So some critiques on the recent dev diary that I think is going to end up deserving its own post-
Now I do want to start with some good- After further review, I like that the Turkic tree is in there, and the facing west balkan tree is neat, and I do like that- it reflects Turkey's attitudes towards trying to be a good western nation. I also am curious about the aid that might be offered- and hope that goes well!
Also it is clear that a lot of research was done in finding events/parties/documents to help shore up the factual basis for certain trees, though I disagree with their implementation and interpretation.. as you'll see below, I am impressed with some of the information that is provided! It is a step in the right direction, but it doesn't go far enough. I would be happy to help work with ya'll on a Pro-bono basis if need be, to help implement this tree.
This is a long one, So I'm making a table of contents
1. Turkey's Political Tree & National Identity
2. Turkey's diplomacy based on political affiliations
3. Industry Tree musings.
4. National Spirit Adjustments
5. Turkey's Doomsday Weapon
1. Turkey's Political Tree & National Identity
First let's talk about the very first focuses you are going to chose- Go Right or Go left- Reflecting real world policies- This seems more like an economic decision more than a political one, but I'm willing to accept that maybe this might be right...
Except that these define the path you take politically, when in reality, the political debate of Turkish National identity could still shifted by the Father of All Turks, Ataturk. His influence in Turkish politics is immense after all, and that isn't defined by banking/debt repayment policies.
The three identities up for debate are as follows
Pan-Turkism- This is the identity of Turkey in WW1 to modern day and it is basically a romantic idealization of the turkish peoples as both being superior due to adapting a secular westernized government under strenuous, disastrous conditions. The war for national survival has defined one thing quite clear- Western Advanced society is Turkish in character. As a result, if a ethnicity displays western leanings they must be Turkish! They only need to learn how to speak the right language. This idealolgy to this day maintains that there are only Turks in Turkey, much to the chagrin of Kurds. Conceptually this ideology cannot reconcile with the concept that their are other ethnicities inside of Turkey proper. If other ethinciities are brought into the fold- they need to be properly westernized, secularized and incorporated into the state. Aka they need to speak turkish. (Neutral-Historical and Facist)
Pan-Islam- the conservative faction is also trying to construct a national identity that Kemalism could theoretically adapt some trappings of for various reasons if it suits them- and that is a shared Islamic identity. This identity was most prevalent under the reign of Mehmed VI, during which time Turkey cultivated an Islamic identity in order to maintain cohesion of its empire, regain control of many of its constituent minorities and turn the tables even on European powers. This shared cultural identity of being subjected to foreign interference, shared religious identity and dreams of unity can be a fairly compelling force internationally. (Neutral, possibly democratic) This tree wouldn't be selectable while Kemal is alive, but could be back doored into by electing the Islamist party to power. Civil war imminent.
Pan-Ottomanism- This is the oldest of the three identities I'll articulate, and is an outside player in Turkish politics at this point, just due to the fact that there are very few ethnic minorities in Turkey, and anything that portrays Ottomanism positively is politically taboo. However, the concept is simple, while the middle east does not share a ethnic identity, it shares a cultural identity of being subjects of the ottoman state, foreign meddling and now, oppressed colonial subjects. This shared history could be constructed into a cohesive national identity if given the right push- and with the proper political backing. (Communism/Democratic)
Alright so then, if Fascism is nationalistic and ethnic in nature and communism has an international character why are the communist and facist trees directly linked with one another? Why is Patriotism over Internationalism a communist focus? That is a fairly anti-communist sentiment- and if it is instead a socialist style government with a ultra-patroitic (read nationalistic) character.. isn't that just a type of authoritarianism that Kemalism already was historically? Or even outright Facism?
Yes Kemalism is somewhat nebulous and able to be redefined, but the historical context/idealogical context here is important for understanding the political character of the Kemalist legacy. Turkey's economic/political system is weird, but that is due in part from fear of the soviets, foreign involvement and a cult of personality surrounding Ataturk. This isn't an explicit political decision except that Turkey needs to be westernized, and it's trying to adapt what it perceives as other successful states- socalism, centralization, democratic trappings, equal rights, industrialization, all with a distinctly Turkish national character.
