah-Yazid, that he and his family would retain full influence of Riyadhi affairs and that power in a union would be shared equally. Ali Said made much of the historic ties between the Zubayd (Irvadistan’s ruling family) and the Safwadi (Riyadha’s ruling family) as well as their present-day ties through marriage. On February 22, Abdullah-Yazid conceded to bilateral talks for a possible union.
The talks progressed rapidly, with the Irvadis proposing an absolute monarchy. However, to mitigate Riyadhi concerns, they proposed the monarch to be of the Zubaydi tribe, while the Prime Minister and all success heads of government would be Riyadhi, as well as half the cabinet. The Riyadhi would provide the command and personnel for the navy and air force, while the Irvadis would provide the land forces. Both kingdoms would retain a National Guard for exclusive internal use. Unlike the UKP, the proposed union would not integrate the kingdom’s economies to such a degree, though a common currency would be utilised and common customs union, both kingdoms would retain their own oil companies and others, while both states would be permitted to dispatch diplomats to foreign countries.
The proposed division of power and influence proved successful in persuading the Riyadhi elite to back the proposed union. The Treaty of At-Turbah was signed on March 16, officially establishing the Zubaydi Rahelian Federation. This marked the first time a Rahelian-nationalist entity had come into being through a union, and also instigated a significantly violent escalation in Zorasani Unification. The Federation almost immediately would enter into a cold war with the UKP, as it also fell victim to the Black Hand.
UKP-Rahelian cold war (1953-1965)
The establishment of the Zubaydi Rahelian Federation in March 1953 upended the proposed strategies of the UKP leadership. However, despite the emergence of a serious obstacle, Mahrdad Ali Sattari remained wholly committed to seeing the unification of Zorasan. Sattari though, conceded that the newly formed UKP would need to focus on economic issues having been formed in wake of two civil wars and a disruptive popular revolution. The decision to focus on internal affairs did little to stem the tide of Sattarism and its spread among urban populations in the Federation, leading notably to the emergence of the Black Hand of National Liberation, a militant Pan-Zorasanist and republican group that sought to destabilise the Federation from within.
On 22 April 1953, the Black Hand revealed itself with a gun and grenade attack that killed Prince Muntasir bin Irfan, the second cousin of King Said Ali. The assassination prompted a meeting of the UKP’s Central Command Council to discuss a new approach to the Federation in lieu of the new development. According to sources at the time, Mustafa al-Kharadji who was serving as the State Councillor for Khazestan, called for an immediate military invasion of the Federation, this was opposed by Sattari, his de-facto successor-in-waiting Hossein Khalatbari and Ali Sayyad Gharazi. Instead, Sattari suggested providing assistance to the Black Hand, while also making use of radio broadcasts to propagate his message of Pan-Zorasanism and Republicanism. The Central Command Council came to vote for a series of measures aimed at indirectly undermining the Federation, including backing for the Black Hand and propaganda broadcasts. Political Cadres would also be infiltrated into the Federation to assist in the spread of Pan-Zorasanism and to promote general civil disobedience against a tyrannical absolute monarchy.
aided by the vile poisonous influences of the imperialist. It is a battle that will consume all that is good, but such is
the sacrifice required for the unification of a people divided by the forces of evil."Mahrdad Ali Sattari, Radio Azadi broadcast 1 May 1953
On the 1 May 1953, Ali Sattari inaugurated the newly established Radio Azadi with a lengthy speech he read in Rahelian. In his speech, he urged the citizens of the Zubaydi Rahelian Federation to remain steadfast and patient, "we shall reach you and we shall free you from the chains of imperialist-backed monarchism. It may take years, but we shall liberate you and our beloved homeland shall be reborn from their ashes." Radio Azadi would become one of the most popular tools of the UKP to propagandise the successes of the Union and to repeat attacks on the Federation, while also praising those within the Federation working to spread republicanism and insurrection. As the Federation developed economically, access to household radios grew exponentially, forcing the Federation to harshly crackdown on families caught tuning into Radio Azadi. While the radio station saw no success in provoking a Sattarist revolution against the monarchy, it remains a cultural icon of the unification period.
