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Sir Mark Sykes , 6th baronet, (1879-1919) was an English traveller and diplomatic advisor, particularly about matters respecting the Middle East at the time of World War One. He will always be associated with the Sykes-Picot Agreement, drawn up while the war was in progress, regarding the aportionment of postwar spheres of interest in the Ottoman Empire to Britain, France and Russia.
Early Life
Heir to vast Yorkshire estates and a baronetcy, the Roman Catholic Sykes was not content to manage his properties. He served in the Boer War and travelled extensively, especially in the Middle East. A Member of Parliament, he was one of the Conservative Party's experts on Ottoman affairs. From 1904 to 1905 he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Secretary for Ireland, George Wyndham.
Sykes was very much a Yorkshire grandee, with his country seat at Sledmere House, breeding race horses, sitting on the bench, raising and commanding militia units and fulfilling his social obligations. He married Edith Gorst. They had six children. Sykes succeeded to the baronetcy and the estates in 1913.
Sykes was a friend of Aubrey Herbert, another Englishman influential on Middle Eastern affairs, and was acquained with Gertrude Bell, the proArab Foreign Office advisor. Sykes was never as single minded an advocate of the Arab cause as Bell, and her friends T.E. Lawrence and Sir Percy Cox. His sympathies and interests extended to Armenians, Jews and Turks as well. This is reflected in the Turkish Room he had installed in Sledmere House, using a noted Armenian artist as designer.
With all his enthusiasms and interests, Sykes is best seen as an Englishman first, a Roman Catholic and a representative of some of the best qualities of the landed gentry. Not above occasionally expressing harsh sentiments about Arabs, Jews and Armenians, he was an amateur in the days when that was thought a compliment.
Protege of Kitchener
When World War One broke out, Lieutenant Colonel Sykes was commanding officer of the 5th Battalion of the Green Howards. But, he did not lead them into battle as his particular talents were needed in the War Office working for Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War. Kitchener placed him on the de Bunsen Committee advising the Cabinet on Middle Eastern affairs. Although Sykes never got to know Kitchener well, he shared a similar outlook and had his confidence. He was soon the dominant person on the Committee, and so gained great influence on British Middle Eastern policy. It was Sykes and his fellows in this group who revived ancient Greek and Roman names for Middle Eastern regions. Such terms in common use today include "Syria", "Palestine", "Iraq" and "Mesopotamia".
Britain's Strategic Conundrum
Sykes had long agreed with the traditional British policy of propping up the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) as a buffer to Russian expansion into the Mediterranean. Britain feared that Russia had designs on India, its most important colonial possesion. A Russian fleet in the Mediterranean might cut the sea lanes to India. British statesmen, such as Disraeli, Palmerston and Salisbury had held this view. Since Britain was now at war with Turkey, a major rethinking of policy was needed. Sykes, through his connexion with Kitchener, was at the centre of this. Two conflicting positions were soon apparent. Some favoured the Arab cause in postwar settlements at the expense of Turkey, seeing the value of friendly client states in the coastal areas along the sea route to India and in the Persian Gulf which was assuming a new importance now that the Royal Navy had converted its ships to oil from coal. Others saw the need to retain a strong Turkey lest Russia enter the vacuum and seize Constantinople and the Straits.
Compounding this was the desire of France to secure lands in the Middle East, especially in Syria, where there was a significant Christian minority. Another ally, Italy, advanced claims to Aegean Islands and protection of Christian minorities in Asia Minor. Then Russian claims had to be considered, particularly with respect to the Christian population of Turkish Armenia and the Black Sea Coast.
Another problem was the desire of Greece to regain historic territories in Asia Minor, and Thrace, claims that conflicted with those of Russia and Italy, as well as Turkey. The British Prime Minister (1916-1922), David Lloyd George, favoured the Greek cause.
Complicating all this was the desire of Jewish Zionists to have a homeland in Palestine.
In summary form the conflicting interests of the Great Powers and aspiring nations during World War One are outlined below.
Russia vs Turkey vs Greece over Constantinople, the Straits and Thrace
France vs the Arabs vs Turkey over Syria
Britain vs France vs the Arabs vs the Zionists over Palestine
Greece vs Turkey vs Italy over Smyrna and southwest Asia Minor
Britain vs France vs the Arabs vs Turkey over Kurdish northern Iraq
France vs Turkey over southeastern Asia Minor and Alexandretta
Russia vs Turkey over Armenia and The southeast Black Sea coast
It was the special role of Sykes to hammer out an agreement with Britain's most important ally, France, which was shouldering a disproportionate part of the effort against Germany in the war. His French counterpart was Francois Georges Picot and it is generally felt that Picot got a better deal than expected. Sykes came to feel this as well and it bothered him. Particulars may be found in the article Sykes-Picot Agreement.
It is interesting to note that between 1914 and 1924 the Turks resolved the problem of Europeans wishing to protect Christian minorities within Turkey by eliminating those groups through slaughter and expulsion. A similar fate is overtaking the Christian minorities in Lebanon once protected by the French and the Christians of Iraq.
The Balfour Declaration
Evidence suggests that Sykes had a hand in promoting the Balfour Declaration issued on November 2, 1917. It stated that "His Majesty"s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object..."
Various commentators have suggested that his motivation for supporting a Jewish homeland was to favourably influence the powerful Jewish lobby in the United States. Sykes felt by 1916 that American entry into the war was the key to victory and gradually came to support Zionism.
Early Death
Sir Mark Sykes was in Paris in connexion with peace negotiations in 1919. At the conference a junior diplomat present, Harold Nicolson, described his role, "It was due to his endless push and perservance, to his enthusiasm and faith, that Arab nationalism and Zionism became two of the most successful of our war causes." He died there in his hotel room on February 16, 1919, a victim of the Spanish flu pandemic. He was 39 years old.
Nahum Sokolow, a Russian Zionist colleague of Chaim Weizmann in Paris at this time, wrote that Sykes "...fell as a hero at our side."
Sir Mark Sykes was succeded by his son, Sir Richard Sykes ( 1905-1978) Another son, Christopher Sykes, (born 1907) was a distinguished author and official biographer of Evelyn Waugh.
Sledmere House is still in the possession of the family, Sir Tatton Sykes, 8th Baronet, being the current occupant.
References
"Desert Queen", Janet Wallach, Anchor Books, New York, 1999
"A Peace To End All Peace", David Fromkin, Avon Books, New York, 1990
"Righteous Victims", Benny Morris, Vintage Books, New York, 2001
Links
www.driffield.co.uk/wolds_village_sledmere.htm==
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