How's the Start?


  • Total voters
    450
I admit I'm not entirely sure about Greek history but at the time their was a major clash between a conservative monarchy who wished for neutrality in the war as Grace was still a pretty young nation and felt it would have lost to much to to join either way and focus on digesting the ground it gained in the Balkan war (Greece doubled twice in size) and a jingoistic prime minister who wanted to support the British and attack Bulgaria and the Ottomans.
Rather between a conservative monarchy that wanted to support the Germans but was not in a position to do so and a liberal prime minister whose prime constituency was the middle classes/diaspora Greeks. Securing the survival and well being of Ottoman Greeks was not just a matter of policy it was the vested interest of the very political forces that supported the Greek liberals. From the point the Young Turks start ethnic cleansing them in 1914 options varied from a minimum of saving their lives and as much of their capital as possible hence the negotiations for an exchange of populations in mid 1914 to the maximum of Greek control of the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, after the Ottomans most conveniently entered WW1 putting their collapse into the cards.

Obviously neutrality was increasingly comprised over time and basically a coup and Entente basically occupied large part of Greece till it got a government suited for their purposes.
If there was a coup it was very clearly on the Royalist side when Constantine first dismissed the elected government, then after fresh elections in May 1915 delayed for several months the formation of a new government by the elected majority and then overthrew for a second time the elected government, that had won a massive majority just a few months before. Nevermind conspiring with Bulgarians, Germans and Austrians behind the back of his own government and after 1916 letting the Bulgarians occupy Greek territory (with none too good effects on the inhabitants).
 
1. Venizelos still overwhelmingly won March 1912 that is pre-POD.
yup
2. No Balkan wars. Constantine's popularity and influnce was a direct result of leading the army in the wars. Before the wars he was the man who had been defeated in 1897 and was dividing the army by trying to promote his clique helping cause the 1909 revolution. He is far less influential and far less popular than OTL.
indeed, his influence has been curtailed severely
3. Crete joined Greece, the island kept voting overwhelmingly (and in 65-70+ % majorities of the popular vote) for the Liberals and their political descendants all the way to the 21st century.
the liberal populace will have political effects i am pretty sure
4. The economic and foreign policies of the Venizelist government have been clearly successful so far. The economy is booming, the position and well-being of Greeks within the Ottoman empire very secure, Greece has gained territory peacefully from the Ottomans and likely should get some more (Lesbos, Samos and Chios IMO but then we are in an Ottoman wank :p) for her neutrality in the Balkan war/ to join the war directly. Further with the Ottomans winning it very much looks as if it made the right decision.
Greece will be getting some more land, that's for sure.
5. George I is still alive and ruling... Constantine has he caught his OTL pneumonia that nearly killed him? Someone could say it's butterflied but the man was a chain smoker, smoking nearly continuously. He was thus very susceptible to even a simple cold getting out of hand. That he dies ahead of his father and you go directly from George I to George II is a pretty real possibility.
George II of Greece is something i have given a lot of interest in. Without Briand in the French government, there won't be a marriage scandal to make his name mud either, so that's a plus
1. Venizelos is dominating Greek politics to an even greater extend than OTL, even has allies like the Dragoumis family (former PM Stephanos Dragoumis and his son Ion) and Nikolaos Stratos which he had lost at this time in OTL.
Most probably he retains his allies yes
2. Greece if it joins the Balkan war it is going to be on the side of the Ottomans and Romanians. If it can secure any of the Eastern Aegean islands, which as I've argued before it should it's a no brainer really.
I believe it will be a pro-Ottoman neutrality and no direct intervention. There is no tangible benefit that can be guaranteed to the greek populace to sway the anti-war voters
3. The big question is the Great war and the Anglo-Greek entente being negotiated in 1913-14 which included Cyprus uniting with Greece. With Italy in the war against the Entente, the Entente needs the Greek navy and Greek bases way more than OTL. With the Ottomans as a friendly neutral and conveniently between Greece and central Europe, Greece is not much different than Japan here if it gets involved in the war it's going to be a nearly purely naval one. German submarine warfare probably hardly helps Greek attitude here either. At a fair guess the Greeks at the moment are quietly reinforcing their navy with more ships from the United States, their naval program so far has been ~2 million pounds cheaper than OTL after all, while Britain is doing her level best to get them in the war.
The Anglo-Greek Entente will be a major focus of the next chapter that's for sure.
 