In September 1953, the Black Hand conducted a series of house raids against civil servants in the capital Sadah, killing eight people and injuring a further 24. The incidents led to the establishment of the Royal Security Directorate (RSD), with the invitation of Estmerish and Weranic advisors to assist in its development. This coincided with the militarisation of the border between the unions, with the UKP deploying over 65,000 soldiers to the border to maintain a "vigil on the monarchist puppets of imperialism." The Federation would maintain a force of 30,000 soldiers along the border, including detachments of its Royal Sand Raiders, an elite mobile unit trained by Estmerish officers. Sporadic border clashes would become a fixture throughout the cold war period, with exchanges of gunfire, artillery and occasional cross-border raids ultimately leaving 800 dead on both sides by the outbreak of the Rahelian War in 1965.
Beginning in 1954, the RSD began providing support to a variety of nationalist groups inside the UKP, principally the Kexri Liberation and Freedom Force and the Khazi Army for National Liberation. Both groups would stage attacks and assassinations against UKP officials, while conversely the Black Hand steadily escalated its operations in the Zubaydi Federation. On the 13 January 1954, the Black Hand bombed a popular restaurant in At-Turbah, killing the Estmerish consul and three other consulate officials. As Euclean support for the Federation increased, so to did the Black Hand's targetting of Euclean presences inside the Federation, while these attacks proved ineffective during the late 1950s, the period between 1960 and 1965 saw among the worst attacks on Euclean interests in the Irfanic World since the heyday of colonisation. From July to September 1954, the Black Hand succeeded in assassinating several low-ranking members of the Zubaydi family. On 2 October, the Black Hand claimed responsibility for the disappearance of Air Rahelia Flight 222, which was found to have exploded mid-air resulting in the deaths of 66 people. On 18 October, a bomb exploded amidst the crowd of a regime rally in Zahedan, killing 47 people and injuring 200 others. In response, the UKP launched a series of air strikes on Federation positions along the border killing 12 soldiers. War between the two countries was averted through the mediation of Estmere. On 4 March 1958, Black Hand agents attacked an apartment building housing Euclean advisors to the Zubaydi Central Bank, killing 18 people and injuring 35 others.
In 1955, facing Federation efforts to shut down access to Radio Azadi, the UKP utilised its cadres inside the Zubaydi Federation to establish several underground radio broadcasts that came to be dubbed "Black Hussein Show" owing to the voice calling himself Hussein and his regularly listings of alleged instances of Eucleans murdering, raping or pillaging rural Federation villages and towns. The Black Hussein Show continued from 1955 until 1968 with the overthrow of the Federation, during which it regularly spread conspiracy theories and false news alerts aimed at demonising the Federation's supporters and to provoke popular protests against the Euclean presence. In 1961, Awad Al-Husseini shot dead two Hallandic contractors in Assan in revenge for a massacre of Zubaydi oil workers in the north. It was later revealed that the supposed massacre never occurred but was widely reported by the "Black Hussein Show."
In 1960, the Black Hand abducted Prince Haytham bin Ali and held him hostage for four days. In exchange for his release, the Black Hand demanded the abdication of King Muqrin Ali and a referendum on a republic. The prince was saved through a successful intervention by the Royal Lions. All four hostage takers were killed and was heralded as a great success for the Federation. In 1961, the Black Hand conducted six simaltaneous bombings of government buildings in At-Turbah and Sadah, killing 185 people and injuring 350 others. However, within two weeks, the Black Hand suffered its greatest setback when the RSD backed by Euclean advisors staged a nationwide raid on 23 Black Hand cells, arresting over 300 members of the group. On 22 September 1961, the RSD assassinated General Kamshad Esfanghiar, a prominent member of the UKP leadership outside his home. This was followed by the assassination of four other prominent UKP military commanders. In 1962, the tit-for-tat assassinations was internationalised when the Black Hand assassinated the Zubaydi ambassador to Hennehouwe, Prince Jamal Fuad during a reception at the Hennish Musuem of Art. In 1963, the Black Hand scored a major hit against the Federation when it asassinated Khalifa al-Khandari, the country's Foreign Minister and well respected career diplomat when they detonated a car bomb as readied to visit the Royal Palace.
