Iron Storm: History of the world from 1903-2024

Chapter 5: The Road to War

As 1836 rolled around the world was on a precipice, a few years prior the world stood on the brink of war over Northern Ireland but bigger problems remained. To the north of Mesopotamia was the Turkish Republic now a rump state after the 2 Coalition wars that ended a centuries old empire, what was left was a broken nation, an impoverished people and a growing communist movement, among the poor and hungry people in Ankara Ethem Nejat and Mustafa Suphi spoke and gathered large crowds to hear them speak and the people were invested in this group that could save their country and so as the 1936 election approached Ethem Nejat would run for Prime Minister of Turkey and he would win with an overwhelming majority in parliament.
The new Prime Minister began implementing land reforms and nationalizating private companies and foreign owned land for the state and for the first few months quality of life improved then came the secularization policies.

Many Turks thought it wouldn't affect them but when many of their friends and family were arrested and sent to labor camps simply for practicing their religion many began protesting then the crackdowns came the new Nejat pushed parliament to grant him emergency powers and used his new powers to declare martial law and suspend elections, he then outlawed all religious institutions and ordered all mosques and churches to be looted and destroyed after 10,000 Turks would be killed simply for being religious, the new Turkish socialist republic would meet in Paris where they would formally join the Third International.

Over in Mosul the Mesopotamian National Congress would be elected to power with a former Assyrian schoolteacher by the name of Nadia being appointed prime minister, her term would see the reforms of the past prime minister's continued with a strong focus on improving the education system most notable the low literacy rate, Nadia and Queen Layla would attend a local school in Mosul where they would hand out children's books, but Nadia's most important role would be in regards to the situation in Turkey, with the rise of the Turkish Socialist Republic many Turks would make the dangerous journey to flee many would go west into Greece but some would go east to Armenia, Phoenicia and Mesopotamia, and many would be welcomed with border refugee camps being established to provide food and process the immigrants. On September 4, 1936 Queen Layla I of Mesopotamia, King Elias of Phoenicia, King Alexander of Greece, and Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria along with King George of Armenia would meet in Mosul to discuss the Turkish crisis and it was decided a third coalition war would be launched, a day later Turkey announced its membership in the international, killing any chance of an intervention without drawing the French and British, in the end Greece, Phoenicia and Mesopotamia cut all ties with Turkey.

As 1937 rolled around bad news would approach, early in the morning in Berlin, a stockbroker would miscalculate something leading to mass panic selling, the black Monday crisis had started, though the damage would effect Mittleuropa and the Reichspakt as a whole the economic crisis would lead to widespread strikes and an increase in socialist parties, in Koln Germany a workers strike would violently cracked down on however this hardline approach would lead to the SPD coalition which would seek to modernize and revive the German economy and so in 1937 Schleicher would be elected chancellor of the German Empire beginning his black Monday recovery coalition.

Tikrit, February 12, 1937, Asha pulled the clothes off the line and placed them in the basket, she walked back to her home, inside her mother cooked the meal they would have for dinner that night, her 5 brothers and 4 sisters sat in the small 1 room house reading, the family was so poor they could only afford a single pair of shoes, Asha took her shoes off and set the basket of freshly dried clothes next to her bed and grabbed a book, she took a liking to adventure stories where the hero saves the world and finds love, these were her favorite stories, it was her dream to write her own stories, to visit Mosul and see the big city but that was only a dream she needed to stay home and care for her family, her father had died a year prior of sickness, her mother made Asha drop out of school to help raise the family as she was older, this was the only time she had to herself. And so she lost herself in her book.