The Agreement

The Agreement

By Tarif Youssef Agha

The West conspired against us, and called it an Agreement,

That was signed by British and French hands

They said that we were the “Inheritance” of the “Sick Man”,

The “Inheritance” of the Ottoman Empire

They occupied us, but said that they brought us civilization,

And that they would make modern states out of us

But when they entered Jerusalem, they said,

Now, the Crusades ended

And they faced the tomb of Saladin and said,

We returned to Syria, so show us what you can do

They promised Palestine to those who had no homeland,

They got rid of them by giving them the land of the Prophets

They told them: go to the Promised Land,

And be there our strong ally

They, also, promised to donate Syria to the minority,

They granted to establish the Alawite State on it

Two entities, each one to support its mate,

Enemies in appearance, but allies in secret

Before that, they also skinned The Ahvaz and gave to Iran,

They did the same to The Sanjak (Alexandrite) and changed the ID of Eritrea

In addition to all that, they sliced our countries,

To Mini Republics and Kingdoms

And after they left, they installed from us on us,

Rulers who were the worst of the human race

They installed on us butchers and executioners who,

Day and night, lecturing us about Nationalism

They always claimed they didn’t want to interfere in our affairs,

But he who shakes hands with the killer, is his partner in the crime

They keep condemning and worrying, but in fact, they are partners,

All what they do is part of a theater play

Then we witnessed the Mini States collapsing in turn,

They started with Lebanon and its civil war

Then they turned Somalia into a Failed State,

They fed the hostility between among the Western North African States

They created a war between every two neighboring States,

And made the peace impossible between them

They ignited the Ten Years War in Algeria,

A war that was so rich in the lives of innocent victims

And before they demolished Iraq,

They pushed it to wage a non-sense war for eight years

Then, they divided Sudan to two Sudans,

They separated the South from the North by religious claims

And when the Arab-Spring came, they turned it into a Fall,

They want us to stay under the rule of the military boot

They stole the victory happiness from the Libyans,

And made the cannons thundering in Yemen

And in Egypt, the tanks came back patrolling the streets,

They jailed the president who came through the ballot boxes

They made Syria an example to all other nations,

They made it a lesson for those who dare to ask for Freedom

They sent masked men, who demanded Caliphate,

Men who took the land and the people hostage

They manufactured terrorism and made it an excuse,

They used it as a green light to practice barbarism

They want our countries to stay under oppression,

They want our countries to stay in slavery

And after all that, they ask you: where is the conspiracy?

While there is a gun pointed to the head of every one of us

Yes, nations take naps for sometimes, but when they wake up,

They become like dead volcanoes come alive

***

A Poem translation

(Can be shared without permission)

By Tarif Youssef-Agha

An Expatriate Arab Syrian Writer & Poet

Member of the ‘Syrian Revolutionary Writers Assembly’

Friday June 3, 2016, Houston, Texas

http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry

A hundred years ago, in May 16, 1916, , the Sykes-Picot Agreement was signed by Britain and France to redraw the map of the Middle East to prepare it for the occupation and the creation of the State of Israel in Palestine and the Alawite State in Syria