AVC Multimedia e-Book Series e-Book#3: AGBU 100 Years of History (Vol. I) | Page 71

The Ottoman defeat confirmed that France and Great Britain were the dominant colonial powers in the Middle East. Until the War, these two powers had maintained a presence in the region by way of their economic investments and educational establishments; once the Empire collapsed, the French and British proceeded to occupy certain areas directly. As provided for by the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, they carved up the Empire’s Arab provinces and Cilicia between them. The French zone comprised Syria, Lebanon, and Cilicia, while the British zone included Palestine, Iraq, and Jordan.

In theory, the newly conquered territories were to be administered as mandates under League of Nations jurisdiction, and the Mandatory powers were supposed to work toward the independence of the states under their mandate. In fact, this definition of the duties of the British and French was, as can easily be imagined, a facade for a direct occupation of unlimited duration that allowed the two Allies to extend their colonial empires. The Franco-British alliance did not, however, survive the post-War years. The strategic stakes in the region were so high that the traditional confrontation between the two European powers was inevitably played out again on the Near Eastern stage, bringing their alliance to an unambiguous end.

The collapse of the Ottoman political order also gave rise to a pair of forces of considerable importance in the region: Arab and Turkish nationalism. Faced with the prospect of the dismemberment of the Empire, these two nascent forces sought to create a new regional order reflecting their own interests. Read all

The Armenian Refugees in the Near East

Mihran Damadian (1864-1945), a native of Constantinople, Hnchag fedayi in Sasun in 1894, writer, founder of the Ramgavar Party, and one of the main Cilician Armenian leaders from 1919 to 1921 (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).