Sykes-Picot Agreement

On May 19, 1916, during World War I, representatives from Great Britain and Ireland (parts of the United Kingdom) plus the French Third Republic secretly reached an accord known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, whereby most of the Arab lands under the Ottoman Empire’s rule were to be divided into British and French spheres of influence.

The agreement was named after its lead negotiators, Sir Mark Sykes of England and François Georges-Picot of France. France and Britain had different opinions as to how to carve up the Ottoman Empire, and there were difficult discussions between the two countries as well as with Russia, who by the terms of the agreement, would also receive a certain amount of land.

History has shown that despite the good intentions of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, there were flaws inherent in it that have had negative repercussions in the Middle East since its inception one hundred years ago. Borders have changed hands many times in the region, and there have been continual political and territorial struggles until the twenty-first century.

Brief History

During World War I, the Allies, consisting of Britain, France, and Russia, met several times to formulate a policy regarding the future of the Ottoman Empire that had aligned itself alongside Germany and the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria). After several meetings, in March 1915, England signed a secret pact with Russia whereby Russia would annex Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, and retain control of the Dardanelles (the strait connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean) and the Gallipoli peninsula. In return, Russia was required to give up claims to all other areas.

These discussions led to the Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France. The first round of talks between the two countries took place in London on November 23, 1915, with Sir Arthur Nicolson representing the British delegation and François-Georges Picot on behalf of the French government. At the second meeting, held on December 21, Sir Mark Sykes replaced Nicolson as the British representative.

The agreement, eventually signed on May 19, 2016, stipulated the exact areas to be ceded to Britain and France with each country deciding on the amount of direct or indirect administration or control it desired. Much of the Sykes-Picot Agreement was hazy and inconclusive, with the needs of the residents of the Arab countries more or less neglected.

The agreement divided up the Ottoman Empire into several regions under British and French rule, with the eastern side of Syria and much of what has been considered modern-day Lebanon going to France, while Britain took direct control of central and southern Mesopotamia, including the Basra and Baghdad provinces. Palestine was to be internationally administered, and the rest of the territory, which included modern-day Syria, Mosul in northern Iraq, and Jordan, would be administered by local Arab figures under French supervision in the north and British in the south.

More than a year after the agreement with Russia, British and French representatives Sykes and Picot signed another secret agreement dealing with the future booty of the Great War (WWI). Britain and France each presented its views for how the region should be run, but it was clear that the interests of the native residents were not the ultimate concern of either country.

Impact

The Sykes-Picot Agreement, often referred to as the Asia Minor Agreement, was implemented at a time of political chaos in the Middle East, while the war was still at its height. It served an immediate purpose in solving the question of what to do after World War I with the lands of Ottoman Empire, a vast stretch of territory that covered a majority of the area. Turkey was siding with Germany and the Central Powers, and there was no doubt that the Allies—consisting of super powers Britain, France, and Russia—would overpower their enemies. So they entered an arrangement for dividing up the Middle East into different areas—some under British rule and others under the French. After 400 years of Turkish domination, the Arabs and the Jews of Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine now came under the rule of England and France.

According to some historians, the goal of the pact was clear—to protect the trade routes from the Middle East back to Britain and the mainland of Europe. At the same time, dividing the Arabs under separate rule was a way of weakening them. The two countries cared very little about the Arabs or the Jews. They were concerned only with monetary issues.

It did not take long for the Sykes-Picot Agreement to come under sharp criticism in both France and England. Lloyd George, a British Liberal politician and statesman and a key figure in the introduction of many British reforms, referred to the agreement as an "egregious" and "foolish" document.

The one question the British and French could not agree on was Palestine. The Sykes-Picot Agreement totally disregarded any previous arrangements for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, especially the Balfour Declaration, a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild written on November 2, 1917, that publicized British support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement was officially repealed by the Allies at the San Remo Conference in April 1920, when the mandate for Palestine was conferred upon Britain and the area east of the Jordan River became Transjordan. The arrangement was never favorably accepted by the people living in the region, and the agreement’s impact is still felt today.

As the agreement approaches its one hundredth anniversary in 2016, the Middle East is a cauldron of burning anarchy and division. Egypt is embroiled in political upheaval, there are civil wars in Syria, Kurdistan, and Iraq, and the violence between Israelis and Palestinians continues unabated.

Recent research has uncovered several additional secret pacts written between the countries involved in the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Many were not made public at the time and are coming to light only now. And as the agreement reaches its centennial in May 2016, historians have come to view the 100-year-old pact as the catalyst for the crises in the Middle East being played out today, where hundreds of thousands of people have been murdered, thousands made homeless, and terror has become the name of the game.

Bibliography

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