1967?1990 socialist state in Western Asia
People's Republic of South Yemen
(1967?1970)
??????? ????? ???????? ???????
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
(1970?1990)
??????? ????? ??????????? ???????
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Motto:
???? ? ???? ? ????????
Wa?dah, ?urr?yah, Ishtir?k?yah
("Unity, Freedom, Socialism")
|
Anthem:
?????? ?????? ???????? ????? ??????????? ???????
An-Na?id al-Wa?ane al-Jomhuriyat al-Yaman ad-Dimoqra?iya a?-?a?biya
"
National Anthem of People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
"
|
Show map of Middle East
Show globe
Location of claimed territory of South Yemen (red)
? in
Asia
(tan & white)
? in
Arabia
(tan)
|
Capital
and largest city
| Aden
12.7855° N, 45.0187° E
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Official languages
| Arabic
|
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Religion
| Islam
[a]
|
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Demonym(s)
| Yemeni/Yemenite
|
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Government
| Unitary
Marxist?Leninist
one-party
socialist republic
[4]
|
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General Secretary
|
|
---|
|
? 1978?1980
| Abdul Fattah Ismail
|
---|
? 1980?1986
| Ali Nasir Muhammad
|
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? 1986?1990
| Ali Salim al-Beidh
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President
|
|
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? 1967?1969 (first)
| Qahtan al-Shaabi
|
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? 1986?1990 (last)
| Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas
|
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Prime Minister
|
|
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? 1969 (first)
| Faysal al-Shaabi
|
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? 1986?1990 (last)
| Yasin Said Numan
|
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Legislature
| Supreme People's Council
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Historical era
| Cold War
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? Independence declared
| 30 November 1967
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| 14 December 1967
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| 22 June, 1969
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? Constitution adopted
| 31 October 1978
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| 22 May 1990
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? Total
| 360,133 km
2
(139,048 sq mi)
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? Estimate
| 2,200,000
[5]
|
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Currency
| South Yemeni dinar
(
YDD
)
|
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Driving side
| right
|
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Calling code
| +969
[6]
|
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ISO 3166 code
| YD
|
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Internet TLD
| .yd
[b]
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Today part of
| Yemen
|
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South Yemen
,
[c]
officially the
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
,
[d]
officially abbreviated to
Democratic Yemen
,
[e]
[f]
was a state that existed from 1967 to 1990 as the only
communist state
in the Middle East and the
Arab world
.
[7]
It was made up of the southern and eastern governorates of the present-day
Republic of Yemen
, including the island of
Socotra
. It was bordered by
North Yemen
to the
North-West
,
Saudi Arabia
to the
North
, and
Oman
to the
East
.
South Yemen's origins can be traced to 1874 with the creation of the British
Colony of Aden
and the
Aden Protectorate
, which consisted of two-thirds of present-day Yemen. Prior to 1937, what was to become the Colony of Aden had been governed as a part of British India, originally as the
Aden Settlement
subordinate to the Bombay Presidency and then as a Chief Commissioner's province. After the collapse of Aden Protectorate,
a state of emergency
was declared in 1963, when the
National Liberation Front
(NLF) and the
Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen
(FLOSY) rebelled against the British rule.
The
Federation of South Arabia
and the
Protectorate of South Arabia
were overthrown to become the
People's Republic of South Yemen
on 30 November 1967, which later changed its name to the
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
after the reforms that happened a year from the
Corrective Move
, with it becoming a
Marxist?Leninist
one-party state
in 1969 and was supported by
Cuba
,
East Germany
,
North Korea
and the
Soviet Union
. Despite its efforts to bring stability into the region, it was involved in a
brief civil war in 1986
. South Yemen was unified with the
Yemen Arab Republic
, commonly known as "North Yemen", on 22 May 1990 to form the present-day
Republic of Yemen
.
History
[
edit
]
British rule and decolonization
[
edit
]
In 1838, Muhsin Bin Fadl,
Sultan
of
Lahej
ceded 194 km
2
(75 sq mi) of
Aden
to the
British
. On 19 January 1839, the
British East India Company
landed
Royal Marines
at
Aden
to occupy the territory and stop attacks by
pirates
against
British shipping
to India making Aden a part of British colonial rule from 1839 until 1937. In the 1920s, the British began expanding and annexing the multiple sheikhdoms surrounding Aden under the claim of
protecting
them.
