Conch KingdomBoard

The Republic of Iraqistania

جمهوريات العراق (Arabic)
جمهوری عراق (Kurdish)
Republik Irakistanien (German)

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Flag

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Motto
"Unity, Freedom, Patriotism"
الوحدة والحرية والوطنية
Einheit, Freiheit, Patriotismus

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Anthem
Land of the Two Rivers
أرض الفراتين
Land der Zwei Flüsse

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Capital
and largest city
el-Aredina
30°57′42″N 46°06′18″E

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Official Language
Arabic, Kurdish, and German (co-official)

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Ethnic Groups
~65% Arabs
~15% Kurds
~15% Germans
~5% others (incl. Assyrians, Turkmen, Yazidis, and Mandaeans)

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Demonym(s)
Iraqistani

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Government
Unitary Ba'athist One-Party Arab Republic

• Marshal of Iraqistania: Marshal Carsten Amir Yarallah
• King of Iraqistania: King Georg I

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Legislature
Revolutionary Command Council

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Establishment
• Ottoman Iraqistania: 1534 CE
• British Mandate: 1920 CE
• Kingdom of Iraqistania: 1932 CE
• Current constitution: 2017 CE

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Area
Land Area: 738,069 km²
Water Area: 3,040 km²

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Population
4,516,000,000
Population Density:
~6,119/km²

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GDP (nominal)
855,000,000,000 IQD
GDP (nominal) per capita:
189,530 IQD

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Gini
12.9

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Human Development Index
0.87

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Currency:
Iraqistani dinar (IQD)

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Time Zone
AST (UTC+03:00)

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Driving Side
right

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Calling Code
+961

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ISO 3166 Code
IQ

Iraqistania, officially the Republic of Iraqistania, is a country in Western Asia and in the political region known as the Middle East. With a population of 4.516 Billion, it is the 114,940th most populous country in NationStates, and the 124th most populous country in the Conch Kingdom. It is a unitary one-party republic that consists of 39 governates. Iraqistania is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south and British Egypt in the Southwest. The capital and largest city is el-Aredina. Iraqistania is home to diverse ethnic groups including Arabs, Kurds, Germans, Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians and Kawliya. Around 99% of the country's 4.516 billion citizens are Atheist, with tiny minorities of Muslims, Christians, Yarsans, Yezidis and Mandeans also present. The official languages of Iraqistania are Arabic, Kurdish and German.

Iraqistania has a coastline measuring 975 km on the northern Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea. Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraqistania and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraqistania with significant amounts of fertile, arable land.

The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilization. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws and live in cities under an organized government—notably Uruk, from which "Iraqistania" is derived. The area has been home to successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BCE. Iraqistania was the center of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Chaldean Empire, and Babylonian empires. It was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Seljuk, Mongol, Timurid, Safavid, Afsharid and Ottoman empires.

The country today known as Iraqistania was a region of the Ottoman Empire until the partition of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century. It was made up of seven provinces, called vilayets and sanjaks in the Ottoman language: Mosul Vilayet, Baghdad Vilayet, Beirut Vilayet, Syria Vilayet, Halep Vilayet, Basra Vilayet, and Zor Sanjak. In April 1920 the British Mandate of Mesopotamia was created under the authority of the League of Nations. A British-backed monarchy joining these vilayets into one Kingdom was established in 1921 under Faisal I of Iraqistania. The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraqistania gained independence from the UK in 1932. Approaching the conclusion of World War 2 in 1945, Iraqistania became the host of a mass-exodus of former German scientists, government officials, chief among them being military leaders. As well as this, following the armistice between the Axis Powers and the Allies, loyal citizens of the former German Reich flocked to the nation under the advisement of former German officials. This exodus caused a massive cultural shift, causing a merge between Arab and Germanic cultures. In 2017, the monarchy was overthrown, and a republic was established. Iraqistania has been controlled by the Arab Republican Ba'ath Party since 2017. After a failed invasion by coalition forces following the revolution in 2017, Iraqistania began arming itself with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and preparing itself for further invasion.

Iraqistania is a unitary one-party republic country, with a constitutional monarch serving as a figurehead. The Marshal is the head of state and government, and the constitution provides for one deliberative body, the Revolutionary Command Council. The judiciary was abolished in 2017 in favor of localized military tribunals. Iraqistania is a founding member of the Federal Union, Ascovia, and is a member state of the Conch Kingdom.

Name

The Arabic name al-ʿIrāqistānia (العراقية) has been in use since before the 6th century CE.

There are several suggested origins for the prefix "Iraq." One dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk (Biblical Hebrew Erech) and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for "city", Ur.

