gillan1220
Fleet admiral
I've been depressed recently. Slow replies coming in the next few days.
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Post by gillan1220 on Dec 18, 2023 12:36:15 GMT
Interesting to see a perspective of Filipinos living in Yugoslavia, which survives its OTL dissolution date. I'd take that Yugoslavia is still an autocratic semi-democracy, knowing that there are curfews up to 11 but there are also nightclubs that cater to Filipino expats?
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Dec 18, 2023 18:20:50 GMT
Interesting to see a perspective of Filipinos living in Yugoslavia, which survives its OTL dissolution date. I'd take that Yugoslavia is still an autocratic semi-democracy, knowing that there are curfews up to 11 but there are also nightclubs that cater to Filipino expats? Although that survivability actually comes at the expense of a slightly less emphasis on human rights and the junta there is what a Philippine junta would look like if General Very had won ITTL, mixed with the OTL Burmese junta. The kafanas that cater to the Filipino expats would look more like an oversized cantina that you would see in Manila or the provinces. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Dec 23, 2023 5:48:31 GMT
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR PART FOUR - HATRED
"The stark difference between the Soviet Army of the early 1990s and the Russian Army of early 2002 was that the Soviet forces were crippled by desertions and defections made by conscripts belonging to breakaway republics that seceded fro the USSR. In contrast, the Russian Army of the early 2000s was still in its rebuilding phase when its border conflict with Ukraine had worsened. Russian Defense Minister Alexander Lebed, who emerged as the first post-Soviet Defense Minister under President Gennady Burbulis and would continue his post in the presidencies of Aman Tuleyev, Dmitry Rogozin, and stepping down in 2015 when President Aleksey Zhuravlyov became President and in turn, presided over a much needed doctrinal and organizational reform that saw much of the Russian military's number of personnel reduced to 800,000 men in 1999, but would expand up to 1.6 million active soldiers and 3.7 million reserve forces by 2014, with the backbone of the new Russian Ground Forces, as well as its naval and aerospace forces, consisting of NCOs that were trained and employed in active service. The performance of the Soviet Army in the Baltics, Moldova, and Ukraine had been poor due to the desertions, but eventually improved as the conflict in Ukraine and the Baltics became top priority. In the Baltics, much of the Soviet ground forces were aided by pro-Russian or Soviet loyalist paramilitary forces that often terrorized the Baltic countrysides, often committing massacres on a daily or weekly basis. Paramilitary forces were employed on a larger scale during the Ukrainian theater of the Second Russian Civil War, as they were often fighting Ukrainian pro-independence forces that resembled a militia before the ceasefire in 1995. In the Caucasus however, the Soviet 4th Army virtually left the chain of command and swore their allegiance to the breakaway Republic of Azerbaijan. The core of the Soviet 4th Army would gain a significant advantage over their Armenian opponents before the United Nations would deploy peacekeepers in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. In Central Asia, much of the Soviet forces stationed there were on the lookout for the possible invasion by the Mujahideen, but surprisingly enough, the Afghan communist government was still fighting the Mujahideen as late as 1992, when that government collapsed and was replaced by a motley collection of various warlords that did not trust each other. Only the Far Eastern Military District remained calm, though troop rotations were frequently employed to ensure that the battle hardened veterans of the Baltic and Ukrainian theaters were sent to the Far East, and new troops based in the FEMD were sent to those theaters of war in their place.
When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1995, much of Central Asia's independent republics inherited much of the former Soviet military formations and their equipment, with Kazakhstan emerging as one of the strongest Central Asian military forces in the region. Much of their equipment had been inherited from the Soviet arsenals, but one of Defense Minister Lebed's reforms involved the severe reduction of the military budget was aimed at upgrading their fleet of tanks, APCs, SPGs, and many other equipment, which enabled the Russian government to sell their spare equipment to all of the Central Asian republics. When the Eurasian Security Treaty Organization was founded in 2004, all of its founders had agreed to share their military designs with one another for reasons of streamlining their designs. The performance of the Russian tanks and APCs during the border skirmish with Ukraine in the early 2000s had alerted Defense Minister Lebed to the realization that all of the equipment in active use has to be upgraded constantly. The reduced military budget would be dedicated to testing new equipment that would be adopted for the upgrades of their current tank arsenals, with the Black Eagle prototype tank being used as a test bed. Since the end of the Second Russian Civil War in 1995, the Russian military also had to pay attention to its naval and aerospace assets, as fighter planes were often upgraded with another test bed in the prototype Su-47 Berkut used to test the equipment and weapons needed to build new fighter planes. It was only after 2016 that President Zhuravlyov would expand Russia's military budget by 9%, and much of it would be invested in anti-air defenses, artillery systems, and naval vessels. Only time will tell as to how the militaries of the entire ESTO alliance would fare, should they be deployed in a potential military conflict against the likes of Japan, Australia, or even the Philippines." From 'The Decline and Rebirth of the Russian Military' from Southeast Watch.
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"My family and I escaped from the conflict in Kriviy Rikh during the civil war in the former Soviet Union. Our journey there was horrific, as we didn't know if we were going to survive or not. Since then, we resettled in Israel and built our new lives there. As our family was Jewish, we qualified under the Right of Return to make aliyah to Israel. I first had to serve in the IDF as a conscript, and gradually moved to being an officer. I was actually inspired by that Vice President the Philippines has, Romeo Arcilla. He served in his military before becoming an actor, and then moved into politics, where he's shining. What I can tell you though, about the lives that we had in Soviet Ukraine before the civil war started was nothing short of a tragedy. My father got a job in the University of Tel Aviv, where he taught electrical engineering. Much of his salary was spent on improving our new home, and my mother would often assist him in his work. When I was 18, I did my mandatory service in the IDF and learned more about our Jewish culture there. Initially, I wanted to go into Torah and Talmudic studies, but the theater called on to me. I would often perform in various Israeli shows and even pitched in the creation of the Israeli version of the Australian show Boathouse. Life became pleasant for us, until the ghost of that civil war returned in 2002 when Russia and Ukraine had a border skirmish. Our eyes were constantly glued on the television for three years, until the events in Thailand over some region bordering Malaysia had overshadowed the 2005 Russo-Ukrainian War. The thing is, many of us left the crumbling Soviet Union for Israel, and I was stunned to learn that more Russian Jews left the Jewish Autonomous Oblast after 1995, and the population there became so small that it was eventually abolished and merged into Priamurye Krai. However, my father often told me that a good human being should never be too outspoken, and to not act too buffoonish. Why he told me this, his answer was because of the incident where some angry and offended Armenian had shot Vladimir Zhirinovsky while having a rant in Rostov-on-the-Don back in 1993. It was chaos back then, and to us, Vladimir Zhirinovsky is the example of what happens when a human being is too outspoken and buffoonish." Volodymyr Zelensky, from his autobiography 'The Promised Land that Never Was'.
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SOVIET FORCES SUFFER MAJOR DEFEAT IN FAILED ATTEMPTED RIVER CROSSING NEAR VIDRADNE AS UKRAINIAN MILITIAS SUCCESSFULLY DEFEND RIVER TOWN
Vancouver Sun
January 21st, 1991
(Vidradne, UKRAINIAN SSR) - Ukrainian forces have announced their successful defense of the town of Vidradne as the Soviet troops suffered significant casualties before being forced to pull back from their failed river crossing. The Soviet defeat at Vidradne has given a morale boost for the Ukrainian independence forces, but other Soviet forces were consequently redeployed into the Sumy front. Though the battle was won, the Ukrainian pro-independence forces also suffered significant casualties in their costly victory. Additionally, more desertions from the Soviet Army have been reported, with approximately 9,000 Soviet conscripts of non-Russian origin have defected to the armies of their respective breakaway republics. However, the defeat in Vidradne has not deterred the Soviet government from recapturing much of Ukraine, but the arrival of foreign volunteers fighting on the side of the breakaway republics would ensure that the Soviet forces would continue to suffer significant casualties. Additionally, the former Warsaw Pact nations have started to donate some of their equipment to the breakaway republics in anticipation of exchanging their Soviet-era equipment for Western ones, and the Polish government has announced a partial mobilization of their military after some of their volunteers have returned from the Lithuanian front lines, where they were fighting the Soviet forces based in the Belarusian SSR.
"Although Vidradne has been destroyed in the fighting, we've managed to inflict a significant defeat to the Soviet hordes attempting to storm into the town," says Ukrainian de facto independence leader and self-appointed Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh, in front of the survivors of said battle while visiting the very same town. "However, the war continues on, and we have yet to form a proper army that will eventually liberate much of our homeland from the grip of both Soviet communism and Russian national imperialism."
Ukrainian guerrilla fighters deployed behind Soviet lines have also encountered Russian paramilitary forces who are also engaged in guerrilla warfare as well. The flat terrain around eastern Ukraine was perfect for hit and run raids, though such tactics were often carried out while riding on UAZ-69 jeeps. In recent times, the Russian paramilitary forces have also started to roll out certain trucks like the YaG-10s, which could be fitted with either an anti-aircraft cannon, or the DShK machine guns but in pairs. A YaG-10 fitted with an NSV machine gun was spotted among the Russian paramilitary forces outside the Ukrainian town of Bilohorivka, under the control of Soviet-aligned rebel forces, and with the increasingly necessity of rapid movement as part of their ongoing guerrilla campaign, the YaG-10s have emerged as the new face of guerrilla warfare in eastern Ukraine. In contrast, the Baltic theater of the Second Russian Civil War has seen less of the YaG-10s because of the densely forested areas of the entire Baltic region. However, several YaG-10s have also been seen in the service of the pro-independence forces operating throughout Ukraine, though UAZ-69s are more preferable, as they are smaller and more nimble. In addition, Soviet bombers have also carried out bombing campaigns against pro-independence forces in other parts of Ukraine, especially along the northern border with the Belarusian SSR.
"I can remember the Tupolev bombers hovering above our small town here in Zarichne, and they were flying rather slowly. However, we heard from our neighbors that they were bombing Lutsk and other cities in western Ukraine," says an unnamed Ukrainian refugee, whose family has fled into neighboring Poland three days ago. "We're scared of those bombers because of their capability to drop any kind of bombs, including ones that are probably banned by international law."
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CHAOS IN THE UNION! ANATOLY LUKYANOV ASSASSINATED DURING VICTORY DAY PARADE WHILE GORBACHEV ALSO DIES ATTEMPTING TO ESCAPE FROM HOUSE ARREST IN SOCHI
Sydney Herald
May 10, 1991
(Moscow, RUSSIAN SFSR) - While presiding over the annual Victory Day parade to celebrate the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany during World War Two, Soviet Premier Anatoly Lukyanov was suddenly shot twice by an assassin while giving his speech in front of the participants of the Victory Day parade. The first bullet had struck Lukyanov in the throat, while the second one had struck his lung, forcing him to collapse into the ground. Consequently, the Victory Day parade was postponed on orders of the Soviet government, as they were searching for the assassin who killed the Soviet Premier. According to eyewitnesses, the assassin was perched inside one of the buildings standing beside Red Square. A loud crack was heard before Soviet troops participating in the Victory Parade pointed at the mortally shot Lukyanov, who was clutching his throat and chest at the same time. As Lukyanov fell into the ground, KGB agents and OMON personnel started to walk towards the building where the assassin hid himself, but by the time they arrived at the spot where the assassin was located, he was nowhere to be seen. All over Moscow, checkpoints were deployed to locate and track down the assassin, with additional patrols launched by Interior Ministry troops and the Soviet Army soldiers that didn't fight on either the Baltic or Ukrainian theaters. Tragically speaking, it was the first time in Soviet history that an actual sitting Soviet leader was assassinated, though it isn't the first time a Soviet leader faced an assassination attempt. Back in January 22nd of 1969, Viktor Ilyin had attempted to assassinate former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in the Soviet capital in his self-deluded attempt to provoke an infighting within the Soviet Politburo. Though the assassination had failed, it led to Ilyin's arrest and incarceration in a mental hospital. Now that another assassination attempt was carried out, albeit successful, the Soviet government is at an impasse as to who will succeed the assassinated Lukyanov.
"Comrade Lukyanov had several proteges who could take up his mantle of slower reforms, but none of them had as much courage and guts as Aleksander Grigoryevich Lukashenko," says Soviet KGB Director Vladimir Kryuchkov, when asked by local reporters on the selection or election of a new leader. "The alternative would have been for a joint KGB-Red Army collective leadership, or a quasi-junta, to oversee the rebellions in the western republics within the Soviet Union."
At the same time however, an attempt to free former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev had ended in both failure and tragedy, as supporters of the former Soviet premier along with the man in question, had been apprehended by both the KGB agents stationed in Sochi, and its special unit, Alpha Group. However, fearing a possible restoration of Gorbachev into political office, Alpha Group soldiers executed not only Gorbachev, but the supporters who helped free him in the first place. When news of the failed escape attempt by Gorbachev reached Moscow, the Soviet government was quick to act and curfew was imposed on orders of an emergency committee led by Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov. Although it is widely believed that Lukashenko is poised to succeed the murdered Lukyanov, the assassinated Soviet leader also had other proteges that could easily take over from him, such as Nikolai Ryzhkov and Nursultan Nazarbayev, who also heads the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR. In the meanwhile, the emergency committee has the bigger pressing issues at hand, namely the conflict in the Baltics, Ukraine, an ethnic war in the Caucasus, plus a potential Islamist invasion from Afghanistan into the Central Asian republics.
"If offered the post, I will continue Comrade Lukyanov's reforms and help preserve the Union. However, we have to pacify the restive republics before deciding on whether or not we should reform or allow the secession of those republics. It is extremely risky, what we're doing here," says Aleksander Lukashenko, during a brief conversation with a worker employed at a still active collective farm. "We need to secure our own people's access to food, because the bread lines have become synonymous with what has gone wrong with the Union."
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"The rise of Aleksander Lukashenko as the new Premier of the Soviet Union, following the assassination of Anatoly Lukyanov, has shocked the communist world. They were more stunned at the assassination of the Soviet premier, but the identity of the assassin would not emerge until early 1994, when a Lithuanian paramilitary unit emerged under the command of Valdas Tutkus. One of the troops that would come under Tutkus's command was Vytautas Laurinaitis, a 21 year old Soviet Army conscript who shot the late Premier, with revenge as his motive. As it turned out, Laurinaitis's grandparents and great-grandparents were among the Lithuanian deportees that were sent to Siberia after WWII, and Laurinaitis had killed Lukyanov as revenge for the deportations. Serving under Tutkus's paramilitary forces, Laurinaitis would rise through the ranks to become one of the most feared paramilitary commanders in all of Lithuania. However, his unit, known as the Bielinis Brigade, named after the famous book trafficker Jurgis Bielinis, had participated in the disastrous defense of Vilnius in June of 1992, when Soviet forces based in Belarus had launched a three pronged full scale invasion of the Lithuanian SSR, with the sole intention of recapturing the Vilnius region that used to be occupied by the Belarusian SSR before the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States in 1940. The Belarusian occupation of Vilnius remains a sore point between Lithuania and Belarus, as the residents of the entire Vilnius region were subjected to the most vicious acts of ethnic cleansing. The massacres in the Vilnius region would surpass even the Motyli Massacre that was committed several months prior, when both the Russian Frontier Guard and Belarusian paramilitary forces have massacred over 14,000 Belarusian Poles residing inside Belarus. Lukashenko himself had supported the recapture of the Vilnius region as a means of compensating the Belarusian SSR for failing to acquire Kaliningrad Oblast, and even when he eventually become the dominant figure in the Soviet Union, he did not forget to give more prominent posts to other Belarusians and non-Russian minorities, while allowing more Belarusian officers in the Soviet Army to gradually take over the responsibilities of managing the Baltic theater. However, it was the forced dissolution of the Soviet Union that marked the end of Lukashenko's regime, as he would be placed under house arrest by the new post-communist Belarusian government of Vyacheslav Kebich, before being sent to the Hague to stand trial on charges of war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity, along with many other prominent Soviet Army generals, Communist Party officials, and foreign volunteers that fought on both sides. The United Nations' harsh conditions for all the 15 former Soviet republics' re-entry into the UN has also been unpopular within the Belarusian public, and while the UN has placed a ban on any former Soviet republic's merger or formation of any other kind of union with Russia, it didn't stop Belarus from joining the Eurasian Union State in 2007, alongside the three founding members of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Yet, the administrations of Mr. Kebich and his successor, the pro-Russian Andrei Sannikov, has faced numerous opposition from within segments of the Belarusian public, who felt that being tied too much to Russia would have prevented them from joining the European Continenal Association." From 'The Death of the Soviet Union Episode Two: The Belarusian Conundrum'
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Excerpts from the 1990 Kazan Speech Made by Milan Pancevski:
"Dear esteemed colleagues and comrades of the USSR. The world today has become more integrated, but with every step towards globalization, our national identities are slowly losing itself. Though communist doctrine would state that all the differences would eventually fade away in the name of the common brotherhood of man, there are times when national sentiments have unfortunately gotten in the way. The more affluent nations of Western Europe and the Anglosphere nations, in their complete irrational fear and ignorance, has failed so far to step up in the ongoing refugee crisis that has unfolded in the Middle East. However, it is not the Muslims that are being uprooted from their ancient home through war and famine, bur rather, a people whose home had suffered from a civil war after attempting to overthrow a kleptocratic thief who died an ignominious death in a concentration camp built by the mastermind of the current military dictatorship far worse than his predecessor who now lies dead. The tragedy of such a people from the Orient is a natural result of unfettered capitalism, but it is this kind of agonizing poverty facing the Philippines that has forced its people to seek work outside their shores to make a living for their family. Yet, as the conflict between Iraq and Iran raged on, most of them would be happy to return home safe, only to learn that another dictator has taken power and is far more bloodthirsty than the kleptocratic thief who came before him. Comrades, is this not the result of capitalism that more poverty has been reported and that the cronies who enriched themselves at the expense of the people have not yet paid for their pillaging of the country. However, the disaster that has unfolded this completely reactionary country has changed the lives of those people who are stranded in the Middle East. When this refugee crisis threatened to destabilize the world, the wealthier nations were still dragging their feet in taking in those refugees. Sure, they took some of them when fleeing from their country when it fell into a civil war, but when that same military dictator has usurped power from the legally elected president, most of them could not return back home. There was only one nation that bravely stepped up to take in those refugees, even at the possible cost of our economic stability and social unrest, and that nation is my own Yugoslavia.
I believed in the dream that Yugoslavia would forever endure the hardships that made it the nation famous today. I also believed that it was only a temporary measure that the refugees now sitting at the transit camps throughout Yugoslav territory will eventually move to the wealthier nations of the West. However, racism and prejudice still reigned, causing our government to shoulder the burden of taking care of the refugees that had to come from the Middle East, but were in actuality political exiles unable to return home. I can understand if the former Eastern Bloc cannot take in the refugees when the Soviet Union itself is facing a civil war that is far bloodier than the Great Patriotic War, of which the Soviet Union has played a role in defeating the fascist beast of Germany, and in that war, we too, played a role in tying down the Germans in the Balkans. However, why is it that Western Europe, with its much so-called superior way of life, should deny the same kind of opportunity to the political exiles when they created their own empires in the past on the bones of their murdered victims, often through exploitations or outright genocide? Even as Europe as a whole is slowly struggling to learn the new frontier of multiculturalism, there will always be old prejudices and racial hatreds stewing and boiling on the surface. What then, is the definition of human nature? We students who have studied the ways of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, have questioned ourselves every day on what is the definition of human nature, and to our horror, human nature has been guided solely by survival instinct. The instinct to protect our own people and our own culture, which unfortunately, has been the guiding pillars of reaction and fascism. According to fascists and other right-wing activists, human nature allows us to hate one another because of our differences. Marx and many other socialists and progressives are leading the way in challenging the conventional mindset regarding human nature, and we are following them. The refugee crisis that has unfolded, is a golden opportunity to initiate a new kind of reset of human consciousness that will move away from the old, primal instinct of survival of the fittest in favor of those who cooperate with others for the greater good of society. It is for this reason that we have extended our hand to the refugees who could not return to their homelands, because they know too well that their return would result in a death sentence for them.
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"When Patriarch Diomid I had succeeded Alexi II as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, he became even more outspoken in his anti-Soviet stance, because of his short stint in prison on a criminal charge that was ultimately cleared as a result of mistaken identity. Yet, I have seen his sermons regarding the wider Eurasian world, and where he and I differ is his growing anti-Soviet attitude. Initially, I had advocated for China to be cut down to size if they decided to become a danger to the shrunken Russian state, but as I eventually learned more about the national development of China, I realized why they were able to create their own cultural characteristics within their Marxist ideology. Maoism in essence was Stalinism implemented by the peasantry, but I recognize the tragedies that befell the Chinese people during the Great Leap Forward and the other collectivization campaigns that were all to similar to the Soviet experience. Unlike Patriarch Diomid, I recognized that Europe in itself was always going to end up as the spearhead of the Anglo-American world, as both Europe and North America had shared cultural, political, and social similarities. If that was the case, when why has the United States not include Mexico into the Euro-Atlantic community? For two simple reasons: first, Mexico does not have a coastline close to the Atlantic Ocean, and second, and I don't mean to sound rude, but Mexicans do not have the same kind of racial monolith as the rest of the Euro-Atlantic alliance, despite being a byproduct of European colonialism. However, Mexico is integrated into a quasi-North American Union with the United States and Canada, but it feels overshadowed by its Anglo-Saxon partners. It is not an accident that pan-Hispanic nationalists have called for a cultural unity of the Spanish-speaking world, which would span from Mexico to the tip of South America. A Mexican government that is fundamentally and ideologically hostile to the United States would pose a national security threat to the US, just as a NATO-aligned Baltic States, Belarus, and Ukraine would pose a national security threat to Russia. It is also why the KGB was able to find a flaw in NATO's charter governing the admission of candidates by triggering territorial disputes with those targeted nations. We managed to slice off eastern Latvia and eastern Estonia, preventing them from being admitted into NATO, while Belarus has cleaved off the Vilnius region from Lithuania, preventing that nation from being admitted. However, we failed to prevent Romania's admission into NATO, which diminished our standing in the Balkans. Yet, the continued left-wing collective junta ruling Yugoslavia has for the most part, frustrated Germany's ambitions to become the center of Europe once more. It is not an accident that Yugoslavia is described as Europe's last dictatorship, often comparing it to its fascist mirror counterpart in the Philippines, which was described as Asia's fascist junta. For all of its flaws and brutality, the Yugoslav military junta was able to suppress the ethnic tensions by relocating most of its various ethnic groups into their respective republics. For one thing, General Kadijevic had succeeded in relocating the Serbs living outside the Socialist Republic of Serbia into their motherland, while relocating the Muslims of the Sandzak region to Bosnia.
Although Patriarch Diomid and I agreed on a lot of things regarding the characteristics of Eurasianism, ultimately it is his deep seated hatred of the Soviet legacy that prevents us from finding common ground. He is naive enough to think that his brand of Eurasianism can cure the present ethnic hatreds between Russians and Ukrainians, given the bloodletting that has occurred in southern and eastern Ukraine during the Second Russian Civil War. It is not an accident that today, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has completely severed its ties to the Russian Orthodox Church and has entered into a communion with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. It is even more astounding that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has gained popularity among the younger generation of Ukrainians, since much of the Uniate clergy has actually been involved with the war efforts and former Ukrainian Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh's conversion from Eastern Orthodoxy to Greek Catholicism has been a major propaganda boost. Yet, Greek Catholicism in Ukraine has been restricted to the Galicia region, but it has somehow made its inroads into Volyn and other parts of Western Ukraine. Yet, the Uniates are nowhere as strong enough to challenge the Orthodox majority of all of Ukraine, but they chose the path of Euro-Atlanticism. To this, I would say that they are sadly lost. No constant courting will convince the average Ukrainian to forgive the Russians for the bloodshed in their homeland, and the Russians are not in the mood to forgive Ukrainians, Poles, and Baltic peoples for expelling them from Kaliningrad Oblast, Transnistria, and Odessa. Yet, I think that former President Tuleyev had the right mind and courage when he finally dealt with the border crisis by allowing former President Rogozin to solve it, and what he did was nothing short of brutal. I do freely admit however, that while Ukraine is lost to us, we were able to salvage parts of its territory in order to deny NATO its complete victory, but Belarus may end up being lost if Andrei Sannikov is overthrown by pro-Western opposition activists. The Euro-Atlanticists want nothing more than to keep the unipolar system that has been in place since 1991, but this time they are not afraid of increasing the body count, and I mean in the number of dead people killed in the name of unipolarism. We too, have used multipolarism as a justification for slaughtering those who are in the way of ambitions, but the sad truth is, geopolitics is a game that requires the total abandonment of human morality in order to survive as a nation, and as a civilization. Why? Because nations, like all herds of animals, are guided by primal instinct and survival. They don't care if what they're doing is right or wrong, as long as they kept their biological existence intact." Alexander Dugin, from the Eurasianist Manifesto Speech made in Vladivostok's Far Eastern University, 2018.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Dec 26, 2023 4:55:41 GMT
Re-OMAKE 012: A CHRISTMAS UPDATE
Portions from Axis Powers Hetalia - Christmas Segment
Author: Hidekaz Himaruya
Non-Canon Characters - Voice Actors (JP/EN) [All canon Hetalia characters have the same Seiyuus/VAs]
Yugoslavia - Akeno Watanabe (JP)/Tia Ballard (EN)
Serbia - Hikaru Midorikawa (JP)/Vic Mignogna (EN)
Croatia - Akira Ishida (JP)/Blake Shepard (EN)
Bosnia - Yukana Nogani (JP)/Hilary Haag (EN)
Hercegovina - Jun Fukuyama (JP)/Brian Beacock (EN)
Montenegro - Tohru Furuya (JP)/Troy Baker (EN)
Slovenia - Yoko Hikasa (JP)/Amy Kincaid (EN)
Kosovo - Rica Matsumoto (JP)/Cathy Weseluck (EN)
Vojvodina - Junko Takeuchi (JP)/Gabe Khouth (EN)
(scene starts at HETALIA ACADEMY as GERMANY, ITALY, and JAPAN continue to walk through the academy hallway)
GERMANY: Let's see here. (Looks at the list of countries to interview) Scheisse. We're doing Yugoslavia and her children.