The tree should be reshaped to something more accurate to Turkish identity politics- which is that Pan-Turkism is the historical neutral path, and the fascist path. Pan-Ottomanism is the communist path. The democratic path is usable by both the Pan-Islamists and Pan-Ottomanists either to establish a constitutional monarchy, a theocratic republic or a true secular republic. A conservative, possibly even authoritarian Pan-islamist tree would be the final tree, that has some cross over theoretically with the democracy tree.
So the tree conceptually would look something like-.
Pan Turk Pan Islam Pan Ottoman
Facist- Neutral Turk/Islam- Democratic- Communist
2. Turkey's diplomacy based on political affiliations.
Oddly enough, Turkey is kind of interesting in terms of diplomatic actions, after all, the middle east is generally speaking not a focus of conflict for most other nations! So theoretically Turkey could expand far and wide and create a pretty neat empire. Right?
Actually, yes, but not as HOI4 normally does- amusingly enough, A strong Pan-turkic identity is actually one of the worst possible ways for Turkey to expand in the middle east- which is why the current tree as written excludes Kemalists from expanding into the Middle east! Areas like Syria, Lebanon and Iraq are still dealing with the consequences of Armenians that were death marched into their lands, and unable to return home. Furthermore, Turkish attempts to destroy these various nations cultures really doesn't lend itself well to expansion opportunities.
Take for instance the Golden Square in Iraq, let's say the Turks are offering you guns and help to fight the British for Kuwait- The ramifications of this getting out would be catastrophic, as a fascist turkey would represent an existential threat to your nations mere existence. Let's go a step further and say Turkey attacked the Golden Square in Iraq during the war between Iraq and the UK... keep in mind that the British want to keep their communications secure to the Raj at all cost, and do not TRUST the Golden Square to keep their word- and thus refuse to make peace. From the perspective of the Golden Square Turkish nationalism a greater threat to their nation than British Colonialism, and the return of Kuwait. So a rational individual- in both Iraq and the UK would perceive that the best outcome would be to keep Turkey out of Iraq at all costs they are a far greater threat after all to the British Communications than Iraq, and Iraq isn't facing population/cultural annihilation if the British win.
The Turks also are not going to be able to just do what the Japanese did in Indochina and put Syrians in charge, remember, Pan-turkism would have difficult reconciling that, and the Syrians aren't exactly going to be happy about the turks returning. Revolts are almost guaranteed, and this would likely bring the Germans/Vichy/Free france into conflict with Turkey if they are not in their faction. Western expansion will of course put Turkey into conflict with Germany/Italy fairly quickly as well, and possibly even the allies!.
What this means in short is that Facist turkey while perhaps getting the most war goals for free, is the political alignment that basically is guaranteed to never be able to core a state within the scope of this game and will need to fight almost every major to achieve their greatest extent. They have the most opportunities to get a big name, but they have to fight, all the time, and end up wide, not tall.
The democratic path is actually a more interesting path for expansion in Turkey, as a democratic turkey can create a Middle Eastern Federation, allowing for some self-determination for the locals. This combined with British being more trusting of the motivations of a democratic Turkey means that Turkey would actually in this instance be able to intervene in the Golden Square incident with minimal consequences, and annex French Lebanon and Syria without resistance/revolts. Because of this democratic principle, coring within the scope of the game is possible, but difficult- probably involving the creation of states akin to the American system (Kurdistan anyone?). The memories don't just disappear, but such gestures would help. This wil result in a fairly beefy, ahistorical, but believable Turkey! Not as wide as most turkey's, but able to punch well above its weight class. The Americans in particular would be super into it if the Turks adopted in their Anti-colonial sentiments American phraseology- united we stand, divided we fall, yatta, yatta.
