Chapter 312 Dangerous Greeks

Venizelos expressed his impassioned ambitions, and Constantine listened quietly.

Constantine could understand Venizelos's enthusiasm.

Venizelos has always been an imperialist, but he also does not lack diplomatic skills and a keen eye for international situations.

Although the people in Greece have always been willing to regain the territory of Asia Minor and restore the glory of the empire, the military and political leaders in Greece are not blindly optimistic and have always been sober.

Greece’s national strength alone is far from enough to accomplish this ambitious goal.

Although Greece faced the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it won two wars in the Balkans in 1897 and 1912.

But frankly speaking, this record cannot be used as a reference standard to evaluate the real strength of the Ottoman Empire, so as to simply conclude that Greece's military strength exceeds that of the Ottoman Empire.

In both wars, the Greek army relied on trickery to win.

Before the war of 1897, the Ottoman Empire suffered mainly from underestimating its enemy and not facing up to Greece's military strength.

At that time, the Greek territory was only the territory around the Peloponnese, which was very different from the Ottoman Empire.

Moreover, the most direct reason for the victory of the Greek army in this war was that the unexpected attack of the Greek army achieved miraculous results.

As for the 1912 War, the Italian army's attack on Libya firmly attracted the attention of the Ottoman Empire and had no time to take care of the Balkans.

After the war began, Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria besieged the Ottoman Empire, and it was the Bulgarian army that served as the main combat force.

Strictly speaking, the Greek Army was only responsible for the flank battlefield.

Greece did not really defeat the Ottoman Empire head-on with its own national strength.

Venizelos already held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government at the time and had access to various confidential documents, including information obtained by the Army Intelligence Department through spies, so he was naturally aware of this situation.

It is not difficult to defeat a declining empire, but it is not so easy when Greece's goal is to destroy it.

The trapped beast still fights and wants to destroy the Ottoman Empire. Under the crisis of life and death, the Ottoman Empire will inevitably put aside their disputes and share the same hatred.

In addition, if Greece wants to make progress in Asia Minor, it also needs the support of a favorable international environment.

No matter how the Ottoman Empire declined, as a traditional European power, out of the need to maintain the political and military balance of power in Europe, no one would agree to any country annexing the Ottoman Empire.

The aging Ottoman Empire desperately joined the Allies. After learning the news, Venizelos was surprised and delighted.

This means that as long as the Allies win, Asia Minor will usher in drastic changes no matter what.

Although Russia, one of the Allied Powers, was aware of almost all of Europe's ambitions for the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France would inevitably cede their interests to Russia on the Ottoman Empire in order to win over Russia and deal with Germany.

Venizelos speculated that Britain, France and Russia should have reached an agreement on carving up the Ottoman Empire before the war.

However, Venizelos’ many years of experience as a diplomat and his instincts told him that Britain and France would not happily watch Russia obtain the strategically important Bosporus-Dardanelles and let Russian forces rush into the Mediterranean.

And Greece is now the country closest to the Dardanelles. Whether it is geographical location or from a practical point of view, besides Greece, who else is suitable to be the successor to the legacy of the Ottoman Empire?

Constantine's mind was racing: "Prime Minister, I admit that your analysis is reasonable. Maybe things will develop as you predicted."

“It’s just too early to discuss Greece’s options for joining the war.”

Constantine took a map of the Balkans, spread it out on the table in front of the two of them, pointed to the banks of the Danube and said: "Now Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are fighting south of the Danube. Frankly speaking, the Serbian army is fighting bravely. , even if the opponent was a great power like Austria-Hungary, the Serbian army also won a great victory."

"Since the war started, Britain and France have donated a large amount of arms to Serbia through Montenegro to support them."

"But the power gap between the two is too great. Once Germany supports its allies, Serbia is likely to be defeated."

As the trigger of the war, the war between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was surprising.

When the Sarajevo incident occurred, Serbia's veteran General Radomir Putnik was recuperating in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As a result, after the war between the two countries broke out, the general became the first prisoner in the war.

Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph personally ordered Putnik's release.

After returning to Serbia, the veteran was appointed Chief of General Staff by the King of Serbia, and actually commanded the Serbian army to fight against the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Austro-Hungarian Governor of Bogey, Potio Kore, led two armies with a total of 190,000 people to attack Serbia from the west.

The international community originally speculated that Serbia would soon be occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After all, although the total number of troops between the two sides was not much different, after the total mobilization of the Serbian army, the total number was 200,000.

However, the two armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire responsible for attacking Serbia on the western front are the main army groups of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The elites of the standing army undoubtedly have a greater advantage than the newly recruited soldiers in the Serbian army.

The outcome of the battle was surprising. August 12 was the birthday of Emperor Joseph Franz, and news of defeat came from the southern front.

In the Battle of Gadar, the Sixth Army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was defeated, causing the Fifth Army to retreat back to the border in a hurry.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was in great disgrace.

"To the southeast of Greece, the current attitude of Bulgaria is unclear. Both the Allies and the Entente are trying their best to win over Bulgaria and want to bring it into their own camp."

"According to rumors, Bulgaria originally favored the Allies, but the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire made them hesitate."

Constantine then pointed to Constantinople and said to Venizelos: "As for the Ottoman Empire, it is said that they are planning a Caucasus expedition to contain the Russian army in the south and relieve the pressure on Germany."

Having said that, Constantine drew a large arrow on the map, pointing from the interior of Asia Minor to the Caucasus, indicating the movement of the Ottoman army.

"After mobilization, the Ottoman Empire's army numbered about 600,000 to 700,000. There were two armies stationed near Thrace, close to Constantinople, numbering about 200,000."

After explaining all this, Constantine dropped the map, looked at Venizelos and said, "What will happen if Greece joins the war at this time?"

Pointing at Serbia, he said: "Once Serbia is defeated, Greece, as an ally and a neighbor of Serbia, needs to support them both logically and logically."

"Otherwise, once Austria-Hungary occupies Serbia, the situation in Greece will be even more severe."

Slide your finger to the direction of Bulgaria: "Bulgaria's attitude is unclear. An army is always needed on the Greek-Bulgarian border to guard against possible attacks by the Bulgarian army."

Then he pointed to Constantinople: "Russia is busy guarding against the German attack on the Eastern Front. The attention of Britain and France is now focused on the Western Front, and they have no time to estimate the Ottomans."

"Now that Greece has joined the war, it is the closest to the strait. The Allies must require Greece to immediately attack the Dardanelles from the direction of Thrace to open up transportation links with Russia."

After taking a breath, Constantine paused for a moment, looked at Venizelos and said: "Now that we join the war, these pressures will hit Greece immediately. Almost every one of the three directions will be difficult to deal with. Do you think the Greek army can Have you completed these tasks?”

"The ownership of the strait determines the survival of the Ottoman Empire. As long as we launch an attack, the Ottoman army will not even take care of the Caucasus occupied by Russia. It will immediately mobilize the entire country's army to defend the strait. After all, Constantinople is on the coast of the strait."

"Greece does not have the assistance of the Allies this time. We need to face the Ottoman Empire's army alone."

The strength of the Ottoman Empire’s army cannot be underestimated: many of the middle and senior officers in the army are Germans, and the military equipment is also extremely advanced. Mauser rifles and Krupp cannons are all standard equipment of the German army.

Moreover, in the original historical time and space, the Battle of Gallipoli fought by the Allies to open up the Black Sea Strait was a rare victory for the Ottoman army in World War I.

Isn't it stupid for Greece to do this job instead of Britain and France?

"Bulgaria is now holding back its anger towards Greece and is still worried about the loss of Macedonia. Once the Greek army and the Ottoman army fall into a bitter battle in Thrace, it is inevitable that the Bulgarian army will not take action."

"Based on the current situation, it would be unwise to join the war immediately."

Although Venizelos had outstanding talents in diplomacy and politics, he was indeed not proficient in military matters.

