Ottoman-Arabia Border War (A Victory in the East)

In the template/infobox, if marked (nth number), it would mean phases.

Ottoman-Arabia Border War (1944)
Date 22nd September 1944 - 3rd December 1944 Location Mesopotamia Region, Ottoman Republic and Northern Borders, Saudi Arabia Status Stalemate, later Ottoman's political victory 1960 Arabia coup Ottoman's ascension to the Moscow Pact
Belligerents
Ottoman Republic	Saudi Arabia
Supported by: Russian Federation (2nd) German Kingdom	Supported by: Radical Nationalists (Germany)
Commanders and leaders
Ismet Inonu Fevzi Çakmak Kâzım Karabekir	Ibn Saud
Strength
Ottoman Army: 32,000 troops, 350 tanks, 20 planes	Saudi Arabian Defense Forces: 12,000 troops.

Ottoman-Arabia Border War was a conflict between the Ottoman Republic and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In September 1944, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launched an attack on Ottoman Republic as an pretext for the "great caliphate" plan.

Arabia launched an attack like that but the Ottomans succeeded on defending the territorial sovereignty and began to invade Saudi Arabia (with Russian support for the Ottomans) and finally conquered the Northern Borders. The Saudi Arabia had to sign an armistice with the Ottoman Republic and payed war reparations. This also with the authoritarian regime of King Faisal, which led to Ottoman-leaning officers to declared coup against the King in 1960 and proclaimed a secular federal republic.

This would improved relations between German Kingdom and the Ottoman Republic, which relations had been strained since the Great War. It also proved that the Saudi Arabia needed a 2nd re-armament.

Prelude

In Ottoman Republic and Saudi Arabia

On 30th June 1932, the Saudi Arabia united into one federation, in which Ottoman Republic, who had lost territory to the Saudi Arabia predecessor states, Hejaz and Nejd, in which the Ottoman requested France and Britain to help. France and Britain only helped economically, so it requested help from Russia, a member of Entente and German Kingdom, an ally since 1905. Both of them accepted the request that they help militarily. Ottoman's economy had recovered to the pre-war time since 1920, with the support of Entente, because it became Westernized followed a coup from pro-German Enver Pasha, and pro-British Mustafa Kemal Pasha.

Saudi Arabia also claimed some Kurdish territory to be legitimately, according to the Agreement between two states, but in fact it is a false statement. The false statement was based on agreement between Ottoman Empire (which in fact, not legitimate since the coup) and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. However, with British, French and Russian protection, the Saudi Arabia couldn't do anything because if they fight Ottoman alone, it would be a failure. Also some Ottomans considered to reconquer Saudi State and annexed it into the Ottoman Republic.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk negotiated with the British and the French to support the invasion of the Saudi Arabia militarily, which they complied. The Chamberlain-Ataturk Agreement also had charter 3 said like this "If one was being attacked, then the other support" which hinted that the country was ready to support. The Chamberlain government also signed the same treaty with Russia (even though they might have Cold War, the treaty was still effective by any means), which also supported the Ottomans. The United States sent troops to Ottoman Republic to support and also to tested M4 Sherman tank.

Saudi Arabia also was supplied with tanks from Radical Nationalist in Germany, which had been obsolete tanks in Imperial German Armed Forces. This alerted both countries to highest threat, and prepared for war.

Event

On 22nd September 1944, 1,000 Ottoman troops began to invade Saudi Arabian's borders, which they had some success without tanks or aerial support. The Ottoman troops began to encircle forces in Northern Borders and Jawf and the northern part of Eastern Province. The Saudi had to retreat but with support of the Radical Nationalists armored forces, the Ottoman had to stay as long as possible until an aerial support comes.

The Saudi troops, with equipment from the Radical Nationalists, began to attack Ottoman's borders. However, the southern part was rural and the Ottomans decided to use the guerilla warfare instead. However, both sides knew what the others going to do, so the battle of Northern Borders was extended. Both sides used artillery as a way to support their troops. Harsh weather in borders also made the armored battalion to be less useful.

Only in 25th September 1944, the Air Forces received the support and began to bombard the Saudi Arabian's northern territory. This would cause high casualties both for military of both sides and civilian of Saudi Arabia. Somewhat 20 bombers had attacked other territories which didn't border with Arabia. Stuka from the German Air Forces, which stationed from Britain also attacked some strategic location in Arabia.

300px-Bombardment of Fort Sumter, 1861.png

Saudi Arabia's coastline was not an exception, the attack began in 27th September, with British, German and Russian naval troops began to attack Saudi's naval base. Saudi's Navy was unexpected with this and they began to flee to other regions. But surrounded them was British and French navies who had just imposed a blockade to the Saudi's coastline. Others began to defected to Ottoman's navies and shared the secret information. Most of the defectors were come from the Saudi Arabia's State Security Police and informers to Ottoman's Department of Intelligence. The others came from the High Command.

