The Carving Of The Middle East

This cartoon which I saw on a blog, captures the entire charade about Iraq, Iran and the Middle East.

After WW1

After the war, the victorious allies carved up the entire Ottoman Empire - which stretched from the Middle East to Central Asia to the Eastern Europe.

Out of the Ottaman Empire, Iraq was carved up and King Faysal was put on the throne. A British amateur Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell made the selection of the King Of Iraq. This new King did not even know his kingdom - and he was taken around by his new makers. Similarly, an amateur like TE Lawrence (never mind the propaganda) was used to determine the fate of the Middle East.

WW1 resulted in the Balfour Declaration, which promised a Jewish homeland, to be carved out of the Ottoman Empire. Saudi Arabia was similarly made up.

Thus the entire Middle East was put on shaky political ground. Exploitative commercial contracts favoring Anglo Saxon bloc of countries were signed with these puppet governments - and the rest of the story is being played out for the last 90 years.

Turkey decided to go West - with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk mandating that all Turks must cut of their beards. Out of the fog of war came the the Russian Communists - which again the Anglo Saxon world tried to blame the rest of the world for.

The Western Leadership

Midway through WW1, by 1916, the heads of the Allied powers - Britain, France, and Russia had a change of government. Each of new governments had different agendas and ideas about the Middle East - in which the only interest that was not represented was that of the Middle East itself.

Britain, under Prime Minister, David Lloyd George could look at Middle East as the dominant super power of the period could - as imperial fodder. Georges Clemenceau, the French Premier, was diffident about colonial expansion pragmatically viewing French resources and capability in overextended and vulnerable to Germans.

The unforeseen elements were the Russians. The Communist leaders pulled out of the war. Russia was replaced by their future Cold War rival, United States into the war on the side of the Allies. American economic interests demanded opening of markets, closed to America by colonial powers. Woodrow Wilson (couched as his personal beliefs in self-determination) wanted 'independence' for the Middle East - for the US corporations to manipulate the Middle East, which they promptly did.

Leaders of the Middle East

One example was Emir Hussein. He could make the British believe that Emir Hussein could raise a force of a quarter million Arabs. He could deliver 3000-4000. Shaikh Faisal was another. Muhammed Sharif al-Faruqi was the third.

The Demonisation Starts

After these destabilising decisions were taken, the Anglo Saxon world has been put their propaganda machine to work overtime. Demonising communism and now Islam. Without taking the responsibility for their own actions - and further interventions, creating further instability. Like the demonisation of the Jews before and the Red Indians after, this too is having disastrous effects - in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. And this process of demonization is a matter of concern to the rest of the world.

Is India getting co-opted in this demonization?

Gandhiji - And The Middle East Carving

Gandhiji saw this problem 90 years ago - and his support of the Khilafat movement was prescient. Today when some Indians join in this demonization, it is matter of ignorance - and a threat.

Start Of World War I

What triggered WW1 - common knowledge. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. How did so many other countries get involved? The Russian Tsar (related to the British Royal House and based on the support of) Britain, the Anglo Saxon Bloc and the French, supported political Serbian assassins, of Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro Hungarian Empire - and that started the World War I. Not some harmless gun shot that seemed to have triggered it off as victorious Anglo Saxon historians would have us believe.

The Assassination Team

The assasination plot included Gavrillio Princip, the actual 19-years old killer, Mehmed Mehmedbasic (a carpenter, unsure of his success, finally didnt do anything), 17 year old Vaso Cubrilovic, Nedelko Cabrinovic, all of 20 years old, Cvetko Popovic, an 18-year old student, 24-year old Danilo Ilic, the main organizer of the plot and Trifko Grabez, a 19-year old.

The name of the group was Black Hand, a circle of radicals in the army around Dimitrijevic-Apis, the man who led the murder of the Serbian royal couple in 1903. The other ring leader was Vojislav Tankosić organized the murders of Queen Draga's brother's; Dimitrijević Apis and Tankosić in 1913-1914 figure prominently in the plot to assassinate Franz Ferdinand.

What Would Happen Today

Would the US take no action if a mad assassin (imagine if he is Islamic) were to assassinate the US President-Elect. And what would the US do if (say, the) Governments of Russian or the China (or for that matter, India) were to support the assassins. Well a Balkan assassin did kill the Crown Prince (equivalent to the US President-Elect). The Russians, the Anglo Saxon Bloc and the French supported the assassins. What would happen if a Pakistani based terrorist group were to kill Prince Harry?

The Alliances Of WW1

On one side were the Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled by the Habsburgs (whose heir apparent was killed), The Ottoman Empire (out of Turkey), which could obviously not support assassins of royalty - and Germany.

Britain immediately started aggressive posturing against Turkey (the Ottomans). On July 29, 1914, Churchill, then Lord Of Admiralty, seized two Dreadnought ships being built for the Ottomans in British shipyards for the Turkish navy. The Germans needed allies and to woo the Ottomans, presented them with two ships. Britain, France and Russia declared war on Turkey on October 31, 1914.

Supporting the assassins was the alliance of Russia, France, Britain, (and later) America, and sundry other European countries. With this act of brinkmanship, they took the world through the agony of a huge war, the price of which is being paid even today. The Middle East problems, the rise of Communism all came out of the World War I.

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