Turkey (Hearts of Iron)

Turkey, officially the State of Turkey, is a unitary republic located in Asia Minor and Eastern Europe. As the primary successor state to the late Ottoman Empire, its politics are dominated by extreme Turkish nationalism and bitter resentment towards both the Soviet Union and former Allied powers. The State of Turkey is the founder of Kıyamet, or the Pan-Turkic Union, an 8-country economic and military pact mostly comprised of former Ottoman territories.

History
19th century scholars predicted that the Ottoman Empire was on the verge of collapse within the next few decades due to irreconcilable ethnic tensions and ineffective bureacracy. Though encompassing vast swaths of land and boasting a respectable colonial empire, most of its holdings were uninhabited and devoid of natural resources, and it had quickly fallen behind other world powers in the race for mercantile expansion after the mid-1700s.

However, the so-called "sick man of Europe" would discover its salvation with the dawn of the new century. In 1901, Turkish Standard, inspired by the industrious business model of John D. Rockefeller, began oil drilling operations in several strategic areas within the Ottoman Empire, namely in regions close to its heartland such as northern Arabia, Syria, and Persia.



Within the decade, investors had flocked to the Empire in droves, thanks to Sultan Abdulmahid's willingness to advertise the ancient caliphate as a modern, business-friendly country. Public perception of the Ottomans rapidly shifted; the sick man of Europe had transformed itself into an industrial powerhouse and vanguard of the new century almost in the blink of an eye.

Russia was the first country to openly condemn the Ottoman war profiteers, and initially planned to invade the Empire through Central Asia to secure its precious industry in 1917, but its plans never came to fruition due to the increasing internal threat of the Reds. Later that year, the German Empire launched a surprise naval invasion of Athens, hoping to quickly march up to Kostantiniyye and force surrender, but the attack ended in disaster for the Germans; immediately thereafter, Mehmed V declared war on Germany, and the Ottoman Empire entered the Great War on the side of the Entente. The victorious Empire walked away from the peace deal in 1918 with a sizeable chunk of former Austria-Hungary, notably occupying Vienna and formally settling its centuries-old score with Austria.

In the post-war period, the Ottoman state prospered further, and enjoyed warm relations with both Britain and the United States, both of whom viewed the Turks as fierce competitors in trade but honorable and dependable at heart. Then-Sultan Abdulmejid II was indifferent to the staunchly anti-Ottoman rhetoric espoused by both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin perhaps to a fault, even as the nascent powers of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union grew their influence by the month and threatened to strike vengeance against the caliphate. Their shared disdain for the Turkish people heavily contributed to the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of non-aggression.



Stalin was the first to strike against the Ottomans in the spring of 1938, with ambitions to annex the Empire and secure its vast industry before the next great war broke out. Both Abdulmejid and Stalin believed the ensuing war would be swift and decisive in their favor; neither could have predicted the carnage that would follow in the next two years.

The Ottoman-Soviet War was fought on two fronts - in the vast Central Asian deserts of Kazakhstan, and the treacherous Caucasus Mountains. Stalin focused his offensive in the Caucasus, believing that smashing through

Georgia and Armenia would allow the Red Army to cut through Asia Minor and quickly take Kostantiniyye, while Abdulmejid instructed his generals to push through Central Asia, cut Russian forces off in the Urals, then rush for the gates of Moscow.

Both plans were gravely miscalculated, and neither side gained any meaningful ground for months. The Black Sea became a graveyard for countless battleships and merchant vessels. It quickly became abundantly clear that, unless another power intervened, this war would end in a bloody and resentful stalemate. Abdulmejid believed that salvation had come in 1941 when Hiter, after countless triumphs in Western Europe, broke his treaty with Stalin and declared war on Russia. On June 22nd, 1941, the Ottoman Empire entered World War 2 as an Axis power.

The next few months would be wrought with countless Axis victories as the Turks cooperated with Italy to lock down the Mediterranean and raced to Moscow alongside their new convenient German brothers. However, this string of Axis triumphs was short-lived, as the entrance of the United States on December 7th and subsequent regrouping of Soviet forces would begin the slow death spiral of the four fascist powers.

Stalin at once pushed the Germans all the way back to Berlin and smashed through Ottoman garrisons in Central Asia, prompting Abdulmeijid to recall virtually all his forces to the Kazakhstan theatre. The Soviets seized their opportunity and blitzed past the meager Turkish forces still in the Caucaus region. The Central Asian states were secured, but nearly all of Anatolia fell under Soviet occupation within months. The caliphate was on the verge of collapse.

Weeks before the Red Army was projected to arrive at Istanbul, a coalition of Greek, Kurdish, and Armenian insurgents stormed Topkapi Palace and slew the Sultan and his family after a devastating siege. The Empire would have collapsed in its entirety had Ottoman general Nihal Atsız Pasha and a band of loyal imperial officers not immediately launched a counter-offensive against the rebels, swiftly executing them and displaying their corpses for all to see.

The future of the Empire was bleak. It became readily apparent to all involved that the caliphate had ended with Abdulmejid's assassination, and the only action that would preserve what remained of the once-prosperous Ottoman Empire a combination of radical reform and an unconditional refusal to surrender, no matter the cost. Nihal Atsız seized control of the military and the state, and assured the former citizens of the Empire that they would never become subjects to the brutal Soviets.

The new Turkish State, comprised of just Turkey, Greece, and Albania, launched a calculated counter-insurgency against the Red Army, cooperating with its new independent allies, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhsatan, and Kyrzgstan to repel the communist invaders at all cost. In August 1945, Turkey's former ally of Japan capitulated to the might of the new atomic power of the United States, which subsequently announced that its war effort was over - it did not consider the Turkish State, nor its new Central Asian clients, to be associated with the now defunct Axis powers. When Britain and the rest of the Allies agreed, Stalin begrudingly agreed to sign an armistice with Turkey.

In accordance with the Treaty of Baku, the independent states of Haiti, Suriname, and Indonesia were created, and the sovereignty of Turkey and six other former Ottoman territories was ensured; Kıyamet, known by the west as the Pan-Turkic Union, was founded by President Nihal Atsız of the State of Turkey to function as a defensive pact against the expansionist Soviet Union.



Nihal Atsız, the Revanchist

To be continued...