[8]
This was more a precautionary measure to prevent the
Yemeni imams
from storming Aden than a desire to annex the small sheikhdoms to the empire.
[8]
In the mid-1950s, the British realized that they would not be able to manage the colonies and needed a stable political unit that would distance Aden from the wave of
Arab nationalism
that had swept the region and preserve for them influence and the ability to manage Aden from London,
[9]
so they established the
Federation of the Emirates of South Arabia
in 1959.
[10]
The federation did not succeed for several reasons, the first of which was the British insistence that Aden would be part of the entity, which was rejected by the commercial elite of Aden, most of whom were
Indians
,
Persians
, and
Jews
, because they feared for their future from the sheikhdoms.
[10]
[11]
On the other hand, the leaders of the sheikhdoms feared that they would be overthrown later or that their influence would remain limited due to the dominance of the educated Aden elite, which was made up of a large number of non-Arabs and non-Muslims.
[12]
In addition to all that was the sheikhdoms' differences over the who should be the president of the federation.
Following the establishment of the
Federation of South Arabia
on 1965, four sheikhdoms out of twenty-one had joined the union.
[13]
The
Qu'aiti
and
Kathiri
sultanates of
Hadhramaut
refused to join either of the federations. Several resistance movements emerged, such as the
National Liberation Front
(NLF), whom were responsible for the wounding of British High Commissioner
Kennedy Trevaskis
on December 10, 1963 using a grenade, an event that sparked the
"October 14 Revolution"
which was influenced by the
"September 26 Revolution"
in the
North
.
[14]
The British had announced that they would withdraw by 1968 as a result of the revolution. The NLF and the
Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen
(FLOSY) appeared in the 1960s, supporters of the NLF were from the countryside of
Radfan
,
Yafa
, and
Ad-Dali
, while the supporters of the FLOSY were mainly from Aden; This is because tribal affiliations played a major role in attracting supporters.
[15]
The leaders of the NLF came from within the protected sheikhdoms and were not supported by the Egyptians at first, while the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen ran its operations from Aden and received support from
Gamal Abdel Nasser
, which made it appear as a follower of the Egyptians promoting Nasser’s agendas inside the country, the operations of these factions against the British were known to them as the Aden Emergency. The British tried to reach a compromise with these groups and found themselves waging a war on two fronts, trying to thwart the Republic in the north and the anti-English factions in the south.
[16]
By 1965, most of the western protectorates had fallen to the National Liberation Front. As for Hadhramaut, it seemed calm until 1966 because the English presence there was less than its counterpart in the western protectorates.
[17]
Ali Salem al-Baidh
and
Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas
joined the National Liberation Front in Hadhramaut and prevented the sultans of the
Kathiri Sultanate
and the
Qu'aiti Sultanate
from entering the country, but allowed the Sultan of the
Mahra Sultanate
due to his old age.
[18]
The commander of the Hadhrami Bedouin Legion was killed by one of his men in the same year, and Ali Salem Al-Beidh and Muhammad Salem Akash played a major role in gathering supporters in favor of the National Liberation Front, taking advantage of the near absence of the English presence in al-Mahra.
[19]
Qahtan Al-Shaabi
was the only person the British knew because he was an agricultural engineer in his city of Lahij. When the British tried to negotiate with the National Liberation Front, Qahtan demanded immediate withdrawal and recognition of the legitimacy of his government, and that the British government provide aid double what it proposed to the union, and that all the islands associated with the Aden Protectorate be part of the new state. While the British demands were an orderly handover to the authorities, and that the new state not interfere in the affairs of any country in the Arabian Peninsula.
[20]
The British were surprised by the presence of people they thought were loyal to them alongside the popular Qahtan. The NLF was invited to the Geneva Talks to sign the independence agreement with the British. During its occupation of
Aden
, the British had signed several treaties of protection with the local sheikhdoms and emirates of the Federation of South Arabia; however, these parties were excluded from the talks, and thus the agreement stated [...the handover of the territory of South Arabia to the (Yemeni) NLF...]. Southern Yemen became independent as the People's Republic of South Yemen on 30 November 1967, and the National Liberation Front consolidated its control in the country. On 14 December 1967, the PDRY was admitted into the
United Nations
as a member state. the British announced that they would withdraw from 1968, which sparked the battles between the National Liberation Front and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen to monopolize the right to self-determination after the British left.
