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Sykes-Picot
Agreement
Redrawing
The Map Of The Middle East
The Sunday Edition - with Michael Enright -
CBC Radio
February
29, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- One hundred years ago, in May 1916, an English
diplomat named Robert Sykes and a French
counterpart, François Georges-Picot, carved up the
Middle East into spheres of influence for their
countries in the event that the British and French
and their allies defeated the Ottoman Empire, which
was allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary in the
First World War.
It became known as a Sykes-Picot Agreement,
although it was supposed to remain secret, and it
laid the groundwork for the borders that would later
define Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the
kingdoms of the Arabian peninsula.
The future of those borders, porous as they are,
is a little doubtful now. Some say that's when the
trauma really began.
Michael's guest is Tarek Osman,
host of the BBC Radio 4 series The Making of the
Modern Arab World.
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