The past few weeks have seen diplomatic relations between the Empire of Austenasia and the Grand Republic of Delvera reach an historic low, primarily due to the inflammatory behaviour of Delvera’s leader, Consul Callahan.
Earlier in the month, Emperor Jonathan I was invited to take part in a discussion hosted on Facebook Messenger with Dylan Callahan, Consul of Delvera, and delegates from two micronations who are also members of the MicroWiki community.
Being unable to attend the first scheduled session of discussion due to urgent personal reasons, the Emperor noticed that he was referred to in a document drawn up by the others in a way that was disrespectful to his office as Austenasian Monarch. Upon pointing this out, he was met with a tirade of abuse from Callahan, who claimed that his inability to attend the earlier session resulted in the standard courtesy of correct styles of address being waived.
Callahan was eventually calmed by the intervention of Rev. Joseph Marx, a longstanding friend of the Emperor who was also present in the discussion group. Another document drawn up was then reviewed, which referred to the participants as all belonging to “micronations”, despite the policy of Austenasia to never refer to itself – or others it recognises as sovereign states – as such in official documents.
Callahan then criticised the Emperor’s decision to raise this issue, and referred to Delvera itself in terms which seemed ambiguous in regards to the Delveran government’s attitude to its own independence.
Upon unprovoked rudeness from another member of the group, the Emperor decided to leave it as not worth his time.
Callahan was contacted in regards to resolving the confusion arising from his statements concerning Delveran independence, and claimed that his government’s “relationship with Austenasia is a top priority” and that he was “very hopeful for mutually beneficial relations moving forward.”
It was agreed that diplomatic talks should take place between the Empire and Delvera to resolve the outstanding issues. However, in that time, Consul Callahan has – instead of attempting to schedule talks with the Emperor – spent his time accusing the Austenasian national flag of being “cancerous” on the MicroWiki Forums and accusing the Empire of being unable to conduct diplomatic relations.
Where all this leaves the future of Austenasian-Delveran relations remains to be seen. Diplomatic talks are, in theory, still to be scheduled, but nothing yet has come of this endeavour.
Consul Callahan is best known in the MicroWiki community for a protest in December last year over the administration’s decision to uphold a ban on foul language being used on the MicroWiki Forums.
