I've got a question: It's less an alternate history question and more of a general history question: Why did Russia seize so much of Kars and Ardahan Oblasts (or regions) in its 1877-1878 war against the Turks? If you will look at this map (using Google Translate if you don't actually speak Russian), you will see that some of the territories near Turkey and the Black Sea, in what used to be Kars and Ardahan Oblasts, were a part of Russia in 1897 (indeed, in the 1878-1918 time period) in spite of them having a combined (Turkish + Kurdish) majority population:
datatowel.in.ua
It just seems rather stupid to piss off the Ottomans like that unless you're planning to eventually dismember them anyway later on, you know? I could understand taking Batumi/Adjara because it was Georgian-majority, even if also Muslim-majority, but some of Russia's territorial gains in the Caucasus in 1877-1878 appear to have been ill-warranted and only likely to generate future Ottoman hostility towards Russia.
What do you think, @raharris1973 @Ricardolindo @stevep @Skallagrim @Circle of Willis?
Interestingly enough, during the negotiations for the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in early 1918, the Ottomans were very insistent upon a reversal of the 1877-1878 territorial settlement in the Caucasus. There's even a political cartoon about this topic:
Мови та релігії у повітах Російської імперії
Інтерактивна карта рідних мов та віросповідань населення повітів Російської імперії за переписом 1897 року.
datatowel.in.ua
It just seems rather stupid to piss off the Ottomans like that unless you're planning to eventually dismember them anyway later on, you know? I could understand taking Batumi/Adjara because it was Georgian-majority, even if also Muslim-majority, but some of Russia's territorial gains in the Caucasus in 1877-1878 appear to have been ill-warranted and only likely to generate future Ottoman hostility towards Russia.
What do you think, @raharris1973 @Ricardolindo @stevep @Skallagrim @Circle of Willis?
Interestingly enough, during the negotiations for the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in early 1918, the Ottomans were very insistent upon a reversal of the 1877-1878 territorial settlement in the Caucasus. There's even a political cartoon about this topic: