Sirocco Joins Wrythe Convention

Havilland, WE, Jul 10 · 26 Julin 73 – Sirocco has today become a signatory to the Wrythe Convention, an agreement between micronations that condemns sockpuppeting, identity theft, and false claims within micronationalism.

The treaty was first signed in Wrythe, Austenasia, on September 15, 2018 (31 Baker 73), with inaugural signatories including Austenasia, the Grand Unified Micronational, Flandrensis, and Adammia. Nations who have since signed the document include Wyvern (as part of the Holy Roman Empire), Uskor, and Lostisland. Sirocco becomes the 48th nation to sign the Convention.

The agreement states that signatories may not knowingly enter into relations with nations that engage in “fabrications and falsehoods”, and compels signatories to suspend or revoke diplomatic relations with those that have done so.

In signing the Convention, nations do not necessarily enter into diplomatic relations with other signatories. Section 6 of the document states that “the collective desire to ensure trust and honesty in the community transcends any diplomatic relations between individual states, nations, and entities.”

The convention makes clear a distinction between “humorous aspects of culture, tongue-in-cheek embellishments, and legendary histories” that have become part of the fabric of micronationalism, and falsehoods that “knowingly encourage an untrue perception amongst an audience”

The Convention was drawn up in response to a number of nations making increasingly false or fraudulent claims. The text of the Convention names and condemns one individual, James Klaassen-White of the “Kingdom of Catan“, who claimed his nation had hundreds of citizens, a functioning international airport, a navy costing £30 million, and diplomatic recognition from both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Klaasen-White was later jailed for sixteen months for calling in two bomb hoaxes to his university accommodation in Sheffield.