Besides the Black Hand terror campaign and exchange of assassinations, the cold war was marked by various forms of espionage. The Royal Security Directorate and the Central Strategic Intelligence Service (CSIS) would infiltrate the other regularly, whilst the CSIS also worked to gather intelligence on the Euclean and Hallandic activities in the Federation. An estimated 79 spies were captured and killed during the cold war period, while their mutual activities spread to other continents. The CSIS reportedly made over 100 attempts to infiltrate the Royal Palace with the intention of assassinating Kings Said Ali and Muqrin Ali but failed each time. The RSD for its part made numerous attempts to disrupt Radio Azadi and to assassinate Mahrdad Ali Sattari. The RSD even succeeded in establishing a spy ring with the UKP's Interior Ministry for over six years before it was shut down by CSIS.
Death of Mahrdad Ali Sattari and succession
On 20 April 1955, Mahrdad Ali Sattari suffered a minor stroke during a visit to Namrin. Though kept secret from the wider UKP leadership, his health continued to deteriorate. Unwilling to nominate a successor publicly, he maintained a busy public schedule, leading to a second minor stroke sometime in September. However, the second stroke took place during a meeting of the Central Command Council. Though he survived, the sight unleashed bitter power struggles between aspiring successors. Forced to convalesce, Sattari was steadily side-lined from government business by First Minister Hossein Khalatbari, who would assume the office of the Supreme Leader upon Sattari’s death. Unwilling to permit being shut out of government business, Sattari strongarmed his staff in allowing him to return to work. Sattari conducted a series of massive public rallies between November and December and even condemned Khalatbari as a “hyena” to members of the Revolutionary Masses Party in private, undermining his subordinate’s reputation.
On January 2, Sattari suffered a third stroke, striking his head as he collapsed. He died in hospital the next day, with the news announced within hours by Khalatbari who used the announcement to confirm his own ascension to the Supreme Leadership. Khalatbari appointed Yadollah Shariatzadeh as First Minister the same day, while also assuming responsibility for Sattari’s state funeral. However, Khalatbari’s actions were met by a swift coalescing of rivals around Ali Sayyad Gharazi, while other lower-ranking aspirants took to the airwaves to express their revolutionary zeal and commitment to unification.
On January 4, Sattari’s state funeral was held and attended by an estimated 11 million people. While the funeral itself was heralded as a success, Khalatbari’s hope of credit falling exclusively to him failed to materialise. The next day, over 50 of his supporters in the Revolutionary Masses Party were arrested by the Special Security Service by order of Abdullah al-Atassi, as head of the National Revolutionary Tribunal. All 50 were accused of crimes against the Union and sentenced to hard labour. This was in turn followed by the expulsion of 35 Gharazi supporters for “ideological extremism” in March.
In June, a series of letters and documents written by Sattari, in which he described Khalatbari as a “traitorous scumbag”, “hyena” and claimed that Khalatbari’s mother was a “woman of ill repute popular with the Etrurian imperialist official” were leaked and printed in the military’s newspaper. This enabled several figures to emerge claiming Khalatbari was conceived because of his mother’s purported time as a sex worker, inferring the acting Supreme Leader to be half Pardarian and half Etrurian. In response, Khalatbari condemn the story as vicious smears, but refused to take any stronger action against the military’s newspaper for fear it would alienate members of the party.
On the 4 July, Khalatbari’s eldest son was arrested by order of the National Revolutionary Tribunal for establishing illicit business ties with a Zubaydi Prince. The scandal further weakened Khalatbari to the extent that on 9 July, he announced he would no longer be a contender as Supreme Leader. He then activated the party process for a general assembly, which duly elected Ali Sayyad Gharazi as Supreme Leader.
As Khalatbari was engulfed in scandal and smears, Gharazi focused on extolling his revolutionary credentials and his rhetoric on unification was highly aggressive and inherently focused on the use of military force. In a speech to party members in late June, he said, “either we strike with the ferocity of a whirlwind, or we shall be drowned by the monarchist and their imperialist overlords.” He reiterated his point at a public rally where he vowed to “send our brave soldiers into the bedroom of King Said Ali and there, they shall bayonet him in name of the Zorasani people.” Gharazi's ascenion to Supreme Leader significantly heightened tensions between the UKP and Federation, while Gharazi's focus on the expansion and modernisation of the Zorasani Revolutionary Army was also marked by increased clashes on the border.
