Ashkubanophobia

The terms Ashkubanophobia, anti-Ashkubanism, and anti-Askhuban sentiment refer to a spectrum of hostile attitudes toward Ashkuban people and culture. These terms apply to racism against Askhubans and people of Ashkuban descent, including ethnicity-based discrimination and state-sponsored mistreatment of ethnic Askhubans. This prejudice led to mass killings or to justify atrocities during early 16th century and the Mordvanian civil war, notably by Abdanian monarchists and Bunesgan nationalists.

Today, anti-Ashkuban sentiment more often entails derogatory stereotyping and defamation, rather than open discrimination.

Use of the term Ashkubanophobia

The Florinthian-language term ashkubanophobia ("fear or hatred of Ashkubans") was used by Biyran historian Wladislaw Makarowsky in his 1522 essay "Political violence in Abdania".

In Abdania and Mordvania, the terms antyashkubanyzm and ashkubanfobiji were used by republican and progressive thinkers such as Anton Muszkowsky and Bogdana Jama. It reappeared in Askhuban nationalist circles in the 1560s and eventually entered mainstream used, reflected in leading Ashkuban-language newspapers and Ashkuban organizations such as the Ashkuban Society and the Askhuban Labour Party. In recent years, anti-Askhubanism, or Askhubanophobia, has been studied at length in scholarly works by Florinthian, Alstarian, and Mordvanian researchers.

Features

Forms of hostility toward Ashkubans and Ashkuban culture include:

• organized persecution of the Askhubans as an ethnic group, often based on the belief that Ashkubans interests are a threat to one's own national aspirations;
• racist Askhubanophobia, a variety of askhubanophobia;
• cultural Ashkubanophobia, a prejudice against Askhubans and Ashkuban-speaking persons - their customs, language and traditions;
• religious Ashkubanophobia, a prejudice against Askhuban people based on religious beliefs, which is rare nowadays;
• stereotypes about Askhuban people and traditions in the media and popular culture.

At present, among those who often express their hostile attitude towards the Ashkuban people are Geinic far-right movements, Abdanian and Bunesgan nationalists, and Mordvanian ultra-nationalists.

Ashkubanophobic stereotypes

In Abdanian language, the term gandler, a synonym for "crook", "petty thief", literally means "a person from Gandsek", a Mordvanian province with a large number of ethnic Askhubans, although before the 14th century it was mostly a pejorative term for believers of the Sentric Church.

The "Askhuban plumber" cliché may simbolize the threat of cheap labor from poorer East Brigidnan countries to "overtake" jobs in wealthier parts of Western Brigidnan. On the other hand, others associate it with affordability and dependability of Vostic migrant workers. However, many often anti-Askhuban violence in West Brigidnan is also directed against other West Vostic peoples such as Bunesgans, Mordvanians, and Biyrans.

Origins of the Ashkuban people

The Ashkubans are one of the West Vostic peoples, along Bunesgans, Mordvanians, and Biyrans. They are closely related with the latter, and both Biyran and Ashkuban languages are closely related, although not entirely mutually intelligible. Askhubans migrated from the East, settling in Western Biyra and Northern Nentsia between the 9th and 6th century BCE. Some of them moved and established in southern Marzanna, in several regions of today Calgarov, Ceribia, Videjszeme, or Assaria.

In the 2th century, there was another wave of Ashkuban migration, and they established in southern and central Mordvania and, two centuries later, in Kaljurand, Bunesga, Alstaria, and northern Nerysia. There about 10-16 million ethnic Ashkubans worldwide (depending on the sources), most of them living in Mordvania and northern Brigidna. There are 8 million of ethnic Ashkuban living in the Republic of Mordvania today, mostly living in central Mordvania, and some eastern and northern regions. The number of ethnic Ashkubans living in western Mordvania is smaller, however, less than 500,000 in the former territory of the Kingdom of Abdania, likely as restrictions imposed by the Abdanian monarchy through the 13th and 15th centuries.

