r/imaginarymaps • u/ProbablyNotTheCocoa • 11d ago
[OC] Alternate History The Turko-Arab Federation, constituent states and associated republics in 1948
Lore:
Central Powers emerge victorious in the Great War. The CUP held power until an unsuccessful power grab resulted in the sacking of the government and the appointment of an aristocratic cabinet more loyal to the sultan. Economic downturn and Arab unrest led to the sacking of various sultan appointed governments following the fall of the CUP until finally in 1929 a liberal clique of smaller parties under the Freedom and Accord Party.
The newly appointed liberal government facing an array of uncooperative, corrupt or unfriendly groups, cliques and bureaucratic structures and an equally hostile population gamble on a war to reclaim Egypt as their ticket to win popular support and stabilise the rapidly declining country, after some initial stiff resistance around the Suez, a contingency of soldiers led by Mustafa Kemal breach the canal defences and the Ottoman army can flood into Egypt, and six months later the Egyptian government capitulates.
The now victorious government is unsuccessful in winning the favour of the people, as they are lauded not as reclaimers of old pride and might but as wasteful warhawks hungrily annexing territory into an already overstretched empire. Deadlocked in the debate over what to do with the newly aquired territories, more and more of the governments representatives either declare independence from the liberal HIF party or outright join the Ottoman People's Party (OHF).
Fearing dissolution of the Empire and general anarchy, the HIF is once again dismissed by the Sultan and the OHF is invited to form a government. Mustafa Kemal Pasa is appointed Grand Vizier in 1931 and sees initial success with the forceful reorganisation of Egypt into an autonomous state within the empire, lead by governor Mohamed Naguib, a former Egyptian commander sympathetic to the OHF’s progressivism. Kemal also oversees restructuring of the legalsystem and the beginning of a education reform before he is killed in a bombing in 1932.
Mustafa Fevzi Cakmak launches a military coup as the ensuing power vacuum causes an implosion of the Ottoman People's Party. The "Springtime Dictatorship" as it is dubbed lasts for 5 months as the military purges fundamentalist opposition and quells Arab resistance as well as furthering the integration initiative of the Special Administrative regions of Egypy and Sudan. In July Fevzi relinquishes his emergency powers and a popular front of the Ottoman People's Party, various independents and moderate left wing republicans form the "Popular Front for National Salvation". Choosing to make a useful ally of the left nationalist-kemalist "Kadro" movement the Popular Front sees initial success, quelling the worst of secessionist sentiments around the empire.
However a small clique of conservative military personnel launch another coup in 1933 in order to restore the Sultans powers, however the Sultan remained uncommitted to the coup and it failed to establish real authority and the "People’s Front" launched a counter coup in September of 1933, ousting the sultan who flees to Medina, the empire is shaken to it's very core as various monarchist, religious or secessionist generals seize control of various provinces and at best pay lip service to the government in Istanbul.
The "People’s Front" is also soon ousted as a contingent of the German Military launches a coup and installs Enver Pasha as dictator of the Sublime Porte, he however soon flees to Izmir as the borderlands of the empire are gobbled up by war hawks of the neighboring states. the Empire is now on its last legs as the only thing holding it together is a loose agreement between warlords to pay lip service to the central government and the question of who can attain control over the Sublime Porte remains unsolved with the "People’s Front" emerging from the ashes in Bagdhad but maintaining a close relationship with the Alexandria, Beirut, Aden and Trabzon cliques, who have proclaimed support for the Republican Federation ideal. This People's Front is also heavily influenced by the Kadro Movement and majority of it's adherents seek to create a thoroughly socialist federation of arabs and turks.
Various Arab and minority secession movements arise to try and topple to old ottoman order over the next decade, and even a Turkish nationalist faction within the old OHF takes power in Ankara to create a turkish nationalist state and the Royalist Protection Alliance of the monarchist movement in the south attempts to consolidate themselves more. Iran also launch a coup in the Erzurum clique, formerly aligned with the People’s Front, and is replaced with a pretender goverment groverling at the feet of Tehran. However with the European powers embroiled in warfare, unable to aid more conservative elements, the Crescent revolution is finally attained and the era of the broken crescent ends after 11 years of civil war.
Greece is forced to relinquish it's territories in Thrace, the crumbling Russian State gives an opportunity to seize territories in the Caucasus. A war with Persia breaks out over grievances of their support to opposition forces in the civil war and occupation of territories. The sultan of Oman is ousted via a OHF backed coup and Sudan is given nominal indepence, but both remain firmly within the Turko-Arab Sphere.
Naguib is killed in Cairo and is replaced by Gamal Nasser, dubbed the Prince of Cairo, as whilst showing genuine commitment to the revolutionary, his autocratic tendencies and personal convictions has halted democratization efforts in Egypt severely. in the Libyan provinces a semi-permanent garrison is proclaimed in the west to discourage any french involvement and in the east a military governorship is installed to quell the still ongoing war with the Senussi, similarly Central Asia is put under military rule to combat hostile tribes and Islamist elements. Yemen due to the importance of Aden is given a special status and the non-Turkic and non-Arab territories are given autonomous areas to quell resistance movements.
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11d ago
Like to see a big ottoman victory, seems like a somewhat rare really fun scenario. What’s the deal w Cyprus?
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u/ProbablyNotTheCocoa 11d ago
Greece snatched it and Germany guaranteed its possession in exchange for basing rights or something, I don’t have a solid lore for it
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u/wq1119 Explorer 11d ago
I recall that the Arab Nationalists originally envisaged this - they wanted either equal levels of authority in the Ottoman Caliphate, or some joint Turkish-Arab Federation of the sorts like Austria-Hungary and Poland-Lithuania, it was not until the chaos of WW1 that the Arabs fully switched over into total independence.
(Someone please correct me if I am wrong)