Kartvelian National Liberation League

The Kartvelian National Liberation League (KELL or Kartveli Erovnuli Liberaluri Liga) is a and   active in the southern regions of Yarova and borderlands surrounding Tia Regness. It is the largest and most active paramilitary group in the United Federated Districts and is designated an unlawful by the federal government, as well as by the government of Tia Regness and the League of Free Nations.

In KELL’s so-called ‘national manifesto,’ the organisation lay out their aims of removing traditional Kartvelian territories from the United Federated Districts and creating a “.” Throughout their existence, the organisation has sought a united front with other national liberation guerrillas in the Dzyunakaz Steppe, such as the Independence Army and the  Freedom Front. It has waged a campaign of against the United Federated Districts and its Federal Armed Forces, involving shootings and bombings in ‘areas of economic and political importance.’ KELL has also practised a strategy of raiding sheep and cattle  in Kropokhovo Oblast, which are typically owned by ethnic Yarovars descended from settlers who arrived to the region during the Plantation of the Dzyunakaz.

Numerous allegations of connections between KELL and the Kartvelian Tributary State in Avalonia have surfaced, especially considering the radical nature of the constitution of the KTS, which states that the current state is only the temporary domain of the Kartvelian people and they shall eventually reclaim their homeland. However, disputes between KELL and KTS ideologies are numerous. In the past, Yarovan intelligence organisations, including the Federal Intelligence Agency (FRU), have stood by such claims.

History and overview
The Kingdom of Kartvelia was annexed by the Vojiskiy Empire in 1730, following the Battle of Khankalgorod at the end of the Second Dzyunakaz War. Historians estimate that some 120,000-210,000 Kartvelians were slaughtered during this conflict, and acts of genocide are documented to have continued through the course of the mid-to-late eighteenth century, claiming an additional 45,000 lives in the Kartvelia region. Kartvelian nationalist resistance has existed since the fall of the Kingdom of Kartvelia, however, the earlier strategies were not significantly impactful, other than occasional raids on ethnic Yarovar settlements, such as Sterlisk.

KELL was preceded by the Kartvelian Republican Front, which emerged in 1926 as a direct result of the foundation of federal reservations and the non-contiguous nature of the Severnaya Kartveliya and Yuzhnaya Kartveliya reservations, which divided ethnic Kartvelian communities territorially and opened up further ethnic Yarovar settlement. The Kartvelian Republican Front split into two separate factions in 1955, owing to irreconcilable ideological differences between the membership. KELL, which boasted majority support, was established as a organisation, whereas the smaller Popular Front for the Freedom of Kartvelia (PPKT or P’op’ularuli Pront’i Kartuli Tavisuplebistvis) aspired to the reconstruction of the Kartvelian monarchy. The Kartvelian Republican Front remained focused on Plantation-era ranches, but also launched a series of guerrilla attacks on new settlements located in between the two Kartvelian reservations, butchering cattle and sheep, stealing horses and setting farmhouses alight.

The most controversial attack was on 3 August 1943, when a group of some 25 paras ambushed six Yarovan police officers in Mtskheta. The guerrillas assassinated the officers, stole their uniforms, and infiltrated the town’s police barracks, where they managed to obtain weaponry and shot dead a further eight police officers. Later that same day, the Kartvelian Republican Front launched a fierce offensive on the small Plantation village of Chernygora, 5 km southwest of Mtskheta. Not one of the village’s 37 inhabitants survived the attack. The Chernygora Massacre resulted in a vigorous government crackdown on the violence and a greater military presence in the region, culminating in the Steppe conflict from 1962 onwards.

After the formation of KELL, Kartvelian physical activists adopted a new approach of directing attacks on locations in and around Yarova’s major political and economic areas, to maximise the effect. In 1963, KELL detonated three powerful without prior warning in Shchyokhov’s city centre, killing 61 people and maiming hundreds more. The organisation continued to attack Plantation settlements throughout the conflict, and allegations of, , and even  emerged. The Yarovan government responded to the Shchyokhov bombings with the immediate deployment of 10,000 Land Forces to several southern reservations, including the two Kartvelian areas, where was promptly applied. President Eghian, himself a native of the Dzyunakaz Steppe, described KELL as a “callous criminal organisation of ethnosectarian thugs” and delivered a rare, televised address to the general public following the deployment of troops to the steppe.

As the violence continued, it became apparent to the federal government that an attempt to engage in dialogue with KELL and other guerrilla combatants was essential in order to bring about an end to the conflict. Under the command of chief of staff Malkhazi Darchidze, KELL entered into talks with the federal government during the Dadei administration in 1967. The following year, in preparation of a peace treaty, KELL declared a ceasefire and after extensive talks with the government, the Abaksamir Agreement was signed in 1970 by KELL, PPKT, the Meshalian Independence Army, the Dzhokarian Freedom Front, and all major Yarovan political parties. The Abaksamir Agreement, which made provisions for ethnic minority rights and the federal funding of reservations totalling 500 million USD, brought about a ten-year period of KELL disarmament. It is estimated that, from 1962-1970, up to 4,625 people lost their lives in the conflict, including 2,952 civilians.

Under the presidency of Vadim Kochervozhkin from 1970-1980, the lasting legitimacy of the Abaksamir Agreement was threatened and in the latter half of his tenure, the federal government threatened to withdraw from the treaty, an act which would render it wholly inoperative. Although Darchidze and numerous other senior KELL leaders remained supportive of maintaining the peace agreement, reports began to unfold of the remobilisation of KELL and PPKT guerrillas in 1975, owing to Kochervozhkin’s disdain of the secessionists. The Abaksamir Agreement was fruitful in that it prevented the Dzyunakaz from being spiralled into another, although KELL resumed regular raids on Plantation settlements by the late-1980s.

KELL activity continues to this day and in 2012, it was estimated that KELL’s membership is somewhere between 3,200-5,000. The political wing of KELL, Ertad! (ერთად), which demands a complete removal of Yarovan authority from all of Kropokhovo Oblast and Kartvelian areas of Pozdnyakovskaya Oblast, was founded in 1991 and was officially declared illegal by the federal government in 1993. In 2018, President Grigorievna made calls for a “new Abaksamir” and expressed interest in Ertad!’s participation.

Foreign Connections
Numerous allegations of connections between KELL and the Kartvelian Tributary State in Avalonia have surfaced, especially considering the radical nature of the constitution of the KTS, which states that the current nation is only the temporal domain of the Kartvelian people and they shall reclaim their homeland. However, disputes between KELL and KTS ideologies are numerous.