Flag of the Republic of the Despotate of Socotra
Flag of the Republic of the Despotate of Socotra
Socotra, an island commanding the approaches to the Red Sea, belonged to the Peoples' Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1985. Of importance for its military airfield and limited naval facilities, it was an important post for the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron during the Great War. The airfield and harbor were raided by U.S. aircraft on a number of occasions, and the facilities totally destroyed. When the nuclear exchange occurred, the island was not considered worth firing at in the first strike. No second strike was ever launched, and thus, the island avoided nuclear devastation.
A large detachment of Soviet naval and naval air arm personnel found themselves totally isolated on the island. As there was only a small Yemeni military presence on Socotra, the Soviet Navy took effective control. Rear Admiral Kontantin Chuikov ruled Socotra with an iron hand, and was soon given the unofficial title of "Despot" by his men. After Chuikov's death in 2006, he was succeeded by Captain First Rank Leonid Melenovski, who assumed the title as a matter of course.
The island became a major trading stop for the rickety steamships and dhows that carried commerce along the navigation routes that extended from Egypt, Southern Africa, and the Persian Gulf.. The Soviet sailors married into the local Socotri population, though they remained a separate and socially superior caste, with Yemeni Arabs and Black African immigrants providing the middle social strata.
In 2028 the Mongol Khan of Baghdad invaded Socotra. The elderly Melenovski promptly capitulated and was confirmed as a client ruler under the Mongols. A Mongol ethnic Arab infantry garrison remained on the island to enforce the khan’s rule and to collect the lucrative tax revenue that passed though the island ruler’s coffers.
In 2046 the UKA invaded and captured the island after a brief fight. Despot Ivan Melenovski was retained as civil ruler and the island was reorganized as a Class II Commonwealth State.
Despot Ivan Melenovski is a theoretically absolute monarch of the island. In fact, most civil power is held by a Council of War of the twenty senior members of the ethnic Russian families.
Currently the island is under UKA military law, with the commanding officer of Fortress Command Socotra acting as Governor General and wielding a veto of the acts of the civilian government.
Socotra's population of 19,452 is divided into four ethnic groups. The largest are the native population of speakers of Socotri, an ancient non-Arabic language, approximately 60% of the total population. 
Twenty percent are Arabic-speaking Black African immigrants, five percent Arabs descended from the Yemeni civil authorities and settlers from the Mongol garrison, and fifteen percent Russians intermarried with all the above groups. About 95% of the population are Sunni Muslims. About 10% of those are members of the Wahhabi sect.
Socotra (or Soqotra) is a small archipelago of islands and islets in the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa is a triangle-shaped peninsula to the far east of the continent, extending into the Gulf of Aden south of the Arabian Peninsula and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, some 350 km south the coast of what was once known as Yemen, now the Yemeni Satrapy of the Mongol Khanate of Baghdad
The archipelago consists of the mountainous main island of Socotra (3625 km2 ) and three smaller islands, Abd Al Kuri, Samha with a few hundred people and the uninhabited Darsa, and other uninhabitable rock outcrops. Itsrainfall is light, seasonal and limited to certain areas.
Socotra has three geographical terrains: the narrow coastal plains, a limestone plateau permeated with karst (sinkholes, and caves typical of eroded limestone), and caves, and the Haghier mountains.
Socotra is one of the most isolated bits of land on earth. The island probably detached from Africa as a fault block during the Middle Pliocene (6 million years before present), in the same set of rifting events opened the Gulf of Aden to its north west. The long geological isolation of the archipelago and its fierce heat and drought have combined to create an unique and spectacular endemic flora.
The Despotate of Socotra, as a Class II Commonwealth state, does not have a military force of its own. There is a UKA National Guard Brigade being raised by the military governor. Armed with Mongol-issue muzzle-loading rifles, they are likely to be of negligible combat value.
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