Also amusingly, if Turkey was in a faction with the US and the UK, it is conceivable that the US could pressure the UK to concede Transjordan, Cyprus and Palestine to a democratic Turkey in exchange for joining the war. This is because a democratic turkey would allow the locals some form of self determination, and would jive with American decolonization desires. Especially if Turkey was to aggravate the locals to request to pressure US diplomats... Israel is a little more complicated, but still.. This combined with the already in place Balkan direction tree could create a very powerful, democratic nation! Something that apparently is inconceivable in HOI4 for some reason.
The reason that this would even be plausible is that the American's after ww1, sent a team of scientists, bureaucrats and surveyors to the various theoretical states in the Middle East, talked with them about setting up independent governments, creating democracies (or constitutional monarchies) industrialization.. You know the thing Americans like to be known for generally? and just generally help with nation building. This so endeared the US to the Middle East- that when it became abundantly apparent that the secret agreements were about to strip the independence of Syria from the Syrians, the highest ranking legislative body in Syria passed a decree that in effect stated the following:
If we are allowed to choose, we choose independence. If we MUST have a colonial overlord, we want the United States to be that Overlord. hat is how well respected the US was in the region at the time.
Communism basically is the middle road, the USSR-German NAP pact in particular should be a determining factor in the success of Turkish expansion If the allies and the Soviets are fighting on the same side, than clearly communists occupying Iraq, while not ideal, is palatable. Syria would also be easily occupied, before or after but would likley run the risk of angering either the Allies or Axis depending.
The neutral Islamist route tends to mirror the democratic route for the most part though no amount of poking the US would result in further concessions directly to Turkey if it is an authoritarian government. Only war at that point would be viable for a full restoration. Coring is again possible, but difficult. The good news for this route though is they have the strongest form of the doomsday weapon...
3. The Industry Tree musings-
The industry tree seems a little short? I mean I understand putting them behind decisions, but the tree as is looks a little shallow from where I'm standing.
Remember that Turkey lost around 10% of it's population in WW1, and then turned around and fought another war.. and won. There is a lot of recovery to be had. If the above is implemented, this is where the debt council stuff should go, it has been a major part of turkish/ottoman politics for decades at this point, so its important- I just don't think its a politically deciding factor by itself.
4. So the national spirit- disorganized army? Isn't exactly quite right its not that the army is disorganized or out of date because the Turks are somehow backward at this point. As the diary points out it is an overt decision by the government to not become overly focused on military build-up. As the focus afterwards illustrates, the military is actually in support of this decision. Both Kemal and his followers are pretty adamant about trying to industrialize Turkey. This does not mean that Turkey's military is somehow.. experiencing purge akin to the Soviets (who have eerily similar minuses) office core chaos/incompetence in their armed forces- its more that they do NOT want to build military factories, as that would take valuable resources away from long term industrialization objectives.
The only + or - in this entire spirit that makes a lick of sense is the training time bonus- which is crazy, because what is articulated in the Dev Diary is able to hit upon the key concept here, but walked away with the wrong conclusions. The Turkish military is experienced, organized and dedicated, it just doesn't have a lot of new guns, and even the military is in agreement that their needs are secondary to those of the general nation.
On a side note- because this spirit has a nationalistic character, turning Fascist shouldn't necessarily remove it, which is kind of amusing, because the Turks won their independence war with basically bubblegum and duct tape against the exhausted entente who really just didn't want to have to do this whole thing again. That may make a Fascist turkey overconfident if they don't take the time to remove the spirit and do a genuine military build up. See the Canadian Militia Myth for a similar mind-set.
5. Alright, so for those of you who just scrolled down and went to this point.. Fair enough! The rest of you, thank you for taking the time to get here.
So throughout the 19th century, European nations- Russia and France come to mind- would claim an ethnic or religious group within the empire as theirs to protect for their citizenship. This undermined government authority, and generally speaking really hurt Ottoman issues.. until the Ottoman Sultan looked at a map and had a thought.
I'm the Caliph of Islam... and sense I know how to mess with other countries minorities now (because they keep doing it to my country) lets see where I can cause some fear.. Oh whats this? Pakistan, Malaysia, Mali, Turkmenistan, Malaysia, Somalia, Indonesia, Algeria? Man, there seems to be a lot more MUSLIMS in their country than there are Armenians (remember 19th century, there are still a lot of them at this point) and Lebanese..
Man it would be a shame if I just started inviting public figures to my country and make it look like I was conspiring with them to help lead a revolt.
Giving honors and knighthoods to vocal opponents..
And then make it look like I am aiding their local communities.. creating networks with which I may one day funnel guns through
and otherwise build upon my religious credentials to make it look like that these colonial subjects might actually listen to me...
It would be a shame if the British stayed awake at night, with a gun next to their bed, afraid that their colonial subjects might get 'independent ideas'. Having them break out into a cold sweat at the mere concept of the entirety of Pakistan entering into open revolt- with weapons provided by a foreign power. Especially considering they've enjoyed the pleasures of multiple revolts like this already and we had nothing to do with it.
And while the weapon may of been more bark than bite- It was real- it was absolutely real in the eyes and heads of the Colonial powers. It was TERRIFYING. The Pan-islamist movement at this time in Turkey, under the Sultan actually started to claw back some independence and control over its population at this time by implying the use of this weapon over any conflict over special rules for ethnic minorities sponsored by a foreign power in the country. Many of these rights for example basically made all of a selected minority group enjoy diplomatic protections in Ottoman Territory. (Certain crimes can only be prosecuted in the sponsored countries courts, etc.)
The weapon was fired during WW1- but there was a huge problem- The Young Turks attempts at Turkification of the middle east- along with undermining the authority of the Sultan, mixed with not keeping up the connections with the colonial subjects basically meant that when they 'fired' this weapon.. it ended up being a whimper. I can't come up with a good analogy for it, so I invite you to write your own! It's basically a disingenuous party activley working against the interests of the people they are trying to convince.
But that weapon could rise again.... think of the possibilities- and that this weapon isn;t included in the A-historical paths is.. its so depressing. It would of been SO cool and fun.
A Consertive-Neutral Islamic tree could cause so much more chaos and fun then a Fascist tree ever could... so sad.
I'll just leave it at that.
Now I do want to start with some good- After further review, I like that the Turkic tree is in there, and the facing west balkan tree is neat, and I do like that- it reflects Turkey's attitudes towards trying to be a good western nation. I also am curious about the aid that might be offered- and hope that goes well!
Also it is clear that a lot of research was done in finding events/parties/documents to help shore up the factual basis for certain trees, though I disagree with their implementation and interpretation.. as you'll see below, I am impressed with some of the information that is provided! It is a step in the right direction, but it doesn't go far enough. I would be happy to help work with ya'll on a Pro-bono basis if need be, to help implement this tree.
This is a long one, So I'm making a table of contents
1. Turkey's Political Tree & National Identity
2. Turkey's diplomacy based on political affiliations
3. Industry Tree musings.
4. National Spirit Adjustments
5. Turkey's Doomsday Weapon
1. Turkey's Political Tree & National Identity
First let's talk about the very first focuses you are going to chose- Go Right or Go left- Reflecting real world policies- This seems more like an economic decision more than a political one, but I'm willing to accept that maybe this might be right...
Except that these define the path you take politically, when in reality, the political debate of Turkish National identity could still shifted by the Father of All Turks, Ataturk. His influence in Turkish politics is immense after all, and that isn't defined by banking/debt repayment policies.
The three identities up for debate are as follows
Pan-Turkism- This is the identity of Turkey in WW1 to modern day and it is basically a romantic idealization of the turkish peoples as both being superior due to adapting a secular westernized government under strenuous, disastrous conditions. The war for national survival has defined one thing quite clear- Western Advanced society is Turkish in character. As a result, if a ethnicity displays western leanings they must be Turkish! They only need to learn how to speak the right language. This idealolgy to this day maintains that there are only Turks in Turkey, much to the chagrin of Kurds. Conceptually this ideology cannot reconcile with the concept that their are other ethnicities inside of Turkey proper. If other ethinciities are brought into the fold- they need to be properly westernized, secularized and incorporated into the state. Aka they need to speak turkish. (Neutral-Historical and Facist)
Pan-Islam- the conservative faction is also trying to construct a national identity that Kemalism could theoretically adapt some trappings of for various reasons if it suits them- and that is a shared Islamic identity. This identity was most prevalent under the reign of Mehmed VI, during which time Turkey cultivated an Islamic identity in order to maintain cohesion of its empire, regain control of many of its constituent minorities and turn the tables even on European powers. This shared cultural identity of being subjected to foreign interference, shared religious identity and dreams of unity can be a fairly compelling force internationally. (Neutral, possibly democratic) This tree wouldn't be selectable while Kemal is alive, but could be back doored into by electing the Islamist party to power. Civil war imminent.
Pan-Ottomanism- This is the oldest of the three identities I'll articulate, and is an outside player in Turkish politics at this point, just due to the fact that there are very few ethnic minorities in Turkey, and anything that portrays Ottomanism positively is politically taboo. However, the concept is simple, while the middle east does not share a ethnic identity, it shares a cultural identity of being subjects of the ottoman state, foreign meddling and now, oppressed colonial subjects. This shared history could be constructed into a cohesive national identity if given the right push- and with the proper political backing. (Communism/Democratic)
Alright so then, if Fascism is nationalistic and ethnic in nature and communism has an international character why are the communist and facist trees directly linked with one another? Why is Patriotism over Internationalism a communist focus? That is a fairly anti-communist sentiment- and if it is instead a socialist style government with a ultra-patroitic (read nationalistic) character.. isn't that just a type of authoritarianism that Kemalism already was historically? Or even outright Facism?
Yes Kemalism is somewhat nebulous and able to be redefined, but the historical context/idealogical context here is important for understanding the political character of the Kemalist legacy. Turkey's economic/political system is weird, but that is due in part from fear of the soviets, foreign involvement and a cult of personality surrounding Ataturk. This isn't an explicit political decision except that Turkey needs to be westernized, and it's trying to adapt what it perceives as other successful states- socalism, centralization, democratic trappings, equal rights, industrialization, all with a distinctly Turkish national character.
The tree should be reshaped to something more accurate to Turkish identity politics- which is that Pan-Turkism is the historical neutral path, and the fascist path. Pan-Ottomanism is the communist path. The democratic path is usable by both the Pan-Islamists and Pan-Ottomanists either to establish a constitutional monarchy, a theocratic republic or a true secular republic. A conservative, possibly even authoritarian Pan-islamist tree would be the final tree, that has some cross over theoretically with the democracy tree.
So the tree conceptually would look something like-.
Pan Turk Pan Islam Pan Ottoman
Facist- Neutral Turk/Islam- Democratic- Communist
2. Turkey's diplomacy based on political affiliations.
Oddly enough, Turkey is kind of interesting in terms of diplomatic actions, after all, the middle east is generally speaking not a focus of conflict for most other nations! So theoretically Turkey could expand far and wide and create a pretty neat empire. Right?
Actually, yes, but not as HOI4 normally does- amusingly enough, A strong Pan-turkic identity is actually one of the worst possible ways for Turkey to expand in the middle east- which is why the current tree as written excludes Kemalists from expanding into the Middle east! Areas like Syria, Lebanon and Iraq are still dealing with the consequences of Armenians that were death marched into their lands, and unable to return home. Furthermore, Turkish attempts to destroy these various nations cultures really doesn't lend itself well to expansion opportunities.
Take for instance the Golden Square in Iraq, let's say the Turks are offering you guns and help to fight the British for Kuwait- The ramifications of this getting out would be catastrophic, as a fascist turkey would represent an existential threat to your nations mere existence. Let's go a step further and say Turkey attacked the Golden Square in Iraq during the war between Iraq and the UK... keep in mind that the British want to keep their communications secure to the Raj at all cost, and do not TRUST the Golden Square to keep their word- and thus refuse to make peace. From the perspective of the Golden Square Turkish nationalism a greater threat to their nation than British Colonialism, and the return of Kuwait. So a rational individual- in both Iraq and the UK would perceive that the best outcome would be to keep Turkey out of Iraq at all costs they are a far greater threat after all to the British Communications than Iraq, and Iraq isn't facing population/cultural annihilation if the British win.
