There's going to be a bunch of useful images here, but since they are still being made have a picture of a sunset over the Sultan Ahmet Mosque
After the humiliation of the First Balkan War, a small group of lesser-known officers led by Mustafa Kemal Bey deposed the government and placed in power his own government of the Committee of Union and Progress to continue the modernisation of the country. Whilst he insisted that political and military power should be separated, he still wielded tremendous influence in the political scene and was widely regarded as the power behind the throne at times. The Committee of Union and Progress was, frankly, purged. As illegal and unpopular as the move was initially, popular support soared during the Second Balkan War during which the Turkish Army under the command of Mustafa Kemal retook Adrianople.
As World War I rolled by, the declaration of neutrality by the Sublime Porte caused the German military mission to leave the country, and the country withdrawing all economic investments in the country. The economy ground to a halt with the industrial sector, funded by the Germans effectively collapsing, a financial downturn, and construction on the Berlin-Baghdad railway stopping. Many in the country opposed the move, expecting the but the benefits of such a neutrality became apparently as the German offensive on the Western Front came to a grinding halt and the war bogged down on all fronts. Through the course of the war, the Ottomans gave the impression to be more powerful than they were by increasing the size of the army and holding large manoeuvres to scare the Entente into buying Turkish neutrality and eventually entrance into the war on the Entente side, with a short but brutal war against the Bulgarians. It worked, and throughout the war capitulations were revoked and Kuwait and Cyprus returned to the Empire. Furthermore, in the wake of the Russian Revolution the Turkish Army marched into Kars, Ardahan and Batum, permanently annexing these territories in return for withdrawing support for the Caucasus states, after which a large amount of Armenians fled to Anatolia.
The Ottoman Empire had recently made what seemed like a revival. The hates capitulations were gone and it had gained territory, but there was still much to do. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the empire went on a path of reform, major achievements of which are the equality before the law for men and women alike, a more secular legal system, a more professional military, and a more efficient bureaucracy, and a landmark surname law. However, many problems still remain. Corruption is staggering, liberals and conservatives butt heads regularly, the economy is underdeveloped, and tensions between Turks and Arabs have been rising in recent years.
This game is fairly simple. First of all, Anyone and everyone can join at any given time; there is no limit to players. Players either join as historical characters or as their own made up characters.
The game starts in 1928, an election year
The object of this game is to be a Member of the Ottoman Parliament, which is modeled on the Westminster System. The Ottoman Chamber of Deputies has 250 members and is modeled on the British House of Commons. It all begins through simply getting elected (which won't be an issue unless you're going to look for windows to lick after you write your application) to the parliament where members can propose bills and discuss them. The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, elected from and by the Deputies, has the authority to call them to a vote. If they fail, sour. If they succeed, then the Sultan(played by yours truly), who is also the Caliph of Islam, still wields the authority to veto the bill. If he does not, then the bill has passed and has become a law.
Deputies can also be selected as Cabinet Ministers by the Prime Minister. Cabinet Members do not lose their status as Deputies and are still expected to vote on bills. As a minister, your duty is to oversee your ministry and run it as best you can. You can of course propose reforms, and be good, but it is very much possible to be a corrupt twat and run it as your personal fiefdom and embezzle everything. It's all up to you.
Differently from WiR is that there will not be regular updates for this. I wholly expect you, the players, to keep this RP alive by playing Parliament. I will supply Crisis updates, which detail shit hitting the fan within the Empire's borders; International updates, which detail shit hitting the fan outside the Empire's borders; and election updates, which are held every four years and hopefully do not involve shit hitting the fan.
You can send me orders, yes. You don't have to outside elections (for campaigning, of course), but you can do it as a minister to do stuff with your department or as an MP to activate your constituents about something,
Ab said
Rigging regional shit, nepotism, building palaces, throwing parties, killing people, &c
Anything, really. Your order will be rolled and immediately get its own little update in the form of a newspaper article.
In the Ottoman Empire, the vote generally is cast for a person, not their party. However, in general terms some parties, blocs, and alliances do exist.
Nationwide, the spiritual successor of the CUP, the Ottoman People's Party, is a progressive party led by Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha. Noted for bulldozing reforms, the Pasha has for a long time been the undisputed Prime Minister of the country with the majority of seats going to his party. The PP appeals to most if not all reformists and high-class socialists, as well as to a large amount of urban commoners.
The Liberal Party, led by Prince Sabahattin is the main opposition to the People's Party. They are more occupied with modernising the economy rather than society, advocating liberal economic principles and an end to the semi-dictatorship of the People's Party and it's rough-handed methods.
There is also an array of unorganised or semi-organised conservative parties, mainly consisting of religious figures and confessionalists.
The Armenians, Greeks and Kurds have their own conservative, liberal and socialist parties that are in practice associated with the bigger national blocs.
The Ottoman Party for Administrative Decentralization is a bloc rather than a party, consisting of Arabs of all parties who wish to see extended administrative and cultural rights to the Arab provinces of the Empire. They get support from religious minorities, businessmen, supporters of the Caliphate and others.
There are a variety of Arab Nationalist movements but as of 1928, they have no deputies.
From Syria, Lebanon and Iraq stem a lot of deputies that were voted in as representatives of a religious minority. Confessionalism is strong in this region, as proven by the amount of constituencies in modern-day Lebanon.
Link: Coldfront
Channel: #Constantinople
Instructions:
1) Use the link provided above.
2) Choose the Flash app or the Java app.
3) Create a screen name. Use your forum name if possible.
4) In the command box, type “/join #Constantinople” without the quotation marks.
5) Welcome to Parliament!
Ab: Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Paşa, Deputy for Beşiktaş
XVG: Ali Sulayman al-Assad, Deputy for Latakia.
Maxwell: Mustafa İsmet İnönü, Deputy for Konya
Noco: Kağan Yıldırım, Deputy for Adana
Karnee: Tahir Mehmet Bey, Deputy for Southern Smyrna
Kho: Sultanzade Mehmed Sabâhaddin, Deputy for Jerusalem East
Byrd: Bora Çolak, Deputy for Hatay
Demetrios Salter, Deputy for Famagusta
Government of 1928:
Prime Minister:
Interior Minister:
Foreign Minister:
Finance Minister:
Economic and Commerce Minister:
War Minister:
Naval Minister:
Education Minister:
Justice Minister:
Religious Minister:
Postage Minister:
