Sentara Alleges Treaty Violations — What Now?

SOLATRIYA — In recent news, the Sentaran government has issued its response to Zilatra's declaration of independence. In this announcement, the Sentaran government condemned the declaration, in the process alleging violations of the Agreement on the Strategic Vassalization of Zilatra. However, what are the merits behind this?

In the announcement, given by Guildmaster Ingo (although written by Urabon and Magerius), he states the following:

“They have refused to work together with us on a solution and didn't even let us know that they were going independent 48 hours in advance, as our initial vassalship treaty requires.”

For starters, there are several issues with this. Namely, he is referencing §7 of the Agreement, which does in fact state that the treaty will ultimately be nullified within 48 hours if either party desires to after providing reasoning to the other.

However, this runs on the assumption that the Agreement on the Strategic Vassalization of Zilatra was legally valid in the first place. It is important to note that this treaty has been operated on a de-facto basis, and only some of its measures were being implemented while others like §4, §3, and §8 have been historically ignored, and that the treaty had been legally null for most of the nation's history. Legal professionals in Zilatra have warned for upwards of six months to both the Zilatran and Sentaran state the treaty would not be able to be held up in court, and that any violations of the treaty would not be able to be legally held responsible.

We will discuss the reasons for why it is null, but it is important to ask ourselves to what extent these concerns are legitimate and to what extent they are political theater. The notion that the Zilatran and Sentaran states have not worked together to make a solution is historical fiction. There have been multiple votes, many group chats, diplomatic discussions regarding independence as an option, and this has been ongoing for the better part of a year. Zilatrans, who have been very involved throughout the process, know this intimately, so this narrative effectively only works on one audience. For all intents and purposes, every government official on either side of the aisle knew that the existing treaty was legally invalid and unsustainable and that a change in the ongoing relation must happen. It is impossible to hold either party accountable for supposed treaty violations when the treaty in question was nullified, and select government officials deliberately delayed signing a new agreement of any kind for months, finding the de-facto partial vassalship preferable. There has been nothing de-jure about the vassalship for a long time.

Why was this treaty null? Thankfully, this was covered by the Working Group on the Vassalization Treaty last month, which came to the conclusion that many considered there to be flagrant violations by Sentara of §8 and §4 of the treaty previously, which automatically rendered the treaty null. This Working Group is what informed the executive government on its options, including the option of independence without a deal. Sentarans were aware of this, and in fact some participated in the Working Group. To put it lightly, Sentara was aware this was an option from the beginning, and they were not caught by surprise by the independence by any means, contrary to the narrative of the public announcement.

§8 is a clause stating "The legal validity of this agreed treaty will be suspended and nullified if the government of any party ceases to exist. Any government which claims to inherit the government will have no claim to continue the legal validity of this treaty." Sentara previously had its government overthrown in the Sentaran Civil War, rendering the treaty null.

§4 is a clause stating that Sentara may not "immobilize, destroy, or disable the abilities of the Zilatran state in its self-maintenance, sovereignty, and capacity." Most notably, many considered this to have been violated during the Worldbuilders' Strike, as the aforementioned Working Group discovered during its fact-finding mission that two Sentaran government officials had stolen Zilatran assets to use as political blackmail against the Zilatran state to demand the removal of this very author from Zilatra.

The Sentaran government was abundantly aware of these criticisms of the treaty, and had been for months. Zilatra has actively worked on several treaty-rewrites to fix this situation, all of which were rejected by Sentara, as is their right. In the personal opinion of this author, any criticism of Zilatra for not writing an additional hundred failed treaties while conditions get gradually worse and worse is not in good spirits. While frustrations from Sentara are entirely understandable that things have ended in the fashion they have, the declaration of independence was the logical conclusion of delayed reforms and treaties.

The deceased Ahudenya si Dal was quoted, in a discussion with Urabon and Guildmaster Mun in January, saying the following in reference to the pre-existing treaty violations which rendered it null. Ironically, she predicts exactly what the Sentaran state has expressed, that there have been "treaty violations" that appear out of their control to hold Zilatra responsible for, in much the same fashion Zilatra was unable to hold Sentara responsible for theirs:

“God forbid we ever have to discuss legality or want to hold a party accountable, it is literally impossible as the treaty should be legally nullified ... the treaty has no legitimacy.”

While I'm sure all Zilatrans are glad that Sentara recognizes Zilatran independence from the vassalship, it goes without saying this is a disappointing statement from the Sentaran state, and one which misinforms the international community on what happened. Take for instance the Zilatran declaration, where much of it is stating that Zilatra intends to maintain its friendship with Sentara and considers the countries sister-nations. By comparison, select Sentaran officials have taken an active stance seeking to further alienate relations without being held accountable.

Our stance of solidarity and friendship is still omnipresent, and this is not changing for Zilatra, and the Sentaran people remain close friends to our community, in spite of divisive and hurtful politicians hellbent on dividing us. Those who have hurt our communities and lied to the masses will be held accountable, history will not exonerate the guilty. What has been done has been done, and the matter is now in the hands of the masses, in both Zilatra and Sentara, to make sure lies do not fill the zeitgeist and superstition. We are one working class, and we are not enemies. The future is in our collective hands.