This would made Saudi's government outraged since there was no defection in Saudi's Navy, even internal defection (meaning from your unit to another unit). The Saudi's court began to sentenced them in absentia to death. However, it seems that it would outraged the people because most of the armed forces are autonomous from the King. The new leadership of Ottoman's armed forces also issued a 2nd attack on their capital, although not the Mecca or King's Palace. The people of Saudi Arabia were trained to militia, now called the National Guard. They were sent by the King to attack some Ottoman's positions and proved to be effective sometimes.

The Ottomans knew that this wasn't simply a border war, so they decided to used their most advanced weapon, the Armed Forces reserve troops. Most of them were Ottoman soldiers during the Great War, and were professional, voluntary soldiers. The others were transferred from the Intelligence Service to help the Army. Inonu would attack these National Guard soldiers and others were transferred to the POW camp. Most of them were rebelling against Ottoman's troops, but there were a minority would joined the Arab Republican Army, which was formed by the Ottoman Republic as an answer to Arabia.

Ottoman's troops were also stubborn against the attacking forces of Militia. President of Ottoman Republic said that if the Saudi sent 15,000 troops, they would only send 2,000 Ottoman troops to attack enemy strategic positions effectively. It also saw the introduction of the new special forces, called Anti-Terrorist Special Brigade, which was used to attack Saudi's high ranking officers.

Air Forces began to attack Saudi's supplies, in which has starved 1,500 troops in Northern Regions, after that, infantry troops began to encircle Saudi's forces and using aerial forces to support. The new Ottoman 6th Squadron were equipped by Stuka and Bf 109, which were sent by Germans and Czechoslovakians (Czechoslovak Legion). Bombarding positions, the Saudis afraid that if continuing the war, the country would be controlled by the Ottomans.

However, the Sultan Ibn Saud was getting paranoid about Saudi's victory. Many of the generals were dissatisfied within the Armed Forces. They felt that the Radical Nationalist in Germany was incompetent and also paranoid just as same as Ibn Saud. Loss of supplies, uneffective tactics and public discontent which made some members of the Royal Family to ally with the Generals. They began to plan the operation named "Quran", in which was actually a propaganda campaign to "encourage people to realize that their liberty has come", and to depose Ibn Saud.

Saudi Arabian Air Force's commander Vice Air Marshal Abdullah al-Mandilli also joined the coup plotters, meaning that the plan would be successful. Officers in the Tank Corps also defected en masse after General Mohsen Al-Hussein was injured by an assasination attempt in which has approval from Saudi's Sultan. This would ignited 1944 Saudi's coup, in which Ibn Saud had to approved a constitution in which separated the position of King and Prime Minister, giving it to a civilian. However, more radical officers would remained and the civil war continues until a peace agreement was signed in December 1944, ending a 2-month conflict.

Legacy

The war had shown that Ottoman-Iraq-Syria Federation was a regional power and a potential superpower in the Arab World. Besides, with the support of the Iranians after the first month of the war, many observers saw that this would led to the demise of the Saudi Arabia after the unification in 1932. Also, because the border conflict didn't get into the main strategic cities in the south like Baghdad and Aleppo, the economy didn't affected much, although the recovery program took $20 billion (1945 prices) to fully recover. The Republican People's Party, however, had it's popularity decreased due to the war, and saw the transition to the new opposition party, the Liberal Party. The Liberals were the centre-right secular party who wanted reconciliation with the neighbors after the war, under the leadership of Suat Hayri Urguplu. He instituted a new foreign policy that would be flexible although it was pro-Moscow Pact in general. This would led to reconciliation with the Arabians and a friendship treaty was signed after few years, in 1959.

For the Arabian monarchy, this was a big blow to the government in general and the popularity of the Islamist monarchy in general. It also became a pretext to the 1960 Arabian coup, in which overthrown and exile the government and replaced by a pro-Turkish secular republic. The liberalization of the country also began at the same time, in which some major reforms were introduced, including increasing the rights of the women, implemented dirigisme (which was influenced by the French government), and to introduce Western culture into the new republic. The new government decided to implemented a strictly neutral policy, in which have to completely balanced the influence from Moscow and London at the Cold War. The Parliament was functioning the same as the one (National Assembly) in France, in which it could overthrow the government by a motion of no confidence without any interference (including the influential Armed Forces). Turkish advisors (or de facto leaders) were sent to see the transition of more liberal, pro-Ottoman government and political system.