Second Empire of Trabzon (1983: Doomsday)

The Second Empire of Trabzon was one of the minor independent states established in the Eastern Turkish Wastelands by a rebellious Turkish military commander, Altan Sahin, withdrawing from the Soviet border and the front lines following the Russian invasion of Eastern Turkey. The Second Empire of Trabzon claims descent from the first Empire of Trebizond, which was a former Byzantine successor state, though Trabzon was a thoroughly Turkish state. It is one of the largest and most powerful states in the Wasteland and was the last to fall to the Sultanate, in July 2009.

Pre-Doomsday
Originally, Trabzon, historically known as Trapezus and Trebizond, was a normal coastal city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Republic of Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. In the 1200's, the Empire of Trebizond, a successor state of the Byzantine Empire, broke away from Constantinople and survived Byzantium until 1461, when it was ceded peacefully to the Ottoman Turks.

In 1901 the harbour was equipped with cranes by Stothert and Pitt of Bath in England. The city was the site of one of the key battles between the Ottoman and Russian armies during the Caucasus Campaign of World War I which resulted in the capture of Trabzon by the Russian Caucasus Army under command of Grand Duke Nicholas and Nikolai Yudenich in April 1916. The Russian Army retreated from the city and the rest of eastern and northeastern Anatolia with the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Doomsday
As was with the rest of the world, Doomsday came suddenly for the Republic of Turkey and enacted a devastating toll. Due to their membership in NATO, Turkey was a target of the Soviet nuclear barrage.

During the chaos of Doomsday and the following months, the Soviet Union launched an invasion of eastern Turkey. After two weeks of constant fighting, the battle lines had been shifted back beyond the Soviet border, thanks to the superior Turkish and NATO supplies in the east. However, casualties were high and the remaining soldiers were running out of ammunition. Across the front, soldiers were deserting in the face of the surrounding destruction. Several generals, including a high-ranking military general named Altan Sahin, rebelled and withdrew from the Soviet front. Sahin, seeing his plight desperate and both sides starting to collapse, retreated towards Trabzon, where he temporarily based his remaining exhausted and demoralized troops. Doubting the survival of the Turkish Republic, Sahin concluded that it was now every organized force for itself and seized Trabzon, declaring its independence from the republic and placing it under military occupation.

Altan turned Trabzon into his new command center and ordered the city fortified against any oncoming attacks. He had soon put his soldiers and a number of local conscripts to work attempting to turn Trabzon into an 'impregnable' fortress, fitted with walls of makeshift concrete and barbed wire fences. Searchlights and gun positions were also set up as Sahin settled down to rule his new stronghold.

The Rise of Trabzon
Declaring himself rightful ruler of the New Second Empire of Trabzon (Based on the concept of the first, Greek, Empire of Trebizond), Sahin seized many of the weapons stockpiles in the southern coast of the Black Sea to help him expand his nominal empire. Geographically, the newly dubbed Second Empire of Trabzon never included much more than a few northeastern corners of Turkey.

Emperor Altan I (As he proclaimed himself) soon proved an aggressive military ruler who wished to expand his borders in order to restore 'order' in Eastern Turkey and control the other surviving Eastern communities. The rest of the minor factions which had seized power in Eastern Turkey were soon at war with the belligerent Second Empire of Trabzon.

Sahin was eager for military conquest. However, he had to bring the miserable conditions in his own city, Trabzon, to an end first. Chaos, panic, and looting had brought the city to its knees following the horrific Doomsday event and the fall of centralized Turkish government. Private homes and businesses were stripped clean of anything of value to be sold later at high prices on the black market. Turkish soldiers and citizens alike joined in. Sahin cracked down with the formation of the Trabzon Güvenlik Polisi, heavily armored riot police who brutally enforced and restored order. Officers of the Güvenlik Polisi retaliated brutally against thieves, staging mass executions of suspected criminals and displaying the heads of looters in the streets where no one was allowed to remove them. Carving his own bloody path around Trabzon, the nominal emperor at last succeeded in restoring some concept of centralization and government with his new empire.

Emperor Altan turned Trabzon into a virtually impregnable military stronghold as his new base of operations for expansion. He ruled with an iron fist, and his riot police shot anyone suspected of plotting against him. To relive the splendor of the original courts in the Greek Empire of Trebizond, Altan converted a private home into a magnificent Byzantine-styled palace guarded by his elite Saray Guard and a set of formidable bronze gates.

Due to his life of mysterious luxury amidst the Doomsday Chaos, many of Sahin's own people distrusted and feared him. Those who tried to interfere with his plans were not tolerated and shot. Sahin had soon established his heavily-guarded borders around Northeastern Turkey. Defense of this province proved simple enough as the region had been heavily fortified to protect Turkey's border with the Soviet Union. The Second Empire of Trabzon soon established itself as the strongest and most advanced independent state in Eastern Turkey.

