Dracul Ends Relations, Violates Treaty

Cycoldian-Draculian History

Dracul and Cycoldia have been partners in treaties for extremely long amounts of time, including the transfer of Napocitania on the 7th of February last year which was signed on in person during Ambassador Charles Ross' visit to Cycoldia. As well both Cycoldia and Dracul were attendants at the Dracul-hosted Trinational Summit, and Her Imperial Majesty had met with Stephen Luke many times, him even being decorated with Cycoldian awards and vice versa. Although it was a positive history, many times there was fervent disagreement regarding politics and other such matter like that. This though was commonly set aside or at the maximum was left with Her Imperial Majesty or the official which she would be disagreeing with making some sort of statement. There had not been any specific diplomatic repercussions taken other than against specific individuals such as Bruce Cooper who was declared to not be permitted in Cycoldia.

The Blue Party and Jan 11

This later culminated in a fervent multi-day debate of Her Imperial Majesty against Karl Frederick (Dracul's Naturalisation Director) and Isidoro Amalfitano (The pick for Secretary of the Treasury), members of the Draculian Blue Party. The topics spoken about during it were topics such as religion in politics, which Her Imperial Majesty was against the inclusion of religion in politics, gay marriage, which Her Imperial Majesty was in favour of, and transgender rights, which Her Imperial Majesty was also in favour of. During the debate, Mr. Frederick said that being transgender is “not the right way”, and was supported in this statement by Mr. Amalfitano. The debate was later forced to be halted by Stephen Luke after Her Imperial Majesty advocated for their removal partially based off of the statements such as those (which Mr. Luke opposed removing them due to that). Following this Her Imperial Majesty consulted with members of the Cycoldian government and nobility over a statement she planned to write, later publishing the statement and sending it to the Draculian Secretary of State prior to publishing it. The response to this statement came a day later on January 11th, in which Dracul stated it would be ceasing all relations and voiding all treaties, which would violate the Granting of Concession from Cycoldia to Dracul Treaty of 2021's Article III, despite this being brought to the President of Dracul they proceeded with the policy, including violating the treaty signed.

Cycoldian Response

Concerning this, Her Imperial Majesty met with the Chief of Armed Forces, Colin Paul, concerning Prezan Academy, and summoned a meeting of the Imperial Cabinet to take place at 19:00 CST on January 11th 2022, although it was later rescheduled to be on January 12th at 14:30. She as well had a short meeting with the Foreign Minister, Arthur Lacey-Scott, and spoke with Stephen Luke more regarding the reasons for Dracul's decision. A statement is expected to come from the Foreign Office or Her Imperial Majesty's Office regarding the matter immediately, with most likely more statements to follow. Stephen Luke as well was stripped of his Order of Grandeur by the the Government of Cycoldia, citing that he had violated it's criteria of "diplomatic and political services to the Grand Republic of Cycoldia and her Cycoldian Imperium" in his actions, with the Foreign Minister saying that he had "committed a blow against Cycoldia and its development".

On January 13th, Her Imperial Majesty held a meeting with Prime Minister Avery Prasatik, where they discussed the effects of Dracul's decision. During this meeting multiple different pieces were agreed on, including the general sentiment that it was an extreme overreaction of the Draculian Government, with Ms. Prasatik generally supporting Her Imperial Majesty's Office's statement. Her Imperial Majesty as well held meetings with some foreign heads of state, though has neglected to comment concerning specific individuals. In light of the Dracul 1 interview with Stephen Luke, Her Imperial Majesty commented "If he truly believes what he is saying, then he is lying to himself. I have faithfully cared for Dracul, which is why I had taken time from my days before to speak to it's government members. If I did not care for Dracul then I would not have even written my own statement from my office, as apathy is the harshest punishment. I did care though, which is why I put pen to paper, because I believed more of Dracul." As well, Her Imperial Majesty's Office released a statement at 22:00 which was approved by the Foreign Office. In this statement Her Imperial Majesty's Office revoked Stephen Luke's Knighthood in the Sovereign Order of the Golden Heart, and his Knighthood in the Order of the Cycoldian New Years, saying that his statements in regards to Her Imperial Majesty were "considered to be contrary to the mission of the Sovereign Order of the Golden Heart".

