Say the world wars are avoided and the ottomans survive till the present day in their 1914 borders.
How does the culture and society of the empire develop?
Now a lot of people immediately say it'd be even more liberal than present day Turkey cause there'd be no Wahhabism and radical Islam. But would that really be the case?
Sure the Ottomans would crush Wahhabis in Arabia and the Muslim world in general would be more liberal. As would the regions of the Ottoman empire such as Syria and Iraq.
But for Turkey proper this also means there's no wide scale modernization and hard core secularization of the Kemal era and his legacy that built secularism into the Turkish national identity. Instead the Ottoman Empire would still officially be the caliphate and would have to use Islam as a biding force to keep it's diverse ethnic groups united.
Some also go so far as to say it'd be seen as more European, and I can't for the life of me contemplate how a theocracy that still uses the Arabic script and stretches to the Indian ocean would somehow be seen as part of Europe more than present day Turkey.
The only real positive development I can see for Turkey in this regard is that it could potentially be wealthier from all the oil money. But I can't be certain of it's social development.
Side note: what of the Armenian/Greek minorities? Sure we'd skip the outright genocide we've seen OTL but it's not like the Armenians were treated amazingly during peactime either (look up Hamidian massacres)
How does the culture and society of the empire develop?
Now a lot of people immediately say it'd be even more liberal than present day Turkey cause there'd be no Wahhabism and radical Islam. But would that really be the case?
Sure the Ottomans would crush Wahhabis in Arabia and the Muslim world in general would be more liberal. As would the regions of the Ottoman empire such as Syria and Iraq.
But for Turkey proper this also means there's no wide scale modernization and hard core secularization of the Kemal era and his legacy that built secularism into the Turkish national identity. Instead the Ottoman Empire would still officially be the caliphate and would have to use Islam as a biding force to keep it's diverse ethnic groups united.
Some also go so far as to say it'd be seen as more European, and I can't for the life of me contemplate how a theocracy that still uses the Arabic script and stretches to the Indian ocean would somehow be seen as part of Europe more than present day Turkey.
The only real positive development I can see for Turkey in this regard is that it could potentially be wealthier from all the oil money. But I can't be certain of it's social development.
Side note: what of the Armenian/Greek minorities? Sure we'd skip the outright genocide we've seen OTL but it's not like the Armenians were treated amazingly during peactime either (look up Hamidian massacres)