Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916

an agreement concluded between Great Britain and France on the division of the Asian, primarily Arab, possessions of the Ottoman Empire. Prepared by the British diplomat M. Sykes and the French diplomat F. Georges-Picot, the agreement was coordinated with the tsarist government in March 1916 and concluded in London in the form of an exchange of notes between May 9 and 16.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement provided for British domination, both through outright annexation and through spheres of influence, in Iraq (south of Mosul), Transjordan, and certain emirates of the Arabian peninsula and French domination in Lebanon, Syria, northern Iraq, and southeastern Anatolia. Palestine, with the exception of Haifa and Acre, which went to Great Britain, came under an international administration whose form was to be determined later. With this accord, Britain violated its commitment to create an independent Arab state, a commitment formalized in an exchange of letters between the British High Commissioner in Egypt, McMahon, and Sherif Husain (Hussein) of Mecca.

After World War I, the Sykes-Picot Agreement was revised in Britain’s favor. However, implementation of the agreement with regard to Turkish territories was upset by the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia and the triumph of the Kem-alist Revolution in Turkey. In November 1917 the text of the Sykes-Picot Agreement was published by the Soviet government on instructions from V. I. Lenin. The exposed policy of the colonialists aroused tremendous indignation among the Arabs of the Middle East.