Colonel Sir Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet (born Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes; 16 March 1879  16 February 1919) was an English traveller, Conservative Party politician and diplomatic adviser, particularly about matters respecting the Middle East at the time of the First World War. He is associated with the Sykes-Picot Agreement, drawn up while the war was in progress, regarding the apportionment of postwar spheres of interest in the Ottoman Empire to Britain, France and Russia. Fran?ois Marie Denis Georges-Picot (Paris, 21 December 1870  Paris, 20 June 1951), son of historian Georges Picot and grand-uncle of Val?ry Giscard d'Estaing, was a French diplomat who signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement during World War I, with the Englishman, Sir Mark Sykes, dividing up the Ottoman Empire into British, French and, later, Russian and Italian spheres of influence. He was responsible along with Sykes for the annexation of Arab lands and their incorporation into British and French empires.