ITALY: (shudders) S-S-S-Slovenia is going to be there too?
GERMANY: (sighs) Ja, Italy. I almost forgot that she paid us back for the occupation.
JAPAN: (raises hands up) I'm more concerned about Montenegro, to be honest. I haven't signed a peace treaty with him since my war with Russia ended in 1905.
ITALY: (gasps) You're bringing that up now? What happens if Montenegro attacks us all? He hasn't forgotten our temporary occupation of his house during the war.
GERMANY: (enters the classroom) We're here. Yugoslavia?
(YUGOSLAVIA appears alongside the six respective republics and two autonomous regions)
ITALY: Uh.....Ciao?
YUGOSLAVIA: (sighs in frustration) You'd better get on with it, Germany. We're about to go back to our dorms from the classroom.
GERMANY: We just wanted to ask you questions regarding your Christmas traditions.
YUGOSLAVIA: (raises her hand up) It would be better if my children answered those questions instead, as half of them celebrate it on December 25th and the other half celebrate it on the same day as Russia and his sisters.
JAPAN: Okay. (turns to SERBIA) What is your Christmas like, Serbia-san?
SERBIA: (beckons for MONTENEGRO and MACEDONIA to come closer) Well, as Majka Yugoslavia said, we celebrate our Christmas on January 7th. However, unlike Russia's Christmas celebrations, we also hold a feast called a Slava, in commemoration of the patron saints of our house. My patron saint is Saint Sava, so we celebrate his Slava on January 27th. We also have the Christmas Slava as well.
MONTENEGRO: We also carry a badnjak to burn in yards, but in recent times, we've started to burn logs in our own homes now. My patron saint is Saint Tryphon, and we celebrate that on February 1 in the Old Julian Calendar, which corresponds to February 14th in the Gregorian Calendar, so we do not celebrate Valentine's Day at all.
ITALY: (droops) That's very sad.
MACEDONIA: My patron saint is Saint Kliment of Ohrid, and we too, celebrate the Slava as well.
GERMANY: (turns to CROATIA) And what about you, Kroatien?
CROATIA: Only Slovenia and I celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December, although Hercegovina celebrates it with us as well.
BOSNIA: Meanwhile, only Kosovo and I celebrate Muslim related holidays. Not sure about Vojvodina though (points at VOJVODINA)
JAPAN: Is your Christmas tradition like Croatia's, Vojvodina-san?
VOJVODINA: Half of the population that resides in my house celebrates Christmas like Croatia's, but the majority of the population in my house also celebrates Christmas and Slava like Serbia.
SERBIA: But lately, we've seen a lot of refugees coming from Philippines's house who are living in our home celebrate Christmas like Croatia's holiday, but with the extravagant and boisterous merriment like America's. Far too much cake and food, but give them credit for giving most of their food to relatives to take home as leftovers.
GERMANY: (nods) Ja, that is good. At least it prevents the food from going to waste.
YUGOSLAVIA: I surprisingly agree. I would join in the festivities with my children as well, but I think we could do well without America's influential Christmas celebrations in our house, like karaokes and games. They however, introduced to us their ornament called the parol, which is created in the form of Christmas stars. Croatia and Slovenia loved it, as they used Philippines's designs to decorate their house.
JAPAN: Wow, I didn't know that. My Christmas only consists of eating fried chicken and cake, since it's a relatively new thing in my house.
CROATIA: Too bad there's no wine or beer served in your house though, right Japonska?
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VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
DECEMBER 24, 2022
33 year old Radomir Magtibay walked along Granville Street as the night became less rowdy. More families are choosing to celebrate Christmas with their families at their warm, comfy home. In contrast, the fully grown man looked different from the shy 11 year old boy whose family lived in Sarajevo, before being accepted as immigrants to Canada, leading to their relocation in 2003. Both Radomir and Jovan Velimir eventually settled in, but they were rather uncomfortable hanging out with the other Filipino political exiles and economic migrants that have already settled in Canada between the First EDSA Revolution and the late Tadiar regime. The funny thing is, Jovan Velimir was already engaged to a daughter of two prominent political exiles who have lived in Whistler and Squamish and were going to be married in a Catholic Church. In sharp contrast, Radomir has remained unmarried, though working as a business owner of several nightclubs around downtown Vancouver, Squamish, and Whistler. One of the nightclubs that Radomir is visiting for Christmas Eve just happens to host a party for those who celebrate Christmas on January 7th.
As two security guards inspected Radomir for any contraband, he also showed them his id, and one of the party hosts waved him in. They both shook hands and entered the building, which was named Twilight Nightclub. Inside, loud music was being played, but there were only five people inside the dance floor, with the bartenders preparing their counter.
"I'm surprised you're here, Rado. Especially since your family is already celebrating Christmas right now," says Zoran, who was the party host.
Rado nodded. "Yeah, but since I moved out of my parents' house, I've been living in Squamish. To be honest, I adjusted much better with the Yugo crowd than with my own people."
"That's really sad, and I'm surprised that you can speak our language well too," said Zoran. "I didn't know you and your family lived in Yugoslavia before moving to Canada. My family defected to Austria after fleeing from Yugoslavia. General Kadijevic was really cracking down on the nationalists and anti-communists when we defected."
I sighed sadly. "Sorry to hear that. The other exiles from my country viewed those of us who lived in Yugoslavia with distrust and suspicion, since they thought we'd became communists. They think that speaking English perfectly makes them superior to the other Filipinos who speak it with an accent. I still retained that Yugoslav accent when speaking Tagalog and English."
Zoran laughed lightly. "Anyways, let's not keep ourselves too lonely. We have a party to celebrate."
An hour later, the nightclub gradually became lively as the partygoers settled down and ordered their drinks. More songs were being played in Serbian, causing the nightclub to go wild. Radomir joined the dance floor and began to dance, to the amusement and excitement of the partygoers. One girl started to dance beside him, and looked at him, before he moved his head to the side, indicating that he wanted to buy her a drink. She shook her head, indicating that she didn't need a drink at the moment, but Radomir felt his phone vibrate and quickly went into the bathroom to answer it.
"Hello?" Radomir said. He paused for a moment, before sighing and started to speak in Serbian. "Majko, I'm working right now. You know that one of the nightclubs that I own has a party, right? I'm helping the bartenders and bouncers with their work right now."
"I know that, but couldn't you at least visit us before you went to work?" Marina asked back in English, but Radomir sighed. "You can speak Tagalog or English to your family, you know. We're not in Yugoslavia anymore."
"Hard to get rid of the habit, Majko. I was going to visit you guys tomorrow, and besides, I heard that Jovan Velimir was going to introduce his new fiance to us," Radomir replied back. "Anyways, I gotta go to the bar. One of the bartenders is going on break."
"Radomir, when will you settle down and have kids?" Marina asked sadly, but Radomir merely smiled back.
"I'm happy to stay single. Who knows? I'll leave my business to Jovan Velimir and his kids someday." Radomir hung up the phone and washed his hands in the bathroom.
As soon as he got out, the girl who was dancing with him on the dance floor waved at him. Radomir went straight to the bar to help the bartenders take the orders as the dance floor girl gave him her request for the drink, to which he obliged. For thirty minutes, Radomir coordinated the efforts with the bartenders to make the drinks and take the payment, until the bartender who went on break came back. The manager thanked him for his help, and Radomir and the dance floor girl went back to dancing while the DJ was in a small box, adjusting the music.
"I never got around to asking your name. Mine's Rado, or Radomir if you want it to be formal," Radomir asked the girl. She dragged him from the dance floor, and into a bench, where her friends were waiting. "Hello."
"Ladies, he just gave me his name. This is Radomir." Radomir shook the hands of the other ladies sitting at the bench with a small table and a name tag placed on top.
"Nice to meet you all. I also own this club, so enjoy yourselves," Radomir replied in a gentle tone.
One of the other girls gasped in surprise. "Wow! Really? Jana, you must be lucky to be dancing with the club owner."
The girl, whose name Radomir learned, was Jana, laughed. "Ljuba, I didn't know he owned the club. I often see him here whenever Zoran is organizing the Balkan parties. There was that time when I saw him in a party organized by some Russians, and even Filipinos, but he's always partying with us here."
"I didn't know that." The other girl called Ljuba turned to Radomir. "So how did you end up falling in with the Balkan crowd?"
Radomir smiled. "My family and I lived in Yugoslavia from 1989 until 2002, when we moved here. We never became Yugoslav citizens due to our status as Temporary Special Residents, and the Canadian government here granted us permission to come here as immigrants, though we were considered political exiles as well."
"Oh, as Ljuba mentioned, I'm Jana and I'm from Skopje," Jana said with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Radomir."
"And I'm Ljuba from Kumanovo," Ljuba said as they shook hands, before pointing at a third girl, who was sitting with a guy whom Radomir assumed was her boyfriend. "And she is Stojana, and her boyfriend there is Bogdan."
"Bogdan...Hold on? Bogdan, as in my brother's friend?" Radomir asked. Bogdan turned around and gasped at Radomir's presence. "Bogdane! What are you doing here?"
Bogdan grinned as he and Radomir shook hands. "Not too bad, Rado, Heard about JV's engagement to my ex-girlfriend. Give my greetings to the new couple."
"Bogdane, I didn't know your ex-girlfriend was dating Rado's brother. Now we really need to start dancing!" Radomir led the group into the dance floor as the music continued to play.
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"The death of the Progressive Conservative Party in Canada occurred on April 23rd, 1999, when the last MP representing that party in the Greater Toronto area had resigned, mostly due to old age. The Canadian Alliance gradually became the dominant conservative movement after 2000, but the peak of Jack Kemp's presidency in the United States had greatly worried Canadian Prime Minister Stockwell Day, as there were potential rivals that were seeking to replace him as party leader within the Canadian Alliance. One of those rivals was Lynne Yelich, who hailed from Kenaston, Saskatchewan. As a diehard opponent of the Kadijevic-controlled junta in Yugoslavia, Yelich spearheaded the efforts to convince the Canadian government of the need to free Slovenia and Croatia from the grip of Yugoslav communism. Yelich was to the Croatian independence movement as disgraced neo-liberal activist Chrystia Freeland was to the Ukrainian independence movement. Yelich would often challenge Prime Minister Day on domestic policy, including the expansion of the freeways throughout western Canada. However, her most important policy that she championed for, was in both domestic and foreign policy. Her domestic policy was mostly focused around the increased housing projects in rural areas of Canada, as the overcrowding of Canadian cities would have a negative effect on the urban infrastructure. Her foreign policy was mostly focused on creating a plan that would allow the international community to force Yugoslavia to break itself apart and admit all of the six republics into the United Nations, on the same model and criteria as the UN's expulsion of the Soviet Union and the forced breakup as a precondition for its re-admission into the UN as separate republics. However, her foreign policy goals were challenged by another rival, Charles 'Chuck' Strahl, who saw both Russia and China as security threats to Canadian sovereignty, instead of Yugoslavia. Yet, in a twist of fate, Yelich's political career collapsed in 2012 when the Yugoslav junta announced that it was holding new elections to see if the communist government could be replaced or kept around. To make things worse for Yelich, the 2012 Yugoslav General Election was the first multi-party election to be held in Yugoslavia, which would be won by Srdjan Milic, becoming the new President in the process, although separate elections for the respective republics would be held at the same time. The re-stabilization of the Yugoslav economy, helped by Russian and Chinese economic investment in its economic and financial sector, had greatly revived the popularity of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, but President Milic would announce a constitutional amendment that would drop Yugoslavia's status as a socialist republic, replacing it with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Strahl's policies were mostly centered around economic and financial integration with the United States and Mexico to the point where his opponents were labeling him as the Canadian Jack Kemp, even calling for Canada's foreign policy to match that of Kemp's foreign policy. Indeed, Strahl did not shy away from praising Kemp's wars against Cuba and Nicaragua, but had criticized the American military's conduct in the Second Korean War, especially Kemp's invitation extended to the Tadiar regime of getting involved in said conflict in exchange for Tadiar's agreement to give up the chemical weapons obtained from defecting former Ba'athist officers that have sought refuge in the Philippines. Although Strahl had supported Prime Minister Day's decision to deploy Canadian soldiers into the Korean peninsula during the conflict, he did not shy away from calling for additional economic sanctions to be placed on the Russian government for the border clashes that it got involved with Ukraine. The growth of the political dominance of the West that was capable of challenging the traditional dominance of Ontario and Quebec had alarmed both the Canadian Liberal and New Democratic Parties, which sought to prevent the West from becoming a major player in Canadian politics. For this reason, the moderates and the leftist parties had decided to take a page out of the old Progressive Conservative Party and to call for the unification of all moderate and leftist movements in Canada. The New Democratic Party would be strengthened by the rise in their allied movements in the Communist Party of Canada, which grew slightly as a response to the Kempization of the Canadian Right in 2005. The Canadian Alliance continued to grow in response to the threat that the Communist Party of Canada posed to the Canadian state, and a major rebranding was needed. In 2009, the Canadian Alliance, along with the Christian Heritage Party and several independent politicians unaffiliated with any party whatsoever, would organize a session where they agreed to merge the two parties and accept the independent politicians together to form the United Conservative Party of Canada. Unlike the Progressive Conservative Party that collapsed, the UCPC was a party that mostly focused on Western Canadian interest, with some Maritime interest being thrown into the mix as well. It also focused on populist policies that favored rural populations of Canada, as well as fiscal conservative policies that governed the way Canada spent most of its money. Above all, the UCPC wanted to keep the money that ordinary Canadians earned in their pockets instead of wealth redistribution on a grand scale. Although it supported the expansion and modernization of Canada's railway network throughout the country, it also supported various joint venture projects with its American neighbor, garnering criticism from the Liberals and the left as selling out on Canadian sovereignty. When Strahl eventually became Prime Minister in 2013, one of his major platforms was to expand the rail line from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Alaska, through both Prince George and Prince Rupert. The Project Cascade Rail 2030 initiative was meant to serve as Prime Minister Strahl's goal of expanding the rail line beyond Vancouver, the Sea to Sky region, and into isolated towns without any access to a major highway like Bella Coola and Port Essington. In 2015, Prime Minister Strahl proposed to build Port Essington as a secondary port, alongside Prince Rupert, as a means of alleviating the maritime traffic on Vancouver's ports and harbors, as well as either expanding Prince Rupert Airport or building a new airport on Port Essington. Three years later, the Strahl administration would end up building a new airport in Port Essington and expanding on Prince Rupert Airport." From 'Day and Strahl: The Legacy of Canadian Conservatism', courtesy of VossCode Premium TV.
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Portions from 'Cuisines Around the World'
by: Gordon Ramsay and Jon Taffer
Food Network, released on January 20, 2019
Episode Nine: Two Christmas Cuisines from One Country
(scene starts with the map of the Philippines as TAFFER begins narrating)
TAFFER: Every country around the world has their own kind of Christmas food they often made when the festivities are coming. It is no different between a cuisine from a Western country like the United States, and let's say, a cuisine from an Eastern country like the Korean Federal Republic. Yet, one country stands out as two completely different cuisines emerged, and the main cause of such divergence was, you guessed it, a military dictatorship.
(scene shifts to Quirino Grandstand where Artemio Tadiar reviews the military parade)
RAMSAY: Ever since the Tadiar dictatorship rose to power, the food standards of the average Filipino has declined. It went worse during the Chinese bombing of the Philippines as they targeted the famous Banaue Rice Terrace with inciendiary bombs. Forced to adapt and improvise in order to survive, the Filipino cuisines of the Tadiar era made by Filipino residents within the Philippines itself resorted to the consumption of carabao and shark meat respectively. Carabao milk has also been used as a substitute for imported milk made in New Zealand, while all fast food restaurants were forced to close down as a result of sanctions. In their place, local eateries formed by ambitious and desperate families were serving local cuisines, such as sinigang, pinakbit, and many other cuisines that are associated with the Philippines.
(scene shifts to an eatery in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija)
TAFFER: Most eateries in the Philippines had resembled their Vietnamese neighbors' cantina, where local cuisines are made from fresh ingredients. It was not until the 2001 Vietnamese Revolution of Dignity that the post-communist Vietnamese government began to import more food from around SE Asia, especially Indonesia and Thailand. Likewise, the food production levels in the Philippines eventually recovered by mid-2002, mainly through the introduction of new species of rice that were formed through cross-breeding with various rice species found in Japan, the Korean Federal Republic, Vietnam, Thailand, and India. Likewise, noted cattle rancher and controversial former WWII veteran, Hiroo Onoda, had pioneered the cross breeding of various carabao for both milk and meat.
(scene shifts to a Filipino style kafana in Belgrade, Sovereign Republic of Serbia as TAFFER and RAMSAY enter the building)
RAMSAY: (opens the door to greet the cafe owner) This kafana here is owned by a former political exile who has emerged as one of the most promising culinary entrepreneurs in all of Europe. Meet Petar Dimayugan, a descendant of the Filipino political exiles who could not return to their homeland because of Artemio Tadiar. (turns to DIMAYUGAN) How are you?
DIMAYUGAN: I'm doing good. (turns to the host and speaks in Serbian) Jovana, can you please show them their tables?
JOVANA: (in Serbian) Will do, sir.
(DIMAYUGAN and JOVANA show TAFFER and RAMSAY their table)
TAFFER: (looks at the kafana walls) This restaurant looks like it hasn't changed its decour in years. I do like the fact that they've managed to keep it clean, and the furniture is always being updated.
RAMSAY: (nods as he looks at the menu) Okay, so I'm looking at the menu here, and I noticed that there's a section where it says that they would only serve it during the times that they would have to fast from meat. I guess this is catering to the locals who follow the Eastern Orthodox religion.
TAFFER: (looks at the menu) I also noticed that they have more fish-centric dishes here than you would find in a Filipino cantina over there.
DIMAGUYAN: (approaches the two men sitting on the table) Sirs, have you decided on what you'll be ordering?
TAFFER: (continues to look at the menu) I think I'll have the beef tapa with some mashed potatoes and a shopska salad on the side.
RAMSAY: (nods in agreement) And I'll have this pork batsoy with a side of lamb papaitan and rice to go.
DIMAGUYAN: (finishes writing down the orders) Okay, your orders will be ready in 10 minutes.
RAMSAY: Please, take your time. We'd love to see how you guys put attention into what you're cooking.
(scene switches to the kitchen where DIMAGUYAN gives the orders to the cooks as he speaks in both Tagalog and Serbian)
TAFFER: I didn't realize that they are also making sisig burek in their pastry menus as well. Given that the dishes belonging to various regions of the Philippines would be present among the now-former political exiles, they're making their way into this new kind of fusion cuisine. (sees one of the customers approach them as she shakes TAFFER's hands) I didn't know I have fans here.
FEMALE FAN: I can't believe it! Jon Taffer and Gordon Ramsay, in the flesh. What brings you both here?
RAMSAY: We're sampling much of the cuisines being served here. Do you like the dishes that they're serving here?
FEMALE FAN: (laughs) Well, the desserts are the most popular, as the Filipinske Kape is well known for. It's made out of flour and buttermilk, with eggs mixed in as well. It looks like the buntal hats that the farmers wore in the past, and it's based on Ruske Kape as well.
TAFFER: Are they serving it at all the kafanas as well?
FEMALE FAN: (nods) It's the most popular selling item, along with Srpske Kare, which is a fusion of goulash and kare-kare. It's basically kare-kare, but using a lot of spices instead of peanut sauce.
TAFFER: So which of the Filipino cuisines have become extremely popular around the world, not just in the Balkans?
FEMALE FAN: I would say the Pancit Rudo, because it was invented by a refugee who came from the VisMin region, and he was hungry for anything to eat. He could only buy the vermicelli and capellini noodles, but there were abundance of paprika, lamb, and olives. Plus, Rudo was the site of the transit camp that he was staying in, before making his way to Australia to rejoin his family there.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Dec 31, 2023 21:08:28 GMT
Happy New Year to all, and this is the last update of 2023. New updates will be published in the new year, along with my other TL.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: THE SECOND RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR PART FIVE - KHORASAN
"The withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989 had left the difficult task of defending much of Afghanistan's communist government to the DRA Army and Air Force as the Mujahideen were keen on reconquering most of their homeland after helping the Pakistanis with their brave, but ultimately futile attempt at defending their nation from the Indian invasion forces during the Cross-Punjab Conflict. As the Afghan communist movement was starting to decline, it resorted to conscripting much of its female population and training them in basic weapons handling before deploying them into the front lines. As President Mohammad Najibullah's government had gradually lost most of its credibility and popularity with the average Afghan citizen, he also had to face the shocking reality of losing Soviet aid and patronage as the Second Russian Civil War started to rip apart the former Soviet Union. Yet, the most shocking event in Afghanistan's history would occur when DRA Defense Minister Shahnawaz Tanai and a large number of Khalqites have launched a coup against President Najibullah in 1990, but the coup had fallen apart because of faulty communication among the coup plotters. However, President Najibullah would use the failed coup as an excuse to carry out a purge of Afghanistan's military by arresting, court martialing, and executing the coup plotters in what became known as the Bamyan Trials of January to July 1990. In the Bamyan Trials, approximately 4,000 suspected Khalqists were charged with treason and other crimes, before being sentenced to death. Though the elimination of the Khalqists have helped President Najibullah's cause, it did not prevent his government from falling apart and eventually resigned on September of 1990, leading to a power vacuum that was not yet filled by any faction until the Afghan parliament voted to install Burhanuddin Rabbani as the next President of Afghanistan. The Pakistani government was mostly focused on rebuilding its shattered nation in the aftermath of India's victory against Pakistan and the additional loss of significant portions of Pakistan's Punjab province that included certain holy sites in all of Sikhism, as well as the Indian annexation of the Pakistani portion of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Afghan Mujahideen faction maintained their division based on operational theaters, as their Pakistani Mujahideen counterparts now had a main purpose for their existence: a revenge attack on India, followed by a reconquest of the lost territories that the Indian government gained from the Cross Punjab conflict. The Pakistani Mujahideen leader, Mohammad Anwar, would build his own cell throughout Pakistan, starting on October of 1990. Their conflict against the Indian Army in what the Pakistani government called the Indian Occupied Sector of Punjab, started off with a series of car bomb attacks, followed by skirmishes with Indian troops. Yet, the Pakistani Mujahideen had another conflict to fight, and ironically enough, it was against the Khalistani movement that also fought against the Indian forces. Initially, Pakistani intelligence service had aided the Sikh separatist movement, until the defeat of their military in the Cross-Punjab Conflict resulted in seeing Pakistan's own Sikh minority as the reason for their defeat. Persecutions of Sikhs throughout Pakistan had spiked after October of 1990, resulting in their exodus to Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Singapore. The Burmese government only took the Sikh separatists in on a temporary basis, until news of their presence in Rangoon had been forwarded to the Indian government. The Indian government in turn, formally requested to their Burmese counterparts for the extradition of known wanted fugitives, which the Burmese government had complied. However, it was the first terrorist attack on Indian soil that was carried out in 1993, in the form of the Dehradun Bombing of May 1993, when several car bombs were detonated in the city center, killing at least 500 civilians. The Indian government would rely more on its national security and intelligence agency to go after the Pakistani Mujahideen, with the sole intention of breaking apart their cells, but as they were in Pakistan and the peace treaty had been signed a few years prior to the Dehradun Bombing, the Indian government now had to improve its intelligence wing, as to combat the growing threat of Islamic fundamentalism.
Back in Afghanistan, much of the Sunni branch of the Mujahideen had coalesced around Abdullah Yusuf Azzam and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, though the Afghan faction had mostly been led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Although the administration of President Rabbani had done much to stabilize much of Afghanistan, the fundamentalist stance taken by the majority of the Sunni Mujahideen fighters against their Shia co-religionists had made any efforts to unify the country extremely difficult to achieve. In fact, the majority of the Shia Mujahideen factions had rallied around President Rabbani when it became clear that the persecutions of the Hazara minority was not going to end soon. The Afghan Civil War of 1993 until 1996 would eventually shape the politics of modern Afghanistan, as the Northern Alliance of which was led by a coalition of warlords from different backgrounds: Mohammad Asif Mohseni, a Pashtun, though belonging to the Shia Muslim faith, while representing the Hazara minority was Abdul Ali Mazari. Representing the Uzbeks was Abdul Rashid Dostum, though he was a former Marshal of the DRA Army, while there were possibly more sub-commanders that served in the Northern Alliance. Although the Northern Alliance was initially hostile to Soviet overtures, the 1995 breakup of the USSR and the independence of the republics that made up of the Soviet Union had allowed the Northern Alliance to obtain crucial aid from the Central Asian republics. From Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, special volunteers consisting of the Afghan War veterans were sent to bolster the ranks of the Northern Alliance forces. Their combat experience, along with the pluralistic and tolerant attitude towards those of a different faith had allowed the Northern Alliance to withstand the attacks coming from the Mujahideen that opposed them. By the time the Afghan Civil War ended in a stalemate in 1996, half of Afghanistan that were populated by the Pashtun majority would come under the rule of the Taliban until 2003, when Iran, the Central Asian republics of the former USSR, and Russia, would intervene in the Second Afghan Civil War of 2002-03, with a heavy bombing campaign, followed by a Northern Alliance offensive against Taliban positions. Most significantly, the Taliban would lose its major backing from Pakistan back in 1997 when the Pakistani government launched an attempt to regain their lost territories ceded to India in the Cross-Punjab conflict, only to fail due to the improvements made to the Indian military." From 'Afghanistan From the Soviets to Division'
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Excerpts from 'Hatred's Destruction: The Funeral of Afghanistan'
by: Fatima Qasemi
Eksmo Publishers, released on August 21, 2020
Chapter Two: A World of Chaos
The streets around Shahidan looked terrible as various military vehicles often passed by our home. Warlords of all kinds have traversed throughout Bamyan province, but nothing compared to what has happened to Afghanistan could prepare us for the life changing event that was to occur. You see, my husband, Rahim Qasemi, had been fighting for the Shia Mujahideen ever since the Soviet Union had invaded our country. He would often come home to us, with wounds on his arms and face, while telling us the stories of how he and his unit had ambushed Soviet troops and DRA dogs that fought alongside them. I stayed in Shahidan to care for our children, who were just six and three years old, respectively. We thought of staying here in Afghanistan, but the danger to our lives was too much. President Rabbani was struggling to keep our country afloat, and there was a possibility that we might have to move to Iran, or even to a wealthier Western country. To make matters worse, the old age persecutions inflicted on our people by the predominantly Sunni Pashtuns have re-surfaced in the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal. Rasim warned us against going outside without an escort, not because they think we're incapable of protecting ourselves, but because of fears that the Pashtun gangs would start raping and butchering the Hazara women that they can get their hands on. The life that we had became more unbearable, and the more we suffered, the more we realized that we would be forced to move elsewhere. However, if we left our homeland, it would only benefit the Pashtuns, who wanted a completely pure Sunni Afghanistan, despite the existence of Shia Pashtuns as well.
