Turkish Front of WW3 (DJK95)

The Turkish Front of WW3 was a theatre of military combat in the Third World War, formed as a result of the turkish invasion and occupation of various greek islands in the Aegan Sea, as well as the subsequent invasions of Cyprus and mainland Greece in 2027 onward. There were several central campaigns that resulted in heavy fighting in southeast Europe and the Middle East, including the Aegan Campaign, the Thrace Campaign, the Caucasus Campaign, the Cyprus Campaign, the Levant Campaign and the Turkish Campaign. Hostilities ended with the allied nuclear strikes against Incirlik, the strategic allied bombing campaign and the collapse of the AKP dictatorship, resulting in the surrender and occupation of Turkey at the end of WW3.
== 2027 ==
=== The Qatar campaign: Turkeys betrayal ===
With the Western Front coming into motion, and a new front being opened in South America, things remained tense in the Middle East. Allied troops kept closing in to the Iranian border in Iraq, causing an increased usage of chemical weapons to prevent the invasion of Iran, while the Allies were successful in their attempt to outflank and encircle the remaining Iraqi resistance. In order to relieve pressure from the land offensive, the allied CENTCOM main command in the Middle East decided to dare an amphibious invasion of Iran in the Persian Gulf, since most of Iran's navy was already destroyed. The only obstacle to prepare the invasion was the last Iranian ally in the region, Qatar, which still supported Iran with cash and illegal weapon sales outside of the region. This was enough reason for the Saudi regime lead by Muhammad bin Salman to consider military action to neutralize Qatar, while gaining access to its resources and its territory as a staging ground for the operation against Iran.
The western allied leadership remained skeptical about the necessity of such an undertaking, especially since US troops were still stationed in Qatar. Nonetheless, the invasion of Qatar was reluctantly greenlit, leading Saudi, Arabian, jordanian and omani forces to attack into the gulf state. Turkey, which also had a military presence in Qatar, a close ally of the Erdoğan regime, demanded that the quote „illegal invasion“ of Qatar, or otherwise Turkey would see itself forced to protect its interests at the gulf. The warning was ignored, and despite fierce resistance of the rather well equipped qataris, the Allies were able to push deep into the state very quickly. US troops stationed in Qatar left their housing to prevent retaliation, and joined their Arab counterparts in the ongoing offensive. Qatar's modern, and often western weaponry made the allied advance very costly, despite additional support coming from the few British aircraft stationed in Qatar before the campaign. The Qatari army pulled back and established a defensive line further north to protect Doha, allowing the Allies to consolidate a large fraction of their gains. The allied forces also closed in to Turkish troops, that now took position along the qataris in the defense around Doha. Allied calls for a Turkish retreat were ignored, and after Arab, American and British forces kept advancing towads the qatari lines, they were attacked by Turkish forces without warning. This resulted in heated exchanges of fire between officially allied troops, causing the deaths of a few hundred Arab and American forces. The attack lead to a enormous outrage from a majo of allied countries, while the GCC and US leadership demanded Turkey to withdraw from Qatar and give reparations to the Allies, which was firmly rejected by the Erdoğan regime. Erdoğan instead claimed that allied troops attacked their Turkish counterparts first, and that allied support for the Qatar campaign would equate state terrorism. The allied command, as well as NATO specifically summoned an emergency meeting, in order to decide what to to with Turkeys rogue behavior. At the same time, a British destroyer in the eastern Medditeranean was hit and severely damaged by a submarine of unknown origin, which was consequently hunted down and destroyed by allied anti-submarine assets. As it turned out through careful examination, the vessel in question was a Russian one, which caught the allied leadership in the region by surprise. Since there was no possibility that a Russian submarine could have entered the Medditeranean through the Suez or Gibraltar chokepoints, accusations were made that Turkey would allow them to enter through the Bosporus Strait.
Other NATO and GCC members also used the emergency meetings for speaking up against the Kurdish Genocide, which was still occurring in Syria, Iraq and partially Turkey itself, causing heated disputes on public stages. Erdoğan and his subordinates aggressively denounced these accusations, and repeated their talking points abo ut how the West would support terrorism and that Turkey would protect its interests by the actions taken over the course of the war. While allied representatives engaged in severe arguments, pro-allied and pro-Turkish demonstrators clashed with one another outside of the conference settings, leading to violence and injuries among the protesters. There were also reports of Turkish security forces also participating in the clashes, but not to drive the sides apart, but allegedly to attack anti-Erdoğan protesters of the other side. The betrayal of Turkish troops in Qatar, the Turkish support for Revisionist Powers like Pakistan, Libya and Somalia, as well as the Kurdish Genocide and the apparent collusion with Russian forces forced the Allies to ultimately eject Turkey from NATO and the overall war alliance, leading all financial and military support for Turkey to cease. Erdoğan condemned these actions, and characterized them as a „declaration of war“, as well as the „West showing its real face“. While the Allies officially declared that Turkish troops were no longer seen as friendly forces, and that any action against allied soldiers would be retaliated, there were still calls claiming that there is no desire for confrontation, and that the Allies would stay out of Turkeys way as long as it would do the same. Turkey on the on the other hand declared, that allied troops would from now on be seen as hostile forces, and that Turkey would never give in to any western demands. Violent protests between anti-Turkish demonstrators and pro-AKP European nationals of Turkish descent emerged all over Europe, with Germany, the Netherlands and Austria being affected the most.
