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The Ottoman Empire (Turkish: Devlet-i ʿAlīye-i ʿOsmānīye, lit. The Sublime Ottoman State) is a large country in the Middle East. It borders Bulgaria in Europe; Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Persia in the east; Jabal Shammar, Nejd and Hasa, Yemen, and Oman in the Arabian Peninsula; and Egypt, Cyrenaica, and the French Republic in Africa.
With a history stretching back to the Middle Ages, the Ottoman Empire went into decline during the 19th century and saw much of its territory lost. After mostly unsuccessful attempts at reform, the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 brought a new generation of radical modernists to power. Under the Three Pashas, the Ottomans aligned with Germany and the Central Powers during the Weltkrieg. The Ottoman armies performed poorly with British forces occupying large swathes of the Levant and Mesopotamia, but the Ottomans were able to prevent any advance into Anatolia before the end of the war. With a German victory on the Western Front, the Ottomans were largely able to restore their lost territory; however, the effects of the war greatly destabilized and bankrupted the state and left it internationally isolated. Under the grand vizier Mustafa Kemal Pasha, whose Ottoman People's Party has governed the country for the majority of the time since 1926, far-reaching reforms to centralize, modernize, and secularize the state have been pursued.
History[]
The Sick Man of Europe[]
The 19th century brought great decline to the once prosperous Middle East. An inability to effectively industrialize, constant foreign meddling in its affairs, and a troubling hold on a lot of its provinces meant that the Ottoman Sultanate had fallen back well behind the European powers by 1876. Nonetheless, the Ottomans reformed, and despite the issues these posed on a local level - where tribal issues and a corrupt bureaucracy reigned supreme - light could be seen. Prompted by Mahmud II in the early 19th century and further pursued by the Young Ottomans, radical changes were introduced in the Empire. Land ownership was restructured, the Janissaries eradicated, central rule reestablished in regions such as Mosul and Al-Hasa, and a constitution promulgated. The focus of these reformers was based on the idea of Ottomanism, and attempted to foster a common identity for all its inhabitants besides their local one. It would not be enough. With Abdulhamid II‘s rise to power in 1876, drastic changes would come once again.
Under the pretext of the Russo-Turkish War, the constitution was abolished and the parliament shut down. This period, later to be known as the Hamidian Era, saw a radical centralisation of power under the figure of the Sultan-Caliph. With a constant threat by Christian powers, the Sultan turned towards Pan-Islamism based on the prestige of the Caliphate. Despite enjoying great popularity among the Sunni Muslim population, it would alienate the religious minorities, which the Empire had plenty of. Furthermore, Abdulhamid's absolute rule fostered great discontent amongst a population which became increasingly familiar with Western ideas.
This resistance would consolidate itself in the shape of the “CUP”, or “Committee of Union and Progress”. A coup d'état in 1908 made Ottoman politics, long suppressed by the Sultan, burst into the open. Dozens upon dozens of parties would attempt to find a seat within the newly restored parliament as it seemed that Ottoman decline was finally at its end. The united democratic forces would, however, not endure - and quickly split between the decentralists and the centralists. Through a tumultuous 5 years, these two sides would battle for control as the ideals of democracy and freedom of thought they once held so dearly were slowly moved to the sidelines. In 1913, with the Raid on the Sublime Porte, the game was over: The centralist CUP, with significant public figures such as the Three Pashas (Enver, Djemal and Talaat), would eradicate all remaining power of the decentralists and shape the nation in their image. Under great threat by Russians, British and Frenchmen, they ultimately strengthened ties with the German Empire, like Abdulhamid II had done it before.
During the Weltkrieg[]
While the Ottoman Empire officially entered the Weltkrieg on October 29, 1914, with the arrival of Wilhelm Souchon with the Goeben and Breslau and the commencement of the shelling of Odessa under the Ottoman Flag, it had secretly pursued and attained the signature and affirmation of the Ottoman-German Alliance on August 2nd, 1914. The Ottomans won several significant victories in the early years of the war, such as the Battle of Gallipoli and the Siege of Kut; but there were setbacks as well, such as the disastrous Caucasus Campaign against the Russians.
Disaster continued in 1916 with the start of the Arab Revolt by the Hashemites, combined with a new British Offensive under the command of General Edmund Allenby. Ottoman Forces were left under a great deal of pressure in Mesopotamia and Syria. Coming to a head in September 1918, devastating defeats in Palestine after the Battle of Megiddo led to a mass retreat of Ottoman forces. Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo fell in quick succession as only the controversial decision by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the commander of the Seventh Army, to withdraw into the mountains of Anatolia was able to stop the chain reaction. A valiant defeat at Antep and a Pyrrhic victory near Maraş, known as the "Miracle at Maraş", ultimately stopped Allenby in his tracks. The war would once more become one of attrition.
At that point, the atmosphere of the Empire was rapidly changing, as the Ottoman government realised that even a victory would come at a cost. Furthermore, a change had happened in the palace as well. The CUP puppet Mehmet V had passed away, and in his wake followed the far more assertive Vahdeddin, or “Mehmed VI“. Seeing the collapse of his empire on almost all fronts, and with the CUP government held responsible for the disaster, he would lash out and attempt to shift power to his allies in the FAP. With the ground heating up under their feet, Talaat Pasha would then, at the instigation of Djemal Pasha - recently returned from Syria - attempt to shut down the Sultan. Harsh famine in Constantinople due to a refusal by German forces to supply it with Ukrainian grain, betrayal in the Caucasus by its allies, the attempted silencing of the Sultan, and rumours that the commander of the Seventh Army was in open conflict with the ministry of war, would finally tip the bucket over. In a massive wave of anti-German and pacifist fervour, the cabinet of Talaat Pasha was forced to resign and concede to the Sultan.
