Page 13 - CSA Celebrity Speakers | CSA Speaker Bulletin January 2016
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MIDDLE EAST
Preserving
the Ottoman Mosaic
LONDON – The roots of the Middle over competing French and British Carl Bildt was Sweden’s
East’s many conflicts lie in the interests. The Greeks made an ill- foreign minister from 2006
unraveling of the Ottoman Empire fated attempt to conquer western to October 2014 and Prime
at the beginning of the twentieth Anatolia – eventually triggering the Minister from 1991 to 1994,
century and the failure since then revolution that led to the creation of when he negotiated Sweden’s
to forge a stable regional order. As modern Turkey. And the 1917 Balfour EU accession. A renowned
the international community works Declaration – a British pledge to international diplomat, he
toward securing a durable peace in establish a Jewish state in Palestine – served as EU Special Envoy to
the region, its leaders would be wise laid the groundwork for the creation of the Former Yugoslavia, High
to remember the lessons of history. Israel in 1948, followed by decades of Representative for Bosnia
conflict and negotiations. and Herzegovina, UN Special
The Ottoman Empire – which once Envoy to the Balkans, and Co-
stretched from Bihać in today’s Finding a home for the Ottoman Chairman of the Dayton Peace
Bosnia to Basra in Iraq – was a province of Mosul proved to be Conference. He is Chair of the
rich mosaic of intermingled cultures, a particularly tricky part of the Global Commission on Internet
traditions, and languages under the game, as it was claimed by the new Governance and a member of
ultimate authority of the Sultan in governments in both Turkey and the World Economic Forum’s
Istanbul. It was remarkably stable, Iraq. A commission set up by the Global Agenda Council on
providing the region with a peaceful League of Nations and headed by a Europe.
foundation for hundreds of years. But Swedish diplomat crisscrossed the
as it started to come apart, it did so region in search of a fair solution, but
violently. ultimately failed to find a neat dividing
line. Eventually, the commission
It was in the Balkans that the process recommended that the province be
of carving out nation-states from the given to Iraq, but only because Iraq
Ottoman mosaic began. And it was a was supposed to remain under a
process that kicked off two decades League mandate for decades. n
of devastating wars – the first at the
beginning of the twentieth century, the Click here to read more.
second in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, in Mesopotamia and Courtesy of Project Syndicate
the Levant, a new crop of countries
emerged as outside powers redrew
the Ottoman map. Syria and Iraq
were the outcome of negotiations
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