On Monday morning police men and members of the National Guard stormed the Orikson city hall trying to arrest the local mayor, Remus Balan. The bodyguards of Mr Balan resisted the assault killing and wounding several of the government's strongmen in the event. For the past three months Balan had refused to bow to presidential orders or to transfer collected taxes back to the central government. Mayor Balan was unharmed in the event and a few hours later issued the following statement:
CONFEDERACY OF POSTEASTAN
Official Statement of the Confederacy of Posteastan
To: Public Statement
Subject: Restoring Law and Order
OFFICIAL TELEGRAM FROM THE DOMNITOR
Following recent actions by the unlawful regime in Telinburg I have decided to take matters into my own hands. For too long our glorious race has been ruled and bleed dry by foreign powers. I am no longer able to tolerate this. It is time for our people to rise. It is time for me to lead. I herewith proclaim the Confederacy of Posteastan with Orikson being the only legitimate government on our sacred soil.
I request all decent nations in the world to support my legitimate claim to power. I ask all members of the National Guard to renounce the tyrant in Telinburg and switch their allegiance to the legitimate government. The transformation of Posteastan to a state of a new type and the rebirth of our nation can be concluded with or without bloodshed. That is entirely up the traitors in Telinburg.
On Guard!
Office of the Domnitor
Orikson
Remus Balan
Backstory
The Beginnings
Posteastan was never rich, or powerful but it used to be stable once with a moderate degree of wealth for its citizens and a high level of security and freedom. These days are long past now. As ever so often the road to hell was paved with good intentions. Posteastan is a relatively young nation. It gained its independence from Larthinia in a bloody guerilla war in the late 1800s. The victorious Grand Duke who used to be a vassal of Larthinia proclaimed himself King Alexandru and brutally crushed any opposition to his total rule.
Posteastanian 'Mjerka' during the Glorious Revolution.
The Kings that followed ruled from Leozina the city of lions more than once had to deal with the growing influence of the wealthy patricians from the costal trading hubs. During the "Two Continental War" an alliance between the wealthy traders and the brigands and bandits from the north called 'Mjerka' overthrew the monarchy and the last king Carolu I was executed along with most of his family. His brother fled to exile in Hambria. The Great Triumvirate made Roztechko the capital and turned Posteastan into a mixture of military dictatorship and estates-based society. This society evolved and reformed and Posteastan slowly became a modern and more or less democratic state. Capitalism with all its vices and virtues took its course. Over the next decades there were a few riots and insurrections but nothing that really threatened the Triumvirate that always consisted of a member from both Roztechko and Pibtzy to represent the city population and one from the rural areas to represent the rural people. The election system heavily favored the coast protest grew and reforms finally abolished the Triumvirate and replaced it with a single Prime Minister.
Posteastanian POWs during the Hegemonial War.
Unfortunately for Posteastan the new election system only lasted a couple of terms before it brought a party into power that called itself Postestanian Solidarity. The party heavily opposed Paraphano's expansionist policy and almost naturally became a frantic adversary during the Hegemonial War. The war did not go according to plans and Posteastan ended up occupied and bankrupt. The years following the occupation were marked by stagnation but also security. A state capitalist two party state provided basic amenities to the broad population and luxury to the elites. Over the years corruption got totally out of control and the stagnation drove the youth into open rebellion.
From Crisis to Crisis
A revolution installed a social-democratic government. The Posteastan Social-Democratic Party (PSDP) was sure it has found the correct answer to every question and it was time to give Posteastan a bigger role among the nations of the world. The PSDP degenerated more and more and became dictatorial replacing only the political elites and leaving the economic elites in place even though the state controlled sector was completely privatized. Terrorism and intimidation was used against global rivals and finally the ruling party decided to engage in a war that was far beyond its capabilities. The civil war in Øhiton encouraged military adventurism and delusions of grandeur in the Posteastan leadership and a daring intervention began. The planning of the operation could best be described as incompetent, unassertive and cowardly. While the average soldier of Posteastan did the best he could the government changed their allegiance in the civil war every now and than, bombed their own allies on purpose and blamed every setback on Ninedayist Elements within the armed forces. Alcoholism, lack of supplies and drug abuse also took their toll and Posteastan was soon defeated by the government troops and driven out of Øhiton. Instead of cutting their losses and securing an organized withdrawal the political leadership left thousands of men and tons of equipment in Øhiton. Many were slaughtered some resorted to terrorism and most were captured. The government in Telinburg did not do as much as lifting a finger to get the captives repatriated. Instead they fueled terrorism. Humanitarian aid workers were kidnapped, tortured and killed.