Racist attacks against Turkish institutions were reported, while on the other hand Kurdish institutions and political centers were attacked by Erdoğan sympathizers. This caused the situation between the West and Turkey to become far more tense, while there were small allied gains in Qatar, the place were this crisis originated. After additional missile bombardment coming from the gulf, the Allies were able to approach Qatar also by sea, forcing the qataris to abandon Dukhan and Al Khor, leaving Doha as the last stronghold of the gulf state. The immense pressure, and the allied numerical advantage lead to first offers by the qataris for a ceasefire, which could culminate in negotiations with the Allies about a truce. At the same time, Turkey opened its borders in the west for around 1 million Syrian, Iraqi and Azeri refugees, and pushed them towards Europe with deliberate pressure coming from Turkeys security forces, as retaliation for western actions against Turkey. Greece and Bulgaria, who both fortified their respective borders with Turkey over the last few years during the war, were confronted with thousands of refugees trying to enter their territory, many of them engaging in violent clashes with security forces, while Turkish forces actively helped the situation to escalate by destroying border fences and attacking Greek forces through the crowds. While Greek and allied authorities warn Turkey against further hostilities, Erdoğan threatened the Allies that anything he deems as an aggression against Turkish interests will be seen as a declaration of war.
== 2028 ==
=== Turkey joins the Revisionists: Erdoğan vs Europe ===
Mexico was not the only nation joining the Revisionist Powers in late 2028 due to ongoing conflicts with western countries. Tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean kept escalating, after the forced influx of tens of thousands of refugees coming from Turkey to Greece and Bulgaria, while Turkish and Greek security forces clashed with each other through the greco-Turkish border. Due to the continuously rising tensions with the west following its exclusion from NATO, Turkey intensified its naval presence in the waters around Cyprus and several Greek islands, in order to secure Turkish maritime claims and natural resources. Reports also came up about Turkish vessels bringing military equipment and personnel to the Turkish Cypriot Republic, despite an international weapons embargo still being in place. As a result, Greek, French and British warships engaged in various standoffs with Turkish vessels, while the Turkish air force conducted mock attacks on allied ships. After coming increasingly close to each other, Turkish and western soldiers harassed each other, by using water hoses and shots in the air to disperse the vessels of the opposing side.
During these standoffs, several Greek ships close to Cyprus and Crete were rammed by Turkish vessels, prompting exchanges of fire. Almost immediately after, Turkish naval units actively attacked Greek and French ships, leading to dozens of allied casualties. The Turkish air force was also deployed, and buzzed several allied planes, while pursuing the Greek navy, leading to near-clashes between each sides air force as well. Turkish dictator Erdoğan blamed the recent escalation on Greece and the Allies, and vowed to defend Turkish interests with all means necessary. The Allies on the other hand condemned the Turkish aggression, and made an ultimatum, which called for a complete retreat of Turkish naval forces from officially Greek and cypriot waters. Turkey rejected the ultimatum, and declared that it will never give in to allied demands, which it called „fascist and imperialist“ intentions. Instead, Turkish soldiers were landed on the small Greek island of Kastelorizo, which was the center of the Greek-Turkish EEZ conflict for years, and planted the Turkish flag on the island as a sign of conquest. The ports of Kastelorizo were blocked by the Turkish navy, while the few hundred Greek residents were put under a curfew. As a result of the escalation, Greece mobilized a large portion of its troops and sent them close to the border, as a show of force. The Europeans AUF also intended to increase Greek defenses in the south, which was why the allied European command deployed several anti-air batteries, anti-ship missiles and artillery pieces to Greece, which were supposed to be deployed on Greek islands off the coast of Turkey. When the news broke about allied weaponry arriving in Greece, Turkey saw itself forced to take preemptive action, which lead to Turkish troops entering Greek territory in several locations of the Evros river, where they occupied river islands and small chunks of Greek territory. Turkish troops also assaulted the Greek islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos, Rhodes and the Northeastern Aegan Islands, where they engaged small contingents of the Greek national guard.
The fact that these islands were so numerous and close to Turkey, while being too far away from mainland Greece, meant that the Greeks were unable to send enough reinforcements fast enough to its eastern islands, since Turkeys stronger navy and its closer airbases additionally complicated Greek movement of troops. Turkey comparatively large amphibious assault fleet enabled it to land its troops much quicker on Greek islands, than the Greeks could reinforcements, leading on Greek island to fall after another. The attack on Greece finally forced NATO and the AUF to officially treat their former ally as an enemy, which lead Greece to declare war on Turkey. On the same day, France, the UK, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia also declared war on Turkey, while a few days later, Israel, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Montenegro, Iceland, Luxembourg, and the Saudi dominated GCC members also declared war on Turkey under the AKP dictatorship of Erdoğan. Germany hesitated to join in on the defense of Greece, due to its large Turkish population, which included a majority of Erdoğan supporter, since it feared domestic unrest and attacks. But after a few couple of days, Germany also declared war on Turkey, as did Australia and New Zealand, as well as most of the remaining EU.
The US was also reluctant to join, due to Trumps lack of interest of fighting Turkey in support of the Europeans, but due to NATOs article 5, and pressure from the American military establishment, the US also declared war on Turkey. After the American declaration of war, Erdoğan held a rally in Ankara, where he swore in his followers on a „Holy War“ against all of Turkeys enemies, at the end of which, Turkey would come out as a glorious victor with the blessing of Allah. Turkish troops amassed around the NATO bases in Izmir, Ankara, Gaziantep, Dyabakir and Adana, seizing those assets, while additionally, Turkish troops also took the US bases of Mersin, Batman and Kürsehir. Only Incirlik was left untouched and was instead besieged, including the installment of a No-Fly-Zine, in order to prevent the US from moving its nuclear weapons out of Incirlik.
On the same day as the Greek declaration of war, Turkish troops also launched an invasion of Cyprus. The closeness of Cyprus, just like it was the case with the eastern Greek islands in the Aegan Sea, enabled Turkey to send airborne and naval units to Cyprus much faster than the Allies, leaving the Greek cypriot forces with almost no allied support. Since the Greek cypriots still operated relatively large batteries of heavy artillery and anti-air defenses, casualties among the Turkish ground and air forces mounted rather quickly. In order to compensate for this, Turkey used Turkish cypriot forces as a vanguard, while assembling enough reinforcements to support its earlier deployed airborne units for the full conquest of Cyprus. Greek, French and British naval units present in the waters around Cyprus tried to take on the Turkish fleet supporting the invasion of Cyprus, but with a lack of land based air cover, those forces came under attack from Turkish planes, attack helicopters, submarines and fast attack boats. The invasion of Cyprus proved to be much slower than expected, due to the fact that the Turkish army had to assemble its forces on almost all of its horses, leaving only a fraction of them for the Cypriot campaign. While Turkish paratroopers were landed in the cypriot Troodos mountains, where they engaged in heavy mountain warfare with cypriot troops and their few allied reinforcements that were already present before the conflict, Greek troops mobilized at the Turkish border tried to launch a counterinvasion of East Thrace, using armored mechanized formations to cross the border. The AUF decided to send its „Southern Contingent“ in support of Greece, meaning Spanish, Portuguese, French and British forces, under Italian command were deployed as the first line of defense, while the „Balkan Contingent“ of Croatian, Montenegrin, Romanian and Slovenian troops under a joint allied command also sent troops to Greece.
During the Battle of the Maritsa, Turkish and Greek troops clashed heavily, leading to thousands of casualties in a short period of time. The allied air force, now including French, British, German, Italian, Belgian and Spanish planes, also conducted their first strikes on Turkish soil by attacking the entrances of the Bosporus tunnels as well as the Bosporus bridges in Istanbul, killing hundreds of civilians in the process. Istanbul also became the target of allied strategic bombing, since the Allies tried to destroy as much of the present forces, infrastructure and bases around Istanbul as possible. The closeness of Turkish airbases, and the destruction of the Maritsa bridges, lead to a halt of the allied advance at the Turkish border, while the Allies, especially the Greeks suffered heavy air-casualties. As a result, the Turkish army launched a invasion of not only Thrace, but also Bulgaria, which declared war on Turkey the same day. While the Balkan Contingent deployed forces to assist Bulgaria, first battles between Turkish and Arab forces in the south emerged, during which Kurdish militias, who were in negotiations with the Allies for protection and support, joined the fight against Turkey in Syria and Iraq, while PKK sympathizers launched new attacks against the Turkish military and police force in southeastern Turkey.
== 2029 ==
=== The Turkish Front: Allied resolve ===
While the Revisionist Powers faced crisis and defeats on multiple fronts simultaneously, the war in southeast Europe looked very differently in comparison. Turkish troops still invaded the border regions of Greece and Bulgaria, while several Greek islands remained under Turkish occupation since the beginning of the campaign against Europe. Turkish forces engaged in brutal battles against the Greek, French, British, Dutch, Germans, Belgians, Swedish, Danes, Italians, Spanish, portugese and Austrians in West Thrace, while Croatian, Romanian, Montenegrin, slovarian and Slovenian troops supported the bulgarians in their war effort against Turkey.
More nations started to join the fighting against the Erdoğan regime, which is why Australia and New Zealand split their troops sent to Europe, so that additional reinforcements could support the Europeans against Turkey. In the Middle East, the Arab coalition, supported by Israel, France, the UK and reluctantly the US launched their first offensives against the Turkish occupation in Iraq and Syria, leading heavy fighting in the entire Levant. Kurdish militias, like the remnants of the YPG and SDF supported the allied offensives, while Kurdish resistance fighters inside the occupied territories launched new insurgencies against the Turks and their allied Islamist militias, causing new atrocities against the Kurdish population in Syria and Iraq. While Turkey faced increasing pressure in the west and east, Armenian rebels in the Caucasus were encouraged by the allied war against Turkey, leading to new guerilla style attacks against Turkish troops in Armenia, as well as forces of Turkeys ally, Azerbaijan. Talks and negotiations were held between the Allies of Europe, Australia and India, in order to convince India to join the war against Turkey because of Turkish support for Pakistan, as well as alleged support for Islamist cells inside India. At the same time, the Battle for the Mediterranean heated up, since the Allies planned to take out the Turkish Fleet in preparation for an invasion of Turkey.
The US, Uk and France deployed various aircraft carriers into the Mediterranean, while they in addition to Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Croatia, Egypt and even Germany assembled enough naval assets to dwarf the Turkish fleet significantly. The aircraft carriers remained further away from the Aegan Sea, closer to Sicilly, forcing Turkish submarines to pass the vast allied fleet of destroyers, frigates and corvettes, where they faced attacks from anti-submarine aircraft due to the fact that the conventionally powered Turkish submarines had to resurface regularly to charge their batteries. While allied attack submarines, protected by allied aircraft and surface vessels, inflicted severe casualties on the Turkish fleet, Turkish sub were also able to hit several allied ships. In the air, Turkey was also increasingly outnumbered by the allied coalition assembling it forces and assets on multiple fronts simultaneously, forcing its own air force to disperse over large swaths of terrain to cover as much of its territory as possible. Despite receiving the Russian S-400 system that was stationed close to Ankara, most of Turkeys anti-air defenses were comparatively old, leaving them less mobile and therefore allowing allied stealth and attack aircraft to take out a large fraction of those defenses with the help of decoy and jamming technology. While the low numbers of S-400s indeed inflict heavier casualties on the allied air force, including stealth aircraft, the continuous bombardment of the Turkish coastal region by allied cruise missiles, airstrikes and long range artillery lead the Allies to gradually establish air superiority.
Additional casualties were inflicted on the Turkish fleet and its coastal defenses by the deployment of the newly designed European supersonic bomber under the code-name Draco-27, often nicknamed „the Black Dragon“, which used a wide variety of bombs and missiles to lay waste on the Turkish defenses, while outrunning enemy counterfire because of its supersonic speed. The usage of the new bomber aircraft was also meant as a message against Russia, which faced a series of defeats on the Western Front. Turkey tried to compensate for its own losses by targeting fixed allied installations in Sicily and the Gulf region with air launched cruise missiles, but those were not able to achieve the desired outcome, due to being able to pierce the Italian defenses in significant numbers, while the Turkish air force in the Levant and the Gulf suffered so many losses itself, that the offensive use of the Turkish air force in the south was considered a waste of resources. At the same time, allied aircraft, artillery bombardment and missile forces pounded the Turkish forces occupying the Greek islands and Cyprus, thinning out their defenses. Due to the established air superiority, and the decimation of the Turkish surface fleet, the Allies launched several amphibious and airborne invasions to take back the Dodecanese Islands, as well as many of the eastern Cyclades Islands like Lesvos, Chios and Kos. Despite constant Turkish bombardment, the Allies managed to turn the reconquered islands into bases of operation, so that they could prepare an amphibious invasion of mainland Turkey using expeditionary transfer docks as additional support of the amphibious assault fleet.
Meanwhile, the Europeans managed to force the Turks into retreat, leading the invaders to move back towards East Thrace, leading the Allies to also prepare a counter-land-invasion of Turkey. Reason for the Turkish retreat was not only the losses in the Battle for the Mediterranean, but also the increasing pressure on all fronts. Georgia, which enjoyed a relief of pressure due to Russia being distracted in the west, also joined the allied campaign against Turkey and started to shell the Turkish border, while Armenian insurgency attacks reached a new high. In the south, Arab forces supported by the Americans, British, French, Israelis, Kurds and increasingly rogue Syrian and Iraqi forces, as well as Libyan volunteers pushed into Turkish occupied Iraqi Kurdistan and Rojava, while Turkish troops launched an invasion of Israeli occupied Lebanon in order to prevent Israeli and other allied forces from reaching the Turkish border. While Turkey faced constant bombardment from European long range artillery and western missile strikes on a daily basis, the Arab coalition also increased the pressure on Turkey by launching medium range missiles from Saudi Arabia. The limited numbers of those missiles rendered them less effective as precision strike weapons, and instead were used as weapons of terror by the Saudis. At the same time, Saudi Arabia conducted airstrikes of its own, by using its Eurofighter jets to hit targets inside Turkish occupied territory in Syria and Iraq. Turkey tried to slow down the approaching Arab, Israeli, western and Kurdish forces by providing medium range cover in form of its Leopard-2 tanks, that were used as supportive artillery in tank-dugouts. This method left the tanks often without sufficient cover though, making them susceptible to anti-tank Stinger missiles used by Israeli forces and supplied to Kurdish militias in Syria and Iraq. Meanwhile, India was convinced by the European and Arab leadership to join the war against Turkey, citing alleged Turkish support for Pakistan and Islamists in India as justification.
=== The Fall of Istanbul ===
At the same time, Turkey, which had to fight a vast allied coalition on more than four fronts, faced an increasingly precarious situation. In the west, the allied coalition of Europe, with supportive troops from Australia and New Zealand added to the allied ranks, managed to invade East Thrace once again after crossing the Evros and Maritsa rivers. Since most of Turkeys anti-air defenses were destroyed by missile and artillery strikes, while the Turkish air force was spread over multiple large fronts, Turkish ground forces were left with almost no sufficient air cover, leading to heavy casualties for the Turks. The advancing allied coalition drove a wedge between the defensive forces of Turkey in East Thrace, leading one part of the Turkish army to be trapped in a chokepoint on the peninsula of the Dardanelles strait, while further north the allied advance was slowed down by Turkish topography closer to Istanbul. Simultaneously in the south, allied forces from Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy and the US launched their amphibious invasion of the Turkish coastline, since most of the Turkish surface fleet has been decimated and Turkish positions along the coast have been constantly bombarded by allied missiles, artillery pieces and airstrikes. European airships were also once again used as bombing aircraft, in order to wipe out larger Turkish formations and installations while operating in high altitudes. Despite suffering horrendous and disproportionate casualties, the allied invasion force managed to take Bodrum, Kusadasi, Cesme, Ayvalik as the first coastal cities of Turkey. The invasion of Turkey resulted i massive protests and riots all over Europe, due to large portions of the European Turkish diaspora being loyal to Erdoğan. This resulted in violent clashes between Erdoğan supporters and opposing protesters, as well as security forces in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria. These riots also resulted in police stations, churches and synagogues being attacked, while Europe saw a significant rise in Islamistic terror attacks conducted by extremists sympathetic towards the AKP regime. This unrest forced allied nations like France and Germany to deploy parts of their military inside their own territory, while the crackdowns on these riots were seen with a certain amount of criticism around the world, since more and more reports came up about Turkish EU citizens being treated rather violently during the upheaval. Following these clashes, a new wave of right-wing extremist attacks against mosques, Turkish restaurants and other cultural centers important for the Turkish community hit Europe as well, which was exploited by Turkish propaganda. Meanwhile in the Middle East, troops from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Israel, the US and Britain, supported by Libyan volunteers, Kurdish militias and former members of the Syrian and Iraqi militaries, were able to push deeper into the Turkish occupied areas in Syria and Iraq. Deîr al-Zour was the first city to be liberated, despite heavy resistance from Turkish troops and their allied jihadist militias, closely followed by Khanaqin and Hawja in Iraq. Due to the invasion of Turkey in the West and South, the Turkish army left most of the fighting to its mercenary forces in Syria and Iraq, so that more Turkish troops could be ordered back to Turkey as reinforcements. During the retreat, the Kurdish Genocide saw a final phase of escalation, since many occupied Kurdish villages were burned