The Troubles

The Troubles
	; Top left: Terranilian police put down protest in Hégeis, 2018.; Top right: Attack on Sennoréfan Fraisan by the FCA, 2020.; Botttom left: Vigilant Athests train in forest, 2002.; Bottom right: FCA soldiers in Hégeis, 2004.
Date	1960-present; (64 years, 7 months, 2 weeks and 4 days)
Location	Terranihil
Belligerents
Commanders and leaders
Strength
Casualties and losses
	11,500 total dead (including civilians)

The Troubles (Terranilian: Sen Koisten), is an ongoing conflict in Terranihil which began in 1960. Although the conflict has been concentrated in a few major cities, the violence has spread throughout Terranihil, Póniepa, Lyoa and Malgax. The conflict is mostly fueled by religious differences between atheists, Muslims and Christians, though there is also an ethnic aspect.

The National Progressive Party (NPP) has implemented many laws which restrict religious practice since its rise to power in the Progressive Revolution in 1941; however, violence against religious people significantly increased under after the assassination of Omar Lornif, the second Chairman of the NPP and Žep Virát's right-hand man, in 1960 by a radical Muslim caused uproar among atheists and the NPP. The Terranilian government responded by arresting and executing about 200 Muslims who were supposedly involved in the assassination. The government increased restrictions on places of worship and religious attire in public of both Muslims and Christians. Furthermore, in the month following the assassinatian, many Muslims and Christians were killed by atheist protestors seeking retribution. This prompted mass protests and the formation of several religious paramilitary organizations intent on ending the NPP's discrimination and violence against Muslims and Christians.

The main participants in the Troubles are Muslim paramilitaries such as the Alhaz Freedom Fighters and the Green Brotherhood, Christian paramilitaries such as the Free Christian Army, the Terranilian government, and pro-NPP paramilitaries such as the Vigilant Atheists. Other minor combatants include the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Terranihil and the Póniepan Armed Forces. The Muslim and Christian paramilitaries use guerilla warfare against Terranilian security forces, as well as attack infrastructure, commercial, and political targets. The insurgents frequently target atheist civilians and occasionally other religious groups. Pro-NPP paramilitaries target Muslim and Christian civilians, as well as insurgents. The Terranilian government acts in an anti-insurgent role, but has been accused of targeting innocent civilians and colluding with pro-NPP paramilitaries; Terranilian police and the Department of Internal Security (DIS) are the forces in combat with insurgents.

More than 11,500 people have been killed in the conflict, of whom 59% were civilians, 25% were Terranilian security forces and 16% were paramilitaries. The violence has been consistant from the beginning of the conflict until today.

Background

Terranihil has been a place of religious conflict ever since the spread of Christianity in the 4th century and Islam in the 7th century. Christians, Muslims and pagans were in near constant conflict from the 6th to the 13th century. The Devraifian Wars in which the Kingdom of Terranihil conquered and reunited Terranihil is considered the last religious war of Terranihil, but religious rebelions and insurgencies have continued. The kingdom, which was ruled by pagans, restricted Judeochristian practices, disqualified Christians and Muslims from high government positions and violently suppressed religious protests and opposition. The 15th to 19th century saw the conversion of most pagans to atheism.

The later years of absolute monarchy and the shift to a constitutional monarchy in 1609 saw more leniency by the ruling class and an increase in religious freedoms. After the Terranilian Civil War (1879-1890), which was mostly politically motivated rather than religiously, the Republic of Terranihil was established, which saw an era of cooperation by all religious groups.

Lornif's coffin carried by Andru Nolgóf

In 1941, the National Progressive Party (NPP) gained control of the country in the Progressive Revolution. The party is strictly atheist and antireligious. Žep Virát, the founder of the NPP and its first chairmen, who served from 1938 to 1954, passed many laws that decreased the religious rights of Muslims and Christians, but religious insurgent activity was not prevalent. The Etlan insurgency from 1944 to 1956 is considered a conflict separate from the Troubles because it was mostly a politically motivated conflict, though some religiously motivated insurgent groups such as the Militant Christian Socialists were involved.

On October 1, 1960, Abdulkader Hamdi, a Muslim who had previously been arrested for possible religious extremism, assassinated Chairman Omar Lornif in the streets of Guršaun with a pistol. The NPP and the atheist populace at large were outraged. The Terranilian government executed Hamdi, and then arrested and executed about 200 Muslims who were supposedly associated with him. Furthermore, atheist mobs seeking retribution killed about 70 Muslims and 11 Christians in the week following the assassination. The government increased restrictions on both Muslims and Christians by closing down several mosques and churches, banning all religious attire from Guršaun, Intemil, Tolongen and several other atheist majority cities, and putting Avergís, the largest Muslim city in Terranihil and Hamdi's home city, under martial law.

1960s

Inital protests

The arrests and executions by the Terranilian government and rioters and the increased persecution of Muslims and Christians prompted mass protests mostly in Avergís and Hégeis. Despite being under martial law and public meetings of more than five people being temporarily banned, thousands of Muslims in Avergís protested the government in October of 1960. Protests against increased persecution and vigilante killings in Hégeis also occurred but to a lesser extent. Police attempted to put down protests by deploying tear gas and arresting protesters.

