Muttay
 | This article is incomplete because it is pending further input from participants, or it is a work-in-progress by one author. Please comment on this article's talk page to share your input, comments and questions. Note: To contribute to this article, you may need to seek help from the author(s) of this page. |
| The Muttay | |
|---|---|
| ⵎⵓⵜⵜⴰⵢ | |
| Date | 7 - 13 June 2023 |
| Location | |
| Caused by |
|
| Resulted in |
|
The Muttay (Tamashek: ⵎⵓⵜⵜⴰⵢ, lit. "The Change") was a major mutiny within the Charnean Army that resulted in the overthrow of incumbent civilian government of Charnea as well as the established military command structure. The mutiny began on June 7th, 2023, in the city of Azut, considered to be the de facto headquarters of the Army, and ended on the 13th of the same month when the mutineers entered the Palace of State in Agnannet. The conclusion of the Muttay ushered in the seven month long rule of the Provisional Military Government (PMG), which in turn would give way to the establishment of the first Republic of Charnea.
Tensions between the rank and file of the Charnean Army and their commanders as well as the civilian government that oversees them have run deep since the end of the Ninvite War. Veterans and their families had begun to openly criticize the military for what they saw as apathy towards the struggle of the common soldier and of military widows in the wake of the bloodiest conflict in Charnean history. This activity was generally tolerated by Charnean leadership under Pazir Madoun and even encouraged under the regime of Martuf Lamine, who leveraged the political support of the veterans for his agenda in exchange for promises to reform the military and resolve the grievances of the veterans movement. This policy was dramatically reversed by Marus Ibiza ag Haqar, who came to power following Martuf Lamine's death in a plane crash in Fahran in May of 2023. Marus Ibiza's crackdown on military dissent and the veterans movement would later be cited by the mutineers as the single primary event which incited their uprising.
Background
The leadup to the Muttay were months of strife for the Charnean military community, primarily over the subject of the ICA's family stipend. This was a program implemented in 2010 to assist Charnean servicemembers with cover the expenses of their their dependents and families. It was a program that was wildly popular among the troops but was criticized by other sectors of society for bloating the already sizable military budget, with the opinion circulating in online spheres that the family stipend came at the cost of national welfare and assistance programs for civilians. Debate had surrounded the policy for months as some within the AKE party ruling Charnea as a one-party state since the 1960s caught on to the public outcry and initiated debate on the subject in the legislature. This inflamed the veterans movement, which rallied to the cause of protecting the ICA family stipend by staging a series of demonstrations and rallies in public places around the capital in an effort to dissuade the AKE dominated legislature from going forward with the proposal. Going into May of 2023, these protests had been going on for months, continuing long after the proposal to cut the family stipend was successfully stalled out in the legislature with the assistance of Martuf Lamine, chief of state at the time. The objective of the veterans protests had become more diffuse, turning into a generalized display of dissatisfaction and antigovernmental sentiment as a significant number of non-veterans had added themselves to the crowds.
Tensions within the military between the high command and the lower ranks escalated with the death of Martuf Lamine in a plane crash in Fahran as the Charnean leader was visiting the battlefields of the Fahrani Civil War and the detachment of ICA troops active there. Marus Ibiza ag Haqar, the Premier of Charnea whom Lamine had long scorned and stripped of power, seized the opportunity to step into the power vacuum and began a reorganization of what remained of Lamine's government. This included a swift crackdown on dissention in the ranks of the ICA, something which Marus Ibiza accused the late Lamine of stirring up for political purposes and which had long been a point of criticism from the civilian government to the military command since the Ninvite War when then-Premier Pazir Madoun clashed with the ICA's culture of autonomous commanders and what he called the "rogue NCO problem" of junior officers and enlisted ranks frequently acting without or even against orders with little repercussion.
In order to carry out his plan of restoring civilian control over what he saw as rogue elements of the military, Marus Ibiza appointed Madounist loyalist General Aspar Amini to the position of the Chief of Staff of the ICA, tasking him with the job of bringing the lower ranks to heel. He also began police crackdowns on the demonstrators in the capital, dispersing many of the protestors. Clashes turned violent on the 2nd of June when security forces in the capital confronted a group of veterans and their families encamped in an Agnannet park, unaware the veterans were armed. The resulting clash left 13 of the veterans contingent and one police officer dead, inflaming tensions in the military and creating a crisis of dicipline that only further spurred on Ibiza and Amini's planned disciplinary purge of the ranks. On the 6th, Amini issued a press release announcing his intentions to end "riots in Agnannet" and quell those within the active service Army that had supported them, whom he referred to as "traitors in uniform". He announced that a thurough investigation would be conducted on the activities of all those in the national services that had provided moral or material support to those occupying areas of the capital, mentioning several by name including Khyar Aziouel, the head of the Desert Rangers training school in Azut and a frequent critic of the ICA's high command.
Mutiny
Azut
Khyar Aziouel was among several figures in the ICA who was ordered to step down from their posts pending the investigation Amini had promised on the 6th. He was, however, the first to openly refuse the order. As the head of the Ranger academy, Aziouel commanded the personal loyalty and respect of a major contingent within the ICA Rangers, themselves notorious for their independence and lack of oversight from the command structure. Mere hours from the broadcasting of Amini's intentions on the 6th, Aziouel ordered a number of his Rangers, including several student recruits undergoing training in the academy, to relocate to various key locations around the city of Azut, considered to be the de facto nerve center of the ICA. There was no resistance or significant conflict of any kind as Rangers entered Senusret military academy, the Azut Army Depot, and the central rail yard on the Xallalbatan railway line that served as a vital logistics hub.
Word of the Rangers movements soon reached Amini and the high command in Agnannet, as confused messages came in from many commanders on the ground inquiring as to the Rangers activities. Notably, the Ranger detachments had not many any effort to shut down communications or otherwise seize control of the facilities. At 7 in the morning on the 7th of June, a group of Rangers including Khyar Aziouel appeared in a short video circulated on to Charnean social medias, calling out both Amini and Marus Ibiza for "reckless actions against the interests of the country", calling both the Ibiza administration and Amini's high command illegitimate and declaring that Aziouel would not step down on orders from either of the two.