This year marks one hundred years since the end of the First World War that resulted in both civilian and military casualties of around 37 million people. Each year in Europe the war dead are remembered especially those who were killed on the battlefields of France.
We also remember the millions of people who were killed or wounded in the Middle East as the Ottoman Empire, supported by Germany, fought to defend their empire which stretched all the way down to Mecca.
The First World War dead in this part of the world included many from the main combatants in the war, the Turks, Germans, British, Russian and French. We cannot forget the many Arabs who fought for their freedom from Ottoman rule and the support provided from Greece, India, Australia and New Zealand. It would be wrong to forget the estimated 1.5 million Armenians who were killed during an ethnic cleansing exercise carried out by the Ottomans.
The principal Arab leaders were Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, and his three sons. He led what is now called the Arab revolt, the principal objectives of which were self-rule and an end to Ottoman control of the region. It was during this revolt we became aware of Thomas Edward Lawrence, a British archaeologist who became a military officer. He was renowned for his liaison role during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire. He earned international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title used for the 1962 film based on his wartime activities.
Egypt and the wider Arab region emerged from the war with great expectations especially as it heralded the end of over 400 years of Ottoman rule. One key influencer of Arab public opinion was President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. A statement of principles for peace outlined in a January 1918 speech to the USA. The 12th point assured Arabs of an undoubted security of life and an absolute unmolested opportunity of autonomous development.
Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali Al Hashemi, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, presented a case for Arab independence, based upon promises made by Sir Henry McMahon, to the supreme council of the Paris peace conference in January 1919. He had to accept less than what the British had promised earlier and was unable to reconcile rival claims. Faisal was left to fend for himself as the British and French left the region.
From this new starting point the region has been beset by war and death. Europe had to endure a Second World War before peace across the continent became embedded. Since 1945 the only conflict of note in Europe has been the Balkans war in the 1990s. Since the end of the Second World War this region has endured the 1948 Arab/Israeli conflict, the 1962 North Yemen war, the 1980 Iran/Iraq war, the 1990 Gulf War, the 2003 Iraq war, the ongoing 2011 Syrian war and the ongoing 2015 Yemeni civil war.
Let’s not forget those in this part of the world past and present who have lost their lives.