Cinuan Union

(Land of the Free) ارض الحرية

The Cinuan Union is a multinational union on the planet Cinu. It's aim is to represent the various states, cultures, and people of the planet, who are known as the Cinuan. The Congress of the Cinuan People began in 2280 following the liberation of the planet from the People's Republic of Lordania, and continued until the formal declaration of the Cinuan Union in 2284. The Cinuan Union's jurisdiction includes the entirety of the Lucinaer system. Officially, Cinu recognises 27 official languages, with it's major languages being Arabic, Pashto, Amazigh, and French.
The Cinuan Union is based in Al-Mular.

Structure

Cinu is a deliberative democracy, in which the people elect local and national representatives of varying political views. In the event of disagreement or an inability to solve policy matters, the vote is then given to the people in a direct democratic form. The Constitution of Cinu places that all political power and authority ultimate derives from the people, and forbids a head of state. The Congress of the Cinuan People convenes every four years to elect a State Speaker, who serves as a head of government of sorts. The State Speaker ultimately is responsible for ensuring that all voices are fairly represented. It does not speak for them, rather it enforces their ability to participate in discussions. The power and influence of a Speaker is directly tied to their political and negotiation skill, and as such it is expected that anyone voted to the office is already a capable and respected diplomat.
Much of Cinu’s local territory is decentralised, as ‘nation states’ were outlawed by the planetary constitution. Instead, regions and districts are determined by the people, with the concept of private land ownership also abolished, helping to limit any sort of border dispute between peoples. This does not abolish ownership of homes, businesses, or buildings, rather the concept of owning the very land itself. These regions elect local representatives called Governors, a coalition that debate and discuss matters. There are sixteen major districts on the planet, each roughly corresponding to geographic and historic boundaries. Within the sixteen districts, there are the sixty-six Wilāyat and the Liwā’.
Under appointment of the State Speaker, but independent from political matters, is the Ambassador of Cinu. A requirement of Cinu’s participation in Sol politics, the Ambassador represents the entire planet and people of Cinu at the galactic state.
While political parties do exist, they largely operate as political and social societies that support and assist the people they represent. The largest political party is the Majlis Alhuriya, which began as a resistance and government-in-exile during the days of the People’s Republic. Recently, the Majlis Alhuriya has seen a split between its Old Guard and its New Blood, with many younger members of the Majlis Alhuriya leaving to form new parties such as the Grand Labour Union and the Cinu Republican Party.
Several non-party participating groups are also active in Cinuan Politics, such as the Poincarists, who operate in much of Diade; and the Particularists, who by and large seek a return to individual national and cultural states, as opposed to the largely culturally plural politics of modern Cinu.

History

Cinu was first visited by humans in the early 22nd century and immediately targeted for colonisation alongside several other planets in the region. The first of the colony ships to arrive was called the CS Cinu, led by Commanding Officer Achraf Hamadi. The CS Cinu was transformed into an orbital colonisation hub, from which the Cinuan Colonial Authority was founded. The first settlement to be established was Al-Mular, settled in 2187. Following this, Zawilah, Erfoud, and the Tarim Valley were settled, with many other minor settlements following soon after. By 2197, the orbital colonization hub was disassembled. At first the government was moved to Al-Mular and the Cinu Colonial Authority served as the democratic administration. This was largely inefficent and favoured national governments over a centralised authority, and by 2220, Cinu was a disunified planet with nearly 200 independent territories and states.
In 2224 the United Nations of Cinu was established to oversee and keep the peace between nations. It ultimately failed at that goal as numerous more advantaged nations absorbed their neighbours, or conducted war between them. The UNC governed Cinu from 2224 until 2263, and is largely considered by modern day Cinuans as a noble if ineffective leadership. Owing to the populace's ethical history, a great wave of liberal policies that sought to "Put to rest all inequalities, all injustices, and to make all equal before the law."
The political equilibrium was thrown into disarray in the early 2250s after the collapse of the Lordanian Economy, of which Cinu was reliant on. In mid-2256, the Lordanian Dollar, Cinu's primary currency, began to slump after a series of failed economic expansions attempted by the Lordanian Senate, and measures to fix this were only met with more failures. Cinu was one of the planets affected by the recession, resulting in an economic collapse and mass unemployment. This led to tensions between people and massive civil protest. Much of this protesting was orchestrated by a new political movement dedicated to social justice and freedom.
In 2260, elections were called for the Lordanian Senate, this was an extremely unusual election in that many places previously denied a vote were granted them by active petitioning by the Unitarian Party. This allowed them to gain control of the senate, with Leonard Percy taking place as Consul. In the same year, unrest broke out across the planet, with many arguing that the Unitarians were plotting a coup of the democratic process. This unrest was used as a pretext for war, starting the Cinu Unification Wars as planetary nations attempted to take control of the capital city.

