it's grim trains more for. the cook with a view of the main feature of. the book but this was a war fought on many fronts. so there's another story rarely told. of huge importance during the war. and of lasting significance. the story of troops halt and die but who are often forgotten. tom given the outcome that shaped the middle east of today. this is gold more one through our local guy.

who. managed to reeky it's an izzy and writer and broadcaster is taking us on a personal journey across a dozen countries. his grandfather's generation fault in the war. so far he's looked at the contributions made by arab north african troops conscripted by the british and french colonial powers in north africa. and out. and

why the ottoman empire joins germany in the war. pitting it's our troops against their muslim brothers fighting for the allies. and as alterman fortunes declined how the europeans russians and arrows look to fill the power vacuum. the clock is for michael jordan marianna don't ever with money how about a good many of the libya a little out of it or at this our man at the thought of what to do. in this episode he sees how the shape of a new middle east was decided in secret by british and french diplomats if you look at a map at the beginning of the war you have an ottoman empire that ruled over a tiny sliver of europe all of the anatolian peninsula southwestern asia parts of north africa parts of the arabian peninsula at the end of the war that's got. how britain made separate promises to three different interest groups that were all

incompatible with each other according to the hussein macmahon correspondence palestine belong to an arab state according to the sykes because green meant palestine was going to be internationalized according to the balfour declaration was going to go to the jews so how do you square that circle. and how this colonial self-interest blew away the nationalist hopes of millions of arabs for post-war independence. this is whitehall the center of power from way out of the british imperial establishment decided to destroy their own of the allies the ultimate empire and create a new order in the arab east. the arabs are still living with the consequences

though this very day. almost as soon as the ultimate empire joined the war in november one thousand nine hundred fourteen the european allies began staking their claims. in march nine hundred fifteen russia announced it wanted istanbul and the straits linking the black sea to the mediterranean. france accepted russia's claim and set out its own plans. they wanted the southeast turkish coast and greater syria. then in june one thousand nine hundred fifteen britain announced it wanted the whole western coast of the arabian gulf plus all of mesopotamia. britain also wanted to control a strip of land from there to haifa in which to build a railway it would give them an alternative route to india and one day might carry gulf oil. the british already had serious interest the ottoman empire they'd

already up by egypt they'd already moved to the gulf states they already had interests in southern mesopotamia they already had oriel interests in the gulf so the war suddenly brought all of this then right to the forefront. so in order to achieve this between one hundred fifteen and nineteen seventeen britain entered into three separate agreements which all conflicted with one another. one with the same bin ali the sheriff of mecca to give him an arab state in return for leading a revolt against the ultimates. another with the zionist movement to create a jewish national home in palestine. and a secret pact with its own told ally france to divide the levant and mesopotamia between them don't sissel should say she'll see bows and if it didn't backed out of a t.v. . i don't want to follow this as you said it. will present off

a little bit as on dollars go by pretty. good bit if you all don't imply one will die none of us are down here security by any sponsor secret level does that is it that the are a good fit secret. even if you meet them and all that happened. while the british were still negotiating with sorry for cenovus potential revolt in one thousand nine hundred fifteen they and france appointed delegates to draw up this secret deal for dividing up ottoman territory. the french were represented by shell francois pico the former consul general in beirut and the british by the government's middle east advisor so mark sykes. sykes was from a wealthy english family whose country home was here that's led me a house in yorkshire he had a privileged upbringing and was taken on

a trip to egypt when he was eleven. his knowledge of the middle east had been picked up writing religion and travel books. those sites like the prime minister to think he was an expert in fact he spoke neither turkish nor arabic. speaker was a french lawyer turned diplomat who'd spent several years in beirut and was a staunch supporter of french interests abroad. though they paid lip service to independence for the arab provinces of the ottoman empire the ambitions of their respective countries where their real priorities is never the case that people assume that people like sue mark sykes and other british and the french policy

makers were being disingenuous in their support for the idea of national freedom in the middle east that at base it was just frankly a lie that they weren't sincere in this support for this idea of a new era of national freedom because how could they be when they had their own very clear british french imperial objectives in the middle east. at this stage this was a paper exercise dependent on the course of the war. during the buttons moon of the century doubly moans. and also to the treasury the monkey that really goes should make it about our. country to our need of coquetry lism a don't. look at under suez and choice a year the mountain experience you want to tell me is eight and the ship.

