San Remo Convention 1920

The San Remo Agreement was an agreement concluded in the Italian city ​​of San Remo on April 19, 1920, and was held by the Supreme Council of Allies. The agreement dealt with the terms of reconciliation with Turkey , in addition to the establishment of the Mandate arrangements in the Arab regions and the future of the Arab region. The agreement ended on April 25 of the same year, and resulted in the Treaty of Sèvres, the content of which was not known until the fifteenth of May 1920, and its decisions were unfair and unjust against the Arabs, and harsh conditions on Turkey.

Reason for the San Remo Convention 

The San Remo Agreement was held because of the Syrian Conference held in Damascus in March 1920. The conference was attended by representatives of neighboring cities such as Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa, Hebron, Antioch , Idlib, Lattakia, Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, and some The conference served as a parliament for all of these regions, and some of the results were announced: the independence of Syria and its territories under Turkish rule, as well as Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, and their full collection under the name of the Syrian Arab Kingdom. Faisal bin al-Hussein, who called for Arab unity in a form Or the unity of Syria and Iraq in particular, and after the Allies heard about this conference they felt threatened, and it was their reaction is to hold the San Remo agreement. 

Several conclusions emerged after the San Remo Agreement, which was attended by the Prime Ministers of a number of countries, namely Britain, Italy and France, as well as representatives from Belgium , Japan and Greece. Some of the most important decisions were: 

• Abolish the Treaty of Sèvres of the Ottoman Empire, obliging it to abandon the Arab countries located in Asia and North Africa. 
• A peace treaty was signed with Turkey on August 10, 1920. 
• Independence of Armenia and Kurdistan . 
• Greek presence in the region of Eastern Thrace, and the west coast of Anatolia. 
• Greece colonized the Aegean islands, which in turn lead the Dardanelles. 
• Syria and Lebanon were placed under the French mandate. 
• Put Palestine and Iraq under the British Mandate. 
• Put the remaining independent states under compulsory authority until they reach political maturity. 
• The Anglo Oil Agreement, which provided for France to provide 25% of the Iraqi oil quotas, and the conditions provided for the re-inclusion of Mosul with the states under the British Mandate. 
• He refused to allow Germany to increase the size of its army, due to the tension between France and Germany over the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. 
• Commitment to the Balfour Declaration, where a border was drawn between Syria and Iraq, with the city of Mosul being annexed to Iraq after it was part of Syria, according to the Sykes-Picot Agreement. 
• The British Mandate imposed on Palestine by the coalition countries; the reason was to facilitate the immigration of Jews to Palestine, in order to create a national homeland for them while guaranteeing their rights in other countries. The Zionist organization also established a Jewish agency to collect Jews and establish a homeland in Palestine. The British Mandate has a role in facilitating Jewish immigration and encouraging its settlement by enacting laws that allow Jews to acquire Palestinian nationality, with Hebrew as an official language along with Arabic and English. 

Reactions to the San Remo Convention 

The Arabs were engulfed by a revolution of anger once the decisions of the San Remo Agreement were issued. The most important reactions are:

• Palestinians protest against the policy of separating Palestine from Syria. 
• There have been clashes between the British and Arab tribes over the Palestinian-Syrian border area, and there have been many casualties on both sides. 
• Holding political meetings between Palestinian Muslims and Christians in order to plan protests against the partition of Syria. 
• The outbreak of two revolutions in Syria, the uprising of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash in the area of ​​Horan, and the revolt of Saleh al-Ali in the Jabal Alawites, and the reason for this is the refusal of the Syrian division, which was the reason for the unification of Syria, but without Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. 
• The outbreak of the Kemal Ataturk revolt, due to the Turkish rejection of the Treaty of Sèvres, which resulted in the defeat of the occupied armies, Kemal Ataturk called for a treaty of Lausanne, which Turkey ceded Arab cities under Ottoman rule. 

Following the San Remo Agreement, several consequences and decisions emerged, the most important of which are: