The Middle East was ruled at the turn of the century by the Ottoman Empire out of Istanbul. The governor of Mecca which is the Holy city of Islam has the title of Sharif ("noble") rather than Wali ("governor"). In 1908, Husayn Ibn Ali was appointed Sharif of Mecca by the Ottoman Caliph.
His appointment marked the beginning of a series of events that led to the fragmentation of the Middle East as we know it today. The reader will note that three decisive events are in bold type and underlined. They are three contradictory promises made by the British to three different parties: the Arabs, the French and the Zionists. Precisely because they are contradictory, they could only be fulfilled partially and at the expense of each others. This is, in a nutshell, the source of all the Middle East problems.
| 1908 | Husayn (or Hussein) Ibn Ali became Sharif of Mecca; his sons are:
Ali (1879), Abdallah (1882) who is the grand-father of King Hussein of Jordan,
Faysal (1886), and Zayd (1900) from a Turkish mother (see T.E.Lawrence's Note on Sharif Husayn Family)
|
| mid-1915 | Damascus Protocol: Members of the secret societies in Damascus,
such as al-`Ahd, al-Fataat and al-'Ikhaa' al-Arabii drafted a document defining
the territories that were to be Arab and independent (Greater Syria, Mesopotamia
and the Arabian peninsula) as a condition to cooperate with Great Britain
against Turkey; Faysal brought the document to Mecca so that his father Husayn
could use it as spokesman of the Arabs (see British connection to Arab National
Movement at the following address: http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914m/arabetuk.html)
|
| Jul 1915-Jan 1916 | Husayn-McMahon Correspondence:
a deal between Britain and Sharif Husayn of Mecca for an independent
Arab Kingdom in return for a rebellion against the Ottomans; as many
as 10 letters were exchanged between Sharif Husayn and Sir Henry McMahon,
the British High Commissioner to Egypt (Map
showing the area of Arab independence as defined by Sharif Husayn and the
aea excluded from Arab independence as defined by Sir Henry McMahon;
see also: close
up showing the area excluded; see also: text
of McMahon letter) |
| Jan 3, 1916 |
Sykes-Picot Agreement:
division of Arab lands between Britain and France without the knowledge of
Sharif Husayn. The Agreement, which was officially released by the British
Government in 1936, was exposed in 1917 by the Bolshevik Revolution. Czarist
Russia was involved in it, it was supposed to get Constantinople and large
parts of Eastern Turkey, Armenia and Kurdistan. The division of Arab lands
was to take the form of (1) zones of direct administration: the Mediterranean
coastal line to the French (blue zone in the map) and the area from Baghdad
to Basra to the British (red zone in the map); and (2) spheres of influence
made up of the inland regions: the northern half, including Mosul, to the
French (zone A in the map) and the southern part to the British (zone B
in them map); Palestine would be under international administration (orange
zone in the map). The Agreement was approved by the British and French cabinets
at the beginning of February 1916 (Map
showing the partition of Syria and Iraq as devised in the Sykes-Picot Agreement)
(see also: text
of Sykes-Picot Agreement) |
| Jun 1916 |
the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman was proclaimed as promised in
Husayn-McMahon Correspondence; Faysal was the commander of the Arab army
|
| Oct 29, 1916 | the Ulema (Muslim Scholars) of Mecca declared Husayn, King of the
Arabs; Britain and France recognized him as King of Hijaz only; Ibn Sa'uud
was in control of Central Arabia (Najd) |
| Mar 11,1917 | Gen. Stanley Maude captured Baghdad after defeating the Ottomans;
Basra was captured on Nov 22, 1914, initially to secure British position
in the Persian Gulf and protect oil supplies from Persia |
| Nov 2, 1917 | Balfour Declaration: The
British government views "with favour the establishment in
Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people...it being understood
that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights
of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political
status enjoyed by Jews in any other country." Weizmann was unhappy that the
original language has been watered down. A preliminary Zionist draft reads
as follows: "His Majesty's Government accepts the principle that Palestine
should be reconstituted as the National Home of the Jewish People," without
safeguard clauses for Palestinian natives or for non-Zionist Jews. Deceptively,
his ultimate objective was a Jewish state. Both Balfour and Lloyd George
told Churchill that "by the Declaration they always meant an eventual Jewish
State". Herzl himself wrote in his Diaries: "at Basle (the first Zionist
Congress in 1897), I founded the Jewish State". The Declaration publication
in Palestine was delayed for two and half years (see text
of Balfour Declaration). |
| Dec 11, 1917 | Allenby entered Jerusalem ending the Turkish rule of Palestine |
| Jan 8, 1918 | The Fourteen Points of President Wilson: outlined to a joint
session of congress. Point XII calls for self-determination for peoples
under Ottoman rule. "... the other nationalities which are now under Turkish
rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested
opportunity of autonomous development..." For the full text, see: http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918/14points.html
|
| Feb 11, 1918 | The Four Principles: Speaking to the Congress, President Wilson
defined the Four principles upon which the peace settlement should be made.
