Ankara
This picturesque city-state is the Southern Republic’s center for forestry. Located in the lush forests of the Southern Alps, Ankara also thrives on tourism. The scenery draws and inspires artists, nature lovers and hardy outdoor adventurers. A boardwalk borders the Asparas Waterway along its seventy-five kilometer path from reservoir to City, allowing tourists to cycle through landscapes that would otherwise be unreachable due to terrain. It is not uncommon to observe cameratoting tourists or amateur artists stationed along the boardwalk, trying to reproduce the view from the elevated aqueducts that cross the countryside, or the viaducts that span the gorges and ravines in mountainous terrain. The area is also heavily patrolled by members of the Sheriff‘s Department in order to minimize crime aimed at visitors.
The natural surroundings of the city are not the only means by which it draws tourists ; the pennant races for the cyclical batte championship causes fans to flood into Ankara from all over the league. Batte is a local sport derivative of old Earth cricket and baseball that is played professionally in Ankara, but attracts fans from acros, the league. The number of littleleague and minor league adult teams has grown to number over fifty. During the play-offs, which span close to a season in time, the city is flooded by people from across the Allied Southern Territories.
Like many of the prominent city-states, Ankara’s architecture is awe inspiring to the eyes of a wandering tourist. The center of Ankara is dominated by the institutional district, which is comprised of a complex of Romanesque edifices that house the local government offices, the head offices of several local industries, the Ankara exchange and an office of the Banque Republicaine. Surrounding the institutional district, statues and fountains grace a series of cobbled parks, interspersed with the palatial homes of the upper class and the Ankara University campus. The third ring of the city is home to the majority of Ankara’s population. Fern-lined lanes bisect the uniform housing complexes of the suburban district. These complexes were designed with a nod to classical architecture. Batte fields are found in the outer city, alongside the industrial parks and railway yards.
The city-state’s industrial sector is occupied by the lifeblood of Ankara’s economy. The railway yards and factory complexes of both Southern Rail and Colonial Ferroviaire are found here. The railways are essential to the city-state‘s economic health because they provide transport for its exports which include manufactured goods, lumber and raw materials. The confinement of industry to a regulated sector allows for the efficient handling of outgoing goods and incoming raw materials, and facilitates the management of toxic emissions to comply with the city’s ruthlessly enforced anti-pollution laws. This management of toxic emissions makes it possible for Ankara‘s tourist trade to exist in a city which has such a high level of industrial activity. A delegation from Siwa Oasis is currently in residence to study the anti-pollution measures taken by Ankara‘s leading industrial companies. There are high hopes that Ankara‘s success in this area can be replicated in the so-called city of sludge.
Demographics
Life in the Alps
Because of the forestry industry's domination of Ankara's economy, the employees of this field make up the majority of the city-state's populace. These hardworking people give Ankara a unique flavor of vast industrialization working hand in hand with conservation. This is most evident in the residential areas, where housing complexes are bordered by community parks, playgrounds and gardens. The adoption of the strict anti-pollution laws is due to Ankaran's love of nature. These laws were enacted by the city council before the industrial boom that occurred when Ankara entered the Southern Republic by surrendering to Marabou during the First Unification Campaign. This need for environmental preservation is believed to be the major reason for Ankara's outright acceptance of membership in the Republic (rather than see the countryside destroyed by warfare), although many historical critics say it was simply Ankara Timbel's (now Republican Lumber and Paper) desire for a larger export market. These claims can be supported by Republican L&Ps vast resource rights and lucrative government contracts.
Currently, the powerful Coalition for Rightful Environmental Exploitation (CREE) is pushing for greater liberalization of industrial processes so they may better strip the land to further their own ends. The population of Ankara appears ready to embark on a revolt against this trend. Heated meetings and disastrous attempts at reconciliation have characterized the citizens' relations with the member-corporations of CREE over the last few cycles. Schell & Bothman Mines, the only local member, has suffered from public protests and from a small number of unexplained minor accidents and equipment losses. No S&B employees have been harmed, however.
To the half-million tourists who enjoy the clean mountain air that Ankara is famous for, the locals are pleasant, levelheaded and fun-loving. Some of the frequent tourists have noticed that the locals seem a touch edgy of late. This undertone of anxiety is rumored to be caused by the residents' strong resentment towards the brutal tactics employed by Sheriff Cecilia Beauchamps and her deputies to control burgeoning labor unrest.
Ankara is a city in motion; a thriving tourist trade and a booming industrial base have spurred the citizens to seek greater recognition from their fellow Republicans . The city has launched an extensive promotional campaign that expounds on the natural and human riches of the area and encourages Republicans of all walks of life to enjoy Ankara. The campaign has only been a partial success though, for it is loudly opposed by a small group of ex-residents.