Draculian Response and Dracul 1

At 17:09 Central Standard Time, Dracul 1 News (the government news of Dracul) published an article entitled "Cycoldian Leader’s Personal Dispute Leads to Break in Relations with Dracul", in which it states views which seemingly go against the same views expressed in the article, such as insinuating that Her Imperial Majesty is attacking Dracul by publishing her disagreement, while still also saying that Dracul is "trying to salvage the remaining positivity between Dracul and Cycoldia for future relations". Considering also that it includes blatant mischaracterising of Her Imperial Majesty's statement (claiming it stated personal emotional distress), and brings up old events with no relation to this incident (Cycoldia's membership in the Grand Unified Micronational), it seems that this article would instead fly in the face of trying to retain any good feelings of either side. As well, in the final sentence of the article it says "continued statements are being released from Christina I’s office, making [the salvaging of relations] difficult to accomplish", although there has only been one statement from Her Imperial Majesty's office, and no further statements. As well there is no proper justification for not abiding by the treaty of which Dracul signed, as the article solely justifies it as saying that Dracul "would not give any more time for another attack to occur ", despite also bringing to note that violating a signed agreement with Cycoldia, especially regarding the matters which were in the one cited here, can be interpreted as an act of war in many non-micronational cases. As well, the cited incident that the article says was an "attack" on Dracul, was when the Cycoldian government provided government documents to a Cycoldian citizen who then used them as citations in a news publication. That in no way is Cycoldia attacking Dracul, as it is an (at the time) Cycoldian citizen requesting documents as is their right, and then using them as part of a critique on Dracul, which was of their opinion.

As well, a statement from Stephen Luke's Office as President of Dracul was released at 17:58, this statement, in the view of GP, essentially states that the Draculian Government's actions were brought on by the opinion that the statement of Her Imperial Majesty's Office was essentially a slight on their honour, hence why they revoked relations. This is not an appropriate reason to revoke relations and break treaties over, especially not for a nation which pride's itself on professionalism like Dracul. In the statement it also states that the opinion of the President is that no hatred occurred from the side of Isidoro Amalfitano, which is blatantly false from the things said during the debate, such as Mr. Amalfitano's agreement with the statement that being transgender is "not the right way". No matter if they used Her Imperial Majesty's pronouns or not, a statement such as that is hateful in nature, and the opinion that that is not hateful is just ridiculous, especially considering that there are many other possible reasons for why Mr. Amalfitano would not misgender Her Imperial Majesty in a debate publicly in a space which is moderated, such as fear of reprisal. The statement put out from Stephen Luke's Office as President of Dracul seemingly both conflates Her Imperial Majesty and the Government of Cycoldia, while also dismissing the fact that the statements endorsed by Mr. Amalfitano were inherently hateful.

As well, after this statement in a public conversation between Mr. Luke and Her Imperial Majesty, Stephen Luke said that his participation in discussion regarding the actions of the Draculian government was "pathetic" on his behalf for speaking to Her Imperial Majesty off of it, and alleging that Her Imperial Majestyis immature, saying things such as "Arguing with you is pathetic on my part" and "this right here alone is exactly why the Dracul State Department changed recognition of micronations to those who are 17 and above, due to maturity reasons." In the words he said after his office's statement he explicitly outlines both insults to Her Imperial Majesty and Cycoldia. As well during the discussion on it Her Imperial Majesty was restricted from speaking in the venue it was in, although this was confirmed later to be the Attorney General acting without approval from any government member. Though later that was reversed when Her Imperial Majesty was removed from the server

On January 13th prior to 20:00, Dracul 1 News decided to put out a story of an interview with Stephen Luke. During this he accused Her Imperial Majesty of not ever caring about the nation of Dracul, despite her experience within the Commonwealth of Dracul such as serving on the Bran City Council and her efforts to aide Dracul. In this interview he as well insinuated that Her Imperial Majesty should have not spoken her mind on the two officials, in which he had said that she "took things too far" by doing such. When asked about if he wished to move past it and act in a neutral manner he said "That’s what we wanted from the start, but it’s hard to do that when someone won’t stop releasing statements about others refusing to conform to their beliefs, or even going to the extent of demanding their termination." This is despite the objective fact that no statements had come from either Her Imperial Majesty's Office nor any other Cycoldian official's office at the time of the article's publication. In fact, looking by sheer paperwork, the Draculian Government has issued twice the amount of documents relating to this event. The first piece was the letter sent to Her Imperial Majesty, and the second was Stephen Luke's statement as President of Dracul, compared to at the time of the article's publication, Her Imperial Majesty's Office singular statement. If one is comparing the amount of news stories sent out, Grandeur Print has only had one article concerning the topic, meanwhile Dracul 1 News has had two articles concerning it, as the interview and article speaking about it were in separate articles.