Khrystalpol Incident: Difference between revisions
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On the evening of November 18, Durakan search teams received an anonymous tipoff that a group of armed men had taken over the administrative annex of the Khrystalpol Ironworks, an abandoned pre-war industrial complex several miles from the town. Law enforcement personnel had already been en route to examine the site, but were now ordered not to approach the complex. A military special operations group was dispatched instead to deal with the militiamen. While few details surrounding the subsequent firefight have been made public, the Durakan military later reported that all five Vorosijm members had been killed in the shootout with no casualties among Durakan servicemembers.
Security around Khrystalpol remained high following the clash at the Ironworks. On November 19, the occupying authorities announced that K-17 was once again secure, but would continue to host an enlarged military presence. Despite fears of wider violence in the country, ▼
==Aftermath==
▲Security around Khrystalpol remained high following the clash at the Ironworks. On November 19, the occupying authorities announced that K-17 was once again secure, but would continue to host an enlarged military presence. Despite fears of wider violence either in the town or across the country, the situation remained largely stable. Durakan authorities announced that they would begin releasing some detainees over the course of the coming week, while those charged with more serious offenses were to be moved to more permanent facilities to await trial.
Durakan agents monitoring the #MartovLives channel observed a marked increase in calls for action by the chatroom's moderators. These calls were echoed by other members in the channel, but evidence suggested that these accounts likely belonged to the same moderators they were responding to. In one example, several users claimed to be Khrystalpol residents organizing a rally in honor of the Vorosijm, something that was almost certainly false given that the only available computers in Khrystalpol's library had been seized as part of the ongoing investigation. More broadly, the channel responded with either apathy or disdain towards calls for further action, as many were instead mourning the loss of life or fearing further violence, while the most radical members from Khrystalpol were either dead or unable to access the chatroom. Activity in the channel declined over the following days, and the moderation team was not seen online again after November 26. The identities and precise origin of the chatroom's owners remains a source of ongoing investigation, and though the moderators were at varying times recorded as claiming affiliation with the Vakari government in exile or miscellaneous Vakari resistance or citizen's groups, none of these organizations have claimed any connection to the infamous chatroom and many of the identities provided were later determined to be wholly fictitious.
<nowiki>#</nowiki>MartovLives was run on Melkhii, a popular Älemsi-based IRC client which also maintained the servers used by the channel. Several days after the incident, Melkhii released a statement saying that it "Unequivocally condemns utilizing our services to promote acts of violence, and will cooperate to the extent required by the laws of the Negdel and the Amrakh Autonomy."
<nowiki>#</nowiki>MartovLives has been accused of engaging in "Stochastic terrorism" and a "Complete disregard for Vakari and Durakan lives" by the authorities. The channel has since wholly ceased to exist.
The decisions made by various Durakan personnel and officials in the leadup to and during the Incident have been heavily scrutinized. Sources of particular controversy include the decision to fire live rounds against the crowd, as well as failures in security that allowed the situation to escalate so unexpectedly. These hearings have persisted alongside the ongoing trials of many rioters.
K-17 remained an important site for the Revolutionary Air Corps, even though Rekelta opted to move its program to more secure locations. In 2022, funding was allocated to rebuild and secure the base to Durakan specifications.
Khrystalpol remained a source for discontent against the occupation, even though no significant violence occurred following the Incident. The resolution of the Sleeping Sickness mystery proved instrumental in easing tensions, but a mixture of economic dilapidation, spilled blood, and lingering conspiracy theories have left it consistently polling as one of the most discontented parts of Vakarastan.
=== International Reactions ===
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