[21]
The National Liberation Front had the upper hand at the expense of the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen, whose members were divided between joining the National Front or leaving for North Yemen.
[22]
Abdullah Al-Asanj and Muhammad Basindwa left for North Yemen. The last British soldier left Aden on November 30, 1967, and the sheikhdoms of the Eastern Protectorate in Hadhramaut were annexed to the new country. The lands of South Yemen are rugged and barren, a fact that played a role in the social, cultural and economic development of the south, unlike the northern regions of Yemen. Their population in 1967 did not exceed two million people, while northern Yemen exceeded six million.
[23]
Most of the population of the south was concentrated in the western regions of
Lahj
and its environs, and these alone constituted more than 60% of the population, 10% were nomads. Qahtan al-Shaabi assumed the presidency of a state that had never existed before, with a collapsed economy.
[24]
Civilian workers and businessmen left, British support stopped, and the closure of the Suez Canal in 1967 reduced the number of ships crossing Aden by 75%.
[25]
The National Liberation Front had approximately 4,000 members, a small number of university-educated leaders, and all of them, without exception, had no experience in government.
[26]
The front was divided into two right-wing and left-wing sections. The right-wingers and their popular leader, Qahtan, did not want to make major changes in the prevailing social and economic structure and took a conservative stance toward “liberating all Arab lands from colonialism, supporting the resistance of the Palestinian people, and supporting socialist regimes around the world to resist imperialism and colonial forces in the Third World.”
[27]
The leftist section of the Liberation Front was also promoting and opposed the establishment of popular forces and proposals to nationalize lands, and they were not preoccupied with the struggle of social classes. Qahtan wanted the continuation of existing institutions and their development.
[28]
[29]
The leftist section “wanted a social and economic transformation that would serve the broad segment of the working people instead of the wealthy minority,” as they put it.
[30]
on March 20 1968, Qahtan dismissed all leftist leaders from the government and party membership and was able to put down a rebellion led by leftist factions in the army in May of the same year.
[31]
[32]
On another level, in the months of July, August and December of 1968, the popular Qahtan faced new rebellions from leftist parties because all Arab countries welcomed the front. The National Liberation Front received a cold reception, as regimes like Egypt wanted to merge the National Front with the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen.
[33]
The leftist section was more numerous than the supporters of the popular Qahtan, and they wanted a regime that would lead the masses and face the great challenges facing the new state, the most important of which was the bankruptcy of the treasury.
[33]
On December 11, 1967, the lands of “feudal symbols and British agents” were confiscated, and the state was divided into six governorates.
[34]
The aim of the move was to end tribal aspects in the state and ignore the tribal borders between the defunct sheikhdoms.
[35]
On June 16, 1969, Qahtan fired Interior Minister Muhammad Ali Haitham, but the latter withdrew his ties to With the tribes and the army, he was able to ally himself with Muhammad Saleh Al-Awlaki, and they reassembled the leftist forces that had been dispersed by President Qahtan Al-Shaabi.
[36]
They were able to arrest him and place him under house arrest.
[37]
1969 establishment of a Marxist-Leninist state
[
edit
]
On June 22 1969, a radical
Marxist
wing of the NLF formed a presidential committee of five people, Salem Rabie Ali, who became president, Muhammad Saleh Al-Awlaki, Ali Antar, Abdel Fattah Ismail, and Muhammad Ali Haitham, who became prime minister.
[38]
they gained power in an event known as the
Corrective Move
. This radical wing reorganised the country into the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) on 30 November 1970.
[39]
Subsequently, all political parties were amalgamated into the National Liberation Front, renamed the
Yemeni Socialist Party
, which became the only legal party. This group took an extreme leftist line and declared its support for the Palestinians and the Dhofar Revolution. West Germany severed its relationship with the state due to its recognition of East Germany. The United States also severed its relationship in October 1969. The new powers issued a new constitution, nationalized foreign banks and insurance companies, and changed the name of the state to The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in line with the Marxist-Leninist approach they followed. A centrally planned economy was established.
[40]
The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen established close ties with the
Soviet Union
, the
German Democratic Republic
,
Cuba
, and the
Palestinian Liberation Organization
.
East Germany
's constitution of 1968 even served as a kind of blueprint for the PDRY's first constitution.