Wildlife

Banned
Any idea how much Spanish debt was forgiven and will it actually cover the expenses of fighting a war in Europe or will Spain end in in more debt that before?
 
So have any of the great powers looked at the Ottomans use of combined arms with interest? Cause if history lines up no one else in Europe is doing half of what the Ottoman Air Corp and Army are doing in terms of cooperation in both reconnaissance and direct military action.

I mean it’s mid 1915 your last post makes the latest date September 1st, so even the Red Baron has only just started his career in the German air corp a little under a month ago. So the great powers at this point should only really be using aircraft for recon still.

It’d certainly be funny to see German, French, and British officers in the Balkans taking notes of Ottoman combined warfare.

On Greece idk I’d hope they’d realize now that Romania’s in the war Bulgaria’s already slim chance of even stalemating the Turks has gone out the window and that their better off taking their bribe and stay at peace. After all once Bulgaria’s gone that’s A LOT of troops that can be shipped off to Serbia or more importantly Greece’s border if the Turks feel threatened. And the Turks have shown a technological, organizational advantage with the bonus of now veteran commanders and units.
 
Last edited:
hmm i thought it more likely Greece fights with Turkey than against them, I dont think Greece Romania or Turkey would be upset to remove the majority of Bulgaria from the map and this seems quite achievable t relatively low risk
 
Great chapter, so what the peace deal is going to be? I hope you annex Bulgaria as a vessel with autonomy but fully annex Montenegro.
Serbia just take money and disarmament.
I think if you can finish the war before ww1 you can be bold enough to to annex Bulgaria and Montenegro because the other GB will be occupied elsewhere and after the war they will be exhausted
 
Last edited:
Chapter 24: The Aborted Republic
Chapter 24: The Aborted Republic

***

“The Red-Shirts will be a terror for everyone. Bulgarian, Serbian, Romanian and Ottoman alike.” – Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire

“The Communists were always a specter that haunted Europe and the civilized world ever since the theory of it was laid down in 1848 by Marx during the Springtime of Nations. For many years, leftists, socialists and communists always came to the forefront whenever a war was going on or an economic recession happened. However these effects were always happening under few and far between doctrines, perhaps with the sole exception of Russia as the idea of Democratic Socialism and Social Democracy took hold instead of the dictatorship of the proletariat.


1618842476883.png

Dimitar Blagoev.

Whilst looking at a pre-Great War map of Europe, one may say that the more unstable countries of Europe, such as Russia, or Italy would have been the first nation to fall to communism, however the first nation that fell to communist ironically came to be in the Balkan nation of Bulgaria. Called the ‘Prussia of the Balkans’, Bulgaria was a highly militarized society. Militarization led to economic disparities and in this situation it is not a particular surprise that the leftists became a powerful underground force in Bulgaria. Many were not enamored with the idea of being conscripted against their wishes, and the economic disparity between investments in the military and civilian economy made many resent the militarization of the state. These socialists and communists rioted against the declaration of hostilities against the Ottoman Empire, deeming the war by all means imperialist and not in the interests of the normal Bulgarian worker. Led by Dimitar Blagoev, Vasil Kolarov and Georgi Dimitrov, the Bulgarian Communist Worker’s Party had denounced the war, and had boycotted the parliamentary vote in favor of hostilities.

At the beginning of the war however, the nationalistic fervor of the state made any attempt to move against the war in a more public manner a suicidal move for the communists and as such the Bulgarian communists stuck to writing pamphlets and articles against the war but mostly stayed out of the way for the Bulgarian government.

