The streets of the main cities in Anatolia and Syria echoed with angry shouts
"We dreamt of a republic, not a monarchy! "
"We elected a leader, not an emperor!"
"The genocide will not be tolerated!"
"Georgios Paleologos, answer the people!"
People held large banners and shouted at the top of their lungs, their faces filled with desperation. These were the ones who had lost family mbers in the recent suppressions. Yet, oddly enough, the people standing behind them chanted completely different slogans, calling for the general secretary to resign, the republic to be dissolved, and a Kingdom of Anatolia to be established. None of it had anything to do with the deaths of the factory workers, labourers, and others who had perished just days ago.
Perhaps a few people who had joined the protest out of pity noticed how strange everything was, but by then, they were already too involved to distance themselves from the separatists. Who knows, so might have even seen it as a chance to rise to power, just like those who had played key roles in the Anti-Nobel riots before the republic was founded. Those very people now sat at the top, holding influential positions within the republican or central governnt.
Sadly, they were too ignorant to realise their own greed, because the next mont smoke bombs were thrown right into the group, and a large number of soldiers rushed in from the front and the rear, wearing riot protection and carrying massive shields.
"Ahh, stop it, you are being unreasonable!"
Cries of surprise and accusations were imdiately heard, but the soldiers did not give the protesters ti to react; they charged forward with a shield in one hand, a long stick in the other, and started swinging at the people with all their strength, as if they were not holding a weapon but a cricket bat hitting the ball.
"Ahh!"
Cries of pain were imdiately heard, and people began to disperse with panic written all over their faces, but how is it possible to calm down the rioting public so easily? If it were so easy, the nobles at the founding of the country would have easily suppressed the public, but obviously, that is not how it went down, and it is the sa in the current situation. Although the people initially dispersed, they imdiately beca more violent; they took whatever tools they could find to arm themselves, and started setting fires to public property like governnt institutions, carriages, and other things.
After receiving his new task, Major General Ioannis Papadopoulos was taken aback. He did not think that the general secretary would take such a asure, but following the will of the representative of the people was his ultimate duty, so, without hesitation, he ordered his n to get out of the riot gear and don the battle equipnt directly.
"Move out!"
In all the major cities of Anatolia and Syria, a communist-style bloodbath was carried out, anyone who went against the state was either killed or forced to surrender, and even when they surrendered, they were directly put into labour camps, forced to work in the digging of the Suez Canal for free for a decade.
Even with the absolute control of the public dia of UGSR, the loss of so many lives was impossible to hide. After all, with the promotion of integrated economies between all the republics, people had already started communicating with each other. Even if Georgios Paleologos ordered Athanasios Komnenos and Konstantinos Mavros to completely suppress the news in their own republics, the news would eventually get out. So he decided on a different approach. Starting from the day after the riots, the iron-handed suppression of the riots was painted as the suppression of separatist terrorist activities that were motivated and funded by foreign influences.
Thankfully, Georgios Paleologos was not without any proof to strengthen his narrative. To prove that there were terrorists involved among the public, the nas of the terrorists who road around the country with Greek identity, who were in high positions, who had amassed large amounts of weapons like Molotov cocktails or black powder, were made public along with the proof which was collected from their own hos or places of work or transit.
To prove that foreign forces were involved, he sought the help of Dorian Radu, who successfully tracked down several nobles acting as middlen between the riot leaders and third parties in Europe. Moreover, he used information shared by the Bharatiya Empire to expose the plot to blow up the newly built tournant venue and sabotage the Olympic Gas.
"These terrorists do not want to see our Greek nation rise. They are so eager to split us apart using religion, language, and other factors. They even planned to disrupt the Olympics by plotting terror attacks on the stadiums. Thankfully, our intelligence agency has foiled their plan, but this cannot be forgiven," Georgios Paleologos said to the reporter of the national newspaper.
As for the deaths of the innocents, he stuck to the narrative of them being used as scapegoats by the terrorists and unfortunately losing their lives due to the evil plot of the imperialists in Western Europe.
Basically, the serious problem that could have led to cracks forming within society was made into a big problem. The big problem was made into a small problem, and eventually, the small problem was finally made into nothing. The central governnt and the republic’s governnt cleverly took the position of a unit that was forced to defend itself and fight back, leading to unforeseen and unfortunate casualties.
Saying mostly the truth mixed with so lies here and there was the thing that is most difficult to disprove, especially if this narrative is put forward by the state itself. Reading the newspaper, even the people who had witnessed the whole incident take place right before their eyes were left confused. Did they understand what had happened wrongly? Were all those poor people who actually lost their lives actually pawns of the terrorists? They began to doubt themselves.
