Azerb United Front



"Workers of Sivella, Unite!"



The Azerb United Front is a small military and trade alliance between two subject states of the Free Empire, with both nations also members of the greater Sivellan Union. Its only components are the authoritarian socialist republics of Azerbaijanistan and Azerbhutan.



Background
The Azerb people, a distinct race that was the first to populace the Sivellan region, historically populated much of the modern-day southern Free Empire, variously united under one banner, be it fiercely imperial and authoritarian or democratic and isolationist. Following the rapid expansion of Greater Valencia in the 1950s, what was then the Azerb People's Republic was crushed by the imperial military and its people subjugated to rigorous ethnic cleansing and monthly tributes to the Valencian throne.

After decades of brutal occupation by the Empire, unrest began to stir in the Azerb region. Terrorist attacks in city centers became ubiquitious and anti-government protests that inevitably ended in violence were broadcast throughout Sivella and the world. Justified by mounting defense costs to garrison the peninsula, the decision was made in June 2017 to release portions of historical Azerb lands as two subject states, Azerbaijanistan and Azerbhutan, free to partially govern themselves and form coast guard militias but still subject to crippling taxes and only able to buy and sell from businesses in the Free Empire.

Despite the release of the two nations, Azerb discontent with Valencian hegemony continues to grow, particularly due to frustration towards the partitioning of the culture between two distant islands. Today, Azerbaijanistan and Azerbhutan form the Azerb United Front, a coalition of local militias whose official purpose is to protect to their coasts and the border region in the southern Free Empire.