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Normalisation
Modernisation and Harmony Campaign
Part of Zorasani Unification, Rahelian War, Irvadistan War
Normalisation Montage.png
From top-left clockwise: A resettlement camp in Khazestan (1956); Togotis being transported by train to Lake Zindarud; Rahelian tribal leaders before a firing squad (1979); the destruction of the Great Zohist Monument in southern Pardaran (1982); Construction of one of many factories in new industrial cities
LocationUnion of Khazestan and Pardaran, Zorasan
Date1950-1988
TargetPolitical opponents, Gâvmêšân, ethnic minorities, and occupied territory citizens
Attack type
population transfer, ethnic cleansing, forced labor, genocide, classicide,
Deaths980,000-3,980,000
PerpetratorsZorasani Revolutionary Army, UCF
MotiveModernisation, industrialisation, urbanisation and internal stability

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

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

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

Origins

Sattarism and Modernity

The origins of the Modernisation and Harmony Campaign lay in the development of National Renovationism, also known as Sattarism. Mahrdad Ali Sattari, the principal author and central figure among the Zorasani Union Fathers placed modernity as central “objective of the National Rewnovationist path.” This modernity, was based on the Rahelian language word ḥadāṯa, which also translates into “newness” or “modernism.” To Sattari and the National Renovationists in the early stages of the Pardarian Civil War, modernity or modernism was the state-embrace of industrialisation, urbanisation, technology and science. This was inherently a reaction to the Etrurian conquest of Zorasan (1822-1860), which they saw as a result of the backwardness, superstitious rejection of technology by the Gorsanid Empire, as well as what would later be termed as “Negative Sentimentalism.” This coalesced into a state policy that would later embrace population transfer as a means of populating new industrial regions, new farmland and areas rich in minerals.

In a meeting of the Central Command Council in late 1947, Sattari led efforts to begin preparing strategies and plans for “national modernisation” in the event of victory in the Pardarian Civil War. Sattari was keen to secure backing for what he described as the “radical transformation of means of activity across the country.” The CCC identified the need industrialise, modernise and mechanise agriculture, expand infrastructure and mobilise Pardarian society into swiftly adapting to the new reality. The Command Council also recognised to achieve this rapidly, mobilisation would necessitate the complete overhaul of lifestyles for its populace residing on the Great Coian Steppe. Nomadism would need to be eradicated if a new urban-industrial working class was to established, while other members of the CCC, such as Erkin Dostum saw the campaign as an opportunity to establish conformity across Pardaran’s various ethnic groups.

Throughout the Pardarian Civil War, Mahrdad Ali Sattari would regularly speak on the importance of modernising the nation, through state violence if necessary. He would regularly contrast the technological backwardness of the Gorsanid state with that of Etruria and other Euclean powers to claim that only through rapid modernisation would Pardaran and Zorasan at large, escape falling back under the influence of Euclean powers. Sattari made little no to effort to mask the desire to eradicate various cultural norms and ethno-cultural differences between the various groups in Pardaran and later Zorasan, claiming that Rahelian tribalism and Steppe nomadism posed significant threats to the “spiritual and political unification” of the people as well as serving as obstacles to greater economic development.

The 1948 Revolutionary Command Congress also adopted the “Protocol on the Industrialisation and Militarisation of the Economy” which served more so than any other document to conceptualise the industrialisation of the country as a necessary step prior to engaging in national reunification. The Protocol written by a number of PRRC officials at the local level, argued that the rapid expansion of heavy industry, notably steel production, locomotives and adoption of modern farming techniques would be key to enabling long-term military campaigns against the other post-1946 states within Zorasan. The Protocol also identified that the expansion of heavy industry would require expansions of Pardaran’s urban population to meet any labour shortages, justifying the future population transfers and deportations of communities to new ‘industrial cities.”

Consolidation and control

Several senior figures within the Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command, such as Hossein Khalatbari, Habibollah Mousavi and Yadollah Shariatzadeh saw the modernisation and industrialisation campaign through a wider lens of consolidating control over the country. Both Khalatbari and Shariatzadeh were long known advocates of targeting the Steppe for eradicating “Shaleghaic sentimentalities.” All three can be described as Pardarian Chauvinist and shared a dismissive view of the Steppe peoples as “barbaric” and “savage.” This chauvinistic view was rooted in the PRRC’s institutionalised view of the Shaleghaic people’s indifference to conquest by the Euclean powers, while other segments of the PRRC viewed the Shaleghaic of possessing “questionable loyalties to the homeland.”

In a 1949 document named the “On the Necessary Pardarianisation of the Steppe”, PRRC officials linked to Khalatbari argued that ‘Pardarianisation’ would only be defined as the “eradication of cultural and historic sentimentalities at odds with the process of industrialisation” and would amount to the forced adopt of sedentary living, eradication of nomadism, subsistence living and mobilisation in support of other state-run campaigns. The document would also ostensibly promote violence and severe punishments as a means of coercing any resistant communities.

The same year, Kamran Namdar a senior commander in the National Liberation Army produced a document with the support of Mahrdad Ali Sattari called “National Protocol on Aliens and Sedition” which described a number of Pardaran’s ethnic minorities as “intrinsically alien to the Irfano-Pardarian Civilisation”, notably the Chanwanese, Yeneisians and the 300,000 strong Satrian minority that resided predominately in coastal Pardaran as a legacy of the Etrurian colonial empire. The document would introduce to the political vernacular, the term “External” or “Alien” (خارجی; Xâreji) as a moniker for these minorities.

Beyond viewing the campaign as an opportunity to Pardarianise the Steppe, Habibollah Mousavi went further to argue in a series of speeches and meetings of the Central Command Council, that the campaign delivered an opportunity for the “people to be reborn a new.” Freed from tribal loyalties, antiquated customs and traditions and remade solely in the National Renovationist mould – obedient, subservient to the state and entirely devoid of individualistic motivations. He also made repeated assertions that urbanisation would afford new opportunities for mass surveillance, political rallies and control over movement and opinions. Mousavi secured the backing of key CCC figures, including Sattari, through his arguments that the campaign would also permit the government the space and time to further root out "elements loyal to the Shah and the ideals that brought about our demise."

Ethnic relations in pre-unification Zorasan

Planning

The campaign

Industrialisation

Urbanisation

Deportations

Anti-Obstinance Campaign

Anti-Sentimentality Campaign

Aftermath

Death toll

Genocide and ethnic cleansining

Legacy among Zorasani ethnic minorities