Of course, there were so who were firm in their beliefs, but these people were a minority, and they were usually very smart, so they did not open their mouths. But even if so people who did not know what was best for them tried to open their mouths, they were quickly silenced by either being transferred to their job or simply exiled to a remote region. Even the people who had seen the whole thing happen in Anatolia and Syria were like this, not to ntion the people who had not seen anything but were only reading it through a newspaper.
When they learnt so many things had happened in the last few days, their expressions turned fierce, and they were fuming.
"These European nobles won’t let us live," a young man comnted fiercely.
"How could they not? Our system, where the people are the source of power, threatens their imperialist dictatorships," said another boy wearing spectacles, his tone tinged with sarcasm. "The rise of our socialist republic might make the poor in their kingdoms and empires realise their oppression and rise in revolt." His eyes glead with a sharp light. "So maybe the Europeans think that once our republic grows stronger, especially with all the attention we’ve gained from the Olympics, we could beco a major problem for them. No wonder they planned so much against us."
The young man who listened patiently imdiately clenched his fist after hearing the speculation by his friend.
"Damn these Western Europeans!"
’Bang!’
A few days after the incident, when the accounts of eyewitnesses who had seen everything unfold and heard the protesters shouting openly for a new separate kingdom were published, the narrative put forward by Georgios Paleologos gained even more strength. Of course, to leave no room for doubt, he allowed opposition voices to erge as well. But he made sure those opposition figures included people with absurd and self-contradictory ideas, so the public would naturally dismiss them.
When Vijay realised what was happening, he couldn’t help but recall a certain opposition leader from his previous life, a man who seed more determined to ruin his own party than to strengthen it, effectively campaigning for his rivals by acting like a fool. The only difference was that Georgios had handpicked his fool, while the pri minister from Vijay’s past life had been lucky enough to have one by nature, or perhaps, he was the pri minister’s agent all along. Who could tell? The truth behind that mystery remained unresolved, even until his eventual assassination.
Coming back to the present
It is unknown where it started, but with the young teenagers as the core, a movent called the Quit Greek Movent gained montum in the United Greek Socialist Republics. Students gathered by the thousands in front of the Olympic Village in Athens and loudly protested.
"The British, get out! Get out of Greece!" a young man shouted, his voice cutting through the crowd. The people behind him echoed his words, and soon it turned into a deafening chant.
"The French, fuck off! Go eat your frogs!" The chant spread like wildfire, echoing through the streets and reaching the Olympic Village, where it left the French and British athletes red-faced with anger and humiliation.
They were angry, but what could they do? They were in a foreign country, and with helplessness, they could only speak to their managers, and the managers had to take it up with Georgios Paleologos.
Taking on the accusatory and hostile gazes of the managers from the French team and the English team, Georgios Paleologos was not flustered or even in a hurry. He simply lifted his hands and shrugged.
"There is nothing I can do, gentlen. The people of my country are furious about the underhanded tactics used by the nobles of your country."
Matthew Horrington slamd the table. "Preposterous, my good sir! How can you simply accuse us without any evidence?" His fist was clenched, and he looked like a righteous person who was wronged for no reason. The French manager did not speak and gave the full right to talk to Matthew Horrington. After all, he was only a manager, and Matthew was not only a manager but also a diplomat from England stationed in Greece. His country, France, had not established an embassy yet; besides, he did not even know if the claims made by the newspaper he read were true or not.
The corner of Georgios Paleologos’s lips was upturned. "Of course ,we have the proof, sir." He took out so letters from his safe and threw them onto the table. "These are the letters passed between the terrorists and so nobles from your country." His eyes beca sharp. "I thought of directly contacting your embassy and demanding that these nobles be extradited to Greece to receive their punishnt, but I delayed asking only because we are in the middle of the Olympics. But now that you have co forward yourself, I officially put forward this demand from Greece. We want the nobles who colluded in this incident to be sent to Greece, or else we cannot guarantee the deals we have discussed before."
Matthew Horrington’s eyes were completely fixed on the letters. He recognised them. How could he not? He was also involved in the funding activity. Thankfully, he was only one of the smaller contributors, not the main man who took the most risk and the benefits. In the end, he recovered, feigned ignorance about the letters, and replied, "If what you have said is true, it is indeed reasonable for the people of your country to be angry, but that is yet to be determined. I’ll bring up this matter with His Majesty the Emperor, but could you please calm your people down? It is affecting my athletes."
Georgios Paleologos thought for a mont and nodded. In fact, he had already received a request from the Emperor of the Bharatiya Empire, His Majesty Vijay, to pacify the protesting students. So, even if the British representative hadn’t co, he would have done it anyway. It was rely a coincidence that the British took the initiative themselves, a coincidence that now gave him a slight advantage in the discussions that would take place in the future.
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