MoF 9: Alternate partition of the Ottoman Empire

Leistungsfähiger Amerikan

I am trying to restart the Map of the Fortnight while Scarecrow is busy. For those of you who don't know, he will soon be a father. If anyone would like to participate in the running of MoF, please tell me, as I am rather an amateur at maps in general, but love the contests. I hope you all don't mind that I used my own suggestion, as there were not many new suggestions and at least one person thought it was a good idea(I will not be participating in the contest).

"A map of the Middle East at least twenty years after an alternate partitioning of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War One"

This Round will close at Saturday, the 26th of December.

Any questions or comments please make in the Discussion thread.
 

Lyly

This has no real PoD, more just experimenting with proposals of the time, and I don't expect it to do too well in competition, but it was sure fun!

altottomanpartition.png
 

Rekjavik

For this map I tried to for a more modern appearance than what I normally do, I just hope it shows.

In this world the Ottomans have more success in the early days of the war, taking most of the Sinai in the West and invading Kuwait in the East. However, the British react more vigorously towards them and begin grinding them down. The Ottomans begin a scorched earth policy (or what you can do in a desert environment) making the lives of the British soldiers much more difficult. Still, the Arab Revolt occurs and is even more vicious due to the more damaging Ottoman retreat. Still, by 1918 the Ottomans collapse and surrender to the British.

Due to the higher British casualties the Allies are more aggressive towards the Ottomans, carving up large areas of its coast and eastern frontier. Armenia is significantly larger than our world's, and Kurdistan is created. Although Georgia and Azerbaijan fell to the Russians (Kerensky does a few things differently and ends up with much more support. This is enough for a White victory and a Republic is set up after the Civil War ends in 1923) Armenia managed to gain an alliance with Britain against the Turks, although it acts as a good deterrent against the Russians at any rate. As for Turkey, they managed to fight off the Greeks in central Anatolia, but without the extra manpower from the coastal and eastern areas fail to dislodge the Greeks from the West. A ceasefire is signed in late 1922, but the damage was done. By 1935 the Turkish government fell to Communist forces supported by Communist Germany (Germany fell into civil war in 1932 and the Communists managed to gain victory by the skin of their teeth). In 1937 the Turkish Peoples Republic signed the Pact of Blood with Germany, Spain and Hungary.

By 1940 a dark cloud is over Europe. The last of the Rightist forces in Spain were suppressed, with only a French backed rump state in Catalonia remaining. Austria joined Germany in late 1937, and the Czechoslovak government fell for workers uprisings in 1939. Turkey, highly militarised due to their reactionary neighbours, is more than prepared to fight the imperialists out of their homeland. The Italians are hanging onto their colony by a thread, the French and British are afraid of another war and thus their defences in the Middle East are woefully under-equipped. Only Greece has built up any significant forces to defend their new land, yet their own lands are restless and Ankara will do what it can to see the Red Banner fly over Istanbul. Until the order to strike is sent, they will wait.

Alternate_Middle_East_by_Magnysovich.png
 
Alex Richards

Alex Richards

Donor
Following a more decisive Entente Victory, the Republics of Armenia and Kurdiastan were pulled from the Ottoman Empire along with Syria, the Hedjaz, and the twin Kingdoms of Mesopotamia and Iraq (under the sons of Ibn Ali I of Hedjaz). However, the Soviet Union annexed Armenia, and the rump Ottoman State collapsed into a civil War. The Greeks have lost much land to the (secretly) Italian backed National Liberation Army, and while the Sultan and his self proclaimed Calif of a cousin duel for control of the Sultanate's supporters, they're part in the war is outmatched by the the Soviet backed People's Republic, and Attaturkian Republic. Britain, France and Italy have all gained land in return for help for their respective factions.

EDIT: I think we need to add Kurdistan to the list of AH.Com Clichés

OE partition..png
 

Jman

The Middle East in 1939. The Turkish War of Independence is much less successful ITTL due to infighting among the Turks and a lack of strong leadership. Thus the harsh post-war partitioning is upheld in the period between the World Wars. Now, however, the world is once more aligned into two armed camps. Fascist Italy and right-wing Greece are in the Axis, Britain and France are the principal Allies, and the USSR and the Turkish Sultanate are currently neutral. The Sultanate is in the midst of a violent schism in the government as to whether they should join the Allies, as the Sultan and his Loyalists say, and retake the Greek and Italian puppet-states and occupied zones on the west coast, or join the Axis, as the right-wing Nationalists argue, and drive east to retake the British- and French-backed republics there. If the Nationalists win the day, the International Zone of the Bosporus is in serious danger, and already the International city of Istanbul is in a panic (think OTL Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War). In either case, Asia Minor is certain to be an important theater in the coming war. (Map in next post)
 
iori

iori

Here's my entry;


The idea of a Turkish state failed, however the idea of an independent nation did'nt.

Israel was never formed do to British opposition to mass Jewish immigration and the Holocaust being less bad do to other countries opening their borders to Jewish refugees.

With Nationalistic movements forming in Egypt, Britain split an area around the Suez Canal off from Egypt and turned it into a Dominion, one which it purposefully treated very well.

In Arabia the Saudi's and their Wahabism were seen negatively by the West, leading to the formation of an Arabian Kingdom under the Rashidi's, a family that was far less extreme and had been loyal to the Ottomans.

In Iraq it was decided that a single Federal state would be created with three states, one for the Shi'a Arabs, one for the Sunni Arabs and one for the Iraqi Turkmens, as well as other minorities.

Alt. Mid-East After Ottoman Break-Up.png
 
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Feo

I've found that Tsarist Russia wanted to replace Turkish population of Thrace and Istambul with Cossacks.
Yes, Cossacks in Istambul.


The Middle East in 1937

Thist time there is not a precise TL, just wanted to try something completely different.
Basically there is not Russian Revolution, Wilson doesn't presents the Fourteen Points and at the end of WWI the Ottoman Empire is partitioned in a XIX century style between the Entente powers.

The Russian Empire gain Thrace with Istambul (now Constantinople again) and parts of Armenia.
France got Cilicia, Syria and present day northern Lebanon.
Britain got Palestine(with jewish settlements), a protectorate over Hedjaz and pressed for a creation of a British Influenced Kurdistan and a British Influenced Iraq, somewhere between the 20's and the 30's Iraq becomes less British Influenced.
Italy gain a small but populated "Levante" (present day Nortern Palestine adn Southern Lebanon) with a lots of jewish settlements.
Grece seek to annexe Ionia and the southern half of the Dardanels but the rest of Greek requests are turned down by the Tsar.
the Saudis didn't attack Hedjaz (protected by the British) but they went for Yemen Insted
Last but not least the Turkish Republic, they lose Istambul and Izmir but thing could have been worse.



and here's the map:
ott.png
 

Stateless

I've wanted to enter one of these map contests for so long, I can't believe it's MoF 9 and the first one I've made a map for!

British and French mandates are divided closer to the original Sykes-Picot agreement. Independent Pontus is supported at Sevres. Greece gets more or less original territorial additions, Thrace plus Smyrna, to which it adds some of the surrounding area. This (and other butterflies) causes a more radical form of Turkish nationalism to arise in Turkey, with the announcement of Oghuzestan, proposing to unite all Oghuz Turks, and take back the rest of Anatolia. The following war with Armenia and tensions lead to a war with the (neo-Trotskyist) Federation of Socialist Republics. Nationalist Greece attempts to take advantage of the situation. France intervenes in an attempt to support the Armenians and Kurds - they have limited success against Turkey, but are deadlocked with the FSR. At the end of the war, the FSR has expanded into Eastern Anatolia, Greece has been pushed out of Asia, and France has expanded very slightly.

Ottoman2.png
 
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Zizon

Britain, France and Russia take up Djemal Pasha's offer to overthrow the rest of the Young Turks in 1916 due to Britain being able to placate France from her demand of southern Cilicia in return for control over Irak (this was part of the Sykes plan, and would give Britain a buffer zone from Russian influence in the Middle East). In return for their support, Russia demanded parts of Armenia, Istanbul and the Dardanelles, and Britain demanded that Sherif Hussein (who was planning, with the British, the Arab revolt) to be a (merely figurehead) leader over a British controlled Arabia, as well as a Free Zionist State. This also formally stripped the Ottoman Empire of its African possessions.

The coup d'etat took place in April, 1916 and was successful with Djemal's forces taking Istanbul and most Ottoman military units coming to his side. Some forces stayed loyal to the Young Turks from having fought against them at Gallipolli and that the Allied demands were too harsh. The Allies let the Ottoman Empire stay intact at the time, and said that they would resolve the matter with a post-war conference.

