Slanders On Muslims In History

6. British Spies in the Ottoman Empire

British ambassadors, consuls and diplomats merit special consideration in any study regarding the activities of the British deep state in the Ottoman Empire. These officers, who were in the Ottoman lands supposedly to serve as diplomats, were most often working as spies. Indeed, they immensely helped the British deep state achieve its goals. Some of them befriended Turkish bureaucrats, some tried to sway Turkish politics. Some of them incited and offered logistic support for riots among minorities living peacefully until then on Ottoman lands. When acts of friendship or promises of economic assistance didn't work, they didn't hesitate to resort to threats or blackmail.

The British deep state used professional spies, too. These people could be disguised as archeologists or travelers, and worked to incite anti-Ottoman sentiments among minorities living under Ottoman rule. One notorious example is the British archeologist/agent Gertrude Bell, who planned and put into action the riots in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. Bell, with her spying activities, impressed the British deep state so much that she was later referred to as 'daughter of the desert' or 'the uncrowned queen of the desert'. Speaking fluent Arabic, Persian and Turkish, Bell befriended local people and merchants in Ottoman-ruled Jerusalem, Syria and Iraq. With the pretense of carrying out archeological studies, she drew maps of the regions and sent them to the British Royal Geographical Society. She contributed to the Ottoman losses of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra.

At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Bell helped Churchill, one of the most prominent members of the British deep state, draw the borders of Iraq with a ruler.

The British spy T. E. Lawrence was responsible for the Arab riots in Hejaz, as the readers have seen in the previous chapter. The British deep state used Lawrence for sedition and provided money and arms to Arabs, to be used against the Ottoman administration. After the riot, the region came under British control.

The order that 'Lawrence of Arabia' gave to Arab rebels as the Turkish army was withdrawing clearly showed his hatred of Turks: "The best of you brings me the most dead Turks! No prisoners!"¹³⁹

Bell and Lawrence attended the Cairo Conference held in 1921, with Churchill as the chairman. Churchill nicknamed the participants of the gathering 'Forty Thieves' for plundering the Ottoman territory. At the conference, it was agreed that Britain should maintain its mandate over Palestine and Abdullah from the Hashemite house should be the king of Jordan, while Faisal from the same house should be the king of Iraq. It was also decided that Husain, the Sharif of Mecca, should control the Hejaz, while the House of Saud should control the Arab peninsula and the Nejd. Britain would provide financial assistance to all of these people, while the Royal Air Force would be responsible for the security in the area. In line with the decisions, the British bombed thousands of settlements and martyred tens of thousands of civilians. All those lands shared at the conference were former Ottoman territories. The zigzag shape on the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border is known as 'Winston's Hiccup'. Years later, Churchill said that he had created Transjordan "with the stroke of a pen, one Sunday afternoon in Cairo".¹⁴⁰ It was this easy for the British deep state to play with countries, states and peoples.