However soon the costs of war started to mount. The Ottomans fought back and the Bulgarian debt shot up from 0.2 Billion Francs to 1.7 billion Francs. The Bulgarian economy was increasingly becoming crippled as the public finances of the state collapsed, and the financial cost of the war slowly started to become too high. Agriculture, the leading sector of the Bulgarian economy was badly affected as farmers were conscripted into the army, contracting by 29%, with overall food consumption declining throughout the country on an average rate of 7%, and the number of horses, sheep, cattle and livestock declined throughout the country at an average rate of 34%. The Bulgarian industries were also affected. They were heavily dependent on foreign machinery and spare parts, and the declaration of war throughout the continent meant that neither Russia, France nor Britain, Bulgaria’s traditional suppliers had any surplus to give Bulgaria. External trade fell by 40% and imports going through the Ottoman empire fell by 23% souring to a deficit of 57 million Levs by August, 1915.

The current situation became unbearable for the Bulgarians. Worse, they were losing the war, despite King Ferdinand and Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov blustering their way through public meetings about winning the war. On June 28, 1915, the Bulgarian Communist Central Committee was formed as a coalition committee between all of the far left political parties of Bulgaria, with the sole aim of ending the war, and leading a communist revolution in Bulgaria under the command of Dimitar Blagoev who was named Premier of the Bulgarian People’s Congress.

After the Ottoman landings at Burgas, it was becoming increasingly clear that the war was going to end in only one manner, and the Central Committee voted on September 1, 1915 for a resolution saying that “an armed uprising now is inevitable, and the time for it is now ripe.” At the committee meeting, Blagoev discussed how the people of Bulgaria had waited long enough for an armed uprising against the autocratic Bulgarian monarchy and it was the time of the communists to take power. The Bulgarian Communists created a revolutionary military committee in Sofia, led by the Committee’s Legislative President, Vasil Kolarov. The committee included armed workers, soldiers and militias, and assured the support or neutrality of many of the capital’s garrison. The communist militias were rebranded and named Cherveni Rizi or simply the Redshirts.

On the morning of 5 September, a group of soldiers loyal to the monarchical regime marched into a communist newspaper holdout in Sfia and seized the printing equipment, destroying the newspaper stand. Shortly thereafter, in an attempt to shore up domestic complicity, King Ferdinand banned all leftist newspapers in the nation. In response at 9 a.m, the Redshirts Committee issued a statement denouncing the government’s action and at 10 am, the 1st Redshirt Militia regiment successfully retook the printing houses by force.

The capital city fell into chaos and disarray as Prime Minister Radoslavov responded at around 1 pm that afternoon by raising all of the city’s garrison. The city then fell into a series of sporadic clashes over control of bridges, and squares between the Bulgarian Army and the Redshirts. At approximately 3 pm the Redshirts seized all the major telegraph centers in Sofia, effectively controlling the communications of the city.


1618842553365.png

Redshirts storming the Royal Palace in Sofia.

The situation turned worse when three regiments of the Bulgarian army mutinied in favor of the Redshirts during the night and the next day these regiments began to use their heavy artillery to actually start bombarding governmental strongholds in the city. Ferdinand and Radoslavov were virtually helpless to try and offer any resistance. Railway stations had been controlled by the Redshirts and major bridges and communication centers had fallen to the Redshirts as well.

The Royal Family and the government was probably saved only by the personal magnetism of the Crown Prince, Prince Boris. Already a colonel in the Bulgarian army not through birth, but through sheer work and hard work, he rallied the remaining garrisons in the city and fought his way out with the government and the Royal Family out of Sofia and into Radomir.

As the government and the Royal family left Sofia, Dimitar Blagoev wrote a proclamation called ‘To Bulgaria!’ stating that the royal government had been overthrown by the Revolutionary Redshirt Committee. The proclamation was sent throughout Bulgaria through telegraph and throughout the nation, pro-Redshirt militias began to rise against the royalist government.

Blagoev was ecstatic, and he thought that the war was now going to end. One of the ruling parties in the Ottoman Empire was a Socialist party, they wouldn’t attack a fellow leftist nation, Blagoev had thought ideally. However as the People’s Democratic Republic of Bulgaria was proclaimed on September 16, 1915, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Romania were already scheming to end the first communist state in the world.” The Aborted Republic of 1915, University of Sofia.

***

“We will not fight for the Reds!” – Slogan of the 11th Danubian Division of the Bulgarian Army.

“The outbreak of the Bulgarian September Revolution ended the fighting all throughout the Bulgarian front. The Ottoman Armies halted as the Ottoman Airforce brought back news of insurrections throughout the country and the Ottoman Logistical Corps tapped into Bulgarian lines finding out what was going on. On September 20, the Ottoman cabinet and Chamber of Deputies reconvened to discuss what to do with Bulgaria. As the deputies cried their throats dry trying to find a compromising solution, another event was going on in Mt. Musala. There, King Ferdinand I abdicated the Bulgarian throne in shame, and Prince Boris ever the enigmatic fellow, took the throne as King of Bulgaria. From Mt. Musala he sent a telegram to Constantinople asking for an armistice, and asked for permission for the Bulgarian Government and Royal Family to take refuge in Ottoman Thrace.


1618842602185.png

King Boris III with one of his royalist generals.

Grand Vizier Ahmet Riza sprung to action, and accepted the offer. A royal telegram called out for all Bulgarians throughout the frontlines to drop their weapons, and join up with the Ottomans. Ahmet Riza’s actions gave the Ottomans a fait accompli. They now had to act against the Ottoman government. The Ottoman Socialists were of course hesitant to act against their fellow leftists in Sofia (though the Ottoman Socialists would never become so radical), and they started to hamstring the ability of the government to seek an intervention in Bulgaria.

However even they could not stop an intervention when on September 23, Blagoev’s new communist government declared the nationalization of all Bulgarian banks, expropriation of all bank accounts, and all foreign debts being repudiated. The Ottomans held considerable sway in the private bank accounts of Bulgaria, and this was unacceptable for the economic sector of the Ottoman Empire. On September 29, 1915, the Ottoman Empire declared peace with the Kingdom of Bulgaria and instead declared a state of hostilities with the People’s Democratic Republic of Bulgaria. The Romanians did the same the next day.

On September 30, King Boris III ordered all of the loyal divisions to side with the invading Ottoman and Romanian armies and formed the Royal Army of Bulgaria (RAB) from the remainder of the loyalist divisions and personally led the Bulgarian Loyalist Army (BLA) formed out of Bulgarian soldiers who were previous prisoners in Ottoman war camps. On October 4, Yaver Pasha arrived in Plovdiv with an army of 50,000 Ottomans and 20,000 Bulgarians and took the city which had suffered a pro-Redshirt coup a week earlier. The Redshirts had tried to barricade themselves and fight, however the haphazard defenses of the city was weak and the manpower shortage and anti-Communist defections meant that the city was extremely underdefended. The Royalists and the Ottomans took the city and occupied it the next day on the 5th.

At the same time, from the north, the Romanians were moving against the Reds. At the same time, Crown Prince Carol was leading an invasion of South Dobrudja, regardless of the fact that the Romanians were now allied with the Royalist government of Bulgaria. The Romanians under General Ioan Culcer began to move inland from Nikopol in a bid to put more and more pressure on the Bulgarian Reds, reaching Debovo on the 7th of October. There, they heard news of the fact that a massive Redshirt army under under the command of General Dragan Anev of 35,000 was assembling to meet the Romanian invasion force. Culcer moved southward towards Pleven and met Anev on the outskirts of the city of Pleven at what culminated in the Battle of Pleven from October 9 to 11. From his headquarters in Koilovtsi, the Romanians moved inland and attacked the Redshirt advanced guard positions in Varbitsa and took the stronghold by storm, using the Romanian artillery advantage and Ottoman allied aerial support to take the fortress. The Romanians then divided their forces into two groups. The left pocket moved against Bukovlak and the right pocket moved against Grivitsa, both of which controlled the passage and railways into Pleven, if captured, would cut Pleven out from the rest of the Bulgarian Republic.


1618842761242.png

Romanians during the Battle of Pleven.

