The War On Terror (Part 002)

The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was a Turkish based empire that controlled much of the lands of Arabia and North Africa. They also made serious forays into Southern Europe. The empire was at its height during the 16th century after which there was a steady decline. The Arabs had revolted against Turkish rule on several occasions but these had been crushed.
The Arabs had always considered themselves one people, divided into clans and tribes. Their aspiration was to have independence and recreate the Caliphates (empires) that ruled between the 8th and 12th centuries AD.
In 1914, Europe descended into a conflict known as the First World War. The Ottoman Empire joined the war on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They fought against the UK, France, Russia (for the first three years) and USA (for the last year).
The UK decided that it was important to break up the Ottoman Empire. A British military officer, T E Lawrence (known as Lawrence of Arabia), spent time in the Arabian provinces of the Ottoman Empire attempting to persuade the various Arab leaders to fight the Turks. The UK offered help with arms and money. The Arabs were promised that at the end of the War, they would be granted independence.
However, the UK and the other European powers had no intention of granting the Arabs their independence.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement

During the First World War, the UK and France put together a plan to split up the Arab lands between themselves at the end of the War. The Sykes-Picot Agreement (dated 1916 and named after the ministers involved in the negotiations) provided for the following:

The Kurdish part of eastern Turkey and the Arabic coastal strip of Lebanon (Blue Zone) would become a French colony.

A triangle bound by Damascus, Allepo and Mosul (A Zone) would be under French influence.

The area between Baghdad and Basra and the strip along the Arabian Gulf, including Kuwait (Red Zone) would become a UK colony.

The largely nomadic desert region between the River Jordan and Persia and including Amman (B Zone) would be under UK influence.

Palestine (including Jerusalem and Gaza) would be under joint control of UK, France and Russia. In 1917, Russia had a revolution and pulled out of the War and the Agreement.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement

Note that the Agreement ignores the cultural and linguistic realities of the region. The historic land of the Kurds (Kurdistan) would fall in the northern part of the Blue Zone and in the eastern part of Zone A. No regard was made of the aspirations and unity of the Kurdish people by the Europeans. Similarly, Arabs would find themselves split over several different regions; often families would end up on opposite sides of the border.
In the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the USA and UK, there was much talk in the media about "foreign fighters" in the country. To the West this meant people crossing the artificial borders from Syria to Iraq rather than the English speakers from half way around the world (USA and UK).
To the people of the region this was a return to the policies and aspirations of the Crusades of 900 years earlier.
At the end of the First World War, Turkey declared its independence and managed to hang on to a large region of Kurdistan (including the bulk of the northern Blue Zone).
France captured a region in the north that became Syria and Lebanon. During the War, the Arabs had taken Damascus from the Turks and declared independence. After the War France re-took the city and made it into a colony.
The UK created Iraq and Transjordan (later Jordan). Both began as colonies but were eventually turned into monarchies with the installation of pro-West kings. Iraq itself was an artificial entity made up of a Kurdish north, a Sunni Muslim heartland and a Shia Muslim south. The Sunnis and Shias are different sects of Islam (much like Catholic and Protestant in Christianity).
Palestine and Yemen (then known as Aden) also became UK colonies.
The UK created or recognised a number of Gulf states, each with a pro-UK monarch in place: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia (with an absolute monarch) were all under UK influence.
Egypt had long been a UK colony while Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia were French colonies.
Both UK and France massacred any dissidents agitating for independence. The puppet monarchs ensured that foreign (mainly UK) companies prospered and, essentially, policed their populations for the European (and later USA) rulers behind the scenes.