Zafar (Faction)

Zafar is a private military corporation based in the Persian Gulf region, and is a major combatant faction within the Farsight conflicts.

Zafar was formed after the resolution of multiple sovereign conflicts in the region, with the stated intention of 'promoting unity and security' during the lengthy rebuilding process after significant infrastructural damage was sustained during the previous decade.

Subsequently, as global stability declined, an estimated 80% of the region's population affiliated with Zafar in return for security and relative economic stability.

At the beginning of the Farsight conflicts, Zafar was estimated to command in excess of half a million active combatants, and administrate an estimated 165 million Sponsored Citizens.

Formation
Zafar as a formal organisation was preceded by an illegal paramilitary group known as ARFA, or "Victory for the Betrayed Peoples of the Arab Nations," a coalition of anti-sovereign factions from across the Levantine and Persian Gulf regions.

ARFA was initially condemned as a terrorist organisation by both the United States and UN, after carrying out assaults on key sovereign government installations in several Middle Eastern countries. However, ARFA's status as a terrorist organisation was quashed, after they successfully brokered peace deals and helped form a unitary government for five of the sovereign governments involved, of which ARFA played a significant role.

In an attempt to ease internal tensions, ARFA consolidated itself into a single group, named 'Zafar', meaning 'Triumph' in Persian.

Leadership
During the peace processes instigated by ARFA, twin sisters Aisha and Hafsa Nafisa were both active negotiators, and were seen as the public faces of the movement.

When ARFA became Zafar, the Nafisa sisters were both elected as leaders, after a leadership struggle that saw several of their political rivals become victims of suspected assassinations, allegedly orchestrated by the sisters.

The Sisters' leadership was otherwise uncontroversial, and in their first year in power they registered Zafar as an operating corporation. After 5 years, Zafar was the single largest non-sovereign employer in the Middle East, with operations in manufacturing, construction, commercial transport, private security, agriculture, and primary industries.

The Tahrir Initiative
Nearly a decade after the formation of Zafar, several sovereign governments in and around the Middle East were in crisis. As more and more of their infrastructure became privately managed by Zafar, the remaining nationalist political groups suffered leadership struggles, and alleged sabotage by the Nafisa sisters.

As ruling governments sat on the verge of collapse, the sisters announced the beginning of Zafar's next stage - the 'Tahrir' or 'Liberation' Initiative, a ruling which gave the Zafar Corporation unprecedented permission to militarily occupy key territories considered 'under neglect' by their sovereign governments.

To slow the occupation, the respective governments formed a deal with Zafar to allow citizens to vote in a referendum that would decide whether or not the Tahrir Initiative was allowed to continue.

The Nafisa sisters accepted, and began a propaganda campaign in the region in an attempt to sway the populace in their favour.

The campaign was enormously successful, and by the end of year five of the six scheduled referendums had been counted, with an average of 84% of the voting population supporting Zafar, and the continuation of the Tahrir Initiative.

Criticism
As Zafar's occupation continued and sovereign governments effectively downsized to little more than an emblematic institution, international favour once more turned against the group.

Many compared Zafar's actions to that of the 'Lebensraum' policies enacted by the Nazi party in the early 20th century, but the Nafisa sisters refuted these comparisons, arguing that their occupation of the region was now democratically permitted.

Many political action groups also denounced Zafar's alleged undermining of the governments in the area, and their attempts to reduce any influence that was not controlled by them. Unlike the previous accusations, these were not commented upon by Zafar's leadership.

Military Contention
As Zafar consolidated its military across the regions under its control, the Vestus Group began to build installations in North-West Turkey, prompting retaliation by Zafar over what was seen as their land.

Foregoing any peace process, the Vestus Group responded by requesting military assistance from the Ares Corporation, whose military focus was in and around the Mediterranean Sea.

The following skirmishes were considered the first of the ongoing Farsight Conflicts.