Khitiyu War
| Khitiyu War شەرێ بۆ حەسکیف Şerê bo Heskîf Marvdasht Savaşı جنگ تحمیلی Jang-e Marvdasht | |||||||
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| File:MarvdashtWar.jpg Siphrian soldiers under Ankoreni artillery attack | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Siphria |
Template:Country data Ankoren | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Îsmaîl Ferîqî Ebdilqadirê Mezrayî Husên Rezazî Evdirehman Xeyamî Mistefa Berekat Behaedîn Nasirî Îbrahîm Cefarî |
Template:Country data Ankoren Hakkim Ali Ghaddar Template:Country data Ankoren Houchang Paradvar Template:Country data Ankoren Devrim Talaat Template:Country data Ankoren Mehmet Karagül Template:Country data Ankoren Hossein Akhtar † Template:Country data Ankoren Tarek Arslan | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
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Initial forces: 600 soldiers 6 tanks 220 policemen At height: 10,770 soldiers 130 tanks 38 aircraft |
Initial forces: 3,200 soldiers 50 tanks 10 aircraft At height: 10,480 soldiers 400 tanks 35 aircraft | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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1,107 killed 2,237 injured 335 captured 860 missing |
919 killed 1,255 injured 1,004 captured 108 missing | ||||||
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1,195 Siphrian civilians killed in fighting and the Ankoreni occupation ~35,000 civilians displaced | |||||||
The Khitiyu War (Siphrian: شەرێ بۆ حەسکیف, Şerê bo Heskîf), known officially in Ankoren as the Marvdasht War (Ankoreni: Marvdasht Savaşı; Pasdani: جنگ تحمیلی, Jang-e Marvdasht) was a five-month long war fought between Ankoren and Siphria over the Khitiyu region of north-western Siphria. The region was and remains a territory under dispute, with Ankoren citing historical control and cultural links with Pasdan. The conflict began shortly after the failed Islamic Collectivist Putsch attempt, which brought Siphria into disarray. The conflict however, was instigated at the behest of hardliner Ankoreni generals, rather than the national government, resulting in poor command-and-control and strategic planning.
The conflict began on 3 March 1974 when the 23rd Infantry Brigade of the Islamic Revolutionary Army, under the command of General Houchang Paradvar crossed the border into the Khitiyu region, capturing several towns, including Khitiyu itself. Initially, the Ankorenis faced only sporadic resistance from Siphrian police and armed civilians, who were quickly put down. On March 10, Paradvar declared "Marvdasht has been liberated, it is now an integral piece of sovereign Ankoren." Siphria's government under Îsmaîl Ferîqî, after successfully defeating the Islamic Collectivist putschists, mobilised the country and swiftly mounted a counter-attack.
Due to political power-struggles domestically, Ankoren's State President Hakkim Ali Ghaddar declared support for the annexation of Khitiyu and pledged further forces to support Paradvar. A further 9,000 soldiers were deployed, blunting initial Siphrian counter-attacks. Yet, disagreements over the conflict, especially with regards to extending control to all of Siphria or strategic gains made by capturing Khitiyu, resulted in chronic breakdowns in Ankoreni command-and-control, strategic planning and logistics. In July, the Siphrians launched their largest counter-attack, pushing Ankoreni forces back toward the border. In late July, the Ankoreni regime turned on the war-effort and began to withdraw forces from Siphria, which quickly resulted in the capture of Khitiyu city by Siphrian forces. On the 26 August, the two sides signed an armistice ending the conflict. This was followed in October by a general peace agreement, which officially ended hostilities, but failed to resolve the territorial dispute.
The five-month-long conflict had long-lasting effects on both countries' political cultures, bi-lateral relations and societies. The first immediate effect was the fall of State President Ali Ghaddar, who was replaced by the reformist Javad Jahandar, who would later focus on economic reforms that dramatically transformed Ankoren. The war also led to reforms to the Islamic Revolutionary Army, but also sparked the long-running power-struggle between generals and civilians in the Islamic Union Front, which included a popular myth that civilians in the regime back-stabbed the Army into only utilising a fraction of its military capability. In Siphria, the war's outbreak - particularly in the wake of the Muharram coup - resulted in a coalescence of support behind the Ferîqî regime and enabled Ferîqî to move to crack down on groups that were perceived as sympathetic towards Ankoren, including Siphrian Shia Muslims, the Sunni Muslim Bedouin, and pan-Nautasian groups within the country. The high losses suffered by Siphria during the conflict also triggered the reintroduction of conscription, the militarization of Khitiyu, and several major army reforms. The brief and violent occupation of Khitiyu also resulted in adverse changes; it entrenched anti-Ankoreni perceptions in Siphria, and resulted in the complete ejection of the region's Pasdani population, who fled into Ankoren at the war's end to escape retribution.
Diplomatic relations between Ankoren and Siphria were restored in 1980 following a bi-lateral summit in Zahedan. The Zahedan Summit failed to resolve the territorial dispute, however the Ankoreni government agreed to cease any official tempts diplomatically or militarily to alter the border between the two states. By 1982, all official government maps produced in Ankoren no longer included Khitiyu and state propaganda no longer urged for its return. The two governments also jointly agreed to pursue greater "mutual understanding and respect", which resulted in improved ties. In 2001, the city became home to the Khitiyu-Marvdasht Joint Industrial Zone, which came to employ over 6,000 Siphrians. In 2017, relations collapsed with the 2017 Khitiyu hostage crisis, which once again saw the region become centre to hostilities.
Origins
Muharram coup
The Baha'i faith originated in Siphria in 1844, and grew quickly in spite of intense persecution by the Emirate of Siphria, which espoused Shia Islam as Siphria's state religion. As time passed, this religious conflict became tinged with nationalism due to the Emirate's close ties to Ankoren; the ruling Sabri dynasty was ultimately of Ankoreni origin, and relied heavily on Ankoreni military and political support. After the Sabri dynasty was overthrown in the 1913 Siphrian Revolution, the ruling council of the Baha'i faith - known as the Council of the Faithful - were granted a formal role in the newly-established Baha'i Republic of Siphria. Successive Siphrian governments also restricted the rights of non-Baha'i, including Siphrians who had continued to practice Shia Islam and the primarily Sunni Muslim inhabitants of Awiyyistan. This caused widespread resentment among these groups, and many within them began to espouse Islamic Collectivism.
On February 1, 1974, a group of Muslim soldiers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Elî Husên and styling themselves as the Islamic Revolutionary Party, attempted a coup d'etat against the Baha'i Republic of Siphria. Launching their coup shortly after 9:00 AM, the putschists successfully seized control of the country's capital, Akrê. They also attempted, but failed, to seize control of the cities of Şeqlawe and Keşvare. Soldiers loyal to Husên also captured and executed President Seyîd Mukriyanî, three members of the Council of the Faithful, several leading generals in the Siphrian Baha'i Armed Forces, and thirty-five members of the Legislative Assembly. At 3:00 PM, Husên made a radio announcement in which he declared himself President and announced the suspension of the Legislative Assembly and the dissolution of the Council of the Faithful. Inspired by this announcement, civilians sympathetic to Husên seized control of government facilities in the Awiyyi cities of Saqriyah, Qataniyah, and Khadraniyah.
While Husên and his allies had seized control of the capital and the major population centers of Siphria's desert interior, the vast majority of the country still remained in the hands of forces opposed to the putsch. With the surviving members of the Council of the Faithful scattered between several towns and many leading generals held hostage in Akrê or dead, a group mid-ranking army officers were able to seize de facto control of the Siphrian Baha'i Armed Forces, and quickly moved forces to retake Akrê and pacify Awiyyistan. Awiyyistan was largely pacified by February 11, in part due to air strikes that destroyed significant portions of Saqriyah, Qataniyah, and Khadraniyah, but putschist forces in Akrê continued to hold out for several more days, resulting in pitched urban fighting. On February 19, though, the city was retaken by forces under Colonel Îsmaîl Ferîqî, who - with the backing of the surviving members of the Council of the Faithful - declared himself President of Siphria. Ferîqî declared an indefinite period of nationwide martial law, banned all Islamic Collectivist groups and associations, and had Husên and the surviving leaders of the putsch executed.
Ankoreni power-struggle
Running concurrent to the Muharram Coup was a power-struggle between State President Hakkim Ali Ghaddar and Javad Jahandar in Ankoren. Ghaddar, who was elected as State President by the Union Congress in 1974, after a brutal campaign against rival Jahandar, dithered greatly on whether to support the Islamic Collectivist putsch in Siphria, citing its ethno-religious incompatibility with Islamic Collectivism's Pan-Nautasianism. Jahandar, who remained Chief of the General Staff Headquarters, advocated intervention, claiming that the "ethno-religious guidelines of our Great Endevour, should not deny us geopolitical opportunities to assert dominance."
Throughout February Jahandar was championing intervention in the State Council and Union Congress, gaining much support from the military. However, when the putsch was defeated on 19 February, Jahandar turned his attention to blaming Ghaddar, while his efforts to call on intervention had lasting influences on many generals who argued for intervention regardless. One such general was Houchang Padavar, the commanding officer of the 23rd Infantry Brigade based in western Pasdan. Padavar had much support in senior levels of the Islamic Revolutionary Army and began to organise with his brigade-staff plans to act without central government authorisation.
In late February, Padavar gained the support of his brigade's officers and NCOs, and with cover being offered by the General Staff Headquarters, Padavar declared to his unit, his intention to liberate Khitiyu and through that offer safe haven for Islamic Collectivists, from where they could continue to threaten the Siphrian state. Conversely, many historians believe that General Jahandar, as head of the IRA, was aware of the plot and permitted it, either through support of Padavar's hardline position, or through his belief that it would fundamentally weaken Ghaddar. The Ankoreni central government would not become aware of Padavar's actions until March 5, two days after the war began.
Conflict begins
Paradvar's invasion
On March 1, Padavar's 23rd Infantry Brigade left its barracks on official training exercises 5km east of the Ankoren-Siphria border near the village of Mirjaveh. The exercises were signed off by General Javad Jahandar, with General Murat Kiraz co-signing the document. For two days the brigade conducted exercises covering offensive and defensive actions, which increased its own preparation for the eventual crossing into Siphrian territory and providing cover from the central government.
At 00.13am however, the 33rd Takavaran Unit (estimated at 45 men) attached to the 23rd Brigade crossed the border, capturing three border crossings and guard towers. Over the next two hours the unit moved west to positions overlooking Khitiyu, reporting on activities in the town, as well as routes leading in and out of the town, that had not been included in the 1968 map of Siphria used by the Islamic Revolutionary Army. The unit also began to cut various phone lines leading to Khitiyu and surrounding villages, two civilians who spotted the unit were killed and their bodies dumped in a wadi 3 kilometers north of Khitiyu.
At 05:00 AM, the rest of the brigade crossed the border, capturing the villages of X and X, before entering the outskirts of Khitiyu at 07:04 AM. Resistance was sporadic as isolated and often individual acts of resistance were given by police or armed civilians. By 06:00 AM, the 23rd Brigade had captured six villages surrounding Khitiyu, as well as the latter itself. At total of 16 people were killed or injured in the incursion, mostly police officers who attempted to halt the entry of the brigade in Khitiyu. Padavar had his unit deploy to defensive positions west of Khitiyu, then along the northern line of advance. At 08:56 AM, General Padavar himself visited Khitiyu, observing the announcement by the brigade's Spiritual Mobilisation Officer (analogous to a political commissar) that the town had been liberated. Immediately after the town was placed under curfew and residents were barred inside their homes.
Capture of Khitiyu
Following the entry of Ankoreni soldiers into Khitiyu, the curfew was enforced. According to eyewitnesses who reported after the war, this was enforced violently, with up to 25 civilians either killed or injured with live fire from Ankoreni soldiers. The town's administration building was seized and citizens in prominent local political positions were arrested and detained in a water-pumping station close to the border. All 11 people were reported missing to the Siphrian government, and were counted as missing until 1994, when the Siphrian government reclassified them as "killed/executed". Throughout the afternoon of the 3 March, the Ankoreni soldiers conducted house searches for weapons and ammunition. <imgur thumb="yes" w="215" comment="Soldiers of Padavar's 23rd Infantry Brigade entering Old Khitiyu.">ufXzRjd.png</imgur> During the evening of the 3 March, the Ankoreni soldiers celebrated by playing loud music, Muslim prayer songs and drinking heavily. One group of soldiers spray painted anti-Siphrian and anti-Aburrite slogans on buildings surrounding the main square, while mock dummies of Siphrian leader Îsmaîl Ferîqî were hung from makeshift gallows outside the city hall building. Survivors reported isolated incidents of violence against the locals, with at least three people reportedly shot by drunk Ankoreni soldiers. At around midnight, a local elder approached officers urging for peace and for them to return to Ankoren, according to eye-witnesses, he was beaten to the floor before being shot.