The catastrophic defeat in Øhiton led to a severe internal crisis with the army threatening to overthrow the government and the refusal to enforce martial law. Following the next election, a more liberal and less ambitious government came to power. Functionaries were jailed and extradited to the victorious fraction in the Øhiton conflict, a formation of several nations called Northern Alliance.
The pride of Posteastan's military blown away in Øhiton.
The new regime halfheartedly tried to reconcile with its former enemies, it was led by the New Conservative Party with the Christian Democratic Party being the junior partner. It turned out the that crimes of the PSDP both at home and abroad had been much worse than anticipated. These findings were overshadowed by the sentencing and execution of several high ranking party members, diplomats and militaries. In this situation the Norther Alliance presented its demands of compensation for the war in Øhiton to the NCP/CDP government. When the president agreed to the demands small scale riots broke out. Ultra nationalist elements within the administration and the population saw this as a further humiliation of Posteastan and voted the Union of Greens and Farmers (UGF) into office. One of their first moves was to confiscate wealth and properties of migrants it thought racially unworthy and redistributed their possessions among its own clientele. While this move was met with threats and embargos it had no real consequences. Posteritan's economy did suffer a lot from the embargo but that did not cause any trouble for the government. Again, Ninedayist Elements were blamed for all the problems and riots occurred outside the embassies of member nations of the Northern Alliance. The UGF promised to restore Posteastans national pride and glory in a nationalistic wave of green conservativism. The president Marku Tavitian almost instantly drove the nation into a catastrophe of formally unknown dimensions. He cancelled all international treaties without regard for the fact that these treaties could not be cancelled monolateral. The UGF organized the attacks of its youth wing and other paramilitary groups on the international investigators trying to provoke one international incident after the other. Tavitian finally issued an ultimatum for the withdrawal of the investigators which was bluntly rejected. When the police tried to arrest the men contrary to international contracts fighting between the two groups broke out, leaving several dead. Till this point Tavitian's maneuvers had been more or less successful even though his nation was under an embargo and his popularity had grown in nationalist circles. Unfortunately for him he had pushed his luck a bit too far. The death of the investigators was followed by a strongly worded demand to hand over the perpetrators, disarm the police and instantly return to normality. Tavitian who fancied himself to be a clever and daring statesman ignored the warnings and decided to dash forward.
Instead of giving in to the demands he imposed martial law, declared the investigators to be foreign invaders and tried to have all of them killed or arrested. Much to the surprise of the UGF this was seen as an act of war by the Northern Alliance and military action followed swiftly.
From Crisis to War
Posteastan was bombed day and night for more than 30 days before the Alliance even considered entering negotiations. Most critical infrastructure was destroyed, ports and airports became unusable, communication installations and power plants were flattened to the ground. Internal order collapsed in the first week of the hostilities. Small parts of the military deserted and began marauding the rural areas. Internal fights between the UGF government and its domestic opponents became violent and reached the scale of a civil war. The Alliance kept ignoring the domestic issues of Posteastan and continued the bombing. To prevent unnecessary hardship large scale humanitarian aid was offered to Posteastan by the Alliance. The offer was rejected and humanitarian goods that were airdropped were confiscated and given to the military or destroyed by the UGF.
The city of Roztechko after nine days of bombing.
As in all other wars it was the civilians who suffered the most. Thousands fled the coastal region where an invasion was most likely to happen. They were met by a wave of anger and hostility by their countrymen who were not willing to share their meager resources with starving refugees. What was true for Posteastan was also true for its neighbors. When marauding soldiers and other brigands began raids across the border the borders were sealed off. The UGF government rerouted all remaining resources to the military and introduced general conscription to be ready for the coming invasion. Those trying to flee military service were executed on the spot when captured.
Resistance towards the UGF government grew, especially in the north. While to bombing continued Tavitian moved certain key ministries and the military headquarters to his home province in Tabolov. From there his party began with the formation of loyal militias to deal with the sometimes violent uprisings. This measure only lead to limited success but despite the chaos, the blockades and the bombings Tavitian and his cronies were still in control of Posteastan. To get the situation back under control mercenaries were hired to quell the internal disorder. The mercenaries were successful were the local troops failed. Being mercenaries they also were expensive. Their success additionally damaged the already bad moral of the regular military. Nonetheless the government succeeded for the first time in restoring some order and regaining some territory.
