Tirikan Genocide

Tirikan Genocide
Part of Syraranto civil war
Ruins of a Gurriana village outside Tirikan after a crackdown by regime forces
Location	Western Syraranto
Date	May 11 2020 - March 1 2022
Target	Gurriana
Attack type	Mass murder, Enforced disappearance, torture, starvation
Deaths	min. 90,000 max. 118,000
Perpetrators	Tasoulas regime, local militias
Motive	Religious persecution, suppressing protest, anti-Gurriana sentiment

The Tirikan Genocide (also sometimes known as the Gurriana Genocide or the Tirikan Massacre) was the systematic mass murder over 110,000 ethnic Gurriana people carried out in Tirikan and adjoining regions in western Syraranto by the forces of Kyriakos Tasoulas from 2020-2022 in the regime's counter-rebellion military operations during the civil war. Massacres, forced disappearances, torture and summary executions of guerrillas and especially civilian collaborators at the hands of security forces had been widespread since 2017 and was a longstanding policy of the military regime, which many international officials were aware of.

The repression reached genocidal levels in the predominantly Gurriana province of Tirikan. There, the military viewed the ethnic group – traditionally seen as subhumans by the deeply anti-religious Tasoulas regime – as siding with the insurgency and began a campaign of mass killings and disappearances of peasants. In some areas, at least one-third of the villages were evacuated or destroyed. Children and young men were often targets of mass killings, orchestrated by a long-simmering disdain of the Gurriana held by Tasoulas.

After the 2022 West Nortua rocket attacks and the Sotoan Basin Union intervention in Syraranto, and the eventual death of Tasoulas during the Battle of Covijo, investigators from the SBU and WEDA began discovering mass graves belonging to Gurriana who were killed in massacres by regime forces. The first graves were discovered in early April, but were publicly disclosed on April 22nd. President Tony Blanian of Constantio urged the Coalition of Crown Albatross to call the massacres a genocide and to open an investigation and trials into crimes against humanity for surviving perpetrators. Resolution 239 was subsequently voted on. The genocide has been recognized by several nations, bodies of the CCA, and national and multi-national organizations.

Background

Prelude to civil war

Tasoulas' hostility toward the Gurriana people began upon his ascension to power and only amplified during the war. The socialist Kyriakos Tasoulas government came to power in 2015 through a emergency parliamentary election following the resignation of Mirakulo Eradon's government after a corruption scandal. The unrest in Syraranto continued largely with the 2016 Syraranto Revolution protests, which grew out of discontent with the Eradon government's growing suppression of civil liberties such as the right to gather in protest.

Tasoulas' government remained the dominant political authority in what had been a one-party state until the first multi-party election to the People's Council of Syraranto was held in 2017. On 31 January 2017, Tasoulas implemented a new constitution, which led to a national crisis. Unlike previous constitutions, this one did not require that the president of Syraranto be a Syraranto national, leading to fierce demonstrations in Covijo, Tirikan, Uuanain, and Jyiranua organized by the Balgita Nationalist Forces. In response to these protests, Tasoulas implemented many strict rules against the Gurriana ethnic and religious group, which exists largely in the Western region of Syraranto and is the general makeup of the B.N.F., which Tasoulas declared a terrorist organization. The Gurriana were stripped of their right to work in government positions and their religious gatherings were largely suspended with the reason given being "houses of worship being used as areas to build dissent and anti-government coup planning."

A growing separatist and independence movement began to grow in Syraranto, especially in the West along the border with Cylata and Constantio. While militia groups did form in communities in the west, there were never instances of unprovoked violence between government and militia forces from January 2017 to July 2020. The B.N.F. became a heavily armed group, which restricted Tasoulas' government from operating in large oversight in the west, effectively creating a de-facto government under the B.N.F. and a largely Gurriana council.

Kyriakos Tasoulas long labeled Gurriana leaders as "enemies of the people" and throughout the course of the war maintained that rebel groups in opposition to his rule were being led by Gurriana, though groups who were not active in Tirikan province could not be found to have many Gurriana within their ranks. Tasoulas' own hatred towards the Gurriana was evident in his early military campaigns against the city of Tirikan, notably on August 7th 2020 when the Syraranto military began a carpet-bombing campaign largely indiscriminately against the city's inhabitants. Many leading nations in the international community heavily sanctioned the Syraranto government as perceptions of an ethnic cleansing against the Gurriana people in the Western part of the country began to unfold.

A few days later on August 10th, eight defecting Syraranto Armed Forces officers formed the Free Syraranto Army (FSA), originally composed of defected Syraranto military officers and soldiers, aiming "to bring this government (the Tasoulas government) down" with united opposition forces. On August 12th, a nationwide crackdown nicknamed the "Mikrayako Massacre" (named after the Gurriana holy month of Mikrayako) resulted in the death of at least 4,200 people, many of whom were Gurriana.

The Gurriana, with an estimated total population of 2 million throughout all of Syraranto and primarily in the west of the country, largely fled as refugees when the war broke out as Tasoulas' forces began to lay siege to Tirikan. While over 6 million people fled Syraranto during the war, nearly a quarter of them were Gurrians and found refuge in Constantio and Cylata, and many later relocated to Beatavic and Artaska.

