Sand War

Overview
The Sand War (Also known as the Surif Conflict) was a large multi-nation war between the Zamotz Union and the USSE Protectorate of Merconis in the region on Onthukhan on Eldham.

The war's title, the Sand War originates from the allegations created by the People's Republic of Merconis which accused the Zamotz Union of partaking in illegal sand mining and also the fact that the border dispute which was the primary catalyst for the multi-nation conflict was located in the sandy deserts of Eldham.

The Sand War began on the 6th of November, 2021 and is presently ongoing.

Emergence of the Surif Border Dispute
The roots of the conflict stretch back into late October of 2021 when the People's Republic of Merconis became an official protectorate of the United Socialist States of Eldham. As a protectorate, Merconis held the rights to free independent governance and had the ability to have their own foreign relations and elected leaders with the exception that they shall not jeopardize the integrity of the United Socialist States of Eldham's political interests in a fundamental or intentional way. Around this time, the Zamotz Union created a military alliance with the USSE, called the Treaty of Two Unions, which stated that "signing nations will agree to not begin or formally assist in any war or military conflict against the other nation; the only reason a nation may act against the other signing nation is out of defence or natural obligation." The Pale had integrated the Avarian colonies of Wolfswood into their nation on October 29th, 2021. This began the beginning of a territorial dispute where the Zamotz Union had a claim to a desert biome in the region which as a result of Eldham's map borders resulted in The Pale unintentionally taking claim of Zamotz Union claimed territory. On October 31st, 2021, Merconis purchased land from The Pale which drastically expanded upon the territorial reaches of the island micronation and gave them swathes of territory on the mainland bordering the Zamotz Union province of Phoenia. They however would inherit the border problems accidentally created by The Pale, and it was very quickly brought to attention that The Pale, and now by extension Merconis, had claimed land claimed by Zamotz Union in the desert biome including the small Zamotz Union city-settlement of Surif.

Attempts & Failures to Agree Upon the Border
Merconis had thought that they rightfully owned the land as they had paid for it but after realizations of wrongdoing on behalf of all three nations involved in regards to the land transaction and not figuring this out sooner, all the nations attempted to bide for peace.

Initial agreements resulted in a more defined border whereby the desert biome would be entirely under control of the Zamotz Union yet Merconis began to incorrectly interpret the border as lying directly East of Surif. This left the land still in a grey area in terms of control and claim as Merconis claimed the border was several chunks further West than the border clearly defined by Zamotz and Avaria, the nation that preceded the Pale, in earlier regional maps and agreements.

Border Skirmish and Occupation of Surif
Later, a purpoted Merconisan border surveyor was looking at the area and determining where to build a wall using the incorrect claimed border of everything East of Surif belonging to Merconis when they were killed by a Zamotian resident of Surif. While Zamotz claimed the surveyor had attacked first and was wearing armor, Merconis claimed that the surveyor was attacked first and was not wearing armor.

This situation quickly escalated as just a couple of hours later, Merconis marched into Zamotz with their leader, xPotatoes, and two soldiers, and declared a kill on sight order, or "KOS", on the citizens of the town of Surif, as revenge for the allegedly unprovoked attack on their surveyor. This resulted in the citizens of Surif calling in one of the Triumvirs of the Zamotz Union, King Okomi I, to investigate. Upon arrival, he was allegedly attacked by the Merconian forces and fought alongside the citizens of Surif, killing xPotatoes and the two soldiers. Zamotz reports that xPotatoes later returned and attacked again, alone, and took off his armor during the fight, resulting in a quick death. It is unclear whether or not this is disputed by xPotatoes. After the citizens of Surif and King Okomi I defeated the Mercosian force, they reported this incident to the USSE and the Zamotz council. On top of this all, Merconis claimed that Zamotians had begun mining sand in their territory which opted the name the "Sand War" as both a play on the dispute over the desert and the alleged sand destruction.

Negotiation with the USSE
Tensions heated up incredibly quickly as minor conflicts quickly spread into heated "toxic" arguments. Despite Merconis' status as a Protectorate of the USSE, and failures from both sides to inform all involved parties extensively of the situation, the Zamotz Union agreed to declare war on Merconis on November 6th, 2021 which according to the USSE violated the Treaty of Two Unions between the United Socialist States of Eldham and the Zamotz Union which had stated that neither side shall declare war or have aggressions towards one another.