Night time had fallen as Rahim came home, along with four other men that were armed with assault rifles. They mostly talked amongst each other, but what distinguished the other men from Rahim was that they also brought in their families as a safety measure. My six year old son Kasim was playing with the other children from the families of the four men that accompanied Rahim home. The children were oblivious to the growing danger around us, but it was only because of the five men's efforts at keeping our community safe that they're still alive. When Rahim assigned one of the other men to keep watch, he turned to me and hugged our sons.
"We'll have to stay here to fight those bastards, but we cannot keep you safe at the same time. The war will only get worse from here on in," said Rahim. We were speaking in Hazaragi, which we preferred to Pashto or Tajik. "You'll have to go seek refuge somewhere else."
"Where can we go, Rahim? Iran isn't really safe at all either, and the Pakistanis have their hands full with the same Mujahideen fighters now terrorizing their own minorities as well," I pleaded.
One of the other men who didn't keep the first watch nodded. "Rahim, since northern Afghanistan is still under President Rabbani's control, it would be a safe bet that we'll send the women and children to Uzbekistan, or even Kazakhstan. However, we'll need Sayed Jafar Naderi's help in escorting our families to the border with Uzbekistan."
Rahim snorted. "Hassan, Jafar is as slippery as the Pashtun Mujahids, and even worse as well, since he collaborated with the communists in suppressing the warriors of the faith."
"I'm aware of that. Even Abdul Ali Mazari knows not to trust that snake, but who else can we trust at this point?" Rahim asked bitterly. He paused as another vehicle with bright lights on approached our home while the man who kept guard outside burst inside the house. "What is it, Zayid?"
The man named Zayid panted. "Unknown parties are approaching. They're using a UAZ-469, and I'm not sure who they are."
Rahim turned to me with a grim look. "Get the children inside the rooms and keep quiet, Fatima." He grabbed the AKM that he carried around and pointed at the UAZ-469.
As the jeep had stopped, Rahim and the four other men aimed their rifles at them as a different man emerged from the jeep. Though he was carrying a white flag, indicating that he's come under the banner of a truce, Rahim's group remained guarded. Although we kept ourselves hidden, we could hear the man with the white flag speak in Uzbek. We were relieved, though we obeyed Rahim's order to remain hidden and silent.
"What brings you here to Shahidan, General Dostum?" Rahim asked.
As it turned out, we were stunned to hear that Abdul Rashid Dostum was visiting this town, but what also stunned Rahim and his men was that another man stepped out of the jeep. That stunned silence turned to anger and suspicion as they recognized the second man.
"Naderi. What the hell are you doing here?" Zayid asked angrily.
Jafar Naderi snorted. "Is that the way you would greet your ethnic kin?"
"You betrayed your own people when you sided with the communist." Rahim turned to Dostum, his suspicious look remained. "And General Dostum, what are you doing here as well? Did those Pashtun gangs sent you to round us up?"
Dostum shook his head in disappointment. "Nothing of the sort. We came here because of a favor that Abdul Ali Mazari had called on for us. He knows that a long conflict against the fanatical Pashtun Mujahids are coming, and we're making sure that the women and children are kept safe. President Rabbani is also calling on the governments of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to take in some of our own people, but they feared that the Mujahideen will infiltrate the refugee columns that are coming to Central Asia."
"Which is exactly why we agreed that only women and children under the age of 16 will be allowed to leave the country. If we find any man attempting to leave the country of fighting age, we will assume that he's a Mujahid spy attempting to infiltrate the border," said Naderi. He smirked maliciously at Rahim's group. "Besides, the good general here can smell a Mujahid from a far away."
"Never forget that we were all Mujahids when we fought the Shurawi and their so-called running dogs when they occupied our country," Rahim snarled, but Dostum sighed in frustration.
"Do you want our help in bringing your families to safety or not?" Dostum asked with a frustrated voice. He turned to the rest of the men with the rifles. "It wouldn't be safe for the women here to stay. The Pashtun Mujahids led by the likes of Jallaludin Haqqani wouldn't hesitate to rape and kill them. Just take my advice and let your families go to safety. I'll contact former Vice President Sarabi, who's staying in Shymkent, along with the other former DRA officials, for help in resettling our people."
For five minutes, Rahim paused and thought about what Dostum was offering. It is true that in other parts of Afghanistan's Hazarajat region, more Hazara villages have come under attack by other Mujahideen factions, such as the group led by this Haqqani figure. While we continued to fight defensively against them, time was not on our side, and we had to make a decision fast. Rahim slumped his shoulder and nodded in agreement, though he found it distasteful that he would have to seek help from the people he once fought against.
"You're right, General. It is much more helpful if our families were to live in safety elsewhere, while we're engaged in the war against the Mujahids that are becoming more dangerous," Rahim admitted.
Dostum nodded in agreement. "I know it's distasteful that you're turning to your one time enemies for help, but right now, we have a bigger enemy in mind. We'll arrange things with the remnants of the former DRA Army for your families' safe passage. Meanwhile, you guys have to head towards Yakawlang and join up with Mazari. He's gathering the other Hazara fighters, and there will be much needed supplies for the long war ahead."
"We thank you very much, General Dostum," said Zayid as they shook hands, although Rahim slowly returned to our house and opened the door to our room.
"Fatima, let's start packing. My men and I will send you all to the border with Uzbekistan. You'll have to make your way into either Kazakhstan from Uzbekistan. Only the actual Russian republic within the USSR isn't safe," Rahim instructed us as I began to grab a suitcase and placed all of our clothes in it. He also grabbed a second suitcase and placed our sons' clothes in it, while his men did the same with their families, although they had to return to their houses within the same neighborhood. "Write to me when you reach either Tashkent of Shymkent."
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BREAKING! KHORASANI MILITARY FORCES LAUNCH MULTIPLE ATTACKS ON PASHTUN BORDER CROSSINGS AS FULL SCALE INVASION OF PASHTUN EMIRATE COMMENCES
Sydney Herald
August 19, 2017
(Jaghatu, PASHTUN EMIRATE) - Acting upon the orders of Khorasani President Ahmad Shah Ramazan, the Khorasani military had commenced artillery strikes along the inter-entity border with the Pashtun Emirate in the south as a full scale ground invasion was launched. The Republic of Khorasan had been dealing with incursions launched by Islamist groups based in the unrecognized Pashtun Emirate, before the full scale operation had begun. Both the unrecognized Pashtun Emirate and the semi-recognized Republic of Khorasan had once been a part of a unified country of Afghanistan, before the Afghan Civil War of 1993-96 had ended in a stalemate, as the interim Afghan republican government was unable to defeat its hardline Islamist opponent, while the Taliban was equally incapable of defeating and dislodging their secular opponents from power in Kabul. Since the end of the Afghan Civil War of 1993-96, the two breakaway entities had dug in, expecting another massive assault that never arrived, until yesterday. In the south, the Pashtun Emirate was not only predominantly Pashtun, but it became the bastion of Islamic fundamentalism and the headquarters of most Islamist organizations. Its only economic link to the outside world lies through Pakistan, which was constantly dealing with Baloch rebellions in the south, and border skirmishes with India in the east. In contrast, the semi-recognized Republic of Khorasan had been organized from among the non-Pashtun areas of northern Afghanistan, with some secular minded Pashtuns and dissidents fleeing from the southern Emirate arriving in Khorasan, although within the Republic of Khorasan lies the Autonomous Region of Hazarajat, which is an entity that is dominated by the Hazara population that faced persecutions throughout their history. It is also where much of Khorasan's defensive strongholds are mostly located, but was also the site of where the ground forces have launched their invasion routes from.
"The time has come for us to put to an end the reign of terror that has gripped the southern regions of what used to be and will become Afghanistan once again, through the decisive destruction of the Islamist thugs that has reigned over the peoples of southern Afghanistan for decades," says President Ramazan, while his speech was being televised across all of Khorasan. "We have prepared for such an eventuality for the same number of decades as the Taliban had ruled southern Afghanistan. Make no mistake: we shall become one nation once more."
The Khorasani military had been completely different from their spiritual counterparts in what used to be the Northern Alliance, in that they were still an ad hoc militia, similar to their Taliban counterparts in the south. However, the stalemate that ended the Afghan Civil War of 1993-96 had forced the leaders of the Northern Alliance to learn from their mistakes, and to reform their militias into one of the emerging militaries in Central Asia, though not as good as the Uzbek or Kazakh armies. Additionally, they've also set up a rival government based in Mazar-i-Sharif as an alternative administration from the Taliban-dominated government in Kabul, although the de facto capital of the southern Pashtun Emirate was located in Kandahar. Yet, within several years, the Mazar-i-Sharif based government of the Northern Alliance would be recognized by Russia, China, India, and Iran, with the majority of the world not recognizing the de facto split of Afghanistan into two. The newly renamed Republic of Khorasan would be proclaimed in 2002, when the Northern Alliance's government had elected its first President, Abdul Malik Pahlawan, an Afghan Uzbek. Then-president Pahlawan presided over Khorasan's modernization efforts that included several diplomatic trips to Russia and China, resulting in an economic trade deal agreement signed between him and Chinese Premier Bo Xilai. Moreover, the Khorasani government had also claimed its role as the interim government of all of Afghanistan, but will not become the new official Afghan government, until the country is reunified. After President Pahlawan's term ended in 2010, Ahmad Shah Ramazan was elected as the second President of Khorasan. Under President Ramazan's administration, Khorasan began to improve its own military by sending its officer cadets to study in Russian and Chinese military academies, while its rank and file soldiers were trained in Kazakhstan by Kazakh instructors. In addition, a Khorasani Special Forces unit had been trained by Russian Spetsnaz instructors in the art of insurgency and counter-insurgency, as it is expected that the conflict against the Taliban would be long and deadly. Likewise, the Pashtun Emirate under Taliban control is also eager to reunite all of Afghanistan, albeit under their control.
"We are up against apostates and traitors who have decided to stray away from the word of our Prophet, while consorting with our enemies at large," says the de facto Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, while addressing elements of the Taliban-controlled militias and three of its most infamous special forces units during a rally in Kandahar. "This is also a test to see if we will triumph over the apostates and traitors, with our holy warriors against the so-called best and brightest of the fake state of Khorasan's Subh-900 special units. When we shall triumph, the adhan shall be heard once again across all of Afghanistan, and the followers of the holy book shall once again bask in the love of Allah. Allahu Akbar!"
---
"All of the five Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union had the Northern Alliance to thank for their effort in stopping the attempted Islamist infiltration into their respective territories, while the Second Russian Civil War was raging. Yet, in their infinite wisdon, the Islamists had found a way to establish their presence in the northern Caucasus region, where their message of Islamic piety had attracted scores of disenfranchised Caucasian Muslims that suffered from Soviet and Imperial Russian oppression. Nowhere was the most volatile and dangerous part of the Caucasus than in the autonomous region of Chechnya, where they suffered from the deportations that occurred when Joseph Stalin was still in power. The expulsion of the indigenous population of the northern Caucasus region had been an event that the deportees had never forgotten, and while most of them were able to return to their homelands under Nikita Khrushchev, they received no apology for the crimes committed against them. As a result, the veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan had managed to establish themselves in Chechnya, where they combined religious fervor with anti-colonial struggles to incite the Chechens to rebel against Soviet authority. Thus, in August of 1991, the North Caucasian theater of the Second Russian Civil War would begin. Unlike the Baltic and Ukrainian theaters of the civil war, the North Caucasian theater would continue on, long after the end of the Second Russian Civil War in 1995. However, the Islamists were hampered by Georgia's involvement in the suppression of the Islamists in their border with Chechnya, as the Georgian government feared that if the Islamists in the northern Caucasus were to become successful, they could encourage additional revolts that may even trigger a similar rebellion in Abkhazia among the Abkhazian Muslim population. Yet, the Islamist veterans of the Afghan conflict had found more fertile ground in Iraq, which had suffered a national humiliation at the hands of the Iranians in the aftermath of the Camp Ashraf Agreement that virtually destroyed much of Iraq's territorial integrity, with the granting of the Kurds and Assyrians much political and regional autonomy. Iran in turn, would give its own Kurdish minority a chance to relocate to an independent Kurdistan, and in turn, it would resettle some of the Azeri refugees that were forced to flee from their homes as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict escalated. However, disaffected and disenfranchised Iraqis living in the post-Ba'athist period had began to join the Islamist groups that had formed their cells throughout Iraq, and while Abdullah Yusuf Azzam had relocated his base of operations from Afghanistan to Iraq, some of his men would also join the other Islamists that were setting up in the Caucasus. It was not until 1994 that an ambitious plot was hatched by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to detonate several aircraft in the selected airports and airspaces. One of the targets that was selected was an aircraft in Manila International Airport, but when the World Youth Day organizers announced that it was going to move the festival venue from Manila to Mexico City, the part of what was now Bojinka Plan had hit a snag. Luckily for both Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, another two targets were chosen, and both targets were selected by Azzam himself: the airports in Kazan and Ufa. They could order their Caucasian cell mates to plan the attack, with the intended targets being the notoriously defective Soviet era civilian aircraft. At the same time, Azzam also selected three targets in the United States for their attack: New York's JFK Airport, Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and the Boeing aircraft manufacturing plant in Seattle, plus one target in Canada's Vancouver Airport.
The Bojinka Plan was only successful in the First Phase, which was the bombing of Aeroflot Flight AE 043, which was the aircraft that killed all of its passengers, including the Russian Orthodox Patriarchy Alexy II, which paved the way for the selection of Patriarch Diomid I on July of 1996, albeit that aircraft was being flown to Moscow from Isetgrad in Isetgrad Oblast. The Second Phase of the Bojinka Plan however, was foiled when an anonymous tip had alerted Kazan Airport security and the Interior Ministry to a report of a bomb being placed in the plane of Tatarstan Airlines Flight 274. The plot to blow up the aircraft in Kazan would lead to a similar foiling of the plot involving BAL Bashkirian Airlines Flight 362, where OMON personnel and Ufa Airport security guards had found and defused the bomb. As the international media learned of the planned attacks, it gradually became clear that the attacks were aimed to destabilize what remained of the former Soviet Union, but the lethally efficient way in which the plot was foiled had been thanks to the work of newly promoted KGB Director Sergei Smirnov, before his assassination at the hands of Chechen rebels during the North Caucasian insurgency in 1999 had resulted in Mikhail Trepashkin's ascension into his role. Additionally, while the Aeroflot Flight AE 43 had been blown up in the sky over Russia, one Canadian Airlines aircraft was blown up by associates closely linked to Ramzi Yousef while waiting for passengers in Taipei's Chiang Kai Shek International Airport on the same day. Taiwanese authorites arrested several men who were connected to Ramzi Yousef five days later, by which time Abdullah Yusuf Azzam was ready to carry out the final phase of the Bojinka Plan: the kamikaze attack on various airports in Iran. However, the final phase was foiled by Iranian intelligence, which received information on the terrorist attacks that happened in Russia from the KGB. The caretaker Iraqi interim government under Ahmed Chalabi was powerless in his capability to do anything, as the Iranian government had imposed other restrictions on what Iraq can do, until August 30th, 1996, when Iranian General Shahbazi announced that it is willing to lift some restrictions on the Iraqi interim government's functions that eventually allowed said interim government to function again. Most importantly, it lifted the ban on stationing the Iraqi military in the DMZ separating Iraq from Iran, but on a provisional basis, such as when Iraq can request Iranian assistance in hunting down the terrorist cells that were responsible for the Bojinka Plan. Ahmed Chalabi's request for Iranian assistance however, would prove costly, as Islamist militiamen had carried out an assassination attempt on his life, which proved to be successful by September 12th, 1996. The Iraqi interim government fell into infighting, which gave both the Assyrian and Kurdish separatist movements a chance to finally declare independence from Iraq. The Republic of Kurdistan and the Republic of Assyria would come into existence on September 28th, 1996, but the way in which they declared their independence had aroused fury within the Turkish government, which feared that its own Kurdish population would rebel against Ankara's authority and to join their compatriots in an independent Kurdish state. Likewise, Assyria would be recognized as a sovereign state by the United States and the ECA member states, which meant that Iraq as a viable state was virtually dead at this point. The renewed Kurdish rebellion inside Turkey would become one of the bloodiest conflicts in modern Turkish history, and it would propel a radical right-wing Turkish nationalist movement close to power." From 'The Crescent Ascendant: Islamist Fundamentalism and the Destructive 90's', courtesy of CBC Documentaries.
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ESTO ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY STATUS FOR THREE MORE APPLICANTS AS ONGOING MILITARY EXERCISES IN SOUTHERN CHINA RAISES CONCERN FOR REGIONAL NEIGHBORS
Sydney Herald
November 7, 2018
(Samarkand, UZBEKISTAN) - The Eurasian Security Treaty Organization has announced the granting of candidacy status for three additional applicants today, as Iran, Turkmenistan, and Bangladesh have bee confirmed of their candidacy. In addition to those three, there were several unconfirmed reports that Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Belarus were also interested in filing for application to join, though official government spokespersons representing those nations have denied such reports. The expansion of the ESTO military alliance comes at a time when its Euro-Atlantic counterpart, NATO, has also announced that all of its member states would increase their defense budget up to 6%, in anticipation of a potential conflict with ESTO member state Russia. In response, the ESTO member states would also announce the increase of their defense budget to 9%, three times the initial maximum percentage of their countries' defense budget. Moreover, the ongoing military exercises in southern China conducted by all ESTO member states has raised alarms within China's neighbors, especially Japan and the Philippines, which responded by conducting naval exercises within Japan's Ryukyu Island chain. In addition, there were talks of forming a similar military alliance within the wider Asia-Pacific region, as the growing threat of the ESTO alliance also worried the Kaine administration. US President Tim Kaine has sharply criticized the expansion of the ESTO alliance, and insisted that NATO is completely different from ESTO, as the former is considered a defensive alliance.
"With the admission of Sweden and Finland into NATO, with even Austria and Ireland possibly reviewing their foreign policy regarding their neutrality, our administration's long lasting policy regarding NATO as a defensive alliance remains the same. The ESTO alliance is not a defensive alliance, but rather an offensive alliance, and I don't care if President Zhuravlyov and Premier Wang says otherwise," says President Kaine when interviewed by a local reporter. "Russia and China must understand that there can only be one global hegemon, and if they dared to try and challenge us, we will exterminate them without mercy. We have the most powerful nuclear arsenal in the world, and we aren't afraid to nuke anyone. Just ask Japan how that went."
President Kaine's comments however, had garnered outrage from within the Japanese public, whose memory of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained fresh in their minds. Additionally, the Japanese government is also reconsidering its position on developing its own nuclear arsenal, but the exposure of the Philippines's own ambitions to develop its nuclear weapons had become one of the many excuses that the ESTO alliance has used to justify military intervention. Anti-American sentiment has risen across Asia, with the Philippines and Japan leading the charge, as a result of President Kaine's comments. However, the President has refused to apologize for them, insisting that his threats were aimed at Russia and China, and not at Japan. However, his defensive stance has fallen on deaf ears, but one unfortunate consequence from President Kaine's comments was the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes across the United States, mainly carried out by neo-Nazi organizations. Violent hate crimes were also committed against local Russians living in the United States, though at one point in Brighton Beach, anti-Russian vigilantes had mistakenly beaten a Ukrainian man of Jewish origin. Sinophobia and Russophobia remains at a high fever point within the United States though, as anti-Japanese sentiment have also revived.
"We are well justified in calling for the removal of all American military bases in our soil, on the grounds of their President's extremely racist and insensitive comments made about how our grandparents and great-grandparents' deaths from the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We also express our solidarity with the Vietnamese victims of American chemical warfare, and it's because of their behavior that we are forced to resort to such drastic measures," says Japanese Prime Minister Toshio Tamogami, during a session in the Japanese Diet, though his voice was rather somber. "America has expressed its double standard behavior far too often. They have no problems inciting ethnic revolts within Iran by supporting the Azeri separatists, but they're complaining about Thailand suppressing their Muslim minority within Pattaya? It picks and chooses who they should side with in this case."
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jan 14, 2024 5:38:15 GMT
Sorry for yet another multipost. Here's the first update of 2024. --- CHAPTER FORTY: THE SECOND RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR PART SIX - EASTExcerpts from "A Nation in Mourning"
by: Arturo Tolentino
Atlas Publishing, released 2002
Chapter Sixteen: Philippine Militarism"I'm sorry to admit it, but your army is a joke. Your soldiers don't know what they're doing, and half of the regiments are reliant on captured weapons taken from their enemies," said General Corbalan as he continued to write his own report. He sat in front of Tadiar's desk as the junta leader himself nodded in admission. "Are you sure that you're desperate to reform your own military with our help?"
When General Corbalan inspected the soldiers, sailors, and pilots of all three branches of the AFP during his first tour of the military base in Fort Bonifacio, he found to his frustration that most of them were halfway competent, and not even bothering to look professional. It was understandable, given that the Filipino Civil War had destroyed the unity and professionalism of the Philippine military. Some of the troops didn't have the proper kind of uniforms, and some of them still carried their prized AKMs taken from dead NPA soldiers. While ammunition was not that much of a problem, the lack of professionalism had annoyed the Chilean officers. Worse, Corbalan ranted to Tadiar one time after inspecting the curriculum that the Philippine Military Academy held in all of their years of existence, about how it remained unchanged. Yet, the Chileans understood too well that the financial situation had made it impossible for the Philippines to recover from the devastation of the civil war. To make matters worse, some of the vehicles and other equipment that the AFP held in all three branches were neglected by years of inactivity. The M41 Walker Bulldogs were cannibalized for spare parts, while the F-5 fighter planes were grounded from a lack of fuel.
"We have become the weakest nation in all of SE Asia, and much of the military doctrine of our current military is wholly based on the American military. What's worse is that our lack of funds have resulted in being handed a lot of second hand weapons from the United States. We need better weapons, but we also have to stabilize our own economy once again," Tadiar replied back bitterly as his interpreter translated what he said to Corbalan.
"At the very least, we can help you formulate a new military doctrine. That is the first step: we will help you train your officer corps by instilling what we have learned from our Prussian style doctrine adopted in the late 1880s. Next, we will have to retrain your regular infantry, sailor, and pilot from scratch. That part will be a lot easier," Corbalan replied in a pleasant tone. "Your General Staff will also have to be reorganized on our model, as well as redesigning the uniforms as well. I'm sure that you could help out with the uniform redesign as well."
Tadiar nodded. "Maybe for the PMA cadets, we could revive the military uniforms that we wore when we fought the Americans."
"That would be a start, and we could also teach your military band some of our own songs as well. Your military band will have to write their own songs eventually, but for now, they can learn from our military band as well. Finally, when all the officer cadets, active and reserve officers, and regular soldiers, sailors, and pilots have the time they need, they will learn the Spanish language, as only a few of our officers can speak English and none of them can understand the Philippine dialects," Corbalan said. "I read up on your country's history and was surprised that you people were also a part of the Spanish Empire, but the Americans had pretty much drained the Spanish language out of your heads and replaced it with English."*** For the next several hours, I was reduced to office boy running errands for both Tadiar and Corbalan, bringing with me Lieutenant Colonels Aromin and Doromal along as I needed their help with what Tadiar and Corbalan wanted me to accomplish. As an added extra security measure, Colonel Ricardo Morales also joined as well. The first trip that we took was at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, where the 7th Infantry Division was located. When we arrived there several hours later, the regular Filipino rank and file soldiers stood at attention as another interpreter translated what one of the Chilean officers in charge of retraining the soldiers said to them. Standing across from the soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division were the regular rank and file Chilean soldiers who were recruited to help assist the training program. Like their commanding officer, the Chilean soldiers were hardly impressed with their Filipino counterparts, though there were several large boxes containing new rifles that the Pinochet regime had donated to the Tadiar-led junta.
"Your weapons are only good as the man who uses it. However, keeping the weapon clean can also save your life on the battlefield. When we looked at the weapons that you've shown to us, it looked like it hasn't been maintained properly. In a battle, a defective or improperly maintained weapon can help you with your premature death," said the interpreter who repeated what the Chilean training officer said in Spanish. He then pointed at the boxes that clearly contained the weapons. "Over there are several boxes of the refurbished SG 540s that General Pinochet has gladly donated to El Commandante Tadiar, as we are now switching to the IMI Galil rifles. The machine guns, we will donate some of them, but El Commandante may have to speak to his neighbor in the south for additional weapons. I hear that the German military is planning to sell a lot of the surplus stock that they inherited when East and West German reunited."
