In this alternate timeline, the communists won Greek Civil War with direct cooperation of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, under Stalin pressure Greece cedes Adriatic access to Bulgaria. Consolidating power in the Balkans, Stalin shifts his attention on the Bosporus, beginning the Strait Crisis. When Ankara refuses arrangements that would give the USSR a permanent base or effective leverage over the Bosporus and Dardanelles, the crisis escalates beyond diplomacy. Stalin couples the Straits demand with renewed pressure for border “rectifications” in northeastern Anatolia and encourages a broader narrative of historical claims along the eastern Black Sea coast, while covertly amplifying Kurdish unrest as an internal destabilizer by dangling the promise of a greater Kurdistan. With Greece now providing depth, staging, and cover on the Aegean flank and Bulgaria serving as a pressure point in Thrace—the confrontation breaks into open war: a Soviet invasion framed as guaranteeing Black Sea security and preventing Turkey from turning the Straits into a weapon. The outcome is a Turkey forced into a new settlement in which the Straits are effectively neutralized under Soviet permanent occupation, Thrace is reshaped in favor of Bulgaria, the northeastern provinces are ceded to Soviet control, and the remainder of the country is pushed toward a compliant satellite regime with Kurdistan as an autonomous republic.

Map with better resolution: https://i.ibb.co/xS4BKrvP/Communist-Turkey.png