Cinu and the People's Republic

The Election of '60 ended with Unitarian victory across every planet in the Cluster, and on Cinu, it marked the beginning of the second period of the Cinu Unification Wars. The Civil War had resulted in a tense stalemate as the planet went from over 200 nations down to only 13. The United Nations held sway over the Capitol and Kassala, which included the high command of the Kassalan Armed Forces. In response to the election of the Unitarian Party to the First Lordanian Republic, military leaders, the most notable of which being Colonel Çetin Üllasuli, held military parades in the various capital cities of the disparate nations. While many saw Unitarian Nationalism for what it was: Fascism, many people, including the political leaders of the Cinuan Nations, continued to play with fire by letting their forces be absorbed into a greater Cinuan Army under the authority of the newly promoted Field Marshal Üllasuli. With the military backing of the government, nations loyal to the Unitarians were able to swiftly crush their neighbours, including neutral states. History prefers to remember the last days of the United Nations as one in which the people of Cinu were conned by the Fascists, but the collapse of democracy did not happen overnight. Political and military leaders, preferring order and stability over democracy and justice, sold their planet to the fascists for a few pieces of silver, and they were to pay the ultimate price.
The end of the Unification Wars were only the beginning of trouble for Cinu. The exiled leadership of the former nations of Cinu found themselves isolated, but not alone. The loyal soldiers of the anti-fascists became a paramilitary force, capable of guerrilla and partisan warfare. Though it would be fifteen years until they could truly oppose the People's Republic, they continued to be a signification thorn in the side of the fascist government, and a symbol of their military failure. The former leader of the United Nations, State Speaker Omar Mazran. Under the tenets of Unitarianism, Lordania would transform itself into a nationalist dictatorship. Economically, the old Capitalist system was torn down and replaced with a planned system known as Consulnomics. All exports off-world are to the State, which determines prices and logistics. Effectively a neocolonialist economy, it existed to extract the resources of Cinu et al, to further the People's Republic, at the expense of the native people of Cinu.
The People's Republic of Cinu was founded shortly after the establishment of the People's Republic of Lordania, though most people refer to this system of government as the Cinuan State. Much of the former democratic military and political leadership that survived the Unification Wars were forced underground, either at the conclusion of the war or but the various purges of moderate and centrist voices within the party.
The immediate effects of the Unification Wars were clear, large parts of the Cinuan population had been displaced, the collapse of regional government had resulted in lawlessness across many parts of rural Cinu, as well as serious damage to all of Cinu’s industries. Cinu’s reliance on off-world products began under the First Republic, and so it was easier for the People’s Republic to change Cinu from a market economy to a command one. The leaders of formerly private corporations were either bribed or jailed, and their assets quickly came under the control of the State.
One such displaced person of interest was Louis Poincaré, the Head of Philosophical Studies at Kassala University. He had strongly opposed the Unitarian Party even pre-war, and these views had made him an enemy of the state. Alongside people such as Aliyya Karimi, Poincaré fled into the vast wilderness of Cinu and plotted. The Attempted Purge of '66 lives on in Lordanian history as both a travesty and a comedy of errors. The Consul and his cronies ordered a cluster-wide purge of moderates and anti-unitarians, including Senators such as Jacques Garcin. After one of the would-be assassins of Garcin failed, he was able to notify many of the other targets and help them flee underground, something they had all been planning. While several individuals died in the Purge, the failure to murder major political opponents would come back to haunt Unitarian leadership. Indeed, of all the targets the Purge failed to kill, all of them would go on to have a place within the united resistance known as The Brotherhood, Poincaré included.
Cinu under the People's Republic was organised as a federal presidential republic, with a balance between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. However, the system was exclusive to Unitarian Party members, guaranteeing a one party rule over the planet. The military exercised significant influence in the government. Membership to the Unitarian Party was required for officers and high command, with Field Marshal Üllasuli, Commander of the Armed Forces, exercising significant influence over daily life. In the deserts, militias and rebel groups still held significant influence, but were unable to cause serious concern to the Unitarians. Rather than fight the rebels on their turf, the Cinuan Army retaliate through increasingly harsh reprisals against civilian targets. Many of these reprisals have since been recognised as massacres and war crimes.
The Cinuan State focused on the construction of large infrastructure projects, improving the existing transportation network on the planet. The expansion of military and industrial capabilities was a priority of the State, who invested significant capital in the revitalization of the Cinu. Under the State, Cinu became self-sufficient for the first time, with many rural workers coerced into working for the agricultural or resource-extraction industries. The State saw the disunified resistances as little threat to its interplanetary dominance, and focused on the Lordanification of planets under their control.

