Izzam Incident

The Izzam Incident was a bloody protest that occured in 1933. It is largely regarded as one of the foundational moments of the Bludish movement. In 1933, the Soll Dam Project, which was proposed as a long term solution to Bergia’s and Sordland’s energy problem, began its construction. The construction site was home to an old Bludish village called Izzam which was planned to be evacuated and razed to open the way for the dam. The arrival of the construction workers to the site led to a series of protests by the local populace. The protesters managed to block the construction and continued their protests for 10 days. On the seventh day, a group of military personnel arrived at the scene as a reaction to the protest’s increasing size. On the tenth day of the protests, a village elder named Watani Aschraf was shot by one of the soldiers, that caused the protest to turn violent. According to the Radical, ‘the entire group of protesters were killed that day, by the group of soldiers who were ordered by Tarquin Soll himself to make sure the construction was underway’. Consequently, Izzam was razed and the construction of the dam started soon after. This event led to a period of protests and riots in the region of Bergia. To suppress the riot, the state reacted by taking drastic measures, which included one of the most controversial of Tarquin Soll’s decisions, that resulted in the persecution of thousands of Bludish people. Calling the event The Bludish Genocide, a group of Bludish nationalists established a militant resistance movement called the Bludish Freedom Front. In the aftermath of the incident, the BFF has orchestrated attacks against the Sordish Police Forces and state buildings in major cities, starting a new period of bloodshed in the region. It was declared as a terrorist organization by the government later in the same year. Every year, the remembrance day of Aschraf's death is widely attended by the Bludish people who treat it as part of their identity, while others use it as a symbol of seperatist sentiment.