Ahmet Tefvik Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier and tasked with the creation of a government of national unity, in an attempt to connect both the FAP, which enjoyed the preference of the Sultan, and the powerful CUP, which governed all institutes bar the palace. Under pressure from the CUP, whose unwillingness to lift their grasp on power made the negotiations collapse, Ahmet Tefvik Pasha resigned and was replaced by Ahmed Izzet Pasha. Creating a government consisting of Cavit Bey, Fethi Pasha and Rauf Pasha, it became quickly clear that the CUP was far from defeated. Nonetheless a small crack started to form, due to pressure by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, Ahmed Izzet Pasha was forced to give up the war ministry in favor of Kemal Pasha himself.
The Fall of Greece and the growing risk of revolution in the British Protectorate of Egypt caused Allenby to revise his strategy, and withdraw part of his forces - returning to the defensive position the British held before the Megiddo Offensive. As France collapsed in August 1919, the war entered its closing stages. In contrast with the Western Front, however, where Austrian forces pushed into Venice and onto the shores of the Adige and the Germans only stood 50 kilometres away from Paris, the Ottomans at this vital moment had lost over half their Empire - either actually occupied, or readily vulnerable to a concerted British attack - and were held up by a British force unlikely to stand down. Sultan Vahdeddin opened negotiations with the British in an attempt to salvage what remained of his empire, whilst Britain reconsidered its attitude in the Middle East. With the Treaty of Versailles being signed on 6 November 1919, demanding immediate withdrawal of all remaining Entente forces from the territory of the Central Powers, a rapid solution for the Eastern Question was necessary. Further trouble for the British in Egypt, Afghanistan and occupied Iraq ultimately forced their hand, and the order was given to withdraw.
Only Palestine and the Vilayet of Basra would remain under occupation at the insistence of Jan Smuts and Leo Amery until an acceptable treaty was reached surrounding the 'rights of its minorities', masking their intentions of an Indian base in Iraq and a fortified position near the Suez. With uncertainty in the political climate of the Ottoman Empire, and punishment for the perpetrators of the Armenian massacres far from likely, international opinion (even from its allies) shifted away from the Empire, losing much of it’s support from the Central Powers. Negotiations already started shortly after the war in December, but an accord was only reached in April of 1920, wherein two autonomous regions were established, to great anger of both Turks and Arabs who saw this as nothing less than a betrayal. The Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem (M.O.J.) was be created in Palestine, stretching from the Allenby line around Nablus down to the Red Sea. This de jure part of the Ottoman Empire was to be governed by an International Council consisting of the German Empire, British Empire, Austrian Empire, United States of America and the Ottomans themselves. Forbidding the entry of Ottoman troops into the region, an international gendarmerie force would maintain the peace within Palestine. In the Vilayet of Basra a new home was to be created for the Assyrian people whose exodus from the plains of Nineveh and Lake Urmia had left them refugees in an Iran openly hostile to their ambitions. The Assyrian autonomy was later to be revoked in 1925, after the British Revolution left all Allied or neutral participants in the accord without the ability to exercise any leverage to enforce the conditions in Mesopotamia, but the M.O.J. as an international zone remained.
Gamble in the Caucasus (1917-1919)[]
While the military campaign in the Levant was pretty much a failure for the Ottoman high command, the war effort in the Caucasus looked more promising, especially after the withdrawal of the Russians following the Russian Civil War and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In early 1918, they pushed into the newly-proclaimed Transcaucasian Federation, which occupied the territories of Kars and Ardahan, de jure Ottoman land according to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Transcaucasian Federation soon broke apart, with Azerbaijan aligning themselves with Constantinople instead. Georgia, afraid of Ottoman annexation, established ties with the Germans. Armenia however, being diplomatically isolated, had to fight alone against the Ottoman forces.
In June 1918, the Treaty of Batum was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Caucasian countries, which laid the groundworks for Ottoman hegemony in the Caucasus. The Sublime Porte gained control over the Armenian territories of Nakhchivan, Alexandropol and Surmali as well as over Georgian Batumi and Meskheti-Javakheti and Azerbaijan became a de facto Ottoman puppet state.
By mid-1919, in the final stages of the war, the situation in the Caucasus was a mess. Germany had began to meddle in the region by establishing themselves in Georgia with the German Caucasus Expedition led by Friedrich Kress von Kressenstein and one of their first and foremost goals was to contain Ottoman influence in neighboring Azerbaijan to gain control over the Baku oil fields. The German-Ottoman relations had already been stained when Constantinople had fired the German commander-in-chief of all Ottoman troops in Palestine, Otto Liman von Sanders, after the disastrous Palestine Campaign in late 1918; But now, tensions were higher than ever, and many newspapers around the globe already predicted a German-Ottoman split as the border conflicts between German-backed and Turkish-backed militias in the Caucasus threatened to intensify.
To everyone's surprise, outright war between Constantinople and Berlin was prevented after the official end of the war in November 1919, when Germany decided to call a multinational conference in Constantinople, the so-called Caucasus Conference, which would finally settle all disputes in the Caucasus and establish peace. Of course the true reason for this diplomatic overtures was to guarantee German interests in the region with the most diplomatic facade possible.
