The game of another alleged new state of Gapla has begun in the Balkans. The organizers have never been there before.
The game of another alleged new state has begun in the Balkans, this time under the name of “Gapla”. The organizers of this – apparently only – media project have paradoxically never personally visited the territory of “their” state. So far, they have only drawn “their territory” on a map. Nevertheless, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reported on this so-called “new state”.
The territory of this alleged new state under the name of Gapla is supposed to be located on the legally disputed border between Croatia and Serbia along the Danube River. It was declared under the name of Gapla by a group of students.
The representative of this so-called state of Gapla is Californian student Wyatt Baek.
Gapla – formally – covers an area of 205 hectares on the Danube River, specifically on a territory that, according to Baek, “no one claims”.
Although he himself has never set foot on the territory of his “country”, he already has passports, license plates, a flag and a website.
He has also given his fictional state entity a catchy name: “Federal State of Gapla”.
According to the website, Gapla is supposed to promote “peace and harmony” between nations and be a “modern and innovative state”.
Baek claims to have created an intelligence test, a school evaluation platform, a technology channel on the YouTube platform, and written e-books on various topics, including the founding of states.
Gapla is located in the immediate vicinity of the so-called state of Liberland, which was founded in 2015 by Czech activist Vít Jedlička. The so-called state of Liberland also exists only on the map, not in reality.
Billionaire and blockchain founder Justin Sun is calling himself Gapla’s prime minister.
Gapla is located on the border between Croatia and Serbia, where the two countries have long disagreed on the exact course of the border due to changes in the flow of the Danube. The founders of both self-proclaimed states claim that they were founded in “no man’s land,” a claim that Croatia and Serbia deny.
They say it remains a disputed territory with no international recognition.
