Gymnasian–Bohemian Crisis

Not to be confused with Valentine's War.

Gymnasian–Bohemian Crisis
Photo of a plane sighted during the crisis, as a joke deemed to be from Bohemia
Date 1–17 February 2018 Location Gymnasium State and surrounding areas Result Status quo Recognition of sovereignty of both sides Formation of Union State of Bohemia and Moravia
Belligerents
Gymnasium State Mekniy (until 7 Feb) Supported by: UMCE (until 7 Feb) Fyrinia Radoslavia Moravia (until 7 Feb)	Bohemia Moravia (since 14 Feb)
Commanders and leaders
Adam Pivetz František Prášek Tomáš Falešník Radek Vastl Joel Novotný Naemal Namul-den Dastan Shibil-den Lukaş Çursık Albert Flinkmann František Otta Šindelář	Ladislav Pejchl František Koblanský František Otta Šindelář
Strength
Gymnasium State: 15	Bohemia: 3 (estimated 1)

Gymnasian–Bohemian Crisis (Czech: Gymnaziální–českomoravská krize, literally Gymnasian–Bohemian-Moravian Crisis) or formerly Gymnasian–Bohemian War (Gymnaziální–českomoravská válka), sometimes also the Valentine Crisis/War (Valentýnská krize/válka) was a conflict in the history of the Czech sector mainly between the Gymnasium State and the fictitious Republic of Bohemia that escalated in a brief state of war between the two sides.

Although mobilisation of the Home Defense of the Gymnasium State was annouced and a declaration of war was issued, no actual armed conflict occured and the conflict took place within the diplomatic sphere, in the form of exchanges between Tomáš Falešník as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Joel Novotný as Minister of Journalism for the Gymnasium State and František Koblanský as the Prime Minister for Bohemia. Although war was also declared on Moravia, it did not participate in the conflict.

The conflict had a number of long term consequences, including solidification of the position of Gymnasium State as a member state of the Union of Micronations of Central Europe and later the election of Tomáš Falešník as its Secretary or opening of the question of the importance of Gymnasian ministries which led to their abolition. The conflict also later contributed to the formation of the Organisation of United Micronations as the second most important international organisation of the Czech sector at the time.

Background

Thorough the history of the Czech sector, micronations with large territorial claims such as Moravia or Mekniy were common. On 23 January 2018, Western Bohemia declared independence, claiming the territory corresponding to the former eponymous Czech region, nowadays split between the Karlovy Vary and Plzeň regions. This overlapped with the territorial claims of the Gymnasium State, who on 25 January formally refused the recognition of Western Bohemia's sovereignty. Conflict was, however, avoided, partially also thanks to the UMCE Secretary Naemal Namul-den's arbitration and on 28 January Western Bohemia relinquished the territorial claim on Klatovy District. On 8 April, Wertern Bohemia became an observer state of UMCE.

The same day as Western Bohemia relinquished their claim, František Koblanský discovered the Czech MicroWiki and planned to found a micronation called the Republic of New Town. He immediately attacked the territorial claims of Moravia, which spanned the historical regions of Moravia and Czech Silesia. His criticism was responded to by Lukaş Çursık, the President of at the time fictional Fyrinia. After receiving this response, Koblanský proclaimed himself the President of Fyrinia-inspired fictional state called the Republic of Bohemia, claiming the entire territory of the historical region. This conflicted with the territorial claims of the majority of UMCE member states and led to its Secretary advising the member states not to recognise the sovereignty of Bohemia.

Timeline

Crisis

On 1 February, the President of the Republic of Bohemia has announced existence of the Army of National Unification, which he claimed to fight for annexation of the Carpathian Ruthenia into his plans for restoration of Czechoslovakia. Some time after he also claimed that his political party was registered in Slovakia. Despite the information were obvious lies, on 1 February 2018, 11:54 UTC the President of the Gymnasium State Adam Pivetz, on the iniciative of Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Falešník, declared state of mobilization for the Home Defense, marking the beginning of the crisis. Later the same day, at 22:10 UTC, Mekniyan Commander-in-chief Dastan Shibil-den has declared mobilization too and stated that Bohemia and the Army of National Unification were dangerous for sovereignty of Mekniy. UMCE immediately started to seek a diplomatic solution and sent Bohemia a treaty of non-aggression, however the attempt was unsuccessful.

On 4 February, 17:30 UTC another statement from Shibil-den was released, saying that war between UMCE and Bohemia is possible. On 6 February, an ultimatum signed by Naemal Namul-den for Mekniy (the General Secretary of UMCE), František Otta Šindelář for Moravia, Lukáš Čuřík for Fyrinia and Albert Flinkmann for Radoslavia was sent to government of Bohemia. The ultimatum was accepted on 7 February, 11:23 UTC.

Because of the ultimatum, Bohemia recognized all UMCE member states and Moravia, and was forbidden to interfere in affairs of UMCE and Moravia. Mekniy immediately canceled the state of mobilization, unlike the Gymnasium State, and withdrew statement about danger for Mekniyan sovereignty. On 10 February, Bohemia attempted to join the UMCE, but it was rejected.

War

On 14 February, 12:02 UTC, Moravia announced that it and Bohemia plans on creation of a confederation called Union State of Bohemia and Moravia. This was considered as violation of the UMCE ultimatum by Bohemian interfering in Moravian politics by the Gymnasium State, and at 12:17 UTC the President declared war on both Bohemia and Moravia. UMCE declared neutrality, Naemal Namul-den stated that Mekniy will declare war if UMCE member states won't be included on official maps of the Union State. The Gymnasium State was ready to initiate an invasion of Bohemia, but the Home Defense did not know where the leadership of Bohemia was located, and the war became a diplomatic conversation between Gymnasium State and Bohemia, as Moravia deemed the declaration irrelevant.

On 15 February, at around 10:00 UTC, a small plane was sighted above the Gymnasium State. It flew only few dozens meters above the roofs of houses around and it featured a stripe in Bohemian bicolour, so the Gymnasium State deemed it as Bohemian plane, despite very low chances the plane was related to Bohemia. The Bohemian government replied with an information about a dead man, killed by government of the Gymnasium State. This information was disproved by the Gymnasium State and only complicated further diplomatic conversations.

On 16 February, the agreement was finally made between the Gymnasium State and Bohemia that both sides will recognize each other's sovereignty. The war ended on 17 February, 8:11 UTC.

Aftermath

The crisis had few consequences that can be visible in the Czech MicroWiki community to this day. After the crisis, Bohemia and Moravia formed the Union State of Bohemia and Moravia, however the two micronations had different opinions on how should the united government and foreign policy be like, especially in Moravia-Radoslavia dispute. The Union State lasted until 2. 3. 2018, when Bohemia declared independence as Czechoslovakia and entered a war with Moravia. The dispute was solved after few months by Naemal Namul-den's Theory of state layers. The existence of Czechoslovakia in the community then caused influx of fictional nations, including states such as Slavic Federation, and an Organization of United Micronations was created by those nations, claimed to be an opposition to highly inactive UMCE.

The tensions between the Gymnasium State and Czechoslovakia arose once again, when Gymnasium State edited its foreign policy during 10 and 17 September 2018 and signed the Wrythe Convention on 28 September. However no actions took place, except Czechoslovakia withdrawing the recognition of the Gymnasium State, despite the slightly ofensive tone the official statement was written in.

Although the tensions have disappeared, the two states were still in a sort of a "cold war" in attempts to get new micronations in the Czech MicroWiki sector under their influence. This ended on 11 July 2019, when Czechoslovakia dissolved, abandoning fictional elements in micronationalism. On 7 February 2020, the Krlesian Federal Republic establised as the successor of Czechoslovakia, keeping the OUM, but opposing fictional micronations. On the second anniversary of the declaration of war Krlesia and the Gymnasium State entered negotiation for establishment of diplomatic relations.