down and flattened by Turkish artillery and aircraft, while countless massacres where committed against the local Kurdish civilian population, including children. Turkey merely stated it „cleansed the area of terrorists and enemy spies“ during its retreat back to the border, and denied any wrongdoing. The scale of these new massacres started to alienate more and more Kurds inside Turkey, who were rather loyal to their state throughout the war. Pro-Kurdish protests erupted once again in the southeast of Turkey, and were struck down with brute force. Civil war like clashes occurred in cities like Dyabakir, while the Kurdish population of Turkey was put under a curfew. Whoever violated this curfew became subject of arbitrary arrest and authorized lethal violents, since Erdoğan proclaimed that every Kurd who violates the curfew would be seen as a potential terrorist. Following this development, Kurdish extremists and terrorists linked to the PKK conducted new terror attacks against the Turkish policeforce and military, as well as political installations, leading the Turkish regime to increasingly deploy weapons of war inside its own territory. In order to support the Kurdish cause against Turkey, the Allies of Europe, Israel and the US intensified their weapons deliveries to Kurdish fighters in the entire Middle East, despite wariness of allied Arab nations. Since Turkey was forced to focus more on its western and southern boundaries, its allied militias and mercenaries were increasingly unable to hold off the advancing allied coalition in Syria and Iraq, leading to the liberation of Karkuk and Irbil. The Battles for Mossul and Aleppo saw only slow progress though, since jihadist forces loyal to Turkey entrenched themselves in urban area, while booby-trapping large parts of the cities, causing heavy casualties among the Allies and the local civilian population. At the same time, due to the collapse of Iran and allied advances against Pakistan, the Allies managed to secure the Arabian Sea and the Gulf to such an degree, that Indian troops could be transported safely through the Persion Gulf and the Suez Canal, in order to serve as reinforcements for the Allies at the southern flank of the Turkish front. While thousands of Indian soldiers poured into the Middle East and increased the pressure on Turkey and its proxies, the Allies in the west kept closing in to Istanbul. Inside the Turkish metropolis, protests of members and sympathizers of the more secular and Erdoğan critical CHP party erupted, who blamed Erdoğan for the war against the Allies and his failure to prevent Turkey from being invaded by the Allies. Turkish security forces, parts of the military and regime-loyalist civilians clashed with those protesters, which rapidly escalated into violent confrontations and the use of lethal force. Allied propaganda exploited this violence by characterizing it as the „Massacre of Istanbul“, while trying to distribute images of the incident among the Turkish community to steer up resistance against the regime of Erdoğan. Since most of Turkey and the Turkish diaspora showed unwavering loyalty to their leadership, these efforts had only minor success. With Russia leaving the war to a large degree, the Allies of Europe were able to free up larger portions of their military and equipment along the former Western Front, and sent them towards Turkey. Unlike the allied strategy against Russia, which planned to push the Russians out of allied territory back into its own boundaries, while seeking an Armistice, the aAllies followed a different strategy against Turkey. The Allies intended to crush the military and economic capabilities of the Erdoğan regime, while completely destroying Erdoğans power apparatus, which mimicked the way the Allies of WW2 defeated Nazi Germany. Since the objective was not the pushback, but rather the destruction of the regime, the Allies assembled more and more heavy firepower at the Turkish Front and launched a large scale bombardment of Turkeys military position and industrial strongholds, while allied aircraft increasingly targeted centers of political power inside Turkey, leading to rising numbers of civilian casualties. In East Thrace, the allied armies of Europe, Australia, the US, New Zealand and recruits from Egypt and Libya reached the outskirts of Istanbul, leading to one of the bloodiest and most devastating battles of WW3. The Battle for Istanbul raged on for almost two and a half months, with nearly 100 thousand casualties for Turkey, and almost double for the attackers. Masses of artillery pieces pounded the enemy lines on both sides, but since the Allies enjoyed aerial superiority, as well as a modernized artillery arsenal with increased firepower due to the years of fighting against Russia at the Western Front, the Turkish army increasingly lagged behind the enemy, leading to horrendous losses. Simultaneously, the allied amphibious invasion at the coastline, despite fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders, managed to secure more and more beachheads, while utilizing their advantage in the air to advance towards more and more Turkish coastal cities, including Izmir and Antalya. After the end of the third month of battle, the Turkish regime, despite knowing about Istanbul's symbolic importance, realized that clinging on the city, and East Thrace as a whole, will only lead to disproportionate casualties and a lack of manpower to defend the rest of Turkey until the vast majority of the population gets mobilized, which is why they decided to effectively abandon Istanbul. The remaining soldiers in Istanbul, as well as large parts of the civilian population kept on fighting, and were willing to martyr themselves for their country, leading to more suicidal attacks being conducted against allied targets. The Allies on the other hand responded by shelling and conducting airstrikes directly against Istanbul itself, causing the highest number of civilian casualties caused by the allied war effort in Europe during WW3. Air- and missile strikes, as well as continuous bombardment by artillery thinned out the Turkish ranks to such an degree, that the Allies were able to march into the city, where locals and soldiers alike entrenched themselves in urban terrain. The fighting inside the city lasted for another month, until only smaller pockets of resistance remained, while anti-Erdoğan forces sympathetic to the CHP joined the fighting on the allied side. The Hagia Sophia was among the historic sites captured by the Allies, who used it for the first Christian church service in centuries on Christmas Day 2029. This was meant as an humiliation of the enemy and propaganda material for the Allies, while resulting in a massive outcry in the Muslim community worldwide. As a result of this, Erdoğan organized the public execution of prisoners from allied countries in Ankara, many of which were civilians taken hostage before the war, in the pretext of alleged terrorism, in order to use them as leverage against European countries and the US. While allied nations were outraged by these acts, terror attacks conducted by Erdoğan-loyalists and Turkish sympathizers in Europe reached a all-time high, leading to the deaths of more than 2 thousand civilians in Europe in 2029 alone.
