Carmela M.

Constantino October 3, 2017

2014-63111 SSP2

How did the Sykes-Picot Agreement change the political landscape in the Middle East?

According to Aljazeera (n.d), Sykes-Picot is a secret agreement between the Great Britain

and France with the approval of Russia to divide the Middle East of Asia in 1916 after the World

War 1. France will control Southeastern Turkey, Southern Iraq, Lebanon and a city state in Syria.

British will also govern Southeastern Iraq and the port of Haifa, which is adjacent to the

Mediterranean Sea and the harbor can be the terminal for Mesopotamian oil. Palestine, will be

under the British, France and Russia. Russia will govern Istanbul, and Anatolia in Armenia.

Before the Allied Forces came to Middle East, the boundaries that split the countries were

natural boundaries such as mountains and rivers. However, the agreement allowed the Allied to

split the countries with some straight lines without taking into account the political preferences,

local identities, ethic and religious differences of the countries involved (Wright, 2016). Decades

later, this division of Middle East still defines the conflict of the region at present. Problems in

Middle eastern countries are usually caused by territorial boundaries.

The occupation and control of Allied countries brought Middle East into individualized

countries. It also differentiated the countries in terms of political system, culture, and religion. And

most importantly the occupation of the Arab lands created turmoil between middle eastern

countries in terms of their boundaries.

How does the current political instability in the Middle East affect you as a Filipino? Why

should you be concerned?

As a Filipino, we should be more concerned on the current political instability in Middle

East because we get most of our petroleum products from Middle East since we cannot still

produce from our own resources. Slight conflicts that arises in Middle East would usually result

in higher price in petroleum products here in the Philippines since it would be difficult and costly

for us to import the products to the Philippines. Petroleum products are very important in everyday

aspects of lives in every country, because we use these to transport everything that we consume.

An increase in petroleum products would result to change in price in our local commodities such

as food and electricity that could lead to shaky economic ground of the country.

References
A century on: Why Arabs resent Sykes-Picot. (n.d.). Retrieved from Aljazeera:
https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2016/sykes-picot-100-years-middle-east-
map/index.html
Wright, R. (2016, April 30). How the Curse of Sykes-Picot Still Haunts the Middle East.
Retrieved from The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-
curse-of-sykes-picot-still-haunts-the-middle-east