Ottoman State

Flag of Ottoman State

The **Ottoman State**, officially the **Sublime Ottoman Porte**, is a small empire and a caliphate (Caliphate title barely recognized) in Southern Europe and the Middle East. It is a Unitary Constitutional Monarchy having kept its government despite the horrific damage done to the image of the Sultanate after the Arab Revolution. It is still ruled by the Osmanoğlu Family as most in the Ottoman State hold the Grand Vizier responsible and not the Sultan. The Ottoman State lost the vast majority of its land during the Arab Revolution but its core is doing quite well for itself being very industrialized compared to the rest of the Middle East. The Ottoman State is the oldest continuing regime in the Middle East and has retained the title of Caliphate since 1517. While the Caliph title is still recognized it is not commonly followed. The Ottoman State did not participate in the Second Weltkrieg but it still cut off the Russians from accessing the Bosphorus Straits and conducted other acts as it was clearly supportive to the Reichspakt and Entente. However, recent events have made the Ottoman State the odd one out when it comes to the wider Kalterkrieg as the presence of a German-Aligned Egypt has forced the Ottomans into the arms of Canada and the rest of the Entente. With Bulgaria also having amnesty for the Ottoman Seizure of Thrace it is clear where the Ottomans loyalty will have to lie.

## History

In 1936 the Ottoman Empire was still struggling with the damages done during the First Weltkrieg, Memories of the Arab Revolt made the people of the south rebellious hoping to repeat the rebellion and gain independence. And with Iran and Egypt trying to vie for power against Ottoman State it was very clear that the unstable balance in the Middle East was going to break eventually. The Ottomans tried to fix this with more centralization of the state and also trying to turkify the entire nation. This backfired in 1939 with the rebellion of the Iraqis and Syrians. Soon, this rebellion was joined by almost every single Arabic state in the entire world hoping to finally break the power of the Ottomans and get to decide their foreign policies for themselves. With all of these fronts and all of these rebellions, the Ottoman Army was completely overwhelmed and was encircled in every major city in the area. And just like in the First Balkan War the Ottomans where rapidly defeated and there was no longer a miracle at the city of Maraş to save the state. Only about a month before the break out of the Second Weltkrieg the Ottomans were forced to surrender and a treaty was to be signed in Cairo. The Treaty of Cairo stripped the Ottoman State of all non-turkic states and also gave Cyprus as a consolation prize to Greece. However the Ottomans were allowed to keep the land they got as part of the negotiations of the Treaty of Bucharest as the Ottomans oversaw the treaty to make sure that neither power of the Balkans became more powerful than the others. And the Ottomans where allowed to keep the Caliph title; however, it would basically become meaningless. Especially after secularization efforts began in Egypt to improve the Arab world to catch up to Turkey. When the Second Weltkrieg began the Ottomans watched with nervous eyes and when the Russians attacked Georgia and Azerbaijan the Ottomans opened up their borders to take in the governments in Exile along with refugees. Surprisingly a lot of Armenians who feared Russian policies fled to the Ottoman State despite the bad blood between the two. When Russia demanded the Ottomans opened up the Dardanelles to the Russian fleet the Ottomans demanded an outrageous sum for it and withdrawal from the Caucasus. The Russians of course said no but with most of their forces on the German lines and with a potential for a Jihad getting launched in Central Asia should they declare war they decided to back down before putting themselves in a very bad situation. This kind of stuff would continue with the Third Internationale and a similar situation played out. There was also the Ottoman intervention in the Suez crisis where the Entente tried to use the Suez to reinforce India but were Blocked by Egypt. The Ottomans where called in by the Entente but a successful mediation was made. With the war ending the Turks are in a bit of a pickle with the Reichkspakt demanding and alliance for the previous Central Powers. But this would require co-operation with Egypt. The Entente also wants an alliance promising an opportunity to strike at Egypt. But this would come at the cost of betraying its allies. The Current government leans towards the Entente but a permanent side has not yet been chosen.

## Military

The Ottoman Military is still outdated compared to the European powers but compared to the Middle East it is a very professional and Technologically advanced force. Its Army has been reformed in the German model using shock troopers to break enemy lines and if stalemate occurs to pummel your enemy with massive artillery barrages. Only Egypt could rival the Turks in this regard when it comes to the middle east. The Turkic navy is also out of date but still capable of defending the Dardanelles straights. But it isn't able to do much past that. Turkey holds the largest air force in the middle east and it is large enough to carry out operations. It is mostly fighters however.