"Fun" fact: One of the people who tried to kill him was Sergei Taboritsky.
For Want of A Sandwich - A Franz Ferdinand Lives Wikibox TL
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Constantinople
Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις, Kōnstantinoúpolis), formerly known as Byzantium, is the capital of the Hellenic Empire. One of the largest cities in the world and of Europe, built on both Europe and Asia, it served as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (330-395), its successor state the Byzantine Empire (395-1204, 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1264), the Ottoman Empire (1453-1921) and now the Hellenic Empire (1947-present). It was an independent free city under international supervision from 1921 to 1947.
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The conquest of Constantinople was a war goal of Greece in the Great European War (1916-1921) according to the Megali Idea irrendentist thought : helped by the Russian Navy that enabled a blockade of the capital, the European side of the city was under siege from 1917, before a Greek landing in the Dardanelles the following year allowed the Concord to lay siege to the Asian side : Constantinople fell to the Greeks on May, 15 1919, ending more than 450 years of Ottoman domination. Greek victory was almost guaranteed but a counter-attack from Bulgaria and Germany saw the Greeks expelled from Constantinople in 1920 ; the Treaty of Nicosia acknowledged the Ottoman defeat but British pressure existed for Constantinople to become a neutral city in order to insure peaceful trade in the Straits : as such, the status of Free City was created for Constantinople, as a neutral state under international protection. American humanitarian Herbert Hoover become the first Governor-General for a seven-year mandate.
Even if the Marmara Crisis in 1922 saw war almost reignited after Greek troops had crossed the borders of the international area, the Free City was a peaceful place in a very trouble Middle East, providing shelter for Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Levantines and Jews that had always lived in the city : instability in both Greece and Ottoman Turkey allowed a steady flow of refugees and the city to rebuilt itself. The Greek population in the city demonstrated for Enosis (Union with Greece) in 1922 and 1934, but under the various Governor-Generals of the Free City (Hoover, Norwegian Mowinckel, Japanese Konoe, Swiss Cohen), the city focused on inner development and help for trade ; the Venice Convention in 1937 eased the restrictions on international trade in the Straits and cemented the status of the Free City.
The chaos of the World War threw the existence of the Free City in disarray : the British and Germans weren’t available anymore to guarantee the neutrality of the area. The Enver Pascha regime in the Ottoman Empire saw the occasion for a reconquest of the lost territories of the previous war, and invaded Constantinople in 1945 ; the Greeks, with Russian support, responded by a quick counter-attack and the Greeks entered Constantinople a second time, on September, 1 1946. Governor-General Albert Cohen, to prevent further bloodshed, surrendered his powers to Greek authorities. Vowing to “erase the humiliation of 1920 and complete the Megali Idea”, Prime Minister Alexandros Papagos formally declared the Hellenic Empire, during a mass attended by King-turned-Emperor Alexandros in then Hagia Sophia Mosque. The city of Constantine became capital to the new Empire ; the Allies acknowledged the Greek annexation in 1950 as a condition for Hellenic participation to the World War.
The Greeks subjected Constantinople to the same laws of return that they had enacted in Anatolia, giving free rein and help to Greek immigrants to the city ; the state of oppression in the Ottoman Empire, notably during the Arslan Pasha regime (1971-1997) and the Ottoman Civil War (1998-2002) also led to a steady Turkish immigration to the prosperous city, allowing the population to increase fifteenfold during the latter half of the Twentieth Century and to increase its occupation of the Asian side.
The Greeks turned to a “Hellenification” of their new capital : the districts reverted to their Byzantine-era names, while palaces and mosques were turned into administrative buildings and churches : as such, the Dolmabahçe Palace became the Bosphorus Palace, seat to the Hellenic Emperor ; the Ciragan Palace became seat to the Greek Parliament ; and Hagia Sophia Mosque, the greatest achievement of the Byzantine Era, was consecrated back into a Greek Orthodox cathedral in 1955.
This agressive policy led to many tensions with the Turkish population, as the Greeks hadn’t suspected they had inherited a cosmopolitic city : the Hagia Sophia consecration led to massive race riots in 1955, a fixture of Constantinopoulian history, as others occurred in 1968, 1969, 1970 (against the military regime), 1995 (for acknowledgement of Turkish heritage), 2008 (for free islamic education), 2015, 2016 (against anti-Muslim laws). As the capital of the Hellenic Empire, Constantinople was also victim of various terrorist attacks : from the Greek far right in 1977, from the lar left in 1988, from islamists in 1992, 1999, 2003, 2010 and 2017 ; notwithstanding with the Battle of Constantinople during the Sixth Greco-Turkish War (1986-1987) Nevertheless, Constantinople also had periods of peaceful co-existence, mostly after the 1981 Smyrna Agreement, that saw Greek citizenship bestowed upon Turkish-speaking residents : Turkish-born Ilhan Kesici was elected Mayor in 1994, and the city welcomed the Olympic Games in 1996. In Greek politics, heavily globalized Constantinople has been a beacon for Venizilism and progressism, as Mayor Alexi Giannoulias, a descendent of Greek emigrants was elected Mayor in 2018 for PAKK, before splitting from the party to help form the left-wing Lambrakis Lives! party.
Whatever the timeline, Tabby will always be unhinged... In a deeply divided Russia, even the best fathers of best writers couldn't save Milyukov.
Islamist terrorists from Turkestan. But it'll be adressed.
Nikolai II repealed the Pauline Laws before the Great European War ; with the death of Rasputin, he felt like nothing could save his son, and so he amended the laws, granted that the female heirs didn't married foreign reigning monarchs.
Czarevich Nikolai Dmitrievitch, the eldest son of Olga, predeceased his mother ; as he had a large role in Russian politicians in spite of not formally regning, such as allowing Russia to democratize a bit, the Tsaritsa granted him retroactively the regnal name of Nikolai III. Her great-grandson, Nikolai IV, acknowledged the reference.
