Sykes-Picot: The Secret WWI Deal That Divided the Middle East

The modern Middle East is a region marked by war, terrorism, fragile states, failed governments, foreign intervention, and civil unrest. But how did it become this way? Much of the political map we know today was shaped in the aftermath of the First World War. As the Ottoman Empire collapsed, Britain and France moved to divide its Arab provinces through secret agreements, wartime promises, and imperial plans. Among these deals, the Sykes-Picot Agreement became one of the most controversial symbols of a new Middle East drawn by outside powers. The borders that emerged after the war did not simply create new countries. They placed rival communities, competing identities, religious divisions, tribal networks, and strategic resources inside fragile political structures. From Palestine and Iraq to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the wider balance of power surrounding Iran, the decisions made during and after World War I helped plant many of the seeds of conflict that still shape the region today. This documentary explores how the First World War, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, British and French ambitions, and the Sykes-Picot Agreement transformed the Middle East — and why those decisions continue to echo more than a century later.