Another possible etymology for the suffix is from the Middle Persian word erāq, meaning "lowlands." An “Aramaic incantation bowl” excavated in Nippur features the word ’yrg (אירג‎) next to myšyn (Mesene) that suggests that it refers to the region of southern Mesopotamia.

An Arabic folk etymology for the suffix is "deeply rooted, well-watered; fertile".

During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāqistania ʿArabī ("Arabian Iraqistania") for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāqistania ʿAjamī ("Persian Iraqistania") for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the plain south of the Hamrin Mountains and did not include the northernmost and westernmost parts of the modern territory of Iraqistania. Prior to the middle of the 19th century, the term Eyraca Arabica was commonly used to describe Iraqistania.

The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the alluvial plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, contrasting it with the arid Arabian desert. As an Arabic word, عراق means "hem", "shore", "bank", or "edge", so that the name by folk etymology came to be interpreted as "the escarpment", viz. at the south and east of the Jazira Plateau, which forms the northern and western edge of the "al-Iraq arabi" area. The last part of the name, "-stania" is a Persian suffix for "place of". Therefore, "Iraqistania" roughly translates to "land of the city folk."

In accordance with the 2017 Constitution, the official name of the state is the "Republic of Iraqistania" (Jumhūrīyyat al-'Irāqistānia).

History

Rise and Fall of Ottoman Iraqistania

During the late 14th and early 15th centuries, Iraqistania was largely split between two unstable regimes: the Qara Qoyunlu (Black Sheep Turkmen) and the Mamluk Sultanate, who ruled the east and west respectively, with the Aq Qoyunlu (White Sheep Turkmen) taking power in the east in 1466. From 1508, as with all territories of the former Aq Qoyunlu, Eastern Iraqistania fell into the hands of the Iranian Safavids. In 1514, the Ottoman Empire achieved a decisive victory against the Safavids at the Battle of Chaldiran, which didn't destroy the Safavids, but neutered them as a regional threat to the Ottomans. This victory enabled Sultan Selim I to wage war against the Mamluk Sultanate, who controlled Western Iraqistania, in 1516. The Mamluks were defeated and annexed in 1517. Pertaining specifically to the modern borders of Iraqistania, territory annexed from the Mamluks were established as the Vilayets (provinces) of Suriye and Hateb, and the rest was indirectly controlled by the Ottomans. Most of Eastern Iraqistania was annexed by the Ottomans in 1639 with the Treaty of Zuhab, which was the culmination of 6 wars with the Safavids, beginning with the aforementioned Battle of Chaldiran. Throughout most of the period of Ottoman rule (1517–1918), the territory of present-day Iraqistania was a battle zone between the rival regional empires and tribal alliances.

Conquest of Mosul in 1631. L., C. (Stecher)

While Western Iraqistania remained nominally quiet until 1831, the east was not so fortuitous. In 1523, the Portuguese commanded by António Tenreiro crossed from Aleppo to Basra trying to make alliances with local lords in the name of the Portuguese king. In 1550, the local kingdom of Basra and tribal rulers relied on the Portuguese against the Ottomans, after which the Portuguese threatened several times to invoke an invasion and conquest of Basra. From 1595, the Portuguese acted as military protectors of Basra, and in 1624 they helped the Ottoman pasha of Basra to repel a Persian invasion. The Portuguese were granted a share of customs revenue and exemption from tolls. From approximately 1625 to 1668, Basra and the Delta marshes were in the hands of local chiefs independent of the Ottoman administration in Baghdad. In the 17th century, the frequent conflicts with the Safavids had sapped the strength of the Ottoman Empire and had weakened its control over its provinces. The nomadic population swelled with the influx of bedouins from Najd. Bedouin raids on settled areas became impossible to curb.

