AHC: Europe-centered Turkey

[Snaut]

Your challenge, should you chose to accept it, is to end up with a Turkish state clearly centered on the Balkans after 1900. It may retain territories in Asia, but these should very clearly be less important economically and demographically than the ones in Europe. It may still be called an Ottoman Empire, but Turks should be at least a plurality. No cheating with a Communist Turkey or puppetized Turkey in Anatolia. While Turkish-majority areas there may remain under the control of other states, there should be no other Turkish entity other than the one centered on Europe.

Hard mode: at the same time, shift the center of gravity of Greece outside Europe. To Smyrna and Cyprus, perhaps.

The PoD should be no earlier than 1815. The later, the better.

 

[Napoléon Caesar Augustus]

This is basically what the Ottoman Empire was until it started falling apart and lost all of its European territory. You just need to prevent its decline and have it remain the master of the Balkan.

 

[DirtyCommie]

^
A good way might be an Ottoman victory at Vienna. If they manage to conquer swathes of Austria I'd say that the Balkans would become much more safely controlled by the Turks. Greater Islamization especially amongst Greeks, Bulgarians, and Croatians\Serbs would also be a great help.

 

[Magnum]

Your challenge, should you chose to accept it, is to end up with a Turkish state clearly centered on the Balkans after 1900. It may retain territories in Asia, but these should very clearly be less important economically and demographically than the ones in Europe. It may still be called an Ottoman Empire, but Turks should be at least a plurality. No cheating with a Communist Turkey or puppetized Turkey in Anatolia. While Turkish-majority areas there may remain under the control of other states, there should be no other Turkish entity other than the one centered on Europe.

Hard mode: at the same time, shift the center of gravity of Greece outside Europe. To Smyrna and Cyprus, perhaps.

The PoD should be no earlier than 1815. The later, the better.

France falls super-late in WW1, but Britain and Germany fail to reach an accomodation. Britain presses its advantage and superior logistical position in the Middle East (after it had virtually blitzkrieg'ed its way over the Turkish army in late 1918) and advances overland all the way to the Boshporus despite German attempts to send reinforcements.

Meanwhile, mainland Greece is occupied by the Central Powers. Britain compensates Greece by granting them sovereignty over Cyprus (as well as letting them occupy the Smyrna area), and the (provisional) capital is eventually moved from Heraklion to Nicosia or Smyrna.

 

[St. Just]

Considering most Turks live in Asia Minor and Europe clearly preferred getting Balkan Christians free....

You could have a Turkey with more Balkan territory, and that territory could maintain predominance economically for a time, but a Turkish state founded on Turkishness will eventually, by dint of greater amounts of land and Anatolian industrial resources, find itself centered in Turkey.

The other way to do this is a Turkey-screw after a war); have them keep Constantinople and part of Thrace (Bulgaria is mollified with Macedonia and Thessalonika). In Asia Minor, Greece takes Smyrna and the rest of the Aegean coast, and the Armenians get a state stretching from OTL Armenia to the Mediterranean to Trabzon (with other Turkish land in Kurdish hands).

After some cursory population exchanges, rump Turkey is nearly 100% Turkish and centered firmly on European Constantinople and Edirne. Asian Turkey is poorer, and while industry is based there, the borders necessitate that Turkey is a firmly Bosporus-based entity.

 

[GdwnsnHo]

I apologise if this seems a bit around the houses - but what about a Failed Jihad Scenario?

Essentially the Caliphate doesn't win against Persia or the Byzantines, and as such the Sassanids retain an outward appearance of strength.

The Gokturks, and other turks, don't invade Persia, but instead go west across the Steppes towards the Khazars, Alans, and eventually Avars, but are funneled into the Balkans.

You'd end up with Turks that could conquer the Balkans, excluding maybe some regions for political reasons (Greece/Thrace) and are Christians because they were never exposed to a successful Islamic faith.

Strong, stable, religiously unified Turkish Balkans!