Ziniev Mandate
The Ziniev Mandate (Durakan: Mandat Zinieva) is a concept and political doctrine within Durakan nationalism which argues for Durakia to project power and influence across the island of Irnac as the protectors of the native Pivnich peoples from subjugation by foreign powers. While the policy does not inherently call for irredentism, its role in Durakan foreign policy has often been as a justification for military intervention on the island, up to and including the outright annexation of much of the island into Durakia proper.
The mandate was first conceptualized in 1918 by Secretary of Diplomacy Eirik Ziniev, who argued for the intervention of the fledgling nation into the Metrati War to secure the self-determination of the Ekvatori people. At the time, much of Irnac was beholden to foreign influence, with Volscine presence within the territory of Ietracia, Ulvriktru missionary efforts encouraging prospects for Norgsveltian colonization and the aforementioned struggle for independence in Ekvatora from Tavaris. As such, Ziniev created the concept from the perspective of anti-imperialism, stating Durakia has a responsibility to liberate the Pivnich peoples from the oppression of foreign powers in the same way they had liberated themselves from Asendavian rule. The popularization of the idea became instrumental in Durakan politics throughout the early twentieth century, as both a precursor to the Durakan brand of proletarian internationalism and in the foreign policy of Sariv Martov.
After the ascension of Martov and his followers, the Ziniev Mandate would become a key part in the creation of a casus belli for the Durakan-Dwarven Wars. Martov argued for a radical interpretation of the mandate which argued for Durakan domination of Irnac to defend the island from imperial ambitions and foreign capital. During the 1920s and early 1930s, Durakia would greatly expand in size, encompassing the island of Durakia, as well as the Toria and Cernov Isles. Martov would establish "revolutionary governments" for the Eteri, Vakari and Grostyn peoples, creating unstable puppet regimes across the west of the island under the justification of asserting the mandate. Ziniev himself would be arrested in 1926, presumably due to an opposition to Martov's interpretation of the mandate.
Though the Martov regime would be toppled in 1936, the Durakan Civil War did not see the scrapping of the policy, with the newly declared Miner's Republic signing the treaties of Eteric and Ostrom with two of the former puppet states, resulting in the complete annexation of the Eteri Socialist Republic and the seizing of a considerable portion of the Vakari homeland from Vakarastan. Durakia would involve itself further on the island in later decades, coming to dominate a majority of central Irnac in the 1950s under the leadership of Akslav Merkov and Nicoli Andrev. This would eventually lead to direct conflict between Durakia and the government of Ekvatori, when the Durakan Volunteer Corps were sent to support socialist rebels which later organized under the Revolutionary Partisan Front (RPF). The RPF would, with the backing of Durakia and Tretrid topple the Ekvatori monarchy and establish a friendly communist regime under Ivica Petrovich, with Durakia heavily investing into the propping up of the new government in exchange for a great deal of influence within the country.
In contemporary politics, actions such as the formal admittance of much of Central Irnac into Durakia following the Irnac Conference and the annexation of Vakarastan following the Irnac War have been argued to present a reaffirmation of the mandate, with some coining the term Neo-Zinievitism. The Social Democratic Party, who led the Durakan government for much of the 2010s, expressed a reluctance to justify actions taken in Irnac as ones reflective of explicitly Zinievite policies, while several members of their coalition partners in the Democratic Worker's Party were more willing to actively invoke Ziniev when speaking of the territorial expansion.
In coitizing the Durakan government, a number of analysts have argued that the history of military intervention on the island of Irnac presented the conditions that shaped the Irnac War, and it reflected poorly on Durakia as a nation that it would continue to carry an unspoken claim of protecting the Pivnich people while maintaining and growing the nation's control over the island and its people through the annexation of territory and propping up of friendly regimes. Former Deputy of the Trade Union Council, Nonna Bonk, recalled of her time in politics that the Vakari situation was one which Durakia could not be viewed in any way as blameless. Speaking on the war and how the Ziniev Mandate influenced it, she wrote: