The secret pact that became a scapegoat for all of the Middle East’s problems
Britain claimed control over a vast belt of land, including most of what's now Iraq, Jordan and sections of what's now Israel. France envisioned dominion over most of the Levantine coast, a chunk of southern Turkey and control over the populous Ottoman districts of Aleppo (now in Syria) and Mosul (now in Iraq). Under this same set of clandestine agreements, other World War I allies, including Turkey and Russia exerted their own claims on parts of Turkey; the Russians long sought to rule over Istanbul and restore the primacy of the Orthodox Church in what was once the great capital of the Byzantines.
Ultimately, though, the specific Sykes-Picot blueprint never turned into reality. Its existence only became public information after it was revealed by Russian sources following the Soviet revolution. And the collapse of the Ottoman empire, subsequent treaties, and shifting colonial interests all led to a map of a region with borders very different from what the diplomatic duo first agreed in 1916, as a graphic published by the Economist shows.
But the template for a century of crises and dysfunction was, in a sense, set.
The great desire for an independent Arab nation was first encouraged then betrayed. The British eventually installed kings to govern new, fledgling countries in Iraq and Jordan; they also sped the advent of a Zionist state, much to the ire of the Palestinians living in its midst. French colonial planners baked in sectarian divisions when they established modern Syria and Lebanon. And the Kurds, a stateless ethnic minority, went ignored.
Mais
Ultimately, though, the specific Sykes-Picot blueprint never turned into reality. Its existence only became public information after it was revealed by Russian sources following the Soviet revolution. And the collapse of the Ottoman empire, subsequent treaties, and shifting colonial interests all led to a map of a region with borders very different from what the diplomatic duo first agreed in 1916, as a graphic published by the Economist shows.
The great desire for an independent Arab nation was first encouraged then betrayed. The British eventually installed kings to govern new, fledgling countries in Iraq and Jordan; they also sped the advent of a Zionist state, much to the ire of the Palestinians living in its midst. French colonial planners baked in sectarian divisions when they established modern Syria and Lebanon. And the Kurds, a stateless ethnic minority, went ignored.
Mais
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário