Chapter 103: The Fall of the Crescent Banner (I)

Istanbul, Republic of Turkey

The capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ottoman Turkish Empire, it sits at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, at the confluence of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Ever since Constantine the Great, the late Roman Empire, established Constantinople as its capital, the city has become a symbol of empire, hegemony, majesty and glory, attracting the fascination of countless careerists in the Western world. In the thousands of years that followed, both God and Allah's followers fought countless wars for this great city, almost shedding their last drop of blood.

The Ottoman Turks, who were originally just a remote and backward Turkic tribe, really inherited the mantle of the Eastern Roman Empire because of the capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Although the Turkish Empire gradually decayed and declined, and its territory shrank significantly, as long as they still controlled this great city and the main strait connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, they still had the ability to dominate the international stage.

Nearly five centuries later, another equally brutal offensive and defensive battle befell the famous city once known as Constantinople.

However, compared with the offensive and defensive battle of Constantinople in 1453, which ended the Byzantine state, this time the offensive and defensive camps subtly switched positions with each other...... The only thing that is the same is that the defenders are all the same weak, isolated, and bleak in the future.

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-- As lifelong enemies who fought 11 Russian-Turkish wars and fought bloody battles for 300 years, the hatred between Turkey and Russia can be described as unforgettable, higher than the sky and deeper than the sea. Because Turkey is located at the crossroads of the Eurasian continent and guards key strategic routes. So at the beginning of World War II, envoys flocked to the country, hoping to shake the neutrality of the young republic with all kinds of intrigues.

However, despite its long-standing hatred for Russia, the Republic of Turkey also did not believe that "the enemy of the enemy is the friend", and it was the hatred of Russia that led to the collapse of the vast empire and the fall of the Ottoman crown in the last world war...... If not for the great hero Mustafa. Kemal. Ataturk, at the most critical juncture, stood up to turn the tide, then according to the humiliating Treaty of Sèvres, the Turks would probably have to say goodbye to the Aegean Sea and Istanbul henceforth, and could only survive in the most barren and desolate corner of the northern Anatolian plateau, and could not even keep what little territory they have now.

In view of the above painful lessons, the Republic of Turkey was very conservative, if not cowardly, in its strategy during World War II, and had no ambition to restore the territory of its former empire, and only signed trade agreements with the two warring parties in exchange for their recognition of their neutrality. Throughout the war, Turkey exported ore and other resources to Germany and Britain at the same time, exchanged weapons to defend itself, and sought various benefits, such as asking Germany to help Turkey build roads and railways, and asking Britain to help Turkey build airports and ports.

Relying on such a policy of wall-to-wall grass, the Republic of Turkey used its own chromite and copper ore to exchange some weapons from abroad and formed an army of 800,000 people, but it was basically light infantry, and its firepower and combat effectiveness were similar to those of the Beiyang Army during the Republic of China - according to the British diplomat's description of the Turkish army at the time: "...... They do not have any of the modern weapons that have proved decisive since May 1940. The Air Force is also extremely backward and pitifully vulnerable. They have neither tanks nor armoured vehicles, nor munitions factories to manufacture and supply weapons, nor do they have trained personnel and officers to use them. They hardly had any anti-aircraft guns or anti-tank guns. Their alarm system is also very backward and knows nothing about radar. They also lack the military literacy, including the ability to accept all these modern developments......"

There is no way, Turkey, the title of "sick man of West Asia", is not called in vain. Although you are in the Eastern Mediterranean, you are almost on your doorstep watching the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. However, due to religious factors, the Turks were even less receptive to modern industry and science than their contemporaries the Japanese and Chinese. Any minimal level of technological introduction and reform would have to be carefully considered to be consistent with the teachings of more than a thousand years ago, and then spark a great national debate or even bloodshed. For example, a technique as basic as printing was banned in Turkey until the 19th century. Toilet paper, on the other hand, was theoretically banned until the 21st century (because workers had to wipe their buttocks with their hands, the halal food produced must have exceeded the germ standard and was unhygienic). No matter how bad China was at the end of the Qing Dynasty, it already had its own steel mills, shipyards, textile mills, and self-built railways. At the same time, Ottoman Turkey was a more purely agricultural country than the Qing Dynasty, and even flour, sugar and cloth were basically imported, and the railroad built with the help of the Germans was also inexplicably broken......

Such an empire that rushes to the streets is obviously not able to get along in the Western world, where the great powers are vying for hegemony. In World War I, the Ottoman Turkish Empire could still rely on its vast territory and huge size, as well as the arms provided by Germany, to deal with the third-rate miscellaneous armies of the British colonies (mainly Indians). By the time of World War II, the territory of the Republic of Turkey was only 800,000 square kilometers, and the population was less than 20 million.

Compared with the European powers, the Republic of Turkey is not only inferior in industry, but also miserable in navy and air force, and the army is also unable to cope with a mechanized war, and even the population is only half that of France and a quarter of that of Germany (at this time, Turkey has not yet fully begun the population explosion, and in the feudal era, its own population has remained at about 10 million for a long time), even if you want to fight for the head, you can't fight at all.

According to the international rankings at that time, the military strength of the Republic of Turkey was even lower than that of Belgium, Portugal and Greece!

Looking at such a bad deck of cards in his hand, Mustafa, who was the president of Turkey at the time. Ismail. Naturally, His Excellency Inonu did not have the courage to rashly enter the ring of the world war, and he swayed from side to side until two months before the fall of Nazi Germany, and then reluctantly declared war on Germany verbally.

Later, when the British rallied allies throughout Europe against the Soviet Bolsheviks, the Republic of Turkey also strictly maintained neutrality, refused to allow the entry of the American and British allies, and did not dare to invite disaster to itself...... But the problem is that in this cruel world of the jungle, it's not that you can shrink your head and not be beaten. What's more, with the centuries-old traditional hatred between Russia and Turkey, there is no need for any reason to start a fight!

As a result, with the successive victories of the Soviet Red Army on the European continent, the fate of the Republic of Turkey became increasingly bleak.

When the 600,000 Eastern European allied troops of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Red Greece were assembled on the Thracian plain (Spartacus's hometown) on the banks of the Maricha River, and the other 600,000 Soviet troops were stationed in Georgia and Armenia, the Turks woke up like a dream, hurriedly sent more troops to their European territories, deployed heavy groups in the border town of Edir, confronted the enemy on the opposite side, and at the same time issued an order for war mobilization at home, urgently expanded the army, and asked for help from the American and British troops still stationed in the Middle East at this time…… However, all these preparations are already too late!

In the face of the Russians who have swept the whole of Europe, the only little money in the Republic of Turkey really can't bear it for even a week!

And the U.S. and British armies, which had long been unable to protect themselves, could not provide any substantive military assistance to the Turks at this juncture.

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After the official outbreak of the war, the Soviet Union still used the atomic bomb to open the way, sending huge strategic bomber groups from Georgia and Armenia to break through the almost non-existent air defense line of the Turks, and dropped 20 atomic bombs on the Turkish capital Ankara, as well as major cities such as Bursa, Antalya, Eskişehir and Konia, almost bombing the hinterland of the Anatolian plateau in Turkey. By the way, the entire central government of the Republic of Turkey was blown up to the sky - at this time, even the European and American powers did not know how to fight a nuclear war, and could only slowly grope for it in the war, and Turkey, as a backward country, could not even know how to dig an underground bunker headquarters to prevent nuclear bombs.

At the same time, the Soviet Black Sea Fleet also made a big move, directly along the Turkish ports on the southern shore of the Black Sea, one by one, and soon swept away the Turkish naval fleet remaining in the Black Sea, and the remnants of the ships had to flee to the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea to avoid the pursuit of the Soviet fleet.

Next, the Kurds entrenched in the southwestern interior of Turkey, also holding the weapons that the Soviets had been aiding in the previous months, openly raised the flag and rebelled, attacked the Turkish army and police everywhere from behind, and announced that they would establish their own "Republic of Kurdistan"!

-- Attacking from both sides, attacking by sea and land, bombing the top, creating chaos inside, and decapitation tactics...... With such a set of deadly compound punches, even Nazi Germany, which is desperate for military force, is afraid that it will be half of its body in an instant, not to mention Turkey, which is known as the "sick man of West Asia"?

Of course, just 24 hours after the start of the war, the Soviet-led Eastern European coalition broke through the Turkish border town and held the border of Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria, formerly known as Adrianople, in Edirne, crushing the 200,000 Turkish troops stationed there. At the same time, Soviet marines landed in Trabzon on the southern shore of the Black Sea, and together with the army, broke through the Turkish Caucasian defense line from behind.

At this time, the Turkish central government and military command structure had been wiped out in the nuclear explosion, and the troops in various places could neither receive orders, nor reinforcements, or even receive supplies, and they all relied on spontaneous combat, and the troops were at an absolute disadvantage, so it was naturally a rout followed by the next.

Thus, on the third day of the war, the tank units of the Soviet Red Army had appeared on the outskirts of Istanbul, causing great panic among the citizens of the city and a massive wave of refugees...... (To be continued.) )