Sykes–Picot Agreement

The **Sykes–Picot Agreement** /ˈsaɪks piˈkoʊ/, officially known as the **Asia Minor Agreement**, was a secret agreement concluded between the United Kingdom and France in 1916. The main aim of the British and French was to agree on would have a sphere of influence in Ottoman territories in the Middle East. They wanted the agreement to limit competition between each other after the First World War and to secure strategically-important territories for themselves. The line separating their respective zones of influence was called the Sykes-Picot Line. The Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy accepted the agreement and received territorial advantages in return.

The agreement was named after the two diplomats who negotiated it: the British diplomat Mark Sykes and the French diplomat François Georges-Picot. They negotiated for five weeks, from 23 November 1915 to 3 January 1916, before agreeing on a memorandum. The agreement itself was concluded on the 9 and 16 May 1916, when the British and the French governments accepted and signed and ratified the memorandum.

When the Russian revolutionaries made the agreement public in 1917 after the Bolshevik Revolution, which caused embarrassment among the British and French and growing distrust among the Arabs. More than hundred years later, this agreement is still mentioned in the current conflicts and disputes in the respective regions of the Middle East.

## Historical context

The Ottoman Empire, under the rule of the Committee of Union and Progress, entered the war in autumn 1914 on the side of the Central Powers (the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Kingdom of Bulgaria, and initially the Kingdom of Italy) and was therefore opposed to the Triple Entente (the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire). The Sykes–Picot Agreement was concluded with the British and the French expecting victory against the Central Powers and thus the demise of the Ottoman Empire.

### British and French interests in Middle East

As scholars have argued, the Sykes-Picot Agreement was signed to further the colonial and strategic interests of the British and the French in the Middle East and to settle their rivalry, rather than to create viable states after the war.

The main interest of the British was to secure their access to the Mediterranean Sea and thus their route to India, as well as access to the Iraqi oil fields. In the early 20th century, oil replaced coal as the most important resource since it was a lighter raw material.That led to an increasing dependence on oil, which was inaccessible on British soil.

The French were interested in securing access to the Mediterranean through the port of Tyre, Lebanon, as well as getting their longstanding claims to Mount Lebanon and Damascus validated.

### Russian and Italian agreement

For the Sykes-Picot Agreement to pass, Britain and France needed to satisfy the Russians. In exchange for his approval of the treaty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov and French Ambassador Maurice Paléologue concluded the Saznov-Paléologue Agreement in May 1916. Both agreed that the Russian Empire would get Western Armenia, in addition to the already-attributed Constantinople and Turkish Straits. Italy also knew about the agreement and was convinced by the promise of southern Anatolia in the St-Jean-de-Maurienne Agreement in 1917.

The Saznov-Paléologue Agreement, the St-Jean-de-Maurienne Agreement, the Balfour Declaration (between the British and the Zionists) and the Sykes-Picot Agreement, along with a handful of others concerning the expected partition of the Ottoman Empire, are often referred to as the "Secret Treaties".

### Hussein-McMahon correspondence

Prior to starting negotiations with the French, the British had already discussed the future of Greater Syria with Sharif Hussein, the Emir of Mecca, in 1915. In what is known as the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, the British diplomat Sir Henry McMahon promised the Arabs an independent state in Greater Syria. In return, Hussein would incite the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

## Regional division

Geographically, the agreement primarily focused on the provinces outside of the Arabian Peninsula. A line separated Zone A (under indirect French rule) from Zone B (under indirect British rule). Zone A included the major inland cities of Syria, as well as the Iraqi city of Mosul. Zone B stretched from Iraq to the Sinai borders of Egypt.

A blue zone along the eastern Mediterranean coastline and parts of what is now Turkey was supposed to be placed under direct French rule. The United Kingdom was supposed to have direct control over the Iraqi provinces of Basra and Baghdad (the red zone), as well as parts of what is now Israel, to ensure British access to the Mediterranean. Palestine was supposed to be placed under international administration.

The Arab state that McMahon had promised to Hussein was now supposed to be under indirect British and French control. That has led historians to call the Sykes-Picot Agreement "a startling piece of double-dealing" by the British and an "outrageous example of imperial perfidy".

## Conflicting promises and consequences

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks, who now ruled Russia, released a series of secret documents. Among those that were published was the Sykes–Picot Agreement. The publication made visible the conflicting promises that the British had made concerning Ottoman territory to the French, Hussein and other Arabs, and the Zionists (in the Balfour Declaration).

### Postwar Sykes-Picot Line

The agreement is often accused of having "drawn lines in the sand", artificially dividing the Middle East without regard to ethnic or cultural factors. In fact, the agreement was never fully implemented. It was at the San Remo Conference (1920) and theTreaty of Lausanne (1923) that the lines were definitely drawn. They decided who was going to govern (directly and indirectly) which parts of the partitioned Ottoman Empire, and Turkey wanted to rule areas that the French had initially hoped to govern. Although the agreement was not implemented in its original form, the British and French indeed secured strategically-important lands. The Arabs, on the other hand, did not see the promised establishment of an independent Arab kingdom and so felt betrayed.

### Modern politics

The year 2016 marked the 100th anniversary of the Sykes–Picot Agreement, which was heavily debated given its frequent mention by ISIS, which released a video, "The End of Sykes-Picot", in 2014. ISIS claimed that to create a unified Islamic state, it intended to reverse the effects of the Sykes–Picot Agreement.

## Related pages

- Balfour Declaration of 1917
- Treaty of Lausanne, July 1923