Challenge : Ottoman Empire survival/restoration post-1922

skarosianlifeform

I'm in the mood for challenges this evening, so I launch this one too.

How could the Ottoman Empire have been re-established after 1922 ? Somehow, Ataturk had to be killed during his reign and be replaced by some incompetent, or not gain power at all, leaving Turkey divided between monarchists, communists, kemalists and others around 1920, while Kurdistan would have taken its independence.

After which, Ottoman Empire would've been re-established somehow.

The goal is to have a reborn OE which controls Anatolia (possible Kurd autonomy), and if possible Near East (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq) or a part of it at least. With WWII, there were probably opportunities to regain lost land.

Extra points if the new OE regains some land in Europe (Thrace and south of Bulgaria, for example), even if the goal is not to make it European again, Balkans were too much a hassle for the old OE after all.

It can be a centralized state, a federation, or even an European Union-like organization (ie. with sovereign states so not fully federal, but heavily supranational).
 

SirCliveWolfe

skarosianlifeform said:
The goal is to have a reborn OE which controls Anatolia (possible Kurd autonomy), and if possible Near East (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq) or a part of it at least. With WWII, there were probably opportunities to regain lost land.
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If this goal is for 1922 then I do not see it being possible as the country would be too weak to defeat the combines Franco-British. However, it could be possible after a British surrender to the Germans after the fall of France, maybe?
 

skarosianlifeform

In 1921/1922, what about the Entente having to pull out their forces ? For example, the Soviets manage to actually invade Poland in the 1920 war, and link up with German and Hungarian revolutionaries, while Italy falls to a revolution, or even to a civil war because of communists.

So, French and British have to either
a) "merely" help Poles (and probably Balts, Finns and Romanians) to stop Soviet invasion, while crushing revolution in Germany
b) decide to destroy once and for all the USSR after that, which means they ALSO attack in Central Asia (through Iran/Afghanistan) and Far East (alongside Japan).

Italians either join the Anglo-French or pull back to home, to deal with internal troubles.

So, either Allied forces simply pull out of Anatolia to go elsewhere, or Paris, London (and reluctantly Rome) negociate with the Ottomans, giving them Anatolia back. Because they want the Ottomans as a bulwark against Soviet advance (long-term goal), and (short-term goal) to avoid a communist revolution in Turkey. They also clear the Ottoman debt (both pre-war and reparations), because OE can't pay anyway, and don't re-create Capitulations (because they want a more stable OE).
The Ottomans, by negociating the removal of Allied occupation forces, regain some credit and manage (with Allied supplies and weapons) to destroy communist and kemalist rebels.

But they still left Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq (including Mosul) to Anglo-French, and Smyrna the west coast to Greece. Possibly, the Italians keep Antalya (without all the country around), depending what happens in Italy. And they had to accept Armenia and Kurdistan independence. Greeks and Italians insisted on that, because they wanted to limit the OE power (to not make it a threat to their new holdings).

So, of course, there will be Turkish revanchism.
 
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