Gaplan Antarctic Territory

Gaplan Antarctic Territory Duchy of Gaplan Antarctica
Autonomous Region
Flag Coat of Arms
Country	Federated States of Gapla
Cities	60
Government
• Governor	Connor Hetner (SRP)
Population  (May 2024)
• Total	0
Time zone	UTC-3 (Gaplan Antarctica Standard Time, GAST)
Website	gat.gaplagov.org (under construction)

The Gaplan Antarctic Territory, co-officially the Duchy of Gaplan Antarctica, is a territory of the Federated States of Gapla. It is Gapla's official Antarctic claim and was declared on August 2021 after Wyatt Baek claimed to have found terra nullius and other justifications for the claim.

Throughout the history of the territory, it has tried to find a suitable governor, and later the Sovereign Prince appointed Emerson Lee as the new Governor of Gaplan Antarctica, who serves as the special administrative region's administrator. After his departure from Discord, from December 2022 until early April 2023, Wyatt Baek served as a temporary governor, before Connor Hetner was appointed by the Federation Council.

History

Context

The Gaplan Antarctic Territory was a result of Wyatt Baek wanting another external territory of the Federated States of Gapla after he studied Antarctic claims and found out that some countries did not add a southern limit to their territorial claims.

While it used to solely claim unclaimed sea ice, the Gaplan Antarctic Territory now encompasses the pictured mainland as well as the old sea ice (when it has not melted). The sea ice is not regularly used on a map due to it melting during the summer.

Current status

The Gaplan Antarctic Territory is a territory of the Federated States of Gapla, led by Connor Hetner as the Governor of Gaplan Antarctica after Sovereign Prince Wyatt I appointed him to the position.

Following Emerson Lee's departure from micronationalism and Discord, Wyatt Baek took over from 29 December 2022 until 8 April 2023. On 8 April 2023, Connor Hetner was appointed as the Governor of Gaplan Antarctica by the Federation Council. Carrying on the restrictions of the appointment of his predecessor, Emerson Lee, his term is temporary and is vulnerable to expiry, which it has been since 10 May 2023.

Claim information

Territory

The territory of the Gaplan Antarctic Territory, according to the official claim, extends from the 80th meridian west to the 90th meridian west with a limit at the 60th meridian south. This consists of the region in which other legitimate claims do not lie and only the claims that claim the entire sector of the globe are included.

Justification

The Federated States of Gapla recognizes that other countries have claimed the region of the Gaplan Antarctic Territory before Gapla.

However, Gapla does not recognize these claims because it considers it to be equivalent to the claims of claiming the entire world, as the parties to the claim claimed the entire sector of the globe without a limitation on Antarctica or the 60th degree south parallel, like other Antarctic claims. It also claims the unclaimed sea ice above the 60th degree south parallel but below the 45th degree south parallel, a remnant of its previous Antarctic claim that is still in force.

Therefore, Gapla's official justification for the claim is terra nullius due to claims it considers invalid.

List of governors

To date, Gaplan Antarctica has had three governors. The following is a list of Governors of Gaplan Antarctica.

Name	Governor number	Term number	Term	Time in office
Wyatt Baek	1	1	31 August 2021 - 10 November 2022	1 year, 71 days
Emerson Lee	2		10 November 2022 - 29 December 2022	49 days
Wyatt Baek	1	2	29 December 2022 - 8 April 2023	100 days
Connor Hetner	3	1	8 April 2023 - present	1 year, 227 days