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| Capital | Rhodes | |||||||
| Largest City | Rhodes | |||||||
| Other Cities | Marmaris, Kos | |||||||
| Language Official |
Greek | |||||||
| Others | Turkish | |||||||
| President | Michael Kefalianos | |||||||
| Prime Minister | Hatzis Hatziefthimiou | |||||||
| Area | approx 8,000 km² | |||||||
| Population | approx 723,300 | |||||||
| Admission | Founding Member of the Confederation of Greece: 1994, Statehood in Greek Federation: 2009 | |||||||
The Dodecanese Republic is a major state within the Greek Federation. Consisting of the Dodecanese Islands and the nearby coast of Anatolia, the republic has adopted the deer emblem of the Island of Rhodes and the Colossus of Rhodes as its emblems.
History[]
Pre-Doomsday[]
The Dodecanese have been inhabited since prehistoric times. Conquered by the Persians, the islands were liberated after their defeats in mainland Greece. When the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 BC, they remained largely neutral although they were still members of the Delian League. But these wars weakened Greece so much that the islands, despite their prosperity, were conquered again by Persia. After being freed by Macedonia, Rhodes and the other islands became allied with Egypt, until their alignment with Rome in 164 BC. The famous Colossus of Rhodes was built during this period, in 304 BC. they would be annexed by Rome outright in 44BC. They would eventually end up under the Byzantine Empire.
In the 14th century, the Byzantine era came to an end when the islands were taken by the Knights Hospitaller. Rhodes was conquered in 1309, and the rest of the islands fell over the next few decades. The massive fortifications that they erected there repelled invasions in 1444 and 1480. Finally, however, Rhodes fell to the Ottomans in 1522, and the other islands were overrun within the year. The few remaining Knights fled to Malta. Thus began a period of several hundred years in the Ottoman Empire.
Although the sympathies of the overwhelmingly Greek population leaned heavily towards Greece following its independence, the islanders continued a semi-autonomous existence under the Ottomans. After the outbreak of the Italian-Turkish war, the islands finally declared independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912. This nascent state was quashed almost immediately by Italy. The Italians occupied all the Dodecanese. During World War I, with Italy allied to France and Britain, the islands became an important British and French naval base, used as a staging area for numerous campaigns. With the Treaty of Lausanne in 1922 the Dodecanese was then formally annexed by Italy. Mussolini embarked on a program of Italianization, hoping to make Rhodes a hub that would serve as a focal point for the spread of Italian culture in the Levant. The Fascist program did have some positive effects in its attempts to modernize the islands, but little effect otherwise.
During World War II, Italy joined the Axis Powers, and used the Dodecanese as a naval staging area for its invasion of Crete in 1940. After the surrender of Italy in September 1943, the islands briefly became a battleground. The Germans prevailed in the Dodecanese Campaign, and although they were driven out of mainland Greece in 1944, the Dodecanese remained occupied until the end of the war in 1945. Despite objections from Turkey, which desired the islands as well, they were formally united with Greece in 1947, ending 740 years of foreign rule over the islands.
Post Doomsday[]
The Dodecanese were lucky enough to escape the destruction of Doomsday intact, and in a relatively minor miracle, they were left pretty much devoid of fallout. However, the EMP from the strikes on Athens, Larissa, and Izmir, was still able to knock out the vast majority of communications equipment and other electronics on the islands.
What remained functional was largely in the hands of the Prefectural Council of the islands, on Rhodes. Slowly, they began to spread out from there, re-establishing contact with the rest of the islands. When a sailing ship from Rhodes arrived at the island of Kastelorizo, near the coast of Anatolia, they discovered from the locals that they had received representatives from the nearby Anatolian town of Yenikoy, seeking aid from the Greeks. Of course, the small island could provide none. After contacting Rhodes, they were ordered to travel to Yenikoy, and see what they could do to help them.
Upon arrival, they found they could do little. They did promise that someone would return, however - even if they had little, surely the islands could spare some to keep these people alive, even if they were Turks. Yet, a few weeks later, when another vessel arrived with some supplies for them, they found the town ruined, with only a few survivors hiding in the rubble. They told of how a band of fleeing rabble had attacked their town, and looted it, killing or taking away most of the population. If the Greeks had not arrived when they did - the band had left mere hours before - they all would have perished. The few survivors were evacuated to Kastelorizo, and the ship went back to Rhodes to give a detailed report of what has been seen.
Despite their issues with Turks, even the Dodecanese government was horrified by this news - and they had heard similar stories from other areas of the Anatolian coast as well. And the news from Greece itself was little better, with reports of violence from the mainland, and the beginnings of a large rebellion in the area to boot. When combined with very little communications over the radio from the government at Crete, that discontent arose in the area should be of little surprise. As a result, a republic was declared over the islands in mid-1984.