The Romanian left pocket managed to fight and capture Bukovlak with great effect as the forest cover in the region allowed the Romanians to move undeterred and they were able to hide in plain sight. Culcer exploited the situation and surrounded the area from the north, northeast and northwest before creating an all-out assault that won through sheer weight of numbers and firepower. The right pocket was less-successful. They were able to pin the Bulgarian defenders in Grivitsa down, however they were unable to defeat and capture the position as the Bulgarian defense in the area was just too powerful to overcome. As such, Culcer took a risk and entered Pleven from the northwest without support from the right pocket and engaged the city’s defenders in brutal urban fighting. On October 11, the city’s garrison surrendered after finding their position untenable and the Romanians surrounded Grivitsa which prompted their surrender too.

While this was going on, Mustafa Kemal was being transferred in person to lead a contingent of 100,000 Ottomans and 40,000 Bulgarians into Sofia, taking direct command of Neshat Bey’s Macedonian Army. Simultaneously, the Bulgarian government in exile led by King Boris III had finally accepted a peace deal from the Ottoman Government. The Treaty of Gallipoli was signed between the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Most Sublime Ottoman Empire and Kingdom of Romania with the following articles:-


  • The Bulgarian government would renounce all claims to Ottoman Thrace and Macedonia and Northern Dobrudja in Romania.
  • The Bulgarian government would cede southern Dobrudja to the Kingdom of Romania.
  • The Bulgarian government would cede strategic frontier fortresses to the Ottoman Empire.
  • The Bulgarian government would pay 30 million pounds to the Ottoman government as reparations and 5 million pounds to Romania as reparations.
  • The capital of Sofia will be occupied until October 1, 1916.
  • The region of Rumelia in Bulgaria will be occupied by the Ottoman Empire until January 1, 1918, and all of its industrial output would be taken by the Ottomans as reparations as well.
  • The Ottoman and Romanian governments would pledge to restore King Boris III to the Bulgarian throne in legitimacy in Sofia against the communist republic.
  • Bulgaria would demilitarize the Rumelian region from 1918 to 1933.
  • The Bulgarian military would be limited to 100,000 men until 1935.
  • The Ottoman government to supervise and aid the Bulgarians to restructure their economy and recover from the war economically.
1618842646823.png

The signing of the Treaty of Gallipoli.

By all rights the Ottomans had been lenient in the treaty against the Bulgarians, however Ahmet Riza was also worrisome of the Bulgarian minorities within the Ottoman Empire in Macedonia and Thrace. He didn’t wish to ostracize them by completely dismantling the Bulgarian state, and despite their alliance, Ahmet Riza was not particularly trustful of the Romanians. He knew that every alliance was not worth the paper it was signed on, and he needed to keep Bulgaria at sufficient level of strength so that it could recover properly in the future to become an Anti-Romanian bulwark in the future for the Ottomans if needed. There was also the fact that Britain, France and Russia had during the negotiations subtly warned the Ottomans that they wouldn’t accept a totally dismantled Bulgaria at all, for it would shift the balance of power in the Balkans by a mile. The British had more than enough troops in Egypt, and the Russians had more than enough troops in the Caucasus to make this subtle threat a standing one. As such, the Ottoman government had sought a moderate treaty by all rights, and had successfully managed to pursue one.

On October 23, Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire signed the treaty ratifying it, and Boris III ratified the treaty as well from his base in Plovdiv. On October 24, Mustafa Kemal’s joint Ottoman-Bulgar army arrived on the outskirts of Sofia and asked the Ministry of War for permission to storm the city and end the war with Bulgaria and end the communists. That evening, Mahmud Shevket Pasha replied with an affirmative order. In a similar vein to the Paris Commune, the days of October 25 to November 1 would be remembered by Bulgarian communists as the ‘Bloody Week’.

On October 25, the Ottomans and Royalists began to shell the city’s outskirts and its fortifications and took several border forts dismantling the Redshirts whenever they could. The next day on the 26th, the Ottoman and Royalist troops began to enter the city in earnest. The commune system that had worked so well for the Bulgarian communists was now backfiring, as instead of a proper united defense each neighborhood in Sofia fought desperately for their survival only, and each was overcome in turn. On the morning of the 27th, Blagoev issued his first emergency decree, stating:-


……..To Arms! Sofia will be bristling with barricades, ramparts, and makeshift forts and will resist the imperialists and capitalists forever. The people of Sofia will do their duty whilst the Revolutionary Committee and the Redshirts shall do theirs!........