The Turks also are not going to be able to just do what the Japanese did in Indochina and put Syrians in charge, remember, Pan-turkism would have difficult reconciling that, and the Syrians aren't exactly going to be happy about the turks returning. Revolts are almost guaranteed, and this would likely bring the Germans/Vichy/Free france into conflict with Turkey if they are not in their faction. Western expansion will of course put Turkey into conflict with Germany/Italy fairly quickly as well, and possibly even the allies!.
What this means in short is that Facist turkey while perhaps getting the most war goals for free, is the political alignment that basically is guaranteed to never be able to core a state within the scope of this game and will need to fight almost every major to achieve their greatest extent. They have the most opportunities to get a big name, but they have to fight, all the time, and end up wide, not tall.
The democratic path is actually a more interesting path for expansion in Turkey, as a democratic turkey can create a Middle Eastern Federation, allowing for some self-determination for the locals. This combined with British being more trusting of the motivations of a democratic Turkey means that Turkey would actually in this instance be able to intervene in the Golden Square incident with minimal consequences, and annex French Lebanon and Syria without resistance/revolts. Because of this democratic principle, coring within the scope of the game is possible, but difficult- probably involving the creation of states akin to the American system (Kurdistan anyone?). The memories don't just disappear, but such gestures would help. This wil result in a fairly beefy, ahistorical, but believable Turkey! Not as wide as most turkey's, but able to punch well above its weight class. The Americans in particular would be super into it if the Turks adopted in their Anti-colonial sentiments American phraseology- united we stand, divided we fall, yatta, yatta.
Also amusingly, if Turkey was in a faction with the US and the UK, it is conceivable that the US could pressure the UK to concede Transjordan, Cyprus and Palestine to a democratic Turkey in exchange for joining the war. This is because a democratic turkey would allow the locals some form of self determination, and would jive with American decolonization desires. Especially if Turkey was to aggravate the locals to request to pressure US diplomats... Israel is a little more complicated, but still.. This combined with the already in place Balkan direction tree could create a very powerful, democratic nation! Something that apparently is inconceivable in HOI4 for some reason.
The reason that this would even be plausible is that the American's after ww1, sent a team of scientists, bureaucrats and surveyors to the various theoretical states in the Middle East, talked with them about setting up independent governments, creating democracies (or constitutional monarchies) industrialization.. You know the thing Americans like to be known for generally? and just generally help with nation building. This so endeared the US to the Middle East- that when it became abundantly apparent that the secret agreements were about to strip the independence of Syria from the Syrians, the highest ranking legislative body in Syria passed a decree that in effect stated the following:
If we are allowed to choose, we choose independence. If we MUST have a colonial overlord, we want the United States to be that Overlord. hat is how well respected the US was in the region at the time.
Communism basically is the middle road, the USSR-German NAP pact in particular should be a determining factor in the success of Turkish expansion If the allies and the Soviets are fighting on the same side, than clearly communists occupying Iraq, while not ideal, is palatable. Syria would also be easily occupied, before or after but would likley run the risk of angering either the Allies or Axis depending.
The neutral Islamist route tends to mirror the democratic route for the most part though no amount of poking the US would result in further concessions directly to Turkey if it is an authoritarian government. Only war at that point would be viable for a full restoration. Coring is again possible, but difficult. The good news for this route though is they have the strongest form of the doomsday weapon...
3. The Industry Tree musings-
The industry tree seems a little short? I mean I understand putting them behind decisions, but the tree as is looks a little shallow from where I'm standing.
Remember that Turkey lost around 10% of it's population in WW1, and then turned around and fought another war.. and won. There is a lot of recovery to be had. If the above is implemented, this is where the debt council stuff should go, it has been a major part of turkish/ottoman politics for decades at this point, so its important- I just don't think its a politically deciding factor by itself.