Formation of the Majlis Alhuriya and the Resistance

After a decade of planning and preparation, 2275 saw the beginning of the Cinuan Resistance. A peaceful remembrance march in Loman turned violent after Unitarian Soldiers opened fire on the group. Attempting to preserve peace, the Conductor Hakim Yussef ordered the arrest of the soldiers and their commander. This did nothing to quell the anti-fascist movement, and further isolated the military from the civilian leadership. The interplanetary resistance known as the Brotherhood returned to Cinu this year and assisted in founding the Majlis Alhuriya, a government-in-exile and insurgent force. The Majlis Alhuriya was assembled by key leaders of the former nations of Cinu, particularly by Kassalan president Maimun Nasir, and General Aliyya Karimi, leader of the Cinuan Revolutionary Army. Using the harsh Cinuan geography to their advantage, they rose to become a fully formidable fighting force.
As organised protests and riots began across Cinu, the Majlis Alhuriya began the Retaliation of a Hundred Swords, conducting numerous raids on political prisons and armouries, freeing thousands of prisoners and soldiers. The combined manpower and liberated weapons allowed the Majlis to secure major strongholds in the urban region of Zawilah and the industrial region of Tarimi. With factories and cities under their control, they were able to establish political roots, organising the production of military equipment, and called themselves the legitimate governments of a united Cinu and called for the complete withdrawal of Lordanian forces. A young Cinuan politician, Saheem Ahmad, made headlines across the entire cluster by calling the consul, Leonard Percy, out directly. In an scathing verbal attack, now known as the "Response of the Cinuan to Consul Leonard Percy", Ahmad declares Percy a ẓallām, comparing him directly to historical tyrants, and declares that people of all faith should not only pray for his downfall, but conduct acts of violent and non-violent resistance. He calls on the people of Sol to actively travel to Lordanian space and join the resistance to fascism. He then declares that the Cinuan people have found Percy and the Unitarians guilty of crimes against humanity, and calls for his death by hanging, insisting that he would be the one to kill Percy himself.
While attempts were made by the Unitarians to re-establish control of the planet, this was made harder by the multiple revolutions occurring across the cluster. The Unitarian's planned economy had almost entirely ground to a halt amidst serious revolution. The Conductor (President), appealed to the Supreme Justice of the People's Republic (the Consul, Leonard Percy) to enact total marital law, dissolving the senate and the assembly and transforming the planet into a totalitarian military dictatorship. Marshal Üllasuli, despite having the support of the Lordanians, was rapidly losing support of his Cinuan soldiers, who protested against the increased use of violence against fellow Cinuans. This finally culminated in the 2279 Revolution, known on Cinu as the Year of Martyrs, in which the Cinuan Army formally revolted against Marshal Üllasuli and rallied under the leadership of General Wasim Massoud. While Masood was initially skeptical of the Majlis Alhuriya and their reformist attitudes, the two sides combined their forces and overwhelmed the Lordanian Army in Al-Mular. Fierce fighting occurred throughout the Capital, with General Üllasuli defending down to the Senate Building itself. Surrounded in the now ruined Capitol, Üllasuli was found, still in military uniform, in his office. When taken into military custody he insisted on being treated according to his rank. It is said that a young soldier ripped the rank from the Marshal's uniform and declared him a traitor to it. This symbolic gesture became the icon of the Cinuan transition to democracy. Cinu belonged once again to its own people.