The next few days were brutal slogs. Mustafa Kemal and Mihail Savov, his Bulgarian father in law, and Royalist general, had to fight for every barricade, and fortress in the city and the siege of Sofia was by no means easy on the Ottomans and Royalists either. Finally on the 1st of November, the least ramparts and positions of the Communists were captured. The leading Troika of the Bulgarian Communists was captured in Sofia Hall and imprisoned and the war between Bulgaria, Romania and the Ottoman Empire ended in a brutal slog.

1618842718134.png

Ottoman Troops in Sofia.

On November 3, Boris III entered Sofia, and was restored as its rightful king. He ordered an amnesty for all of the communists barring the higher cadres and sought the reintegration of the communist armies into the Bulgarian paramilitaries (now that the military was reduced to 100,000 men). As per the terms of the Treaty of Gallipoli, the Ottomans took up occupation service in the areas designated to them, including Sofia, and the Romanians withdrew, annexing Southern Dobrudja as they did so. Dimitar Blagoev was summarily shot and executed, whilst his upper cohorts were to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

The end of the Balkan War in Bulgaria had far reaching consequences all throughout the war in Europe. The position of the Serbians and Montenegrins was now every ill-judged as the Ottomans had now freed nearly half a million troops for service on the Serbian and Montenegrin fronts and the war was shifting decisively in favor of the Ottomans. Meanwhile, the fall of an aborted communist republic would prove to be inspiring to many communists in Europe during the interwar era. But for now, the Bulgarians were out of the war, licking their wounds and set trying to recover. And the Serbians and Montenegrins were sending soft peace offers to the government in Constantinople as well, hoping for peace.” The Story of the Balkan War: Its Course and Consequences, Osprey Publishing, 1999.

***

“Long Live the Reunion! Long Live Enosis!” – Cypriots in 1915.

“For Greece, the Balkan War and their neutrality in the conflict allowed a new way to be forged for the Greeks during this time of conflict in the Mediterranean. The Italians had since 1890 held covetous eyes towards the Ionian islands in their bid to control the entrance to the Adriatic Sea, and ever since the end of the Italo-Ottoman War, Italo-Greek relations had been shot to hell as the Italians rightfully guessed that the Greeks had aided the Ottomans during the war. Many in Italy’s revanchist parliament openly called for an invasion of Greece. Italy’s strong navy also meant that any attack on Greece could cripple the Greek nation in many ways, both economically and militarily.

For Greek Prime Minister, Venizelos, his position was strengthened by the fact that he retained strong relations with former Prime Minister Stephanos Dragoumis as well as many wealthy and prominent politicians throughout the country. However, King George I of Greece whilst pro-entente in his outlook did not wish to seek Greece dragged into a war, and wanted to keep Greece on track with its current economic boom, without endangering it with a war. Prime Minister Venizelos argued a lot with the King seeking royal mandate for a war against Italy, whilst getting concessions out of the Ottomans and British, however George I was not interested and remained in his neutrality mode. However on September 24, Crown Prince Constantine died of tuberculosis, which had been gripping him since early 1915. The old George I could not bear the pressure of having his eldest son being dead before him, and he was overcome with a stroke on the 26th. He was rushed to a hospital in Athens by the Royal commission of Greece, however the King of the Hellenes died on the way to the hospital. Whilst this was a national tragedy and the Greek nation went into mourning, this was an opportunity for Venizelos that he could exploit if he wanted.


1618842804956.png

King George II of Greece.

The young 25 year old King George II, who ascended to the Greek throne was very pro-western in his outlook and not at all political experienced like his late grandfather. King George II was soon persuaded by Venizelos to atleast look into the matter of intervention in the Great War, and open dialogue with the Entente.