Mercenary units and advisors were attached to the regular forces to combat the lack of discipline, desertions and the theft of equipment. While the joint chiefs of staff were not very happy about that this measure turned out to be successful and the UGF slowly brought some order in the chaos. This changed when the president was shot dead outside his home residence by an unknown gunman.
Marku Tavitian executed outside his lavish residence in Tabolov
With the death of president Tavitian things took a new turn. The government was paralyzed. The position of the vice president was vacant and no one dared to seize power. The rebellion in the north reached a new height as troops were continually moved to the coast to deal with the coming invasion. This invasion however never came. The only ground forces the Northern Alliance used were small, highly trained units and a few mercenaries to deal with certain nuisances like air defense units, depots and similar things.
Even though the invasion never came, the troop concentrations in the east frequently became targets of allied bombings. Finally, the joint chiefs of staff had enough and overthrew the government to be able to negotiate their surrender with the Alliance. Their move to save Posteastanian civilians and the rest of the military's dignity was not welcomed by all. The mercenaries were the first to suffer the consequences of this regime change. Their payment was frozen and advisers attached to regular units were arrested. The mercenaries were instructed to hand over their weapons and leave Posteastan on their own expenses. The leadership of the Northern Alliance meanwhile was not very generous either. They made it clear that the only offer they would accept was the unconditional surrender of Posteastan. Indecisive as always the generals kept arguing back and forth but nothing good came from these lengthy debates.
Northern Alliance Special Operation Forces upon arrival in Posteastan.
Following the conflict in Øhiton Posteastan had become the home of many political refugees from that nation. Later their families followed. The people from Øhiton formed a small but vibrant community. Many of them had fought on one side or the other in the war at home. Many of them hold a particular grudge against the Northern Alliance and most of them volunteered to play some part in Posteastan's defense. A small but considerable number of foreign fighters came without official approval from Øhiton to participate in the conflict. With the military takeover these people became more and more suspicious of the future and began to form networks to prepare for a total collapse of order.
Without any serious hope having a face saving way out of this the military government dissolved all parties, even the opposition ones, arrested the remaining members of the civil government and the parliament and imposed a total curfew. Niculai Valaska was appointed interim Governor by the military and instructed to organize the surrender of all armed forces and the next elections. Valaska was the speaker of parliament during the NCP/CDP years and a member of the now proscribed CDP.
Totally indifferent to the internal affairs of Posteastan the Northern Alliance wrongfully addressed Valaska as president when he signed the unconditional surrender. The first measure of the Alliance was to force Posteastan allow humanitarian aid. The next step was a total disarmament of the nation and the abolishing of the armed forces. At the same time the Alliance refused to occupy Posteastan militarily and instead continued with special operations to put all heavy weapons beyond use. The strategy of delivering humanitarian aid to win the hearts and minds and at the same time forcing Posteastan to abandon all its means of control turned out not to be too helpful. The aid was either embezzled or stolen and military small arms were kept or sold on the black market.
The country sank deeper and deeper into chaos more and more local administrations relying on militias or mercenaries to enforce their own laws. Niculai Valaska meanwhile claimed that he was appointed President and acted accordingly. Through his network of former CDP colleagues and a few concessions he managed to gain the support of one of Posteastan's oligarchs and convinced the Alliance to allow trade and economic action on a low level. Confident that Posteastan no longer posed a threat to anyone but its own citizens the Alliance allowed Valaska to form a national guard and presented a compensation scheme that made Posteastan lose all its offshore assets and leave the nation in a tremendous debt for decades to come. The president's first gesture to the international community was to prove the independence of his nation by refusing more humanitarian aid from nations of the Northern Alliance.
With the help of the National Guard and the financial support from the oligarch Valaska could regain some sort of control over most of the cities. There were no steps to allow any of the old political parties or new ones let alone to hold elections. Taxes however were collected and were possible a new network of administrators more or less loyal to President Valaska was appointed. The long rows of abrupt changes in the form of misgovernment left Posteastan with almost no embassies abroad and with only a hand full of nations brave enough to face the threats of terror and Posteastan's legendary ways of changing its allegiance. An attribute that won the nation the nick name Treacheroustan.
A new Bozia was introduced to deal with the hyperinflation but was almost as quickly devaluated as the old one. Trade consists mostly of coal and other raw materials as much of the industry lies in ruins for some reason or the others. The recent war has claimed a few thousand lives but has displaced more than a million people. Things are not easy at the moment.