The Zamotz Union claimed that acted in self defense for the citizens of Surif, and therefore did not violate the treaty and that Merconis had in fact violated the Treaty of the United Front by declaring a kill on sight order against civillians of Surif. As the USSE was heavily caught off guard by the dispute and lacked proper complete information or evidence suggesting criminal activity from the conflict, the USSE had not taken any serious action yet but intended to reprimand and take disciplinary action in Merconis for possible violations of the Treaty of the United Front.

Initial Declaration
The first declaration of war came from the Zamotz Union and was against Merconis."'The Zamotz Union declares war on Merconis It's been several days. Days of bickering on both sides, days of disputes and attacks. Most of the world, even the countries involved, hardly understood what was going on. Today, however, the Zamotz Union had a moment of clarity. After a peace agreement was settled between the Zamotz Union and Merconis over a border dispute at the Pale, the agreement was violated today. Merconis claimed that the border was right next to the Zamotian town of Surif, and that a portion of desert was theirs. They then stated that we destroyed their desert through an excavation site in the disputed territory, which existed there before Zamotian citizens even settled in the area. They stated that we attacked a Merconian surveyor, when he dealt the first blow. They stated that we killed him when he was not wearing armor, when he had not only provoked us, but took off his armor shortly before dying. Lie, after lie, after lie. It hasn't stopped, and it likely won't. Unless if we take action. On behalf of the terrorized people of Surif, whom had a KOS (Kill on Sight) order issued upon them by the Merconian leadership, the Zamotz Union will no longer tolerate their lies. The Zamotz Union has declared war on Merconis. If you wish to see additional proof, or have any questions, feel free to DM me. Thank you and have a good day.'"

USSE Attempts for Peace
Immediately after the announcement of war from Zamotz, the USSE General Secretary Chelovek Serebra, attempted to bide for both powers to come to a peace agreement and begin negotiations. While negotiations did begin, they were largely futile as enraged arguments made up most of the time, and testimony from the citizens of Surif and Merconis contradicted each other constantly.

Eventually, the Zamotz representatives agreed to terms which included a fixed border and Merconis paying $150,000, but the long-awaited negotiations were vetoed by a Zamotian Triumvir. This was criticized by many USSE citizens as being a show that Zamotz had no actual intention to preserve peace and instead desired to simply win a war to enforce their rule, something seemingly backed up by screenshots of Zamotian government officials stating they'd like to get rid of Merconis all together as they seemingly saw the nation as a nuisance. Many USSE citizens accused the Zamotz Union of participating in imperialist anti-democratic tactics to destabilize and invade the popular government of Merconis despite no formal demand of land from Merconis had been made by the Zamotz Union.

The Okomi-Surif Demands
After the vetoing of the original negotiations between the USSE and Zamotz, the people of Surif drafted another set of more thorough demands called the Okomi-Surif Demands. This was quickly and harshly disagreed to by the USSE as the demanded terms violated the USSE Constitution and criminal codes and therefore could not be passed into law by the USSE National Assembly because of both multiple sections of the Constitution and legal precedents set by the USSE's relations with Achadhia.

Support from Merconis would also be needed in most respects for it to even possibly pass, but a referendum was held in Merconis that was unanimously against the Okomi-Surif Demands which later cemented the USSE's refusal to accept them. The refusal by the USSE and Merconis to accept the Okomi-Surif Demands brought outrage as Zamotians accused the USSE of downplaying the alleged wrongdoing of Merconis, claiming they were trying to purely preserve, if not spread the communist ideology. This prompted outrage from the USSE who were now only infuriated at the purpoted lies being spread about them trying to "preserve and spread" communism when the USSE was naturally helping Merconis since it was its Protectorate, but also anger began to be fueled towards Zamotz for trying to force the USSE and Merconis to sign a series of demands that were "anti-democratic" as it endorsed the overthrow of a popular local leader, "against their people's wellbeing" as it would cast them out of their pre-existing military alliance which would degrade their military capabilities, and "chauvinistic" as the demands stated that the USSE should militaristically invade Merconis and dissolve its protectorate status should another conflict arise.

There was also a large amount of anger as generally speaking, the USSE did not approve of Merconis' behavior to begin with so the accusations that they were sympathizing with Merconis' mistakes was not only seen as incorrect but insulting as it slandered the USSE's willingness to establish peace.

The Okomi-Surif Terms:"1. Merconis leaves the League of Vircon""2. xPxtatoes is replaced by Donutaro""3. Merconis issues a formal apology to the people of Surif""4. Merconis pays 150,000 in war reparations""5. Should Merconis attack Zamotz again, they will lose their protectorate status under the USSE""6. The USSE will take over Merconis’s right to establish diplomatic relations with other countries and to conduct foreign policy as long as Merconis is under the USSE as a protectorate.""7. Merconis must respect the previously agreed-upon borders.""8. Should Merconis violate any terms of this treaty, they will lose their protectorate status under the USSE."

