The International

[Seperallis]

<div style="border-bottom: 1px solid; padding-bottom: 4px"><div style="border-bottom: 2px solid;"><span style="margin-left: 2em"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/SixOUPA.png" height="64px" width="64px" /><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: xx-large; margin-left: .5em;">The International</span></span></div>
<span style="display: block; border-bottom: 1px solid; padding: 0 1em 2px; margin-bottom: 4px; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 16px;"> Local | World | Politics | Business | Technology | Health | Entertainment | Environment | Travel | Sports | Video | Opinion | Other</span><div style="display: inline-flex;"><div style="display: inline-block; border-right: 1px solid; padding-right: 4px; min-height: 450px;"><span style="display: block; border-bottom: 1px solid; padding: 1em 0;"><span style="font-size: 21px;">President Ahmadi: "Eskkya has been hijacked by a Strathean fifth column"</span>
By <a href="" rel="nofollow">Efraim Martí</a>
20 Dein, 1597</span>

President Ahmadi of Asir personally addresses NETO row with Eskkya.

ABEHZ, ASIR - As part of the latest comments in a diplomatic row over Eskkyan policies to allegedly "combat extremism," Asirian President Ahmadi responded that, in reference to Eskkya, "Fifth columnists from Strathae have usurped power and hijacked the country of any otherwise respectable people, to further a dire religious crusade of societal purification against anyone who does not conform precisely to their subjective and shifting standards of a so-called 'liberal' society."

Asir, along with its NETO allies and neighbor Rojadavistan, has openly criticized what it and others view as an open and targeted attack against all Akhadic believers in the Brigidnan nation. Statements of displeasure have come from government spokespersons and ambassadors, but not from the top of the government until now.

Opponents of the new Eskkyan government policy, both at home and abroad, view it as yet another in a long history of overt attempts by Strathean politicians - now reunited with Eskkya - to "purge that country of anything foreign," especially anything "Akhadic," despite attempts to couch the policy as a fight against extremism. While the government claims that it will use a set list of criteria by which to judge alleged lawbreakers, critics have argued that the criteria are themselves "exceedingly subjective and prone to selective abuse."

Unlike Rojadavistan, which ordered retaliatory diplomatic action against Eskkya's passage of an "Anti-Extremism" law that it claims is targeted specifically at the Akhadic faithful, no retaliatory measures have been announced from Asir.

Nor are they planned, as President Ahmadi clarified," Unlike these Stratheans who insist upon their cultural colonization, we in Asir respect and tolerate those who come here and adhere to our laws. Unlike Madame McLucais, we have no intention of criminalizing the mere existence of non-(Akhadic) citizens."

He went on to state that, instead, the full financial, logistical, and legal support of Asir would be available for any Eskkyan resident, Akhadic or not, who is "assaulted" by the new McLucais government.


A History of Intolerance

Kuzhe Habib Zakaria fled Asir shortly after the conclusion of the Akhadic Revolution, where he was declared persona non grata as a blasphemer for opposing the formation of an officially Akhadic state. Since then, he held a small congregation in Strathae, right up until being deported back to Asir after 40 years, during the height of the anti-Akhadic roundups.

"Party of Tradition and [the government] didn't care about my situation: because I practiced my one true faith, I had to go," we spoke with him in an Asirian prison where he was serving out the remainder of his 17 year jail sentence before execution on blasphemy charges. While blasphemy laws were repealed in 1589, the change came to late to save him.
"It did not matter that I followed all laws, I did not call for violence, or did not preach in public; I dared to say 'be modest, and put Akhad first.' They did not care that I was sent to my death."

In another case, Anna Golchin's parents were some of the last to flee Asir's Akhadic regime and settled in Strathae before Asirian passport restrictions were enforced. SHe recalls her story, also from the country's crackdown on Akhadic residents almost 14 years ago:

"I went with my Breizhighic friends to a mall one day," Ms. Golchin recalled, who clarified that she was a student of sociology and women's studies at the time, "and some woman, she blocked our way, told my friends they should be ashamed to associate with a 'rag-wearing bigot' and berated me for being a brainwashed slave to men - I remember very clearly. I apologized for not prostituting my body for her approval; I laughed, my friends laughed, the [woman] did not, and a month later I was ordered to leave the country."

This and other stories across Eskkya show a common misunderstanding, though some say even a superiority complex towards, the clothing, symbols and mannerisms often associated with the near east and Akhadic world; in Asir, the headscarf is a traditional, secular headwear that predates the rise of Akhad'ed in Asir, where Ms. Golchin and others are proud of that heritage.



Akhadic faithful and Kyrzbek emigree Ildus Zagipur, 69, inside his Rambouillet home.

A Return to "Tradition" Fuels International Reaction

Strathean clansmen, however, see it's purely viewed as a symbol of mysogynistic oppression, and Party of Tradition and its allies will not be persuaded from its platform. The world, however, is starting once again to distance itself from Strathean actions against minorities.

The Department of State in Nyland in Nyland has already warned that Eskkyan government proposals represent "thought-policing and other dangerous attacks on democracy" in the country, a statement echoed in various measures by Karjelinn, Videjszeme and Dyrheim, while Eskkya's immediate neighbor Valland has urged the government to reconsider the implications of "such barbarism as stripping children from their mothers and establishing secret morality police."

In the meantime, the Eskkyan government's tens of thousands of potential targets await word of what the legislation will ultimately mean for them. Anna Golchin's story ended well enough, as her other family in Florinthus was able to secure her asylum, but others aren't so lucky.

Ildus Zagipur fled what he called "socialist persecution" in Kyrzbekistan with his family in the 60's for what he was told was a "tolerant" Strathae. In the 80's he once again decided his family wasn't safe against anti-Akhadic attacks there, and moved to Rambouillet, Eskkya, where he admits the political rhetoric was heated, but at least people were in polite, tolerant disagreement. "But now, with [PoT] in charge again, I feel once more a target on my head," he explained, showing a place on his arm where he received stitches after someone (he didn't see who and no one was arrested) threw a brick at him on the street.

Nearly 70 years old and nearing retirement, Mr. Zagipur doesn't know if he can flee for his life a third time. "I doubt I'll get employment visa again somewhere, so to where do I get deported when McLucais lackeys invent a crime I never did: to the village in socialist Kyrzbekistan the be 're-educated,' or the village of the Akhadist warlord in the hills I ran from, to be beaten and tortured as a 'traitor to the cause' 30 years ago?"

We spoke with Kuzhe Zakaria one more time before leaving Asir, and he did not seem surprised when we told him of the Ekkyan government proposal to wrest custody of children before deporting their parents. He simply shrugged, "Well of course, to these people, anyone who falls slightly short of their extreme view of 'tolerance' are subhuman. To them, I am better off dead; let the parents be exiled or killed for all they care, and turn the children into soldiers and icons of their crusade."

"In the end, extremists here [in Asir] and in Strathae all think alike, don't they?"

Whatever the case, he argues, the Eskkyan government won't care who dies as long as he, and people like him, are out of sight.
</div></div></div>