== 2030 ==
=== Operation "Wolf Slayer": Turkey faces defeat ===
After the fall of Istanbul and East Thrace, the Allies managed to push deeper into Turkey on all fronts, leading to unprecedented carnage for both sides. Turkish forces destroyed all bridges and tunnels connecting Istanbul with the eastern part of the Marmara region, while allied bombing raids continued to devastate Turkish military positions and industrial targets. In order to avoid further casualties, the Turkish army started to relocate closer to Turkeys biggest cities, so that the densely populated areas would discourage the Allies from targeting them directly, out of fear to hit civilians. In Turkey's Aegan region, the invading allied forces from Greece, France, Egypt, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the UK, the US, Croatia and Germany, despite suffering horrendous casualties, managed to close in to the outskirts of Izmir, which became the target of concentrated aerial and missile bombardment. Large parts of the Turkish population have been mobilized at this point, although most of the civilians who joined the ranks of the Turkish military were forming militia like forces, while having little to no training. The guidance of Turkeys military was also plagued with strategic issues, since many competent generals have been removed during Erdoğans purge of political enemies, leaving Turkeys military with less capable leaders on the battlefield. Since the majority of the population was hostile to the Allies, and many larger cities have been turned into fortresses by the Turkish army, the Allies followed a strategy similar to their Iran campaign: circumventing highly populated cities in order to push deeper into the country, while besieging larger concentration of Turkish forces inside these metropolises. Çanakkale, Marmaris, Kas, Alanya and Selcuk fell into allied hands, while in the Levant, allied troops from the GCC, Egypt, France, the US, France, the UK, Israel, India and volunteers from Libya finally managed to take out jihadist militias loyal to Turkey in Aleppo and Mossul, allowing them to advance further north into Turkish occupied territory. Turkey, because of the increasing pressure on all fronts, was forced to retreat out of Lebanon, where the Turkish army fought against Israeli forces. Due to the increasingly precarious situation, the regime of Erdoğan decided to pursue nuclear weapons of its own making, in order to retaliate against the Allies in a more discouraging and destructive way. Turkey was able to assemble larger quantities of radioactive byproducts from its nuclear power plants due to deals it made in secret with Russia. Turkish scientists tried to enrich these substances, while using technological know-how it gained from the Allies, Russia, North Korea and Iran to develop delivery systems for any kind of nuclear weapons it may be able to produce. Since it lacked both in time and resources, the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decided to produce crude nuclear weapons, which were closer to „dirty bombs“ rather than sophisticated nuclear bombs and warheads. Intelligence gathered by Israeli and American agents about this development heavily concerned the Allies, and lead them to pursue a more offensive and aggressive approach against Turkey. Due to the widespread political and military support of the Turkish population for the regime, the Allies increasingly authorized more and more cities as allowed targets for aerial and artillery bombardment, since the regime-loyal population was categorized as „hostile forces“, similar to how they categorized the Turkish military. Since Çanakkale and Istanbul were under allied control, more allied naval forces were able to cross into the Sea of Marmara, after clearing the straits from sea mines. With this additional forces available, the Allies along Turkeys western aegan coast advanced further north, while the allied air force conducted intensified airstrikes against the Turkish defenders on the other side of the Dardanelles, so that allied forces could cross the Dardanelles strait to reach Turkish mainland. In the North, Armenian insurgents continued their guerilla warfare against Turkish and Azeri forces, which still lead to massacres against the Armenian civilian population, while Georgian artillery pieces and the air force conducted attacks against Turkish positions in the Caucasus mountains as well. In Cyprus, where Turkey increasingly struggled to send enough troops and resources to back its troops and the forces of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), due to allied air superiority and the losses Turkey suffered in the Mediterranean. The protracted fighting in the urban and hilly terrain of the small island tied down a significant amount of Turkish troops, therefore diminishing Turkeys available forces on other fronts, while the allied coalition of Cyprus, Greece, the UK, Egypt, the US, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal enjoyed increasing numerical superiority. The Allies delivered more and more material to the Greek cypriots, while Turkish positions in the occupied territory became the target of relentless bombing raids and missile strikes. Since simultaneously the allied expeditionary forces along the Turkish coastline advanced towards Mersin, despite suffering heavy casualties on a daily basis. In the Middle East, after the Fall of both Aleppo and Mossul, which marked the liberation of most previously Kurdish inhabited areas of Syria and Iraq, the allied Arab, western, Kurdish, Indian and Israeli coalition advanced towards Duhok and Quamischli, while additionally invading Turkish territory after the nonetheless costly Battle of Idlib. Forces from Israel, the UK, the US, France, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Kurdish militias like the YPG and SDF attacked Reyhanli, while additional air, artillery and missile attacks were conducted on Samandag and Hatay. Turkish resistance was fierce, and the increasing number of provisional forces built up by civilians caused staggering casualties among the civilian population of Turkey. Especially the Saudi lead Arab coalition of the GCC and Egypt showed lacking regard of civilian life during their operations against Turkey, including the deliberate bombardment of civilian areas of almost no military strategic value, which was exploited by revisionist propaganda. Meanwhile, allied forces occupying larger parts of Iran were deployed to the Iranian-Turkish border, where they were joined by Kurdish forces that previously rebelled against the Iranian mullah regime. From there, the Allies opened yet another front against Turkey, leading to the first sortie raids against Hakkâri and Dogubayazit, while in the case of the latter, Armenian forces and insurgents joined the operation. Despite having mobilized large parts of its civilian population, the Turkish military was still overstretched and thinned out due to the many fronts it had to cover, leading to more and more allied breakthroughs into Turkish territory. As a result, Turkey had to abandon its Cyprus campaign, in order to free up more troops to cover all fronts, leading to the destruction of the remaining Turkish forces in Greek Cyprus and the TRNC, since these soldiers refused to surrender or to get imprisoned. Therefore, Cyprus was reunited for the first time in decades, although Turkey accused the Allies of slaughtering and displacing Turkish cypriots, something for which there are no proofs to this day. Hatay and Kilis fell into allied hands, while Cizre and Hakkari soon followed after.