USSE Declaration of War
After the vetoing of USSE's proposed peace treaty by Zamotz, the National Assembly of the United Socialist States of Eldham unanimously agreed to open a state of war against the Zamotz Union for their declaration of war against a USSE protectorate and their alleged violation of the Treaty of Two Unions. General Secretary Chelovek Serebra of the USSE gave a lengthy international announcement of this at which point he stated the following:"'I would like to start by saying that the statements from the League of Vircon are not true. Last night the U.S.S.E, Merconis, and Zamotz came to an agreement. We decided in reparations and a set border. The Zamotz senate even agreed to this. Yet select leadership in the Zamotz Union decided to veto those terms. So once again the sovereignty of Merconis is in question. It is clear that one side wants peace, and the other does not.""-According to our treaty with Merconis, and the legal code of the U.S.S.E, this is an act of aggression against the U.S.S.E and our sovereignty.""-The U.S.S.E holds that the Zamotz Union does not have the right to bring into question the sovereignty of our protectorate. Further, we believe that this act of declaring war on our protectorate, without having discussed the matter with us, is a betrayal of the spirit of our alliance with Zamotz and a de jure violation of the treaty itself.""As such, the National Assembly of the U.S.S.E recognizes that a state of war has existed between the U.S.S.E and the Zamotz Union since the moment that they declared war on Merconis.'"""

Prompt Response from Allies
Allies of both nations were quick to respond to the declarations of war. The USSE and Merconis received international support from Rodinnbrok, Nova Azcoria, Valreach, the Pale, Liberum, Paloma, Tovarisha, the Commonwealth, Vulpinia, and Xeka. Notably, the alliance that Merconis is part of, the League of Vircon, voted overwhelmingly against joint military support for Merconis.

On the other hand, the Zamotz Union received no formal international declarations of support but Eldham Entente nations including Aristios are believed to have had offered volunteer support to Zamotz but because of pre-existing treaties with the USSE, the Eldham Entente had not formally joined in the war effort.

Establishment of the Prebattle Week
Prior the first battle of the war, a week existed where both opposing parties began rapidly arming their militaries, militarizing, building fortifications, sending propaganda, and more. The first battle had been set for November 13th, with the amount of time before the declaration of war and the actual first battle being long in comparison to most wars on Eldham.

Smear Campaigns & Propaganda
Over the course of the Prebattle Week, both nations created a massive amount of propaganda and made attempts to smear the opposition in order to establish morale of soldiers and decentivize other nations from intervening on the other side of the conflict. On November 11th, propaganda had been posted depicting the United Socialist States of Eldham as Adolf Hitler and Merconis as a racist Japanese caricature which resulted in the propaganda being taken down to prevent breaking of the rules. This resulted in outrage from members of the USSE and certain citizens of the Zamotz Union claimed that they were hypocrites as the USSE had published propaganda depicting the Zamotz Union as pigs. Eventually after threats of opening tickets with administration over the propaganda, the arguments ceased.

Establishment of the NFZ & Criticism
The National Front of Zamotz (NFZ) is a political party created by Mayor of Surif, Badibedo on November 10th, 2021. The platform of the political party called for expansionism, extreme anti-socialism, ultra-nationalism, and a more centralized government. Upon the discovery of the political party, it was heavily criticized by the USSE and was called a fascist political party for what it endorsed. It was also extensively criticized for having a name that seemingly referenced the real-world fascist United Front political party in the UK.

The founding of the party also called into question the reliability of the claims made by the people of Surif against Merconis as some individuals claimed that they had ulterior motives as they wished to destroy socialism at any costs and were intentionally refusing peace negotiations in order to act out this plan."'The National Front of Zamotz calls for expansion of the Union and pushes for a closer relationship between provinces. We are against socialism, and we will crush them by any means necessary. We want to create an economy that will uphold the union, we want a stronger Zamotz.' -Badibedo on the platform of the NFZ."

Spying & Espionage
Both nations at various points claimed the opposing side was utilizing spies. It is estimated (at the time of this article being written) that at least three people have been arrested in the USSE on accusations of espionage or treason. The USSE however did not make any official statement on the matters.

In the Zamotz Union, government officials are believed to have suspected that the USSE was using spies to find confidential information about the military and the so-called "actual" intentions of the government in declaring war. This began after the screenshots of Badibedo's political party registration were leaked to the public.

Rearmament of the USSE
TBA

Further Attempts at Negotiation
TBA