Muslim protesters in Avergís on October 9

On October 11, several protesters engaged in physical altercations with police, who then deployed tear gas. Protestors began throwing rocks at police and started several fires. The police, although reportedly instructed by the Avergísian police chief to not open fire as to not escalate the situation, shot at protestors. Many protestors rushed the police and overwhelmed and attacked several officers. One protester rammed officers with a car. After two hours of continuous conflict, the police and GÉC (Armed Special Police) suppressed the protest. Ten police officers and 88 protesters were killed. This is known as the October Massacre.

Protests continued for forty more days and spread to other cities, including Intemil and Guršaun. In Hégeis, several thousand people protested the government's actions and demonstrated their solidarity for the Muslim deaths in Avergís. On November 1, many Christians in Hégeis protested the kidnapping of political enemies by Terranilian forces. An incident similar to the October Massacre occured in which protesters and police began fighting and the police opened fire. About twenty Christians were killed.

More than 350 protesters and thirty police officers were killed in total from October 1 to November 20. The Terranilian police and the Department of Internal Security (DIS) continued to restrict religious practice and enforce draconian punishments against Muslims and Christians. The police eventually quelled the protests; however, altercations between police and religious citizens continued, as did the kidnappings, arrests and executions.

Formation of insurgent groups

Before 1960, insurgent groups were small and disorganized to the point of being unrecognized by the Terranilian government as major threats; individual actors like Abdulkader Hamdi were more common. After the protests and mass shootings, Muslims and Christians began organizing groups to fight against the Terranilian government. Most citizens were. unwilling to take up arms against the government; the minority that did tended to be ideologically extreme, hence the formation of militant Islamic and Christian groups.

Green Brotherhood

In Avergís, a small number of Alhaz Muslim men who managed the now destroyed Alawal Mosque formed the Green Brotherhood, an Islamic militant group intent on ending government control over the Muslim majority east of Terranihil. They recruiting in the many mosques of Avergís and the surrounding cities. Public knowledge of the Green Botherhood was unknown until January 27, 1961, when the group attacked and killed two police officers on patrol. The Terranilian government responded by arresting twenty Muslims who likely unrelated to the murders. The brotherhood committed several similar small attacks throughout 1962.

NPP headquarters after the explosion.

On December 8, 1962, after the police fatally shot two Muslim teenagers who they wrongly beleived were suspects for a crime, the Green Brotherhood detonated a car bomb in the NPP's headquarters in Avergís, killing thirteen people. This was the first major terrorist attack of the Troubles. At the time, the brotherhood likely had about sixty members; however, it began to rapidly grow in numbers following the attack. By the end of 1964, the group was estimated to have over two hundred "brothers". It also began recruiting in other cities such as Intemil. In May 17, 1964, a sixteen year old boy detonated an IED in a crowded hotel in Intemil, killing himself and thirty others, which marked the Green Brotherhood's first major attack outside of Avergís. A similar attack occured in December of 1965, in a hotel in Avergís.

The Terranilian government responded to the attacks with the typical mass arrests and executions. The Green Brotherhood's founder, Sachet Mumateni in 1966. The loss of the founder destabilized the group until Gor Amír took lead of the brotherhood. Amír beleived it was time for Avergís to take a stand against the Terranilian government. He led the group in carrying out more spectacular attacks, rather than the mostly low level insurgent activity under Mumateni. On April 2, 1968 at 2 AM, about forty members of the Green Brotherhood attacked a police station in Avergís. They successfully entered the station and killed all of twenty police officers within. They stole weapons and files and fled the scene. About half of the attackers were killed, but they had demonstrated that they were able to carry out outright attacks on Terranilian law enforcement.

On Christmas day, 1969, after much preparation, Amír and two hundred Green Brotherhood members stormed the capitol building of Avergís in a plan to take control of the city. They succesfully captured the building and took forty hostages, including several city assembly members. They not only secured the building but also held a two kilometer radius zone around the building. After five hours of fighting, the police and GÉC forces had pushed the Green Brotherhood back into the capitol building. The police attempted to negotiate with the hostage takers for seven more hours. They had determined that out of the thirty remaining hostages, twenty-seven were Muslim. The DIS andTerranilian Army disregarded the hostages and initiated an attack on the capitol building. The army successfully killed all of the attackers, including Amír, and recaptured the capitol; however, all forty hostages were killed. The attack became known as the Christmas Siege.

Christian Liberation Front

1960-1968

1970s

New Islamic insurgents

1970-1979 Alhok Massacre

Free Christian Army

Fifth Póniepan rebellion

1975

1980s

Seizure of Hégeis

One of the most reproduced photographs of a FCA member perched on a balcony of the capitol building of Hégeis

Atheist militias

1980-1989

1990s

Continued Islamic insurgency

1990-1999

21st Century

Increased militarization

Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Terranihil

2010-2020

Malgan ethnic cleansing

2020

Foreign involvement

Creeperopolis

Lyoa

Morova

Greater Sacramento

Casualties