Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Meanwhile in the north, after WWI and the defeat of Germany (with whom the Otto-
mans were allied), a new royal Zaydi dynasty, the Hamid al-Din, rose up to take the place
of the former occupiers.
Civil War
Until 1962 central and northern Yemen had been ruled by a series of local imams.
However, on the death of the influential imam Ahmad, a dispute over succession broke
out, embroiling the whole region in a war that dragged on for the next eight years.
On the one side, army officers supported by Egypt proclaimed the Yemen Arab Repub-
lic (YAR), while on the other, the royalists based in the north, and backed by Britain and
Saudi Arabia, were loyal to Ahmad's son and successor. The YAR forces eventually won.
Following the National Liberation Front's victories in the guerrilla campaign against
the British, the colonialists were forced to withdraw from southern Yemen in 1967. Three
years later the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) was born. It became the
first and only Marxist state in the Arab world.
In the north of the country, meanwhile, Field Marshall Ali Abdullah Saleh had institu-
ted a progressive rule of the YAR with his General People's Congress (GPC). Conflicts
between tribes were contained, and the constitution vowed to respect both Islamic prin-
ciples and Western values, such as personal freedom and private property.
In the PDRY, however, there was turmoil. Power struggles within the Yemen Socialist
Party (YSP) had led to rising tension. Finally, in Aden in January 1986, a two-week civil
war broke out. The situation was aggravated by the collapse of the Soviet Union, previ-
ously the major benefactor of the PDRY. As a result, the south was thrown into a state of
bankruptcy.
Additionally, border disagreements between the two states had led to short conflicts in
1972, 1978 and 1979. Yet, despite the political differences, most Yemenis hated having a
divided country.
Reunification
On 22 May 1990 a reunified Republic of Yemen was declared and in 1991 Yemen made
regional history. The country became the very first multi-party parliamentary democracy
on the Arabian Peninsula. Saleh took the position of president and Ali Salim al-Bidh (the
leader of YSP, the ruling party of the former PDRY) became vice-president.
Things didn't get off to a good start for the new nation. During the 1990-91 Gulf War,
Yemen appeared to side with Iraq (by choosing not to support UN economic sanctions
