On the 10th of March, the Kyrenaian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by a man with the name Hassan ben Sahid, a Vizier of Sultana Razia, released a short press statement concerning the situation in a small island nation known as Vaʻa Mamao: It said, that the Sultanate was monitoring the situation, but mostly unconcerned, cautioning the factions on these islands to remain calm and keep their hands away from Kyrenaian assets in their country.
The foreign political interest of Kyrenaia was on these small islands. And that interest included the undivided attention of a man by the name of Ilia, Crown Prince of the Ilkhanate of Utica and Lord-Commander of the Royal Kyrenaian Navy.
What happened, though?
In the late 16th century, Kyrenaian explorers discovered a small island group in the middle of nowhere, where a small indigenous population lived. A year after the discovery, the Sultanate took possession of these islands, which were called Va'a Mamao by their inhabitants. Due to the beauty of both land and the people living there, the Kyrenaians renamed these lands Jazirat Alshahwa.
What followed was a colonial rule blood and iron, sugar cane and slavery. It was not a pretty chapter of Kyrenaian history, one, which they like to sweep under the carpet whenever it comes up.
It was a rather profitable venture, both falling into a comfortable routine broken up by the occassional uprising, the last of which succeeded: In 1929, the Free Republic of Va'a Mamao was formed and began its life with the execution of every man, woman and child of Kyrenaian descent they could grab on their islands, putting most of their assets to the torch.
The Sultanate responded later in the same year by sending a group around the battlecruiser Nazar, which proceeded to barrage the coasts of the islands without discrimination. But the inevitable happened anyway: Va'a Mamao had to be released into independence and into poverty.
It didn't take long and the Free Republic was reformed as a Socialist Republic, which tried to follow the teachings of their ideology the best they could, soon starting to give up more and more of its ideals to simply keep food on the tables of their population. A famine in 1965 was only survived by help-shipments of food - from the Sultanate, a young Ilkhan Aaron claiming, that, although there was a lot of bad blood between the two peoples, a famine was not the right time to look at the differences.
By 2000, the Socialist Republic was Socialist in name only, open to foreign, that means Kyrenaian, investment, who began to drill for oil and to establish a tourism industry, the low prices for staying overnight in a beautiful country with beautiful people making it a secret tip amongst tourists the world over. The rather lax drug laws, low prices for company and beautiful photographs might have helped as well.
However, that all did not stop a group of you nationalists in 2015 to band together and to form a political block, which aimed at getting the foreign investors out, the tourism regulated and stricted laws in place - for two and a half years, they protested peacefully, undeterred by spoken and unspoken threats, until they were elected into the parliament in late 2017.
One of their first actions as new members of the parliament was to call for their stricter laws and regulations and as discussions began in earnest, a group of Concerned Kyrenaian Businesspeople (a trademark of the Ministry of Trade) appeared at the Court of the Azure Hall, the court of the Sultana of Kyrenaia, and voiced their concerns... the Sultana responded by assuring them to keep an eye on the situation.
Meanwhile, the discussions went back and forth, three votes in parliament had to be cancelled over the next months, protesters clashed in the capitol of Ulu, veritable street battles went down, which the police could not control despite the best efforts... and it became too hot for the Sultanate.
A fleet group of the Navy was on exercises near Vaʻa Mamao for months now - of course by sheer coincidence, their departure date was merely a week after the Concerned Kyrenaian Businesspeople appeared at Court. Led by Guided Missile Cruiser Nazar, of the Sharaf-class, the Kyrenaian fleet group changed course around the same time the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cautioned all sides of the conflict.
On the 12th of March 2018, there was a new press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affair concerning Va'a Mamao:
Official Press Release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Kyrenaia
Last night, in the night from the 11th of March 2018 to the 12th of March 2018, a Kyrenaian fleet group led by the cruiser Nazar entered the waters of the Socialist Republic of Va'a Mamao. Their objective was to secure and protect foreign assets within the Socialist Republic. To that end, the Admiral Mawja, in command of the fleet, deployed his vessels and Fleet Marine Forces by command of the Sultana.
The occupation of all important positions went without incidents and without troubles, no injuries and no deaths due to firefights or similar occurances being recorded. In a quick move, the Fleet Group Nazar effectively occupied the island group.
We ask foreign government with citizens either on pleasure or business within the islands to inform us so that we may or may not begin with the repatriation of these people.
Sadly, the occupation did not end without any incidents at all, as a private motor car crashed with an amphibious APC of the Fleet Marine Forces, the driver, a drunken native, dying at the wheel.
For all communication by state-actors, please send your messages to:Hassan ben Sahid, Vizier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Qaleatan Maktab, Utica, Ilkhanate of Utica, Sultanate of Kyrenaia.
For all communication by non-state-actors and press, please send your messages to:Public Relations Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sub-Department Colonial Affairs, Qaleatan Maktab, Utica, Ilkhanate of Utica, Sultanate of Kyrenaia.
As usual, messeges sent to the wrong recipient will not be replied to!
However, that was not all there was to tell about this occassion, for it was far from the peaceful occupation that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wanted to make the world believe.
A few minutes after the occupation started, the first videos made by amateurs with their smartphones and sometimes indeed cameras were loaded up onto video-sharing sites until the telecommunications network centres could be taken and turned off. These videos showed scenes during that night, which were decidedly not peaceful.
Kyrenaian troops dissolving a group of protesters with machine gun fire. Taking the State Parliament of Va'a Mamao with support by heavy artillery. The stringing up of the Prime Minister and his cabinet on street lamps on Ulu's Main Boulevart. Docking an amphibious assault ship by running over other, smaller vessels on the quay. Foreign tourists, held at gunpoint and asked politely to return to their rooms. The small People's Defense Force, the armed forces of Va'a Mamao, being taken out by superior firepower without showing any signs of aggression themselves. Kyrenaian soldiers searching suspicious houses, dragging the people out, and, if they found something they did not like, marching entire families in their nightgowns into trucks to be driven off to who-knows-where.
And the drunken driver? He indeed had been drunk, and he indeed rammed an APC - nearly. A salvo of 30mm shells from that APC's main weapons quickly ended that attempt.
Indeed, the morning was peaceful, as Kyrenaian flags and banners of the Khanate of Jazirat Alshahwa flew in the morning breeze over the islands.