However, other surviving Turkish military commanders had cut out their own territories and were soon at war with the Second Empire of Trabzon for dominance. While Emperor Altan's troops, especially his favorite foot soldiers, the 'Imperial Legion', were able to repulse several rival warlords in the area, Altan failed to control the other states. An expedition launched in 1994 failed miserably to invade the neighboring New Erzurum, a state established as a Doomsday refugee community that formed an allied confederation that stalled Altan's advance. Refusing to give up, however, he would not withdraw his troops and manage to overrun small settlements in the north of the territory. While the war raged, the Second Empire of Trabzon also managed to conquer some of its weaker neighbors. Due to the high level of violence in the regions of Eastern Turkey, no single nation was able to arise in the area as it descended into chaos.

The violence spread when the Second Empire of Trabzon launched an attempted invasion of neighboring Georgia, slicing its way through the rival states around it to do so. The Trabzon troops marched across the Georgian border and encamped, where they met stiff resistance upon attempting to advance. After ravaging the local countryside, the armies retreated back towards Trabzon. In 1998, Altan saw his situation for expansion in New Erzurum was hopeless. Before, the community had survived peacefully, but was now a desolate warzone of intense violence. Some of the empire's troops gained victories in New Erzurum, such as the Imperial Legion, which was feared by soldier and citizen alike for their ruthless tactics. Shortly afterwards, however, the poorly equipped and outnumbered defenders managed to drive the Imperial Legion back across the border into Trabzon-controlled territory. Despite this costly defeat for his army, Altan was undaunted. For years to come, he would wage ceaseless war against his neighbors, finally overwhelming some but never being able to conquer others.

In 1992, most of the Turkish states had agreed to leave each other in peace and prosper, but Trabzon was constantly a scene of horrific bloodshed as the Second Empire of Trabzon left the earth scorched in its smoking tracks and remained on the offensive. In 1999, Armenia invaded the Second Empire of Trabzon in an attempt to restore some form of order. Other states, such as the Repblic of Hatay, had attempted to interfere in the zone of warring states, now known as the Eastern Turkish Wasteland and failed. Although the Armenian expedition managed to gain some ground, they were soon suffering heavy losses when Emperor Altan ordered a round-the-clock bombardment of the Armenian positions. Bloody fighting raged until 2000, when Armenian troops made a last-ditch attempt to assault Trabzon. They were faced with an impossible task as they attacked the heavily fortified city. The militarily disciplined Imperial Legion marched out to defend the city and massacred the Armenian forces, ending the ill-fated invasion. Having failed miserably, the surviving stragglers retreated out of the wasteland.

Due to the failure of this expedition and the weakness of their militaries, most of Turkey's surrounding nations refused to attempt to expand into the Second Empire of Trabzon.

The Armenian invasion of 1999 had caught Emperor Altan off guard and he vowed to build up his military. Panicked at the notion of an invasion from the sea, Altan ordered the construction of Naval defenses and obstacles. On the Trabzon coastal defenses and beaches Sahin constructed machine gun posts, barbed wire fences, operational control towers, and searchlights.

The Threat of the Turkish Sultanate
Beginning in 2001, the revived central sultanate of Turkey began expanding into the eastern frontier, intending to eventually put the Eastern Turkish Wasteland under control once and for all. Slowly, it was able to conquer several smaller warlord states along the western fringes of the zone, but was rebuffed by the Second Empire of Trabzon. Border clashes began by late 2001, including a full-pitched battle when the Sultanate armies marched into the nominal empire's northwestern borders, clashing with the 22nd Imperial Infantry and Trabzon militia. Turkish tanks were repelled by Trabzon anti-tank guns, and the oncoming Sultanate forces were thrown into disarray, soon having been beaten back by imperial machine-gunners.

Emperor Altan took this as a declaration of war. He refused to consider negotiations with the Turkish Sultanate and strengthened his defenses for war. The Second Empire of Trabzon would fight alone, even until the very end. Watching the chaos that engulfed the Eastern Wasteland, the Turkish government quickly set out to establish a series of alliances with the minor states in the region to gain some allies in the wars against the larger states and break up the weaker confederations for conquest.

In 2002, the Sultanate of Turkey launched the 'Doğu Fethini', or Eastern Conquest, as a military campaign to conquer the Eastern Wasteland. A surprise attack had soon caught the southern State of Elazigi offguard and they were defeated within six months by government troops. The first part of the wasteland was now in the Sultanate's hands.

However, the Second Empire of Trabzon was a far more powerful state than Elazigi and more organized and central. It was also in less danger of invasion, due to its formidable military force. As a result, Emperor Altan was able to survive the longest, of all the Eastern Turkish states in the wasteland zone.