Growing international involvement
1958 Riyadhi Crisis
On the 4 July 1958, the Black Hand attempted to assassinate King Abdullah-Yazid of Riyadha. The gun attack caused him serious injuries, sending to Euclea for medical treatment. Whilst the gunmen were killed by his guards, the assassination destabilised the Riyadhi family as Crown Prince Hassan Yazeed was serving as Prime Minister at the time and had poor relations with his younger brother, Jubayr bin Abdullah. On the 5 July, Jubayr met with the senior members of the Riyadhi royal family in the hope of securing his coronation as King, claiming that his brother’s service as Prime Minister of the Federation excluded him from the line of succession. This was rejected by the family who correctly asserted that King Abdullah-Yazid was still alive. The failed attempt disgraced the Prince, and he was relegated to govern the Emirate of Qashli on the western coast.
The dispute alienated many in the Riyadhi section of the Royal Armed Forces, who saw the attempt by Prince Jubayr as a worrying indication of what might occur should the King not survive his wounds. The Prince retained numerous ties to other members of the Royal Federal Armed Forces and most importantly within the Riyadhi Royal Territorial Force. These individuals also resented the union with Irvadistan, seeing it as a subordination of Riyadha to Irvadistan, thus making it little to no different to the UKP. Others in the military also saw the episode as an example of the blatant weaknesses of the Al-Hawashim family around Abdullah-Yazid. Led by General Kamal al-Din al-Nabhani, these concerned elements began to plot for the seizure of At-Turbah with the intention of placing Prince Murtaza Ali (brother of King Abdullah-Yazid) on the Riyadhi throne. Murtaza Ali was noted for his efficient governance of the Emirate of At-Turbah and both his own sons were prominent cabinet ministers at the Federal level.
The plan for the overthrow was produced throughout July, with the leaders keeping a close eye on the medical treatment being given to King Abdullah-Yazid. By mid-July, the plotters had gained the support of officers who could provide 2,205 Royal Territorials and a bribe of At-Turbah’s police chief all but guaranteed ease of access to the Riyadhi capital. By July 30, General Al-Nabhani felt confident the plan was sufficient to implement.
In the late hours of August 1, the 2,200 Territorials were transported to the capital, sealing off the access points, while smaller groups captured the Riyadhi Regional Radio station and the At-Turbah station of Radio Rahelia. 400 soldiers and 20 officers then proceeded the Palace of the Emirs and after a brief firefight with guards captured the palatial complex. At 06.50am on August 2, General Al-Nabhani announced the coup and invited Prince Murtaza Ali to assume the throne over Radio Rahelia. However, not only did Murtaza Ali refuse, he made contact with the Federal government and immediately requested assistance in retaking At-Turbah. Crown Prince Hassan Yazeed speaking on the Sadah station of Radio Rahelia denounced the coup and urged their immediate surrender.
At midday, Riyadhi loyalists in the Territorial Force were deployed to At-Turbah and engaged the putchists in gunfights. Within several hours, they had retaken the radio station and cleared numerous checkpoints, leaving the putchists trapped inside the Palace. With the capture of the radio stations, Prince Murtaza Ali took to the airwaves, refusing the invitation and urging for the surrender of remining putchists. Shortly after 4pm, many of the Territorials began to surrender to loyalist units. General Al-Nabhani and his main fellow conspirators committed suicide as loyalists stormed the palace, restoring control.
Murtaza Ali took up governance of Riyadha until King Abdullah-Yazid’s return three days later and would remain physically weak for the remaining years of his life. Those who surrendered were tried for treason and executed in 1959. While the incident served to solidify the Federation, it served the Black Hand’s intentions of discovering weak points in the elite. The incident also proved a propaganda coup to the UKP, who depicted it as manifestation of the “bedevilled monarchists ambition, overcoming the very lives of human beings.” It further highlighted the internal divisions and rivalries of leading princes, who often formed cliques of their own aided by oil-revenue funded patronage networks. The incident also served to inspire the emergence of radical left-wing groups inside the Federation, aided by the Communalist Republic of Tsabara, who saw the unification of Zorasan as an existential threat. It has been argued by historians that the Riyadhi Crisis of 1958, may have been the leading catalyst for the eventual socialist-led overthrow of the Federation a decade later.
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