The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (12)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Prologue (12)

 

012. Sykes-Picot Agreement (1/2)

With McMahon-Hussein Correspondence , the second one of “Britain’s triple tongue diplomacy" was the secret agreement so-called "Sykes-Picot agreement" to divide Middle Eastern territory of the Ottoman Empire by Britain and France (and Russia).

 

British diplomatic advisor Mark Sykes and French diplomat Francois Georges Picot drafted about the division of the Ottoman Empire at the end of 1915 when the victory of the UK, French and their allies became sure. Russia also joined with the secret agreement. Three countries have mutually signed the agreement officially known “Asia Minor Agreement” in May 1916, in Petrograd, Russia. This agreement was generally called "Sykes-Picot Agreement" after taking names of two diplomats. It was just before the uprising of Hussein, Sharif of Makkah, according to the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence (see previous section).

 

In this secret agreement for territorial division, the UK gained Southern Syria and South Mesopotamia.  France became the ruler of Syria, southern Anatolia and Mosul district of Iraq. Russia was given the Black Sea coast. In more detail in the Middle Eastern region, the UK and France divided the Mediterranean coast. From southern Anatolia to Beirut were directly governed by France. France also got the power in the northern Mesopotamian region from Damascus to Aleppo and Mosul. Compared with the current border line, France dominated the territory from the southern part of Turkey throughout Syria including northern Iraq and Lebanon.

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)