continually. liza to me it isn't a yes no longer but two dollar dollar. lease or shows you'll get it on t.v. i sit on the mantel. see this one is a core. some cans on to the sheriff who say they don't make him a little present. on the. one. just a. day in the world in a little bottle format and always. a world away from the arab provinces at the heart of british government in london so mark sykes prepared for his negotiations with pico he told british prime minister herbert asquith i should like to draw a line from the easy in exile to the last case in kirkuk. and

face to face with george pico that's precisely what he did. he called it practical politics. the psychs pekoe agreement was concluded in a tobar nine hundred sixteen russia supported it on condition that its own claims to autumn and territory were accepted by britain and france. sikes pico drew the map of the middle east in red and blue. the red zone mt the province of baghdad in which the british would have. the right to establish such direct or in directed ministration or controlled as they desire. the blue zone covered. and the syrian coast where france would have the same rights britain also claimed informal control over an area of northern a rabia from kirkuk to gaza. the french claimed the same informal

control over a triangle from mosul to aleppo and damascus this deal was what the palestinian writer george antonius later called a startling piece of double dealing. in june one nine hundred sixty shareef was saying started the arab revolt against the ultimate fulfilling his part of his deal with the british. only four months later sykes pekoe was signed contradicting the british pledge to the arab people. what we have to realize though is that what we see is just play city was actually explained by their ideas of the people of the region the time and it roots of this was their racial outlook at the british policy making nearly at the time of the first one they assumed that these people couldn't possibly believe for a moment that when the british and french talked of national freight and that it

actually meant political independence that would have been a completely crazy idea to their minds because of their racial conviction. that the arab world was backward and to a lesser degree the jewish world to. the psychs pekoe deal remained of british french and russian secret for a year. but after the russian revolution in november one thousand nine hundred seventeen the bolsheviks took russia out of the war the new leaders lenin and trotsky soon discovered that the dishonest government had supported the psych's pekoe agreement. the communist daily newspaper prophet or broke the story of the three european allies deception to the world.

following the revolutionary government's decision to extract russia from the war but of the published what might be its only great exclusive in november one nine hundred seventeen and over the actions of both lenin and trotsky it revealed that the details of the secret psychs because when and thus the soviets uncovered europe's imperial plans to divide the middle east between britain and france. the cat's was out of the bag but difficult to believe it had little immediate impact on the course of the war or on the arab world. all that really mattered now was military conquest boots on the ground politicians could make whatever deals they liked but occupation was nine tenths of the law from the red sea to turkey.

the entire region from. two to the tourist mountains was occupied they were occupied because they were crucially important to british were. more amps because of suez because of egypt because of iraq to india because of the oil fields and in iran and mesopotamia because of the truthful states around the gulf all these were crucial british war aims from the very beginning. but now what to do with all this okie pide land the answer new states whether or not they respected ethnic religious or tribal borders. not only did so mark sykes draw lines on the maps his artistic skills were put to further use. it is the ultimate. mark cites a man so many rosalee detested in the east should be responsible for the design of

the flags the symbol of national sovereignty of so many arab countries jordan iraq syria sudan kuwait yemen the emirates even the p.l.o. the palestine liberation organization. sykes deal with pekoe was never formally enacted on the ground but it did bear a close resemblance to the way the british prime minister and french president carved things up at the end of the war. the partition was a fact of occupation and then the british and the french negotiated and clemenceau and lloyd george themselves negotiated probably in a taxi between victoria station and and ten downing street when clemenceau arriving in london and in december of one nine hundred eighteen so it was completely casual and resisted and opposed by virtually everyone in the region.

so mark sykes died soon after the war aged thirty nine he cast a long shadow across the arab world is.