Victory belongs to the one who claims it ~ A Republic of Turkey AAR

[The War Monger]

Well after a long hiatus from the writing of AARs I have decided that the time has arrived where the writing of a history book style AAR would be a good thing for me once more. As such I will be playing as the Republic of Turkey on Darkest Hour Full I think, however the AAR will start at the opening of the Turkish War of Independence in 1918 as I need to do some fiddling with history to allow Turkey to occupy a position where it is not neutral throughout the World War and has interests outside of its borders. Thus Mustafa Kemel Ataturk will perhaps not be the same man as he was historically...exactly...and the Treaty of Lausanne might not be as comprehensive in its definitions of Turkey as historical either. Anyhow onto the details;

Nation: Turkey
IC: Undecided, might be slightly increased from Vanilla.
Difficulty: N/N (I will need some leeway depending on what side I end up on).
Full IC Takeover: Nope
Tech Team Takeover: Indeed.

 

[Milites]

Turkey has always been a favourite of mine. It'll be interesting to see exactly what kind of changes you'll be making.

 

[The War Monger]

Prologue; A. G. Hughes, 2089, A Concise History of the World, (Manchester) Chapter 3; Anatolia in the Interbellum:~​

The Great War came to a close on 11 November 1918 with the surrender of the German Empire to the allies under the hand of Prince Maximillian of Baden as the Chancellor of Germany. However the Ottoman Empire had finally keeled and admitted defeat almost two weeks before in the Armistice of Maudros upon the British ship HMS Agamemnon, with the Ottoman Minister of Marine Affairs being the one chosen to undertake that distasteful task. With the initial terms of the armistice being the surrender of all Ottoman garrisons outside of Anatolia including within Thrace alongside the surrender of the fortifications along the straights. Alongside this was the rather vaguely worded clause wherein the allies were granted the right to 'stabilise' any Ottoman province experiencing unrest. While peace in Europe was attained by the agreement upon the 'Treaty of Versailles' and this document is widely seen as a direct contributor to the break out of the Second World War the separate treaty detailing the peace agreement between the ailing Ottoman Empire and the allies is perhaps less known internationally. This later treaty signed in the town of Sèvres detailed a total dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and British newspapers of the time jokingly called it 'the killing of the Sick Man of Europe'.

While the German nation had the active interest of the USA to protect its territorial state in regards to its homelands from the revanchist nation of France the Ottoman Empire was not afforded this help. Indeed agreements on the final disposition of the Ottoman Empire were made as early as 1915 in such proposals as the Sykes-Picot agreement to divide what was then known as 'Greater Syria' which spans modern day Mespotamia and the Levant into respective colonial possessions and definite zones of influence. Alongside this was the Balfour Declaration authored by the then foreign minister James Balfour to the British Jewish community that the British Empire saw it as favourable for a region of Palestine be granted to the Jewish community to allow them their own homeland. Other agreements included Italy, namely the Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne which recognised the Italian wish to control much of what made up the ancient Kingdom of Lycia as an Italian colony. Thus the final outline of the Treaty of Sèvres was put forward with these colonial and economic ambitions in mind with the Ottoman Empire to be eliminated entirely and replaced with a Turkish Republic which did not even cover the entirety of Anatolia.

Despite the ongoing international wrangling as to the final dismemberment of the Empire the workings of Ottoman politics did not stop entirely with the prominent Mustafa Kemal Pasha being given the task of promoting national stability outside of the Allied occupation zones while the Ottoman delegates agreed to a peace with the victorious allies. However, he quickly became disillusioned with the total lack of determination demonstrated by the delegates to the allies, as such on the 8 July 1919 he resigned his commission and made his way out of Istanbul hidden upon a small fishing sloop. Upon his arrival in Samsun he began to organise the Turkish communities to resist the continued influx of allied troops as well as the pushing of Armenian militias in Northern Anatolia to the new borders they had been promised. Indeed due to pressure by the allies lead by the British the sitting Ottoman government sentenced him to death for treason in absentia, however while he was seen with increasing distaste by the government he saw as having betrayed its people and the nations who had defeated his nation in war his party the Association for Defense of Rights for Anatolia and Roumelia (Anadolu ve Rumeli Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti) swept the Ottoman Parliament with the first session of the Fourth Ottoman parliament occurring in the early days of January 1920.

The prominence of Mustafa Kemal Pasha's party was not to the pleasure of the British Empire and the parliament was dissolved within three months of its inception. This was due in no small part due to the adoption by this parliament of the Kemal sponsored Misak-ı Millî which listed six main points running counter to the pre-existing ambitions of the allies in many of the pre-agreed secret pacts between the allied nations. In immediate response to the closing of the Ottoman parliament Mustafa Kemal espoused the creation of a new Trukish Parliament which would be known as the Grand National Assembly founded within weeks of the closure of the parliament (23 April 1920). The newly founded GNA immediatly chose Mustafa Kemal as its president and appointed Ismet Inonü as the Chief of the General Staff announcing its intentions to effectively to stay in line with Misak-ı Millî and resistance to the dismemberment of Anatolia. This can be seen as the official beginning of the war between Turkey and the allied nations.

 

[Tommy4ever]

Definately interested.

 

[unmerged(494876)]

Good luck!

 

[The War Monger]

Indeed I think I will need it But then its all about the challenge really I find, I am debating starting in the 1933 scenario to give me some more build up time, thoughts?

 

[unmerged(174159)]

Subbed.

And you know your business, just mod the province.csv for 1936 OR create an event that boosts Turkish IC and army.

 

[The War Monger]

I will be getting my next update up this evening and have discovered two things really, first the British AI is slow to get going but grinds down relentlessly AND German AI in Africa is stupid as anything and lets itself get encircled too quickly. So yeah I think the best option is to start off with higher than the 30 base IC I gave myself and add 2-4 Motorised Divisions to what I start with and I think it is not an auto lose due to my stupidly low number of VP.