Ossorian war crisis
| Ossorian war crisis | |||||||
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| Part of wretched decade in Gylias | |||||||
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| States involved | |||||||
 Gylias |
 Ossoria | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | None | ||||||
Part of a series on the |
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| History of Gylias |
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The Ossorian war crisis (French reformed: Crise d'guerre d'Ossorie), known in Ossoria as the Gylian Affair (Ossorian Gaelic: Scéal na Gaighliás), was a ten-day political confrontation between Ossoria and Gylias, which took place in May 1986.
The crisis began on 20 May 1986, when the Ossorian government made public that the Aén Ďanez government had been covertly providing financial and materiel support to the Republican Faction, a domestic terror group committed to bringing down the monarchy. This instigated a major diplomatic incident between the two countries and a political crisis in Gylias, which was without a new government since the 1985 federal election.
The crisis culminated in the Ossorian Parliament, prompted by widespread public outrage, voting to authorize a punitive military mission against Gylias, although High King Nevan III vetoed the motion the day after its passage. This galvanized the Gylian opposition, which toppled the Aén Ďanez government on 30 May, replacing it with the Filomena Pinheiro government. Aén's removal from office marked the official end to the crisis, however tense relations between Ossoria and Gylias endured for years afterwards. The crisis is considered to be the nadir of the wretched decade.
Background
The relationship between Gylias and Ossoria have historically been unsettled and wary, with the primary cause of this undercurrent of tension being the divergent cultures central to the two nations' political systems. In Ossoria, the government evolved into an enlightened monarchy, but remained deeply distrustful of what they referred to as "unrestrained democracy" as a direct result of their experience in the aftermath of the Legislaturist War. Meanwhile Gylias had become an anarchist-influenced direct democracy, a tradition inherited from the Free Territories.
During the Liberation War, Ossoria had supported a constitutional monarchist faction in the Daláyk islands aligned with the Nerveiík Kingdom, and thus obtained a naval base at Eltykan. After the Liberation War, Gylic–Ossorian relations were initially tense due to the reflexive Ossorian suspicion of Gylian anarchism, but had gradually improved under Erika Ďileş to the level of an informal understanding. The official Ossorian attitude towards Gylias was once summarized by its Taoiseach in 1968:
"We shall wage no war against unfettered democratic idealism so long as it is kept within the territories and among those peoples that are so inclined, and the Gylians have shown no inclination to impose or force upon us such a system."
Relations were later damaged by the wretched decade and the confrontational attitude of Aén Ďanez government. Aén sought to explicitly increase Gylias' influence as a leftist state in Tyran, and possibly even challenge Ruvelka for the position of leader of the leftist nations of Tyran. Among these efforts, she pushed the Revolutionary Rally to support various insurrectionary or revolutionary formations. The policy was accelerated when the Progressive Alliance was expelled from the coalition in 1983; although this reduced Aén's government to a shaky minority, it allowed the RR to take covert measures more easily.
Crisis
By 1986 the Ossorian Ministry of National Intelligence had uncovered that Aén's government had been providing covert support to the Republican Faction. This support included allowing the RF to undertake smuggling operations through Gylias, and providing materiel support through a secretly-established slush fund, hidden from the cabinet and administrative agencies. This information was revealed to the public on 20 May 1986 after a series of leaks to Raidió Teilifís Osraí hinted at the connection.
The revelation caused immediate and vociferous outrage in both countries. The Ossorian public was incensed that the Faction had been secretly supported by a foreign government during its terror campaign, while the Gylian public was revolted that the RR had hidden this policy from even their coalition partners, and had gone to such lengths as to create and conceal a slush fund. The People's Voice commented that while Gylians may have sympathized with the overall aims of the RF, the combination of the RF's terroristic tactics combined with the fact that it lacked any charismatic figures or "wicked" appeal that had fueled broad sympathy for the Labor Underground and Delkoran far-left insurgencies meant there was no great impetus to support them.