"Form a single line, and keep your initial weapon in hand so that you can hand it over to the training officer on the right. They will issue you new weapons once you turned in your decrepit AKMs," said the new commander of the 7th Infantry Division. "Parade, attention!" The soldiers went stiff and stood straight. "Parade, dismissed!" The soldiers turned sharply to the right and marched off the parade ground.--- Inventory of the Armed Forces of the Philippines:A list of the following weapons and equipment that were acquired during the later stages of the Artemio Tadiar regime and its successors.
Philippine Army Equipment:
1) Infantry Weapons
*Pistols:
- Glock 17 (country of origin: Austria) [year of acquisition: 2001]
- SIG Sauer P226 (country of origin: West Geramny/Switzerland via Turkey) [year of acquisition: 1999]
- Zigana PX-9 (country of origin: Turkey) [year of acquisition: 2004]
*Shotguns:
- Armsel Striker (country of origin: South Africa) [year of acquisition: 2003]
*Assault Rifles:
- SIG SG 540 (country of origin: Switzerland via Chile) [year of acquisition: 1990 - The very first acquisition of an assault rifle of the Tadiar regime]
- IMI Galil (country of origin: Israel via Chile) [year of acquisition: 1994 - during the UN Peacekeeping mission in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and 2001 - directly from Israel]
- AKM (country of origin: Soviet Union) [year of acquisition: 1987 - during Filipino Civil War, although disputed by communist veterans, but no longer in arsenal. Originally used by the New People's Army]
- StG 44 (country of origin: East Germany, though originally in service in the Nazi period, via Vietnam/Egypt/Libya) [year of acquisition: 2001 - donated by Vietnam after the 2001 Vietnamese Revolution of Dignity as they're slowly donating most of their Soviet era equipment and gradually acquiring Japanese weapons by 2006. 2004 - donated by Egypt. 2005 - donated by Libya] {currently in storage}
- Steyr AUG (country of origin: Austria via Australia) [year of acquisition: 2007, few months before Artemio Tadiar's death]
- Howa Type 89 (country of origin: Japan) [year of acquisition: 2005, few years after the Diet formally repealed the ban on the sale of military equipment to foreign nations]
- APF P-3 Kalis (country of origin: Philippines) [year of acquisition: 2007-2010, 2007 was the year that the prototype was introduced, and 2010 was the year it went into full production. Now in service with the Philippine, Vietnamese, Chilean, Burmese, Thai, and Turkish militaries]
*Machine Guns
- Sumitomo NTK-62 (country of origin: Japan) [year of acquisition: 2005, see above note from Howa Type 89]
- FN MAG (country of origin: Belgium, plus via Indonesia) [year of acquisition: 2004 - from Belgium, 2007 - from Indonesia]
- IWI Negev (country of origin: Israel) [year of acquisition: 2008 - the first acquisition by the Philippine military after Artemio Tadiar's death]
*Sniper Rifles:
- Sako TRG (country of origin: Finland) [year of acquisition: 2013]
- Zastava M76 (country of origin: Yugoslavia) [year of acquisition: 2011 - the first acquisition made by the post-junta Poe administration, though a variant was built by Armscor which utilized NATO standard ammunition called the Armscor ArZa Type 11]
- Barrett M82 (country of origin: United States) [year of acquisition: 1999]
*Anti-tank weapons:
- M72 LAW (country of origin: United States) [year of acquisition: 1999]
- RPG-7 (country of origin: East Germany via Turkey, originally from the USSR) [year of acquisition: 2011]
*Communications and night equipment are almost the same as OTL, though gradually being replaced by locally built equivalents. However, a few acquisitions are made:
- Giraffe radar (country of origin: Sweden) [year of acquisition: 2002]
- SAGEM Sigma 30 (country of origin: France via Japan) [year of acquisition: 2007 - Philippine acquisition, 2008 - Japanese acquisition]
*Armored Vehicles
- M551 Sheridan (country of origin: United States) [year of acquisition: 1996]
- M551II Sheridan II (country of origin: United States) [year of acquisition: 1997]
- Kapre MnBT series (country of origin: Philippines) [year of acquisition: 2016] {The first serious attempt at designing an entirely Philippine-built light tank that also doubles as a main battle tank. Using the chassis of a Mitsubishi Type 89 IFV, but with a turret of a Commando Stingray, the prototype is tested for various jungle based warfare}
- T-84 Oplot (country of origin: Ukraine) [year of acquisition: 2014 - though only three T-84s were acquired for testing purposes and were never meant to be used as front line weapons]
- Kapre AT-1 (country of origin: Philippines/Japan) [year of acquisition: 2017] {using the redesigned chassis of the Mitsubishi Type 89 IFV used for the Kapre Miniature Battle Tank series, it is equipped with a 105mm anti-tank gun]
*Non-Combat Vehicles
- Bal-Bal MCV (country of origin: Philippines) [year of acquisition: 2012 - recycled from obsolete jeepnets that were given a massive redesign to function as both a Mobile Commander Vehicle and a Mine Resistant Vehicle]
- Nissan D21 (country of origin: Japan) [year of acquisition: 2004 - employed by the Philippine territorial defense forces as a quasi-rapid reaction force]
*Infantry Fighting Vehicles
- Mitsubishi Type 89 IFV (country of origin: Japan) [year of acquisition: 2005]
- BMP 1-P (country of origin: Soviet Union, via Cuba) [year of acquisition: 2002 - originally from the Cuban Army, but were confiscated by US military authorities after the fall of the Castro regime. The Cuban BMP 1-Ps were then shipped to the United States, where they were dissected and tested, before refurbishing it with modern NATO standard equipment and given to both the Philippines and Chile]
*Armored Personnel Carriers
- Type 73 APC (country of origin: Japan) [year of acquisition: 2007]
- ACV-15 (country of origin: Turkey) [year of acquisition: 2010 - the last acquisition made during the caretaker Tarrazona government]
*Rocket Launchers
- Aswang-1 (country of origin: Philippines) [year of acquisition: 2002 or 2006 - originally a part of the aborted Santa Barbara project launched by the former Marcos regime, Gerald Bull and various American armor designers had given a design overhaul and it's basically a poor man's TOS-1 with the recycled Walker Bulldog chassis]
- Astros II (country of origin: Brazil) [year of acquisition: 2015]
*Artillery
- Type 96 Heavy Mortar (country of origin: France via Japan) [year of acquisition: 2016]
- M69 Mortar (country of origin: Yugoslavia) [year of acquisition: 2015]
- M110 Howitzer (country of origin: United States via Turkey) [year of acquisition: 2013]
- M48 Mountain Gun (country of origin: Yugoslavia) [year of acquisition: 2014 - a modified and upgraded version of the M48 Mountain Gun was designed by Yugoslavia to replace their M48 Mountain Gun]
- M1978 Koksan (country of origin: North Korea/South Korea (confiscated by ROK Army after the Second Korean War and sold to third parties, including Philippines, before the 2008 Korean Revolution that propelled Huh Kyung-young into power) [year of acquisition: 2006]
- Type 72 105 mm SPG (country of origin: Japan) [year of acquisition: 2018 - refurbished after it was retired in 1999]
*Air Defense Systems
- Tikbalang-100 (country of origin: Philippines) [year of acquisition: 2002 or 2006 - also once a part of the Santa Barbara project, the Tikbalang-100 was meant to hold as many anti-air missiles]
- BOV 20/3 (country of origin: Yugoslavia) [year of acquisition: 2011]
- Type 11 Short Range SAM (country of origin: Japan) [year of acquisition: 2016]
*Helicopters
- T129 ATAK (country of origin: Turkey/Italy) [year of acquisition: 2016]
- Westland Sea King ASW (country of origin: United Kingdom) [year of acquisition: 2014]
- Mil Mi-14 (country of origin: Soviet Union via Germany - surplus ex-East German stock) [year of acquisition: 2012]
*Ballistic Missiles - currently planned but not realized, though had the Philippine nuclear weapons program been successful, it is most likely that a prototype ballistic rocket would have been designed and built as well, codenamed 'Minokawa'.
Philippine Navy Equipment:
*Frigates:
- 4 Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates {renamed the Jose Alejandrino-class frigates}
= BEFF Jose Alejandrino (ex-USS Samuel Eliot Morison) [year of acquisition: 2004]
= BEFF Eulogio Rodriguez (ex-USS Sides) [year of acquisition: 2004]
= BEFF Vicente Lim (ex-USS Estocin) [year of acquisition: 2004]
= BEFF Macario Sakay (one brand new Oliver Hazard Perry-class ship built by the US) [year of acquisition: 2004]
- 5 Sariwon-class corvettes (originally in service with the Korean People's Navy, but were confiscated by the former South Korean government and donated to the Philippines for their service during the Second Korean War) {renamed the Antonio de las Alas-class corvettes}
= BEFF Antonio de las Alas
= BEFF Mateo Capinpin
= BEFF Benigno Aquino Sr.
= BEFF Mariano Marcos
= BEFF Jose P. Laurel
- 4 Koni I-class ASW frigate (originally in service with the East German Navy, but were donated by the reunified German government in 2000) {renamed the Bacnotan-class ASW frigate}
= BEFF Bacnotan (ex-East German Navy ship Rostock) [year of acquisition: 2009]
= BEFF Aringay (ex-East German Navy Berlin Haupstadt der DDR) [year of acquisition: 2009]
= BEFF Sudipen (ex-Yugoslav Navy vessel Koper) [year of acquisition: 2009]
= BEFF Carranglan (ex-East German Navy vessel Halle) [year of acquisition: 2009]
- 5 Fremantle-class patrol boat (formerly in service with the Royal Australian Navy, but were donated in 2003, during the Second Korean War. All the other former Fremantle-class patrol boats were donated to the Indonesian, Argentine, and Thai Navies) {renamed the Tuguegarao-class patrol boat}
= BEFF Tuguegarao (ex-RANS Cessnock) [year of acquisition: 2011]
= BEFF Kibungan (ex-RANS Warrnambool) [year of acquisition: 2011]
= BEFF Itogon (ex-RANS Whyalla) [year of acquisition: 2011]
= BEFF Bokod (ex-RANS Wollongong) [year of acquisition: 2011]
= BEFF Sablan (ex-RANS Bunbury) [year of acquisition: 2011]
- 2 Koni II-class ASW frigate (originally in service with the Cuban Navy, but the surviving aforementioned vessels chose to surrender to the US Navy during the American Invasion of Cuba, or Operation: Cuban Liberty) {renamed the Pudtol-class ASW frigate
= BEFF Pudtol (ex-Cuban Navy Mariel) [year of acquisition: 2017]
= BEFF Calanasan (ex-Cuban Navy Monkada) [year of acquisition: 2017]
- 10 Jose Andrada II-class patrol craft (consisting of the original 13 planned Jose Andrada I-class ships that were cancelled, and their names were later used for the other 10 Jose Andrada II-class patrol craft) [year of acquisition: 2018]
- 3 Yushio-class attack submarine (contract awarded to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation to build the three new submarines from scratch, though said firms are also collaborating with France and Turkey to design the next submarines and mini-submarines)
Philippine Air Force Equipment:
*Fighter Aircraft
- 28 General Dynamics F-111C (country of origin: Australia) [year of acquisition: 1999]
- 21 Dassault Mirage Fighters (country of origin: Spain) [year of acquisition: 2010]
- 30 Kawasaki JF-02s (country of origin: Japan) [year of acquisition: 2012-2014, rebranded as PAF PF-02s]
* Trainer Aircraft
- 15 Soko G-4 Super Galeb (country of origin: Yugoslavia) [year of acquisition: 2016 - The Yugoslav Air Force is in the process of slowly decommissioning much of its older aircraft models in favor of a joint development of a new class of fighter and trainer aircraft with the Korean Federal Republic]
* Fighter/Bomber
- 10 MiG-23 (country of origin: Soviet Union/North Korea, via South Korea) [year of acquisition: 2007 - confiscated from the former Korea People's Army Air Force by the former South Korean government, and like all surplus ex-North Korean weapons and equipment, they were donated and sold to third parties]
--- CIVIL WAR INSIDE USSR ESCALATES WITH THE PRESENCE OF CHINESE AND NORTH KOREAN VOLUNTEERS AS LUKASHENKO DEPLOYS THEM INTO UKRAINIAN THEATER
Sydney Herald
April 10, 1991(Belgorod, RUSSIAN SFSR) - Approximately over 3,000 PLA and 2,000 KPA volunteers arrived in the Russian city of Belgorod after an agreement was signed between Soviet Premier Aleksander Lukashenko, Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin and North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung on the deployment of those volunteers on a temporary basis as a means of accumulating combat experience for the militaries of the other two communist nations. Though the foreign volunteers are expected to fight in the Ukrainian theater of the Second Russian Civil War, they would also help with the construction of defenses in areas held by Soviet loyalist forces. The leaders of the breakaway republics had criticized the move as incendiary, as the PLA and KPA volunteers might not show any kind of mercy when they would take into custody any enemy soldier that would surrender to them. Their presence has also electrified the foreign volunteers fighting against the Soviet government, as the anti-Soviet rebels have reported an increase in the rate of enlistment for the foreigners wishing to take part in fighting against the Soviet Union, with an alarming number of Westerners with ties to neo-Nazi and neo-fascist movement being the dominant majority of foreigners fighting in the western regions of the Soviet Union.
"The presence of the neo-Nazi mercenaries will be a great exercise in killing off the scum for our glorious Soviet forces, as well as our Chinese and Korean comrades. We don't care if more of these mercenaries are arriving at our lands, as long as they get to be buried inside Soviet territory," says Lukashenko, during a session in the Soviet Politburo. "We're quite happy with our so-called Western partners, who are willing to turn a blind eye to the exodus of these thugs from their homes, as they're practically letting us kill them for free."
US President Jesse Jackson was briefed on the situation with the far-right volunteers flocking to the breakaway regions of the Soviet Union, and while he did not approve of such actions, he was horrified when it was revealed that former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski had met with notorious former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke on the possibility of sending various Klan members to fight against the Soviet government. In addition, the leaked conversations of Brzezinski and Duke had garnered public protests by America's Black community, as they feared that a battle hardened Klan might use the tactics they've learned during the Second Russian Civil War for an insidious new kind of raids on their communities. Consequently, several known black activists with ties to the Nation of Islam and other black liberation movements have also traveled to the Soviet Union, though they are volunteering to fight for the Soviet government. In addition, the Sino-Soviet border has emerged as one of the most tightly patrolled frontiers in the wider Eurasian continent, as Soviet and PLA troops have started to conduct joint patrols, as to prevent the infiltration of the region by Islamist factions who were veterans of the Soviet War in Afghanistan.
"We may end up facing a kind of domestic terrorism that we haven't seen since Reconstruction, with the Klan sending its active members to fight in the Soviet Union. While I applaud the anti-Soviet rebels seeking to gain their independence from a totalitarian government, I fear that the warzones in the Soviet Union will become a kind of training ground for future far-right terrorists to learn and thrive," says President Jackson, when asked about the presence of Klansmen and neo-Nazis inside the Soviet Union. "Brzezinski's backing of the Klan will eventually backfire, and the proof of that will be the untold number of people of color being killed by Klan-sponsored terrorism. If we have to endure the kind of racial terrorism in the future, you can thank Zbigniew Brzezinski for becoming the father of racial terrorism, just as he was the godfather of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism."--- ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT FAILED IN CHILE AS PINOCHET SUFFERS SIGNIFICANT INJURIES FROM ATTEMPT
Vancouver Sun
September 8, 1990 General Augusto Pinochet leaves the Presidential palace, accompanied by his bodyguards, hours before the assassination attempt took place.(Santiago, CHILE) - An assassination attempt on Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet had ended in failure as said strongman was escorted to a military hospital by armed soldiers accompanying him. Though he survived an attempt, largely as a result of his driver narrowly dodging an MLAW rocket that blew up another car behind him, the impact of the destroyed car had hit the car he was riding on, resulting in him sustaining some injuries, mostly a broken arm. General Cesar Mendoza, who was appointed the acting head of Chile while Alvaro Corbalan is in the Philippines upon fellow military dictator Artemio Tadiar's request to help retrain and reform the Philippine military on the Chilean mode, has declared a state of emergency in an attempt to find the perpetrators who tried to kill Pinochet. A terrorist organization called the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front later claimed responsibility for such actions, warning the Chilean junta that it will not stop with its activities until the Chilean junta is overthrown.
"The struggle shall continue, even when the rest of us are eventually captured and killed. Chile has not yet forgotten the spirit of liberty and class war against the rich and the corrupt military officers who aided in the murder of Chilean democracy," says an unnamed spokesperson representing the terror group that claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt. "We are now calling on all patriots of Chile to rise up in revolt against the junta, and to trigger a civil war that we desperately need in order to destroy the scourge of fascism from Chile forever!"
When news of Pinochet's assassination attempt reached international news media, he only received words of condolences from both Tadiar and the Argentine government, though the international community remained silent on the matter. Yet, within hours of the failed assassination attempt, over 5,000 Chilean dissidents were rounded up and were incarcerated in various networks of Chilean concentration camps, where they were subjected to the most ruthless form of torture ever endured. Representatives of Human Rights Watch were denied access to Chilean prisons on the grounds that they were viewed as foreign spies with intention to recruit the detained dissidents to expose the crimes of the Pinochet regime. At the same time, more lower ranked personnel from the notorious concentration camps were also sent to the Philippines to teach their counterparts in the National Intelligence and Coordination Agency on how to run an effective network of concentration camps, which unlike the ones in Chile, had started to resemble a fusion of a labor camp and an extermination camp. When approached for comments, Alvaro Corbalan had this much to say.
"The communist rats that dared to attack the man who saved our nation will be hunted down and eliminated. It's a matter of how we'll eliminate them, that is the question," says Corbalan, during an interview with a pro-junta reporter working for the Tadiar regime in Manila. "Perhaps we can give our new students a chance to hunt down these communists, for we have managed to teach them our ways of suppressing dissent."--- "When the Second Russian Civil War had ended in 1995, there were numerous Koryo-saram that were expelled from their homes in Ukraine, coupled with their decision to flee from Central Asia. When President Aman Tuleyev came to power, he decided to send them to Priamurye Krai, where they originally lived prior to the 1937 deportations conducted under Josef Stalin's watch. When the Jewish Autonomous Oblast was abolished in 2002, on the grounds that most of the Jewish population of the JAO had departed for Israel, he decided to resettle them in the former JAO, as well as in the cities of Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Sakhalin Island, and most controversially, the Kurile Islands. Although there wasn't much of a settlement in the Kurile Islands, President Tuleyev had decided to populate the area of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, where a Russian Navy base was being built, though it was more of a submarine pen where much of the Pacific Fleet's submarines were located. Yuzhno-Kurilsk however, would end up growing a bit bigger than its original size, as it emerged as the new center of Russia's Koryo-saram community in the entirety of the Russian Far East. However, the population there was only 12,000, and could not grow any bigger than that, due to the weather. However, Yuzhno-Kurilsk would also attract another kind of people that wanted to move there: Japan's own Korean minority, or the Zainichi Koreans that were descended from the Korean forced laborers who were sent to Japan to work in war related industries. In the aftermath of the 1995 Chinese bombing of the Japanese Embassy in Manila during the Spratly Island Wars, Japanese nationalist sentiment grew exponentially to the dangerous point where xenophobic rallies were held, denouncing ethnic Chinese and ethnic Koreans as a threat to Japan's national unity. In 1996, a Japanese far-right rally in Osaka that was held to commemorate the 1 year anniversary of the Japanese Embassy bombing in Manila had turned ugly when several Japanese nationalists had vandalized a Chosen-seki school that was frequented by the Zainichi Korean minority. Several more anti-Korean rallies would be held between 1997 and 2002, and although the Zainichi Koreans tried their best to keep their head down, some of them wanted to return to Korea where they would be more welcome. However, the Second Korean War of 2002-04 had made it impossible for the Zainichi Koreans to return to their ancient homeland. Thus, some of them decided to immigrate to the United States, Canada, and Australia. Yet, there were a few Zainichi Koreans who actually visited the disputed Kurile Islands in the same time period as the Japanese far-right rallies that were taking place, and found to their surprise, a similar group of people to them that spoke an older dialect of Korean. In 2004, President Tuleyev would encourage the Zainichi Koreans in Japan to move to the Russian Far East, especially the Kurile Islands, where he knew that not only would they be treated well, but populating the disputed territories with an ethnic group that has a deeper grudge towards Japan would also help enhance the security of the other islands in the Russian Far East.
However, it was Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Poronaysk that would hold the largest population of Koryo-saram, as those cities held around 198,000 and 17,000 people respectively. Although the Zainichi Koreans that took a bold step of moving to Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands had difficulty integrating into Russian society, their Koryo-saram counterparts were helpful in helping them integrate. When the two Koreas reunited after the end of the Second Korean War, the Koryo-saram/Zainichi communities in the Russian Far East were hesitant to move back to war torn Korea, until the 2008 Korean Revolution that brought Huh Kyung-young into power opened the way for the newly formed Korean Federal Republic to repatriate most of the Korean diaspora from their overseas residences. Japan was the first nation to enter into an agreement with the Korean Federal Republic to repatriate its own Korean minority, virtually ending centuries of Korean immigrant presence in Japan through the repatriation program. The Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union followed suit in 2010, through a similar program where the reunited Korean government would recruit the Central Asian Koryo-saram to work in reconstruction jobs throughout the former North Korea. Huh Kyung young's most ambitious social reforms that included strengthened trade union legislations and a larger agrarian reform that also allowed the resettlement of the repatriated Korean diaspora into the countryside throughout the reunified Korean Federal Republic. Workplace legislation that was similar to that of the ECA was introduced to help prevent conflicts between workers and management, a feature that played a key role in the violent Pyeonghwa Motors labour dispute that spiralled out of control and resulted in the 2008 Korean Revolution. The Pyeonghwa Motors labour dispute was not the only incident that led to Huh's rise to power. The treatment of the former North Korean population, as well as the exposure of certain former South Korean soldiers to a different kind of propaganda spreaded by renegade troops loyal to a rival North Korean faction called the Provisional Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea about South Korea's social problems, and the brutal war crimes committed by foreign troops during the Second Korean War, had contributed to the revolution. However, it was the use of Filipino penal battalions that remained in the former South Korea after the Second Korean War ended and their role in brutally suppressing the workers' riot in the labour dispute that triggered a new wave of Korean nationalism, especially when another revelant information was revealed that the interim administrations to govern the 'Special Administrative Recovered Territories' that was the official name for the territories of the former North Korea to possible descendants of pro-Japanese Korean collaborators and other right-wing extremists aligned with American corporate interests that also played into Korean anger. Another controversial aspect of the growing anti-American sentiment in Korea was actually the ambitious diplomatic reach made by the Chinese government under both Premiers Wang Dongxing and Bo Xilai during the 2008 Sino-Korean Diplomatic Summit in Kaesong, a few weeks after the Korean Revolution ended. The diplomatic summit was held on the anniversary of the end of the Imjin War, the earlier Japanese invasion of Korea and its war against the Ming Dynasty in China, making such a summit a diplomatic gesture aimed at Japan. Initially, President Huh maintained the Korean alliance with the United States, until some of his cabinet ministers gradually convinced him to conduct even more multilateral relations with non-traditional nations aside from Japan." From 'Korea and the Korean People in the Post-Cold War Period', courtesy of KBS Documentaries.--- "The Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands had emerged as one of the few unusual territorial disputes between the United States and the Philippines, as those islands had once been a part of the former Spanish East Indies, until they were sold to Germany, which lost those colonies to Japan after WWI. Although the US would continue to administer those territories after WWII, its status as a Trust Territory arose some questions as to what its ultimate fate would have been. As early as 1990, the Jackson administration had toyed with the idea of giving Palau back to the Philippines, until the Spratly Island Wars had prompted President Jackson to throw the Tadiar regime under the bus by not helping them when the Chinese had mercilessly bombed the Philippines. The status of the Trust Territories would not be resolved until 1999, when Jack Kemp was President that he launched a series of negotiations with both the representatives of all the four island nations that made up of the Trust Territories of the Pacific. All four representatives agreed to become a formal US territory under the name of the American West Pacific Territory. All of the residents of the American West Pacific Territory were declared American nationals, but they were also given the status of dual nationals, simultaneously holding both American and the nations in which they resided. For example, a resident of Palau was considered both a Palauan and American national at the same time. When Palau held a referendum on deciding their ultimate fate in 2010, they were given three choices: remain a part of the American West Pacific Territory, become an independent nation, or to join the Philippines as a special autonomous entity. In the end, Palau opted to remain a part of the American West Pacific Territory, as functioning as an independent nation would have made things a lot more difficult, and joining the Philippines was unpopular. The irony of it is that the Filipino refugees who fled during the Filipino Civil War had voted against the incorporation of Palau into the Philippines, knowing that the decades of military rule had deeply scarred much of their families. Most of the Filipino refugees that fled into the Trust Territories would emerge as one of the biggest pro-American populations in the Trust Territories, though their relations with the Micronesian population was at best lukewarm, and at worst, hostile." From 'The Rise of the American West Pacific Territory', courtesy of PBS Documentaries.--- SOVIET NAVY VESSELS CONFRONTED BY JAPANESE SHIPS IN DISPUTED KURILE ISLANDS AND SAKHALIN AS PACIFIC FLEET REMAINS ON STANDBY
Sydney Herald
May 12, 1991(Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, RUSSIAN SFSR) - In the midst of the Second Russian Civil War, a potential flash point in the disputed Kurile Islands had risen between the Soviet Union and Japan, as three Grisha-class corvettes and two Krivak-class frigates were suddenly confronted by what appeared to be two Yubari-class destroyer escorts and three Yushio-class submarines just off the coast of Kunashir Island in the larger Kurile Island chain. The confrontation began when the JMSDF vessels based in their northern home port of Ominato were ordered to sail into the disputed islands when reports reached the base of a small Soviet naval presence there. A few hours later, the JMSDF vessels arrived to see a small force of the Grisha-class corvettes and Krivak-class frigates conducting naval exercises in the region. Arguments were raised, and tempers were flared up, until one of the Soviet naval officers successfully reached out to the Japanese naval commander who led the fleet into Kunashir Island. When the matter was finally reached, the Soviet ships decided to set sail for Sakhalin Island, while the JMSDF ships returned to their home port. Although the naval incident did not lead to an escalation, tensions between the Soviet Union and Japan remained tense, as there was no formal peace treaty that was signed between the two nations that would have marked the formal end of the state of war against each other.