4. So the national spirit- disorganized army? Isn't exactly quite right its not that the army is disorganized or out of date because the Turks are somehow backward at this point. As the diary points out it is an overt decision by the government to not become overly focused on military build-up. As the focus afterwards illustrates, the military is actually in support of this decision. Both Kemal and his followers are pretty adamant about trying to industrialize Turkey. This does not mean that Turkey's military is somehow.. experiencing purge akin to the Soviets (who have eerily similar minuses) office core chaos/incompetence in their armed forces- its more that they do NOT want to build military factories, as that would take valuable resources away from long term industrialization objectives.
The only + or - in this entire spirit that makes a lick of sense is the training time bonus- which is crazy, because what is articulated in the Dev Diary is able to hit upon the key concept here, but walked away with the wrong conclusions. The Turkish military is experienced, organized and dedicated, it just doesn't have a lot of new guns, and even the military is in agreement that their needs are secondary to those of the general nation.
On a side note- because this spirit has a nationalistic character, turning Fascist shouldn't necessarily remove it, which is kind of amusing, because the Turks won their independence war with basically bubblegum and duct tape against the exhausted entente who really just didn't want to have to do this whole thing again. That may make a Fascist turkey overconfident if they don't take the time to remove the spirit and do a genuine military build up. See the Canadian Militia Myth for a similar mind-set.
5. Alright, so for those of you who just scrolled down and went to this point.. Fair enough! The rest of you, thank you for taking the time to get here.
So throughout the 19th century, European nations- Russia and France come to mind- would claim an ethnic or religious group within the empire as theirs to protect for their citizenship. This undermined government authority, and generally speaking really hurt Ottoman issues.. until the Ottoman Sultan looked at a map and had a thought.
I'm the Caliph of Islam... and sense I know how to mess with other countries minorities now (because they keep doing it to my country) lets see where I can cause some fear.. Oh whats this? Pakistan, Malaysia, Mali, Turkmenistan, Malaysia, Somalia, Indonesia, Algeria? Man, there seems to be a lot more MUSLIMS in their country than there are Armenians (remember 19th century, there are still a lot of them at this point) and Lebanese..
Man it would be a shame if I just started inviting public figures to my country and make it look like I was conspiring with them to help lead a revolt.
Giving honors and knighthoods to vocal opponents..
And then make it look like I am aiding their local communities.. creating networks with which I may one day funnel guns through
and otherwise build upon my religious credentials to make it look like that these colonial subjects might actually listen to me...
It would be a shame if the British stayed awake at night, with a gun next to their bed, afraid that their colonial subjects might get 'independent ideas'. Having them break out into a cold sweat at the mere concept of the entirety of Pakistan entering into open revolt- with weapons provided by a foreign power. Especially considering they've enjoyed the pleasures of multiple revolts like this already and we had nothing to do with it.
And while the weapon may of been more bark than bite- It was real- it was absolutely real in the eyes and heads of the Colonial powers. It was TERRIFYING. The Pan-islamist movement at this time in Turkey, under the Sultan actually started to claw back some independence and control over its population at this time by implying the use of this weapon over any conflict over special rules for ethnic minorities sponsored by a foreign power in the country. Many of these rights for example basically made all of a selected minority group enjoy diplomatic protections in Ottoman Territory. (Certain crimes can only be prosecuted in the sponsored countries courts, etc.)
The weapon was fired during WW1- but there was a huge problem- The Young Turks attempts at Turkification of the middle east- along with undermining the authority of the Sultan, mixed with not keeping up the connections with the colonial subjects basically meant that when they 'fired' this weapon.. it ended up being a whimper. I can't come up with a good analogy for it, so I invite you to write your own! It's basically a disingenuous party activley working against the interests of the people they are trying to convince.
But that weapon could rise again.... think of the possibilities- and that this weapon isn;t included in the A-historical paths is.. its so depressing. It would of been SO cool and fun.
A Consertive-Neutral Islamic tree could cause so much more chaos and fun then a Fascist tree ever could... so sad.
I'll just leave it at that.
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