Sykes-Picot Agreement - 1916
Even prior to the outbreak of the Great War, the British had been secretly conducting informal talks with various Arab nationalist groups. As early as 31 October 1914, Lord K1tchener began making overtures to Hussein, Grand Sharif or Mecca, and tendered conditional guarantees of independence from Turkey for the Arabs.
After the entry of Turkey into the war on the side of Germany, formal relations were established in July 1915 between the British authorities and the Sharif, who acted on benalf of the nationalist organizations of Syria. In the ensuing negotiations Hussein agreed to undertake an Arab revolt against the Turks in exchange for British recognition of the sovereign integrity of a Greater Syria taking in a vast section of the Arab Middle East.
The original terms that Hussein submitted for entering the war on the British side demanded recognition of the independence of all the Arab countries south of 37° North Latitude. The reply by Sir Henry McMahon, 30 Jan 16 British High Commissioner in Egypt, took exception to British agreement with certain territories claimed by Hussein as part of the future Arab state on grounds that they were non-Arab areas, and indicated the remaining boundaries were acceptable only insofar as they involved territories wherein Great Britain was free to act without detriment to her Ally, France.
Hussein accepted the British proposals in part, by conceding the Turkish areas but retaining a claim on the disputed areas of western Syria and the Lebanon. At the same time the French Government indicated its willingness to acknowledge Arab administration for western Syria only if under French influence. On 30 January 1916, the British agreed with reservations to Hussein's general terms, but left the issue or the exact status of the disputed areas to be resolved in the future, and the definition or the French sphere of influence undetermined.
Meanwhile, the Western Powers were making other agreements amo~ themselves that differed greatly in spirit from the one concluded with the Grand Sharif, and conflicted with -- if not directly contradicted -- many of its specific terms.
Beginning with the Constantinople Agreement or 08 March 1915, a series or understandings were negotiated by Britain, France, and Russia on the future partition of the Ottoman Empire. Decisions on the disposal of Asiatic Turkey were formalized in the Anglo-Russian French Agreements of 26 April 1916, which anticipated the creation of an Arab state and provided for spheres of influence divided among the three powers.
These understandings culminated in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 09 May 1916, which was secretly negotiated between England and France, but with the cognizance and acquiescence of Russia. Sir Mark Sykes was for all practical purposes in sole charge in the British behalf, negotiating directly with M. Georges Picot.
Francois Georges-Picot was France's High Commissioner to Syria. Before the war he was Consul-General at Beirut, but was also something of a diplomatic agent, since even then France looked upon Lebanon as a very particular ward, and Lebanon reciprocated by agitating constantly for independence from Turkey.
When Turkey entered the Great War M. Picot hurried off to France, but unfortunately left behind him through somebody's carelessness certain records of a diplomatic character which should have been consigned to the hottest of fiery furnaces. For when the Turks came upon these papers, they arrested a great many prominent Syrians and hanged about twenty-five. However, so much had M. Picot endeared himself to the Maronites that they almost forgave him even this.
Sykes had gained, in an honorary diplomatic position at Constantinople and in several tours in Asiatic Turkey, an acquaintance with some parts of the Near East, which led to his interesting himself as an amateur in the Arabs of the past and as an enthusiast in Arabs of the present. Such qualification, added to popularity as a rising politician, his assured position in society, and his honorable character, commended him to harassed ministers anxious to shift anything possible to other shoulders.
So long as Sykes succeeded in placating France, he was free to provide, if it pleased his fancy, for a future Arab state; and so long as French claims were kept intact against a future day, M. Picot was free to second a fantasy in which his Government believed no more than the British. Both negotiators left Emir Husein out of the picture.
By the terms of this agreement, signed in May 1916, the territories formerly assigned to Britain and France as spheres or influence were to become British and French administrative zones, while the remainder of Turkish Arabia was to be divided into British and French spheres or influence, though organized as an Arab state or federation of states.
France and Great Britain wer to recognize and protect an independent Arab State or a confederation of Arab States in the Zones A and B, indicated on the map, under the suzerainty of an Arab chief [these zones covered what might be termed Sunnistan]. In Zone A France and in Zone B Great Britain shall have the right of priority in undertakings and in local loans. In Zone A France and in Zone B Great Britain were to furnish counselors upon the demand of the Arab State or States.
A separate treaty which the British government allowed India to conclude with Hussein's rival Ibn Saud, on 26 December 1915 recognized the independence and sovereignty of Saud's domains, but it implicitly acknowledged his claims to areas that had already been promised to Hussein.
On 5 June 1916, Hussein, in accordance with the terms or his agreement with the British, began the Arab revolt against ottoman rule. It opened in the Hijaz ·with an attack on the Turkish garrison at Medina. Two days later, on 7 June, he proclaimed the independence of the Hijaz. Shortly thereafter the Turkish garrison of Mecca surrendered, and on 29 October Hussein proclaimed himself King of the Arabs and summoned all Arabs to make war on the Ottoman Porte. The British government formally recognized Hussein as King of the Hijaz on 15 December 1916.
Inspired by the British war hero of Arabia, Col. T. E. Lawrence, the Arabs embarked upon a successful campaign or harrassment and thrusts against Turkish garrisons and communications east of the Jordan •. On 6 July 1917, they captured Aqaba, then Maan and Dara, and began their advance on Damascus. On 5 October 1918, Emir Faisal, third son or the Grand Sharif Hussein and commander of the Arab forces, proclaimed a Greater Syrian state that included Lebanon and Palestine.
Although the Arabs had unconditionally rejected the Sykes-Picot Agreement as soon as its secret contents were divulged by the Bolsheviks in 1917, and had repudiated the Balfour Declaration, both were confirmed by subsequent international action. The San Remo conference or 25 April 1920, alloted France the mandates of Lebanon and the.northern part of geographical Syria, while Britain received a mandate for Palestine, with the express obligation of carrying out the policy of the Balfour Declaration. British policy was committed to support the establishment or a Jewish National Home in Palestine, despite the intense and widespread Arab objections to the idea of Zionism.
The Sykes Picot 1916 agreement, highlighted in the Lawrence of Arabia epic movie, was identified by Bin Laden as the start of the current "crusade" against Islam.
By 2014 Daash [Islamic State] had seized a third of Iraq and triggered the first American air strikes since the US troop withdrawal in 2011. Daash had carved itself a powerful and possibly lasting presence in the Middle East that spanned the A and B areas outlined in Sykes-Picot. The Islamic State had territorial goals, aimed to set up social structures and overturn the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 between Britain and France that split the Ottoman empire and carved borders across the Arab lands.
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