=== The Incirlik Crisis: Turkey falls ===
With more and more Turkish cities either being destroyed or falling into allied hands, Turkish dictator Recep Erdoğan saw himself forced to pursue even more radical means to somehow turn the tide of this war. Allied troops from Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand where advancing in the west, Israeli, Arab, Kurdish and Indian forces pushed into the south of Turkey and Armenian insurgents supported by Georgia harassed Turkish forces in the north, while the entire country at this point became the target of intense artillery bombardment, missile strikes and bombing raids. The lead to a staggering number of Turkish casualties, both military and civilian, while more and more Turkish cities were devastated by allied bombing campaigns. Because of this, the regime of Recep Erdoğan pressured its scientific community to weaponize its nuclear capabilities as fast as possible. Turkeys attempt of creating nuclear weapons of its own making proved to be a dead-end, with Turkey lacking in sufficient fissile material to create a valuable weapon, especially since they faced shortages in nuclear materials due to Russia's cooperation in nuclear technology development dwindling down after its defeat in the west. As a result, Erdoğans regime decided to follow a different, more radical approach, and launched an attack against the isolated and besieged American NATO base of Incirlik, which hosted various US nuclear weapons. While Turkish forces broke through the multiple rows of defensive fences, Turkish artillery and aircraft pounded the fortified structures of the base, allowing its forces to infiltrate the compound. While the American soldiers still present tired to hold the enemy off as long as possible, the personnel inside base used this time to enter the disarmament codes into the B61 gravity bombs, rendering them useless as functional devices. However, this escalation panicked the Allies and raised concerns about a serious nuclear armament of Turkey, since it could still use the fissile matter inside the bombs. Reverse engineering new devices around the fissile matter was seen as unlikely, but not impossible, since the full extent of the Revisionist Powers exchange of nuclear know-how with Turkey was unclear, although there was still the possibility that Turkey could simply used the fissile matter of the American weapons to create dirty bombs, potentially threatening the lifes of millions of people as a consequence. While the supreme allied command held an emergency meeting with representatives from the US, France, the UK and other allied nations, the Turkish army managed to conquer the base and obtain the weapons stored within the facility, but not without killing every American inside. Erdoğan and millions of his followers cheered about this success, and proclaimed that Turkey would now be a nuclear power and impossible to defeat for the Allies. While the regime celebrated its conquest, the allied invasion of Turkey continued, despite heavy resistance of Turkeys large population. In the South and Southeast, allied forces kept advancing into Turkeys Kurdish inhabited regions, leading allied troops, spearheaded by Kurdish militias and insurgents from Syria, Iraq and Iran, to reach the outskirts of the largest cities of this area, like Gaziantep, Dyabakir, Sanliurfa and Van. Kurdish separatists and rebels inside Turkey, supported by PKK members and sympathizers, as well as the so called Freedom Falcons Kurdistan, joined in on the allied offensive, leading to brutal fighting between Turkish forces and regime followers with the Kurdish population of Turkey. The regime of Erdoğan saw this fraternization of Kurds with the Allies as proof that the majority of Turkeys Kurds would be treasonous, and authorized „appropriate measures“ of his forces to deal with the insurgency. Turkish artillery started to shell the largest Kurdish population centers inside Turkey, despite the Allies not having conquered many of them yet. The Turkish army and civilians loyal to the regime swept the Kurdish regions of Turkey officially to neutralize terrorists and separatists. As a result though, the Turkish forces basically repeated the same practices they used in Syria and Iraq during the Kurdish Genocide, leading to countless massacres being conducted against Turkeys own Kurdish population, while various villages were burned to the ground. These atrocities helped to turn public opinion of the Turkish-Kurdish population, as well as the international community against the Turkish regime of Erdoğan, which lead to more and more countries openly supporting independence for the kurds, including shipments of weapons and resources to Kurdish fighters. In the West, the allied coalition of Europe, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada managed to advance to Bolu, Karabük and Bursa, although the expeditionary forces in the southwest of Turkey were bogged down in attritional warfare around Manisa, Denizli and Karaman. With the majority of Turkeys fleet being destroyed, and Russia becoming neutral, allied forces from Europe managed to perform a series of new amphibious and airborne invasion along Turkeys Black Sea coast, leading several beachheads and coastal cities to fall into allied hands, like Zonguldak, Samsun, Ünye, Ordu and Trabzon. In the North, the Turkish army was forced to retreat out of Armenia, in order to free up more forces for the defense of the homeland, leaving only Azeri troops and Turkish mercenaries from Syria and Libya to continue the occupation. A request by Georgia to station allied troops in its territory to assist in the Caucasus campaign was rejected by the AUF at the same time, since staying out of Georgia was part of the peace negotiations between the Allies and Russia following the Armistice of Minsk. In order to circumvent these agreed on conditions, allied troops from India, the US and European nations were transported to partially occupied Iran, so that they can support Armenian rebels and Georgia by advancing into the Caucasus through northern Iran, risking that Azerbaijan