The next step for the eventual conquest of Trabzon was for the Sultanate slowly began to penetrate the confines of the Wasteland towards Sahin's domain. Through arms and trade deals, they secured the support of several smaller states, whom they used as proxies against others. Thanks to assistance from the Sultanate, some of these small states were successful against their larger, and sometimes more powerful, neighbors.

By the spring of 2005, the Sultanate had established strategic alliances with several warlords as part of a divide and conquer strategy. These new alliances shattered the existing coalitions in the area as many were lured by the power and stability of the Sultanate. In the beginning, the Sultante primarily shipped arms to its new allies in the Wasteland. Armed with Sultanate weaponry and ammunition, several of the warlords were able to conquer their weaker neighbors or harrass their more powerful ones. In the meantime, the Sultanate began constructing roads and railways towards the allied warlords to be able to penetrate the moutains that surrounded the area.

The Republic of Greater Patnos was the next to be absorbed into the Sultanate through surrendering peacefully and cooperating with the Turkish government. A brief border conflict fought between Trabzon and Greater Patnos resulted in a complete defeat of the imperial forces. Emperor Altan was starting to realize the wrath of the Sultan. However, he continued to hold out, refusing to discuss an alliance with the Sultanate and vowing to fight to the bitter end.

Sahin seems to have recognized the inevitable by 2005. However, in a later speech to the people of Trabzon, he encouraged them to fight on and resist occupation. Altan concluded by shouting if the empire died, he would have no wish to survive it and defend his people and his kingdom to the final hour. Hardly a month later, the Sultanate launched a massive offensive against the eastern Turkish warlords who continued to refuse to ally with it, including the Second Empire of Trabzon. Several weaker warlords who still held out against the Sultanate surrendered as soon as the Turkish Imperial Army crossed their borders. Many of the stronger ones quickly attempted to form a desperate coalition to withstand the Sultanate, with the sole exception of Emperor Altan and his empire. Due to the lack of common borders and the muli-prong attack launched by the Sultanate-allied warlords, coalitions were ineffective and was unable to resist the Turkish offensive.

In early 2009, the Turkish Sultanate marched its first troops into Trabzon's territory. The end was coming.

Fall of the Empire
In March of 2009, the Sultanate revealed its assault plans for the invasion of Trabzon, which had continued to stubbornly hold its ground. The initial thrust would be aimed directly at the capital city, itself to put an early end to the war and crush the empire. In the meantime, heavy artillery bombardment would conceal the actual invasion routes. The 1st and 4th Imperial Infantry defended Trabzon's southern borders. However, this stretch of lines was extremely weak and too far extended for the soldiers to actually defend properly. When Sultanate troops began the invasion, they were soon fighting a heated battle with the 4th Imperial Infantry. While one Turkish division battled their way past the 4th Infantry, another Turkish division targeted the 1st Infantry and infiltrated gaps in the defenders' line. The Trabzon forces fought back, and managed to stall the first wave. However, reinforcements sent by the Sultanate soon overwhelmed the Trabzon troops, who had run out of ammunition. The Sultanate's air superiority also played a major role in the loss of southern Trabzond. Heavy bombing and artillery shelling soon compelled the defenders to retreat towards the city.

As the Sultanate troops advanced, the leading division came under heavy fire on the road to Trabzon and retreated across a minefield, losing nearly half their personnel killed, captured, or wounded in the process. However, reinforcements again drove back the defending armies. The imperial troops put up a fierce fight, but were defeated by the Sultanate and overrun through sheer numbers.

A number of major battles were fought along the southern edges of Trabzon. The defenders battled bravely on, despite the odds stacked heavily against them. However, Turkish bombing raids had completely destroyed communications between Emperor Altan and his front lines, paralyzing his war effort. He was nearly helpless to stop the Sultanate's warplanes as he did not have enough anti-aircraft missiles to do so. By June of 2009, Emperor Altan had lost all of his empire except a small wedge of land surrounding Trabzon. Sahin found himself surrounded and issued orders to defend important installations around Trabzon. He also dispatched his elite Imperial Legion to guard the ammunition stocks he held just south of his city. The remnants of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Infantry units were forced into full retreat by the swiftness of the Sultanate's advance and fell back to the outer defenses of Trabzon, where they prepared to make their final stand.

The Turkish Sultanate sent letters to Emperor Altan, urging him to give up his desperate battle and surrender. However, their demands were ignored. Altan's army, by this point, was badly shaken. Hundreds of frightened stragglers fled inside Trabzon to seek shelter in deserted buildings and the Turkish military shelled the city day after day. It was at the important ammunition and supply depots that the Imperial Legion made a desperate stand against the Sultanate troops and their allied warlords. They held on doggedly for over 48 hours while other units along the line were toppling. Only when they had lost over half of their men did the Imperial Legion finally withdraw under heavy fire. Before retreating, they blew up the valuable ammunition depots to prevent them from being used by the opposing forces.

A heroic bayonet charge launched by the Imperial Legion also drove the Turkish forces back for nearly a mile and allowed the defenders to finally disengage and retreat towards Trabzon. Only some 600 survivors finally staggered back towards the city perimeter. Forced to evacuate his lavish palace for a bombproof shelter, Emperor Altin was urged by his generals to surrender before it was too late. The emperor, however, still refused to do so.

In the meantime, the Güvenlik Polisi carried out mass executions of citizens suspected of being loyal to the Sultanate. Officers went from home to home, dragging innocent people out at gunpoint. They were taken to Interrogation and Screening Centers, where there were no toilets, food, or water. Civilians were forced to stand in line for days to be examined and questioned by the emperor's officials. Those deemed guilty were immediately shot and killed by armed soldiers.

The 15th of July, 2009, dawned bitterly on both exhausted and demoralized sides. Sultanate-allied troops from the former Republic of Greater Patnos broke through Altin's perimeter and approached the positions of the 17th Imperial Infantry, which drove them back with concentrated fire. Sultanate troops launched a renewed assault on the position (located on the southeastern outskirts of Trabzon) but the Imperial troops rose from their defenses and raked the attackers with heavy machine gun fire, mowing them down and driving back the onslaught. Frustrated at this turn of events, the Sultanate commander dispatched three divisions and his warlord allies to attack Trabzon from all sides at once and prevent the emperor from concentrating his forces. The situation was grim within the city as Altin received word that the Sultanate was planning the final attack. Water failure was imminent due to a Turkish blockade and a plague threatened to spread within the overpopulated Trabzon.

The Turkish assault struck the southern edges of the city first, where heavy bombardment by both ground and air forces had left the city's formidable defenses crumbling and in ruins. Sultanate forces advanced swiftly and were pummeled by shelling from the city's major gun positions. They were also attacked by the remains of the Imperial Legion. Eventually, the Turkish troops forced their way to the walls, reinforced by tanks and more infantry units. The highly-trained Imperial Legion resisted tenaciously. The Sultanate forces poured over the ruined concrete fortifications and slaughtered the defenders after over hour of furious hand-to-hand combat. The surviving soldiers of the Imperial Legion quickly deserted and fled the city, throwing the lines into panic. Elsewhere, the 17th and 9th Imperial Infantry units had been overwhelmed by the Sultanate forces, which had seized control of the southeastern outskirts of the city. Confused firing roared from all over Trabzon as the defenders fought the Turkish forces in the streets, setting up strategic positions and laying a terrible hail of bullets onto the street, forcing the attackers to scramble over barbed wire to seek cover.

Realizing that his city had fallen, Emperor Altin fled and escaped in a jeep with some of his senior military officers. Those higher-ranking officials left behind committed suicide rather than face disgraceful death at the Sultanate's hands. Organized resistance was starting to fall apart at the seams. The Güvenlik Polisi refused to give themselves up and barricaded themselves in their fortified command center. Turkish soldiers attempted to use gas to flush them out, but the well-equipped officers donned gas masks and several troops were forced the building by storm.

By nightfall, individuals were fleeing for their lives and hoping to seek protection from groups of deserters or scattered units such as the Imperial Legion, which had left the city. The resistance to the Sultanate had been so great and the defenders so determined that at first, the Turkish government could not believe that the defense was over. The frustration of fighting several long months across the length of the Second Empire of Trabzon had taken its toll on the self-control of the invading troops. Scores of innocent citizens in Trabzond were massacred in the streets and homes plundered. A handful of soldiers battered down the bronze gates to the emperor's palace and overpowered the Saray Guards. They stripped the richly-decorated residence of anything of value and thoroughly looted it.

In the morning, the Sultanate set up a military perimeter around Trabzon to prevent any from escaping. They were too late, however, to prevent Emperor Altin from slipping through their fingers. The war had taken its toll on the city. The streets were dirty and devastated, pockmarked with bomb craters. Businesses were closed, and decomposing bodies of those killed were stacked in the largest structures. Many citizens searched for their family or friends amidst the rubble, looking for either a live person or a corpse. The months of difficult, costly, and brutal warfare had permanently scarred Trabzon, and it has yet to recover.

Aftermath of the Empire
The Sultanate's first move was to begin reconstruction of the ruined city. They also offered positions in the Turkish army to those of the emperor's officers who had peacefully surrendered during the battle. A bounty was placed on the head of the emperor himself, but he had managed to evade capture.

The Sultanate of Turkey established a military council to rule Trabzon, which resulted in much more pain and suffering for the people as many of the soldiers conducted brutal counter-espionage activities. The council was recently disbanded in early 2010, and replaced with a Sultanate-appointed governor to oversee reconstruction efforts over the former Second Empire of Trabzon.