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1. The Creation of Iraq
and Syria
Sunnis, Shittes, Allawites and Kurds
Iakovos Alhadeff

2. A very nice map of Syria and Iraq, which shows with dark brown the
Muslim Alawite part at the Syrian coasts, with brown the Sunni Muslim
parts of Syria and Iraq, with orange the Shiite Muslim part of Iraq, and with
pink the Kurdish (Sunni) Muslim part of Syria and Iraq.
Map 1 Iraq and Syria
http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4396135/sunni-shia-kurd_state_crop.jpg
Syria and Iraq did not exist as states until the First World War 1914-1918.
These pieces of land were parts of various empires until then, with the
Ottoman Empire being the last one. During the First World War (1914-
1918), the English and the French helped the local Arab populations to
revolt against the Ottomans, because they wanted to prevent the Germans

3. from reaching the Persian Gulf through the Austro-Hungarian Empire and
the Ottoman Empire which were German allies.
Map 2 German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires

4. When the English, the French and the Arabs did actually win the war and the
Ottomans left the Middle East, it was time to decide how the new lands
would be distributed to the Arab allies of the English and the French. The
English and the French agreed that what became Iraq and Palestine
(Jordan+Israel) would be under English influence, and what became Syria
and Lebanon would be under French influence.
For the English the Iraqi oil was very important because the oil of Saudi
Arabia was not discovered until 1938. The English could also export this oil
through Palestine (Jordan+Israel) to the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover the
corridor formed by Israel+Jordan+Iraq would offer the English an
alternative route to India, which was their most important colony.
When the pro-Soviet socialist dictators rose to power in Syria and Iraq, they
used a socialist model and diminished the role of religion in order to
homogenize their populations. They also used Arab nationalism to achieve

5. this same goal, since most of their citizens were Arabs, with the exception of
the Kurds of course. What is strange is that in both Syria and Iraq the
socialist dictators who managed to rise to power belonged to the minorities
of these countries. In Syria the father of Bashar al Assad, Hafez Assad, was
an Alawite, while Sunni Muslims were the majority of the Syrian
population. In Iraq Sadam Hussein was a Sunni Muslim, while Shiite
Muslims were the majority of the Iraqi population. Allawites are an offshoot
of Shiite Islam.
In 2009 Bashar al Assad refused to allow the Qatar-Turkey pipeline to pass
through Syria i.e. the Sunni Pipeline, while he agreed to let the Iran-Iraq-
Syria pipeline to pass through Syira i.e. the Shiite Pipeline. The Iran-Syria
pipeline would be constructed by Gazprom. As a result the Turks and the
Arabs of the Persian Gulf supported the Sunni Muslims of Syria and Iraq,
who revolted against the Alawites in Syria and against the Shiites in Iraq.
That’s the reason ISIS is the first terrorist organization which wants to
establish its own state i.e. the Sunni parts of Syria and Iraq. If that does
indeed happen, an Alawite state will have to be created at the Mediterranean
coasts of Syria, a Shiite state in Iraq, and a Kurdish state in Iraq and Syria.
Map 3 Sunni (red) VS Shiite (green) Pipelines