WI: Sultan Yahya takes the Ottoman Throne

This is a topic that absolutely fascinates me. Yahya was heavily influensed by his Orthodox Christian mother,herself a descendent of the Komnenos Emperors of Trebizond, and repeatedly promised potential and actual sponsors and allies that if he succeeded, he would make Christianity the state religion of the Ottoman Empire. This promise was reportedly made to a succession of four popes, and was a constant part of all his proposals that were pitched to wealthy citizens and sovereigns across Europe. So lets say one of his attempts succeeded, I'll need to do more research for a proper date, but lets say somewhere between 1614 and 1620, that seems to be when he was the most active. So would he actually make Christianity the Official religion? Would that mean an improvement of relations with the west? Would the new state Religion last beyond his death?
 
Would he even succeed at taking the throne?

At one point he attacked Istanbul/Constantinople with 130 + ships provided by Russian and Ukrainian cossacks, so I think it was possible. He certainly seemed to have a lot of foreign support, much more then the Jacobites, for instance. I can't find a lot of info on him hu id did find this link:http://balkanfever.at/2009/index.php/die-unglaubliche-geschichte-des-sultan-jahja. According to that article Yahya taking the throne seemed to be feasible. So any thoughts on a Christian Ottoman Empire?
 
At one point he attacked Istanbul/Constantinople with 130 + ships provided by Russian and Ukrainian cossacks, so I think it was possible. He certainly seemed to have a lot of foreign support, much more then the Jacobites, for instance. I can't find a lot of info on him hu id did find this link:http://balkanfever.at/2009/index.php/die-unglaubliche-geschichte-des-sultan-jahja. According to that article Yahya taking the throne seemed to be feasible. So any thoughts on a Christian Ottoman Empire?

Attacking Istanbul =/= becoming sultan.

What is the support for him internally? Because that's going to have a lot more influence on whether or not him making Christianity the state religion is going to lead to anything other than his premature death than a few more Cossacks would.
 
Attacking Istanbul =/= becoming sultan.

What is the support for him internally? Because that's going to have a lot more influence on whether or not him making Christianity the state religion is going to lead to anything other than his premature death than a few more Cossacks would.

I can't find direct support for him per say, but there was a lot of internal revolts during his brother Ahmed I's reign. So I can't tell if these riots and revolts were anti-Ahmed, anti-Ottoman or pro-Yahya. All the info I can find is in Turkish and my Google translator seems to hate me.
 
This... on the face of it at least, sounds heavily ASB. He's going to have the Ulama, the Janissaries, the Sipahis, and probably a large percentage of the peasants - egged on by the mullahs - all saying that he's forsaken God and therefore should be killed never mind be allowed to take the throne.
 
Well he did descend for the Komnenos dynasty so maybe we could see an earlier, larger, Revival of Greece? Or going farther, the Byzantine Empire?

At a loss as to how. Being descended from the Komnenos dynasty doesn't make him Hellenic or Rhomanian, even if he was (Orthodox?) Christian.

Also, if he does somehow establish a realm in the Balkans, what's to stop the Ottomans from stomping on it and eliminating it?
 
At a loss as to how. Being descended from the Komnenos dynasty doesn't make him Hellenic or Rhomanian, even if he was (Orthodox?) Christian.

Also, if he does somehow establish a realm in the Balkans, what's to stop the Ottomans from stomping on it and eliminating it?

No it doesn't but it doesn't hurt either. Yahya would be descended from some of the Greatest Emperors of the Byzantine Empire and is Orthodox to boot. So it go's along way to rallying Christians, such as the Greeks,Bulgarians, Serbians and Albanians,to his flag.

Well like I mentioned earlier, the Ottoman Empire had a lot of internal disturbances at that time, more than enough to distract keep the Sultans armies occupied for the time being. So that'll by Yahya some time to fortify his position. If he lands in, say Albania since he seemed to have a lot of support there, or perhaps the Peloponnese, he could be resupplied by any of the Italian states , probably Venice, fairly easily. I can't imagine that the Europeans would help him initially then leave their best chance at Christianizing the Ottomans high and dry. With enough European and homegrown Christian support he could create a Balkan realm that would last for at least a decade and would be a perfect striking place for any Ottoman-European war.
 
No it doesn't but it doesn't hurt either. Yahya would be descended from some of the Greatest Emperors of the Byzantine Empire and is Orthodox to boot. So it go's along way to rallying Christians, such as the Greeks,Bulgarians, Serbians and Albanians,to his flag.

I find that rather doubtful.

Well like I mentioned earlier, the Ottoman Empire had a lot of internal disturbances at that time, more than enough to distract keep the Sultans armies occupied for the time being. So that'll by Yahya some time to fortify his position. If he lands in, say Albania since he seemed to have a lot of support there, or perhaps the Peloponnese, he could be resupplied by any of the Italian states , probably Venice, fairly easily. I can't imagine that the Europeans would help him initially then leave their best chance at Christianizing the Ottomans high and dry. With enough European and homegrown Christian support he could create a Balkan realm that would last for at least a decade and would be a perfect striking place for any Ottoman-European war.

Venice's possession of the Morea comes to mind. Specifically, Venice losing the Morea comes to mind.
 
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