Not all ethnic Askhubans speak the Ashkuban language. Most of those living in Western Brigidnan countries ended adopting the local language, although they often speak a dialect with many Askhuban-language loanwords. Since the proclamation of the Republic of Mordvania in 1567, Askhuban-language classes were allowed and organized in some state schools. This has favoured a small revival of Askhuban-language literature, and the creation of many Ashkuban-related cultural events and traditions.

In Western Brigidna, Askhubans are typically members of the Daenist denomination, while in the Republic of Mordvania, most ethnic Ashkuban belong to either the Abdanian Church or non-denominational Messanism.

Anti-Ashkuban sentiment to 1499

Anti-Ashkuban rhetoric combined with the condemnation of Askhuban dates at least to the 10th century, and it was originally caused by religious intolerance. The merchant class in northwestern Biyra was mostly of ethnic Ashkuban background, and they were the first one to embrace and propagate Avalsyanist ideas in the country. For that reason, they suffered religious persecution in the Kingdom of Biyra. Many ethnic Ashkuban fled to southeastern Mordvania, where they found a relative religious tolerance. Other moved further to the west, settling in Alstaria, Gehenna, and Nerysia.

Following the marriage of Prince Elvard and Josephine Hansen of Oslanburg in 1244, the Abdanian nobility converted to the Daienism. The Abdanian monarchy used religion politically in their wars against the Bunesgan Kingdom, and after the Treaty of Katzberg (1314) and the partition of Bunesga, Abdanian King Konrad I proclaimed Daienism the official religion in 1316. However, the Askhuban minority in the recently conquested by the Abdanian kingdom, who belonged mostly to the peasantry, strongly opposed to the suppresion of the Sentric Church in the country. This caused a religious revolt in 1324, which was supressed by the Abdanian army, with more than 20,000 Ashkuban and Mordvanian peasants killed or executed.

This followed an anti-Ashkuban propaganda campaign, in which Abdanian writers and intellectuals denounced Ashkubans "backawardness" in a similar vein to the "ignorance and barbarism" of the Avidnan natives. Abdanian monarchists between the 14th and 15th centuries attempted to project, in the difference between Abdania and ethnic Bunesgan and Ashkubans a "boundary between civilization and barbarism", which was aimed to become the foundational myth of the Kingdom of Abdania. Abdanian officials, following the proclamation of the Kingdom of Abdania and Mordvania, encouraged the view that Vostic peoples were culturally inferior and in need of Geinic tutelage. This racist view were particularly intense toward the Ashkuban minority in the 15th century, as Abdanian historians proclaimed that Ashkubans were even inferior than Bunesgans, Mordvanians, or Severyans, as they were unable to form even short-lived political institutions during its history, and therefore they could only be considered "a slave race". The fact that Askhubans, unlike Bunesgan and Mordvanian, were overwhelmingly the first to revolt against Avalsyanism gave impetus to their religious persecution.

Atharik I the Great nourished a particular hatred and contempt for the Askhuban people. He compared the Ashkubans to the Tlaloc natives in Volta. Many Ashkubans peasants were forced into serfdom, and even Askhuban merchants were obliged to pay higher taxes than those of Abdanian or Mordvanian heritage. The Ashkuban language was persecuted at all levels, and they were banned to move to the Abidnan colonies until 1504. General Kyvenbrecht Damiensson, Prime Minister from 1466 to 1480, described Ashkubans to animals that "one shoots if one can", and implemented several harsh laws aimed at their expulsion from the Kingdom of Abdania to eastern Mordvanian lands, and against those who practiced Sentric rituals in private.

Count Leszek Kaczynsky, a Biyran nationalist historian of the 15th century, claimed however that Ashkuban identity was a western invention to divide the Biyran people and that Ashkuban language barely differred from Biyran language, being merely an old and distinct western Biyran dialect.