Embers of Chaos (Ottoman Empire and Russia 1920)
Officially, three years after the regrettable military and diplomatic incidents between their two nations, the friendship between the Sublime Porte and Moscow was destined to new shining tomorrows.
At least this was the lie a few spokesmen on both sides were selling to the naive parts of their public opinion.
In reality, the tempers were reigning hot in every government, and the supporters of peace had all been evicted from common affairs, or kept busy away from this delicate issue.
Whatever their other worldly preoccupations, the two Empires had been firmly reminded that their hereditary enemy was still alive and nowhere as dead as they wanted it to be. Russia had not crumbled under the weight of rebellions agitating its ‘nominally independent Grand Duchies’. The Ottomans, in spite of the newspapers regularly announcing the destruction of their society, were still the masters of Constantinople and the Bosporus, not to mention Anatolia, Thrace and several other Asiatic lands like Mesopotamia.
On both side, this was judged intolerable.
For Russia, the ancient city of Byzantium was the last great obstacle barring the way to Russia contesting French supremacy in the world. For too long the gates of the Bosporus were a weapon which could be aimed and fired at the trade and the rest of the Russian economy. The legions of the Great War had crushed Poland and Finland amongst others, the next conflict had to be dealing with the problem posed by the line of Osman once for all.
The Ottomans had their own reasons to be unhappy, of course. The Caucasus annexations in the last decades had deprived the Empire of a lot of its eastern territory, mountains and valleys which were rightfully the Sublime Porte according to laws and customs. And with Transylvania nothing less than a puppet of the warmongering Siberian Generals, it was obvious the gluttony of the Russian bear was not satiated. The Ottoman Empire was fighting for its very life, and given the enormous difference in terms of population, and war-making industry, any war had to begin on Ottoman terms and with a large coalition of allies.
In this regard, 1917 was very satisfying. The arrogance and the ruthlessness showed by the Russian diplomats, combined with past historical wrongs, had been enough to rally Poland, the Sultanate of Oman, and Hungary-Austria into supporting the Ottomans against their hated enemy.
Alas, once the intelligence of military capacities was properly analysed and the enthusiasm of the diplomatic victory calmed down, there were dozens of voice to acknowledge this wouldn’t be enough in a true war. Except Hungary-Austria and Sweden, the other nations had been utterly crushed during the Great War, and were now shadow of themselves for all the rebuilding and modernisation efforts invested in civilian and military fields. Expecting a victory with this coalition was the dream of an opium-addict.
1918 brought good news and one unpleasant piece of information. If the Anarchist nation of Serbia signed an advantageous treaty of mutual defence with the Ottoman ministers, Greece decided to sign on accords of the same nature, except with Russia, loudly proclaiming the religious interests of the Orthodox world were incredibly important in front of the unbearable Muslim occupation of the Queen of Cities.
Immediately, it convinced Persia and Albania to join the mutual defence pact. But the damage was done. When the war came – the ‘if’ had long ago been abandoned even as a charming amusement behind closed doors – there would be a new front opened on the other side of the Bosporus.
To the consternation of the pacifists, this didn’t resulting in a policy limited to the building of new fortifications and adopting an entirely defensive policy. No, the Sublime Porte had far higher aspirations than that. First above all, was the secret program destined to arm ‘professional’ cells of insurgents in the Russian-held ‘Grand Duchies’. After several conferences with their allies which left no written notes behind them, it was decided one nation would be responsible for each of the Tsarina’s protectorate. Sweden would support Finnish resistance for example, the Ottomans establishing dozens of resistance network in the Caucasus and Northern Persia. The surviving realm to the south would have dearly enjoyed, but their military was in dire need of being rebuilt if they wanted to participate in the holy crusade against the Russian ogre.
As a sizeable percentage of the local population in these regions loathed the Russian boots keeping them heads down, the outbursts of violence, the arrests turning into miniature battles, and the dissent certainly didn’t end from Persia to Finland.
Unfortunately, two could play that game. Russian agents had no difficulty sending back captured Ottoman weapons on the side of the frontier where they had been assembled in the first place. The same was true for Polish or Hungarian rifles. Mesopotamian insurgents, Syrian ambitious commanders, Austrian monarchists, Polish revolutionaries...the anti-Russian block had its fair share of discontents too.
It was a dangerous ‘game’. There wasn’t a month were there wasn’t a ‘frontier incident’, generally ending with one vexed party burying corpses of insurgents in view of the parties who had financially and militarily supported them. The taxes on the ships crossing the Bosporus varied so much during the 1918-1920 years several spies joked they could see how their work was going depending on the level of taxation on a given day.
There were many attempts to stop the attempted escalations. In the Baltic, Denmark and Norway used several times their control of the Skagerrak to force Sweden to comply with their foreign policy, but it only lasted a few months, and many bridges were burned between Stockholm and Copenhagen which would not be rebuilt any time soon.
France sent a squadron in the Aegean when a Russian and an Ottoman warship almost came to blows in front of Suez, but while the two potential belligerents stayed quiet as long as the French battleships were close to the Bosporus to protect their diplomats, the appearances of civility ended as soon as the warships returned to their western bases.
One Great War had clearly not been enough for some governments, as the quarrels for the straits of Byzantium and the control of many Pacific islands proved...