The pictures are of Paul Ilyinsky, a son of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich who eventually became Mayor of Palm Beach, Florida ; Karl Emich von Leiningen, a claimant to the Russian Imperial throne ; and of Natalia Poklonskaya, United Russia MP and former Prosecutor General of Crimea, who famously became an Internet meme back in 2014. Maybe the earlier Czars will be younger, most particularly Nikolai IV, retcons are still possible.
Russia was democratized under duress by Empress Olga but it was a "controlled democracy" of sorts, where party of powers are still vivid, as it was under Olga who kept the government under a tight leach, as she didn't wanted her country to experience the same troubles that after her father and brother's deaths. Seeing a Prime Minister stemming from the Trudoviks, the Tolstoyists, the Objectivists, the SRs and (God forbid !) the Mensheviks or Bolsheviks, as its helm rather than in a coalition, would immediately result in a military coup, even nowadays, and the Tsaritsa Alexandra's true beliefs about Russian democracy are an enigma to everyone. If anyone should compare it to OTL, it would be pre-Erdogan Turkey.
Solomon Iguru
Rukirabasaija Agutamba Solomon Gafabusa Iguru (born 18 June 1948) is the 27th and current Omukama of Bunyoro-Kitara, holding the position since January, 25 1971 and ruling the country since its independence from Great Britain on January, 1 1976.
Tracing back its legitimacy to the traditional kingdoms of Bunyoro and Kitara, that once controlled trade in the Great Lakes region, Solomon Iguru had a chance at full independence once the British overlords discarded the idea of an East African Federation. Holding a constitutional monarchy of sorts, where he rules as an enlightened despot committed to ameliorate the life of his subjects, the small kingdom remains quite prosperous, owing to its mining industry next to Lake Victoria, concentrated in oil, gas, iron ore and precious stones ; since the short war against Buganda (1979-1980), Bunyoro-Kitara remains a satellite state of Buganda as of nowadays.
Are you talking Greek from the homeland, Greeks immigrants who immigrated back to Greece, Hellenized Turks, Turkish Constantinoupoleians or Turkish migrants ? In Constantinople proper or in the metro ? Are you counting Armenians, Jews, Alevis ? The Greek population must be around 60 % for Constantinople proper, 25-30 % for the metro.
I KNOW.
I am thinking of ethnic Greeks, Hellenized Turks, and Turks who maintain their identity with such an ethnic division with said breakdown being in the metropolis as a whole
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Tooro Civil War
The Tooro Civil War (1982-1993) was a low-intensity war between the Kingdom of Tooro and the Rwenzururu Liberation Front.
The Rwenzururu region, populated by the Kongo and Amba peoples, had lived as subjects of the Tooro Kingdom since its creation in the early XIXth Century and had unsuccessfully the British protectors for autonomy during colonization ; as soon as Tooro became formally independent from Great Britain in 1976, Rwenzururuans and their leader Isaya Mukirania repeatedly asked for forming their own separate kingdom, away from the majority Tooro population. Failure of negotiations escalated into an eleven-year-long guerilla, that became a proxy war between the old colonial powers (Great Britain, Germany) and the old kingdoms (Buganda, Bunyoro, Busoga, Ankole), that supported Tooro, and the Pan-Africanist powers (Liberia, Kongo), that supported the Rwenzururuans.
The war ended with the 1993 Kampala Accords, pressed by the colonial powers who wished to redirect their efforts towards the South African Civil War. Rwenzururu was recognized as a separate kingdom, in personal union with Tooro, with King Olimi III as monarch of both countries and Isaya Mukirania as Prime Minister, a dual monarchy that lasts to this day.
Rukidi IV
Rukirabasaija Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV (born 16 April 1992) is the current Omukama (King) of both Tooro and Rwenzururu, succeeding his father Olimi III, reigning since 12 September 1995 and from his own right since 17 April 2010, the Regency having been assumed during his childhood by Queen Mother Best.
Heir to one of the last dual monarchies of the world, located in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Rukidi IV has lived a typical life for one of the absolute monarchs of Sub-Saharan Africa, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Business Management from the University of Winchester before assuming the rule of both his realms, where all rift has been succesfully healed over time. A quiet kingdom, Tooro-Rwenzururu is however well known for its links with Pan-Africanists, enjoying strong economic links with Liberia and officially recognizing Azania.
I must admit you ask too much from me. But what I would say is that Greeks are the majority on the European side of Constantinople and the wealthiest parts of the Asian side, the most central ones ; the Hellenes are the ruling class of all the Helenic Empire, and enjoy the most wealth, influence and dominance. The Asian side stretches far into the mainland, with countless slums accomodating Turkish refugees, and then they aren't in the slums, the Turks who recently arrived are overcrowdining public houses and doing the petty jobs needed throughout the metropolis.
Fair enough. Anyways, how much of a threat is Azania to the wider world and what is Azania's "end-game", so to speak?
As I said, unifying the whole Sub-Saharan Africa and purging it from all Western influences. In Africa and Asia, Azania is seen as a quite legitimate government, but in Europe and America, there is concern about ethnic cleansings and them acquiring weapons of mass destructions and financing terrorism.
Quite bad. They are ostracized everywhere, with a pogrom from time to time in Eastern Europe.
Well, this reference to ethnic cleansings makes me interested in how many people have they killed and how do they compare to the Syndies in terms of body count. Also, what does Azania define as "Western influences" and how extreme has it gotten?
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Are there any major power that supported them? From the wiki it has constantly involve in war since its birth. It should had collapsed by 2021 if no assistance was offer to them.
China is IIRC a government willing to look the other way to Azania's actions.