OTT/GRE - Merge Mugla and Smyrna together - to better represent the Aidin Vilayet, and cleanup Megali claims

[Rotmurk]

Quick questions HOI4 version: 1.10.3 Kaiserreich version: 0.16

Describe the change you would like:

The in-game state of Mugla or the Sanjak of Menteşe should be merged back with the rest of the Vilayet of Aidin which covers the in-game state of Smyrna/İzmir, except for parts of the Sanjak of Denizli and the Sanjak of Sarukhan (Magnesia) it appears which look to be part of Afyon in-game

Explain the reasoning behind this change:

This should be done based on historical and strategic grounds, as well as to reduce the number of states in-game.

The current setup in Asia Minor mirrors the Treaty of Sevres OTL too closely and thus appears to be linked directly with the post-WWI Megali claims OTL. Without something like the Paris Peace Conference, the interference of Great Powers on Greece’s claims, and no contemporary Italian presence in the area, it just doesn’t make sense KRTL.

Currently in-game if Greece takes “The Megali Question” focus and chooses during ’The Extent of Greek Claims’ event and selects the option to “Resurrect the Megali Idea!” it does not get a claim on Mugla, however if Greece decides to start another war with the Ottoman Empire or Turkey following the initial Megali War or after intervening on behalf of Cyprus, they can get a claim on Mugla via the “Fate of the Aegean Coast “ event. It doesn’t make sense for Greece not to simply annex this area as well during the initial war especially since they’ll annex the Dodecanese and Smyrna.

The Greek government did have claims on this area both just prior to WWI and during the Paris Peace Conference OTL. See one example below a map of Greece’s initial claims to the Asia Minor Aegean Littoral at the Paris Peace Conference from Venizelos’s Greece Before The Peace Congress Of 1919: A Memorandum Dealing With The Rights Of Greece; Appendix no. 5:

This map shows that initially at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference OTL except for the Sanjak of Denizli, Greece claimed all of the Aidin Vilayet. On a marginally related note the Sanjak of Bigha also wasn’t claimed at least here, due to the sensitive nature of the straits in post war negotiations OTL.

The primary reason Greece didn’t occupy this part of the Aidin Vilayet OTL, and later dropped their claim on this area, was due to overlapping claims with Italy’s rather extensive colonial territorial ambitions in this area centered around Adalia/Antalya and elsewhere, the fact that Italy militarily occupied this area in May of 1919, and the demarcation of Greek and Italian zones in Asian minor at the Meander River was further solidified by the in July 1919 by the Venizelos–Tittoni agreement where the two governments reached at least a temporary understanding regarding this as well as the future status Northern Epirus, Vlorë, the Italian Mandate in Albania, and the of the Dodecanese. Italy had occupied the nearby Dodecanese except for Castellorizo since the end of the Italian-Turkish war in 1912. Naturally Italian claims aren’t an issue for an expansionist Greece KRTL.

Controlling the Sanjak of Menteşe not only would better secure control of the Aegean for a Megali Greece, it would also better protect the Dodecanese, Castellorizo in particular from possible Turkish/Ottoman revanchism in the future. The strait crossings in-game to Rhodes and Kos clearly illustrate the military risk.

The Sanjak of Menteşe was somewhere around 10% to 20% Greek just prior to WWI, depending on the different Ottoman and Greek sources, or had a population of at least roughly 20,000 Greeks. Kayaköy or Livissi, a town of approximately Greeks 6,000 in 1918 was located in this area, is still a ghost town to this day OTL.

Additional context or comments:

[Rylock]

No. Mugla is left out of the Megali claims on purpose. Thanks for the suggestion, even so.