Sykes-Picot: The 1916 Deal Still Ruling the Middle East Today

Psyx Pico is dead. Or is it? Let's go find out. What is Psyx Pico? The phrase Psyx Pico is actually quite a common, increasingly common view, especially with respect to the Middle East commentary. It refers to a 1916 secret, I like secret, secret agreement that essentially carved up the Ottoman Empire Turkey Air. Many claim, it used to be called Turkey, and now they want to be known as Turkey Air. So you've got, you kind of have to say, oh, we're going to go to Turkey Air for holiday this year. Yeah. Oh, what's really common now is if you're like me, you're going a bit bold, you know, you're starting your ears receding a little bit. And yeah, what you do is you go to Turkey, to get a hear, you get hear implants across the front. They take here from the back and they stick it on the front, and then it makes you look like a lot of people doing this on YouTube and they're filming it. Apparently it's like two grand, which is 10 grand if you do it in other places, but it's two grand if you fly to, so people just jump on a quick cheap flight, go there, do the thing, stay on a hotel for a couple of days, and then yeah, buddy funny, yeah, buddy good. So psych speaker, what's happening with this? So the Ottoman Empire Turkey Air, many claim the old colonial borders have essentially collapsed. The secret agreement is endured until this day, and these borders are collapsing under war and insurgency. I mean, I didn't know about this. Did you know about this? The psych speaker agreement? I love these old agreements from 1916 that carved up, you know, areas unbelievable, just unbelievable. I think it was like 1500s, that the Romans were still in Turkey in the 1550 or something like that. There's records indicating that the Romans were still there. We went to Turkey air, took the kids there, bloody great place, amazing. Anyway, so we walk along, a little anecdote here, but walk along, and we see this door, big door, and it had these stone columns and stuff, and we thought, oh, that's interesting, we should go down there and look, and the kids were like, oh no, God, not another bloody thing, so we go down there, and we walk, and I think they pay a couple of bucks to go in, and we walked in and it was called the Sistun. We walked in and it was like unbelievable, man. And we were like, well shut this looks really old. What's this place all about? So we had to go and find out, ask the people, what's the history of this place? It's basically the water tank for the old Roman settlement that was there in Istanbul. We were like, Romans, we mean Romans, yeah, the Romans were there, 1500, not that long ago, right, not that long ago. Bloody Romans, they get everywhere, they were everywhere, those pesky bloody Romans. They went right down into Syria, Jordan, yeah, yeah, thugs bloody, thugs those Romans, yeah. Anyway, let's get back to our story about the Sykes Pico, the Sykes Pico, 1916 secret deal, unbelievable. So in reality, after all that, the underlying map that was carved up and agreed in secret in 1916. Well, it's still very much alive, unbelievable. The current Iran war is putting those century old lines under a new and very extreme pressure. Let's go and examine if it's still, if it's still matters. So in 1916, here we go, a bit of history, love history, British diplomat Mark Sykes. That's where the Sykes comes from and French diplomat, they're bloody frogs, they get involved in everything, don't they? Francois, good name, Francois, Jorge or George's Pico, Francois, George's Pico, secretly divided the Middle East into British and French spheres of influence. It did a lot of that, the bloody French sticking their peaks in everywhere. Their agreement ignored local ethnic, tribal and religious realities in favor of European imperial interests. That's not going to end well. It created, actually has, right? It's last 100 years. It created artificial states such as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon that combined rival groups under single governments. The borders were never perfectly respected, but they became the legal and diplomatic foundation for the modern Middle East. Historians note that despite repeated predictions of collapse, the physical map and the political logic behind it have largely endured. That's actually pretty impressive, really. The phrase Sykes Pico's did is therefore more of a political slogan than anything, because it's a duet to write now. They kind of nailed it really. So far, we'll see, we'll see. But why is this phrase keep on returning? The slogan is used whenever a sectarian violence occurs. State failure raises borders, militant groups from ISIS basically, but they just do their shit where they like it. So they don't recognize the Sykes Pico lines. Syria and Iraq. Gears of war, credit to effect those zones, especially in Syria and bloody hell. Tell you what, the phrase signals rejection of Western designated state boundaries. So that's probably why the locals are like, no, there's a total bunch of rubbish. And yet the international system, you and recognition in oil contracts. That's what really matters. Oil contracts are still operating within the old borders. That's probably what tell it all together. It's those oil contracts. Money, money is the glue that binds it all together. Yeah, interesting. Ripple effects. Impact on the GCC countries. That's what I want to know. So the Gulf states, but largely outside the direct Sykes Pico cover, but they have lived with its consequences ever since. Artificial borders. Artificial borders. And weak central states like Iraq and Syria. They created power vacuums. And we don't want power vacuums are very, very dangerous. Iran has repeatedly exploited these. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others have spent decades trying to contain Iranian influence in these fractured states. The current wars accelerating that pressure. These states, they depend on stable exports. They don't, they don't want disruptions in the strait all moves. They don't want missiles coming in and blowing shut up. That's very bad. The war is also forcing these GCC capitals to choose between deeper alignment with the US. And the US has demonstrated that they can't defend them. They can't defend them. So they're forced to choose between somebody who's bloody useless or hitching away from the US to somebody else. And guess who that somebody else is? It's China. It's all about China. I do wonder if this whole thing is just brought it all to a head. Like it might have had a longer timeline, maybe 20, 30, 50 years. But Trump and his bullshit is brought it all forward. And now the GCC have to sort of confront it with this choice. They have to either like how can you continue to rely on the US when all this shit's happened? I don't think you can. It's not logical. So I think you've got to you've got to change strategy. You've got to look for and maybe you'll look to arm up with Russian kit. So you can hedge against China. I don't know what the story is, but yeah. But I mean, at least for the time being, Sikespeaker not dead, not dead at all. Those lines are still shaping the region. And these countries will, they'll continue along those lines. At least for the time being, although Kuwait. Kuwait. Wait, Kuwait. I don't know. Kuwait is under enormous pressure right now. A lot I talk about Iraq just bumping across the border and taking Kuwait because a lot of oil and Kuwait, a lot of energy, a lot of money. So I mean, that could happen. That could happen very quickly. Now that would mean essentially Iraq who hates the USA. They bloody hate them. If they could stick it to the USA, they will. They will absolutely stick it to the USA. But could they just roll over the border and take Kuwait as well and a lot of money. They would take a lot of money. Boy, billions and billions, a lot of prosperity from taking Kuwait. Yes, I think they absolutely could because they would, they were essentially a proxy for Iran. So you could see, you know, if you're looking at the map, you're talking about Iran or all the other side and then Iraq across the side and Western Iran, Iraq is in Western Iran. And that is a bit of an area where Israel can attack them. They can fly in there and drop long range munitions and fly those munitions into Tehran and blow Tehran up. So yeah, so Iraq really is a weakness for Iran. So if they can help Iraq push across and take a bit of Kuwait and reinforce their position in Iraq as a proxy, they would probably try and do that. I think that makes a lot of sense. I think if you were around and you had the choices and options, you'd probably do the same. It probably makes a lot of sense. Yeah, that's Sykes Pico. It's bloody interesting. I like it. I love the history. I love the whole Roman thing, 1500s. I love that these lines have endured, you know, since 1916. There's Mark and Jorge, George's. I think it's, yeah, I think it's bloody interesting. It's really interesting that those lines have endured all these years. We're still there. We're still with those same borders, basically. But those borders are under enormous, enormous pressure right now. And we'll see. We'll see if those borders break. But I mean, they've lasted this long. They should last longer. But we'll see. Really interesting. They're Chinese observation, you know. It's definitely, you know, if you're if you're in the GCC and you've lost confidence in the USA, there's another story there about the US dollar because the US dollar is the petro dollar. The petro dollar is is founded on oil and energy that comes out of the straight-of-all moves. And if that's not pricing dollars anymore, I don't know. I'm not sure. I like to have a think about that. I'll have a think about that. Yeah. I think it all matters. And I think the whole China story matters a lot. I don't think China wants all this to happen so quickly. I don't think they had that on their plan. It's not on their timeline. I think that a lot of more time like a 50 years or something to let this sort of play out. But it's all coming to a head quicker. Maybe that's the big picture. Maybe that is the big picture. US wants to bring it all to a head. I don't know. I don't think so. I think it's just small hands. You know, the orange buffoon being an idiot. And just rock on the boat or a copy. Israel wanted to rock the boat for them. I don't know. It's all stupid though. It's all bad. There's no upside to any of this. Except for the Chinese. I mean, the Chinese are like, oh my god. Too easy. Can't believe it. You idiots. Yeah. I think that's probably the only upside it's for the Chinese right now. So yeah. So I hope you've enjoyed the little show. If you enjoyed the show, subscribe to the show. But if you haven't enjoyed the show, tell me in the comments. Just go, I think you're in a total arsehole. You don't know what you're talking about. Something like that. That's mine. I don't mind. If you have enjoyed the show, tell me in the comments you've already enjoyed the show. I think it's quite interesting. That's fine as well. But wherever you are, I hope you had a great day. Cheers. Bye.