UNTITLED 01 spring 2017 Feature The legacy of Sykes- Poems Breech the Wall Feature Border Control. The Picot. Are two men and the Naked Feet barriers and border guards that countries they represented to Feature Unraveling Politics and bind. blame for our fractured societies? Human Relations. How violence Play Stereotypical. About Arabs, First Person Take Me Out. One in politics transmits to violence at among Arabs. woman’s quest to rid herself and home and in the community. her peers of the restrictions and Photo Essay Amber Fiber. A Reviews History, Film, barriers enforced by family and visual narrative of life within the Literature, People, Places society. borders of LAU. BORDERS BORDERS boundary, line, outskirt, bound, bounds, brim, brink, circumference, confine, end, extremity, fringe, hem, limit, lip, perimeter, periphery, rim, selvage, skirt, trimming, verge EDITORIAL TEAM COVER Ahmad K. Ali PHOTOGRAPHER Zobida Tadj Reine Azzi Ali Zoghdani CONTRIBUTORS CREATIVE DIRECTOR Majdoulin Al Mwaka Sarah Al Nemr Sarah Al Nemr Noor Alshaikh MODELS (L-R) Safea AlTef Marwa Ben Khalifa Dima Helou Zobida Tadj Nuran Benmusa FEATURE The Legacy of Sykes- POEM Breech the Wall page 14 FEATURE Unraveling Politics and Kareem Nofal Dima Helou Picot page 4 Human Relations page 22 Muna Saeed Larissa Kassis BOOK REVIEW Man’s Search for Sofiane Timtaoucine Muna Saeed POEM Naked Feet page 8 Meaning page 16 FILM A synopsis page 24 Siraj Belgasium GRAPHIC DESIGN FEATURE Border Control page 10 FIRST PERSON Take Me Out page 18 FACTS & FIGURES page 25 Reem Maghribi This publication was produced by students of the MEPI Tomorrow’s Leaders Program at LAU. The program, a collaboration between the PHOTO ESSAY Amber Fiber page 13 STORY Bluish page 21 PLAY Stereotypical page 26 U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) CONTACT and the Lebanese American University (LAU), was launched in 2008. [email protected] Coordinated by LAU’s Student Development unit, it provides http://mepitl.lau.edu.lb/ higher education opportunities to youth from around the Arab world + 961 1 786 456, ext. 1415 who demonstrate outstanding leadership potential but who may otherwise not have the chance to study in an American educational system. The views and opinions The program’s mission is to prepare future Arab leaders for the expressed in this publication complexities of the 21st century. Through high-quality academic are those of the authors and support, leadership development activities, and civic engagement do not necessarily reflect the opportunities, the program fosters professionalism, ethical Produced by the students of the official policy or position of the conduct, and tolerance in order to enable students to become Middle East Partnership Initiative Lebanese American University globally competitive leaders and agents of change in their Tomorrow’s Leaders scholarship program or the US State Department. respective societies. at the Lebanese American University FEATURE THE LEGACY OF SYKES-PICOT The Legacy of Sykes-Picot written by Nuran Benmusa In the summer of 2014, a video was published on This name stems from its architects, Sir Mark Sykes YouTube showing members of a Jihadist militant and François Georges-Picot, who represented group of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant their governments and were given the authority to (ISIL) dissolving borders between Iraq and Syria. negotiate and reach a deal. “Why did they choose These fighters were freely moving between the Syrian Marks Sykes and George Picot and no one else?” asks and Iraqi lands expressing anger and rage over Mr. Elie Elias, who is a professor of History at the the borders imposed between the two countries. Lebanese American University (LAU). The French and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIL declared British governments appointed them as they were that “[they will] hit the last nail in the coffin of the seen as experts in the region. It was believed that Sykes-Picot”. Though the boundaries that ISIL was both Picot and Sykes could reach an agreement that With one pen-stroke, challenging were not directly drawn by Sykes-Picot, gets the best deal for each of their governments to the mere fact that these names are still in circulation ensure their influence. Sir Mark Sykes and 101 years after the ‘agreement’ causes one to question its remaining legacy. François Georges-Picot The region before Sykes-Picot had been under the Ottoman Empire for a while. It was administratively created the modern states The collective memory of the Arabs has a great place divided with distinct demarcations but all were under for Sykes-Picot. It was accused by many of being a the control of Istanbul. To understand the previous of the region. was made while the British were negotiating with colonial act that divided people by imposing new division of the area, Dr. Selim Deringil, a professor of Sharif Hussein. So they were making contradictory borders; furthermore, the agreement has been linked History at LAU, explains that the Ottoman Empire was promises. On one hand, they were making a deal to much of the turmoil that was and still is witnessed administratively divided into provinces called Vilayet Dr. Deringil mentions, British and French powers with France giving them a large part of this area. On in the Arab world. To explain the extent of liability (wallyat) and sub-provinces called Kaza (Qada). This were quite positive that they would win the war. the other hand, they were telling Sharif Hussein and that the agreement holds, one should first go back administrative division was subject to change at any The timing of the agreement came at the height of Faisal, his son, [that they were] going to approve in time to understand it and disentangle truths from time according to economic and political needs. He imperialism; therefore, it was a clear division of areas and back an independent Arab kingdom in the defamations and misconceptions. gives the example of Vilayet Beirut that did not exist of influence between great powers that disregarded same geographic location.” What made that time before 1888 and was only established for economic the demographic and social structures of the region. catastrophic for many of the Arabs was that, during reasons under local bourgeoisie demands. This goes the same year, the British were preparing for another In light of the First World War and in the anticipation to show that there were boundaries in existence prior deal to hand over other parts of the same territory of the fall of the sick man of Europe, the Ottoman to Sykes-Picot but they were all part of the same Arabs had not heard of Sykes-Picot until the to the Zionists, granting them Palestine as a land to Empire, a secret agreement was made to divide empire and the divisions were dependent on the Bolsheviks made the agreement public. At first, it establish a state over. areas of influence in the Middle East mainly between local needs and the will of Istanbul. was secretive and Russia was part of it; however, Britain and France, the great imperial powers, with once the Bolshevik Revolution took place in 1917, the approval of Russia under the last Czar. The the document was leaked. While the agreement was However, did Sykes-Picot impose the borders? division was made as follows: Britain would get The context that the famous agreement was made being negotiated, the British were initiating another Frankly, it did not. Though this agreement may control over modern day Jordan, Iraq, and parts of under was during the First World War when imperial deal with Sharif Hussein, the leader of the Sharifate have contributed to establishing borders later on, Palestine, and France would get Syria, Lebanon, and power had an eye on the areas that the Ottomans of Mecca, who was considered a leading figure at the current regional demarcations were based parts of Iraq and Turkey. They did this by drawing a ruled. In 1916, the year Sykes-Picot was negotiated, that time. The Sharif was promised an independent on different agreements such as the San Remo straight line on the map between those areas. The Dr. Deringil explains that the “Turks [had] not yet Arab state under the condition of siding against the conference in Italy in 1920, where the allies met after agreement’s official name was Asia Minor, but it is lost the war. Quite the opposite, they were actually Ottomans. When the secret agreement was made the end of the war and started a draft of the Middle better known as the Sykes-Picot. winning.” The Ottomans scored a victory in the public, people who were with Hussein felt deceived East plan. Even though Sykes-Picot is remembered Gallipoli battle in the beginning of that year over by the British. Dr. Deringil describes the reaction for its ‘borders’, its significance lies in the fact that the allies as well as in Kut-al-Amara in Iraq, but at that time: “Everybody was shocked because it was a starting point for a new era. This initiated the French and British were still determined. As basically, we have to understand that the Sykes-Picot the era of new European influence, which was not 4 5 FEATURE THE LEGACY OF SYKES-PICOT particularly appealing to the majority. Dr. Bassel Syria and also the emergence of the one-man or A culture of grievance and blame was passed from not all due to Sykes-Picot. This has become a black Salloukh, associate professor of Political Science at one-group rule. The problem here became not only generation to another and this has continued to legend in the collective imagination of the people in LAU, mentions that when Americans came after the the borders but also rather what was inside those blame Sykes-Picot, from the whole population, to the this region.” war and surveyed the people of this region, they borders.