Germany's primary goal on the conference was to sway Azerbaijan to join the German sphere of influence, as Baku was still heavily gravitating towards the Turks; The fact that most of the country was still occupied by Turkish forces extremely hampered this endeavour, however. Therefore, Berlin's masterplan was to drive a wedge between the Turks and the Azeris by supporting Azerbaijani nationalism. The Turks were indeed supporters of the Azerbaijani cause as well, but they mainly looked upon the Azeri people as subjects, as they panned to eventually integrate the whole Caucasus into the Empire just like during the golden era of the late 16th century. The Baku government of course wanted to maintain their independence and were happy to support Germany when the latter promised them generous amounts of economic investment and granted them all of Azerbaijan’s claimed territory - including the Armenian-held Zangezur and Karabakh, the Georgian-held Zaqatala and the Ottoman-held Nakhchivan. Azerbaijan gained all of its territorial claims and Georgia and the Ottomans would be compensated with formerly Armenian territories. In the end, Armenia was partitioned, Georgia and Azerbaijan inside the German sphere and Ottoman-German relations deeply soured.
Peace... but at what cost? (1920-1925)[]
As formal peace in Europe arrived in November of 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles, the borders of the Ottoman Empire had largely remained the same. The oblasts of Kars and Ardahan had been recovered with the addition of Yerevan whilst in the Aegean the Italians were pushed out of the Dodecanese and out of their colonies in Libya. But overall, the war had shown the world the absolute weakness of the Ottoman Empire on the world stage: Almost defeated by the Russians and British in 1916, close to complete collapse by 1918, betrayed by its allies in the Caucasus, Palestine and Assyria and denounced by the global powers with the Jerusalem Accord of 1919.
Internally, the damage had been immense as well as through the actions of the CUP, especially Djemal Pasha, tensions between Turks and Arabs had burst into the open whilst in Eastern Anatolia and Mount Lebanon whole populations were eradicated through forced deportation, starvation, or summary executions. The Armenian population was reduced to a small base in Yerevan, whilst most of the Greeks of Asia Minor had left the empire en-masse during the early years of the war. Losses on the Turkish side had been colossal as well, leading to underpopulation and a sharp decline in agricultural output - the Empire's main source of income. Its doctors, entrepreneurs, engineers and other intellectuals were drastically reduced, leading to an overall collapse of the economy.
Although the Arab Revolt had been a colossal failure, in large part due to the efforts of Fakhri Pasha, the need for reform was recognized. Answering to the calls of the First Arab Congress in 1913, the Arabic language was recognized as the second language of the Empire, and the official language of the greater Mashriq.
Post-Weltkrieg (1920-1936)[]
Increasing factionalism within the CUP and the meteoric rise of many military figures tore away at the internal stability of the party. The betrayal by its German allies in the Caucasus and Palestine gave rise to a substantial anti-German faction. The party nonetheless remained a united front to prevent ceding power to the FAP. As public opinion of the party declined even further, the CUP changed its name to Teceddüt and openly ousted some of the dictatorial figures within. Djemal Pasha went packing, whilst Talaat Pasha's influence was greatly reduced. Enver Pasha, who had been stationed with the Islamic Army of the Caucasus in Baku for most of 1919 after the capture of the city in late 1918, was declared a persona non grata as well and kicked by the Germans out of the city, disappearing without a trace, presumably to Russia or Central Asia.
Working from his position as minister of war, Mustafa Kemal Pasha already had ousted the German military mission by early 1919 and commenced an ambitious military restructuring in tandem with his ally Fevzi Pasha. Receiving great public acclaim for this action, Kemal continued laying the foundations for his later rise in power. Fearing another Enver Pasha, the upper committee of the party pushed Cavit Bey forwards as its new leader. Incapable of challenging Mustafa Kemal in public speaking, this proved detrimental to the party when in 1925, Kemal made a successful bid for power. The party changed name a second time to the “Ottoman Peoples Party”, or “OPP”. Discontent with the style of its new leadership, a substantial amount of members left and created their own parties.
In the same year, the British Revolution and the collapse of the British Empire would prove to be beneficial for the struggling Ottoman Empire to expand its influence; With the retreat of all British troops on the Arab peninsula to British India, the former British tributaries on the Persian Gulf (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the Trucial States) turned to the Sublime Porte for protection against the Wahhabis in Nejd and Hasa instead, the British-dominated autonomy in Assyria and the British Protectorate over Cyprus could finally be revoked and Ottoman troops marched into the Aden Protectorate and established diplomatic contact with the isolationist Sultanate of Muscat: Ottoman dominance in the Middle East had been restored after centuries of humiliation.
The 1926 elections ended in a victory for the OPP, but many were quick to remark that this was less due to the party itself, and more due to fragmentation of the opposition - where more than a dozen parties, mostly local, fought for any given seat. The newly appointed Grand Vizier did not hide his large ambitions, and in a flurry of reforms he pushed the nation towards his ideals. Massive strides were undertaken in the areas of education, economic recovery, and the fight against the religious establishment. The authoritarian style of the Grand Vizier, however, lead to a further splintering of the party - when his former ally and friend Kazim Karabekir Pasha broke with the party and created his “ODF”, or “Ottoman Defence Party”.
