Political Movement - Sykes-Picot Agreement
The Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 16, 1916
was a secret understanding between the governments of Britain and France
defining their respective spheres of post-World War I influence and
control in the Middle East and remains much of the common border between
Syria and Iraq.
The agreement was negotiated in November 1915 by the French diplomat
Georges-Picot and British Mark Sykes. Picot was far more experienced and
managed to get much more than he was expecting for France.
Britain was allocated control of areas roughly comprising Jordan, Iraq
and a small area around Haifa. France was allocated control of
South-eastern Turkey, Northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The controlling
powers were left free to decide on state boundaries within these areas.
The area which subsequently came to be called Palestine was for
international administration pending consultations with Russia and other
powers. This area, subject to significant subsequent controversy, had
the following borders:
* Southern: approximately mid way between Balah and Gaza, eastwards to
the Dead Sea in a horizontal line, passing north of Beersheba and south
of Hebron.
* Eastern: starting at the Dead Sea in the south it proceeded roughly
due north along the river Jordan to Lake Tiberius and a few miles north
of the lake.
* Northern: a line approximately west-northwest from the area just north
of Lake Tiberius, passing barely south of Tzfat to met the sea
approximately mid way between Haifa and Tyre.
* Western: the Mediterranean Sea.
This agreement is viewed by many as conflicting with the Hussein-McMahon
Correspondence of 1915–1916. The conflicting agreements are the result
of changing progress during the war, switching in the earlier
correspondence from needing Arab help to subsequently trying to enlist
the help of Jews in the United States in getting the US to join the
First World War, in conjunction with the Balfour Declaration, 1917. The
agreement had been made in secret. Sykes was also not affiliated with
the Cairo office that had been corresponding with Sherif Hussein ibn
Ali, and was not fully aware of what had been promised the Arabs.
The agreement was later expanded to include Italy and Russia. Russia was
to receive Armenia and parts of Kurdistan while the Italians would get
certain Aegean islands and a sphere of influence around Izmir in
southwest Anatolia. The Italian presence in Anatolia as well as the
division of the Arab lands was later formalized in the Treaty of Sevres
in 1920.
The Russian Revolution in 1917 led to Russia being denied its claims in
the Ottoman Empire. At the same time Lenin released a copy of the
confidential Sykes-Picot Agreement as well as other treaties causing
great embarrassment among the allies and growing distrust among the
Arabs.
Attempts to resolve the conflict were made at the San Remo conference
and in the Churchill White Paper of 1922, which stated the British
position that Palestine was part of the excluded areas of "Syria lying
to the west of the District of Damascus".
The agreement's principal terms were reaffirmed by the inter-Allied San
Remo conference of 19–26 April 1920 and the ratification of the
resulting League of Nations mandates by the Council of the League of
Nations on July 24, 1922.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes-Picot_Agreement
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