⬆️ November 1914: Anwar #Pasha of #Turkey aligns with #CentralPowers (#Germany and #Austria-#Hungary) and enters the #GreatWar.

Early 1915: #Russia tells #EntentePartners it wants #Constantinople (now #Istanbul) & #Dardanelles; #Britain & #France reluctantly agree.

#Balfour, #Churchill, & #Kitchener favor annexation of #Arabia, #Palestine, #Mesopotamia (#Iraq) from #Ottomans; #EdwardGrey opposes.

A separate #intrigue was playing out between Turkey, #Arab leaders, & #Hussein (Sharif of Mecca)
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⬆️ Grand Sharif #Hussein secretly dispatched emissaries to main #Arab leaders

1915: #Hussein learns of #Turkish plans to depose him, and to assert #Ottoman control over #Hejaz

#AlAhd & #AlFatat join forces; conceive the #DamascusProtocol, foundation of #ArabRevolt

Implicit in the Damascus Protocol, Grand Sharif Hussein would preside over the "Great Arab State" containing #Palestine.

#Britain Makes Hussein an offer for an independent #sovereign #Muslim State & full control over holy sites!

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Focusing himself more on the #DamascusProtocol than the actual British offer, #Hussein accepted the British offer

#Britain reaffirmed support for independent #Arabia with vague borders & #Arab #Caliphate per #Kitchener's original letter in which it would, in exchange for support from the Arabs (prior to the outbreak of the #GreatWar) guarantee independence, rights & privileges against all foreign aggression, in particular, that of #Ottomans

That offer was NOT based on the Damascus Protocol
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#Hussein was LIVID.

He was under the impression that the #British had agreed to the #DamascusProtocol document, prepared by #Arab secret societies #AlFatat & #AlAhd, declaring that Arabs would revolt in alliance with #UK. In return, UK would recognize Arab independence in the area specified by the Damascus Protocol, as they were ESSENTIAL to the well-being of any future #Arab State

But British had offered VAGUE borders. Immediately after outbreak of #WWI, #McMahon took up the border issue

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With #Turkey entering #WWI against the #British & #Allies, the whole calculation had changed.

#McMahonHusseinCorrespondence that ensued had 2 main reasons:

1. Counteract #Ottoman #jihad against Allies
2. Maintain support of #Muslims in British #India over which the Ottoman #Caliphate had great sway.

It refined the vague borders of the original #Kitchener letter and carved out specific areas from a future #Arabia.

The dispute on this carve-out is the #cruxOfTheMatter in the conflict.

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The dispute regarding the extent of the coastal EXCLUSION in the #McMahonHusseinCorrespondence is at the heart of the #Israeli-#Palestinian conflict. #Zionism is just an adjunct to the conflict, not the primary reason.

#Britain excluded #Districts of #Mersina & #Alexandretta, portions of #Syria west of the districts of #Damascus, #Hama, #Homs & #Aleppo.

They reserved the right to administrative control in the #Vilayets of #Baghdad and #Basra because of their interests in #British #India.

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They reserved areas where #Britain had existing treaties with #Arab chiefs (Aden to Principalities on East Coast)

They reserved territories in which Britain was free to act without detriment to the interests of their ally, #France.

SUBJECT to above modifications, the #British accepted rest of the limits, frontiers, and borders advocated by #DamascusProtocol.

Nov 5, 1915: #Hussein refused to budge on #Arab claims to land west of #Damascus, #Hama, #Homs & Aleppo, including #Alexandretta

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This gave rise to #Britain's #ForwardPolicy, which meant the larger effort to:

1. attack #Alexandretta (now #Iskenderun, a port and naval base on the Mediterranean coast in southern #Turkey), and

2. “roll up #Syria,”

refashioning the #MiddleEast to suit #British imperial interests.

Proponents of the Forward Policy exhorted #London to deal with #Hussein's demands head on.

Speed was of the essence. They believed “if we don’t gain the #Arabs now we might well lose them altogether.”

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A separate drama played out in #India.

November 12, 1915: "Greatly disturbed by the assurances given by #McMahon to the Grand Sherif" #Hussein, Lord #Hardinge in India wanted McMahon to backtrack on #Mesopotamia (#Iraq).

“get McMahon out of the hole into which he has fallen… I devoutly hope that this proposed independent #Arab State will fall to pieces if it is ever created. Nobody could possibly have devised any scheme more detrimental to #British interests in the #MiddleEast than this.”
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Dec 17, 1915: #McMahon nevertheless received "Green Light" to deal with #Hussein pursuant to the #ForwardPolicy after #Kitchener and #Grey prevail over #Hardinge and Austin #Chamberlain (SoS for #India).

Hussein wanted #British as much as they wanted him, and he too was willing to POSTPONE settling the #BorderIssue.

The deferred question of #Syrian, #Lebanese, & #Palestinian borders, and British role in #Mesopotamia (#Iraq) remained a stumbling block.

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The #ThievesBanquet

1. 1915: #Russia wanted #Constantinople (#Istanbul); Invited #Britain & #France to carve out the #Ottoman Empire among themselves

2. #Britain wanted #Suez Canal and land route from #Egypt to #Mesopotamia (#Iraq) and #Persia (#Iran), thence to #India

3. #France wanted #Syria, #Lebanon, & parts of Mesopotamia

Neither #US, nor #Jews in general, nor #Zionism had anything to do with this #GreatPower politics that played out in the #MiddleEast during the #GreatWar (#WWI)

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#SykesPicot Agreement to redraw the map of the #MiddleEast

Both #Britain and #France coveted #Palestine

Both agree to government by #InternationalCondominium

#Russia endorsed Sykes-Picot Agreement, which then became a tripartite agreement

ALL 3 parties kept the Sykes-Picot Agreement secret from Grand Sharif #Hussein, which created much ill-will and distrust

Sykes-Picot Agreement was never Implemented after #Bolsheviks renounce claims on #Constantinople & expose the secret treaties.

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#SykesPicot Agreement suffered an inglorious fate, and rightfully so.

THEN, #Britain kicked up a new storm — #Zionism gathered strength!

#WWI changed everything, including #British attitude toward both #Zionism and #Ottoman Empire.

"Turkey gave BRITISH Zionists a reason to hope. When Ottomans entered the War on the side of #CentralPowers, they called into question the future of their own empire, which meant the future of Palestine as well. It took a moment for the implication to sink in."
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"Assume that #Britain won the #GreatWar, against #Turkey as well as against #Germany & #Austria-#Hungary.

The #MiddleEast would drop into the melting pot at last.

And then perhaps the ingot of #Palestine could be pried loose from the great slab of Turkey’s Middle Eastern empire"

Ever since the ascendancy of the #Ottoman Empire & their conquest of #Arabia, Palestinians have suffered despotic Ottoman rule with vague borders, and governed from #Jerusalem & #Beirut under onerous #TurkishYoke
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⬆️ #British #duplicity and the #ArabFacade

#Curzon assumed #Turkey's defeat in the #GreatWar and instructed his committee to "construct a state with an '#Arab Façade,' ruled and administered under British guidance [but] controlled by a native #Mohammedan and as far as possible an Arab staff"

Balfour observed that Arab Façade had a “more or less specious inconsistency with the principle of ‘self-determination.’” Since Arabs were incapable of self-government, a Façade was all they could expect

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