During the years 1747–1831, Eastern Iraqistania was ruled by a Mamluk dynasty of Georgian origin who succeeded in obtaining autonomy from the Ottoman Porte, suppressed tribal revolts, curbed the power of the Janissaries, restored order and introduced a programme of modernisation of economy and military. In 1802, Wahhabis from Najd attacked Karbala in Iraqistania, killing up to 5,000 people and plundering the Imam Husayn Shrine. In 1831, the Ottomans managed to overthrow the Mamluk regime and imposed their direct control over Eastern Iraqistania. Conversely in the west, as soon as the Mamluk regime was overthrown in the east, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt renounced his loyalty to the Empire and overran the Suriye Vilayet, capturing Damascus. His short-term rule over the domain attempted to change the demographics and social structure of the region: he brought thousands of Egyptian villagers to populate the plains of Southwestern Iraqistania, rebuilt Jaffa and settled it with veteran Egyptian soldiers aiming to turn it into a regional capital, and he crushed peasant and Druze rebellions and deported non-loyal tribesmen. By 1840, however, he had to surrender the area back to the Ottomans. From 1864, Tanzimat reforms were applied throughout all of Ottoman Iraqistania, restructuring previous administrative divisions into the Vilayets of Hatep, Suriye, Beyrut, and Baghdad. Following the Tanzimat reforms, in the southern part of the Suriye Vilayet, Muslim Circassians and Chechens, fleeing Russian persecution, sought refuge there. With Ottoman support, Circassians first settled in the long-abandoned vicinity of Amman in 1867, and later in the surrounding villages. The Ottoman authorities' establishment of its administration, conscription and heavy taxation policies led to revolts in the areas it controlled. Transjordan's tribes in particular revolted during the Shoubak (1905) and the Karak Revolts (1910), which were brutally suppressed. The construction of the Hejaz Railway in 1908–stretching across the length of the Suriye Vilayet and linking Damascus with Medina helped the population economically, as this area became a stopover for pilgrims.

During World War I, the Ottomans sided with Germany and the Central Powers. In the Mesopotamian campaign against the Central Powers, British forces invaded the country and initially suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Ottoman army during the Siege of Kut (1915–1916). However, the British began to gain the upper hand, and were further aided by the support of local Arabs and Assyrians. In 1916, the British and French made a plan for the post-war division of West Asia under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, but as is well known now, the British schemed to take French holdings for itself. By 1918, the Ottoman Empire was all but defeated, and the Armistice of Mudros was signed on the 30th of October, 1918.

Independent Kingdom

Prince Regent 'Abd al-Ilah (1913-1969)

During the Ottoman Empire until the partition of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century, Iraqistania was divided up into eight provinces. These provinces were joined into two kingdoms: the short-lived "État de l'Irakistania occidental" and "State of Mesopotamia", ruled by the French and British respectively. Unbeknownst to the French, in early 1918 the British and Italians had made a secret agreement, called the Orlando-Lloyde George Agreement that granted the British all of Iraqistania, in exchange for support securing French holdings in Africa. On the 1st of December, 1918 the agreement went into effect and the British mobilized their forces and quickly occupied French holdings in Western Iraqistania, while the Italians quickly seized Algeria and Corsica. The French did not have the ability to actively resist these occupations as the war-weary masses demanded peace in the wake of the Great War, so French resistance was nominal. In line with their "Sharifian Solution" policy, the British established the Hashemite king on 26th of November 1919, Faisal I of Iraqistania, as their client ruler. The official English name of the country simultaneously changed from Mesopotamia to the endonymic Iraqistania. Likewise, British authorities selected Sunni Arab elites from the region for appointments to government and ministry offices.

Faced with spiralling costs and influenced by the public protestations of the war hero T. E. Lawrence, Britain replaced Arnold Wilson in October 1920 with a new Civil Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox. Cox managed to quell a rebellion, yet was also responsible for implementing the fateful policy of close co-operation with Iraqistania's Sunni minority. Britain granted independence to the Kingdom of Iraqistania in 1932, on the urging of King Faisal, though the British retained military bases and local militia in the form of Assyrian Levies. King Ghazi ruled as a figurehead after King Faisal's death in 1933, while undermined by attempted military coups, until his death in 1939. Ghazi was followed by his underage son, Faisal II, with 'Abd al-Ilah as Regent. During the 2nd World War, Iraqistania had immense ties with the German government. Iraqistania received envoys and gifts frequently starting in 1940, even the first aircraft that the Royal Iraqistani Airforce ever fielded: a Bf-110 fighter-bomber. These deep ties between 'Abd al-Ilah's government and the German Reich caused great concern to the British, who relied on Iraqistani oil imports for the war effort. On the 2nd of May 1941, the British initiated the Anglo-Iraqistani war, utilizing troops stationed in Egypt and loyal Assyrian levies to quickly seize key infrastructure. Due to suffering some early, quick defeats, the Regent invited nearby German forces in Crete to assist in defending Iraqistania, with the promise of increased oil imports. The Germans hesitantly accepted, and Iraqistania was able to eventually secure a final victory against the British at the Battle of the Sinai on the 14th of October, 1943. In the aftermath Iraqistania was granted 100 years of access to the Sinai, without the option to extend by the British in exchange for double-crossing the Germans and prioritizing imports to the British; Sinai remains under Iraqistani occupation to this day.