Alfred was Toris’ first love because, for the first time, someone else was taking care of him. That is why he was not sad when others such as Australia took that attention from him because Toris still loved Ivan, Feliks, Natalie, Alfred, the rest of the Baltics, and everyone who ever touched his life.

Toris always felt the need to protect Natalie like a precious flower but only ever thought of her as a sister.

Ivan never abused him, he just didn’t want to leave the one he loved. The scars that are on Toris’ back are from all the wars he fought. Each crease a testament to how many lives were lost.

Toris loves to care for people and this is his curse because Ivan needed him and so did each of the people who ever entered his life, even Alfred sometimes needed him. But the difference was Alfred could be there when others couldn’t. Toris still remembers the 1920’s with nostalgia but keeps moving on with his life, forever grateful for the experience he was given. After all, nations will have several loves through out their life times.

Alfred’s first was Australia because he so reminded him of his father figure: Arthur. Ivan’s was Alfred because of the childish side they share. And so it goes on. — circuitriderofdreams

chromyrose adds:

In the 1950s, when Egypt underwent a revolution and went from being a Kingdom to a Republic, his new President tried to make Arab Nationalism a state policy. But after two attempts at forming a United Arab Republic, and many lost wars in alliances with each other, the Arab “nationalism” feeling was lost in politics.

In 1978, after Egypt’s next president signed a peace treaty with Israel, his message to the rest of the Arab world was clear: Egypt is about what’s good for Egyptians, not Arabs. Since then the consensus among Egyptian people is that becoming part of a larger Arabic unit does away with a lot of Egypt’s unique culture and history. After peace was made from Israel, Egypt was removed from the Arab League, to be reintroduced to it years later.

For his part, Egypt never felt like a part of the Arab unit. Unlike many of the other Arab nations, he has existed before the language of Arabic. He had his own concept of people and government while many Arab territories were still just tribes of people with no real representation, and therefore a lack of a human personification. Other Arabs in North Africa, such as Morocco and Algeria, dislike him on a personal level, as very often witnessed during soccer tournaments like the African Cup. The Arabs in the Asian portion of the Middle East tend to resent his continued peace with Israel, and see him as a traitor.

He is on good terms with a few of the others, like Palestine, Jordan Libya, and Sudan, and on speaking terms with all the others, but he never really feels like he fits in with them. He has trouble speaking with them and prefers to stay out of their arguments as much as possible, even though they try to drag him in.