Under threat by the rapid centralisation of the government apparatus and with many conservatives afraid that the OPP may be attempting to break with tradition, the 1931 elections ended in the first electoral defeat for the OPP. The Ottoman Party for Administrative Decentralisation under its leader Haqqi al-Azm became the grand winner of the elections, and formed a coalition with the FAP and the ODF to provide a united front against the growing centralist threat. The coalition, however, was under constant attack, as the various parties that played part in it had conflicting opinions on a non-OPP policy. Tensions reached a breaking point in late 1932, when the government of Haqqi al-Azm collapsed due to disagreement with the FAP and ODF. A new government was created under FAP leadership, but as a minority government failed in achieving its goals of decentralisation and liberalisation.
The continued failures by this coalition still go a long way in repairing the reputation of the OPP, which received a solid majority in the 1935 elections. As Grand Vizier Mustafa Kemal Pasha begins his second term in office, signs have started to appear that he may be looking for an alternative to the constant obstruction by the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies and interference from the conservative lobby through the Sultan.
Politics[]
Leadership[]
Title | Name | Party | Portrait |
---|---|---|---|
Ottoman Caliph
Amir al-Mu'minin Kayser-i Rûm Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Khan |
Abdulmejid II
(born 29 May 1868) |
Unaffiliated | |
Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (Vezir-i Azam) | Mustafa Kemal Pasha
(born 1881) |
Ottoman People's Party (OPP) | |
Minister of Foreign Affairs | Mustafa Ismet Pasha
(born 24 September 1884) |
Ottoman People's Party (OPP) | |
Minister of Finance | Mahmut Celâl Pasha
(born 16 May 1883) |
Ottoman People's Party (OPP) | |
Minister of the Interior | Mustafa Necati Pasha
(born 1894) |
Ottoman People's Party (OPP) | |
Minister of War | Ali Fuad Pasha
(born 1882) |
Political Parties[]
The current ruling party is the Osmanlı Halk Fırkası (OHF: Ottoman People’s Party), which has undergone a radical transformation since the takeover of Mustafa Kemal Pasha in 1925. Following its first electoral defeat in 1931, the OHF was returned to power in the 1935 elections due to the continued failures of the Liberal-Entente coalition government. The party supports further centralization of power and secularization, as well as reforms to the education, penal, and justice systems. It also espouses a form of Ottoman nationalism built around the ideas of civic nationalism, Islam, and the Turkish language forming the glue of a more centralized and decisive power.
Opposed to the OHF’s electoral plurality are a string of ad-hoc aligned parties in the lower Meclis-i-Mebusân, or Chamber of Deputies, most notably the Hürriyet ve İtilaf Fırkası (HIF: Freedom and Accord Party). Led by the liberal Prince Mehmed Sabahattin, the party supports private initiative, religious freedom, and democracy at the local level, as well as decentralization of power. Also opposed to the OHF is the Democrat Fırkası (DF: Democratic Party) of Kâzım Karabekir, who broke with the OHF over the perceived authoritarianism of Grand Vizier Kemal despite his personal preference for centralist policies, as well as the conservative pan-islamist İttihad-ı Muhammedi Fırkası (IMF: Mohammedan Union Party) led by Shakib Arslan.
Administrative Divisions[]
The Ottoman Empire was first subdivided into provinces, in the sense of fixed territorial units with governors appointed by the sultan, in the late 14th century. The beylerbey, or governor, of each province was appointed by the central government. Sanjaks were governed by sanjak-beys, selected from the high military ranks by the central government. Beylerbeyis had authority over all the sancakbeyis in a region. Kaza was a subdivision of sancak and referred to the basic administrative district, governed by a kadi.
This subdivision system however was extremely difficult to govern, as it was hard to define the number and exact borders of Ottoman provinces and domains, and internal borders changed constantly. All the subdivisions were very unequal in regard of area and population, and the presence of numerous nomadic tribes contributed to the extreme variability of the population figures.
During the Tanzimat Era in the mid-19th century, which brought severe reforms to the Ottoman Empire, and an organized and comparably modern administrative system could finally be agreed upon. The old and complicated Eyalet system from the 16th century was replaced with more a adjusted system of Vilayets. Finally a clear hierarchy of administrative units had been established: the vilayet, sanjak, mutasarrifate, kaza, village council and nabiye.
After the Weltkrieg in the mid-1920s, the centralist OHF government decided to introduce further reforms: What followed was the creation of more centralized provinces with less autonomy than the classic vilayets, especially in the Turkish core land of Anatolia.
Integrated Ottoman Provinces (according to the centralization laws of the 1920s)
- Province of Constantinople: encompasses the Ottoman capital city, Constantinople. By far the richest and most developed Vilayet.
- Province of Adrianople: encompasses the lands in Southern Thrace to the west of Constantinople. Rural, large Greek and Bulgarian minorities.
- Province of Adana: encompasses the lands in Southern Anatolia, the historic Cilicia. Very fertile and rich in agriculture.
- Province of Ankara: encompasses the dry lands of Central Anatolia. Mostly dependent on livestock, one of the poorest regions in the Empire.
- Province of Aydin: encompasses the rich and fertile lands at the Aegean Sea, the historical Asia Minor. Significant Greek minority.
- Province of Bursa: encompasses the green hills at the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Bursa, the historical capital of the Ottoman Empire, has become one of the most prosperous cities in the Empire right after Constantinople.
- Province of Erzurum: created in 1922, formed out of part of the Harput, Trabzon and Diyarbekir and the old Erzurum Vilayet. Very poor, but a stronghold for the Ottoman army in the East.
- Province of Kastamonu: encompasses the fertile lands on the Black Sea Coast. With little investment in the last years, Kastamonu lacks behind the other primarily Turkish provinces in Anatolia.
- Province of Konya: encompasses the rural lands in Southern Anatolia which primarily rely on agriculture. Stronghold of Turkish nationalism.
- Province of Sivas: encompasses the dry and mountainous lands of Eastern Anatolia. One of the poorest regions in the Empire, mainly because due to the lack of the former well-established Armenian middle class, which was deported or murdered during the Armenian Genocide.
- Province of Trabzon: encompasses the old Pontus region in Northeastern Anatolia. Since the Pontic Genocide during the Weltkrieg, Trabzon has not recovered to its pre-war status. Includes the autonomous Sandjak of Lazistan, based in Batum.
Ottoman Vilayets (according to the 1864 Vilayet Law)
- Vilayet of Baghdad: encompasses the vibrant and rich territories in Central Mesopotamia. Extremely high population and dozens of ethnicities.
- Vilayet of Basra: encompasses the marshes and plains of Lower Mesopotamia. The main new home of the Assyrians who escaped genocide during the radicalism of the Great War, it is also home to a large native Arab Shiite population. Destitute and inhospitable, with crime rampant and people living in shanty towns. The Vilayet still holds some autonomy with the Assyrian Levies under Shimun XXI Eshai.
- Vilayet of Diyarbekir: encompasses part of the Kurdish core territories. The city of Dyarbekir within is an important center for the Muslim faith. Despite the hardship it faced during the Weltkrieg nowadays it's a prosperous, albeit agrarian, region which has developed as a center of learning. Constantinople considers it a key strategic zone for controlling the Kurdish people and as such it is closely supervised.
- Vilayet of Kars: encompasses the green pastures of Kars. It's economy is solely based on agriculture, particularly to the cultivation of grain and animal husbandry. The region once housed a sizeable Armenian minority but after the horrors of the Armenian Genocide and the Weltkrieg the region mainly comprises Turks, with a small Kurdish minority.
- Vilayet of Mosul: encompasses the west bank of the Tigris, the city of Mosul and it's surrounding lands. Forming an important trading hub on the road from India to the Mediterranean, although the region itself is mostly important for it's production of cotton products. However the region has seen a new economic sector spring up recently; the black gold. It's strategic position have made the city of Mosul into a formidable base of the Ottoman army.
- Vilayet of Van: encompasses the old Kurdish lands at Lake Van in Eastern Anatolia. Merged with the Armenian-dominated Bitlis Vilayet after the war. Location of gruesome massacres on the Armenian & Assyrian population during the war, Van is now a loyal outpost of Constantinople in the far eastern borderlands of the Empire, but still enjoys a huge degree of autonomy.
Ottoman Vilayets with a high degree of autonomy
- Vilayet of Aleppo: encompasses the harsh Northern Syrian desert territories and the vibrant city of Aleppo. Merged with the old Sanjak of Zor, whose legal status had been unclear for decades, in the 1920s. Poor and backwards, crime is common in the lawless desert outskirts, especially at night.
- Sanjak of Benghazi: encompasses the Mediterranean city of Benghazi. At the advent of the Italian invasion of Libya, Benghazi was the most impoverished region in the Empire, after 1912, the Italian's decided to start developing the city because of it's strategic importance. Once again under Ottoman control the city was developed mainly as a military base to control the interior and threaten the Egyptian Western flank.
- Vilayet of the Archipelago: encompasses a variety of different islands, Chios, Lesbos, Samos and Rhodes being the most notable ones. The population is mostly of Greek descent and orthodox Christians. Their livelihood is either farmwork or fishing, with some special produce being the mastic of Chios, a tree resin with many purposes, among them as a spice in Turkish coffee.
- Vilayet of Beirut: encompasses the territories of Mt. Lebanon and Nahr al-Kabir which harbour a populous cultural mixing pot. While being incorporated into Djemal Pasha's Syrian fiefdom during the Weltkrieg the region suffered immense repression and famine. While Djemal's bloody reign ended during the Weltkrieg for almost a decade later no major political opposition to Ottoman rule has sprung up in the region, mainly due to lack of a cohesive national identity.
- Mutasarrifate of Mt. Lebanon: encompasses the forested area in & around Mount Lebanon and the buzzling city of Beirut. Recreated in 1921 as an autonomous zone within the Vilayet of Beirut, it has entered a period of reconstruction after suffering horrible repression and famine under Djemal Pasha; with Beirut becoming a major center of the Arab movement thanks to its economic boom. However it appears Mount Lebanon's much-prized autonomy seems to be under threat by the centralist government in Constantinople. Mt. Lebanon is currently governed by Jacob of Ghazir, also known as "Halil Pasha", who holds a largely ceremonial title.
- Mutasarrifate of Cyprus: encompasses the mountainous and semi-arid island of Cyprus. Despite hopes for a unification with Greece, upon the return of Ottoman rule a new Mutasarrifate was installed with clear orders to promote the attachment of the island to Anatolia through any means necessary.
- Vilayet of Erivan: formed from the partition of Russian Armenia after the Weltkrieg.