With the Ottoman Empire now on the Allied side, the soft underbelly of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was wide open, and with Italy joining the war in late 1916 the Allies had little trouble dealing with Austria-Hungary. Germany was still a problem, however, and continued to fight on into 1917. The Russian Revolution still happened in 1917, and with this all Russian claims in the Near East were forfeit. For their help in the war effort, Turkey was given permanent control over Armenia, and Italy was given Libya.

Things havn't really changed much since the end of the First World War. With no American intervention, the congress turned out quite different.

Comments? Critiques? Complaints? This is the first time I've tried making a map like this, hope you like it.

MoF 9 oldschool.png
 

B_Munro

Oy. Just the wrong basemap, I guess: something weird happened in paint. Oh well: Xmas approaches, other pots on the fire, and no time.

This is a world where WWI ended in a stalemate of exhaustion. The Germans were unwilling to give any of their bargaining points away to help out their Ottoman allies, so, although the Turks managed to pick up the Transcaucuses and hold them with German help against the Soviets, they're still miffed at the Germans for not backing them on getting their Arab provinces back.

The British were a little more supportive of the Hashemites, although the French insisted on some extra territory for Syria in compensation for losses elsewhere. The Saudis are, of course, a pain in the ass.

The USSR, with the Germans propping up the Ukraine and the Turks in the Transcaucuses, is weaker than OTL, and under different leadership: it has made more of an effort make the East turn Red, and stirred up so much trouble in Iran as to lead to 1942's three-way split.

The international scene is tense: neither France nor Italy have particularly democratic governments at the moment, and unlike CP-victorious TLs, the Germans have not been in a good position to make them disarm. Another big war is brewing, and currently, it's hard to say which sides Turkey and the UK will be on, if they get involved at all...

Bruce

OttomanAltPartition8.gif
 

Rubberduck3y6

This is the first time I've entered one of these contests, mainly because I'm not that good at getting a plausible story to go with the map. Just a warning.

You should be able to work most of it out from the map, but I'll point out a few things. The 'Former Russian Possessions' include Georgia, Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia which broke away from Russia during its civil war and western Armenia which was a Russian CoN (Council of Nations, TTL's League of Nations) Mandate. Russia is currently re-establishing control over these countries and is wait for an opportunity to annex them. Smyrna was made into a free city due to disputes between Greece and Italy over the city. The 'Aegean Region' is part of Italy. Only capital cities are marked and independent countries names are larger than colonies/protectorates/mandates. That should be it, so here's the map:
Ottoman Partition.png

Ottoman Partition.png
 

Krall

Banned
Even early on in the First World War the members of the Entente were making plans on how to carve up the Ottoman Empire. As "the sick man of Europe" the Ottomans' demise was almost certain, and France, Britain and Russia - as well as more minor powers such as Greece and Bulgaria - all had designs on their territory.

Sure enough the Ottomans fell, and as they did so the masses of Turks in Anatolia and Thrace rose up against their weak Emperor and established a new republic, a Turkish republic. The leaders of this new state tried to negotiate with the Entente in order to secure their country as much territory as possible. Unfortunately their revolution had come too late to make a huge difference, and their negotiating position was weak. Fortunately for them, Britain saw a chance at making a new ally. Whilst Greece made demands for all of European Turkey as well as much of Turkey's Aegean coastline and France made plans to annex much of Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast, Britain's representatives argued for a more conservative and Turk-friendly plan.

The resulting Turkish Republic was smaller than the Turks would have liked, but they were still strong, and, following the communist revolution in Russia and the USSR's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, vital to NATO's anti-USSR efforts, and provided a bulwark against Soviet expansion in to the Mediterranean.

Turkey joined NATO in 1948, and immediately Soviet influence in Europe was curbed as a potential communist puppet had dedicated itself to democracy and capitalism.

For the duration of the Cold War Turkey's foreign policy was to protect itself against the USSR by making it as vital for the protection of "the West" as possible. As a result numerous military installation were handed over to joint NATO forces, including three major docks and two major air bases. From these bases NATO could keep surveillance on communist military movements in Southern Europe and in Central Asia, and in return Turkey was constantly protected by a large contingent of primarily US interceptor aircraft, and there was rarely a time when a British or French aircraft carrier wasn't in port with full escort.

So, all in all, Turkey did rather well for itself.

NATO_in_the_Turkish_Republic_by_Kurarun.png

http://kurarun.deviantart.com/art/NATO-in-the-Turkish-Republic-147797108
 
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