Iron Storm: History of the world from 1903-2024

Chapter 3: The Great war

"General Malik how are the defenses coming together?" Layla said standing in the war room, officers scattered aroumd a map table trying to coordinate offensives against the Turkish army, General Malik handed Layla a file containing the recent reports, more defeats as the Turkish army continues pushing closer to Mosul, the British have launched an offensive in the south in an attempt to take Basra and a supply point to funnel in troops. "Your majesty it's not looking good, I fear if General Ahmad reaches Mosul the kingdom may fall, i suggest we fall back to our mountain fortresses from the independence war, we can continue as a guerrilla campaign." Layla was furious "no I will not leave my people, tell General Karim and the northern army to dig in defenses in the north, deploy the artillery north, we will hold Mosul" Layla said slamming her fist on the table.

A few days after the Turkish invasion Phoenicia joined Mesopotamia's side, this took pressure off the northern front as General Ahmad had to pull forces to deal with the new front, allowing General Karim to lead a counteroffensive which saw Mesopotamia regain control of their territories and allowed them to dig in to the mountains, the Kurdish forces were able to launch raids against ottoman supply lines.
By early 1915, Turkish gains in the north had been reclaimed and a Bulgarian force had launched a naval offensive north of Ankara severely threatening the CHP, Bosnograd had also advanced along the Aegean coast, Turkish forces were on the brink, At the Battle of Kayseri, General Ahmad would be defeated by a combined Phoenician and Mesopotamian force and after receiving no word from Ankara officially surrendered his army, the ottomans had been defeated meaning the Mesopotamian forces could push south and knock the British out of Basra.

Prince Elias, his daughter and the royal guard had taken shelter in Baghdad far from the northern front, unfortunately for them the British were closing in. "Colonel Matthew's I have a mission for you?" The British commander said pulling Matthew's to the side, "What is it sir?" Matthews said curiously as he lit a cigarette, "I want you to take your unit and lead a covert operation to infiltrate Baghdad and capture it, we have intel from our informant that their queen's husband and heir are in the city if we can capture them we can force them to surrender and kill a royal well we're at it" Matthew's tossed his cigarette, "sir that seems a bit much, we can't just do that?" The commander laughed, "son are you a red?" Matthew's looked confused "I'm sorry sir a what?", "a red, a socialist party member, are you a member boy?" The commander said placing his hand on Matthew's shoulder "uh no sir, my family have always been loyal to his majesty" the commander frowned and dismissed Matthew's, but the plan was already in motion.

As the war raged throughout the Middle East with no end in sight and the Summer of 1916 looking to be the hottest one to date the British forces were forced to pulled back from their positions around Baghdad, on top of this a failed assassination of the Queens husband and heir would anger many in Mesopotamia but also back home in England when reports of the failed plot would make their way to the British press, by July 1916 The UK and Mesopotamia would meet to sign a peace treaty ending the fighting between the Mesopotamians and British forces, a week later General Ahmad's forces would surrender and Mesopotamia would find itself at peace.

With an end to the war Queen Layla organized a massive reconstruction effort to rebuild the nation from the war, 1916 would also see the election of Amira Al-Khazali as the 2nd Prime Minister of Mesopotamia leading to an era of modernization and, The Progressive reform party would go on to advocate for greater rights for women and secularism, in August of 1916 Queen Layla would establish the Mesopotamian historical society an initiative to promote the shared culture of the region, the movements have its first discovery in 1918 when they would discover ruins in Mosul dating back to 1066 of an Assyrian Woman by the name of Layla Samiyah, records would show this woman was a local Assyrian leader under the Seljuk empire, not much would be known of her except for scrolls that written in Arabic would detail the life of this woman as a Assyrian Catholic girl who would be taken in and raised Muslim, she would later go on to rule over Mosul till her death when her son Ashur would succeed her and proclaim the Kingdom of Assyria.  This discovery would go on to become a symbol of not just Assyrian Pride but later in 1987 an independent archaeological organization discovered the tomb of an Assyrian noble woman and with permission from the exiled Princess Amina, they would use her DNA to find a link between Queen Layla I of Mesopotamia and the Assyrian woman of the same name. However due to the Ba'athist government banning any reference to the old monarchy the story was published in the US and would only be published in Mesopotamia in 2010 following the restoration in Operation Desert Storm.