The Interregnum Period

The Alhuriya had been preparing for regaining control of the planet since it's very founding. Having been the very model on which Louis Poincaré would base his ideals of Poincarism from, the Brotherhood ensured that the Alhuriya was organised as a government-in-exile. Their first acts were to absorb the armies of General Massoud as the military branch of the Alhuriya, which would be placed under the control of Massoud; The military rank of Marshal was destroyed, holding too much history under Ullasuli; The captive Lordanian Army prisoners were to be, as previously agreed by the Brotherhood, to be given over to them to face interplanetary tribunal, though this caused serious concern and strain when this clause also included native Cinuans who had remained loyal to Üllasuli, and not exclude Unitarian Lordanian high command.
Faced with the challenge of democratic reform, the Alhuriya opened the year of 2280 with the First Great Debates. As the Alhuriya was comprised of individuals of cross-political spectrum, the first debate concerned the formation of political parties, the role of the presidency, and the nature of territorial reform. The planet had suffered harshly under the Unitarians, but it was in a position to recover. The next four years saw the complete overhaul of Cinu. Nation-States were outlawed in the Constitution. No more would the concept of ethnicity justify the existence of a state. One need only look to Cinu to imagine a world without borders. The Constitution banned the existence of a presidential system, making the concept of a Head of State unconstitutional, and defining the powers the State Speaker, a tremendously diplomatic role subservient to the Assembly and the Supreme Court. The Constitution makes clear that the State Speaker does not speak for the people of Cinu, but enforces the people's rights to be heard. The Constitution defines Cinu as a deliberative republic. The Constitution also defines the roles of political parties as 'fraternal organisations that support the people and in return are supported by them'.
The Third Great Debate, held in 2283, was the most critical of all the debates, for it discussed the economic policy of the Cinuan people. Two factions positioned themselves as the dominant voices in the debate, which quickly became less about economic recovery and more about the role of the government itself; The Statists, who argued a continuation of planned economics; and the Cynics, who were resistant to the concept of a state at all. Leading the Statists, Marcel Zimayev, Representative of Diade and a Poincarist. Leading the Cynics, Amir Al-Malham, Representative of Kassala and a Democratic Socialist. While both sides opposed an unchecked Capitalist system that had led to the rise of the People's Republic, the Statists believed in State Capitalism, that the State should be in control of vital industries and public services, and that state-owned corporations would still represent the people. The Cynics were largely comprised of veterans who had grown distrustful of the human capacity for goodness, that power inherently corrupts, and that any system of government or economics that works on trust and good faith will inevitably be abused. External forces also began to take note of the Cinuan Restructuring, with the United Systems of Sol, The Brotherhood, and the Gilgamesh Confederation sending an ambassador to attend. The Third Debate became an ideological battle between the capitalist economy of Sol, the Garcinist anti-statism of the Brotherhood, the libertarian capitalism of the GCC, the Cynics rejection of state authority, and the planned economic views of the Statists. After much debate and compromise, a decision was made. Cinu would nationalise vital services, but would place them under the control of state coop corporations. This compromise between the Statists and the Cynics ensured the existence of a greater Cinuan government, but with a reduced function in daily life. While the Government has rigorous anti-corruption authority, it has next to little influence on its economy, or on the interstellar stage. While both Sol and Gilgamesh had hoped to influence the new state, both left satisfied that the other had not made any gains.