The question over what to do about the Turks remained, however. By now, refugees had begun to appear in the islands, speaking of horrors being committed along the Anatolian coastline. After much debate, it was decided that the best option would be to set up small fortified towns along the coast, where the refugees - and the townsfolk of the towns fortified - could be kept safe by soldiers. The nearby towns of Bodrum and Marmaris, which were still fairly intact, were chosen as the first sites for these encampments.
Stability[]
Over the next couple of years, the fortified towns, being the only islands of stability in the area, would attract the majority of the survivors from the bandits and brigands in the area, who brought rumors of some sort of Turkish government being set up somewhere to the east. Detachments of troops from the towns would go out into the nearby countryside, pacifying the area and eliminating the criminals. Other towns of a similar nature would also be set up at Aletepe, Datca, and Didim on the coast.
During the rest of 1986, units from the towns would set up defense positions further inland, as well as territory near the island of Samos, a member of the Delian League, as representatives from that group of islands were not willing to secure the mainland near their own territory, instead asking the Republic to do it. By early 1987, this had been accomplished, and these same military units received intelligence that the leader of the local bandits they had been fighting had set up shop in the city of Milas.
Knowing that he was a threat, had been raping and pillaging the area, and was in possession of a very good location for another fortified town - and the only decent sized one inland in the area - the troops set out to the city. Surrounding it, they were able to overwhelm his forces very easily, and send them fleeing northward.
During the rest of 1987, and much of 1988, forces would consolidate the territory they held, rebuilding the road networks and establishing outposts at the edge of the zone, from which they sent out patrols to keep the area more peaceful.
Turkish Contact[]
In September of 1988, one such patrol, near the semi-abandoned city of Ula, encountered a similar group from the rumored Turkish state to the east. While only the barest minimum of contact was made between the two governments, the position of the Republican forces in the region, despite the majority-Turkish population, forced the government of the Turkish state - a Turkish sultanate - to recognize their control of the areas they already occupied, in return for them not expanding further, despite their extreme anger over their presence.
By the end of 1990, the Sultanate had established its own defensive lines in the region alongside the Greek lines. Troops from the government of the Republic had also managed to repair much of the infrastructure inside the zone, which had now been named Caria, after the ancient kingdom and Roman province that had once existed in that area of Anatolia. And, in an effort to balance the population of the territory, thus making it more easily controlled by the government on Rhodes, Greek settlers began to be imported into the region.
Greek Confederation[]
In 1994, after aiding League diplomats in ending the fighting between the remnants of the Hellenic Republic on Crete and the Despotate of Morea the year before, they signed the diplomatic agreement establishing the Confederation of Greece, a military and economic alliance between the Greek survivor states, after promises that future endeavors to aid others would be made.
During early 1995, the government of the Republic, in concert with Mount Athos and the Delian League, petitioned the confederation government on Skyros to send out expeditions to aid others who had fallen further after the events of Doomsday. While Hellenic and Morean leaders chose to send an expedition to Thrace - despite the existence of a Turkish state believed to be expanding in that direction - the other members of the Confederation - except Heptanesa, which continued its activities in Albania - sent one of their own to Cyprus, where they found the island damaged from attacks on the British bases, and engaged in guerrilla warfare against the remnants of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Following negotiations, it was agreed that in exchange for several concessions, the Cypriot government would gain material resources and anything else needed to repair their state.
It would take almost a decade for their mission to Cyprus to be completed, due to the destruction and the fighting which followed, even after the Greek intervention.
Greek Federation[]
In December of 2009, a referendum on the unification of the members of the Confederation into a federal state occurred, following nearly two years of "town hall" session on the issue. As the government promised to continue its humanitarian missions, the Dodecanese government supported the "yes" side in the vote, which passed in the region by a margin of 79% to 21%, as well as passing through all the member nations. The inhabitants of Cyprus also voted to join the Federation at this time.
The government of the islands, upon ensuring the promise to continue such missions was enshrined in the constitution, have taken a fairly neutral position on the issue of a monarchy, though they have come out and stated that they do oppose the idea, though not nearly as much as their compatriots on the other islands - referring to the Delian League and Hellenics, of course.
Government and Politics[]
The government of the Dodecanese Republic consists of an executive branch - the President, who is elected directly by the people - and a legislative branch - the Chamber of Deputies.
Currently, the President is Michael Kefalianos, a former bodybuilder and strongman in the islands, and the Prime Minister is Hatzis Hatziefthimiou, a former mayor of the capital of Rhodes.
It is divided into six different provinces - the five in the islands - Kalymnos, Karpathos & Kasos, Kos, Patmos, and Rhodes - and one on the mainland, Caria.
Despite the peaceful nature of the government, and its immense support for humanitarian missions, they do draw fire for one thing: since the annexation of the mainland province, Greek settlers have been brought there, and Turks moved to the islands, in a successful attempt to ensure the loyalty of the population in the mainland.
Economy[]
Like most of Greece, the economy of the Dodecanese Islands is based on shipping and related industries.
Besides that, wines, citrus fruits, and sponges harvested from in and around the islands are exported throughout the Eastern Mediterranean.
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