WI: Stalin doesn't try to carve up Turkey after WW2

I also wonder if a Turkey less worried about the Soviet Union might get more involved in the Arab world. For instance, maybe contribute volunteer forces to fight on the Arab side during the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war

Hm. I wonder if that would lead to an earlier American involvement with Israel as "Soviet ally Turkey" gets involved in the fight...

Also, I read up a bit on the Greek civil war - from my cursory researches, it looks like the Communists were winning until the Soviet/Yugoslav split, which cut the Greek Communists off from their best supply routes when Tito closed the boarder.

I wonder how likely it would be for a Turkey with a better relationship with the Soviets to actively help the Greek Communists (perhaps in return for certain territorial "considerations", like Communist Greece swearing to make no claim on Cyprus)? That could keep the Greek Communists in the fight longer, or possibly even result in the Greek Communists winning before the Soviet/Yugoslav spit...

fasquardon
 
Hm. I wonder if that would lead to an earlier American involvement with Israel as "Soviet ally Turkey" gets involved in the fight...

Also, I read up a bit on the Greek civil war - from my cursory researches, it looks like the Communists were winning until the Soviet/Yugoslav split, which cut the Greek Communists off from their best supply routes when Tito closed the boarder.

I wonder how likely it would be for a Turkey with a better relationship with the Soviets to actively help the Greek Communists (perhaps in return for certain territorial "considerations", like Communist Greece swearing to make no claim on Cyprus)? That could keep the Greek Communists in the fight longer, or possibly even result in the Greek Communists winning before the Soviet/Yugoslav spit...

fasquardon

Some good ideas in there. I too think there is a lot of fertile ground for AH in this POD, particularly with the OTL Cyprus debacle. It will be very difficult for NATO to ignore the non-member Turkey invading and partitioning the island — especially if Turkey is seen as a de facto Soviet ally. Then again, everybody would be aware of the controversy and the agitation might be better managed. (This assumes the Communists are not successful in the Greek Civil War).
 
Some good ideas in there. I too think there is a lot of fertile ground for AH in this POD, particularly with the OTL Cyprus debacle.

Yes, I agree. It's a subtle PoD with many fascinating implications.

I've also been wondering - if Stalin is more adroit with Turkey, would he also be more adroit in Eastern Europe or in the rest of the world? Stalin made an awful lot of foreign policy decisions in the last years of his life that look spectacularly boneheaded in hindsight.

Alas, I've already got a pile of PoDs I'd like to write timelines for, so if there is ever a "no Turkish-Soviet split" timeline, it probably won't be written by me...

fasquardon
 
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