Discovery and investigation

As SBU and CCA peacekeeping and humanitarian groups within Syraranto engaged in rebuilding efforts around Tirikan, more than 370 instances of grave sites hastily dug and filled were marked and uncovered, with the largest consisting of over 2,000 bodies. Local residents in the region offered testimony to events which played out during the course of the war and prior to, where hundreds of accounts, photographic and video evidence, and satellite imagery confirmed Tasoulas' regime forces systematically rounded up and executed Gurriana peoples.

Captured regime officials, as well as Tasoulas apologists, rejected charges of genocide, typically arguing either that those Gurriana who died were simply in the way of a war, or that killings were justified by their individual or collective support for the enemies of the regime. General Able Masilla, the second-in-command for Tasoulas' armed forces and the man who surrendered the government to rebel forces during the battle in Covijo, detained by rebels and passed to a CCA detention being held in Norasa, denied having any knowledge of the massacres but maintained that Tasoulas emphasized his disdain for Tirikan in strategy meetings. He stated that he was "unaware of the horrors in Tirikan," and went further to state that "if this was a crime against the Gurriana people, those responsible should pay the dearest price."

Classification as genocide

Quickly after the public disclosure of what was being discovered in Tirikan on April 22nd, multiple governments in Western Nortua began passing resolutions calling the massacres a genocide. The first to do so was the Constantioan parliament, followed almost immediately by the whole of the Sotoan Basin Union legislative body. Artaska's parliament did the same only hours later. The Sotoan Basin Union formally issued a request to the Coalition of Crown Albatross General Assembly, as well as the Security Council, to have the events being investigated in Tirikan province as a genocide. This was the first instance of the SBU filing declarations of humanitarian crimes in a sweeping resolution to the CCA, as the procedures for the 1995 Chezian massacres came shortly before the founding of the SBU.

The first non-Nortuan country to classify the killings as a genocide was Albarine on April 24th, with unanimous agreement from the National Assembly.

Congressional Hall overwhelmingly approved a resolution to classify a genocide on April 26th, and multiple political leaders including President Atticus Moreau and Speaker Natasha Chastain called for the CCA Justice Council to open a trial for surviving regime officials responsible for the massacres

International response

Officials from the Sotoan Basin Union, specifically Constantio, took a leading role in decrying the massacre. President Tony Blanian was the first world leader to label the events as a massacre, visited Tirikan to personally observe the investigations and meet with survivors, and later addressed Congressional Hall in Tofino ahead of the CCA General Assembly meeting, where he said "I have seen the horrors secondhand, but the firsthand accounts are what truly horrify the soul. What we can do in our secondhand approach is to justify the first. We must act to make sure this horror does not go ignored. We must send this resolution into the Coalition General Assembly. This was a genocide, clear, plain, and simple. As everyday passes, we see more and more evidence to the horror. As such, we cannot simply sit by. Zamastan, you and your people are the highest prestige of the world in terms of leading a global response. Your resolution to rightfully call this a genocide is the first step, and now I invite President Moreau, Speaker Chastain, and Secretary Gray to endorse this resolution on the international front."

President Dutch Furman of Kaoro said on April 23rd that he was "shocked to hear the massacre of ethnic Gurriana in Syraranto, in Tirikan. This barbaric act further shows the colors of the Syrarantoan regime, led by the now deceased Kyriakos Tasoulas. Those responsible for this shocking, disgusting, and saddening act should pay the price for what they've done, an action that can barely even be called human. Kaoro will be for the Gurriana community, who had to flee their country from conflict and may have to return without a home. We stand with you, your culture will last an eternity, no matter who tries to stop it."

Sadie Melhaven, Chancellor of Albarine, met with leaders of the Gurriana community in Saint Raneau and stated "The Gurriana people, their history, culture, and identity, were purposefully targeted by the evil regime of Kyriakos Tasoulas and his malicious officers in this genocide. Albarine's Gurriana community, while small in number, feel this pain resonating from far away as we await word on the fates of their families, friends, and others in Tirikan. Across Syraranto, families are coming back from refuge and internal displacement to find their homes destroyed and lives turned upside down. Our government will be here for the Gurriana community and for continued support for Syrarantoan refugees."

President Emin Bisliev of Artaska said of the genocide: "The Gurriana are resilient people and the Artaskan people stand with you. This horrific act against your people, this attempt to destroy you, will not be the end of you. Your people persevere, and they always will."

Zamastanian Speaker Natasha Chastain commented on the massacres, calling them "abhorrent and immensely horrific, the sign of a wretched soul taking frustration and anger in a manner of rage and evil against an innocent population. The hearts of every Zamastanian breaks for those who lost their lives in such a cruel way, and we stand with the Gurriana people whether they have been displaced by the conflict or remain in their homes in Tirikan." President Atticus Moreau spoke briefly after signing the resolution to classify the genocide, saying "the world needs to... must do more in order to prevent these horrific crimes against humanity."