(May 1916) A secret agreement negotiated between British and French diplomats in the Middle East, Sir Mark Sykes and Georges Picot. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, France was to be pre-eminent in Syria (including Lebanon), southern Anatolia, and northern Mesopotamia (Mosul). Britain would establish protectorates in southern Mesopotamia (Baghdad and Basra), the Persian Gulf, Arabia and the Hejaz, Palestine, and the Jordan Valley. Thus Egypt would be linked with the British Indian Empire. Russia was to have a free hand in Armenia and northern Kurdistan. A copy of the agreement was published by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution. This caused international dismay and Arab anger, as it was the promise of British support for Arab independence which had incited the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1916. The Sykes–Picot Agreement formed the basis of the League of Nations settlement for the Middle East in 1920.
A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. © 2008
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