In response to the revelations, the Dáil Osraí voted in an emergency session on 28 May to authorize a punitive mission against Gylias, and the Ossorian Armed Forces were put on alert while the matter was considered by the High King. Despite the immense public pressure, the Dáil had worded the authorization carefully to emphasize their quarrel was with the Gylian government, not the Gylian people, and that their objective was to remove the Aén Ďanez government, not install an entirely new political system.
As the political crisis escalated, the Royal Navy began evacuating noncombatants from the base at Eltykan and began preparations for what seemed to be an imminent conflict: patrol boats challenged anyone who approached with loaded weapons, base personnel began building field fortifications on the approaches to the base, sensitive materials were destroyed, and security personnel were openly carrying their weapons while on patrol. When news of the bill's passage was made public in Gylias, massive protests broke out in cities across the country against the Aén government. The GSDF called emergency mass assemblies, where a majority of personnel voted against resisting an Ossorian invasion, as they felt the government was clearly in the wrong.
Despite the pressures, and having had his own brother killed in an RF bombing, High King Nevan III ultimately withheld Royal Assent to the authorization bill on 29 May. He made a televised speech to the nation explaining his reasons, in which he famously cited the recent birth of his daughter, Crown Princess Nóra, and his unwillingness to have her life begin "amidst the unnecessary effusion of innocent blood" and that he felt that "of all manifestations of power, restraint is sometimes the most impressive".
Although the authorization had been vetoed, the Ossorian military remained on high alert, and the situation remained tense and uncertain. Gylias had technically been without a new government since the inconclusive 1985 federal election, with Aén's cabinet remaining as a caretaker. The war crisis galvanized the opposition, which united behind independent deputy Filomena Pinheiro and formally ousted Aén's government the same day as Nevan's veto, albeit before the High King's speech. The Filomena Pinheiro government took office on 30 May 1986, and the Ossorian government judged the situation satisfactory enough to phase down the alert.
Aftermath
Aén and her government were investigated for abuse of office, crimes against society, and crimes against the public peace. Many were found guilty, Aén among them, and received the toughest sentence: expulsion from the community in a social quarantine area, where they died. Aén remains widely considered Gylias' worst Prime Minister due to her central role in the wretched decade and the crisis.
The crisis disgraced and destroyed the Revolutionary Rally as a political force. Channeling public anger at its actions, Filomena oversaw the largest crackdown on the authoritarian left since the Lucian Purge. Her term was spent recovering from the damage inflicted during the wretched decade, including legal reforms to strengthen oversight of governments, political realignments, and economic debates. She devoted much of her energy to rebuilding relations with other nations, particularly Ossoria.
The crisis marked the nadir of the wretched decade, and of Gylian–Ossorian relations. Despite overtures to improve relations, the Ossorians still remained broadly suspicious for the rest of the decade, shocked by the length of Aén's tenure and disgusted at the ineffectiveness of the Gylian opposition. Unofficial boycotts of Gylian products and pop culture persist in some quarters of the Ossorian population as a result of the crisis. Nevan III remained deeply distrustful of Gylias throughout the remainder of his reign, and would scathingly remark, "They're not just crazy, they're untrustworthy too."
Relations improved to some extent after the Mathilde Vieira government took office in 1990, but there was no incentive to build closer relations like the other international friendships Gylias rebuilt. Another brief diplomatic incident occurred in 1991, when Mathilde supported the ARPAGHARCON during the Rice and Oil War. The Ossorian government sent a telegram stating simply "Remember Ďanez"; Mathilde felt insulted and replied, "Remember Gylias isn't your colony." The incident did not sour relations per se but rather made both sides essentially conclude that further attempts at reconciliation would be futile. While the tensions have dissipated over time, particularly after the accession of High Queen Tara following the death of Nevan III, relations between Gylias and Ossoria remain cordially neutral.
The crisis and shock caused by Ossorian mobilisation shattered the previous acceptance of the Eltykan naval base, and began debates regarding its future. Local referendums to close the base were held in Eltykan in 1986 and 2018, the latter in the midst of the short-lived Arzell Crisis. Both were unsuccessful, although the RON took note of the close margins of the result and held consultations to address locals' grievances.