Alternate History
Banned
I've been thinking about the Ottoman Empire and its post-WWI fate, as well as about timelines here on AH.com as well as elsewhere. It seems that there is a narrow pool of outcomes that can happen to the Ottoman Empire (according to the denizens of this site) after WWI, depending on the results of the war:
Personally, my only idea so far was going back to the beginning of Mustafa Kemal's emergence, and exposing him to Marxist ideals a bit better, making him more of a (pseudo-?)Marxist and less of just a left-populist nationalist. That way maybe he could push for a more equal union of the empire's peoples - if WWI ends with a white peace or a marginal victory for the Entente that isn't enough to shatter the Ottomans, he could exploit the post-war situation, creating a bilingual government and protection for minorities. (For this, we'd also need to butterfly away parts of his personality though, like his tendencies for ethnic cleansing...) My only problem with this solution is that I don't see the Ottoman Empire's territory as very fertile grounds for building socialism. Either way, what do you people think?
- Entente wins. The Empire is dismembered. In the best case scenario, it's something like OTL, where Turkey keeps Istanbul and many territories inhabited by Armenians and Kurds. In the worst case scenario, Turkey is screwed even more, with things like Greek Constantinople and a fully realized Megali idea, independent Kurdistan, wanked Wilsonian Armenia, sometimes even a Kingdom of Pontus as a Greek or Russian (if they survive the war intact) puppet. Ethnic cleansing is likely in these scenarios since many of these territories are mostly Turkish. An option loved by Byzantophiles and as well as people who love placing as many small countries that didn't exist IOTL, but could have, as possible.
- CP wins. Ottomans stay intact, Arab revolts are suppressed successfully, either peacefully or bloodily, with maybe some losses in Arabia at most (but keeping Syria, Iraq...). Generally, this leads to the Ottomans reforming into a constitutional monarchy and extensive minority rights granted to Arabs and other minorities within the Empire. Ottomans survive until the present day, easily, with maybe minor territorial fluctuations either way in future wars. A favorite of Ottoman-philes and monarchists, but generally done almost every time the Central Powers win because people have no idea what else to do with the Ottomans.
Personally, my only idea so far was going back to the beginning of Mustafa Kemal's emergence, and exposing him to Marxist ideals a bit better, making him more of a (pseudo-?)Marxist and less of just a left-populist nationalist. That way maybe he could push for a more equal union of the empire's peoples - if WWI ends with a white peace or a marginal victory for the Entente that isn't enough to shatter the Ottomans, he could exploit the post-war situation, creating a bilingual government and protection for minorities. (For this, we'd also need to butterfly away parts of his personality though, like his tendencies for ethnic cleansing...) My only problem with this solution is that I don't see the Ottoman Empire's territory as very fertile grounds for building socialism. Either way, what do you people think?