On 19 September, 1915, Venizelos sounded out to the Entente by submitting a proposal of a joint Anglo-French Greek block against Italy and Austria-Hungary in the Adriatic. For many months now, the Entente and Central Power navies had been engaging each other in the Mediterranean in what seemed to be an evenly matched ordeal, and the British Admiralty quickly realized that having the Greek and Spanish navies join up with the Anglo-French navies would tip the favor in the Mediterranean in favor of the Entente. This signaled to the British and French that Venizelos was willing to abandon the territorial status quo in return for greek interests being safeguarded by the Entente.

For many months by this point, the British had been trying to negotiate an Anglo-Greek entente in the Adriatic by exchanging some land in return for leasing a Royal Navy base in the Greek Ionian islands for one or two decades. Venizelos had been resistant to the idea before the Great War, however with the war now raging all across Europe, the idea seemed a whole lot more enticing to the Greeks. On October 15, the British Ambassador to Greece, Sir Francis Elliot handed Prime Minister Venizelos the terms of British alliance with the Greeks. In it, the British offered, to transfer the administration of Ottoman Cyprus from Britain to Greece, on the condition that two Royal Navy bases in Cyprus were leased to Britain indefinitely and that the Greeks would negotiate the status of the Turkish Cypriots with the Ottoman government separately. In return the British government promised an interest free monetary starter of 6 million pounds to Greece, and would gain a naval access to the naval base at Corfu for a period of 10 years, which could be renegotiated for 25 years.

The offer was just too enticing for the Greeks. The idea of expanding even more, and gaining Cyprus, which was a major component of every Greek nationalist was more and more enticing for the Greeks. The Greek parliament reconvened on October 20, 1915 to discuss the offer. Venizelos argued throughout the parliamentary debate that the Italians had no real way to even attempt to harm Greece militarily as the war would be primarily naval, and that the Italians would have to invade the Ottomans to get to Greece. And seeing the fact that the Balkan War seemed near end, that possibility was not going to happen at all. He also used nationalistic fervor to denounce the anti-war faction, saying that if Greece did not get Cyprus, the blame would lie solely on the anti-war faction in the parliament.


1618842877733.png

Greek cypriots celebrating Enosis.

When the time to vote came, the Greek parliament voted 186 to 130 in favor of accepting the British offer and entering the war on the side of the Entente. However before they could do this, they needed to contact the Ottomans. Ahmet Riza was not at all pleased with the fact that the British were offering up Cyprus up to the Greeks. In the mind of many of the Ottoman diplomats, the Ottomans had conceded too much to the Greeks already. However already stuck in a war that he needed to end quickly, Riza knew that he didn’t have much choice in the matter. Nonetheless, Riza raised the issue of the Turkish Cypriots, who formed around a third of the entire Cypriot population and their safety. Venizelos proposed a population transfer, with the Turkish Cypriots being allowed free movement to the Ottoman Anatolian lands. Riza still did not like the offer being made to him by Athens and London, however when London added the sweetener of discounted trade deals between the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire, Riza acquiesced. This was met with outrage in the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies, Riza tiredly pointed out to the chamber that Cyprus was Ottoman in name only and that the British could transfer the island to Greek control anytime they wished, and getting something out of it, rather than nothing was the way to go. The Chamber reluctantly like their head of government agreed to the transfer, and on November 4, the island of Cyprus was ceded to Greek control. The next day on the 5th of November, the Kingdom of Greece declared war on the Kingdom of Italy on the grounds of interdicting maritime trade in the Mediterranean. The greeks had entered the fray in the Great War.” Venizelos – The Founder of Modern Greece? A Historical Survey. University of Knossos.

***

“The Socialists of America will strive to live up to democratic institutions of this country and will seek to find a betterment through legal methods.” – Socialist Leader Victor Berger

“With the coming of the Depression of 1914 – 16, the second wing parties in the United States of America were strengthened immeasurably by the depression. Many people in America, especially evicted laborers and workers turned to the Socialist Party as a result, whilst many progressives turned to the Progressive Party as well. However the effects of the depression could not allow many to act properly either, despite the good showing of the Socialist party in 1915 gubernatorial elections. Eugene V. Debs, longtime Socialist leader of the American Socialist Party and a member of the far left faction of the party, found himself without a proper means of money resource, as the depression took its toll on the Debs family as well. Debs resigned from the leadership role in order to focus on the economical aspects of his party and turned to literary works and corporate work to gain money for his depression struck family.


