NATO in the Turkish Republic

Even early on in the First World War the members of the Entente were making plans on how to carve up the Ottoman Empire. As "the sick man of Europe" the Ottomans' demise was almost certain, and France, Britain and Russia - as well as more minor powers such as Greece and Bulgaria - all had designs on their territory.

Sure enough the Ottomans fell, and as they did so the masses of Turks in Anatolia and Thrace rose up against their weak Emperor and established a new republic, a Turkish republic. The leaders of this new state tried to negotiate with the Entente in order to secure their country as much territory as possible. Unfortunately their revolution had come too late to make a huge difference, and their negotiating position was weak. Fortunately for them, Britain saw a chance at making a new ally. Whilst Greece made demands for all of European Turkey as well as much of Turkey's Aegean coastline and France made plans to annex much of Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast, Britain's representatives argued for a more conservative and Turk-friendly plan.

The resulting Turkish Republic was smaller than the Turks would have liked, but they were still strong, and, following the communist revolution in Russia and the USSR's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, vital to NATO's anti-USSR efforts, and provided a bulwark against Soviet expansion in to the Mediterranean.

Turkey joined NATO in 1948, and immediately Soviet influence in Europe was curbed as a potential communist puppet had dedicated itself to democracy and capitalism.

For the duration of the Cold War Turkey's foreign policy was to protect itself against the USSR by making it as vital for the protection of "the West" as possible. As a result numerous military installation were handed over to joint NATO forces, including three major docks and two major air bases. From these bases NATO could keep surveillance on communist military movements in Southern Europe and in Central Asia, and in return Turkey was constantly protected by a large contingent of primarily US interceptor aircraft, and there was rarely a time when a British or French aircraft carrier wasn't in port with full escort.

So, all in all, Turkey did rather well for itself.

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This map seems to confuse a lot of people, so I'd like to just state clearly that this is not a map of the real world, but of an alternate timeline where Turkey is smaller. I would also like to state that I did not make this map as an attack on Turkey or out of desire for Turkey to be smaller or weaker. I am generally indifferent towards Turkey as a nationstate - I am generally indifferent towards most nationstates - and I do *not* hate Turkey.