Empire of the Ring

Kazakhstan’s April was still sub-zero in the morning and evening, but this year’s April was a lot warmer than usual, and people in the royal territory were relieved by the warmer weather.

It was because the Kurdish immigrants who just moved were not fond of cold. They were from a warmer climate, and it was hard for them to withstand even the spring chills of Kazakhstan.

The Arirang royal territory was busy because of the influx of Kurds. Officials were distributing the Kurd migrants into different buildings, but the facilities were not enough to hold them. So construction workers were from the city of Atyrau to work on more buildings.

The good news was that the Kurds were gladly helping the construction process.

They decided to build a camp only on the west side of the river where the royal palace was located but close to one million.

In the beginning, it was planned to build camps on the west side of the river only, but because of the lack of facilities, the construction department decided to also build camps on the east side of the river as well. Right now, a street bridge was currently being built to connect the east and west sides of the river.

The massive immigrants would lead to development in the domestic economy, and in the near future, there would be a large city like Almaty in Western Kazakhstan as well.

Originally, it had planned to do stream-bed cleaning works and embankment works along the river to enable shipping to the midstream of the Ural River, but the canal work was not able to start because the results of the environmental impact assessment were not available yet.

In summer, melted snow from the Ural Mountains flooded the riverside, so banks were necessary for the area to be served as residential areas.

If both sides of the river were developed, it would inevitably affect the environment, but the construction would be done anyway because the semi-deserted area was not going to be affected heavily, anyway.

“Construction Director Min, I don’t know if the banks of the rivers will have any adverse effects on the ecosystem.”

“There will be an impact, but in the process of urbanization, such sacrifice is inevitable. I’ll try to find the best possible way to minimize the damage.”

“And we’re only building temporary camps in the residential areas. The city planning is not even completed yet, wouldn’t it be an interruption to the future city plan?”

“That’s why the temporary camps are only limited to residential areas. You won’t have to worry about the city planning being affected by it.”

“We’re going to have to hurry up the construction of the camps in the West. Could you encourage the workers?”

“We’re in a hurry. We’ll have an outline around next month.”

“This plan should be carefully put together so that we won’t have a problem for at least a hundred years from now.”

“You can count on it because the construction company is a globally renowned one.”

Since the city would contain more than a million people, the planning was commissioned to a British design company.

“Which country do you think would be the right fit to work on the power generation in the eastern part of the Ural River?”

“I’d like to make a German company do it this time. It’s also an opportunity to take on their technology.”

Min Nikolaevich, the Director of Arirang royal territory’s construction department, was always fond of European companies because he had a firm belief that their technology was superior to companies from other countries.

“The cost of building a German power plant would be high.”

“It’s a little bit higher than a Korean one, but I want to give more credit to the German company considering its priority of environment and technology.”

“They put the environment first?”

“Running the power plant will inevitably contaminate the environment. The German company offers a low generation cost but also minimizes pollution around the plant. And the technology transfer is promised already. The German company staff wanted to visit you soon, so please consider it after meeting him.”

“Is there a reason why I should meet an individual company?”

“For some reason, he was very eager to see you. He said that he will accompany a German government official as well. Would you like to see him in person?”

“If they’re interested in Kazakhstan, I should meet him. I’m also interested in meeting German government officials.”

***

With the arrival of Kurds, many changes had been made to the royal territory.

With the inclusion of the eastern part of the Ural River, the total territory area had increased by 4,800 square kilometers, so in total, it was close to 8,400 square kilometers. It was a little larger than Korea’s Chungcheongbuk-do Province.

The Kurds’ settlement would be built on both sides of the river, and the land that was included to the royal territory this time would be developed into a residential area, commercial area, light industry complex, and farmland.

To get to the western side of the river where there was no palace, people would have to cross the river. So two regular bridges and one railway bridge were planned to be built.

The facilities would be constructed to take about 40,000 Kurds in the residential area of the original royal territory and 600,000 Kurds in the newly incorporated area.

