The Damascus dream that turned into a nightmare

The fairy-tale future that the long-legged Englishman had been whispering into their ears for so long seemed close enough to touch. There were only a few days left until the Arab world would be liberated from 400 years of Ottoman rule. History would repeat itself once more; the entire Arab geography, from Hejaz to Basra, from Baghdad to Mosul, from Jerusalem to Damascus, would once again be governed by the Hashemites. With the United Kingdom, on whose empire the sun never sets, behind them with its navy, its army, and its millions in gold, who were the Ottomans anyway?

It would not take long to see that the independence dreams sold to the Arabs were very different from what was written in the United Kingdom's agenda. With the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916), signed between Britain and France and later to be signed by Russia, a completely different future was being designed for the Arab world! The Arab geography outside the Arabian Peninsula was being divided between Britain and France. The fact that regions with rich oil deposits, such as Basra and Mosul, were designated as British spheres of influence is noteworthy in terms of showing who got the lion's share. With Russia withdrawing from the alliance following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the path would continue in August 1917 with the Treaty of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, which Italy would join. With the Balfour Declaration, a document to be published in November 1917 when the fate of the war was clear, the path to a Jewish State in Palestine would be paved.

After this two-paragraph reminder of recent history, let us come to the main point. Today's Turkey is experiencing the impasse of being governed by personal fantasies instead of a state wisdom based on national interests. The situation that the country has been left in by dreams detached from reality—dreams that ignore the historical interest calculations of imperialism regarding the region—is worrying. It is as if the shameful diplomatic tradition of the Armistice-era Istanbul that signed Sèvres, the death warrant of the Turkish nation, has replaced the national-axis diplomatic tradition of Ankara that signed Lausanne. For those who find the criticism of the signatories of the shameful treaty in the Paris suburb of Sèvres—Hadi Pasha of Baghdad (Senator), Rıza Tevfik, and Reşat Halis (Ambassador to Bern)—unjust, let us provide a brief reminder:

Throughout the conference, the delegation would be mocked and constantly humiliated by the representatives of the victorious states. They would sign the death text placed before them without their consciences or hands trembling, in accordance with the instructions of Vahdettin and Damat Ferit! The attitude displayed by the delegation while returning to the country via Switzerland is as thought-provoking as it is shameful. While the Turkish nation was fighting a life-or-death struggle for the country's independence, the shame delegation in Geneva was in a state of pure shopping frenzy, buying everything they saw and ordering suit after suit from tailors! For those who do not believe it, let us provide a small excerpt from the memoirs of one of the shameful signatories, Rıza Tevfik: "I found everyone standing in Geneva. The Pasha had ordered, 'We will definitely leave tomorrow, have them prepare quickly,' he said. Everyone was in a panic. Because the goods they bought did not fit into the suitcases. We asked the hotelier. To have him open one of the shops he knew so we could buy large suitcases..."