2021 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 3(1) It is the same politic of division that justified the creation of artificial borders by the Anglo–French alliance in the secret Sykes–Picot Agreements. France created the State of Lebanon in Syria 60 and Britain divided Mesopotamia into the new states of Iraq and Jordan. 61 Native populations disagreed with the new borders set up by European colonial powers. For instance, the decision to annex the Iskenderun Syrian district to the new State of Turkey, despite the fact that this region was populated by a vast majority of Arabs who spoke the Syrian dialect, was strongly contested. 62 The creation and separation of Lebanon from Syria was, likewise, contested by native populations. 63 Moreover, Britain promised to create ‘a Jewish home’ in Palestine in the Balfour Declaration, 64 paving the way for the mass displacement of millions of Palestinians and the current Israeli–Palestinian conflict. 65 The Kurdish people were initially promised a State in the Treaty of Sèvres, 66 but were later stripped of their right to self-determination 67 after renegotiations with Turkey in the Treaty of Lausanne. 68 As a result of this decision, the Kurds have been left without a state and form today the largest nation without a country in the world. 69 The dislocation of the former Ottoman Empire had a direct impact on citizenries that explain current nationality rules in the Middle East. With the creation of new states naturally came the necessity to determine which citizens belonged to each State. 70 European colonial powers established the new nationality rules that would apply after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in art 30 of the Treaty of Lausanne, according to which: Turkish subjects habitually resident in territory which in accordance with the provisions of the present Treaty is detached from Turkey will become … nationals of the State to which such territory is transferred. 71 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 Lebanon — as we know it today — was not a state before France created it in 1923. See Fildis (n 20) 133. Barr (n 21). Haitham Manaa, Stateless Persons in Syria (Report, Arab Commission on Human Rights 2004) <http://hem.bredband.net/dccls2/r1.htm>. Khoury, Syria and the French Mandate (n 43). Imperial Conference 1926 (Report No E(IR/26), Inter-Imperial Relations Committee 1926). Gardner Thompson, Legacy of Empire: Britain's Support of Zionism and the Creation of Israel (Saqi Books 2019) 4. Treaty of Peace Between the Allied and Associated Powers and Turkey, signed 10 August 1920) (‘Treaty of Sèvres’). Kurdistan was an independent state before the Ottoman invasion in the 15th century. See Philip G Kreyenbroek and Stefan Sperl, The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (Routledge 2005) 12. Although the right of ‘self-determination’ was not part of international law until it was introduced in the UDHR (n 6) in 1948, this legal concept can be found in earlier speeches and declarations. Notably, former President of the United States Woodrow Wilson was a driving force behind the adoption of the right to self-determination in several treaties, including the Covenant of the League of Nations. See Antony Anghie, ‘Colonialism and the Birth of International Institutions: Sovereignty, Economy, and the Mandate System of the League of Nations’ (2002) 34(3) New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 513; Trygve Throntveit, ‘The Fable of the Fourteen Points: Woodrow Wilson and National SelfDetermination’ (2011) 35(3) Diplomatic History 445. Treaty of Peace with Turkey Signed at Lausanne, signed 24 July 1923 (entered into force 6 August 1924) (‘Treaty of Lausanne’). Bekir Halhalli, ‘Kurdish Political Parties in Syria: Past Struggles and Future Expectations’ in Emel Elif Tugdar and Al Serhun (eds), Comparative Kurdish Politics in the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan 2018) 27–53. Laura van Waas, The Situation of Stateless Persons in the Middle East and North Africa (Report, UNHCR 2010) 6. Treaty of Lausanne (n 68) art 30. 14