The Cinuan Union

In 2284, the Cinuan Union was officially declared, and held its first election, which the Alhuriya, the largest party, won in a complete landslide. Nobody had quite expected it, but every single seat in the assembly belonged to the Alhuriya. The first act of the Government was to issue posthumous pardons to everyone charged with a political crime under the regime, which was effectively half the population of Cinu and every member of the Government. The next act involved their stance in interplanetary politics.
In the past four years, the Union's benefactors, The Brotherhood, had transitioned towards a Garcinist position, and formed a political union called the Democratic League. As Cinu had been a close part of the Brotherhood, with the Alhuriya's military and political wings funded by them during the Revolution. The Union was expected to join, and swiftly did so. With Cinu now part of the League, the trials of Cinuan Unitarians could begin.
The Trials of the Unitarian Party took place throughout 2284 on Beacon, the moon of Tyannani and the seat of government for the League. Overseen by the governments of Tyannani, Nouveaulyon, and Cinu, as well as military leaders of the Brotherhood such as Louis Poincaré and Jacques Garcin, and independent observers from both Sol and other planets in the Lordanian Cluster, the Cinuan Trial of Traitors were the last of many conducted in these halls. By the end of the day, August 29th, over six thousand soldiers were pardoned, fifty-six government officials and military leaders were given a timed sentence of 20 years, thirteen were sentenced to life imprisonment, and eighteen were executed. Field Marshal Üllasuli, who insisted on attending his trial in military gear, was sentenced to life imprisonment after much deliberation. Faced with the prospect of imprisonment under the Brotherhood, in the repurposed Nar Draedon Prison, Marshal Üllasuli gave a passionate speech about his desire to die on his home soil, and not for the revenge fantasy of foreign powers. This swayed the Cinuan Delegation, future State Speaker Baladi Asghar in favour of imprisonment on Cinu, resulting in a tie and potential gridlock. The eventual tiebreaker, the delegate from Sol, sided with Cinu and called the Brotherhood hypocritical for their use of Unitarian prisons and retribution. He signalled that Sol would stand behind Cinu's decisions, even if the League did not. It was a bold statement in the heart of the League's government. Sol, it seemed, was intent on influencing the newly independent Lordanian Cluster.
The election of Saheem Ahmad to State Speaker in '85 caused the first signs of fracturing to appear in the previously unified Majlis. Ahmad, now an infamous figure in Cinuan history, favoured moving closer towards the League and used his influence as State Speaker to further legislative action in this direction. Ahmad's faction, the Traditionalists, aimed to continue the work of the revolution and further the relationship with the Brotherhood and the League. Opposed to this were the Liberal faction, led by Fazel Aslani, who preferred closer ties with Sol, the stable and dominant superpower in the region. The Aslani-Ahmad rivalry culminated in '86 when Aslani and the liberal faction left the Majlis to form the Grand Labour Union alongside the Young Socialists moment. Soon after, the more conservative wing of the Majlis, most notably former military figures, formed the Cinuan Republican Party. The departure of many elected members lost the Majlis their majority. While many in the party welcomed the transition to a fairer democracy, others feared the potential return to partisan lines and political infighting.
Cinu's membership in the Democratic League became tenuous when it's neighbors declared their intention to form the Second Lordanian Republic, a member state of Sol. Travel from League space to Cinu required travel through Lordanian space, which would be taxed if Cinu was not a member of the SCG. Fearing economic and political repercussions of isolation, the Progressive wing of the Majlis formed a coalition with the Grand Union and the Republican parties to pass a vote to join the Second Lordanian Republic as a founder state. The vote passed, and Cinu joined upon inception in 2287. The Traditionalists, and particularly Ahmad, lost almost all of their influence in Cinuan politics. Cinu was the only member of the Democratic League to join the Second Republic, a fact which became increasingly contentious when the Democratic League and the Brotherhood merged to form the Confederate Systems of Lordania. As a member of the League, Cinu was also a member of the Brotherhood. As part of the Second Republic, its military and government were a part of Sol. It was now supposed to be part of both nations. This soured relations between the already tense two Lordanias, and occasionally causes tension.