- Vilayet of Hejaz: encompasses the Muslim holy sites in Western Arabia. Hejazi autonomy was severely limited after the Arab Revolt; The Sharif is still influential, but most of the power lies in the hand of the local Ottoman governor.
- Vilayet of Syria: encompasses the fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts of Syria, notably includes the Arab metropolis of Damascus, along with the prosperous cities of Aleppo, Homs and Beirut. An intricate combination of ethnic and religious groups with no parallel in the Empire, this region is also notable as the centerpoint of conservative and Arab nationalist opposition in the Mashriq. It's main economic sector's comprise mainly agriculture, mining, and weaving. It's an important strategic area for Constantinople, holding the vital Hejaz Railway.
- Vilayet of Tripolitania: encompasses the harsh deserts of Western Libya. Ravaged by the Weltkrieg and by revolts in the 1920s, the province is lagging decades behind the rest of the Empire and Turkish control is less than sparsely spread.
Autonomous fiefdoms/dependencies within the Empire
- Emirate of Cyrenaica: small fiefdom of the Senussi Order in baked eastern Libyan Desert and on the dry woodlands facing the Mediterranean, one of the most underdeveloped, autonomous and inhospitable regions of the whole Empire, it is populated by Berber and Toubou nomads.
- Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem: international zone in Palestine.
- Sheikhdom of Kuwait: small fiefdom on the Persian Gulf, bordering the Basra Vilayet. Rejoined the Ottoman Empire after the Collapse of the British Empire. Once extraordinary rich and of high importance, but by now in decline for a few decades.
- State of Qatar: small fiefdom on the Persian Gulf. No direct land connection to the rest of the Empire. Rejoined the Ottoman Empire after the Collapse of the British Empire. Protected from Saudi encroachment by a large Turkish garrison.
- Kingdom of Bahrain: small island fiefdom in the Persian Gulf. Joined the Ottoman Empire after the Collapse of the British Empire. Very rich, but isolated.
- Trucial Sheikhdoms: tribal confederation of 6 sheikhdoms on the Persian Gulf, close to Oman. Joined the Ottoman Empire after the Collapse of the British Empire.
- Vilayet of Yemen: while officially an Ottoman Vilayet, Yemen is in fact ruled as an autonomous Imamate within the Empire by the Rassid dynasty since 1911.
Military[]
The Ottoman Empire possesses the largest and strongest military in the Middle East, but finds itself surrounded on all sides by potential enemies. German influence is clear throughout with everything from helmets to aircraft to tanks being either purchased directly from Germany or domestically produced German designs. While the Sultan is the de jure Commander in Chief, he has little to no real power over the military.
Army[]
The Ottoman Army is very large, with its uniforms closely resembling those worn by the Deutsches Heer, and both use similar equipment. the army is currently barred from entering the Mutassafirate of Jerusalem.
[]
The Ottoman Navy is the dominant force in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, however many of its ships are outdated.
Air Force[]
The Ottoman Air Force is the youngest of the military branches.
Foreign Relations[]
The Ottoman Empire is a vast empire and therefore cannot effectively exercise control over all of its territories and subjects. Yemen for example has been a part of the Ottoman Empire ever since the 1500s, but as the infrastructure in the mountainous and harsh environment of Southwestern Arabia is extremely underdeveloped, Constantinople's effective control over the region is very low. During the Weltkrieg, Yemen was cut off from the Empire because of the Arab Revolt; During this time, the Imam was able to gain significant autonomy, something the Ottoman government was not able to revoke after the end of the exhausting war. Because of that, Yemen can be considered more of an Ottoman puppet state than a truly integrated province.
A similar situation applies to the territories which were regained or newly gained after the Weltkrieg, namely the Vilayet of Tripolitania, the Emirate of Cyrenaica and the Vilayet of Erivan. While the former two are plagued by rebellious Libyan tribes who refuse to pay taxes to their Turkish overlords and by Idrisid loyalists who support the exiled Emir Idris as head of the Senussi Order, the latter is a hotbed of Armenian nationalism since the partition of Armenia between the Ottomans, Georgia and Azerbaijan on the Caucasus Conference in late 1919. Because of that, all three territories have significant autonomy and are mere puppet states of Constantinople as well.
The situation of Jabal Shammar to the South of the Empire in the vast Central Arabian desert frontier is a more difficult one. The Rashidis have been loyal allies to the Ottomans since the 1890s, but the Rashidi-Ottoman relationship could not be more unequal: Jabal Shammar is completely dependent on its neighbour, profiteering from its prosperity and stability, while Constantinople views the poor emirate as nothing more than a minor bulwark to the south which protects the riches of Syria, Mesopotamia and Transjordan from the perfidious raids of the Saudis and the Ikhwan in Riyadh. Therefore, many outsiders consider the Shammars as nothing more than Ottoman lapdogs. However, due to new means of transport and the rapid industrialization and development that reached the Middle East in the last two decades, Jabal Shammar becomes more and more useless for the Ottomans; The small emirate however suffers immensely from all that progress, as the old pilgrim paths through their territory, which linked most of Asia to the holy cities and swept money into the country, become more and more obsolete. Therefore, the Ottoman-Rashidi relationship is a pretty tense one, and only the future will show if Ha'il will stay loyal to their Turkish allies.