Officially, three years after the regrettable military and diplomatic incidents between their two nations, the friendship between the Sublime Porte and Moscow was destined to new shining tomorrows.
At least this was the lie a few spokesmen on both sides were selling to the naive parts of their public opinion.
In reality, the tempers were reigning hot in every government, and the supporters of peace had all been evicted from common affairs, or kept busy away from this delicate issue.
Whatever their other worldly preoccupations, the two Empires had been firmly reminded that their hereditary enemy was still alive and nowhere as dead as they wanted it to be. Russia had not crumbled under the weight of rebellions agitating its ‘nominally independent Grand Duchies’. The Ottomans, in spite of the newspapers regularly announcing the destruction of their society, were still the masters of Constantinople and the Bosporus, not to mention Anatolia, Thrace and several other Asiatic lands like Mesopotamia.
On both side, this was judged intolerable.
For Russia, the ancient city of Byzantium was the last great obstacle barring the way to Russia contesting French supremacy in the world. For too long the gates of the Bosporus were a weapon which could be aimed and fired at the trade and the rest of the Russian economy. The legions of the Great War had crushed Poland and Finland amongst others, the next conflict had to be dealing with the problem posed by the line of Osman once for all.
The Ottomans had their own reasons to be unhappy, of course. The Caucasus annexations in the last decades had deprived the Empire of a lot of its eastern territory, mountains and valleys which were rightfully the Sublime Porte according to laws and customs. And with Transylvania nothing less than a puppet of the warmongering Siberian Generals, it was obvious the gluttony of the Russian bear was not satiated. The Ottoman Empire was fighting for its very life, and given the enormous difference in terms of population, and war-making industry, any war had to begin on Ottoman terms and with a large coalition of allies.
In this regard, 1917 was very satisfying. The arrogance and the ruthlessness showed by the Russian diplomats, combined with past historical wrongs, had been enough to rally Poland, the Sultanate of Oman, and Hungary-Austria into supporting the Ottomans against their hated enemy.
Alas, once the intelligence of military capacities was properly analysed and the enthusiasm of the diplomatic victory calmed down, there were dozens of voice to acknowledge this wouldn’t be enough in a true war. Except Hungary-Austria and Sweden, the other nations had been utterly crushed during the Great War, and were now shadow of themselves for all the rebuilding and modernisation efforts invested in civilian and military fields. Expecting a victory with this coalition was the dream of an opium-addict.
1918 brought good news and one unpleasant piece of information. If the Anarchist nation of Serbia signed an advantageous treaty of mutual defence with the Ottoman ministers, Greece decided to sign on accords of the same nature, except with Russia, loudly proclaiming the religious interests of the Orthodox world were incredibly important in front of the unbearable Muslim occupation of the Queen of Cities.
Immediately, it convinced Persia and Albania to join the mutual defence pact. But the damage was done. When the war came – the ‘if’ had long ago been abandoned even as a charming amusement behind closed doors – there would be a new front opened on the other side of the Bosporus.
To the consternation of the pacifists, this didn’t resulting in a policy limited to the building of new fortifications and adopting an entirely defensive policy. No, the Sublime Porte had far higher aspirations than that. First above all, was the secret program destined to arm ‘professional’ cells of insurgents in the Russian-held ‘Grand Duchies’. After several conferences with their allies which left no written notes behind them, it was decided one nation would be responsible for each of the Tsarina’s protectorate. Sweden would support Finnish resistance for example, the Ottomans establishing dozens of resistance network in the Caucasus and Northern Persia. The surviving realm to the south would have dearly enjoyed, but their military was in dire need of being rebuilt if they wanted to participate in the holy crusade against the Russian ogre.
As a sizeable percentage of the local population in these regions loathed the Russian boots keeping them heads down, the outbursts of violence, the arrests turning into miniature battles, and the dissent certainly didn’t end from Persia to Finland.
Unfortunately, two could play that game. Russian agents had no difficulty sending back captured Ottoman weapons on the side of the frontier where they had been assembled in the first place. The same was true for Polish or Hungarian rifles. Mesopotamian insurgents, Syrian ambitious commanders, Austrian monarchists, Polish revolutionaries...the anti-Russian block had its fair share of discontents too.
It was a dangerous ‘game’. There wasn’t a month were there wasn’t a ‘frontier incident’, generally ending with one vexed party burying corpses of insurgents in view of the parties who had financially and militarily supported them. The taxes on the ships crossing the Bosporus varied so much during the 1918-1920 years several spies joked they could see how their work was going depending on the level of taxation on a given day.
There were many attempts to stop the attempted escalations. In the Baltic, Denmark and Norway used several times their control of the Skagerrak to force Sweden to comply with their foreign policy, but it only lasted a few months, and many bridges were burned between Stockholm and Copenhagen which would not be rebuilt any time soon.
France sent a squadron in the Aegean when a Russian and an Ottoman warship almost came to blows in front of Suez, but while the two potential belligerents stayed quiet as long as the French battleships were close to the Bosporus to protect their diplomats, the appearances of civility ended as soon as the warships returned to their western bases.
One Great War had clearly not been enough for some governments, as the quarrels for the straits of Byzantium and the control of many Pacific islands proved...
