Deleted member 94680
So, according to McMeekin’s The Ottoman Endgame, on the 5th August 1914 M N Leontiev the Russian Military Attaché in Constantinople paid a visit to Enver Pasha the Ottoman Minister of War. What Enver proposed was staggering.
According to McMeekin (referencing diplomatic notes and diary entries of those involved, going by his bibliography) Enver offered the Russians a deal to secure Ottoman neutrality in the coming European conflict. It doesn’t seem that a complete diplomatic document has survived, but the main terms were apparently a defensive alliance of 5 or 10 years and a “new Balkan settlement at the expense of Vienna”.
The settlement (hashed out between the Ottomans and the Russians, but none of the other nations) involved Turkey regaining Western Thrace from Bulgaria and several Aegean islands from Greece (not listed, but I assume the ones over the mouth of the Dardanelles). In compensation, Bulgaria would receive “parts of Macedonia” from Serbia and Greece would receive Albania. Finally, Serbia would receive Bosnia-Herzegovina from Austria in return for the Macedonian territory ceded to Bulgaria.
The Ottomans would withdraw the IX and XI Corps of the Third Army from Eastern Turkey, allowing the Russians to redeploy their Army of the Caucasus to Europe against the Austrians and Germans. If agreed, the German Military Mission to Constantinople would be expelled by the Ottomans and presumably replaced by a Russian one or simply none at all.
Over the weekend of the 7th-9th August the finer details were negotiated between the Russians and Ottomans and the proposal was keenly supported by Said Halim Pasha (the Grand Vizier) and Talât at the Ottoman Interior Ministry once they learned of Enver’s machinations. On the Russian side, the deal was supported by Ambassador Girs who advised Sazonov to accept the terms as agreed.
It all seems to have come to naught and followed the OTL path we all know due to the arrival of SMS Goeben at the Dardanelles and Enver’s decision to allow Souchon past the forts into Marmara. That and Sazonov was advised by Yanushkevitch at the Russian War Ministry to break off the talks to avoid “looking weak” in Central Asia.
But what if St Petersburg had agreed to Enver’s proposal? Would the additional Russian troops in Europe have made enough of a difference and would fighting only on the Eastern Front allowed the Russians to perform better? Would it have changed the Balkan Theatre to an Austrian curbstomp, or removed it completely if the Serbs, Bulgarians and Greeks had agreed to what was offered to them in the absence of Russian support? How would it have affected the path of WWI?
According to McMeekin (referencing diplomatic notes and diary entries of those involved, going by his bibliography) Enver offered the Russians a deal to secure Ottoman neutrality in the coming European conflict. It doesn’t seem that a complete diplomatic document has survived, but the main terms were apparently a defensive alliance of 5 or 10 years and a “new Balkan settlement at the expense of Vienna”.
The settlement (hashed out between the Ottomans and the Russians, but none of the other nations) involved Turkey regaining Western Thrace from Bulgaria and several Aegean islands from Greece (not listed, but I assume the ones over the mouth of the Dardanelles). In compensation, Bulgaria would receive “parts of Macedonia” from Serbia and Greece would receive Albania. Finally, Serbia would receive Bosnia-Herzegovina from Austria in return for the Macedonian territory ceded to Bulgaria.
The Ottomans would withdraw the IX and XI Corps of the Third Army from Eastern Turkey, allowing the Russians to redeploy their Army of the Caucasus to Europe against the Austrians and Germans. If agreed, the German Military Mission to Constantinople would be expelled by the Ottomans and presumably replaced by a Russian one or simply none at all.
Over the weekend of the 7th-9th August the finer details were negotiated between the Russians and Ottomans and the proposal was keenly supported by Said Halim Pasha (the Grand Vizier) and Talât at the Ottoman Interior Ministry once they learned of Enver’s machinations. On the Russian side, the deal was supported by Ambassador Girs who advised Sazonov to accept the terms as agreed.
It all seems to have come to naught and followed the OTL path we all know due to the arrival of SMS Goeben at the Dardanelles and Enver’s decision to allow Souchon past the forts into Marmara. That and Sazonov was advised by Yanushkevitch at the Russian War Ministry to break off the talks to avoid “looking weak” in Central Asia.
But what if St Petersburg had agreed to Enver’s proposal? Would the additional Russian troops in Europe have made enough of a difference and would fighting only on the Eastern Front allowed the Russians to perform better? Would it have changed the Balkan Theatre to an Austrian curbstomp, or removed it completely if the Serbs, Bulgarians and Greeks had agreed to what was offered to them in the absence of Russian support? How would it have affected the path of WWI?