2 Years Later: The Croatian Blockade Lives On

It has officially been two years since the Croatian authorities illegally detained and then deported Verdisian citizens and residents in Verdis. In light of the milestone, the Verdisian government has released a statement.

The social media posts mentioning the 2 year anniversary have gained massive traction, on TikTok a post on President Daniel Jackson's account alone has amassed over 500k views. Highlighting the amount of attention the topic has brought to Verdis and it's online communities.

As a outcome of the posts, the responses across multiple social media platforms have been extremely positive in support of Verdis. One commentor wrote "No one is free until Verdis is Free" with another writing "Verdis sovereignty!"

Overall it is clear from the response to the statement made that there is a growing large online backing for the blockade to come to an end. With the recent increase in the rate of growth for Verdis's online communities, Official accounts and praised e-Residency program, we can expect a massive increase in the quantity of active Verdis supporters, along with

e-Residents and citizens.

Along with an increase in online social media attention, the 2nd year anniversary of the invasion has also brought with it an influx of media coverage. This widespread coverage of Verdis being a state as a whole has been another driving factor for the rapid growth of Verdis online. But it has also lead to an increase of scrutiny towards the Croatian authorities for their actions on the 12th of October 2023.

Numerous news channels have reached out to the Croatian authorities, however no comments or statements have been made in reply.

In a statement given to The Guardian, President Daniel Jackson said "Croatia still insists Verdis is not part of Croatia. So we believe it’s a matter of when, not if, we’re back on the land"

While this raises hope for future of Verdis, it is important to note that even with this it is clear that while Croatia apparently doesn't recognise the land Verdis is on as it's own, Croatian Authorities are still blocking all activity on the land. Additionally, Verdis seems to be unable to use the Croatian legal system to gain recognition.

In another statement given to The Guardian, President Daniel Jackson said “it’s hard for us [Verdis] to take legal action against Croatia when they’re not allowing us to access their legal system”

This comes from the fact that as a result of the Croatian authorities illegal detainment and then deportation of multiple Verdisian figures, travel bans and restrictions have been given out. Daniel Jackson is one of those travel banned.

Along with this, other land issues arise when you take into account the extent of effort the Croatian authorities are putting into "protecting" the land from Verdisian settlers.

In another statement given to The Guardian, President Daniel Jackson said that Croatian authorities have “now installed cameras all along Verdis’s coastline, so if you even hover your boat for 10 minutes in the territorial waters, a Croatian police boat will be on its way very quickly”

Therefore, while there is hope that the Croatian Authorities will cease their operations in Verdis or they will be forced to stop internally, it looks like for now Verdis will not be able to access the land and will have to resort to it's current efforts of growing Verdis's support to continue it's growth.

For the time being, all that Verdisians can do it wait for more to come out about Verdis's recognition and efforts to claim the land. Knowing the government is still utilising all available resources to get back it's sovereignty.

Verdis Live will continue to report on this topic if more information or statements are released.

Written by Verdis Live