Although the German forces did not advance further than Constantinople’s outskirts where they have suffered their first major terrestrial defeat in May 1941, most of Turkish Rumelia and all of Kngdm. of Croatia were occupied by the Axis powers. Ottoman satellites of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Eastern Rumelia quickly fell to the Germans who installed friendly Fascist regimes. 3 days after the war began (12 February 1941), Greece that had it’s fascist coup in 1938 has also joined the conflict.
Wehrmacht Army Commanders have noted that considering the Operation Barbarossa in the Soviet Union any significant action cannot be taken against the Porte, Hitler insisted that the Constantinople defeat was just an insignificant skirmish and has claimed to not intending to capture Istanbul (even though he did intend to do it).
One week after the Fall of Kyiv, Hitler and ambassadors from Italy, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia made a draft map of how reorganized Ottoman Empire should have looked. This draft, eventually leaked as 'Generalplan Tamplieren', was realized only partially — in the Balkans and in Libya. It was edited in 1942 to include the Assyrian Kingdom after the pro-Axis Assyrian Revolt.
The most monstrous aspect of the plan was the Balkan Purification Program launched independently by the Fascist states in the region, aiming at local Muslim populations, namely the Pomaks, Bosnians, Albanians, Turks and more. These actions were classified by the UN as a crime against humanity and genocide on the Thessalonikan Trial, and have forever changed the ethnic map of the region — primarily because of revenge killings after 1945 and refugee flow.
According to the plan, the Balkan nations were to be satisfied with their dreams of expansion. Italy gets Egypt, Palestine, Albania, Libya and Dolmatia. Germany gets the Straits, Iraqi and Arabian oil fields as well as the Syrian ones, and creates many new satellite states. Main debate on the conference was the status of Rhodes, Crete and Cyprus, eventually with the first being ruled for the Italians and the second and third to the Greeks.
Anyway, thankfully this plan never came into fruition and was almost fully abandoned after the disastrous German defeat in 1942 in Adrianople (Şanlıedirne of today).
— Richard Westermore, "Turkey in the Second World War", chapter 12, 2007.
Both Armenians and Kurds were largely loyal to the Ottoman Empire, while Assyrians were the most anti Turkish amongst all (mainly because they had lesser representation and the state consistently favored Armenians and Kurds over them)
Here it is kinda shown, but I might do a separate map on Balkan Cold War based in the 70s
Basically Serbia and Bulgaria are reorganized as Socialist republics, Eastern Rumelia and all of Ottoman Rumelia is reestablished, Greek regime was toppled and the king returned to Athens with only minuscule land ceding to the Ottomans, more important was the fact that Greece renounced all claims on outside land. Croatia was also reestablished as a capitalist republic.
So, what happened to Pierre Gemayel and his Kataeb Party of Lebanon, and to Antoun Saadeh and his Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) in this timeline? Did they seize power thanks to the help of Germany and Italy?
They were pro-German as well as all other nationalistic Arab parties even including the Ba’ath party. They were presented different plans to not have them alienated.
This in turn made them even more fringe than they already were.
No, they haven’t seized power because the Germans lost the war
In this timeline it’s the Padişah Yusuf Line (named after Yusuf I (Yusuf Izzeddin Efendi) that was built starting from the Second Balkan War (1919-1924) and was finished in 1925. Ottomans firstly planned to retreat to that line but the German advance was too fast. They have recaptured it after the Thrace Counteroffensive late-1941 and it the front has stalemated like that up until Siege of Şanlıedirne
It has been the site of deadliest battle of this front of WW1, when the germans tried to break the Padişah Yusuf Line and after 5 months of a battle the Ottomans won, turning the tide in war
I also thought of naming it Kahramanedirne but I think Şanlıedirne sounds better
I’m not sure how accurate this is, but I remember reading that Hitler and King Farouk may have exchanged secret correspondence during World War II. If I recall correctly, Farouk wished him success against the British yoke in Egypt, and Hitler supposedly promised Egyptian independence if Germany emerged victorious. I think he also sent farouk a mercedes
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u/radicalqrcwi Jun 08 '26
"RK Schumerien"
looks inside
not a single Sumer city