Cinu and the United Systems of Sol

Cinuan politics has stabilised and the planet is a productive, if isolated, member of the greater Sol community. The founding principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity remain ever present in Cinuan society. The Majlis maintains its majority over the Congress and the Assembly, but with the fall of the Traditionalists comes new problems. For much of the 90s, the Majlis came to be dominated by the Isolationists, who kept Cinu away from the interplanetary stage. Instead of deploying armed forces, which were against the Constitution, Cinu maintained an extremely large number of Peacekeepers throughout the Serajji Conflict. This war, they claimed, was not a just one. This caused significant friction between Cinu and several member states of Sol, including Hyperion, who threatened to impose sanctions for 'treachery'. Cooler heads prevailed and a resolution was made. In 2294, Cinu officially joined the Gaia Conflict and transferred it's planetary defence force to the command of Sol. While Cinuan troops had little to no experience in space combat, they proved extremely useful in relieving garrisons on border worlds in need of defences. In the few years that Cinuan soldiers patrolled the border worlds, the people of these planets actually felt safe and heard. The effects of this on the Sol political and economic sector would only truly become apparent in the mid 00s. The Cinuan Peacekeepers's good treatment of Terran POWs was heavily documented by Sol, who used it as proof of their total kindness to prisoners. The Cinuan Government attempted, largely unsuccessfully, to remind people that Cinu did not reflect Sol, and that their kindness did not excuse claims of mistreatment by other Nations. Of every member state of the SCG, only Cinu is ever spoken with respect by the Terran media.
In the late 90s, following the conclusion of the war, the Majlis internal politics shifted again. The increasing rise of the Progressive faction, led by Baladi Ashgar, saw him elected to head of the Majlis, who sought to transition Cinu away from policies of isolationism and open itself up to the greater Sol community. He was elected State Speaker in 2305. He promised to open Cinu up to the interstellar community, and called for the people of Cinu to begin taking an active role in the furthering of the rights of all peoples. Most controversially, he has promised to revoke Article 64 of the Constitution, a requirement of Sol membership which states that no non-human shall be granted the rights of citizenship. He has promised himself a champion of sapientarian goals, and appointed many reform-minded individuals to positions involving Sol. While he has the backing of the Cinuan people, the fight to make Sol a better place has found him many enemies. But just as many friends. They have recently joined the Organisation for Cooperation Between Planets, putting them at odds with the Sol Federal Government.

Foreign Relations

Cinu is a member state of both the Second Lordanian Republic, and the United Systems of Sol. It has close ties with neighboring systems, as well as the Confederate Systems. Its relations with both militarist and capitalist members of Sol are mixed, and Cinu is the only member state of Sol that the Gilgamesh Confederation maintains an embassy with.

Maps

• 

  Cinu

Founding Date

2284

Type

Geopolitical, Republic

Capital

Al-Mular

Predecessor Organizations

• Cinuan Colonial Authority
• United Nations of Cinu

Demonym

Cinuan

Head of Government

Baladi Asghar

Government System

Democracy, Representative

Power Structure

Transnational government

Economic System

Command/Planned economy

Legislative Body

Congress of the Cinuan People

Judicial Body

Supreme Court of Cinu

Parent Organization

Second Lordanian Republic

Subsidiary Organizations

• Cinuan Peacekeepers

Location

Cinu

Controlled Territories

• Al-Mular
• Diade
• Erfoud
• Zawilah

Neighboring Nations

• Republic of Tersten

Notable Members

• Amir Al-Malham
• Baladi Asghar
• Wasim Massoud

Related Ethnicities

• Afro-Arabic
• Arabic
• Franco-Arabic