Principle 2: That peoples and provinces are not to be bartered about from
sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were chattels or pawns in a game;
Principle 3: Every territorial settlement involved in this war must be made
in the interest and for the benefit of the populations concerned. (For the
full text, see: http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918/wilpeace.html)
|
| Jul 4, 1918 | The Four Ends: In his speech, President Wilson defined the
Four ends for which the United States and its allies were fighting. It includes
"The settlement of every question... upon the basis of the free acceptance
of that settlement by the people immediately concerned, and not upon the
basis of the material interest or advantage of any other nation..."
|
| Jun 16, 1918 | The Declaration to the Seven: The Arab secret societies worried
about the Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot Agreement elected a committee
of seven to negotiate with Britain which issued a Declaration containing
two assurances: (1) that Britain will continue to work for the liberation
of those countries still under Turkish rule and (2) that no regime will be
set up in any of them that was not acceptable to their populations
|
| Oct 1, 1918 | Faysal captured Damascus |
| Nov 8, 1918 | The Anglo-French Declaration: To allay Husayn's fear from Balfour
Declaration and Syke-Picot Agreement, a more specific declaration was issued:
"The object aimed by France and Great Britain ... is the complete and definite
emancipation of the [Arab] peoples and the establishment of national governments
and administrations deriving their authority from the initiative and free
choice of the indigenous populations" (see: text
of Declaration) |
| Jan 3, 1919 | Faysal-Weizmann Agreement: "...to encourage and stimulate immigration
of Jews into Palestine on a large scale" on the condition that "the Arab
peasant and tenant farmers shall be protected in their rights" (Article IV).
In a post scriptum, Faysal made his consent to sign the Agreement
conditional on the fulfillment of the pledges made to the Arabs: "Provided
that the Arabs obtain their independence as demanded ... I shall concur
in the above articles. But if the slightest modification or departure were
to be made I shall not be bound by a single word of the present Agreement"
(see full
text of the Agreement) |
| 1919-1920 | Paris Peace Conference: On Jan 18, opening the Conference which
inaugurated the international settlement after Wold War I. Major products
of the conference were (1). the Covenant of the League of Nations,
approved on April 28; (2) the Treaty of Versailles which established
the mandate system was signed on June 28. The formal inauguration of the
League of Nations on Jan 16, 1920 brought the Paris conference to an end.
Article 22 of the Covenant reads: "To those colonies or territories which
are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves ... the tutelage
of such people should be entrusted to advanced nations" (map
showing the Zionist proposals for a Zionist state as submitted to the Paris
Peace Conference) (see full
text of Article 22). |
| Feb 15, 1919 | A note in which the French government formally accepted the amendment
of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, according to which Mosul would have been under
French rule and Palestine under a special international regime. French accepted
that Mosul and Palestine being placed within the British sphere in return
for the assignment of a substantial share of the Mosul oil to France and for
British help in getting back the Alsace and Lorraine |
| May 29 - Aug 28, 1919 | King-Crane Commission Recommendations: it was supposed to be
an inter-allied commission composed of an equal number of French, British,
Italian and American representatives to inquire into the state of public
opinion and ascertain the wishes of its inhabitants in relation to the mandates
in Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia. According to Anthony Nutting in his
book The Arabs, "Britain and France backed out rather than find
themselves confronted by recommendations from their own appointed delegates
which might conflict with their policies". The recommendation of the Americans
Henry King and Charles Crane was that Greater Syria should be under a single
mandate with Faysal the king of the new Syrian state and that the Zionist
program should be modified. They were so much out of line of what the British
and the French wanted that they were not made public until three years later.