might attack the Allies in support of Turkey. The Allies sent an ultimatum to Turkey after the taking of the Incirlik base, which stated that Turkey shall hand over the nuclear weapons it obtained in Incirlik and force Erdoğan and his regime out of office, or otherwise the Allies would make no more peace-negotiation offers until the unconditional surrender of Turkey. Erdoğan and his followers rejected the ultimatum and declared that Turkey will fight no matter what, even if it has to martyr itself. Turkey also stated that it has now the power to destroy every capital in Europe and lead „Allahs army“ to victory over the West, Israel and all „infidels“ who oppose Turkeys greatness. Additionally, Erdoğan responded to the ultimatum y once again executing allied civilians in public, as well as prisoners taken by the Turkish army. Because of the rejected ultimatum, and the realistic threat of a nuclear armed Turkey, the Allies decided to end the war once and for all by authorizing nuclear strikes on their former NATO partner. After a sudden call for retreat of allied forces in the southwest of Turkey, allied submarines from France and the UK launched nuclear tipped missiles at Incirlik, leading to the almost complete anhililation of the city, and hundreds of thousands of casualties immediately, both among the Turkish military and civilian population. The nuclear strike shocked not only the Erdoğan regime, but also the entire region, raising concerns about a potential future nuclear arms race in the Middle East. The regime of Erdoğan was caught off guard by the attack, since it never expected the Allies to actually resort to nuclear weapons use as a first strike option. Due to the allied air superiority and advantage in long range missile and artillery attacks, the Turks were unable to transport the heavy US weapons out of Incirlik yet, meaning all devices were destroyed in the nuclear strike. Following the destruction of Incirlik, the Allies once again made an ultimatum, which stated that Turkey should unconditionally surrender, or further nuclear strikes might happen against other Turkish cities, naming Ankara as one specific example. After the fall of Bolu, allied troops closed in to the Turkish capital, which was now in range of even medium ranged allied artillery and missile systems, leading Erdoğan to call for his people to take to the streets in response. The strategy behind this was that Erdoğan intended to use the civilian population as a human shield to prevent further allied air, missile and artillery strikes, while the Russian S-400 systems provided protection against allied aircraft. The nuclear strike still created rifts inside the Turkish regime and military leadership. The few remaining oppositional forces, as well as various well known Turkish military leaders reached out to Erdoğan and the AKP, in order to convince them that too many Turkish lifes were at risk, and that the war should be stopped. In several cities where oppositional parties still had higher support, especially among the younger generations, as well as Turkish minorities, Turkish citizens started to riot against the regime, while on the other hands tens of thousands of citizens indeed took to the streets in loyalty to their leader. The result were civil-war like clashes and rising civilian casualties stemming from fighting between anti-, and pro-Erdoğan citizens. When the allied armies reached the outskirts of Ankara, thousands of civilians intermingled with the Turkish military and took up arms to fight against the enemy, while burning allied flags, engaging in mass-prayers and hailing their leader. Allied long range artillery started to shell Turkish positions around Ankara, in order to take out the S-400s, similar to how they neutralized Russian air-defenses at the Western Front. The bombardment was indeed enough to hit and destroy the Russian made anti-air defenses, which allowed allied attack helicopters and fighter jets to perform precision strikes against the Turkish military inside Ankara, while heavily bombarding the presidential palace and the Turkish parliament. The regime still rejected the ultimatum though, and despite their initial declaration, the Allies refrained from conducting new nuclear strikes. Instead, they decided to perform a strategic bombing campaign of Ankara, in order to force the resistance into submission. This strategy was later on widely seen as controversial, since it resulted in unprecedented civilian casualties, but allied leaders later justified it by declaring that the majority of the Turkish population was actively supporting the regime on the ground, and was therefore seen an enemy forces, not civilians, which is a highly disputed position to this day. The bombing lead to the destruction of most of the city, while thousands of civilians and military members were killed in the process. Since most of the defending forces were destroyed, the Allies managed to march into the city, where they engaged in brutal urban warfare, similar to the Battle of Berlin. Erdoğan, who fled into bunkers during the initial bombing once again rejected calls of his subordinates and military advisors to surrender for good, and instead called for his people to fight to the last man, woman or child, since they were all in his eyes willing to become martyrs. Erdoğan himself and his closest associates tried to flee the capital through armored convoys, but since Turkish defenses were neutralized, allied attack helicopters and fighter aircraft were able to follow the convoy and ambush it. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the core of the AKP died in the flames of their destroyed vehicles, while their charred bodies were put on display by allied Kurdish and ethnic Armenian forces, although claims of them actually being the remains of Erdoğan is disputed. With Ankara falling into chaos and destruction, and allied forces taking important cities in all directions, the remainder of the Turkish military saw no other chance for securing Turkeys survival then to surrender to the Allies.
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