As for now, there were about 5,000 Kurds who had moved from Syria.

Most of them had lived in the border area and crossed the border illegally because they thought it would be an opportunity when Turkish airstrikes stopped.

More than 50,000 Kurds would be pouring starting from May, so many of the building materials and daily necessities for migrants were piled up at the wharf.

Most of the supplies came from Volgograd, and sooner or later, relief supplies would come from the U.S. because the U.N. promised to send emergency relief supplies.

Moreover, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives were also reviewing loans. Likewise, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund informed Kazakhstan that they were considering an aid loan.

This meant that the world was paying keen attention to the “Exodus” of the Kurds. In this atmosphere, the safety of Kazakhstan and Kurds was almost guaranteed for the time being.

“Phew! We only received about 5,000 people, but this is overwhelming.”

Jong-il, who returned from Syria, looked around the busy dock and sighed.

“You’ve done a great job, Jong-il. Thanks to you, we saved many lives.”

Because of Park Jong-il’s work in Syria and Turkey, the refugees, who had crossed the Turkish border illegally, could be brought to Kazakhstan safely without any trouble.

“By the way, tell me what Istanbul shipping companies are asking for more. What is their problem?”

“Oh, don’t get me started. I had to suppress my temper in front of them. They’re trying to make a fortune on this opportunity.”

“Have you spoken to the Turkish government?”

“They said the government can’t come forward and tell private companies what to do.”

“I mean, they could help us through a policy.”

“I think it would be faster to exclude Turkish companies and seek Greek companies.”

“Why Greek companies?”

“The reason why Turkish shipping companies are calling for higher charter fees is that they don’t want to take the lead in moving the Kurds.”

“Is it ethnic sentiment?”

“I suppose so.”

To charter Istanbul’s shipping companies’ ships to transport refugees, Jong-il talked to many company representatives, but they were asking for excessive fees. The Turkish government was no help in this either.

“The Turkish government is in an awkward situation, too. Turkish Kurds are agitated.”

“Is there any sign of armed conflict?”

“There’s no sign of that, but the Turkish Kurds think that the government is forcibly driving Kurds out of Syria.”

“Hmmm. Maybe that’s why the Turkish government is reluctant to help us. Do you think this will affect the migration?”

“Well, there is a good side and a bad side to this.”

“The bad side must be the possibility of the Kurds in Turkey’s armed conflict. What is the good side?”

“The Turkish government won’t be able to interrupt us. Even now, the government is being wrongly criticized to have forced Kurds out of Syria. It won’t be able to resume its attack on Syria for a while.”

“Then we don’t have to rush the migration. We can’t take it because there are too many people coming at once.”

“No. The migration should be processed as scheduled. Those who decided to move are eager to move out of there. Even if we have troubles here, I think it’s better to bring them here first.”

“Transporting about 50,000 people a month is the best we can do. More than that is a little too much.”

“You can think of that much more work. If we can supply construction materials and daily necessities on time, I think it’s not bad to overdo it.”

“Just think that we’re getting more manpower. If we can supply daily necessities in time, I don’t think it’ll be a minus for us.”

The Kurds, who had just arrived, were also working at various construction sites.

As they were being paid for their work, they were quite excited that they could engage in economic activities on their own. They were relying on free supplies, but they also had desires to buy things they wanted. Having jobs satisfied their needs and desires. It was also directly related to their self-esteem and sense of independence.

“Alright. Let’s accept all of those who want to come. It’ll be much better than having to leave them there and agonize over them.”

“Then I’ll go to Greece and see if I can rent ships. So just build as many facilities in the meantime.”

“Aren’t you overdoing yourself now? Tell me if you need a break. I’ll send someone else.”

“I should work hard if I want to be a duke one day. Write down how hard I’ve been running around.”

“Oh, jeez! Stop talking nonsense and get out of here.”