"We are thankful to the Soviet authorities for not escalating the situation in the disputed Chishima Retto region, as the instability within their homeland can easily spiral out of control," says Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama, during an emergency press conference at the Japanese Diet building in Tokyo. "The Soviets are aware of the state of diplomatic uncertainty between our two nations, as we never formally put an end to the conflict."
The Soviet seizure of the Kurile Islands and recovered southern Sakhalin was their prize for entering the war against Japan after Germany was defeated during the Second World War. While Japan recognized the loss of southern Sakhalin, it never recognized the loss of the Kurile Islands as legitimate. Even before the Second Russian Civil War broke out, the former Lukyanov regime has sent over 5,000 Soviet forces to build defenses in all four major islands within the larger Kurile Island chain, plus supply depots and auxilliary naval bases from which the Soviet Pacific Fleet could resupply for their operations in the wider Pacific Ocean region. Between 1988 and 1990, the former Lukyanov regime has initiated the process of transfering much of the regular Soviet forces from all over the USSR to enhance the defenses of the Kamchatka Peninsula. However, there were some dissenting voices who stated that the troops that were sent to fortify the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kurile Island chain consisted of the most incompetent and laziest personnel, and that they were sent to the far end of the USSR as a part of the penal battalions that were only sent there to reform themselves through hard labour.
"Some of our troops have gone soft from their time when they were stationed in Eastern Europe. Their presence in the far flung parts of the Soviet Union is a way to whip them back into shape, but at the same time, we are also fortifying the areas of the USSR that we honestly expected any enemy forces to land, even if the idea is absurd," says Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, who has been a major figure in the Second Russian Civil War's major theaters of conflict. "Until we've solved the problems of logistical and personnel issues, we have to take this unpopular decision in order to regenerate the fighting prowess of our forces." |
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gillan1220
Fleet admiral
I've been depressed recently. Slow replies coming in the next few days.
Posts: 12,634
Likes: 11,350
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Post by gillan1220 on Jan 15, 2024 2:03:13 GMT
It's ironic how Tadiar's military would be much better than 2023 OTL AFP. The Japanese selling those Type 89 rifles would make Tadiar being the first customer of this rifle. I'm sure Japan would also hand out extra Type 64s as well.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jan 15, 2024 2:36:09 GMT
It's ironic how Tadiar's military would be much better than 2023 OTL AFP. The Japanese selling those Type 89 rifles would make Tadiar being the first customer of this rifle. I'm sure Japan would also hand out extra Type 64s as well. True, but in exchange, TTL's Filipino society would be a bit worse off than IOTL, with the political exiles being far more aware of global politics. Additionally, I finally hinted at the fate of the Trust Territories. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jan 17, 2024 3:12:48 GMT
Here's the now-published Re-OMAKE. Keep in mind that this segment will develop into two divergent scenarios.
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Re-OMAKE 013: A CLOUD OF MUSHROOMS
Portions from the Interview with Former President of the Philippine Government-in-Exile Aquilino Pimentel
Deutsche Welle, released on March 17, 2018
Discussing Artemio Tadiar's Insane Nuclear Program
Interviewer: When the Philippine government-in-exile learned about the Tadiar regime's attempts to build its own nuclear weapons and thereby violating the nuclear free zone in all of SE Asia, you were actually shaking in fear, as your colleagues had described your reaction. It didn't help that back in 1999, former Philippine military officer Cirilito Sobejana's defection to Russia had resulted in him spilling the secrets of the nuclear program. Yet, Hermogenes Esperon also revealed the extent of the Tadiar regime's ambition to become a nuclear power, even claiming that the uranium stored in the decommissioned Bataan Nuclear Power Plant was due to be enriched as a means of making the Philippines more reliant on nuclear energy, but that was just a cover. Do you agree with this statement?
Pimentel: I wasn't surprised at such revelations, but when you listen closely to what General Sobejana's detailed explanation, it went deeper than that.
Interviewer: How so?
Pimentel: What no one knows until now, was that Ukraine had two or three military attaches stationed in Tadiar's Philippines, most of whom belonged to either the Ukrainian Navy or the SBU. The SBU and NICA played a role in selecting which Philippine military officer cadets with a science background would be chosen to study in Ukrainian universities specializing in nuclear science. Back then, Sobejana had been among the officers chosen in 1996, but as you've pointed out, his defection to Russia had resulted in the suspension of such a program. You can also say that the origins of the Russo-Ukrainian border clashes started with Ukrainian border guards' attempt to kill Sobejana when he crossed the border into Russia and arriving at Rostov-on-the-Don in 1999. The incident at Rostov-on-the-Don resulted in a cross border artillery bombardment on Russia's part, before both sides agreed to a ceasefire.
Interviewer: Okay then. The idea of a nuclear armed Philippines had not only frightened China, but even all of SE Asia as well, especially Indonesia. At one point, the Indonesian government threatened to cut off ties to the Philippines, unless it agreed to de-nuclearization. Additionally, the Chinese even threatened to place its own nuclear missiles in the disputed Spratly Islands chain in 2000, but luckily, the PLA generals reminded the civilian government that the islands are ill suited for construction of a nuclear silo. In that case, how many nuclear weapons were confirmed to have been built by the Tadiar regime?
Pimentel: As far as I know, the Tadiar regime didn't have the funds and expertise to build one nuclear bomb and rocket, but they were researching on additional uses for enriched uranium and plutonium. As you know, the Philippines had its own electrical grid problem in the 1990s, when blackouts were common. The attempt to restart the Bataan Nuclear Powerplant did not start until after 2005, when Tadiar started to suffer from various health problems. The solar power plants built in the same areas the nuclear plant did mitigate the electrical problems, but because of its geographic position in the Ring of Fire, it was proposed that geothermal energy would be the new alternative to nuclear and solar. That project would actually be one of the main campaign platforms of President Poe, which became popular.
Interviewer: As far as you know, there are no official records of the Philippines of ever building its own nuclear arsenal?
Pimentel: That is true, and just like how a hypothetical nuclear armed Iran is considered a threat to Israel's national security, a nuclear armed Philippines would be a danger to the entirety of Asia. Not only that, but even the Japanese government is considering the option of building its own nuclear arsenal. Japanese ultranationalists had advocated for something they called nuclear revenge on the United States for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The last thing Russia and China need is both the Philippines and Japan breaking the nuclear taboo, which somehow played into their plans for such a military intervention.
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Op-Ed: China's Final Solution to the Philippine Fascist Problem is Project Qianzhou
by: Wang Hui
Courtesy of Xinhua News Agency
Before the advent of European colonialism in Asia and the 380 or more years of Western colonial domination of the colonial semi-settler state of the Philippines, the relations between the pre-Hispanic kingdoms that existed in various areas of what became the Philippines and the various dynasties that ruled China were harmonious. In fact, there were only few states that became tributary states of the Middle Kingdom, such as Ma-i and Pangasinan. Still, the relationship was based on purely commercial ties between China and the tiny statelets. The advent of Spanish colonialism was also driven by commercial intentions, namely the silver trade between the Spanish Empire and the Ming Dynasty, and in fact, the Manila Galleon was the name of the maritime trade network that connected China to the Spanish colonies of the Americas. However, relations between our people and that of the Austronesian ethnic groups of the now declared Spanish East Indies had bordered on hostility. In fact, there were several pogroms committed by the natives against our people more than they committed against the Spanish ruling elite, starting with the massacres in the 1600s. Even as the mutual animosity grew, more of our people continued to immigrate into the former Spanish East Indies for hundreds of years, even assimilating in the process into the colonial structure of the Spanish East Indies. You would find more Chinese Catholics in the Philippines than even in Macau, as the Spanish colonial authorities aimed at assimilating our own ethnic kin into their colonial structure through their conversion to Catholicism. Indeed, much of the Chinese families in the Spanish East Indies emerged as prominent wealthy clans, such as the family of the previous President before the fascist dictator Artemio Tadiar took power. It is also worth noting that the ancient homeland of the Austronesian race has been located in what is now Fujian province, meaning that Fujian shares a connection with both China and SE Asia as a whole. Much of the Chinese population in the Philippines actually speak Hokkien, and not Mandarin or Cantonese. The American colonial period would be marked by the extension of America's Chinese Exclusion Act into the Philippines, but luckily our people found loopholes to poke into such racist legislature.
The Philippines, as it stands, is not only the most reactionary state in all of Asia, but is most likely to side with its white colonial masters, as they have not undergone full scale decolonization. Their educational system is wholly rebuilt on the American educational system, and I mean rebuilt. Why? The former Spanish East Indies had a formal educational system that restricted its access to the natives of the Philippines, and mass scale formal, and mandatory education would not be open to the public until the American period. The teachers who arrived in the Philippines did a lot more to fully lock the average Filipino brain into the pro-Western mindset, which ironically worked to the advantage of Asia as a whole when the Japanese militarists attempted to build its Co-Prosperity Sphere. Out of the many European colonies in Asia that welcomed their Japanese overlords, only the Philippines fought ferociously to delay their timetable. Yet, their so-called independence is illusory, as the Philippine governments since 1946, has been upgraded to a vassal state, often with its foreign policy dictated by the United States. When Artemio Tadiar took over the Philippines and ruled as its military dictator, he initially kept that relationship on a normal level. Yet, because of the Nanyang Island dispute and our bombing campaign against the Philippines and to a lesser extent, Vietnam, we succeeded in pushing President Jesse Jackson to throw the Tadiar dictatorship under the bus, as the Westerners would say, until Tadiar, in his infinite wisdom and revanchist attitude, would turn towards Japan for help. We also made a mistake in bombing the Japanese Embassy in Manila, and this would lead to the resurgence of Japanese nationalism, which manifested in their now-open admission that the Nanjing Massacre not only happened, but that their soldiers were actually justified in doing so. Even the crimes of Unit 731 is now being paraded as a kind of 'extermination through experimentation' campaign, and the worst part is that the war criminals who used civilian prisoners like lab rats have gotten away with it. No justice at all. Worst of all, is that it gave Japan a motivation to rebuild its own military once again. Nationalist propaganda have once again appeared on Japanese school textbooks, and a similar kind of poison has appeared in the history books of the Philippine school system.
So what should China do to eliminate the troublesome problem in Asia? What should we do to ensure that the Philippines would never again pose a threat to us? In addition to the reunification with the renegade province of Taiwan, here is what the People's Republic of China should do:
1) Total de-Colonization: As it stands, the de-colonization of the Philippines is either halfway done, or implemented improperly. We must go beyond the dismantling of the American colonial system that has crippled the mentality of the average Filipino mind. We must also dismantle the old Spanish colonial system that has taken a hold of the entirety of the Philippines, and to revert the entire country back to when it existed before the Europeans arrive. However, total de-colonization might also have to mean the total territorial fragmentation of the entire country, as a means of destroying its sense of national unity.
2) Total de-Filipinization: As the name suggests, the very name of the Philippines is colonial in nature, as the entire country was named after a European king. The very idea of a Filipino national identity is in itself a total disgrace to all of Asia, which indicates an identity built on European colonialism. We must strive to eliminate every trace of Filipino culture and identity, to the point where the Austronesian ethnic groups would be at each other's throats and making our complete conquest easier.
3) Total de-Militarization: The destruction of the Philippine fascist system must also involve the wholesale destruction of the Philippines's military capabilities, from the devastation inflicted upon their military materiel to the wholesale extermination of their personnel. This is when the Geneva Convention will no longer apply, and all soldiers, sailors, and pilots of the Armed Forces of the Philippines will now be designated as "special enemy combatants" that will not be subjected to the provisions of the Geneva Convention. This means the execution of captured Filipino military personnel, and even civilian volunteers that are caught aiding their own country's military.
4) Total re-Education: Only after the systematic elimination of the Filipino national identity, can we start rebuilding and re-educating the natives of the island to accept our way of life. As the Philippines is in itself a product of European colonialism, we can start by renaming the entire islands as Qianzhou. The formation of a Special Administrative Region of Qianzhou should be the start of the total re-education process. Even the Chinese Filipino families that lived in the Philippines for centuries must once again rediscover and revive their Chinese roots. A third of the entire population of the new SAR Qianzhou can immigrate to other countries, where they'll be welcomed with open arms as slaves for their new masters, while another third will be assimilated into a new culture that we will build, and the final third to be eliminated. That final third earmarked for liquidation would mostly consist of actual fascists, nationalists, anti-communists, and professional criminals. The mixed families with partial European origin can go to their country of choice. Alternatively, those who chose to remain in the new SAR Qianzhou, but refuse to assimilate can be sent to special quarantine zones, where they will have mobility restrictions imposed on them.
5) Total re-Construction: Only though turning the proposed SAR Qianzhou into a permanent garrison state, with over 400,000 PLA soldiers stationed in the proposed SAR Qianzhou, will the economic re-construction of the newly conquered territory commence. The native elites must be forced to leave, or killed, while the lower class natives can either join them in exile, or die as well. In addition, there must also be a program of settling much of our people from the Mainland, into the SAR Qianzhou, with 200,000 people coming in a year to work on the economic projects that will help integrate the SAR Qianzhou into the Chinese political structure. Moreover, all business assets owned by Japanese corporations and other assets owned by business owners from countries that are hostile to China will be confiscated without compensation.
6) Total re-Organization: There are some leftover guerrillas who continued the old struggle from the days of the Cold War, and most of them still held to the beliefs that Chairman Mao had held when China was in the middle of a Protracted People's War of National Survival against the Japanese militarists and the Kuomintang counter-revolutionaries. Those guerrillas can easily be integrated into the new political structure with the right persuasions and rewards. Moreover, the New Left in China will be given a golden opportunity to test out their ideology inside the SAR Qianzhou.
In the first five years, a military governor will take charge of the SAR Qianzhou's political and military structures, and because the former Philippines will no longer be allowed to have an army of its own, and the SAR Qianzhou will be defended by both the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police. Even the municipal police force cannot be trusted, as they can easily become guerrillas capable of conducting terrorist operations against our authority. Specially trained police personnel deployed from the Mainland will be used to maintain public order inside the SAR Qianzhou, until a new Public Security Police Force can be trained, staffed by assimilated natives that pledged their loyalty to China. Once the SAR Qianzhou is finished with their political integration into China, they will then have a referendum on whether they want to maintain their SAR status, or to become a formal province of China. However, in most cases, the residents of SAR Qianzhou might want to keep their autonomous status, as there may be laws that are different from the laws of the Mainland.
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"I have never seen or heard such a manifesto that openly called for the total genocide of a sovereign nation, much less a nation that we once controlled, by a neighboring totalitarian dictatorship. Forget about Russia under both Dmitry Rogozin, whom I may add, has given a Hitler salute in public, and the incumbent President, Alexey Zhuravlyov, China under Wang Jianping has become far worse than his northern neighbor. If his track record reveals itself, it indicates that Premier Wang and the Chinese Politburo has seen the bravery of the Filipino people as a threat to their national security, and I don't blame them too. After all, it was the former military junta led by the late and genuinely unlamented Artemio Tadiar, that was responsible for the terrorist attack on the Shanghai Oriental Pearl and Radio Tower. That incident actually helped us foil a similar attack by Islamic terror groups that would have caused a tragedy in New York. In retaliation, the Chinese regime attempted to launch an amphibious invasion of the Philippines, only to end up with an egg on their face. Let's not forget that their covert intervention on the former North Korea's side during the Second Korean War has led to the mutual mass murder of each other's POWs, and what the nutjob who wrote this Op-Ed wanted to do to the entire Philippine military, will be far worse than what happened in the Korean peninsula between 2002 and 2004. Yet, we are also supposed to be worried about Japan of all nations? It's understandable, given that not only did we fight an actual shooting war against them because they sucker punched us at Pearl Harbor, but we dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well. President Kaine thinks that he can threaten Russia and China with the same instant sunshine we gave to Japan? Let us not sink low to the same level as those two dictatorships, or no one will trust us ever again. The only positive side to all of this is that India, with its improved form of democracy that also allowed its provinces to gain political autonomy, is willing to mediate between the two nations at odds with each other. Let us not forget that the junta that took power in Turkey in 1997 has also warmed up to both Japan and the Tadiar regime in the Philippines, until the last general stepped down and allowed new elections to take place in 2018, which by the way, was won by an ultranationalist politician of the same vein as Japanese Prime Minister Toshio Tamogami and the Three Stooges of Philippine Politics. People! The world is on the verge of a major world war, and if both China and the Philippines continued their military muscle flexing, it won't be surprising if in the next few weeks, months, or even hours, we would see a mushroom cloud over Manila, Cebu, and Davao City. Imagine Boracay beach covered with nuclear waste. Imagine the beautiful scenery of Chocolate Hills of Bohol Prefecture, a smouldering nuclear ruin. If you don't want to see the Pearl of the Orient become a radiated husk of its former glory, then we need to stop China from carrying out its threat. We also have to warn the other members of the Eurasian Security Treaty Organization to not become accomplices in China's crimes, although Russia and the Korean Federal Republic also have blood on their hands too. Let us not have the blood of innocent civilians on the hands of the international community." Tucker Carlson, during the 2020 US Vice Presidential Debate, as a Vice Presidential Candidate representing the National Revival Party, of which US Presidential Candidate John Bennett Ramsey is its candidate.
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VIETNAMESE PRESIDENT NGUYEN XUAN NGAI ANNOUNCES GENERAL MOBILIZATION OF VIETNAMESE MILITARY IN RESPONSE TO ESTO MILITARY EXERCISES IN SOUTHERN CHINA
Saigon Daily News
November 9, 2018
(Saigon, INDEPENDENT STATE OF VIETNAM) - Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Ngãi has announced the general mobilization of his country's armed forces as ESTO member states carry out a military exercise in southern China. Much of the Vietnamese military had been in shambles since the 2001 Revolution of Dignity has deposed Vietnam's communist government, leading to a civil war between the deposed communists based in Hanoi and the newly formed provisional government consisting of the former South Vietnamese government officials that spent much of their time in exile in the United States after the Vietnam War ended with the communist victory. Since the 2001 Revolution of Dignity and the 2001-03 Vietnamese Civil War that ended in the victory for the anti-communist movement, which was backed by the Philippine junta led by Artemio Tadiar, with the Thai, Burmese, and Japanese governments recognizing the new government as legitimate. Since the rise of the post-Communist Vietnamese government under the People's Action Party, a heavy handed campaign of de-communization of Vietnam has been pursued, often with or without the encouragement of both the United States and Japan. Much of the communist symbols, as well as the portraits of Ho Chi Minh, have been removed on orders of the first post-communist President, Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, who ruled Vietnam from 2001 until 2007, when he was succeeded by Dao Minh Quan, until he in turn, was succeeded by Nguyễn Xuân Ngãi, who currently leads the Presidency. Post-communist Vietnam's economy continued on a freefall, until former President Thadeus Nguyễn Van Ly traveled to Japan to sign an agreement with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2003. The Japan-Vietnam Treaty of New Relations highlighted Japan's agreement to help revitalize Vietnam's economy, as well as to reconstruct the entire country's infrastructure and to improve the Vietnamese educational system. By 2009, other countries have also started to invest in the newly recovering Vietnamese economy, most notably India, Australia, the United States, Canada, and the ECA, although in terms of military aid, only Japan and France were willing to sell much of their older equipment to the post-communist Vietnamese government.
"The national sovereignty of Vietnam has constantly been under attack by the Chinese communist dictatorship, and since the Revolution of Dignity, we have strived to destroy the communist legacy that has brought untold hardships and tragedy upon our people," says an unnamed pro-government supporter when confronted by communist nostalgists who carried the old flag of the former communist dictatorship in Vietnam. "The communist leftovers have been reduced to nothing more than puppets of Beijing and Moscow. We want to chart a new course of action that is solely in the interest of the Vietnamese people."
Although Vietnam's economy started to slowly recover from its pre-2001 level, much of the social infrastructure has remained under construction. Additionally, the post-communist Vietnamese government has reached out to its SE Asian neighbors for help and protection, and so far, the Thai and Burmese governments with their anti-Chinese policies, have pledged support for post-communist Vietnam. However, it is not a secret that much of post-communist Vietnam's success is largely thanks to Philippine involvement, which began to sponsor the notorious Green Shirts, a Vietnamese neo-fascist militia that played a role in the Revolution of Dignity. The Spratly Island Wars had forced the former communist government to suspend the Doi Moi Reforms, which contributed to the decline and eventual collapse of the Vietnamese economy, paving the way to the aforementioned Revolution of Dignity. However that revolution initially started off peaceful, until a government crackdown on the protesters and Green Shirts transformed the peaceful demonstration into a riot, and then a full blown revolution. The former Vietnamese government in exile had returned to their homeland after the Vietnamese Civil War ended, and they played a role in the brutal purges of Vietnam's society, starting with the communist supporters and ex-Viet Cong veterans who were rounded up and shot by the Green Shirts ended. Currently, the Green Shirts had also joined the People's Action Party, though a radical minority of the Green Shirts had formed their own far-right party based on the Philippine Fatherland Freedom Party called the National Restoration Front of Vietnam. Even the new flag of Vietnam is mostly based on the party logo of the NRFV, which is inspired by the much older Restoration League of Vietnam. However, the presence of a stridently anti-communist government that dominated Vietnam today has caused alarms in neighboring Cambodia, whose territories were lost to Vietnam in the aftermath of Operation: Retribution, when Vietnam not only managed to expel the occupying Cambodian Army out of occupied southern Vietnam, but even retook Phnom Penh as well.
"I lost my father during the final stages of the Cambodian occupation of southern Vietnam, when his unit was wiped out by the Vietnamese army. As a result, we had to flee from eastern Cambodia and resettle in Singapore, where we reside right now," says an unnamed Cambodian refugee whose family fled from their home as a part of Vietnam's brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Cambodian minority in southern Vietnam. "I saw Vietnamese soldiers burn down a village populated by other Cambodians, as well as the Cham minority. They were also killing a lot of people there, on the grounds that they collaborated with the Cambodian and Chinese armies."
---
BEIJING, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
MARCH 18, 2020
The Chinese Politburo was abuzz with various PLA officers of all branches engaged in a hushed conversation with one another, as the politicians within the National People's Congress was holding an emergency session regarding the revelation that the Seventh Republic of the Philippines was on the verge of completing their first attempt at building a nuclear bomb. Ever since the four month military exercises conducted in southern China, primarily in the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, and Guangxi, most of the Chinese public were also engaged in conducting emergency drills in the event of a nuclear war. Most of the Chinese government knew that they didn't have to fear from a former fascist regime that only has one nuclear project, but they feared the possibility of a wider war escalating out of control. Newly selected Chinese Premier Wang Jianping was not present in the NPC emergency session, preferring to hold meetings with the PLA leadership that gathered for what they were planning, which is a possible military intervention against the Philippines under the ESTO Clause Nine, which states that any threat to one member state is a threat to all member states, and a nuclear armed Philippines allied with a resurgent militaristic Japan was something that threatened the national security of the entire Asian continent.
In front of the PLA officers and Premier Wang was a screen that displayed the map of China, its claimed islands in the disputed seas, and the Philippines. There were also various dots and squares that represented the kinds of military forces that might be used for such an operation, though the mood was rather dark, as if they were making their preparations for their own funeral. Inside the room, nine officers stood at each side: three admirals stood on the right side of the conference room, while three ground forces generals stood on its opposite side and three air force marshals stood beside the Premier.
"How many anti-air units can we expect the Philippine military to field in the event that we've deployed our aerial assets plus our own rockets?" Premier Wang asked one of the air marshals.
"We can expect over 120 Tikbalang-100s and 40 Tikbalang-200s, with the latter being a major design overhaul as it now switched to the tank chassis, Comrade Premier. The Tikbalang-200 has become an over glorified SPAAG in this case," said Zheng Yuanlin, who showed Premier Wang the pictures of both versions of the Tikbalang. "We've also learned from our Korean neighbors that Japan has sold over 12 Type 93 and 17 Type 11 Short Range SAMs as well, but they are in the process of introducing a new kind of anti-aircraft missiles in collaboration with France and Turkey. The Turks have been rather open about their collaboration with Japan lately."
Premier Wang grimaced. "And I suspect that the fascist leftovers will also have surface to ship missiles as well?"
This time, one of the PLA Admirals spoke up. "Comrade Premier, the Japanese have supplied more of their Type 88 surface to ship missiles ever since their joint project with France on the development of a new kind of surface to ship missile. Even Vietnam has received the Type 88 as well, though I suspect that they would be more conservative in their use, as they would prefer to use their mosquito fleets, which would consist of the surface frigates taken as spoils of war from the former Pyongyang government. However, their shipbuilding industry has been built on the contracts for producing cargo ships and small frigates."
"I would be more worried about what the ground forces they will deploy, Comrade Premier," one of the PLA ground forces generals spoke up. He clicked the button of a remote as the image changed to that of the picture of a Sheridan II tank. "I suspect that the Philippine military would rely more on their light tanks, as the heavier tanks wouldn't do well in their jungle climates, plus the typhoon seasons would often create mudslides as well."
"So what about the infantry forces?" Premier Wang asked back sternly. "If we are to succeed in the de-militarization of the Philippines, we have to know how we can inflict maximum casualties while keeping our own casualties to a minimum."