[41]
The new government embarked on a programme of
nationalisation
, introduced
central planning
, put limits on housing ownership and
rent
, and implemented
land reforms
. By 1973, the GDP of South Yemen increased by 25 percent.
[42]
And despite the conservative environment and resistance, women became legally equal to men,
polygamy
,
child marriage
and arranged marriage were all banned by law and equal rights in divorce were sanctioned; all of supported and protected by the state
General Union of Yemeni Women
.
[43]
The Republic also
secularised education
and
sharia law
was replaced by a
state legal code
.
[44]
Slavery in Yemen
, which had been abolished in
North Yemen
by the
1962 revolution
, was now abolished also in South Yemen.
[45]
The major
communist powers
assisted in the building of the PDRY's armed forces. Strong support from Moscow resulted in
Soviet naval forces
gaining access to naval facilities in South Yemen.
[46]
[47]
[48]
The most significant among them, a Soviet naval and air base on the island of Socotra for operations in the Indian Ocean.
[49]
[50]
[46]
Disputes with North Yemen
[
edit
]
Unlike the early decades of other partitioned states such as
East Germany
and
West Germany
,
North Korea
and
South Korea
, or
North Vietnam
and
South Vietnam
, all of which faced tense relations or sometimes
total wars
, the relations between the
Yemen Arab Republic
(North Yemen) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) remained relatively friendly throughout most of their existence, although conflicts did arise.
Fighting broke out in 1972
, and the short-lived conflict was resolved with negotiations, where it was declared
unification
would eventually occur.
[51]
[52]
However, these plans were put on hold in 1979, as the PDRY funded Red rebels in the
YAR
, and the war was only prevented by an
Arab League
intervention. The goal of unity was reaffirmed by the northern and southern heads of state during a summit meeting in
Kuwait
in March 1979.
In 1980, PDRY president
Abdul Fattah Ismail
resigned and went into exile in Moscow, having lost the confidence of his sponsors in the
USSR
.
[53]
His successor,
Ali Nasir Muhammad
, took a less interventionist stance toward both North Yemen and neighbouring
Oman
.
1986 Civil War
[
edit
]
On 13 January 1986, a violent struggle began in
Aden
between Ali Nasir's supporters and supporters of the returned Ismail, who wanted power back. This conflict, known as the
South Yemen Civil War
, lasted for more than a month and resulted in thousands of casualties, Ali Nasir's
ouster
, and Ismail's disappearance and presumed death. Some 60,000 people, including the deposed Ali Nasir, fled to the YAR.
Ali Salim al-Beidh
, an ally of Ismail who had succeeded in escaping the attack on pro-Ismail members of the
Politburo
, then became General Secretary of the
Yemeni Socialist Party
.
[54]
Reforms and attempts for unification
[
edit
]
Against the background of the
perestroika
in the
USSR
, the main backer of the PDRY,
political reforms
were started in the late 1980s.
Political prisoners
were released, political parties were formed, and the system of justice was reckoned to be more equitable than in the North. In May 1988, the
YAR
and PDRY governments came to an understanding that considerably reduced tensions, including agreement to renew discussions concerning unification, to establish a joint oil exploration area along their undefined border, to demilitarise the border, and to allow Yemenis unrestricted border passage on the basis of only a national identification card. In November 1989, after returning from the
Soviet?Afghan War
,
Osama bin Laden
offered to send the newly formed
al-Qaeda
to overthrow the South Yemeni government on behalf of
Saudi Arabia
, but Prince
Turki bin Faisal
found the plan reckless and declined.
[55]
In 1990, the parties reached a full agreement on
joint governing
of Yemen, and the countries were effectively merged as
Yemen
.
[56]
Demographics
[
edit
]
South Yemen's ethnic groups were, as of 2000, ethnic Yemeni
Arabs
(92.8%),
Somalis
(3.7%), Afro-Arab (1.1%), Indians and Pakistanis (1%), and other (1.4%).
[57]
Politics and social life
[
edit
]
South Yemen developed as a
Marxist?Leninist
, mostly secular society ruled first by the
National Liberation Front
, which later morphed into the ruling
Yemeni Socialist Party
.
[58]
Government
[
edit
]
The legislative body, the
Supreme People's Council
, was elected by the people for a period of five years. The collective head of state, also known as the Presidium of the Supreme People's Council, was elected by the Supreme People's Council for a period of five years as well.