Government
The Economy of Lumber
The major player in Ankara's economy is Republican Lumber and Paper. This forestry product conglomerate employs a large fraction of Ankara's population in its multitude of subsidiary companies, and most of the other companies owe their livelihood indirectly to the giant since so many of their clients are employed by RL&P. Republican Lumber and Paper is presently assessing a proposed underground railroad project with Republican Allied Rail that would link with the existing rail system between Timbuktu and Siwa Oasis. This would be accompanied by the construction of an underground junction station on Allied Rail's existing line to control the direction of traffic on the rail, and possibly to allow for limited cargo transfer or rail car exchange. The project has encountered stiff resistance from many of Republican Lumber and Paper's board members (particularly those that have vested interests in Southern Rail), but with the long term profit potential, analysts are predicting that the project will go ahead.
This project has generated a great deal of interest from the corporations of CREE, who would like to see themselves walk away with large contracts. The estimates of the cost of construction of this project are in the range of billions of dinars, and the maintenance contracts are expected to be extremely lucrative as well. To prod the project into existence,CREE members have sent numerous delegations to Ankara to forge deals with Republican Lumber and Paper; to date their success has been unremarkable
Southern Rail and Colonial Ferroviaire - both of whom house their construction and storage facilities in Ankara - are the other two major players in the city's economy, but due to the struggles between the two for their shared market, RL&P holds sway as the industrialist voice in city politics. Among the smaller industrial companies in the city, there are a number of small chemical companies and light manufacturing companies. They provide products to RL&P such as bleach or dyes and subcontract work from the rail companies to produce specially tooled or molded parts. These companies have little say in the policies of the city and are usually at the mercy of their patron company, but on a few rare occasions, groups of six or more of these minors have forced some concessions from the larger corporations.
Industry & Trade
- Forestry
- Pulp & Paper
- Railways
- Tourism
Infrastructure
The Asparas Waterway
Water i s essential to the existence of the forestry industry as a whole. This reasoning was the fuel behind the construction of Ankara's greatest engineering accomplishment, the Asparas Waterway. Named after mythological water nymphs, the waterway begins in the Southern Alps or, to be precise, below the Alps in the MacAllen cave network. A series of paired Archimedes'screws were dug deep into the Alps, to an underground body of water called the Asparas Sea. These solar powered screws draw the water from the sea to a reservoir located at the head of the waterway. The flow into the waterway is regulated by a series of valves installed at the mouth of the reservoir, and the flow into the reservoir i s controlled by adjusting the revolution speed of the screws. The water that is allowed to flow through the valves then spills into a series of aqueducts and viaducts supported on archivolts by Doric columns. The archivolt and column construm'on allows for the water to maintain a gradual descent from the Alps to Ankara, while adhering to the neo-roman architectural theme that the city-state embodies. The waterway enters Ankara from the north in a series of cascading steps, as the system reaches ground level to commence its journey through Ankara proper. A canal carries the water into the city's northern sector as far as the first ring, where it enters a keyhole shaped canal system that partLy encircles the institutional sector, then branches to the southeast and southwest areas of the city. The southwestern canal feeds the city's water filtration plant, while the southeastern canal empties into Republican Lumber and Papets reservoirs.
The waterway has become a major tourist attraction thanks to the elevated boardwalks that line it. Just before it enters the city center, the waterway courses through Asparas Forest, a beautiful wooded park that is a favorite destination for locals with a day off work.
Guilds and Factions
The Free Ankara movement is a small concern compared to other radical groups. It was formed in TN 1925 after Sheriff's Deputy Cecilia Beauchamps used brutal tactics to break up a violent rail strike. Hunting down the "treasonous" labor leaders, she had them hanged using the authority granted her by city courts during the emergency. Beauchamps was promoted despite public outrage and many Labor sympathizers left the city in fear, and subsequently founded the Free Ankara Movement. They are based in Saragossa, where legal authorities have the least power. Since then, they have openly accused Sheriff Beauchamps of several atrocities, and she takes them very seriously. She has entered into an alliance with Jan Mach, the director of CREE, to use his Republic-wide resources to track the group down and eliminate them. In return, she is trading her sway over First Citizen Edram Vaness, so that CREE corporations may skirt Ankara's stringent environmental laws. To date however, Free Ankara has remained beyond the reach of the Sheriff's claws, and the lack of immediate change in the city's policies has brought her under pressure from her CREE contacts.
Maps
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Ankara
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