1618842910390.png

Victor Berger.

Meanwhile, taking the position of Debs, Austrian-American Victor Berger became the leader of the Socialist Party after Debs resignation. A member of the centrist faction of the Socialist Party, he managed to reunite the bitterly divided socialist party over mutual hatred of the current ruling regime and the depression. Berger was a staunch centric socialist and was considered a progressive too as he began to slowly campaign in favor of desegregation in the socialist party to garner more votes in the Deep South’s black population who were allowed to vote. He argued that many black voters hadn’t voted to the socialists in the gubernatorial elections like that had been expected due to the party’s ambiguous stance regarding the segregation present in the country. The 1915 Socialist Convention was a heated affair with many in the party degrading the anti-segregation movement taking place in the party, however Berger’s own influence in the party ran extremely strong and during the convention he managed to barely pass a resolution which officially made the Socialist Party an anti-segregationist party. Many white socialists from the Deep South threatened to split the party afterwards, however Berger managed to negotiate with them allowing the regional socialist party subservient under the American Socialist Party to have their own laws regarding the issue, giving the regional parties significant autonomy, soothing both sides of the spectrum for the moment.

However in other progressive issues within the Socialist Party, he found overwhelming support for a pro-Women’s suffrage stance in the party and was able to enlist that too. The Socialists would soon become a massive headache for Wilson during the rest of his tenure as President as the party solidified under the capable hands of Berger.

Meanwhile Wilson’s government in a bid to distract everyone from the internal troubles of the government, began to meddle in the Banana Wars going on throughout Central America during this time. In February 1915, Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam took power as the President of Haiti. He began a ruthless repressive regime that culminated in the murder of 297 political prisoners in June 1915, including former Haitian president Zamor, who was being held captive. This infuriated the population and they rose up against Sam. Sam was supported by the American government due to Sam’s preferable stance towards the Haitian American Sugar Company. However Sam was deposed in October 11, by Rosalvo Bobo who was most definitely an anti-American Haitian politician. On October 15, Woodrow Wilson ordered 400 American Marines to occupy Port-au-Prince to safeguard American interests in the region as well as that of the Haitian American Sugar Company and tasked them with restoring President Sam who was being held prisoner in Haiti. However en route to Haiti the Americans found out that President Sam had died in prison and after Port-au-Prince had been occupied the Americans took Philippe Sudre Dartiguenave and installed him as the next President of Haiti whilst Bobo fled.


1618842938211.png

US troops in Haiti.

Bobo had survived the American invasion and had retreated inland with his supporters. This was start the War in Haiti, and would go on to become the major platform for the Republicans to win the 1916 American Elections.” The Political History of America in the Early 20th Century: a Time of Tumult. Penguin Publishing, 2017.

***
 
have any of the great powers looked at the Ottomans use of combined arms with interest? Cause if history lines up no one else in Europe is doing half of what the Ottoman Air Corp and Army are doing in terms of cooperation in both reconnaissance and direct military action.

I mean it’s mid 1915 your last post makes the latest date September 1st, so even the Red Baron has only just started his career in the German air corp a little under a month ago. So the great powers at this point should only really be using aircraft for recon still.
Some of them especially Britain and France who are the ottomans air brokers will be looking into it very well.

certainly be funny to see German, French, and British officers in the Balkans taking notes of Ottoman combined warfare.
They probably actually would be taking notes


war Bulgaria’s already slim chance of even stalemating the Turks has gone out the window and that their better off taking their bribe and stay at peace. After all once Bulgaria’s gone that’s A LOT of troops that can be shipped off to Serbia or more importantly Greece’s border if the Turks feel threatened. And the Turks have shown a technological, organizational advantage with the bonus of now veteran commanders and units.
Yes once Bulgaria falls then it's a house of cards waiting to fall in the Balkans.
 
Top