[59]
The executive body was known as the Council of Ministers, and was formed by the Supreme People's Council. Local representative bodies were the people's councils, and their decisions were taken into account when the members of the Supreme People's Council were governing. Local executive bodies were the executive bureaus of the people's councils.
[59]
The highest court was the Supreme Court of South Yemen, other courts in the country included courts of appeal and the provincial courts, and the courts of first instance were known as the district courts or magistrate courts.
[59]
The only political party was the Yemen Socialist Party.
[59]
Foreign relations
[
edit
]
The only avowedly
Marxist?Leninist nation
in the Middle East, South Yemen received significant
foreign aid
and
other assistance
from the
USSR
[60]
and
East Germany
, which stationed several hundred officers of the
Stasi
in the country to train the nation's
secret police
and establish another
arms trafficking
route to
Palestine
.
[61]
The East Germans did not leave until 1990, when the Yemeni government declined to pay their salaries which had been terminated with the
dissolution of the Stasi
during
German reunification
.
[62]
However by the middle 1980s the Soviet Union under
Mikhail Gorbachev
largely shunned South Yemen.
[63]
Relations between South Yemen and several nearby states were poor.
Saudi Arabia
only established diplomatic relations in 1976, initially hosting pro-British exiles and supporting armed clashes in the border regions of South Yemen.
Relations with Oman
declined through the 1970s as the South Yemeni government supported the insurgent Marxist
Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman
(PFLO). Relations with
Ba'athist Iraq
were also low, as South Yemen offered asylum to a number of
Iraqi communists
.
[64]
The United States listed South Yemen as
a “state sponsor of terrorism”
between 1979 and the Yemeni reunification.
[65]
Diplomatic relations with the United States had been broken on 24 October 1969
[66]
because of disagreements with US policy in the Middle East.
[67]
They were not restored until shortly before reunification.
Legislature and judiciary
[
edit
]
The
Supreme People's Council
was appointed by the General Command of the
National Liberation Front
in 1971.
In Aden, there was a structured judicial system with a
supreme court
.
Living standards
[
edit
]
Despite a poor economy, the government ensured a basic level of living standard for all citizens and established a
welfare state
.
[64]
Income equality improved, corruption was reduced, and health and educational services expanded.
[42]
[68]
Overall, the population was assured of a basic but adequate living standard for all.
[69]
Sports
[
edit
]
In 1976, the
South Yemen national football team
participated in the
AFC Asian Cup
, where the team lost to
Iraq
1?0 and to
Iran
8?0. They entered their only
World Cup
qualification campaign in
1986
and were knocked out in the first round by
Bahrain
. On 2 September 1965, South Yemen played their first international match against the
United Arab Republic
, to whom they lost 14?0. On 5 November 1989, South Yemen played its last international match against
Guinea
, to whom they lost 1?0. The team stopped playing when the North and South united in 1990 to form the
modern state of Yemen
.
In 1988, the
South Yemen Olympic team
made its debut in the
Summer Olympics
in
Seoul
. Sending only eight athletes, the country won no medals. This was the only time the country went to the Olympics until
unification
in 1990.
Women's rights
[
edit
]
Women's rights under the socialist government were considered the best in the region. Women became legally equal to men and were encouraged to work in public; polygamy, child marriage, and arranged marriage were all banned; and equal rights in divorce received legal sanction.
[70]
[71]
[72]
[73]
[74]
Administrative divisions
[
edit
]
Following independence, South Yemen was divided into six
governorates
(Arabic:
muhafazat
), with roughly
natural boundaries
. From 1967 to 1978, each given a name by
numeral
.
[75]
The state changed this practice in the mid-1980s but gave the governorates geographical or historical names and ensured that their borders did not coincide with tribal allegiances.
[75]
Today, this legacy contributes to misunderstanding and confusion when discussing political issues and allegiances in Yemen.
[75]
The islands of
Kamaran
(until 1972, when it was seized by North Yemen),
Perim
,
Socotra
,
Abd-el-Kuri
,
Samha
(inhabited),
Darsah
and others uninhabited from the Socotra archipelago were districts (
mudiriyat
) of the First/Aden Governorate being under the Prime Minister's supervision.