The Ottoman Empire's biggest enemy on the Arabian peninsula are with no doubt the opportunist Saudis of the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa, based in the city of Riyadh. Native to the Central Arabian desert since the 1700s, the Saudis distinguish themselves from other tribes of the region through their extreme Sunni fundamentalism, based on the ideas of Salafism and Wahhabism. They are known for their sudden raids on neighboring territories, often killing multiple hundred people, among them mostly Shiites, Jews and other minorities. The Ottomans have been victims of these raids too, like in 1913, when Nejd bandits captured the Ottoman-controlled region of Qatif and al-Hasa and slaughtered the Turkish garrison. In the last few years, the Ottoman border protection has been greatly improved, but smaller raids around the regions of Kuwait, Qatar and the Trucial States still occur on a regular basis. Because of that, the Saudi-Ottoman relations are extremely bad, and Constantinople tries everything to prevent further Saudi encroachment.
A relatively new rival of the Ottomans lurks on the Southwestern border of the Empire, on the other side of the Suez Canal: The Sultanate of Egypt. Proclaiming their independence after the collapse of the British Empire, the young Sultanate rides on a wave of nationalist euphoria and wishes to expand into the Levant, becoming the new hegemon of the Middle East. A similar situation applies to the Sublime State of Persia. Formerly peaceful partners against Western Imperialism throughout the 19th century, since the fall of Britain and Russia, the relationship between Teheran and Constantinople has grown more tense again: Persia has left behind the decades of political instability and militarily weakness and hopes to finally emerge as a regional power player again. A political and economic cooperation with Germany has laid the groundwork for that; The Ottomans, practically stuck between a rock and a hard place, will have to find measures to prevent open conflict with their ambitious neighbours.
The relations to the nations of the nearby Balkans are pretty much neutral. Diplomacy with Greece has improved since the liberal Greek Revolution of the early 1930s, but Athens unofficially still claims several Ottoman territories as their core territories, among them several islands in the Aegean Sea and the region of Smyrna. The relations with Bulgaria on the other hand had various ups and downs in the last decades: Once arch enemies during the Balkan Wars, then close allies during the Weltkrieg and cordial neighbours throughout the 1920s, Bulgaria's stance on the Turkish has grown worse again: Bulgarian nationalism and increased authoritarianism has led to the persecution of the large Muslim Turkish minority within Bulgaria's borders and power-hungry government officials in Sofia have turned their eyes on the city of Constantinople, hoping to finally conquer the old city of "Tsargrad", as they call it, and return to the glory days of the Old Bulgarian Empire under Simeon I.
The relations with the states in the Caucasus, namely Georgia and Azerbaijan, are tense. the Ottomans are a strong ally of the German Empire, having fought together during the Weltkrieg and Germany financing the construction of the Berlin-Baghdad Railway, however the issue of debt owed to the Ottomans former German and Austrian allies has soured relations in recent years. the Dominion of Canada has oil concessions in Kuwait.
Economy & Infrastructure[]
- Main article: Ottoman railway system
WIP
When the dust settled in 1920 and there finally came an end to almost a decade of non-stop war, the economy of the Ottoman Empire laid in tatters. The manufacturing industry which had seen a slow but steady growth in the CUP-era was knocked down as the effects of the Armenian genocide took their toll on the educated middle class. Doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, etc all became critical jobs as a continued exodus by Greek-Ottoman citizens in Asia Minor showed how devastating the 'National Economy' plan of Gökalp really was to the ravaged nation. In a similar way the agriculture was ruined as the real effects of the war started to sink in. The loss of the Anatolian Turkish population was mind boggling as almost 25% of the pre-war population was gone, leaving behind an abundance of land with no one to tend to it.
Nonetheless the Sublime Porte did not sit idle and plans for a swift recovery were quickly drafted as the first real post-war cabinet made it their top priority. Railroads, left behind by nations no longer existing, were nationalised. The dreaded OPDA was completely shut down and all its monopolies transferred to the state. The 'National Economy' project became the centerpiece of Ottoman economic policy as the horrors of the war and the reliance on an untrustworthy non-Turkish population left deep scars amongst the ruling elite. A Muslim bourgeoisie had to be groomed to challenge the traditional Christian dominance, the people had to be educated and the empire finally launched into the 20th century.
As the years ticked by and the economy recovered, the pre-war state was achieved by the late 20s. The next step was the development of 4-year plans and an even larger grip of the government on the economy. In 1931 however, the tale of the nationalists hit an abrupt bump as they were soundly defeated in the elections and were forced to make way to the liberal opposition. Some sectors were carefully opened up to the free market and some of the more drastic etatist measures abolished. Riding on the seemingly never-ending wave of German prosperity and with import costs for machinery and building materials at an all time low, the industrial sector leaped forth year after year. By the middle of the 30s, the Turkish economy had never seen better days as a feeling of euphoria and progress could be felt by urban populations from Beirut to Smyrna. Nonetheless many have pointed out the warning signs on the horizon as increasing instability on the continent and the stagnation of the German economy will likely bring issues to the Grand Orient as well. A short, unexpected dip just before the 1935 elections scared observers who believe that the caution of the OPP is more than justified if we wish to avoid another catastrophe like the OPDA.
Culture[]
The Ottoman Empire's government and military are dominated by Turks, but the country is still full of minorities of different nationalities, including Greeks, Kurds, Arabs, and Armenians. Arabs have seen a rise in political importance, especially in Iraq, where Turkish policy makers have put extra focus ever since the discovery of oil. Islam, and with it the figure of the Sultan-Caliph, serves as the main glue keeping the Kurds, Turks and Arabs together - but cracks have started to appear in this unity as both Kurds and Arabs have been opened up to the ideas of nationalism.