The PLA officers were at a loss as to how to respond to their Premier's question. Most of them were veterans of the Second Korean War, and given how both the PLA volunteers and the Philippine military had often butchered each other's captives whenever they surrendered, the lucky survivors who did not fall into captivity heard of stories where they would step into what was essentially a mud mixed with blood and maggots, until when dug up, it reveals the decomposing corpse of an executed PLA volunteer. All over the Korean Federal Republic, thousands of mass graves containing the bones of both the PLA volunteers and Philippine troops were being exhumed. Even now, the KFR authorities have also revealed that they discovered one mass grave containing the bones of former North Korean soldiers executed in cold blood by vengeful anti-communist vigilante groups that operated in the former South Korea. It was at that moment that General Wang Xiaojun stepped forward and answered.
"The average Philippine infantry would be well equipped, and will fight within the military doctrine that was taught to them by their Chilean military instructors from the 1990s. They're even more capable of jungle warfare, as well as guerrilla warfare. We have to remember that since 2004, the Philippine military has constantly trained and perfected the art of guerrilla warfare in anticipation of our amphibious invasion of their islands," said General Wang Jiaoxun sadly. "The only saving grace is that their navy is even more trained than their ground forces, and we're not sure about their own aerial assets as well."
Over the next couple of hours, the PLA officers and Premier Wang continued their discussions and strategized their plans from what should happen when they might launch their invasion plan. None of the PLA officers have underestimated the fierce resistance capability of the Philippine military, and they feared the potential fanaticism of the local population, due to someone leaking out the contents of Wang Hui's Op-Ed, detailing what China should do to the Philippines. As both the PLA general staff and Premier Wang had read its contents, they were stunned and appalled at what Wang Hui has proposed. It was bordering on insanity, what Wang Hui has written, and the contents made the Chinese state look and sound like a genocidal maniac. The idea that they would assimilate a small portion of the population, while expelling another portion and exterminating the last portion sounded more like the Burn All, Loot All, and Kill All policy that Japan had enacted when they invaded China. However, they realized that as long as nations like Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan, would continue their anti-China activities, it won't take long until those activities had gone out of control.
The very next day, the National People's Congress awoke to a crowded building as every delegate entered its very halls, while waiting for Premier Wang to arrive. Several hours before, Premier Wang has instructed all the PLA military units to mobilize , but were not given the reason until his speech was completed. Even the PLA's rocket forces were told to mobilize, as they've prepared their missiles as well. Additionally, Premier Wang has contacted both Korean Prime Minister Huh Kyung-young and Russian President Alexey Zhuravlyov, and notified them of his decision. The moment has now arrived as the man himself entered the halls and waited until the delegates sat down. It was now or never, as Premier Wang opened his mouth.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jan 30, 2024 5:40:40 GMT
CHAPTER FORTY ONE: THE SECOND RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR PART SEVEN - WEST
Excerpts from 'Between Europe and Eurasia: The Post-Soviet Chaos'
by: Safija Sadouskaya
University of British Columbia Printing Press, released on February 20, 2020
Chapter Three: The Belarusian Turmoil
As Aleksander Lukashenko had emerged as the successor to Anatoly Lukyanov in the aftermath of his assassination by ex-Red Army deserter turned Lithuanian freedom fighter Vytautas Laurinaitis in 1990, the Communist Party of Byelorussia was scrambling to select the successor to the now-promoted leader of the Soviet Union. In August of 1990, the Communist Party of Byelorussia had voted to select Anatoly Malofeyev as its new leader, and subsequently, he became the head of the Byelorussian SSR. Under Malofeyev's leadership though, Belarus had sadly become a war zone, with Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Uniates, had started to slaughter each other. The infamous Motyli Massacre that occurred in Hrodna Oblast had been conducted by the more fanatical Orthodox Christian population of the Russian Frontier Guard against the predominantly Catholic Polish population. Additionally, the Byelorussian SSR's expansion into the Vilnius region of the Lithuanian SSR would prove to be one of the fiercest conflicts between Lithuania and Belarus, and the lingering hostility from that conflict was the source of the territorial disputes that the two nations have with each other. The future Belarusian Armed Forces were also formed from the Byelorussian paramilitary units and other ex-Red Army forces that later joined the BAF after 1995, and much of their equipment was of Soviet vintage. Though they performed just as competently as their ethnic Russian counterparts, the Belarusian paramilitary forces were plagued by border clashes with Lithuania and Ukraine. The clashes between Ukrainian paramilitary forces and Belarusian border guards occurred in the Volhynia region, though they were careful to not target the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Though Malofeyev's tenure as the head of the Byelorussian SSR was rather shaky, real power lay with General Yuri Zhadobin, who controlled the paramilitary forces, as well as the active Soviet military personnel operating inside Belarusian territory. It is also worth noting that Zhadobin was not only a Soviet loyalist, but a major kingmaker as well, as he played a role in the coup that toppled the government of Vyacheslav Kebich in response to Belarus's agreement to cooperate with the International Court of Justice in extraditing ex-Soviet war criminals to the Hague to stand trial for crimes against humanity at the same time as Vietnam's Revolution of Dignity in 2001. The deposition of Kebich was followed by the installation of a caretaker government, until the election of December 2001 had resulted in Sergei Gaidukevich's victory and he became the second President of Belarus.
Within the period of the Second Russian Civil War, the years from 1990 to 1995 was known as the Five Year Triarchy, where three people effectively ran Belarus: the head of the Byelorussian Communist Party Malofeyev, the Belarusian General Zhadobin, and the head of the Belarusian branch of the KGB in Uladzimir Matskevich. As the Triarchy held the power in Belarus, it also dictated to the population on how the war would be managed. Although Belarusian troops would also participate in the Baltic and Ukrainian theaters of the civil war, it would also face internal division, as the anti-communist opposition within Belarus would gravitate around Zianon Pazniak. Pazniak has emerged as one of the most electrifying opponents of the Soviet government, and had in fact, collaborated with the Baltic pro-independence activists in attempting to steer Belarus towards independence. Yet, in early 1991, Pazniak and his followers would carve out an entity within Belarus where the Roman Catholic population resided and declared the Hrodna People's Republic. Though that breakaway entity did not intend to remain separate, but to act as a separate and rival bastion to the communist-controlled Belarusian government based in Minsk, the HNR acted as basically the pro-independence force seeking to overthrow the Soviet government in Belarus. However, with the successful Soviet victory in the Vilnius Offensive where the former Vilnius region of Lithuania was captured and incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR after ethnically cleansing much of Vilnius's Lithuanian population, the Soviet forces would launch the Hrodna Offensive from July of 1991, until its completion in September of 1991, when the city of Hrodna fell to Soviet forces. More massacres of Belarus's Catholic population would result in the largest exodus of Belarus's Catholic population to Lithuania and Poland. The Uniate population of Belarus were given two choices: become Orthodox Christian and assimilate into the so-called 'proper' Belarusian Orthodox culture, or remain Uniate and leave Belarus for exile. Most of the Uniates would choose exile, leading to the Catholic and Uniate dominance of the Belarusian government-in-exile based in Toronto, Canada.
--- Portions from the Interview with Exiled Opposition Leader and Head of the Belarusian National Assembly 'Pahonia' Siarhei Navumchyk
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, released on March 17, 2019
Discussing the Fracturing of Belarusian Politics
Interviewer: You've mentioned during one of your speeches in Toronto during one of the Belarus-centric rallies back in 2015 about the weakening of Belarusian opposition figures politically as President Andrei Sannikov has worked to consolidate much of the political power around himself, and how it was sad that the attempt to split the Belarusian left into two had ended in drastic failure. In addition, you've also said that President Sannikov has made it no secret that he wanted to join Russian President Zhuravlyov's Eurasian Union State project, which was in clear violation of the terms that the UN imposed on the former Soviet republics as a condition for their re-admission. What is your opinion on that?
Navumchyk: (sighs) It is not an open secret that the Soviet leftovers from that old era, along with the figures from the Second Russian Civil War that fought for the loyalists, were keen on ditching the United Nations altogether. Given that it's China who might initiate the potential collapse of the UN by possibly leaving the organization, with Russia following suit, that could ironically strengthen the organization by giving its impetuous to expel member states who do not adhere to its charter.
Interviewer: Does President Sannikov has an eye for the position of the Secretary-General of the Eurasian Union State?
Navumchyk: The position itself is on a rotation basis. Even when it was officially founded in 2010, it existed as a covert project as early as 2000. The only thing was that the 2000 project was the brainchild of both former President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the current President, Jiguli Dairabaev. While both Russia and Belarus were eager for closer integration with each other, ultimately it was Kazakhstan and the rest of the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union that wanted closer integration, as they had the most to gain from a kind of Eurasian bloc that would shield itself from Euro-Atlanticism.
Interviewer: Okay. Let's go back to Belarusian politics. What do you think was the main reason why the Belarusian opposition had failed to achieve any kind of success in the post-Soviet period?
Navumchyk: To be honest, the Belarusian opposition was hopelessly divided between the nationalists, which wanted to keep the territories it conquered from Lithuania during the Second Russian Civil War but wanted to take an isolationist position, the pragmatists who wanted to cede the Catholic populated lands of western Belarus to Lithuania in exchange for being allowed to join Russia and Lithuania can get NATO membership, and the Euro-Atlanticists who wanted to give back the Vilnius region to Lithuania in exchange for a peace treaty. We attacked the pragmatists for being too pro-Russian for our taste. However, it didn't help us when Lithuanian ultranationalists led by Mr. Laurinaitis had come up with the bizarre proposal of what he called 'Greater Lithuania', which encompasses the territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania before its union with Poland. Yet, as you probably notice by the maps it was circulated, 'Greater Lithuania' also included large portions of Ukraine, which the Ukrainian nationalists were not happy at all to see. Thus, Mr. Laurinaitis had to scale it down to just the modest proposal of All-LitBel, or a Union State of Lithuania and Belarus. Ironically enough, the Belarusian nationalists also wanted to create a kind of 'Greater Belarus' with the territories that compasses the Grand Duchy of Lithuania when it was a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but under Belarusian control.
Interviewer: So what happened to that crazy irredentist proposal? Is it still in existence?
Navumchyk: It still exists, though the UN threatened to expel Lithuania from the organization if it tried to push through with that insane plan. However, the Russian military leadership and intelligence officers thought about that and even incorporated into their military planning, along with a possible partition of Latvia between Russia and their own version of 'Greater Belarus', and a complete Russian annexation through conquest of Estonia. Like I said, irredentist claims were popping up like crazy, and even Ukraine wanted to expand its territory to the border with Kazakhstan, as to trigger a violent territorial fracturing of Russia itself, which would have benefited the United States greatly, as it won't have to deal with a rival, and instead, it can deal with the fractured territories like colonies.
Interviewer: So in essence, we had in the post-Soviet period Mr. Kebich, who was known to have extradited Belarusian war criminals to the Hague to stand trial for crimes against humanity, before his downfall at the hands of what you now refer to as the Belarusian Siloviki, led by Matskevich and Zhadobin, before allowing Gaidukevich to rise to power. And now that we have Sannikov in power, is it safe to say that the Belarusian government and a large segment of the Belarusian population support the idea of a Russian-Belarusian Unionism?
Navumchyk: In truth, the Soviet nostalgists and the other anti-Western hooligans were in favor of Belarus's entry into the Eurasian Union State, but there was a minority of the pro-democratic forces within Belarus that wanted to form a Union State with Ukraine, in what was known as the Ruthenian Confederal State Proposal made by Leonid Kuchma, as a means of helping us build our democratic institutions. However, Ihor Tenyukh's little junta put a stop to that proposal, and we also had to reject such a plan, because it meant exchanging the communist overlord from Moscow for a military junta based in Kyiv.
--- STUNNING DEFEAT FOR SANNIKOV'S RULING NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY AS HENNADIY DAVYDKO'S BELARUSIAN RADICAL UNITY PARTY WINS 2020 ELECTION ON PLATFORM OF DEEPER TIES TO 'EURASIAN SPHERE'
KyivPost
August 10, 2020
 Belarusian Presidential candidate Hennadiy Davydko, who eventually won the 2020 Belarusian Presidential election, conducts his Presidential campaign inside the Belarusian State Steel Works, three months before his shocking victory over incumbent President Andriy Sannikov.(Minsk, BELARUS) - A sad day for Belarus's pro-ECA path has arrived when noted Russophile and more extremist candidate Hennadiy Davydko's Belarusian Radical Unity Party has won the 2020 Belarusian Presidential election by a questionable 66.6% of the vote, as opposed to Andriy Sannikov's appalling 7.3% of the vote. Sannikov has long been accused by the Belarusian opposition of being in the pocket of noted Russian nationalist President Aleksei Zhuravlyov, but his growing unpopularity stems more from his constant refusal to start talks for ECA candidacy. Furthermore, the fractured Belarusian Opposition Council has started to gain popularity, as surprise dark horse candidate Mykola Statkevich nearly captured 19.5% of the votes. Statkevich has also emerged as a symbol of Belarus's opposition, having been a veteran of the Second Russian Civil War on the side of the anti-Soviet, pro-independence forces that helped the Baltic independence forces defend their homeland from Soviet reconquest. In sharp contrast, Davydko's growing control of the Belarusian media outlets has been instrumental in his electoral victory, with the promise of much deeper ties between Belarus and Russia through Belarus's official admission into the Eurasian Union State, despite its existence being in violation of the UN conditions it imposed on all 15 former Soviet republics to not form any supranational unions with each other, or with Russia. However, there were calls from within a large portion of the former Soviet republics of Russia, Central Asia, and perhaps the Caucasus, on their voluntary withdrawal of their UN membership, and the Eurasian Union State by this time, has admitted Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, the Georgian Federal Republic, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
"While I would clearly admit defeat in this election, we still have a lot of work to do to prevent the Russians from recreating their cherished Soviet Union, even if it's basically a greater Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with Central Asia as its ASSRs," comments Statkevich during his concession speech in Hrodno, after learning of the election results. "A reconstructed form of the Soviet Union will resurrect the threat it posed to not only Europe, but the world at large."
Statkevich's position regarding the disputed region of Vilnius, which it conquered from Lithuania during the Second Russian Civil War, was that of calling for a referendum on its ultimate fate, as well as settling the other land disputes that it had with Lithuania. However, Statkevich firmly rejected the Lithuanian nationalists' irredentist claims on its territory, seeing it as no different than the one that the Russian irredentist claims had on Belarus. At the same time though, the opposition leader has also rejected calls by a few minority of Belarusian politicians to swap the area of Hrodno with a large Catholic population to compensate to Lithuania in exchange for accepting the loss of the Vilnius region, to which the Lithuanians also rejected. Yet, both the Lithuanian government and the Belarusian opposition knew too well that Russia has a vested interest in keeping the land dispute alive, along with maintaining their occupation of eastern Estonia and eastern Latvia as a means of preventing the Baltic States from joining NATO. Additionally, the ongoing illegal Russian occupation of parts of Ukraine after the 2005 Russo-Ukrainian conflict has also kept world tensions at an all time high, along with China's constant conflict with Southeast Asian claimants to portions of the islands in the West Philippine Sea. Domestically, the outgoing Sannikov government has allowed gradual privatization of former state assets by selling them to various local and foreign businessmen, which often purchased them at firesale prices, creating public resentment from laid off workers who lost their jobs because of the change in management. Davydko's promise of closer ties to the so-called 'Eurasian Sphere' is also aimed at re-industrializing much of Belarus's stagnating economy by maintaining its access to the post-Soviet economic space, as well as developing new economic ties to China and the Korean Federal Republic. According to the OSCE, over 78% of Belarus's public were more concerned with keeping their jobs and maintaining a kind of economic stability than ideology.
"We've seen what the neo-liberal economic policies can do to a country. Just ask the rest of Eastern Europe how it went," says Belarusian guest worker Yan Sharapau, who is employed at a distribution company in the Russian city of Vladivostok, while his wife and children remained at home in the small town of Orsha. "Under both Presidents Kebich and Sannikov, over 12,000 of us had lost our jobs in Orsha and Minsk, mostly because they were more concerned about wanting to gain access to the highly valued European market than the larger Asian market. Europe doesn't want more competition: it wants more cheap labor. That's why I chose to get a job in Russia instead of the ECA."
--- SALCININKAI FALLS TO SOVIET FORCES AS RESIDENTS OF CAPTURED TOWN FLEE FROM INCOMING VIOLENCE AND ATROCITIES
Sydney Herald
May 15, 1991
 A Soviet Army tank unit with its crew waits for reinforcements as it arrives at the town of Salcininkai.(Salcininkai, LITHUANIA) - Lithuanian residents of the border town of Salcininkai awoke to a massive artillery barrage as the Soviet forces from Belarus had launched one of their biggest offensives throughout the Second Russian Civil War, with the aim of capturing the Vilnius region that the Belarusian SSR's government claimed that they owned before the entry of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union resulting in returning their region to the new Lithuanian SSR. The Vilnius Offensive continues on, even as much of the former Warsaw Pact nations have begun to supply the Baltic independence movements with their equipment, as they are eager to join in their revenge on the country that oppressed them for almost half a decade. However, the Soviet forces' offensive continues on while they've begun to deploy their newest thermobaric rocket launcher called the TOS-1. The devastation caused by the inciendiary rockets fired from the TOS-1 has caused enormous damage to much of southeastern Lithuania, as Lithuanian militia forces are struggling to maintain their troop numbers in the face of Soviet superiority in artillery pieces, as well as the bombers that were used to strike at Lithuanian military positions and supply depots. Equally frightening was the deployment of the new Russian Frontier Guards, which was a paramilitary unit that is known for their proficiency in mopping operations, often acting with such brutality that they've been known to have caused several massacres along the way. News of Soviet atrocities against civilians within the Baltic States have already reached the international community, which was hopelessly divided between each other, as even China threatened to use its veto power against any UN Security Council resolution that was aimed at undermining Soviet operations in its western regions. To the shock of the entire UN, the US ambassador to the UN responded by proposing the expulsion of the Soviet Union from the United Nations as a whole.
"If they want to get rid of us from the UN, we're perfectly fine with it. The United Nations has fast become a tool of American hegemonic ambitions, and if they want the Soviet Union gone, then honestly, we don't care," said Soviet ambassador to the UN Yuli Vorontsov, when asked about the possibility of the USSR's expulsion from the UN. "America has destabilized numerous countries, and there were no sanctions imposed on it. Yet, when we tried to stabilize our own country through the best methods, we're punished for it?"
As a result of the Soviet capture of Salcininkai, approximately over 6,500 inhabitants were forced to flee from the rampaging Soviet forces. Those who were unlucky to have been captured were reported to have been tortured, with captured female prisoners subjected to sexual assaults and other forms of physical torture. The surrounding villages close to Salcininkai were subjected to a similar incendiary bombardment, resulting in numerous deaths inflicted on the survivors. In conjunction, an additional Soviet advance into eastern Latvia had also resulted in the capture of Zilupe and Karsava, giving the Soviet forces an advantage when operating within the region of Latgalia. Finally, in the Estonian sector, Soviet forces there were laying siege to the city of Tartu, which served as an important strategic hub of the Estonian pro-independence forces there. The Baltic theater has become one of the most successful areas of the Second Russian Civil War on part of the Soviet forces, in contrast to the Ukrainian theater, which has witnessed a brutal slog between the pro-independence forces and Soviet loyalist troops there. Additionally, the Soviet air force has been more successful in carpet bombing much of the Baltic region, though one Tupolev Tu-22M has managed to bomb the Polish town of Bialystok in retaliation for the Lithuanian expulsion of the entire Russian population of the now-conquered Kaliningrad Oblast.
--- "It is with a heavy heart, but a necessary measure, that the United Nations General Assembly, acting in cooperation with the United Nations Security Council, has initiated the UN General Assembly Resolution 54/6, which calls for the formal expulsion of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from this international body, on the grounds of its blatant violation of the UN charter, and its increasingly brutal and vicious behavior in its dealings with the pro-independence forces that are now rebelling against the Soviet government. This resolution is the only method in which we can force the Soviet government to stop with the human rights violations of the citizens of the Baltic regions. Additionally, this international body has never recognized the illegal incorporation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, into the Soviet Union itself, and therefore, we continue to recognize their sovereignty and independence, and call on the Soviet authorities to withdraw their troops from not only those three republics, but also the rest of the republics within the Soviet Union. In addition, UN General Assembly Resolution 55/6 also codifies the formal expulsion of the Soviet Union from the UN Security Council, as it poses a global threat to world peace, and therefore, loses the veto power that it undeservedly earned when the UN is founded. Make note of this though: should all 15 Soviet republics be admitted as separate states, the Russian successor state will not be allowed to regain that veto power, nor should it legally claim its authority as the sucessor to the Soviet Union." UN General Secretary Javier Perez de Cuellar, during an emergency session inside the United Nations on the expulsion of the Soviet Union, and the forced departure of Soviet ambassador to the UN Yuli Vorontsov.
--- Portion from the 6PM News with Connie Nelson
Courtesy of GlobalTV, released on September 21, 2020
NELSON: We have a breaking news coming out of New York. We apologize for this surprise, but this is a rushed transcript from our correspondent stationed in New York as Patricia Holmes has sent it to us. It concerns the emergency meeting that was held at the UN General Assembly, where it has been announced that Russian ambassador to the United Nations Gleb Ivashentsov has unanimously walked out of the meeting, along with Chinese ambassador to the United Nations Qiu Xuejun, and several other ambassadors from nations that are allied to Russia and China. We'll switch oover to Ms. Holmes at the UN building. How's the situation there?
(scene switches to the UNITED NATIONS headquarters, where HOLMES is standing far from the building)
HOLMES: Well, my colleagues from American and European media outlets have so far notified me of the reactions made by the rest of the member states when the discussion of the United States government's role in the apparent destabilization of various areas of Asia, Latin America, and Africa had been brought up, to which the new American ambassador to the United Nations Monica Lewinsky-Jones has accused her Russian and Chinese counterparts of doing the same thing in regards to their neighbors. The shouting match continued on, until Mr. Ivashentsov has uttered an anti-Semitic slur against Ms. Lewinsky-Jones, triggering outrage from the Israeli ambassador to the UN.
NELSON: Was there a fight as well?
HOLMES: I think so, because security personnel had to drag both Misters Ivashentsov, Qiu, and Gilad Cohen out of the General Assembly hall. Yet, half an hour later, Mr, Qiu had gotten into a fight with the Vietnamese, Filipino, and Japanese ambassadors to the UN, which ended rather badly, as he had to be escorted out of the UN building while clutching his bleeding nose that must have been broken by the Filipino ambassador to the UN. It's completely chaotic back there.
NELSON: Did Mr. Ivashentsov also gotten into a fight as well?
HOLMES: Yes, with both Polish and Ukrainian ambassadors to the UN as well. Ambassadors Morawiecki from Poland and Arestovych from Ukraine had also been sporting cuts in their heads, as well as Ambassador Ivashentsov as well. The Belarusian ambassador to the UN accompanied Mr. Ivashentsov as well, because he was sporting a cut above his eye.
NELSON: Do you think that the reputation of the United Nations has taken a hit due to this incident?
HOLMES: I am not sure, but given that the fight happened after the shouting match was over, I wouldn't be surprised if let's say, the Venezuelan and Iranian ambassadors to the UN decided to assault Ms. Lewinsky-Jones. However, given that Texas Senator Alex Jones, who is rumored to be eyeing a position in any new Presidential administration, will probably be angry at this incident, should his wife be assaulted in any way.
NELSON: (pauses) Hold on, do you have another update on the way?
HOLMES: (pauses as she turns around to see another reporter tell her something, but could not understand before turning back to the camera) It seems that we do have another urgent update. As of 9:10 PM, Eastern Standard Time, the Russian and Chinese ambassadors to the UN have announced their nations' withdrawal of membership in the organization, and that their respective nations no longer consider themselves members of the UN. In short, they've left the United Nations.
--- "It is without a doubt that Helmut Kohl had faced his greatest challenge as German Chancellor during the Second Russian Civil War, when events unfolding in the former Soviet Union had electrified much of the anti-communist factions within the reunified German state. The former West German takeover of East Germany, following the mutiny of the former East German Army over the brutal crackdown on desperate East Germans seeking to bring down the Berlin Wall, had in effect reunified Germany a lot quicker. Yet, it would take almost twenty five to thirty years for the economies of the former East Germany to reach the same standards as their West German counterparts. Not to mention the social instability that has wracked the former East Germany, as its population were not used to seeing tons of guest workers and migrants settling in western Germany. Like the rest of Europe, Germany was not only unprepared for the possible influx of Filipino political refugees fleeing from the Middle East, but also unprepared for the arrival of former Soviet refugees fleeing from the warzones of the Baltics, Belarus, Ukraine, and the Caucasus. While Chancellor Kohl was willing to entertain the idea of establishing transit zones to house the refugees, the far-right in Germany were not willing to host any kind of refugees at all, even those who were fleeing from the crumbling Soviet Union. Kohl's inability to formulate a policy that would have prevented any more bloodshed in the crumbling Soviet Union, along with the chaotic way that he handled the reunification of the two Germanies, would lead to his shocking electoral defeat in 1994 at the hands of Rudolf Scharping, who would become one of Germany's longest leading Chancellors in the post-WWII and post-Cold War period, presiding over the replacement of the European Economic Community with the European Continental Association, but the issue over the introduction of the Euro currency and its eventual end in failure due to France's refusal to cede its monetary sovereignty had rocked the ECA in its early years. Scharping also presided over Greece's expulsion from the ECA on the grounds that it filed its application with false information regarding its economic and financial situation when the ECA bureaucrats were looking over the applications that the Greek government filed in the 1970s. Scharping would also become a vocal figure in his criticism of both the post-Soviet Russian government's handling of internal issues, as well as US President Jack Kemp's unilateral actions taken during the American invasions of Cuba and Nicaragua, calling the actions of those two large nations 'dangerous' for global stability. Surprisingly, both French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Bryan Gould agreed with Chancellor Scharping's warning that he issued to both Presidents Kemp and Burbulis, seeing the actions of both President Kemp, and after 2000, President Aman Tuleyev, as destabilizing.
