The truth is in the eye of the beholder

Day 1,998, 10:37 • Published in Bulgaria Bulgaria • by CoT HQ




Greetings,

This month has been full of intricate events that while not always military have been the center of much discussion. However as time has passed truth and lore have inexorably mixed and created a somewhat clouded picture that needs clarifying. So sit back, get a coffee, take a vacation or retire outright because a Stoich style article is about to engulf you on a journey of unmatched wall of text experience.

To make things a little more easier to follow and so that you can take an intermission somewhere along the line, here is a brief list of the topics that will be covere😛



1. Lithuania issue

2. New members

3. General diplomacy

4. TWO - COT relations

5. EDEN defeat

6. Alliance analysis

7. Moving forward






1 Lithuania issue


As most are probably aware, Lithuania has conducted a referendum. Some congressmen have stated that it has been conducted illegally, thus is void but for all intent and purposes it is not up to the alliance and the HQ to pass judgments whether it is or it is not, thus what the Lithuanian government presents to us is what we accept as the position of Lithuania as a general.

Thus the alliance has been informed by the CP of Lithuania that it is leaving the alliance.

For clarification and closure here is the events that have led to this point in time.

At the beginning of the month Russia expressed an interest in becoming a trial member of the alliance, something that has been expected for a very long time as it has been no secret that Russia is a pro-CoT country and one that has had a standing invitation from the beginning of the alliance. As the only country that had a conflict of interest with Russia to a certain extent because of Russia’s relations with ASGARD countries, Lithuania was contacted and asked what are the problems and concerns they have or might have with this so they can be addressed. Those were stated as being, for Russia not to fight against Lithuania for ASGARD countries and to drop MPPs with said countries.

As these are no more than a general premise expected from any ally within the alliance these were not really something that needs additional clarification. In addition under the charter of the alliance Russia would be required to forgo it’s MPPs with ASGARD nations as those were at war with Lithuania and Russia explicitly stated it will respect the charter, though the mere act of becoming a trial member assumes the same. In light of that and the fact that the reason we have a trial which lasts 3 months is to test the resolve of any aspiring country in action and not only words, Lithuania CP agreed to accept Russia as trial member.

To make things clear no pressure was never put on Lithuania to do so, and it retains the right to veto Russia membership into the alliance at a later stage. Trial membership does not automatically equate to full membership.

At the next summit Russia presented its case and answered all questions towards it and once again stated it will respect the charter of the alliance to the fullest. At that point assuming they were placing their candidacy I (stoich) as the SC called for a vote, which ended with e 12 yes and 3 no vote. As the charter of the alliance assumes unanimous agreement the vote was deemed to have been a rejection. Upon informing the Russian CP of the rejection he stated he had not tendered an application at this point which made the vote invalid and somewhat embarrassing for me.

Among others Lithuania had voted no, after stating less than 24 hours earlier it will vote yes, without offering any explanation for the change.

At the next summit a general discussion was made on Russia among all members and all finally came to the consensus to allow Russia to go through the trial. Once again Lithuania was reassured and thus the application of Russia was added to the following summit’s agenda officially. At which point Russia was accepted as a trial member of the alliance.

As far as ASGARD is concerned there has been only two brief conversations with the SC of ASGARD. He contacted me (stoich) to seek an agreement to cease hostilities, upon which I informed him that in general CoT would be receptive to such overture however that goes explicitly through an agreement between ASGARD and Lithuania. So I referred him to Lithuania to conduct any negotiations they wished.

One or two days later the SC contacted me again briefly to inform me that negotiations were held briefly, Lithuania asked for scania and 1 more Swedish region as compensation for peace and that that was unacceptable for ASGARD so for the moment there can be no agreement. This is the extent of communication between the two alliances.

The Russian TW with Sweden. This TW was started just before Russia entered as a trial member of CoT and was a replacement TW to one that had fallen through with Norway for Russia. This was at the tail end of the missions which were ongoing. As a result of the TW Russia lost it’s MPPs with all ASGARD countries thus fulfilling its obligation to drop those MPPs, something that is for one reason or another not mentioned when this war is being discussed. As any TW nowadays needs about 9-10 days to run it’s course so was to be expected of this one.

While the TW was ongoing the Russian MoFa conducted diplomacy and I was informed by Russian CP at the time that there was a preliminary agreement by all sides to end the conflict between Lithuania and ASGARD. As part of the agreement Lithuania would receive scania and 1 more region from Genmark and Russia would return bohus and rent 1 region from Finland.

