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Secret Agreements
- The Legacy of the Middle East
The Sykes-Picot Agreement
September 2000
Commentary
by Rick Francona
The British entered into a series of three secret – and conflicting – agreements
concerning the eventual disposition of the Ottoman Empire during the fighting
of World War I, assuming that they would be victorious over the Turks.
The first of these agreements was between Great Britain and Sharif Husayn
bin ‘Ali of Mecca, leader of the Hashimites -- then the rulers of the Hijaz.
The second was made between Great Britain and France (and for a short time
Russia).
The Sykes-Picot Agreement
Sir Mark Sykes of Britain
and Georges Picot of France negotiated this second agreement. They met
several times in late 1915 and early 1916; both parties and Russia (then
under the Czar) signed the resulting document on May 9, 1916. The agreement
led to the division of Ottoman territories outside Turkey proper, including
the areas that are now Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Kuwait, and
portions of Saudi Arabia. The area was divided into “sphere of influence”
between Britain and France, with Russia gaining guaranteed access to the
Mediterranean Sea from its ports on the Black Sea via the Turkish Straits.
There can be little doubt
that Sykes knew that he was negotiating points in contradiction of existing
British foreign policy. At this time, Sykes was serving as the Under-Secretary
of the War Cabinet, a position that certainly would have allowed him access
to the Husayn-McMahon Correspondence of 1915. The provisions were in direct
conflict with pledges already given by the British to Sharif Husayn.
The major provisions of Sykes-Picot
Agreement were:
-
Russia should acquire the Armenian
provinces of Erzurum, Trebizond (Trabzon), Van, and Bitlis, with some Kurdish
territory to the southeast;
-
France should acquire Lebanon
and the Syrian littoral, Adana, Cilicia, and the hinterland adjacent to
Russia's share, that hinterland including Aintab, Urfa, Mardin, Diyarbakir,
and Mosul;
-
Great Britain should acquire
southern Mesopotamia, including Baghdad, and also the Mediterranean ports
of Haifa and Akka (Acre);
-
between the French and the British
acquisitions there should be a confederation of Arab states or a single
independent Arab state, divided into French and British spheres of influence;
-
Alexandretta (Iskenderun) should
be a free port; and
-
Palestine, because of the holy
places, should be under an international regime.
Following the successful overthrow
of the Czar in 1917, the Russians withdrew from the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
The Arabs, including Sharif Husayn and his sons ‘Abdullah and Faysal –
the two leader who preceded British troops into Damascus and Aleppo – learned
of the Sykes-Picot Agreement after the Russians publicized it to embarrass
the Western governments, were justifiably angered.
Although the provisions were
somewhat modified by the San Remo Conference of 1920-1922, the Arabs never
fully received what they were promised.
Many observers attribute
much of the political instability in the Middle East today to the series
of conflicting promises made by the British and resultant compromises.
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