Serpent
Banned
A "Greek caliph" is an interesting concept, however:
A) Only a few countries would even consider accepting it, like Albania, Lebanon, the Muslims/Turks within Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and maybe, just maybe Turkey if it stays non aligned, but that's kinda worse, because then they would have a serious additional reason that would constantly motivate them to engage in further military campaigns to liberate Constantinople and free their caliph...
B) As for Syria and the rest of the middle east, they are Arab nationalists and they wouldn't want anything to do with a Turkish caliph prisoner to infidels...
C) Maybe the Indian Muslims would accept his authority, but only if Turkey accepts it too, and even then, the Turkish authorities could just proclaim him a prisoner and proclaim that they will interpret his will until he is freed, as he lives within the captivity of the infidels...
Guess who would the Indian Muslims follow, due to historical ties and proximity...
D) That's apart from the large possibility that the Arab countries take the opportunity to counter proclaim their own Arab Caliph, followed by Iran, which would also then proclaim its own Persian Caliph...
So basically schisms, followed by even more schisms...
That is not to say that it wouldn't provide an opportunity on its own...
Like Greece could exploit the divisions to increase its influence in Muslim African majority countries/populations that have a historical ethnic tensions with the Arab and the Berber people, like Chad, Niger, Mali and Darfur, once decolonization takes place.
Like even apart from Nasser and the expulsion of the Greek people, I can't really see the ITTL Greece, which is much stronger, politically, economically and much more stable and thus more centrist politically, having the same ties that it had with Arab countries in ITTL, simply because of the far weaker ITTL communist party and the far weaker ITTL socialist movement under Papandreou in Greece.
Even when Papandreou eventually rises to power, if he does as per OTL, then he would have the ability to perform a far more dynamic policy, the Greek people are not the same ITTL as to OTL, so I'd expect this disparities in income and living standards, on top of the aforementioned weakening of communist and socialist influences compared to OTL, to affect the general population's positions on the Palestinian issue, favoring Israel far more ITTL, thus taking down one of the major catalysts that turned the Greek populace to become friendly to the Arabs in general, because of sympathy for the Palestinian plight...
Honestly fast moving forward I'd even expect an ITTL Greek intervention in the Lebanese civil war in favor of the Lebanese forces of Bachir Gemayel, to ensure, alongside Israel, and against Syria, that the Christian political and military dominance of Lebanon is maintained.
And to go further that that, a far more prosperous Greece ITTL means a far more prosperous Greek industry, which would require more working hands...
At the same time, Lebanon would be a natural avenue for Greek foreign investments, from the emerging wealthy industrialist, shipowning and financial classes, that apart from strategical reasons, also because of the emerging friendly environment between the two countries (Greece and Lebanon).
Similarly I can see military cooperation taking place between the armies of Lebanon and Greece ITTL, since thanks to Cyprus achieving enosis, the distance between Greece and Lebanon is much, much shorter.
Said interests would require the entanglement of Greek military to secure their vast investments...
That being said, I could easily see ITTL Greece agreeing to take up quite a lot of Palestinian refugees from Lebanon, to help stabilize the situation there, but also because ITTL Greece, like several Western European countries at this time, (the 80s), would be feeding it's economical expansion with immigrants from outside Europe.
Which I could see leading to a polarized environment politically within the next decades, similar to France...
In general, like I've stated before, ITTL Greece has a lot of similarities with OTL France, both politically and military, as we descent closer to modern day...
At least the way I see this TL playing out...
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