AHC - Turkey as a stable, developed country

With a POD no earlier than 1923, make Turkey into a stable "first world" country with a GDP and standard of living comparable to Western Europe. In this TL, Turkey should be considered a European country and have a HDI larger than Greece's. Turkey should be a multi-party, liberal democracy and ethnic conflict with the Kurds should be either very small-scale or non-existant. Turkey may or may not be a member of the EU but must meet the requirements for an EU member state.

Good luck!
 
Perhaps Kemal Ataturk isn't killed in battle against Entente forces? He was quite against the monarchy but also against the foreigners. He would never have let something as bad as Sevres happen, and so would have campaigned to make Turkey get off much better. They would keep the majority of Wilson's disastrous Armenia, wouldn't have had the dissatisfied Kurds and Kurds broken off, would still own Constantinople, and there definitely wouldn't have been any moronic ideas like a Greek Smyrna or an independent Pontus of all things. With a better economy and more territory, perhaps Turkey may have become a regional power. I can imagine it being quite involved in global politics rather than being the quagmire of warlords and independence fighters it currently is.
 
Perhaps Kemal Ataturk isn't killed in battle against Entente forces? He was quite against the monarchy but also against the foreigners. He would never have let something as bad as Sevres happen, and so would have campaigned to make Turkey get off much better. They would keep the majority of Wilson's disastrous Armenia, wouldn't have had the dissatisfied Kurds and Kurds broken off, would still own Constantinople, and there definitely wouldn't have been any moronic ideas like a Greek Smyrna or an independent Pontus of all things. With a better economy and more territory, perhaps Turkey may have become a regional power. I can imagine it being quite involved in global politics rather than being the quagmire of warlords and independence fighters it currently is.

(This thread isn't a dwbi, if that's what you're aiming for)
 
Its difficult. On the one hand you have Ataturk and the CHP implementing sweeping and radical reforms towards modernization-europeanization, but on the other hand these reforms weren't popular with a large portion of the population. While this approach can work wonders in select areas, It doesn't facilitate pluralism in the slightest. The Kurdish question is another issue; its possible that without the majority Kurdish southeast Turkey would be more western oriented? A fair number of repressive laws were aimed first at subduing violence over this issue, and it generally perpetuated the disproportionate influence of the armed forces.
 
Cuz he thought thiis is a DBWI.(So do I) which is because Our Otl turkey mets moost of your requirements.

i dont think it does. its GDP (per capita) is hardly that of western europe,its HDI is lower tran that of greece, and ethnic conflict with the curds is all but non-existent. the eu part ist also very debatable...
 
i dont think it does. its GDP (per capita) is hardly that of western europe,its HDI is lower tran that of greece, and ethnic conflict with the curds is all but non-existent. the eu part ist also very debatable...

I wasn't aware that the mountain dwelling persianate tribes of central west Asia were made of cheese?
 
keep the good alter the bad

If Ataturk had the sense to atone for 1915, Disassociate himself from the committee of union and progress. Don't do the population swap with Greece.
Take the sadat path, rather than associating Islam with the past, coopt clerics like Rasa Shah did
 

Ian_W

Banned
Maybe join the Allies in 1943, and have full access to Marshall Plan aid ?

Upgrade the heck out of the Turkish rail infrastructure to support the Ahglo-American Balkans Offensive of 1944, while giving them approximately 2 million Studebaker trucks ?

Then be a founding member of the EEC ...
 
Maybe join the Allies in 1943, and have full access to Marshall Plan aid ?

Upgrade the heck out of the Turkish rail infrastructure to support the Anglo-American Balkans Offensive of 1944, while giving them approximately 2 million Studebaker trucks ?

Then be a founding member of the EEC ...

This seems a bit out of the box, but I think it's probably the best hope for a more developed Turkey. With this kind of infrastructure and foreign investment it will definitely be in a better place. It's also possible that Balkan states might require Turkish labour for a decade or so, in which case Turkey will make even more money off of remittances than OTL. With wise investment and logical development, as well as less influence of the army in politics, Turkey could be leaps and bounds ahead of its OTL state.
 
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