WIP
Ethnicities of the Ottoman Empire[]
The Empire is made up of a rich tapestry of ethnicities and religions. During the Weltkrieg however, many Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians were massacred and expelled from the country, with the Assyrians fleeing to Kuwait. Many Jews have started to settle in Palestine, which has caused friction with the Arab inhabitants.
Turks[]
The Turks are the dominant ethnic group of the Empire, holding various positions in government and in the military.
Arabs[]
the Arabs are the second most powerful ethnicity in the Empire and the most numerous, having much influence and autonomy within it. There are various Sheikhs and Emirs under the authority of the Sublime Porte. However, many Arabs remember the failed Arab Revolt and follow the ideology of pan-Arabism.
Kurds[]
For most of the Ottoman Empire's existence, the various Kurdish chieftains always have acted as loyal brothers-in-arms to their Turkish overlords - except for a few exceptions in the late 19th and early 20th century. Kurdish nationalism does exist, but it is very different from similar movements in the Turkish and Arab community, as it emphasizes traditionalism, piety and old tribal structures. Therefore, Kurds are often considered to be reactionary hardliners and therefore supporters of a strong Sultan-Caliph, while declining the modern reforms introduced by the government in Constantinople.
During the Weltkrieg, Kurdish irregulars became world-famous for their atrocities against other minorities: Persuaded by the CUP government to exterminate Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks in return for tribal autonomy, they would be responsible for the gruesome death of thousands. Kurdish identity is heavily dependent on regionalism: The Kurds of Anatolia are vastly different from the ones of Persia, Mesopotamia or Syria and rivalries already begin on a local level between different families.
Armenians[]
The Armenians are with no doubt the most troubled of all the different peoples of the Caucasus: Once the dominant ethnicity from the coast of Cilicia to the Javakheti mountains and from Trabzon on the Black Sea to the white peak of Mount Ararat to the northeast of Lake Van, serious repression by Ottoman authorities starting in the 19th century have almost completely decimated this once mighty people. The Armenian Genocide during the Weltkrieg, which would see the deportation of more than one million Armenian citizens to the Syrian desert, where they would be sent on death marches through no man's land, would only worsen the overall situation; as of 1936, the formerly well-established Armenian middle class is completely gone and most remaining Armenians have been relocated to the Vilayet of Erivan. While the Armenians of the vilayet now, with the old genocidal CUP leadership forced out of office, enjoy a certain degree of autonomy, centralization and Turkification efforts still continue; As the Armenian resistance movement under Garegin Nzhdeh is deeply entrenched in the mountains of Karabakh and Zangezur in Azerbaijan to the south, confrontation in the future could be much more likely than many Ottoman government officials might think.
Assyrians[]
An equally troubled ethnicity as the Armenians are the Assyrians, an ancient Aramaic-speaking people originally native to the Nineveh Plains, Eastern Anatolia and Persian Azerbaijan. As followers of the Assyrian Church of the East, which already had split off from the main branch of Christianity after the 431 Council of Ephesus, the Assyrians were subject to heavy Ottoman repression, the so-called Seyfo, during the Weltkrieg, which led to hundred thousands of deaths and forced many Assyrians to flee southwards into British-controlled Mesopotamia. On foreign insistence, an Assyrian autonomy led by a council under the guidance of British troops and the Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East was established in Basra Vilayet, however, since the British Revolution, Ottoman government influence in Basra is gradually increasing and the autonomy has long been revoked, at least on paper. The Assyrian nation is now at crossroads: While another genocide under the current administration is not very likely, Mustafa Kemal Pasha's Turkish nationalist rhetoric and centralization efforts could indeed threaten the hard-won freedom of the Assyrian people once again.
Greeks[]
The Greeks, once integral members of Ottoman urban society, especially on the Anatolian West Coast, around the Bosporus, in Cappadocia and in the Pontic Mountains, have suffered a similar fate as their Christian Armenian & Assyrian brethren: During the Weltkrieg, several hundred thousand Greeks would be deported, killed or forcibly converted to Islam, which would be one of the main reasons for Greece to join the Entente. At the end of the Weltkrieg, most Ottoman Greeks had been either killed or expelled from Anatolia.
Nonetheless, a large Greek minority still remains in the Empire, mostly on the Aegean Islands and Cyprus, which were only (re-)gained after the end of the war and the genocide. Most of these Greeks are loyal to the government and supportive of liberalization and secularization attempts; However, political agitation coming from the neighboring liberal Hellenic Republic is strong and further centralization reforms by the OPP could lead to conflict in the future.
Jews[]
Since the beginning of the 20th Century, more and more Jews have started to resettle in Palestine, motivated primarily by the concept of Zionism, the idea of a resurrected Jewish homeland, and also by persecution by other governments.
Bulgarians[]
Bulgarian speakers in the Sublime State are mostly concentrated in Eastern Thrace, one of the last remnants of Ottoman rule in the Balkans.
Georgians & Lazi[]
Most Georgians in the Ottoman Empire reside in the city of Batumi, which was awarded to the Empire in the Weltkrieg. This serves as a source of conflict between the newly independent Georgian republic and the Sublime Porte. The Laz people reside in a small enclave on the Black Sea coast west of Batumi.
Others[]
there are various other ethnic and religious minorities scattered throughout Ottoman territory.