I could see the Soviets taking the territory that got allotted to Armenia in Sevres OTL, but I think they would see a rump "Ottoman Empire" as a useful buffer state.
It depends doesn’t it? The “Ottoman Empire” that would come out of OTL Sevres wouldn’t be a ‘buffer’, it would be a WAllied puppet. That’s why I think the Soviets would try to destabilise it. It’d be an enemy state, as opposed to the OTL Kemalist neutral state.
Wasn't Kemal really important at Gallipoli?
Enver gets alot of bad press, but if the Turks somehow lose at Gallipoli that cancels out a half a dozen defeats against the Russians.
I don’t think Kemal was
that important at Gallipoli. He was a divisional commander as opposed to in charge of the whole effort, like he was in the War of Independence. Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t disgrace himself, but others could have replaced him at Gallipoli, given the weakness of the WAllied effort. His latter fame was embellished by his efforts at Gallipoli, but he wasn’t the only officer to do well on the Turkish side.