The result of World War I (1914—1918) was very important for the history of the Kurds. The Triple Entente overcame the Ottoman Empire, and the lands where Kurdish people lived before the war were separated. The lands were cut by the borders belonging to the new countries of Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. In 1916, the United Kingdom and French Third Republic had secretly agreed on how to share the territory in the Near East in the Sykes–Picot Agreement. The agreement was used to decide the borders for a long time. This was very influential and important, and stayed in the memory of Kurdish people as a betrayal by imperialism.