For the text of the Report see: http://www.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/kncr.htm
|
| Mar 8, 1920 | A general Syrian Congress elected Faysal King of Syria |
| Apr 19-26, 1920 | San Remo Conference: The conference approved the final framework
of a peace treaty with Turkey which was later signed at Sèvres on
Aug. 20, 1920. It divided Arab lands into separate states under mandates.
Britain got Palestine (which extends east and west of the River Jordan) and
Iraq. France got Syria and Lebanon. In the terms of the mandate for Palestine,
the Balfour Declaration was quoted in full. An Anglo-French oil agreement
was also concluded providing France with 25 percent share of Iraqi oil in
return for the inclusion of Mosul in the British mandate of Iraq. (For the
text of The Treaty of Sèvres, see: http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/sevres1.html)
(See also the text
of The San Remo Confernce) |
| Jul 24, 1920 | the French defeated Faysal at Maysaluun |
| Mar 12-22, 1921 | Winston Churchill, Colonial Secretary, convened in Cairo a Conference
at the Semiramis Hotel to determine how the Arab World should be run. Faysal
was to be offered the throne of Mesopotamia, and his brother Abdallah was
to be offered a position in Eastern Palestine, renamed Trans-Jordan and
later the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan |
| Aug 23, 1921 | King Faysal officially assumed power as King of Iraq |
| Jul 22, 1922 | The League of Nations formally approved the Palestine Mandate (see
text)
after amending it to restrict it to Western Palestine, requesting Britain
to carry the Balfour Declaration and recognizing "the historical connection
of the Jewish people" to Palestine. Zionists wanted to have it read: "Recognizing
the historic rights of the Jews to Palestine" (map
showing the British and French mandates in the Middle East) |
| 1924 | the Kingdom of Hijaz disappeared when Mecca capitulated to the Wahhaabii forces under the leadership of Ibn Sa'uud; Sharif Husayn of Mecca fled to Aqaba |
Britain wanted a treaty with Sharif Husayn to moderate his opposition
to Britain's Mideast policy in Palestine. Abdallah urged his father to sign,
but he refused. Meanwhile, Ibn Sa'uud strategy was to conquer the Arabian
Peninsula, including the Hijaz and he did. Husayn fled to Aqaba and from there
Britain moved him to Cyprus and did not allow him to go to Amman until he
became mortally ill six years later in 1930.
| Oct 10, 1922 | First Anglo-Iraqi Treaty: It embodied the provisions of the
mandate, safeguarded the judicial rights of foreigners and guaranteed British
interests; Britain would have control over Iraq's foreign and defense policies
|
| Jun 30, 1930 | Second Anglo-Iraqi Treaty: It established a close alliance
between the two countries for a period of 25 years and that "there shall
be full and frank consultation between them in all matter of foreign policy
which may affect their common interest". RAF was to be maintained in Iraq
to ensure the security of imperial communications |
| June 4, 1931 | Sharif Husayn died at age of 78 in Amman and was buried in Jerusalem |
| Oct 3, 1932 | Iraq became member of the League of Nations following the termination of the mandate |
| Sep 7, 1933 | Faysal King of Iraq died; his son king Ghaazii succeeded him |
| Apr 3, 1939 | King Ghaazii died in a car accident; his son King Faysal II who was only four years old succeeded him, his maternal uncle Abdul 'Ilaah was declared Regent |
| Jul 14, 1958 | King Faysal II was killed in a military coup (the 1958 revolution);
Iraq became a republic under 'Abd al-Kariim Qaasim as prime minister and
'Abd al-Salaam 'Arif as his deputy; the presidency was entrusted to a three-member
Sovereignty Council (Majlis al-Siyaada) comprising a Sunni, a Shia and a
Kurd but it never had any authority |
| Nov. 1958 | A split between Qaasim and 'Arif over the pace with which they should
move towards union with Egypt and Syria led to the arrest of the latter
|
| Feb 8, 1963 | Ba'th coup (the 1963 revolution), Qaasim was killed; on the basis of an alliance between the Ba'thists and Arab Nationalists, 'Arif became president of the National Council of the Revolutionary Command and the Ba'thist Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr, prime minister |
The Ba'th party, a secular socialist party, was founded in Syria on
April 7, 1947 by Michel 'Aflaq. It emphasizes that the Arabs are one nation.
