Thursday Night Massacre

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The Thursday Night Massacre was the term which came to refer to the mass resignation of most of the higher-ups of the Yaraan Kryfon's Movement on 25 July, 1963, in the aftermath of the breaking of the Purge scandal. Although Veim Faldŭ, the leader of the YKM at the time, dismissed virtually all of those involved in the scandal with his declaration on 23 July which fired all members of the YKM who participated in the plot, large-scale criticism of the party and him in particular led him to believe that nothing short of him resigning could be done. Subsequently, he, along with eight other major party members, announced their resignations in relation to their handling of the scandal on 25 July. Outside of the Massacre of the Cabinet by Xeriren Awaseq in 1952, the Thursday Night Massacre was the largest political resignation in the history of Yaraa and the Kryfona Kingdom as a whole.

History

Prior to the "Purge" scandal breaking, the YKM had been rather well regarded by the Kryfona public at large due to their ties with the monarchy in the Kryfona Civil War, but by the third day of news about the scandal, on 23 July, 1963, the scandal had almost single-handedly destroyed the public perception of the party. Shortly after 1 PM, Nylzsryf time, and just after the Lawvsgara Times dropped a report on the extent of the scandal, Veim Faldŭ ordered the firing of all of the members of the YKM who participated in the "Purge" plot. Although the largest and most noteworthy offenders—Zyŏn Mekar and Ryfald Mirŏ—had already been ousted, and somewhat-connected Heyoz Szyinid was being pressured to resign, the order seemed to signify that he was taking the situation seriously.

Nevertheless, Faldŭ received scathing remarks for his failure to control the lower-ranks of the party. An editorial in Nylzsryfa from that day regarded Faldŭ as a "failure to [his] party," while the headline story of Azsaeha called for him to resign in spite of his action against the plotters. Other editorials and stories from the day cast similar doubts on other members of the party—the Norasa Times decried Heyoz Szyinid's part in the plot and the party's failures to remove him; Gelaa's weekly journal called for the head of Secretary Braje Tegeusz; Yolrie's mayor expressed a desire for district leader Zaly Syszak to be ousted. Virtually no significant member of the party was spared from blame, with the curious exception of Syinu Talga.

On 24 July, 1963, Faldŭ called a mandatory meeting of the YKM in Tidkae. No press attended the meeting, and no press were allowed into the meeting. As such, what was discussed during the course of the meeting is largely unknown; Faldŭ himself spoke in a 1980 interview that the meeting was to "discuss [the party's] future options." What is known of the meeting is that the mass resignation which occurred the next day was to some extent plotted and discussed at the meeting—to what extent exactly is not clear. Vesa Garŏn stated to Nylzsryfa that the resignation event was spontaneously plotted, while Faldŭ stated in the 1980 interview that many of the members of the party who did resign were already intending to resign in the future anyways, independent of the scandal. Regardless, the meeting adjourned shortly after 3PM, and Faldŭ spoke to press shortly after that "the meeting today has gone well, and ... [I] think that the public will be pleased to know that change is coming."

At exactly 8AM, on 25 July, 1963, Faldŭ called an emergency press conference at the YKM headquarters in Tidkae. There, he announced his resignation effective immediately from the YKM, citing the scandal as a major deciding factor in his resignation from the organization. A few hours later, Tragane Heiga, Voza Gŏrŭ, Pasa Magriŭ, Pezhenes Sabrŭ, and Zaly Syszak, all of whom were district leaders for the YKM, announced they would also resign from their positions. Braje Tegeusz, the secretary of the YKM, announced his resignation at a conference in Yadysim at 3PM. Vesa Garŏn, the vice-president, resigned in a written letter to the press at 5PM. The final member of the party to resign, Heyoz Szyinid, did so in a press release at 7PM where he maintained his innocence, but acknowledged that he had not served his party to his best ability. Ultimately, eight members of the party resigned on 25 July, bringing the total number of members ousted by the scandal to at least 138.

Resignations

Person Position Date of resignation
Veim Faldŭ Leader of the YKM 25 July
Vesa Garŏn Vice-leader of the YKM 25 July
Tragane Heiga Aarŭ district leader 25 July
Voza Gŏrŭ Yadysim district leader 25 July
Pasa Magriŭ Drzseil district leader 25 July
Zaly Syszak Yolrie district leader 25 July
Pezhenes Sabrŭ Yarasil district leader 25 July
Braje Tegeusz Secretary of the YKM 25 July
Heyoz Szyinid MP, Kghelias East district 25 July

Aftermath

Although not expected, the resignation of Veim Faldŭ was not surprising. The resignations of other members of the party were, however; while the press had anticipated shakeups, the number of people who resigned on 25 July was seen as excessive by the press. Reactions to the shakeup were also mixed. Aarŭsa's editorial board called the events "wholly unnecessary, and ... a great blow to the Yaraan people." Yadysima and the Yolrie Times agreed with the notion. Yolrisa was impartial to the decision, noting that Faldŭ had "hardly led the nation [as it was]."

In the immediate aftermath of the resignations, Syinu Talga was announced as Veim Faldŭ's successor, and the position of vice-leader of the YKM was abolished. Marazans Meiha was announced as the new secretary of the YKM on 27 July, and all of the district positions were filled again by 30 July. The seats of Szyinid, Mekar, and Mirŏ sat vacant for several months but were eventually filled in the 1963 election—the YKM won all three of the districts they represented in the election. Despite the resignations, the YKM actually won two more seats than they had before the scandal broke.

Not all things went well for the YKM, however. The scandal drew the ire of Tyeri Awaseq, who demanded that Talga dissolve the Yaraan government and vacate the party's majority in the Yaraan parliament. Talga refused, and as a result, Awaseq ordered the invasion of Yaraa on 1 August. The YKM's national seats were also suspended by the Kryfonsparliszaiye from 2 August to 22 August as a direct consequence of the invasion and Talga's refusal to back down, and they were restored only after the YKM took the government to court.

Legacy

The Thursday Night Massacre has gone down in history as one of the largest mass-resignations or mass-firings in the history of the Kryfona Kingdom: only Xeriren Awaseq's 1952 Massacre of the Cabinet, wherein Awaseq fired 13 members of his cabinet, is larger. The Massacre also played a large role in establishing the political environment that caused the Yaraan Crisis from 1964 to 1967; some historians in fact see it and the Purge scandal as the catalysts of the Yaraan Crisis entirely. In 1978, the YKM honored the event with a plaque that sits out front of its headquarters in Tidkae; the plaque remains there to this day. The Massacre has also been subject to multiple books, as well as a series of memoirs and biographies by several of the members who resigned on that day.

See also