A NEW COUNTRY SPRUNG UP BETWEEN SERBIA AND CROATIA: They already have passports and currency, and their president is a Californian geek who resembles Zuckerberg!

Gapla is, after Liberland, the second self-proclaimed state on the Danube between Serbia and Croatia, writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Although no one recognizes it, such microstates have historically had their role, reports Deutsche Welle.

“As a teenager, I founded my own country and was even invited to speak before the UN at the age of 17”.

With that statement by Wyatt Beck begins the report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung about the “state” of Gapla, which spans only 205 hectares between Serbia and Croatia, reports Deutsche Welle.

Gapla is, Beck says, on land to which supposedly no one lays claim.

He himself has never been there yet, but he already has passports, license plates, a flag, and a website.

“And of course a name: The Federal States of Gapla. Not much is missing to a real state,” the reporter writes ironically.

Gapla is supposed to strengthen “peace and harmony” between peoples and be a “modern and innovative nation”.

Crazy endeavors

“Microstates have always been a type of revolution, philosophy, a sort of life-sized planning game. What can a state look like that does not have old baggage? What makes a state good? Does it even have to be good? Does it have to benefit its citizens or is it allowed to benefit only itself?”, the Süddeutsche Zeitung philosophizes.

They remind of the microstate of Elgaland-Vargaland, in which Swedish artists allowed everyone to be kings. Or of the endeavor of the Slovenian Peter Mlakar, who with an art collective declared his state in 1992, and it found many supporters in – Nigeria.

Microstates, the Munich newspaper writes, can also emerge as free trade zones, for shady deals of offshore banks or shipping companies and casinos.

“Just like Liberland. It is in the immediate vicinity of Gapla, founded in 2015 as, according to the description on the website, ‘the freest country in the world’. Blockchain literally rules there. Whoever wants to become a citizen must invest in a special crypto-currency,” it states.

As the newspaper assesses, the citizens of Liberland were driven by hatred towards bureaucracy and taxes and the hope that they could profit from numerous investments.

The border issue

“Neither Liberland, naturally, is internationally recognized; no one lives on the piece of land on the Danube”.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung recalls the problem – Serbia and Croatia both recognize that the border is on the Danube, but from different periods, and the Danube has meandered.

“Thus, many small areas were created to which claims are laid by either both countries or neither of them,” the newspaper clarifies.

“The political situation is complex, the residents are annoyed by foreigners who think they can simply march in here, even though the ‘march’ is only symbolic”.

For endeavors like Liberland and Gapla, writes the Süddeutsche, the territory does not even matter, but serves as legitimation.

“The states exist primarily as a group常 chat on the Discord platform, and diplomatic talks are conducted on the Reddit forum. It is hardly imaginable that Californian teenagers would rather live on the muddy bank of the Danube”.

Something like a Zuckerberg in the making

Gapla has its own crypto-currency, but the founders claim that they primarily want ideas, not money. Beck says: “MrBeast’s company wrote to us and asked how to get involved. Honestly, I don’t know what to answer”.

MrBeast is the most successful YouTuber in the world with around half a billion followers on social networks and a number of his own companies.

Wyatt Beck, writes the Süddeutsche, states in his biography that he developed an intelligence test, a platform for evaluating schools, a YouTube channel for technology, wrote e-books about all sorts of things, including, among other things, the founding of states.

He is an ambitious guy, smart, and for a moment, writes the Süddeutsche, resembles Mark Zuckerberg and similar geeks from the early two-thousands.

“By the way, the trip to the UN ECOSOC Youth Forum was funded by Beck and two other Gaplans through the Gaplan Representative Organization, which is paid for by the Government of Gapla. So, they already know how to funnel money like seasoned pros,” concludes the Süddeutsche.