AHC: Ottoman Empire completely collapses and Persia takes over

All Rounder

Gone Fishin'
What if at the end of WW1 the Ottoman Empire completely collapsed including Anatolia, and Persia decides to annex the Middle Eastern territories excluding Anatolia, which is annexed by Greece which renames itself Byzantium. What happens over the next 98 years?
 
What if at the end of WW1 the Ottoman Empire completely collapsed including Anatolia, and Persia decides to annex the Middle Eastern territories excluding Anatolia, which is annexed by Greece which renames itself Byzantium. What happens over the next 98 years?

For Persia to do any annexing, it needs to avoid getting overrun by the Russians and the Brits and half the population starving while the British hogged all the roads.

fasquardon
 
Arabs still revolt and create a united Arab state which then itself collapses. I highly doubt that Persia in 1917/1918 had the resources to even come close to being able to defeat the Arabs. The only way they'd get that territory is if the British and French gave it to them, which why would they? Likewise with Anatolia. We saw what happened OTL when Britain and France tried to give Greece a decent amount of it, so Britain and France would have to give Greece far more amount of resources to completely annex Anatolia, and in 1918, neither country had the will to do that. Britain wants to forget about the war and rebuild, and France wants to make sure Germany pays reparations and is unable to rearm. What happens in the Middle East is not worth the huge costs it would require.
 

All Rounder

Gone Fishin'
Arabs still revolt and create a united Arab state which then itself collapses. I highly doubt that Persia in 1917/1918 had the resources to even come close to being able to defeat the Arabs. The only way they'd get that territory is if the British and French gave it to them, which why would they? Likewise with Anatolia. We saw what happened OTL when Britain and France tried to give Greece a decent amount of it, so Britain and France would have to give Greece far more amount of resources to completely annex Anatolia, and in 1918, neither country had the will to do that. Britain wants to forget about the war and rebuild, and France wants to make sure Germany pays reparations and is unable to rearm. What happens in the Middle East is not worth the huge costs it would require.

Not going to debate, just going to see what people say.
 

jahenders

Banned
Persia would have to solidify itself before it could really do any annexing. Persia was divided into northern and southern spheres of influence under the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1907, with the Russians having the North and the British the South. So, you'd probably need some event around 1910-1913 where Persia could centralize into a more coherent state. Perhaps Persia strengthens itself and is able to reduce Anglo-Russian oversight in exchange for treaties guaranteeing a Persian counterweight to the Ottomans.

Assuming all that happens, then a Collapse of the Ottomans might allow the Persians to seize parts of what is now Iraq. Perhaps this implies somewhat more of the planned partitioning under the Treaty of Sevres is carried out, but I can't see the W. Allies exerting the effort to make sure it really happens. In reality, the most that's likely is Greece getting the Western side of the Bosphorus and Armenia, Kurdistan, Jordan, Syria, etc being made independent. However, even then, Turkey would likely try to take over Armenia (as in IOTL) and possibly Kurdistan and Russia (as IOTL) would seize Armenia.

So, Turkey would probably default to nearly what it is now. Persia might only gain small chunks of Eastern Iraq.
 
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