Turtle Island

Turtle Island
Sovereign Land
A photo of Turtle Island taken on 14 August 2021 during the Second Turtle Island Expedition.
Flag Coat of arms
Country	Northwood-Oregon
Claimed	11 October 2020
Founded by	Carson Snyder
Area
• Total	0.00607028 km2 (0.00234375 sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)

Turtle Island is an island in Lake Erie claimed by the Kingdom of Northwood-Oregon as Sovereign Land. It was originally claimed by the Kingdom on 11 October 2020 as part of the Three Day Expansion, but was later reaffirmed as a claim after the passage of the Canon Governing Document of the Kingdom of Northwood-Oregon formalized the doctrine of Sovereign Land. The claim was reaffirmed in the Sovereign Land Revisiting Bill which also relinquished the Kingdom's claim over Osme.

Northwood-Oregon's claim to Turtle Island has came into dispute twice, once with the Free Socialist State of Paloma in May 2021 and once with the Empire of Meritia in December 2022. Both of these disputes were able to be resolved diplomatically, though, through the Turtle-Woodtick Agreement and the Turtle Island Détente Agreement with Paloma and Meritia respectively.

History

Turtle Island Expeditions

The Turtle Island Expeditions refer to two separate expeditions to survey Turtle Island from afar. The first Turtle Island Expedition, which was conducted on 1 August 2021 was unable to approach Turtle Island due to unsafe weather conditions and instead was used to survey the Woodtick Peninsula and surrounding areas. The Second Turtle Island expedition was conducted on 14 August, a day after the passage of the Sovereign Land Revisiting Bill, and was able to approach the island and take multiple photos showing the continuing deteriorating state of the structures on the island. During this expedition, the NOV Unnamed was officially commissioned into the Northwood-Oregonian Navy with Admiral Richard Snyder I as it's head.

Claim dispute with Paloma

In May 2021, it was brought to the attention of Carson Snyder by members of the Paloman government that the Free Socialist State of Paloma also claimed Turtle Island as part of it's territory. It was agreed upon by Snyder and Aidan McGrath, President of Paloma to revisit the issue at a later date and for the new states to maintain their treaty of mutual recognition, which had been ratified on the 1 March.

By August 2021, the issue was brought up in discussion between McGrath and Snyder in private channels, resulting in the creation of the Turtle-Woodtick Agreement in which Paloma would claim the Woodtick Peninsula and in return would also relinquish their claim over Turtle Island. Both parties would also recognize the claims of the other party over the respective territories, and would refuse to recognize claims over the territories made by other parties. The agreement was ratified by the Supreme Paloman on 1 September, and later by the Northwood-Oregonian Parliament on the 9 September. The agreement was then finally signed by McGrath and Snyder on 18 September, bringing it into effect.

Claim dispute with Meritia

Main article: Turtle Island dispute

In early December 2022, the Empire of Meritia was searching for an uninhabited island to claim on Lake Erie that would be easily enforceable and accessible by the Meritian navy. Meritia discovered the island on 3 December 2022 and immediately designated the island as a key interest. However, the Kingdom of Northwood-Oregon claimed the island as well, prompting Meritia to begin denouncing its claim to the island. At 6:00 PM EST, 4 December 2022 the Empire of Meritia would formally pass a resolution to annex the island as the Protectorate of Turtle Island, denouncing and condemning the Northwood-Oregon claim on the grounds that Northwood-Oregon never truly landed on the island to claim it themselves. The Meritian government, during the process of annexation repeatedly remarked of landing Meritian troops on the island and planting the Meritian flag sometime in early 2023.

The Kingdom of Fontasia, Kingdom of Scynja, Republic of Roscamistan, Shahawk Nation and the Kingdom of Skahynia all supported Meritian efforts to claim the island for themselves, forming the Ohio Bloc and beginning what was known as the Turtle Island dispute. Meritia would claim the dispute concluded on 6 December 2022 after altering its foreign policy to remove recognition of Northwood-Oregon by altering their standards of legitimacy. Despite this, Northwood-Oregon still claimed the island. The dispute would officially end after negotiations with Northwood-Oregon, in-which Meritia revoked it's claim over Turtle Island and instead claimed islands closer to it's mainland.

See also

• Turtle Island on Wikipedia
• Pearson Territory