Although Chancellor Scharping and his cabinet focused more on German domestic policies, foreign policy events forced him to pay attention to Germany's diplomatic relations with its neighbors, especially the rest of Central Europe. Yet, it was Germany's relationship with Yugoslavia that came under the most scrutiny, due to a whistleblower who revealed a secret German plan to sponsor the Slovene and Croat separatists in order to incite a violent civil war against Yugoslavia in 2001. Edmund Steiner, who used to work for German intelligence, not only resigned from his post as German intelligence operative, but leaked the documents that gave details on how German intelligence, in cooperation with Austrian, Hungarian, and Italian allies, would sponsor a rebellion against the Yugoslav government, paving the way for NATO peacekeepers inside Yugoslav territory, with the ultimate aim of provoking Yugoslavia into retaliating against the NATO peacekeepers, resulting in Article Five being triggered as a result, leading to a ground invasion of Yugoslavia, and carving its territories, in what would become Operation: Revenge. The Steiner Affair had also resulted in the worsening relations between the reunified German state and Yugoslavia, but it also led to Yugoslavia's major purge of nationalist-minded figures within both the government and the Yugoslav People's Army. Interestingly, in a turn of events, Veljko Kadijevic would be replaced by Ljubisa Jokic as the leader of the quasi-junta that ruled Yugoslavia, and it was under his authority that Yugoslavia would suspend its diplomatic ties to Germany, preferring to expand its ties to the rest of the Non-Aligned Movement. Germany itself was badly affected by the Steiner Affair, as it was one of the several reasons for Scharping's defeat in the 2002 German election, with Erwin Huber taking the Chancellor position. Huber, who was elected as the new leader of the Christian Social Union party after Edmund Stoiber's ambitions crashed into the ground with a bribery scandal that involved his acceptance of a donation from a businessman who had close ties to a Russian siloviki oligarch named Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who was actually of Kalmyk heritage." From Deutsche Welle's documentary 'Scharping's Reich: The SPD's Renaissance', released on February 13, 2019.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Feb 26, 2024 5:39:41 GMT
Re-OMAKE 014: TANTRUMS AND SECESSIONS
Portions from the Interview with Former Philippine Army General Cirilito Sobejana
Radio Televizija Jugoslavija, released on January 7, 2019
Discussing the Christmas Chaos of 2001
Interviewer: General Sobejana, you've issued a statement when the late martyred ex-pilot named Danilo Atienza had led a failed rebellion against the Tadiar regime over both the issues facing the Philippine Air Force and the junta's collusion with organized crime groups from other parts of Asia and Latin America, stating your support for the mutiny before it failed. Since then, the mutineers were summarily executed, with a few deserters later joining the revived New People's Army. Since then, the events between December of 2001 and January of 2002, was known as the Christmas Chaos. Can you please elaborate on what that meant?
Sobejana: Of course. The Christmas Chaos of 2001 started because of the chronic issues facing the Philippine Air Force, such as the lack of spare parts for the F-5 fighter jets that we were forced to decommission because of maintenance costs. However, it was the presence of crime groups like the Yakuza, the Latin American drug cartels, and even the local gangs themselves and their collaboration with the Tadiar regime that has disgusted a good amount of generals who were wise enough to not participate in such criminal activities. For instance, there was one officer whose name I forgot, was charged with human and drug trafficking, as well as conspiracy to commit mass murder and terrorism, and it was the International Criminal Tribunal for the Republic of the Philippines that brought up the charges.
Interviewer: I know what you're referring to. The trial of Antonio Trillanes in the Hague had captured every media outlet around the world, and his confessions to the various crimes that he had committed while commanding the Visayas Fleet in the Philippine Navy. Additionally, he was also convicted of war crimes for his role in the massacres of former North Korean POWs and Chinese volunteers that were captured by Philippine forces during the joint South Korean-Allied Counteroffensive into the former North Korea. Going back to the Christmas Chaos, it seems that the mutineers wanted to take control of both Central and Northern Luzon, and to secede from the Philippines. Did that motive lead to the failure of the coup?
Sobejana: You must remember that the attempted secession from the Philippines was just a byproduct of the frustrations that the Filipino population had with the Tadiar regime, but US President Kemp supported Tadiar's crackdown on the mutineers when it became apparent that Tadiar wanted to test out the chemical weapons that he 'acquired' from the fleeing ex-Iraqi Ba'athist officers who managed to escape from the Iranian occupation, on the rebels. Additionally, the revived New People's Army was now led by Carapati Lualhati, with Rodrigo Duterte becoming his second in command. It was in the midst of the Christmas Chaos of 2001 that Duterte's Sparrow Unit, which originally acted as an anti-narcotics vigilante group, evolved into a paramilitary force that was ultimately responsible for the infamous Nabanturan Genocide, where Duterte's unit was responsible for the massacre of over 600 Japanese immigrants, and the Maragusan Massacre, where an additional 5,000 Japanese immigrants were slaughtered. Those massacres were committed on the grounds that they were acting as Tadiar's spies, but they were there to help rebuild the Philippines's Japanese community there.
Interviewer: Duterte is also being tried right now for crimes against humanity and other kinds of criminal charges, but when news of his arrest reached every single Japanese media outlets, there were protests in all of the major Japanese cities. The uyoku dantai were also calling for Duterte to be executed, since the majority of the immigrants that were murdered by Duterte's paramilitaries came from both the Tohoku region of northern Japan and Okinawa. It also reached a critical point where the Japanese government demanded to the ICTRP that Duterte's place of execution should be in Japanese soil, to avenge the deaths of those Japanese immigrants.
Sobejana: I agree with that statement, and it was exactly why when I was in a meeting with Russian officials, as well as military delegates from the rest of the Eurasian Security Treaty Organization, where we discussed the possibility of forming a rival Philippine government that would work with the ESTO member states in closer security cooperation, as well as helping the Korean authorities investigate our military for other war crimes and crimes against humanity. I would not be surprised if I was being marked for assassination by Philippine intelligence, since they are still filled with Tadiar loyalists.
--- ULTRANATIONALIST RALLY IN JAPAN HELD OVER DEMANDS FOR FILIPINO WAR CRIMINAL'S PLACE OF EXECUTION TO TAKE PLACE INSIDE JAPANESE TERRITORY
Sydney Herald
August 15, 2018
 Japanese ultranationalists hold a rally in Tokyo over their demands to host the place of execution for convicted Filipino war criminal Rodrigo Duterte.(Tokyo, JAPAN) - In the midst of the ongoing trials held at the Hague where numerous Filipino war criminals and other figures of the former Artemio Tadiar regime are taking place, an ultranationalist rally in the Japanese capital was held over the Japanese government's demands to take charge of convicted war criminal Rodrigo Duterte's place of execution. The ultranationalist rally, led by the group called the uyoku dantai, has attracted an unusually large number of supporters, mainly from the Tohoku region of northern Japan, plus 700 Okinawans who showed up to the rally. The Okinawans and Tohoku residents had a bigger stake in supporting the relocation of Duterte's place of execution to Japan, since they knew relatives and friends who were among the victims of the notorious Nabantuan and Maragusan Massacres, and they were among the biggest political bloc in the electoral victory of Toshio Tamogami during the 2015 Japanese General Election. In addition to the rallies in Tokyo, other Japanese cities have reported and confirmed the presence of uyoku dantai-led rallies, such as Aomori, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kyoto, and Sendai. However, the Japanese ultranationalist rallies have often been featured in all of the major Asian news outlets, often for bad reasons, as fears of the resurgence of Japanese fascism has alarmed its neighbors, especially the Korean Federal Republic and China. Both the KFR and China had not only fought against Japan before the Second World War, but all of the territories that made up of the KFR, as well as parts of China, were occupied by the Japanese military. It was only recently that in response to Japan's formal repealing of Article 9 of its 1947 Constitution that banned them from having a formal military that Japan's defense budget began to increase. Japan's desire to become a military power once again has received mixed feelings in SE Asia, where although memories of the Japanese occupation were still fresh, the threat from China has forced SE Asian governments to reassess their priorities, and as a result, the rapprochement between the ASEAN states and Japan has began.
"That old goat has slaughtered so many of our people, and I for one, would like to see him executed in front of Yasukuni Shrine, which is a memorial to our grandfathers and great-grandfathers who fought to liberate Asia from Western imperialism during the Greater East Asia War," says 29 year old Japanese nationalist protester Mitsuko Kawashima, who took part in an ultranationalist rally in the city of Sapporo. "I have come out here to grieve for my own brother, who was among the many victims of that old goat and his bandits when they committed the massacre against our people. In this case, I support the death sentence levied against that old goat."
Japanese ultranationalists have given the convicted Duterte the nickname 'the old goat', referring to his old age when he was arrested upon arriving at the Hague after he voluntarily gave himself up, upon the advice of the Chinese government. Before Duterte's arrest by INTERPOL, he was living in exile in China after a failed communist uprising in 1996 had resulted in the former Tadiar regime's anti-terrorist operation that saw much of the NPA leadership decimated and its rank and file soldiers executed en masse, with some survivors being sold as commodities to human traffickers connected to several generals, a factor that led to over 60% of the Philippine military leadership being extradited to the Hague to stand trial for various crimes, including human trafficking, collaboration with organized crime groups, and crimes against humanity. However, the remaining 40% of the military leadership was seen as the only class that could be relied upon to maintain the fighting prowess of the Philippine military, as the Legarda presidency feared that a complete purge of the Philippine military leadership would render it severely weakened, despite a large segment of the Philippine military being implicated for war crimes related to their activities during the Second Korean War. However, Filipino war criminals are hailed as heroes by the large segment of the Japanese ultranationalist factions, as they viewed their struggle against the Chinese military as a continuation of Asia's larger war against communism in general. The praise heaped upon the convicted Filipino war criminals from the Japanese ultranationalists, as well as the post-communist Vietnamese ultranationalist government, has infuriated the former political exile factions that have returned to the Philippines from their exile abroad.
"I don't know if I can still be proud of what our country has accomplished, given that it's because of our own soldiers' crimes committed in Korea that we have become synonymous with war criminals in general. Even in the post-Tadiar era, you have the youth that have grown up on an unhealthy dose of pro-Tadiar propaganda, and they've constantly justified their behavior on the grounds that if Tadiar said it was okay, they should do it," says Minister of Economy Virgilio Garciliano, when asked by local reporters during an interview in the Philippine capital of Kabankalan. "These days, the Chinese have labeled us as a nation of banana selling terrorists who's prone to fascist behavior. It didn't help that we've also lost our own soul, thanks to Tadiar's anti-clerical actions that virtually banned the Catholic Church from functioning and even carried out severe persecutions against non-denominational Christian churches, such as Inglesia ni Cristo."
--- "The assassination of Sukhdev Singh Dhillon, also known as Labh Singh, by disgruntled elements of the Khalistani separatist forces in 1992, as a result of his decision to work with the Indian government after his surrender to Indian forces during the Cross-Punjab Conflict, had alarmed the Indian government to the possibility of a re-ignited conflict in the Punjab region of India. Gurjant Singh Rajasthani, who claimed responsibility for the murder of his former colleague, had promised to continue the insurgency against the Indian government until all of the lands that are claimed by the Khalistani separatist movement are free. However, another former separatist who surrendered to the Indian military during that conflict, Harminder Singh Nihang, gradually accepted the idea of collaborating with Indian forces in keeping the peace in the enlarged area of Punjab that was annexed to India as a result of its victory over Pakistan in the 1986 war. Because of Pakistan's decision to turn on the Sikh community due to their alleged role in that country's defeat at the hands of India, persecutions of Sikhs inside Pakistan would lead to a Sikh insurgency that would plague the Pakistani leadership, alongside the Islamist Mujahideen's own insurgency against them. Often times, the Pakistani branch of the Sikh separatist forces fought against the Pakistani branch of the Mujahideen, with deadly results. Inter-religious violence between Muslims and Sikhs after 1989 had skyrocketed, and West Punjab became the most dangerous place in South Asia, until Pakistan's attempt to regain its lost portions of Punjab in 1997 would lead to yet another Indo-Pakistani conflict. However, the timing was worse for India, as the Bangladeshi coup attempt of 1996 had succeeded in bringing Bangladesh under a military junta, not unlike that of the Philippines under Artemio Tadiar. Though Pakistan did not lose any more territory in the 1997 conflict, it was forced to officially recognize the permanent loss of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the final rectification of the Indo-Pakistani border. The junta in Bangladesh however, wouldn't last long, as the exiled government formerly led by Abdur Rahman Biswas, would gain a crucial assistance from Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in the form of a joint Indo-Bangladeshi military operation to depose the junta led by General Abu Saleh Mohammad Nasim in 2000, which in turn, triggered the collapse of the junta and new elections were held the following year. In the midst of the growing turmoil within the Indian subcontinent, the All India Forward Bloc had formed a crucial alliance with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which had been led by Harikshan Singh Surjeet. While it changed its name to the United India Party, with Lakshmi Sahgal as its inaugural leader, it maintained that alliance with the CPI (Marxist), until Harikshan Singh Surjeet's retirement in 2008, paving the way for Nripendra Nath Roy's proposal of merging the UIP with the CPI (Marxist) and many other left-wing movements in order to pose a challenge to both the BJP and the Indian National Congress. Though Roy did not become the next leader of the UIP and Bir Singh Mahato succeeded Sahgal in 2008 in his place, his tenure as one of Lakshmi Sahgal's proteges had allowed him to engineer one of the biggest political projects ever made: the outreach of the United India Party into the Punjab region, where economic hardships had played a role in the growth of the Khalistan militancy.
After 2001, the Vajpayee government decided to invest heavily in improving much of India's agricultural output and addressing the issues that arose from the Green Revolution that contributed to the troubles in Punjab. Harminder Singh Nihang in turn, joined the United India Party as a representative of Punjab, became the advisor to both Bir Singh Mahato and Harikshan Singh Surjeet, but after 2008, when Surjeet died, Prakash Karat. Nihang and his faction also played a key role in the development of the constitution that enshrined greater powers for all of the Indian provinces and presided over the official formation of the Indian Federation, through the Autonomous Republics Act of 2004, and the Indian Federation Act of 2010 that helped India transition into a genuine federation. Nihang's collaboration with the Indian government had borne fruit, as the Autonomous Confederation of Punjab-Haryana became the stronghold of the United India Party in northwestern India, and it also allowed the UIP to absorb the regional parties that represented the Punjab region. Additionally, and most crucially, the election of Sugata Bose in 2010 had resulted in one of his biggest bombshells ever presented, which was his call for a formal investigation into the 1984 New Delhi Pogroms that killed many Sikhs after the death of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It was his call for the investigation into the incident that led to the infamous Delhi Pogrom that resulted in an assassination attempt on his life by a right-wing Hindu extremist that failed in what became known as the Bihar Incident of August 2011. The incident was widely condemned by every sector of the Indian public, and only convinced Bose to continue the investigation. Bose and UIP retained their traditional dominance in Bengal, but their outreach into the Punjab and other areas of India that were traditionally leaning towards the left that was the key to his success. Agricultural reforms pursued by the United India Party had usually involved limited quasi-collectivization of farm lands acquired from debt stricken farmers in exchange for their relocation into the cities, where they would become the backbone of India's emerging industrial sector. Bose's policies implemented in Punjab-Haryana was gradually extended to the rest of India, especially in the regions of Kerala and the Dravidian-speaking southern regions, where agriculture was also a major part of their way of life. Yet, it was also in the cultural sphere of post-Cold War India where Bose found his greatest success. Government-backed investments in Indian film industry led to the popularity of Bollywood and its regional derivatives, which exposed Indian actors to the global stage. Famous Indian actors and actresses from Punjab-Haryana like Sargun Mehta and Diljit Dosanjh have even appeared in various Western and Eastern movies, putting Punjab on the film map." From 'Punjab and India in the Post-Cold War Period', courtesy of IndiaTV24, released on August 17, 2018.--- PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE CRITICIZED FOR USE OF HELICOPTER DURING CAMPAIGN RALLY IN LIPA CITY AS ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS OF POLITICAL RIVALS ALSO HEAT UP THROUGHOUT SELURONG PREFECTURE
Vancouver Sun
Febrary 24, 2020
(Lipa City, PHILIPPINES) - A couple of months after the infamous San Juan brawl between former Marcos loyalists and their opponents had broken out, Presidential candidate Raymond Bagatsing has come under fire from both his own supporters and his electoral rivals for the use of a civilian helicopter during a trip to the city of Lipa in Selurong Prefecture. The use of a civilian owned helicopter belonging to one of Bagatsing's friends has triggered fresh criticisms regarding electoral candidates and their usage of vehicles that consumed a large amount of fuel, amidst a growing fuel shortage crisis caused by the Philippine military's requisitioning of said fuel in the event of a planned ESTO military invasion of the country. Just a month prior to Bagatsing's use of the helicopter, another presidential candidate, Bong Revilla, who was rumored to be chosen as incumbent President Loren Legarda's successor for the National Reform Party, had been 'loaned' the presidential helicopter for his campaign in the city of Angeles. In sharp contrast, both prominent far-left presidential candidate Carlos Zarate of the Patriotic Socialist Front and his far-right rival, Nicanor Faeldon of the Fatherland Freedom Party, have opted to use the modernized trains for their campaigns. The increase in the usage of trains for election campaigns have so far garnered complaints from travelers using it for their trips, as delays and cancellations often occurred whenever an election campaign is happening in any town. Bagatsing on the other hand, was defensive in his use of the civilian helicopter, as it was not a government owned vehicle, but rather a privately owned one.
"The usage of the civilian helicopter during these turbulent times is nothing short of inappropriate for a man who wanted to become President. If Mr. Bagatsing can't find other forms of transportation, then he should suspend his presidential campaign," says Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and noted Second Korean War veteran Antonio Parlade Jr., when asked about the incident. "I may not be a politician, but in these times, everyone has to show some form of frugality. For all we know, we might not have an election at all, should the Eurasian Security Treaty Organization choose to attack us."
Bagatsing however, is unlikely to gain support from elements of the Philippine military, as many of them have fought in the Second Korean War on the side of the former South Korea, prior to Korean reunification. Moreover, the large segments of the military is openly backing Faeldon for the presidency, with Eduardo Ano being supported for the vice presidency. Incumbent Vice President Romeo Arcilla, who is also running his own Presidential campaign as a representative of a political party that he founded back in 2018, as a result of a political struggle between Legarda and himself from the latter's frustration regarding President Legarda's alleged inability to stop political corruption from returning to the Philippines. Most importantly, Arcilla criticized Legarda's foreign policy of attempting to court both China and the United States for support while he supported the policy of closer regional integration into ASEAN. Arcilla's party, which is named Isang Bayan, or One Nation, has made the domestic policy of continuing the national reconstruction of the country through re-industrialization, while working closely with foreign governments on repatriating the former political exiles who still remained abroad, even after the 2007 death of Artemio Tadiar. Unlike the other political candidates that relied on trains or in both Bagatsing and Revilla's cases, helicopters, Arcilla has hired a professional driver for a coach bus that he has leased for the duration of his political campaign. Although Arcilla is also a Second Korean War veteran, his separation from the large segment of the veterans who fought in the Korean peninsula had made him an icon of the anti-junta movement in the Tarrazona years, and his brand of patriotism has stemmed from his movie role as General Antonio Luna in a movie bearing the dead general's name.
"While I could not fault Arcilla for his own separate path, in the end he's still the Vice President of the Philippines and I expected him to show support behind my chosen successor," says incumbent President Legarda. "Bong Revilla will do a much better job of governing the Philippines than the extremists on both ends of the political spectrum."
--- "For decades, we have come to an impasse regarding the status of our diplomatic relationship with the People's Republic of China, with no end in sight. The diplomatic irregularity was exploited by the previous military dictatorship to engage in what was essentially state-sponsored piracy and terrorism, and it was for a good reason. The late Arturo Tolentino never signed the Treaty of Berlin, which would have forced our government to hand over Kalayaan Island and Scarborough Shoal to China, has proven to be a barrier to Sino-Philippine relations, but at the same time, he has demonstrated his commitment to our national and territorial integrity. However, the times have changed, and that as of now, we're still considered at war with China. If we do not solve this issue diplomatically with the Chinese government, we may face another open war with them, and this time they will bring their military allies in. Our military has gained experience from fighting the Chinese during the Second Korean War, but how will we fare against the other members of the Eurasian Security Treaty Organization, especially the former Soviet republics that are its current members and may be operating on older Soviet military doctrine. Even with our reformed doctrine modeled on the Chilean military system, we do not know how our soldiers will fight against the likes of the Russian or Central Asian armies that may be called by China to help. The Concordia Brigade, which consists of soldiers from the Philippines, Japan, and Vietnam, may or may not be able to stand up to the likes of the PLA or the Russian military, unless we carry out guerrilla warfare. At the same time though, the international community wants us to resolve our issues with the Chinese government, but we all know what they will demand of us: the surrender of Scarborough Shoal and Kalayaan Island. I am speaking to you, fellow Filipinos, of the terrible choices that we are presented with. Should we give up bits of our territory for peace, or to hold on to them and risk war?" Loren Legarda, speaking in the Bayanihan, March 19, 2020.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Mar 31, 2024 16:35:24 GMT
Re-OMAKE 015 - OTAKU-DA!
"Yoshiyuki Tomino's decision to pause from his work in 1993 for health reasons was necessary, as he suffered from depression caused by the initial project that he launched but later abandoned due to how excessive the deaths would be. The canceled project, named Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, would not be resurrected until 2002, when Tomino's recovery from his mental health woes had motivated him to make a light noted Gundam series, Turn A Gundam. Though the 2002 release of Victory Gundam toned down on the number of character deaths, it was most noted for its adoption of the latest animation technologies in existence at that time. Its sequel, Mobile Suit Victory Gundam Trinity, was subjected to intense controversy because of Tomino's decision to take in an inexperienced animator by the name of Mitsuo Fukuda. Victory Gundam Trinity is also known for bringing back Kamille Bidan and Fa Yuiry from their appearance in ZZ Gundam, though as elderly people. However, Fukuda's short work with Tomino's Victory Gundam Trinity would be a crucial factor in his inclusion by Seiji Mizushima for the first Gundam series to take place in the Anno Domini era, Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Fukuda however, would be sidelined in favor of NIshizawa Suzumu, upon Mizushima's recommendation, as there was drama involved between Fukuda's late wife Chiaki Morosawa and Morita Shigeru. Mobile Suit XN Gundam on the other hand, was also the first Gundam series to have events take place in two time periods, with the events of the Reconstruction War taking place during 2999 A.D., and ending in Year 1 of the Cosmic Era. Suzumu's work on XN Gundam received praise from Gundam fans across the world, but it was not without its own share of controversy. As XN Gundam's sequel, XN Gundam Pendulum, had started to cover the subject of secret cabal of rich people controlling the world from behind the scenes had been far too influenced by right-wing conspiracies surrounding the perceived Rothschilds as the real power broker, and its not-so subtle anti-Semitic undertones, both XN Gundam and XN Gundam Pendulum were banned from being broadcasted in Israel." From 'The Story of Gundam in the 21st Century', courtesy of VidTube.
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Mobile Suit XN Gundam
Synopsis: Several hundreds of years after the ELS conflict and the exploration of the Innovators into further depths of outer space, tragic events have unfolded with a meteor shower hitting all three orbital elevators, causing significant casualties in millions on part of the affected areas of Earth. The Earth Sphere Federation government collapsed while dealing with not only the aftermath of what became known as the Meteor Shower Tragedy, but various nations that resented being a part of the ESF have separated and went their separate ways. The three major powers that dominated the ESF also undergone a major political shift, with the World Economic Union breaking apart as South America seceded, leaving the North American portion by itself. Similarly, the AEU government dealt with social instabilities as it suffered from economic malaise, and the HRL effectively collapsed with the departure of Russia, China, and India, from the group. Russia and the AEU eventually reached a deal where their merger would take place, on condition that Great Britain would be excluded. The merger of both Russia and the AEU evolved into the formation of the Eurasian Federation. The North American portion of the former WEU became the Atlantic Federation, while South America became known as the Confederate States of South America. Meanwhile, China, Korea, and Mongolia launched an invasion of Japan, quickly overrunning it and forcing the Japanese into a one-sided union under the banner of the Republic of East Asia. India on the other hand, managed to rally the SE Asian nations and formed the Equatorial Union, alongside Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Eurasian Federation would also reconquer not only Central Asia, but even the Middle East as well, including Azadistan and Krugis as well.
The technology of GN Drive production was seemingly lost to time, until a company called Morgenroette has discovered an abandoned 1.5 Gundam and extracted its GN Tau Drive from its back in an attempt to deconstruct it and find out the secret to its construction and production. Unfortunately, attempts to reconstruct any kind of GN Drive proved to be difficult, and after only one prototype GN Tau Drive was built, it was tested into the recovered 1.5 Gundam and had that frame rebuilt into what would become Gundam Sabazios. In collaboration with Actaeon Arsenals, the Eurasian Federation would construct three Gundam Sabazios units. The first unit would be piloted by a young pilot named Canard Pars, while the second unit was piloted by Balsam Arend, and the third unit was piloted by a recreated Coordinator-Innovade hybrid Revive Revival. Unbeknownst to him, Canard Pars was falsely classified as a Coordinator when in fact, he's a hidden Innovator who was taken care of by the Eurasian government. Eventually, after a two year time skip in which the First Bloody Valentine War was still raging on, Canard would upgrade the Sabazios Unit 1 into the titular mobile suit, XN Gundam. Like its spiritual predecessor 00 Gundam, XN Gundam had several mechanical problems that delayed its development, but one of the most important events that would lead to the rise of the XN Gundam was the discovery of two abandoned genuine Drive-type Sakibures, of which their genuine GN Drives would be used to power up the XN Gundam. Eventually, with a support craft called the X-Grail, the XN Gundam would be upgraded into the XN Grail. Unlike the 00 Raiser, the XN Grail was a transformable mobile suit similar to the old Harute Gundam.
The world of XN Gundam explores the genetic differences between the Old Humans, dubbed as the Organics, or Naturals, and Accords, or Coordinators, plus the Innovades and Innovators that have re-emerged into the political and biological arena once more. Though Accords are viewed as the next level stage in human evolution, ultimately it is the Innovators that would become the real pinnacle of human evolution. Moreover, first generation pure bred Innovators often come from unusually strong bodied Naturals with developing Quantum Brainwaves. Facing open persecution, both Innovators and Accords were forced to flee into the space colonies that they themselves constructed as a means of protecting themselves from the Organics. However, the opening salvo in the first ever inter-human conflict between the Organics/Naturals on one side and the partnership of Accords/Coordinators and Innovator refugees was the nuclear strike on the space colony Aquarius, prompting the newly formed Zodiac Group to retaliate with the deployment of their first post-AD mobile suit, the MTMF-0600 Varsak, which is in actuality a heavily reconstructed version of the old Tieren Space Type model. Though initially the new Earth Alliance had the advantage due to a large number of warships and mobile armors, though old relics such as the ancient Hellion Initiums, Union Realdos, and Fantongs have also been dug up by the Alliance forces, the Varsak had completely outclassed the older models that the Alliance had brought out to the battlefield. The Aquarius Nuclear Strike happened on February 14, CE 70, leading to the March 14, CE 70 Zodiac Group's strike on the Copernicus Moon Base in what became known as the White Day Massacre. A year and a half has passed since the start of the inter-human conflict, and the Zodiac Group has managed to occupy most of sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and were marching their way to the Middle East in what is expected to be a major offensive against the Alliance's major supply hub and important military base in the city of Erbil, in the restored Republic of Krugis.
Mobile Suit XN Gundam Pendulum
Synopsis: Four years since the end of the First Inter-Human War between Organics/Naturals on one side, and Accords/Coordinators, Innovades, and Innovators on the other side, an uneasy peace has been imposed on both sides. Canard Pars, now a battle hardened veteran who is distrusted by the oppressive Earth Alliance government for his biological status as a re-awakened Innovator, is then recruited by a revived Celestial Being with an entirely new staff. A second Inter-Human War breaks out after a fragment of a destroyed old space colony is dropped into Earth, and this time around, Phantom Pain is formed to hunt down both remaining Innovators, and anti-EA rebel factions that have risen up in revolt against them. When LOGOS is revealed to be the mastermind behind all the conflicts, though emphasizing their roots in the Old Human Faction that fought against the Innovators in the post-ELS conflict, a military coup is launched against the Earth Alliance government, triggering its collapse and subsequent restoration of the Earth Sphere Federation government. Eventually, both the Earth Sphere Federation and its reluctant ally, the Accord-Innovator dominated Zodiac Group, defeat the remnants of the collapsing Earth Alliance forces and peace returns to the Earth Sphere.
In this sequel, Canard Pars struggles to come to terms with his newfound abilities as a reawakened Innovator, while dealing with his role as the new Gundam Meister. The new Celestial Being's Gundam Meister roster goes as follows: Canard Pars, Revive Revival, Laetitia Erde, and shockingly enough, the former Zodiac Group veteran named Andrew Waltfeld. Their upgraded Gundams were now modified to use the Twin Drive system, though only Canard's XN Grail uses genuine GN Drives while the other three Gundams use GN Proto-Tau Drives. Additionally, a new crew member has joined Celestial Being named Iridesce Seraph, but like her fellow triplet sister Anew Returner, she is a spy working for the Zodiac Group, and she was tasked with attempting to capture the XN Gundam, though unlike Anew, she turned on the Zodiac Group and reaffirmed her loyalty to Celestial Being, even bringing in both Anew (defecting from Zodiac Group) and her latest love interest Shinn Asuka, once a coup was launched against the incumbent leader of the Helios Confederacy (the official name for the collection of the twelve space colonies) Gilbert Durandal by a radical faction within Zodiac Group led by a newly recreated Ribbons Almark, now hell bent on continuing where his fellow clone (and former arch-villain from the XN Gundam series) Beside Pain had failed. Not related to the main XN Gundam series, but a scavenger who worked as a freelance pilot and researcher plays a key role throughout the series. Said scavenger, Kira Yamato, is only interested in tinkering with mobile suits to see how they work.
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*XN Gundam and XN Gundam Pendulum is TTL's version of Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny if it was pushed back several years in its development, with better plot lines and 00 centric mobile suits and better explanation of technology lore. Some characters that are highlighted in this Re-OMAKE are from both the mainline Gundam SEED stories, as well as the side stories like Astray and Stargazer. Some of the names that are used here are from the canon Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny series. Also, there may be a reference in this Re-OMAKE to the recently released Gundam SEED Freedom movie.
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HIMARUYA AND KOREAN MANHWA AUTHOR ANNOUNCE NEW CROSSOVER PROJECT INVOLVING RESPECTIVE SERIES AS MOVIE OVA
AnimeNews Media
January 8, 2010
(Tokyo) - In what is appearing to be a massive ambitious project between Korean Manhwa author Lim Dall-young and his Japanese manga counterpart Hidekaz Himaruya, they have announced in front of Japanese media on a planned crossover film project involving their respective series. Fans of both the Freezing anime series and Axis Power Hetalia could now look forward to seeing their favorite characters sharing the same scenes together, although it is unsure as to how the project would work. Lim, who escaped from the Korean Federal Republic because of his disagreement with Korean President Huh Kyung-young's increasingly oppressive policies governing the arts and his outspoken antigovernmental criticism, had since been living in Japan after 2009. While residing in Japan, Lim befriended Himaruya while working on another manga project, and both authors became good friends. In a twist of irony, hardcore Japanese manga fans have fallen in love with some of Lim's works, despite the cultural tensions and old-age animosity between Korea and Japan, stemming from the colonial period. The fact that a joint collaboration project between Lim and Himaruya has also taken the anime world by storm, as both Freezing and Hetalia have garnered millions of fans around the world as well, even including as far as Argentina.
"Here in Japan, I'm exposed to some of the unusual works that the Japanese manga authors have done. I can freely draw anything I want, as opposed to when I still lived in Korea," says Lim, during an interview with a freelance anime news reporter inside a cafe in Osaka. "Back home, the publishing companies were reluctant to let me release some of my works, as the Huh regime was cracking down on manhwa authors because of a satirical manhwa comic ridiculing the regime there."
It is also expected that the yet-to-be named project will be completed within two or three years, as the plot lines have to be crafted, and thousands of animators would have to be hired. However, Japanese manga artists and authors have also been under pressure from the increasingly pro-militaristic sentiment to create works that promote the Japan Self-Defense Force in a positive light, despite the efforts of Prime Minister Katsuya Okada's efforts to scale down the militaristic attitudes. Thus, the political climate may also affect the outcome of the joint collaboration project between Lim and Himaruya. In contrast, Himaruya has also become more outspoken in his worries about a possibility of Japan regaining the right to possess a formal military, stating that Japan's reputation as a peaceful nation would be in tatters if remilitarization continues. However, as he does not try to attract the wrong attention from ultranationalist fanatics, Himaruya has done a great job of flying under the radar.
"In the end, I'm just a manga artist and author. I only create stories that I would like to tell in such a way that would promote world peace," says Himaruya while speaking to a Hetalia fan outside a bookstore in Sendai. "My ultimate dream is to see every nation get along with one another. I don't want to see my friends and family end up dead in another nuclear tragedy like our grandparents and great grandparents suffered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
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"In second place for the most controversial anime series is Tite Kubo's second most popular work, 'Comrade Sato'. Of course, while it is not a surprise that the first place title for the most controversial anime series would go to Kubo's other work, 'Deathdealer', 'Comrade Sato' comes a close second. 'Comrade Sato' is an alternative history based anime set in a world where Joseph Stalin died in 1945, paving the way for a brutal power struggle that resulted in Anastas Mikoyan succeeding him as the leader of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Mikoyan's cautious foreign policy that included the 'Finlandization' of Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan had not only paid off in dividends, but it had an effect on Japan, where labour disputes and a struggling post-war recovery, as well as an absence of a conflict in Korea, crippling its economic recovery and delaying its redevelopment by two decades. The result of the growing political turmoil inside Japan is an attempted communist uprising in the city of Tsuruoka, before far-right vigilantes have violently put it down, but in turn, the attempt by the far-right vigilantes to attack Tsuruoka ended in failure after a spirited defense by the communist. The Japanese Civil War would break out as a result, with both militias fighting each other, until the intervention of the JSDF on the side of the far-right vigilantes would force the communists to relocate to Hokkaido, where they declared a Japanese Socialist Republic of Ezo as their own 'Free Japan'. The protagonist of 'Comrade Sato', Ryuichi Sato, is a low to mid-level functionary within the Ezochi Communist Party that is charged with the bureaucratic administrative work. His father Konishi Sato was a veteran of the Japanese Civil War, so he is in a unique position to gain privileges within the Communist Party, but chose to work hard to achieve his positions on merit alone. During the conception for the story of Comrade Sato, Kubo had met with the Chairman of the Japan Communist Party, Kazuo Shii, for discussions on how a communist-ruled Japan would look like. Although Comrade Sato turned out to not be as popular as Deathdealer, it generated a cult following among left-wing fans of Japanese anime. Ironically, right-wing fans of Japanese anime had also praised Kubo's work on Comrade Sato, though giving their own commentary on the connections between the scenes from the controversial anime to the failings of the socialist system." From 'Top 10 Most Controversial Anime Series', courtesy of VidTube.
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Author's Note: Having been hit with yet another writer's bloc, I am now facing two choices regarding both this TL and El Camino de la Sangre. The portion regarding the Second Russian Civil War in this TL reboot had been mostly inspired by the OTL Yugoslav Wars, while the original version was actually based on Game of Thrones's vital event, Robert's Rebellion. Another thing that I needed to address is what events that I should have covered in the original version and in the reboot. So here's a scenario that I am covering that I hope to get feedback:
1) Should this TL switch to just listing the events and what has happened to those events? The next chapters would be a simple rundown of what will happen next.
2) Should this TL instead be in map form, a la Munroist style maps? Keep in mind that if I make this into a map mode, the TL would have to become permanently dormant.
One other crucial event that I wanted to do a spinoff is the ESTO Military Intervention in the Philippines, since it would have been interesting to see how a vastly upgraded and severely reformed Philippine military of the Rogue Generals universe would far against the likes of not only China, but also even Russia and the Central Asian republics, plus the Korean Federal Republic.
Just give me PMs on what you think of it.
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ieph
Seaman
Posts: 13
Likes: 7
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Post by ieph on Apr 17, 2024 14:24:21 GMT
TheRomanSlayer - I definitely think it should be updated as is, because I kind of like the narrative aspect of it.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Apr 17, 2024 23:20:03 GMT
TheRomanSlayer - I definitely think it should be updated as is, because I kind of like the narrative aspect of it. I think so too, but I've also started to design a map for this TL as well. To be honest, the lack of response in this TL, plus the writer's block is the main reason why I haven't updated it. That, and I've also stalled on El Camino de la Sangre as well. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Apr 18, 2024 3:20:14 GMT
CHAPTER FORTY TWO: THE SECOND RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR PART SEVEN - SOUTH
"Although India was flushed with its recent victory over Pakistan in the 1986-89 Indo-Pakistani War, or as it was called in the Punjab province, the Cross-Punjab War, the addition of several more hundreds of thousands of Sikhs who now found themselves living under Indian rule has created a crisis within the Indian government. With the growing demands for a complete overhaul of India's administrative structure, it was the All India Forward Bloc back then, which had now taken the opportunity to begin its political campaign of expanding its influence in the newly expanded province of Punjab, as well as the acquired areas of Jammu and Kashmir. At that time, the Forward Bloc was led by Debabrata Biswas, prior to 1999 when Biswas stepped down as leader of the Forward Bloc and was replaced by known war hero and Indian National Army veteran Lakshmi Sahgal. It was then that the Forward Bloc would undergo a rebranding, changing its name to the United India Party, patterned itself after the various political parties in Central Asia, Russia, and even Spain for that matter. Lakshmi Sahgal's newest political ally that joined the United India Party was a man considered the most controversial and most notorious figure in Punjab: Harminder Singh Nahang, also known as Labh Singh. In the 1999 charter of the United India Party, Sahgal, Nahang, and newly rising politician Sugata Bose, had declared that the United India Party will push for a formation of an Indian Federation, where various ethnic minorities will be given their own national autonomous republics. However, the establishment of national autonomous republics had to be done in a gradual manner, as the Indian government couldn't decide on how the national autonomous republics will be formed. A good example of what the United India Party proposed that eventually passed into official Indian government law was the Autonomous Republics Act of 2004, which established the first two autonomous entities: the Autonomous Confederation of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Autonomous Confederation of Punjab-Haryana. Anantnag became the permanent capital of the Autonomous Confederation of Jammu-Kashmir, and Chandigarh became the permanent capital of the Autonomous Confederation of Punjab-Haryana. However, within Haryana though, thousands of Hindus feared reprisals from vengeful Sikhs who survived the 1984 Delhi Pogroms and began to flee from their homes in what was now the second inter-provincial migration of Hindus from Haryana to the rest of India. Though the Autonomous Republics Act of 2004 nearly destroyed the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, it did provide an opening for the election of Harkishan Singh Surjeet, who represented the Communist Party of India. Surjeet was heavily backed by the United India Party, though by this time Sahgal had to retire from political life due to advanced age, and in her place, Bir Singh Mahato became the party leader. Sugata Bose would eventually emerge as the new party leader in 2010, while riding on his party platform of establishing Special Economic Zones in areas of India that used to be under European colonial rule. Still, the Indian Federation Establishment Act of 2017 became the real start of India's transition from a federal republic to a genuine federation, with the Special Administrative Zones formed to manage the enclaves that were former European colonies and a few national autonomous republics to manage India's ethnic minorities." From 'India in the Post-Cold War', released by BBC Documentaries, November 13, 2018.
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UN PEACEKEEPERS ARRIVE IN DISPUTED CAUCASIAN REGION OF USSR WITH CHILEAN GENERAL APPOINTED AS HEAD OF PEACEKEEPING FORCE
Sydney Herald
June 14, 1991
(Stepanakert, NAGORNO-KARABAKH ASSR) - A large UN peacekeeping force consisting of troops from the Philippines, Indonesia, Chile, Thailand, and Turkey have arrived at the Soviet city of Stepanakert in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Azeri SSR. The named United Nations Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Prevention Force appointed Chilean general Alvaro Corbalan as the head of this unit, which electrified much of the Chilean opposition that have been driven into exile, as Corbalan has taken advantage of the failed assassination attempt on Augusto Pinochet to maneuver himself into a position where he can take control of Chile from Pinochet in the event of his death. However, fierce criticism was aimed at the Turkish government's participation in the peacekeeping mission, due to historical animosities between the Turks and Armenians, and the events of the 1915 Armenian Genocide and Turkey's refusal to recognize the expulsions of its own Armenian population from eastern Anatolia has become a source of hatred between the two peoples. Additionally, there were fears that the Turkish peacekeepers deployed into the disputed region would immediately side with the Azeri forces seeking to reconquer the disputed region through campaigns of ethnic cleansing. It was for this reason that the UNAACPFOR has nominated Corbalan as its commanding officer, but even there was intense scrutiny over Corbalan's role in helping noted Philippine dictator Artemio Tadiar with reforming the Philippine military along Chilean lines.
"The United Nations is making a big mistake when they elected that hardliner as the commander of a peacekeeping force tasked with pacifying a conflict prone area, and we fear that General Corbalan will not only undermine the purpose of UNAACPFOR's mission, but even encourage the Turkish peacekeepers to actively aid the Azeris," says an unnamed Chilean political exile living in Canada, when asked about Corbalan. "And given that Corbalan has a hand in helping another military dictator reform his military along Chilean lines, we fear that the reforms will turn the Filipino soldiers into soulless killing machines."
The United Nations General Assembly had voted in favor of a UNSC Resolution, calling for peacekeepers to be deployed to not only the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the crumbling Soviet Union, but it has also passed a resolution in favor of creating another peacekeeping force, this time to stop the fighting between the Soviet Army and the various pro-independence movements that have emerged to resist the Soviet reconquest. However, China vetoed that resolution, stating that any further additional intrusion into what the Chinese ambassador called an 'internal affair of a sovereign nation' will escalate the instability that has rocked the USSR. As a result of the Chinese veto, various Western cities have witnessed anti-China protests, in addition to anti-Soviet demonstrations, led by activists tied to the pro-independence movements. In the Canadian city of Edmonton, a young activist who was at the center of a political scandal when she was caught by the KGB in the city of Kiev was leading the march against the Chinese veto in the UN Security Council.
"We call on the UN General Assembly to expel Red China from the organization, as they are now complicit in the current and future genocides suffered by the brave peoples of Eastern Europe seeking to free themselves from Soviet occupation and oppression," says local activist Chrystia Freeland. Standing alongside Freeland were local Chinese anti-communist exiles who formed a new group called the Committee for a Free China in response to the Chinese veto. "Just as the UN has improved its reputation by expelling the Soviet Union from the organization for violating the UN charter, we must also push for the expulsion of member states who constantly violate the UN charter that are meant to safeguard world peace."
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UZBEKISTAN ERUPTS INTO THREE WAY CIVIL WAR BETWEEN SECULARISTS AND ISLAMISTS AS KARIMOV IS ASSASSINATED BY ISLAMIST REBELS
Vancouver Sun
June 17, 1991
(Bukhara, UZBEK SSR) - Five days after Islamist fighters carried out an assassination on Uzbek Communist Party leader Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan itself has now plunged into civil war between the secularists and the Islamists that masterminded the assassination. A terrorist group calling itself the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has claimed responsibility for the attack, and justified it on the grounds that the murdered Communist Party leader was considered in their own words, an 'apostate' who left Islam for the communist ideology. Only three days after Karimov's death, the Uzbek Communist Party held an emergency session where they elected his replacement, Shukrullo Mirsaidov. Mirsaidov promised a tougher response to the Islamist threat that has now threatened to destroy much of Uzbekistan's territorial integrity, though an equally menacing threat has emerged when a little known Karakalpak separatist movement called the Karakalpak Liberation Front has emerged with only one demand: the complete independence of Karakalpakstan from the Uzbek SSR, and be admitted to the Soviet Union as a new SSR. As a result of the Karakalpak separatists' unexpected rise to prominence, the Uzbek government is now facing a prospect of a two front war that would severely undermine its ability to bring stability into the fractured republic, at a time when the Soviet Union itself is facing other conflicts in the Baltic, Belarusian and Ukrainian theaters.
"Even with the help of other loyal Soviet forces stationed in Central Asia, it has become impossible for us to tell apart between a regular civilian and a recruit who has joined the Islamist factions that have now invaded our country," says Uzbek general Rustam Akhmedov, when asked about the capabilities of the Soviet forces stationed in his country. "At the same time, we're starting to form our own paramilitary units that may end up becoming the backbone of a formal Uzbek military, should we succeed in declaring our independence from the Soviet Union."
Unlike the better equipped and likewise newly emerging paramilitary force in the neighboring Kazakh SSR, the paramilitary forces of the Uzbek SSR is hopelessly divided between the Uzbek majority and the various minority groups that are fighting under its banner. It also didn't help that the ethnic minorities that make up only 5% of the regular Uzbek paramilitary forces were only in the Uzbek SSR because their ancestors were deported during the dictatorship of Josef Stalin, with the Crimean Tatars and Koryo-sarams being the most affected by the events inside the Uzbek SSR. To make matters worse, the Uzbek SSR's European minorities (mainly ethnic Russians, but also Ukrainians and Belarusians, as well as Balts) have fled to their countries of origins and are even fighting each other in those theaters. In contrast, the Islamist groups that have risen inside the Uzbek SSR have received reinforcements from Mujahideen veterans of both the Soviet War in Afghanistan, as well as the Indo-Pakistani conflict of 1986-88, in which the Pakistani branch of the Mujahideen were even more battle hardened than their Afghan colleagues. The Pakistani branch was known to have fought both the Indian Army and the Khalistani separatist groups that were now fighting them. Luckily, the Turkmen SSR's paramilitary forces are not facing any kind of threat to the sovereignty of their nation, other than the military junta in Iran led by General Ali Shahbazi, who has promised a total reconstruction of his country after narrowly defeating the Iraqi Army, as well as surviving an attempted invasion by the notorious Mojahedin-e-Khalq, an exiled Iranian communist group.
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OMSK, RUSSIAN SFSR
July 4, 1993
To any observer, the city of Omsk was a pleasant place to live and visit, especially in the summer. However, this summer was unlike any other season that this quiet Siberian city had experienced, for it is in the middle of the Second Russian Civil War that the conflict has gone even deadlier. As many Soviet soldiers are coming back from the front in body bags more frequently, there are now calls for loyalist forces to raise paramilitary units that can help the regular military with their operations. It was at the Omsk fortress complex that a single Soviet officer was overlooking around 600 troops, each with their custom made telogreika jackets and military style boots. What caught the eyes of the onlookers were that these troops, if they can be called that, all had their heads shaved and their faces looked gaunt. The officer inspecting these new troops looked unamused at how soulless these new troops were. In front of the other troops were several flag parties consisting of just six troops selected from among the 600 paramilitary personnel that were present. What shocked and horrified the Soviet military observers was the design of the flag that was adopted for the new unit. To them, the adopted flag looked way too much like the flag of Nazi Germany, but with the mixed usages of the Imperial Russian two headed eagle clutching a gear, and inside that gear, was a black hammer and sickle. A golden ring that resembled wheat chaffs covered its edges, and a red background was used to complement it.
"Comrades! The Motherland now requests for her young children to also take up arms and defend her from the reactionaries that have risen in revolt against our socialist paradise. However, it is not merely enough to defeat them, for they are, have been, and will always be hereditary reactionaries corrupted by the supremacist spirit coming from the heart of Europe. The time has come for you, the wayward children of the Motherland who lost their way to degeneracy and inner corruption, to cleanse your sins committed against the Motherland, through fire, blood, and death," said the Soviet officer addressing the 'gaggle' as he referred to the soulless paramilitary forces. He turned his face in a different direction. "Comrade Letov, Yegor Fedorovich!"
A bearded man who resembled a western punk rocker marched towards him and offered a salute, to which the officer nodded. "I serve the Motherland!"
"Comrade Letov, you are now in charge of these troops. As they have accepted military service in exchange for an early parole, these ex-prisoners are yours to command. Good luck on your endeavors," the Soviet officer explained before he and Letov saluted to each other.
"I shall do my best for the Motherland!" Letov replied back before turning towards the entire regiment. "Comrades! You have all volunteered for this great service in exchange for your freedom. The lives you've all wasted by rotting in prisons and gulags have all been caused by your own stupidity. Yet, we have now given you a chance to redeem yourselves in the eyes of the Motherland and the socialist paradise." He could hear some grumblings from within the crowd. "And yet, have you all forgotten what it means to be a Russian socialist in a Union that is slowly and surely crumbling? Though we may not share the same blood, we share the same goals, ambitions, and desire to improve our own nation, with the blood, sweat, and tears that we've all shed. Tell me! Are you still proud to call yourselves Russian patriots?"
Silence greeted the newly appointed paramilitary commander, to which both Letov and the Soviet officer shook their heads.
"Be as it may, today is a new day in which you will march towards your own redemption. From now on, we shall call our new unit, Novy Put'! The new path in which we are all marching forward, we shall encounter fire and blood on the battlefields of the Baltics, Ukraine, the Caucasus, and even beyond! Together with the other likeminded comrades who wished to save the Union, or rather, the Russian nation itself, we will triumph!" Letov shouted as the soulless paramilitary personnel began to nod in agreement. "If you can't fight for the socialist paradise, fight for a tomorrow that you want to have. Fight for your national comrades' future, and they shall fight for yours. For Russia!"
"For Russia, we fight and struggle!" the paramilitaries shouted in unision.
***
Several hours after the paramilitaries had been dismissed, Letov and a few of his friends from their punk rock days had sat inside a small cafe overlooking the Om River. Though they only had a few days to prepare before they're being sent to the Baltic Front, they wanted to spend time together as civilians before switching to their new lives as paramilitary troops. One of the other former band members had examined an armband that was designed by Letov's wife Anna Volkova, which was exactly the same as the flag of the new unit, Novy Put'. Letov was tempted to grab a bottle of vodka or comsume some magic mushrooms, but was strictly forbidden to do so under the strict orders of the Soviet officer supervising the organization of Novy Put'. It is assumed that drug use, or alcohol consumption was severely discouraged inside Novy Put', as a means of forcing the ex-prisoners to go cold turkey in order to change their ways, but as it turned out, some paramilitary personnel who were long term drug users had to be taken out of active service, and placed in a rehabilitation center.
One of the other ex-punk rock members snorted. "Yegor, do you have a minute? I have to discuss something with all of you guys here."
"Go ahead, Oleg," Letov responded nonchalantly.
"Well, when I was on my way here, I saw another paramilitary unit being organized on the other side of the Om. They looked out of place, like some sort of pretenders. They were really gung ho on the whole Rodnovery revival," Oleg Sudakov responded with a sneer in his vioce. "Word came from one of the ex-cons that this Velimir guy is organizing the Rodnovery unit, and they're calling themselves Kolovraty. I even saw their flag too, which is basically a Slavic version of that Nazi swastika inside a half gear and half wheat chaff."
Letov snorted contemptuously. "Who is this Velimir guy? Some random drughead??
"No, he's one of the hardcore neo-pagans that no one takes seriously. Hell, even this asshole Dobrovolskiy, from what the other ex-con said to me the other day, was even more insane. Guy used to worship Stalin until meeting ex-Nazis and suddenly, he became a Nazi fanboy." Letov growled furiously. "I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow made something more useful to our cause. If the guy wasn't such a Nazi lover, I'd say he'd be welcome to join us."
"Guys like him are bad news. They're better off being sent to the worst meat grinder, preferably dead as well," Sadukov growled back. "But if they're skilled in warfare and survived despite all odds, I'd have some semblance of respect for those bastards."
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