My response as the SC of CoT was that this agreement was acceptable to the alliance as long as all parties agree with it and requested that Lithuania CP confirm it to me. There has been no confirmation nor information since then of this agreement. The only information I have received is that after accepting initially the agreement Lithuania ceased communication and did not respond anymore.

As the new CP was elected he started a referendum of exiting CoT without informing the alliance about it. I addition at no point during the month did Lithuanian representatives inform CoT of any negotiations they were a part of so all the information was coming from the other side of those negotiations. In addition with the exception of requesting prio for some battles there was no other communication initiated by Lithuanian reps with the alliance whatsoever, summits were regularly missed and/or partially attended and only in regards to the Russia acceptance as a trial member.

The actual war with ASGARD was never coordinated with the MC of the alliance something which is a requirement for any major campaign. The reason this is required is to avoid conflict of interest between members of the alliance and to make sure that the resources of the alliance are not spread too thin. With 15 members it is impossible to have 15 ongoing wars, thus at times some have to be prioritized over others and countries alternate to see action.

The Polish MPP. Lithuania willfully broke the charter of the alliance by resigning the MPP with Poland which fully knowingly that it will loose all MPPs with CoT members had signed an MPP with Romania (as “retaliation” for CoT dropping Serbian MPPs for signing the same MPP with Romania) which was and still is at war with Bulgaria a member of CoT.

In short Poland didn’t care if they lost their MPP with Lithuania and forced them to break the charter of CoT to resign it. Obvious intent on Polish side was to create a conflict between Lithuania and CoT, this however did not materialize.

At last summit the problem was discussed as the 1st point on the agenda at which time Lithuanian representative stated that for Lithuania TWO > CoT and that they had joined CoT only as a pro-TWO alliance, stating that the important countries for Lithuania are: UK, Poland, Serbia, Estonia and Latvia and thus in the current events they cannot remain a member of CoT.

As can be easily understood, this kind of position is not possible for any member of the alliance and while we’re quite liberal and understanding of all members who they regard as their friends there is an imperative understanding that the allies within the alliance come first.

A principle Lithuania accepted to uphold upon its entrance in CoT. Also it became clear that Russia issue has been entirely used as an excuse by Lithuanian government to bring about the exit from CoT in a manner in which it can blame the alliance HQ for that. While we’re wishing Lithuania all the best in their future endeavors we cannot accept that interpretation of events. Lithuania has left the alliance upon it’s own free will and because of it’s allegiance to TWO and to a certain extent lack thereof towards COT. Whether this sentiment is shared by all citizens of Lithuania we cannot assume to know neither is it our place to judge.




2. New Members

As all know during this month CoT has gained 1 permanent member - USA and one trial member - Russia.

For it’s first full membership of the alliance, USA has cooperated on all levels including accepting and conducting a TW with Indonesia as requested by Indonesia, followed all priorities of the alliance and was in constant communication. While the internal cohesion of the country continue to be one area of concern it has improved during the month and all indications are that it will continue to do so.

Russia is still very new to the alliance, but has a long track record of cooperation with CoT, it also followed the priorities of the alliance even while it was not a trial member and there was regular communication.


In addition a few countries have expressed their desire to either join the alliance or to remain neutral but align themselves with CoT. Among them is Germany which has expressed its interest in becoming a trial member and is in the process of securing the agreement of all member countries.




3. General diplomacy

After the dissolution of EDEN many countries have become neutral or prefer to be aligned with CoT. The one prerequisite for both is for countries to drop their MPPs with any country in war with CoT. While Argentina may not be technically at war with Chile as it is not on the map currently it is still regarded as one of the main opponents of CoT and until there is a formal peace treaty between Chile and Argentina for all intents and purposes Argentina is considered to be at war with CoT whether it is on the map or not. The same is true of Greece and it’s occupation of original Macedonian regions as well as Columbia.

Thus any country which wishes to build, retain or improve relations, sign MPPs and so, with CoT must drop their MPPs with Argentina, Colombia, Greece and Romania. In addition any country that holds or signs an MPP with one of the above mentioned should expect to lose it’s CoT MPPs in the shortest possible time-frame.

While CoT has remained passive and not responded to the increasingly hostile actions of TWO which has been actively recruiting countries at war with CoT we’re still open to keeping good relations with any country which keeps to the above. Thus all members of the alliance are free to keep and resign MPPs with Spain, while they must drop those with Serbia, Poland, UK, Slovenia and now Hungary, after they signed an MPP with Argentina.






As surprising as it might be to all this article must be cut short here as it has run out of space, so I’ll let you all recover for a couple of days before finishing the rest of the points.


We’re CoT, we give no quarter, we fight to the end!



Cheers,

Sc of CoT, Stoich


PS. To be continued....