WI:iranian landgrab during russian civil war

Could iran successful annex armenia and azerbaijan and parts of central asia during the russian civil war

Would they be able to keep this territory with possible British support
 
To say nothing of the Qajars giving way to the Pahlavis at this time.

I do wonder if there was some prospect of Iran, perhaps with British support, moving to take Baku on the grounds of reunifying the Azeri lands within Iran.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
I do wonder if there was some prospect of Iran, perhaps with British support, moving to take Baku on the grounds of reunifying the Azeri lands within Iran.
That would certainly be interesting. However, given the Soviet Union's dependence on oil from Baku, Britain might need to keep a permanent garrison there if it wants to permanently prevent the Soviet Union from conquering Baku.
 
Given the Shi'a/Sunni split, an Iranian regime might have tough sledding trying to get the Russian ruled parts of Central Asia to submit.
 
To retake Azerbaijan wouldn't be a foolish idea: the poeple are shia muslims (azeri faith, one of the most progressive muslim religions btw but I'm not an expert myself). You could even get British indirect support when Russia is going red. In which case, Persia (not called "Iran" back then) could be an oil juggernaut after the 1940's. And considering Iran doesn't have a tradition to suppress languages and culture in his country (Farsi must dominate the administration and the culture, but you can speak kurdish or azeri without problem), This enlarged Persia could hold until today. And since Iran always saw oil as a money source to modernize and industrialize (from Mossadegh to the Shah), this could lead to a very developped country.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
Given the Shi'a/Sunni split, an Iranian regime might have tough sledding trying to get the Russian ruled parts of Central Asia to submit.
Agreed. However, in any case, going beyond natural gas-rich Turkmenistan would probably be logistically inadvisable for Iran.
 
Could iran successful annex armenia and azerbaijan and parts of central asia during the russian civil war

Would they be able to keep this territory with possible British support

Hah!

Hahahahaha!

As much as half the population had just starved to death due to the Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran during WW1. The country was wrecked. Ruined. They hadn't even been able to mount a credible resistance to the Anglo-Russian invasion, nor a credible resistance to the Ottoman invasion.

Invading Russia was well beyond the capability of Iran at this point.

fasquardon
 
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