The party's Regional Leadership (qiyaada qutriyya) is supposed to be the highest
party's authority in each Arab country. The party's National Leadership (qiyaada
qawmiyya) is supposed to be the highest party authority at the pan-Arab level.
| Nov 18, 1963 | The Ba'thists were pushed out of the alliance, including the prime-minister al-Bakr in 1964 |
| Apr 13, 1966 | The Nationalist 'Abd al-Salaam 'Arif was killed in a helicopter crash,
his brother 'Abd al-Rahmaan 'Arif took over; the regime had to sustain two
attempted coups in September 1965 and June 1966 |
| Jul 17, 1968 | a bloodless military coup (the 1968 revolution) by a
group of Ba'thists officers brought back Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr to power, he
was president, prime minister and commander in chief |
| July 17, 1979 | al-Bakr because of poor health stepped down, Saddam Hussein replaced him; Saddam Hussein survived two attempted coups in 1982 and 1983 |
The Problem with Iran
| Jul 4, 1937 | The Frontier Treaty was signed between Iraq and Persia in Teheran.
The Treaty stipulated that the frontiers would run along Shatt al-'Arab
River on its left (eastern) bank, except for a minor section (8 km) of it,
opposite of 'Abadaan where the frontier was established on the basis of the
thalweg principle, i.e., the river depth mid-line |
| Apr 19, 1969 | The Iranian government announced the abrogation of the Frontier Treaty
of 1937 after the Shah advanced the claim that the Shatt al-'Arab was a
border river between the two states and that it should be divided according
to the thalweg line |
| Mar 6, 1975 | The Algiers Accord: a boundary line was agreed upon along the
waterway in accordance with the thalweg principle; in return Iran
will cease supporting the Kurds |
| Feb 11, 1979 | The Shah of Iran was toppled by the Khomeini revolution; Iran started
helping the Kurds and Iraq started encouraging the Arabs living in Khuzestan
to demand autonomy |
| Sep 17, 1980 | Saddam Hussein announced in an Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly the abrogation of the Algiers Accord of 1975 |
| Sep 22, 1980 | A full-scale war broke out between Iraq and Iran |
| Aug 20, 1988 | The Iraq-Iran war ended |
The Problem with the Kurds
| Aug 10, 1920 | The Treaty of Sèvres, which abolished the Ottoman Empire,
obliged Turkey to renounce all rights over Arab Asia and North Africa and
provided for an independent Armenia and for an autonomous Kurdistan for
the 18 million Kurds (see The Treaty of Sèvres at the following address:
http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/sevres1.html)
|
| 1922-1923 | Conference of Lausanne: Because of Turkish opposition (Turkey
has 12 million Kurds) and the indifference of the West, the Treaty of Sèvres
was not enforced. The Conference ended with the conclusion of a peace treaty
between the World War I Allied Powers and the Turkish Republic. The Treaty
recognized the boundaries that Turkey has retained subsequently. Turkey
made no claim to its former Arab provinces and the Allies dropped their demands
of autonomy for Turkish Kurdistan and Turkish cession of territory to Armenia
(see The Treaty of Lausanne at the following address: http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918p/lausanne.html)
|
| 1930 | The leading intellectual center in Kurdistan was Sulaymaaniyya. The
leadership of Kurdish opposition was in the hand of the Barzaanii family
headed by Mulla Mustafa who combined tribal and religious appeals (see map
of Kurdistan) |
| 1946 | Demands of a secular character were formulated by Kurdish intellectuals.
