Lehvant

The People's Republic of Lehvant
Flag
Motto: "The cause of labor is the hope of the world"
Anthem: ''Le Temps d'oeillets''
Capital	Jezairé
Official languages	French Persian
Demonym(s)	Lehvantian
Government	Federal Semi-presidential Republic
• President	Fazel Tajik
Legislature	Parliament of Lehvant
Establishment
• Founded	14 February 1924
• Gained independence	27 November 1969
Area
•	1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi)
• Water (%)	3.8%
Population
• 2019 estimate	83,183,741
HDI	0.78 high
Currency	Lehvantian lira (LHR)
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy
Driving side	left
Calling code	+212

The Republic of Lehvant, commonly called Lehvant, is a federal semi-presidential democracy in the continent of Neria on Earth in the International Democratic Union.

Lehvant was officially recognized as a sovereign entity in 1969 at the end of the Great War when French forces relinquished control. Advocates for Lehvantian independence, notably under the leadership of the Lehvantian Liberation Committee, used tactics such as mass civil disobedience, boycotts, and demonstrations to mobilize around their anti-imperialist, democratic socialist ideology. However, French forces only agreed to evacuate Lehvant under the condition that the French-sanctioned Lehvantian National Union (LNU) would be formed to draft the country's founding constitution.

The founding constitutional text included references to many of the secular and egalitarian principles advocated by the Lehvantian Liberation Committee, yet nowadays, many constitutional scholars interpret the text at largely being aimed at preserving France's cultural domination and sphere of influence in the region. The anti-imperialist and radical roots of Lehvantian independence movements were diminished in the constitution, and although demands for a secular independent state were included by the drafters of the constitution, the vague language of the text made Lehvantians fear for further restrictions on religious freedom. These fears would later materialize in the rise of political Islam in the country from 2015.

History

Colonial Era

Lehvant is a former settlement of the French Empire and legally, was not a colony - though in practice, many French and Lehvantians thought of it as such. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the invasion of Jezairé and lasted until 1969.

Lehvantian independence movement

The Lehvantian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending French rule in Lehvant. It lasted from 1870 to 1969. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Lehvantian independence emerged from Sahel. It later took root in the newly formed Lehvantian National Committee with prominent moderate leaders seeking to change the language policy of Lehvant, fighting for Persian language rights and education as well as more economic rights for natives. From 1930, the struggle for self-rule was characterized by sustained civil disobedience and advocacy of economic policies such as import substitution industrialization.

Founding of the Second Republic and Kamran's rise to power

In 1974, public unrest and popular uprisings became mobilized once again over the proposal of a constitutional amendment to form a legislative branch giving France immense oversight and regulatory capabilities as well as the ability to nominate an Assembly Chairman who would also oversee and approve legislative proceedings . Mehdi Kamran, who would later become President of Lehvant for nearly four decades and launch the Lehvantian Second Republic, first rose to prominence as a community leader during mass mobilizations at this time.

Mehdi Kamran photographed during his first inaugural address (1975)

Once the protests led to extended periods of government shutdown and calls for general strike paralyzing the economy for weeks at a time, the LNU announced the first open elections in the short history of Lehvant. Almost immediately, local and foreign journalists alike began to profile Kamran, praising him for his pluralistic yet progressive vision for the country. Throughout the next year, Kamran organized communities around the platform of his newly founded political party, Union for Collective Progress (UCP). Members in highly localized communities, which would later become a part of government structure in the form of labor co-ops and communes, submitted the required 15,000 signatures to get Kamran on the presidential ballot. Although the National Election Commission flagged the submission for further review, the re-establishment of general strike funds in urban regions led to the confirmation of Kamran as a candidate. Due in part to lagging voter turnout in rural areas, Kamran won the presidency in a landslide victory of 61%. At the time, it was envisioned that the outgoing cabinet members would simply nominate their replacements for approval from the executive branch. However, within his first 100 days in office, Kamran rejected almost all proposed nominees in favor of community leaders from outside the foreign-educated elite in order to galvanize his base. The first scandal of his regime came at this time when one of his nominees was threatened to be impeached by Parliament for being a known communist. This led Kamran to dissolve Parliament and form the Executive Cabinet with positions for a Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Labor, Economic and Redistributive Policies, Decolonization, as well as Agriculture.

Although President Kamran had almost immediate plans to form a Constitutional Convention, partly nominated through local elections and partly appointed by the Cabinet, an assassination attempt during the swearing-in process of his Secretaries led him to announce a State of Emergency and rule by decree for the next year. Knowing the empowered civil society that led to his electoral victory would crumble under such strict, top-down rule, he tasked his secretaries of labor and interior with overseeing the formation of communes and labor co-ops for every district. These associations would make up the Constituent Assemblies that would come to define Kamran's early rule, as they were how he secured popular legitimacy, through frequent town hall meetings on a variety of policy issues as well as the fact that every one of his executive rulings were submitted to these assemblies for a vote of confidence. These votes were largely symbolic, as the country had no other viable political alternative against the charismatic leadership of Kamran and individual assemblies feared repercussions for obstructing government.

In a landmark address to the nation on December 17, 1977, Kamran introduced his program to transform the nation. The consequent reforms Kamran pursued would come to be known as the "Sunshine Reforms". Having been influenced by the readings of Gramontism in his youth, he referred to the governing principles of his program as the "Six Sun Rays": Secularism, Republicanism, Democratic Socialism, Populism, Self-Determination, and Communitarianism. Next year on the anniversary of his address, this name contributed to the the updated flag of Lehvant, which added the sun alongside the original crescent design. The updated flag design is credited for crystalizing a shift in Lehvantian state identity and making up the symbolic and aesthetic components of the single-party period of Lehvant and what would come to be known as the "Second Republic".

Multi-party Period of Lehvant

The multi-party period of Lehvant started with the establishment of the opposition Liberal Republican Party by Nuri Taubira in 1982 after President Mehdi Kamran asked Taubira to establish the party as part of an attempted transition to multi-party democracy in Turkey. It was soon closed by the Union for Collective Progress government, however, when Kamran found the party to be too influenced by Islamist-rooted reactionary elements.

Fazel Tajik in 1997

In 1997, the Development Party was established, and was elected in 2002. Very popular at first, the government, led by President Fazel Tajik relaxed the restrictions on public Islam and their rise was largely seen as being the result of simmering tensions between religious conservatives and secularists throughout the past decade.

In the later half of the 2000s, the government introduced censorship laws limiting dissent, while it became plagued by high inflation and a massive debt. The government also attempted to use the army to suppress its political rivals.