Cairo: History books say Sykes-Picot was a deal secretly struck 100 years ago between Britain and France with an arrangement with Russia to split up the Levant. But to some young Egyptians, the unfamiliar name may denote electronic gadgets or recipes.
“Let me guess,” Kareem Shukri, a business student, said as he looked puzzled when asked if he had ever heard about Sykes-Picot.
“I know well the latest brands of mobiles at the market. I haven’t heard about a new phone of this name. Maybe it is a new product from China. But I am sure it is not a new mobile brand.”
To Tamer Mustafa, a student at a polytechnic school, the appellation refers to a pizza.
“It’s a delicious pizza that I’ve eaten more than once in my favourite restaurant,” said Mustafa. “Its ingredients and spicy taste make it different from others.”
The 17-year-old boy looked incredulous when he was told what Sykes-Picot is really about. “I haven’t heard about this before. Maybe the people in the restaurant used the name to promote their pizza.”
However, Ismaa Ali, a secondary school student, did not falter when asked if she knew what Sykes-Picot meant.
“I know that it’s one of the worst imperialist agreements in modern times,” the 18-year-old girl said.
“We study it in detail in our history syllabus this year. This agreement was reached through secret negotiations between French diplomat Francois Picot and British diplomat Mark Sykes to divide the area of the Fertile Crescent and inherit the Arab countries ruled by the Ottoman Empire,” she rattled out.
“This transaction was later disclosed by the Communists when they reached power in Russia in 1917 after the Bolshevik revolution. Our school book says it was a big conspiracy against Arabs.”