This led to the establishment of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). Kurdistan
remained the major military commitment of the Iraqi army until the end of
the monarchy |
| 1958 | After the 1958 revolution, the Shah abandoned his former policy of
cooperating with Baghdad and began using the 4 million Iraqi Kurds to weaken
Iraq. Later, Israel joined the Shah to keep the Kurdish insurgency alive
|
| Sep 1961 | Qaasim launched a military campaign against the Kurds; by February
1963 two-thirds of the Iraqi army was committed to the struggle in Kurdistan
|
| 1964 | 'Arif tried a new strategy to divide the Kurds; a cease-fire arranged
with Barzaanii led the intellectuals to throw in their lot with their leader
Jalaal al-Taalabaanii who founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Barazaanii employed the cease-fire to import arms from Iran |
| 1966 | The new regime drew up proposals to grant Kurds greater autonomy,
but it was not implemented; more fighting took place |
| Mar 11, 1970 | The March Manifesto of Kurdish Autonomy granted the Kurds local
autonomy after the rebellion became to costly to Iraq; the agreement broke
down and in 1974 war was resumed |
| 1975 | Kurdish resistance collapsed after the withdrawal of Iranian support
following the Algiers Agreement. Barzaanii fled to the US where he died
in 1979 and his sons, Idriis and Mas'uud took control of the remnants of
KDP |
| 1980 | After the outbreak of Iran-Iraq war, the Kurdish resistance gathered
strength again with Iranian support |
| 1988 | With the end of the Iran war, Iraq turned its attention to the Kurdish
rebels; a campaign in the north smashed the rebellion, particularly KDP.
Chemical weapons are said to have been used in this offensive |
| 1991 | After the Gulf War, the U.S. declared a no-fly zone north of the 36°
parallel to protect the Kurds |
| 1992 | Kurdish elections ended in a dead heat between KDP and PUK |
| Apr 1995 | Kurds established a parliament in exile in The Hague |
The problem of the Kurds of Kurdistan is that the majority of the Kurds (about 70 percent) live in Turkey. The U.S., however, is concentrating its efforts on helping the Kurds of Iraq against the Iraqi government because it suits American interest to weaken Saddam Hussein. The fact is that Turkey, like Iraq, is pursuing policies tantamount to genocide against Turkish Kurds.
In his review of the book A Modern History of the Kurds published in the New York Times Book Review (March 10, 1996), Marvin Zones of the University of Chicago said: "The United States prefers to maintain the Kurds in the north (of Iraq) as semi-independent of Baghdad. A weak but unified Iraq appears very much the goal of our present policy. Of course, America pays only a slight price for this state of indefinite paralysis. The Kurds and the rest of the Iraqi people pay dearly." Marvin Zones also points out that in comparison to Iraq, "Turkey has been the most resolute and vicious."
The U.S., however, has given Turkey carte blanche to solve the Kurdish
conflict in Turkey in any way its sees fit. Iraqi Kurds are seen as "good"
Kurds who have an important role to play within the framework of large-scale
American maneuvers against Saddam Hussein. Turkish Kurds, on the other hand,
are the "bad" Kurds who should be punished.
The Problem with Kuwait
| Jul 1990 | Saddam Hussein accused Kuwait of waging an economic warfare by exceeding
its quota of oil production which held down the price of oil. He also accused
Kuwait of stealing oil from the Iraqi portion of an oil field straddling
the border |
| Aug 2, 1990 | Iraq invaded Kuwait |
| Aug 8, 1990 | Iraq annexed Kuwait as its 19th province |
| Jan 15, 1991 | The Gulf War started |