In addition to military concerns, Constantine was opposed to joining the Entente now, but there were also more practical considerations.

Historically, in 1915, the Ottoman Empire raised its butcher knife against the Armenians in the country and committed the shocking Armenian Genocide. It is said that approximately 1 million to 1.5 million Armenians were massacred.

As Christians who were also ruled by the Ottoman Empire, the fate of Greek Christians during World War I was not much better.

According to the Greek Embassy, ​​after the Ottoman Empire government announced that it would join the Allied war effort, in order to completely solve the problem of ethnic minorities in the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire government has begun to implement a variety of means, including forced immigration and racial persecution, to deal with Greek.

The Ottoman government recruited a large number of Greek men of working age from Thrace and Anatolia into labor camps. These people were forced to do hard and heavy manual work such as building roads and digging tunnels.

Many Greeks died tragically under the abuse.

Yesterday's Greek newspaper headlines were about Constantine's remarks about joining the Allies. Today's newspaper headlines changed to a new message: "The Greek town near Smyrna was destroyed by Turkish irregular forces. About 50-100 people were killed." Greek civilians died and the remaining residents fled to Greece with the help of the Greek Embassy in Smyrna.”

According to rumors, this was a warning from the Ottoman Empire to the Greek army, especially Crown Prince Constantine.

The news caused a sensation in Greece, and demonstrations against the Ottoman Empire broke out in major cities in Greece.

If Greece joins the war now, if the war goes unfavorably, the Greeks living in the Ottoman Empire will be unlucky by then.

Will the Ottoman Empire, for the purpose of venting its anger, take care of the Greeks while slaughtering the Armenians?

The number of Greeks in the Ottoman Empire is conservatively estimated to be no less than 2 million.

This huge number also made Constantine cautious and full of concerns.

Once Greece joined the Allied camp, the Greeks in Asia Minor would face the cruel fate of being massacred.

These people are now hostages in the hands of the Ottoman Empire and may be killed at any time.

The population exchange agreement reached between the two governments is to exchange the MSL in Greece with the Greeks in the Ottoman Empire to reduce the proportion of ethnic minorities in each other's countries.

Before the Ottoman Empire joined the war, under this policy, tens of thousands of Greeks came to Greece from across the Aegean Sea every year.

This will undoubtedly reduce the influence of the Greeks in Asia Minor. Asia Minor is the traditional residence of the Greeks, and the history of the Greeks in Asia Minor has been thousands of years. Why did Constantine agree?

Because Constantine was worried that if he rejected this policy, firstly, the Ottoman authorities would think that Greece had ideas about Ottoman territory, and secondly, these Greeks were in real danger.

Constantine did not dare to disagree.

"Based on all kinds of information, the best option for Greece now is to remain neutral," Constantine advised Venizelos.

Venizelos also sighed and said with frustration: "For those Greeks living in Asia Minor, their danger deepens with every day of delay." "Now European countries are busy with war and have no time to worry about Ottoman Turkey." "For many years, the Ottomans have never stopped persecuting Christians. In the past, the Ottoman Empire was worried that the persecution would trigger the intervention of European powers and use this as an excuse to attack the Ottoman Empire. With concerns, the persecution was always carried out in private." "Now they have no scruples at all, and European countries are busy with their own affairs." "The crazy Ottoman authorities completely regard this as a great opportunity to deal with domestic Christians." Venizelos said almost gritting his teeth. After a moment of silence, Constantine patted Venizelos on the shoulder to comfort him. "Let's do this separately about the evil deeds of the Ottoman authorities persecuting Christians," Constantine said. "You protest to Germany and the Ottoman authorities through the diplomatic department."

"Crown Princess Sophie and I will put pressure on Kaiser Wilhelm to restrain his allies."

In desperation, Constantine also thought of using his personal relationship. Sophie is Wilhelm's sister and Constantine's brother-in-law, and they are very close in private.

German officers have a huge influence in the Ottoman army, and the Ottomans dare not neglect the pressure from Germany.