On the 4 March, the Ankorenis began to expand their search for weapons or possible dissidents to the surrounding areas, while numerous street signs, posts and signs were replaced with Pasdani ones. At midday on the 4th, 4 Ankorenis were killed when they were ambushed by armed police in the village of Qeladizê, in retaliation after the police were killed in a brief firefight, the entire village was burned to the ground and over 60 civilians were killed and buried in a mass grave; which was discovered in 1977.
Siphrian response
First Siphrian counter-attacks
(feriqi pins several officers as fall guys for the "Khitiyu is near-undefended" thing and demotes them several ranks)
(initial siphrian efforts at counter-attack slowed down by need to move troops to the front, particularly by the need to move them from areas of awiyyistan with poor infrastructure)
(in addition, initial counteroffensives are underprepared and undermanned as siphria just tries to stop retreating, so they're not accomplishing much really)
(feriqi gets conscription enacted, strengthens himself with mezrayi's support; feriqi does bootleg of imahara's three-point-plan)
(once reinforcements actually arrive, the retreats halt and some counteroffensives make token progress- i.e. reclaiming a village or two- but this is blunted by ankoreni reinforcements)
(ankoreni offensive halted, siphria technically advancing; but siphria is still only taking a few villages with each offensive, and it's struggling to hold them more often than not)
Ankoreni political breakdown
Siphrian counter-attack
(siphria's intelligence agencies only have the vaguest idea that there's trouble in ankoren because the takavaran has the upper hand in the intel game; nevertheless they somehow get the hint that the ankie military is divided)
(a plan is drafted to take advantage of this, consisting of getting the villages around Khitiyu, attempting to cut off Khitiyu from ankoren, and then just urban-combatting it)
(offensive begins in july; villages reclaimed decently easily, but the road from ankie territory to Khitiyu holds; after a while they decide to begin the offensive to reclaim Khitiyu sooner rather than later and the urban combat begins)
(possible issues regarding ankoren not wanting to let civilians evacuate, or using them as human shields; the civvies begin aiding siphrian forces by passing info or acting as safehouses; siphria's military caves into using airplanes to bomb a siphrian city; tl;dr urban combat is thoroughly pleasant for everyone involved)
(this is probably the point where hakkim ali ghaddar begins trying to pull troops out- possibly resulting in ankoreni troops retreating under fire along that aforementioned road- but that's kind of up to ankoren not me)
(eventually what remains of the city is reclaimed and remaining ankoreni troops retreat; much jubilation in siphria though the mood is much less happy in the ruins of Khitiyu)
(siphria doesn't want to enter ankoreni soil- fearing that this would lead to ankoreni escalation- but it does shell pasdani villages from across the border)
General Armistice
Aftermath
Peace agreement
<imgur thumb="yes" w="215" comment="Ferîqî and Ghaddar during peace negotiations in October.">9orYwpj.png</imgur>
Fall of Ali Ghaddar
Ankoreni military reform
Siphrian army reform
(feriqi is kind of unchallenged now and can do as he wills)
(siphria gets a draft)
(militarizing; fortifying the sfr-ank border; Khitiyu militarized af)
Anti-Ankoreni sentiments in Siphria
(siphrian pasdanis driven out)
(feriqi moves to eliminate shia islam among ethnic siphrians, and the sunni islam bedouin; this goes so far as taking muslim children and putting them in orphanages or special schools to be raised as baha'is)
(also severe crackdown on iscol; all iscol organizations banned into the present)
Legacy
(Khitiyu-marvdasht industrial zone, Khitiyu hostage crisis)