[76]
Economy
[
edit
]
During British rule, economic development in South Yemen was restricted to the city of
Aden
, focused mainly on the port and on the British military bases. As a result, following the British withdrawal, there here was little to no
industrial
output or
mineral wealth exploitation
in the country until the mid-1980s, when significant
petroleum reserves
in the central regions near
Shibam
and
Mukalla
were discovered. Foreign aid was minimal, as the British government did not fulfill promises of aid and the Soviet Union offered only
US$
152 million from 1969 to 1980.
[64]
The main sources of income were agriculture, mostly fruit,
cereal crops
, cattle and sheep, and fishing. The government guaranteed full employment in agriculture for rural citizens, and established a number of collective farms, however, those set up following the
Soviet model
produced poorer results than cooperative-run farms.
[64]
The national
budget
was 13.43 million dinars in 1976, and the
gross national product
was
US$
650 - 500 million. The total national
debt
was $52.4 million.
Economic policy
[
edit
]
Limited natural resources posed challenges to the economic development of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). Despite this constraint, significant, albeit modest, oil reserves were discovered shortly after the country's unification in 1990. However, the YSP government did not benefit from oil exports to fund its development initiatives.
[77]
Over time, economic policies in the PDRY underwent a transformation, shifting from an initial focus on developing the state sector to promoting cooperative and joint private-public enterprises. By the late 1980s, there was a notable presence of industries in Aden and around Al Mukalla in Hadramawt, producing a range of essential goods such as plastics, batteries, cigarettes, matches, tomato paste, dairy products, and fish canning.
[78]
Within the industrial sector, the state implemented welfarist labor laws that were widely enforced. These laws included regulations aimed at safeguarding women in the workforce by prohibiting night shifts and hazardous occupations. Additionally, the legislation ensured that workers received salaries that enabled them to maintain reasonable living standards. Trade unions in the PDRY primarily functioned as state entities rather than as negotiating bodies, playing a significant role in upholding labor regulations and standards.
[79]
A few months after
The Events of '86
, the PDRY had discovered oil after more than 6 decades of unsuccessful exploration,
[80]
the Soviet Union discovered oil in the
Shabwah Governorate
in late 1986, marking a turning point for the resource-scarce nation.
[81]
Decades of unsuccessful exploration efforts, hampered by the harsh desert environment and political instability, had left South Yemen heavily reliant on foreign aid, primarily from the Soviet Union, and remittances from its citizens working abroad, estimated to be around half of government revenue by the mid-1980s. The discovery, made by the Soviet oil company Technoexport, emerged amidst the Cold War, with the Soviet Union playing a crucial role in the exploration and discovery process.
[82]
In 1980s, Technoexport contracted with the PDRY to search for oil in a 13,500-square-mile area in Shabwa, and, in 1984, launched a program of exploratory drilling. This Soviet effort yielded only traces of oil over the next two years, a sharp contrast to the discovery and rapid exploitation of oil in the same period by an American company,
Hunt Oil
, in- the YAR's
Marib
basin, an area just to the west of Shabwa. Then, in late 1986, the Soviets struck very high quality oil in western Shabwa, an occurrence confirmed by authorities in Aden in early 1987.
By late March, Initial estimates placed the oil reserves at around 1 billion barrels,
[81]
[83]
sparking plans for pipeline construction and full-scale production of the oil fields. events moved swiftly, and industry sources reported in mid-1987 that the three fields -
lyad East
,
lyad West
, and
Amal
already had a productive capacity of 10,000 barrels per day (bpd), that between 5,000-10,000 bpd were being trucked to the Aden refinery, and that there were plans to increase the number of trucks on the oil run to bring deliveries up to 25,000 bpd, considerably more than the PDRY's total domestic need at the time.
[81]
The discovery was viewed as a potential pathway to reduce dependence on external sources of income and improve the lives of South Yemen's roughly 2.4 million citizens. However, the joy of discovery was accompanied by a multitude of challenges.
[81]
Western Shabwa was not the only exploration area, and the Soviet Union was not the only explorer in the second half of the 1980s.
[81]
Replying to a claim that the PDRY had put all of its eggs in one basket, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Minerals Salih Abu-Bakr ibn Husaynun noted in late 1987 that eight Western and Arab companies were engaged in exploration efforts in several areas in the PDRY.
[81]
This count seems about right. Although Italy's Agip stopped work in late 1985, Brazil's Braspetrol, France's Societe Nationale Elf Aquitaine (Elf) and Compagnie Franqaise des Petroles (
Total
), Kuwait's Independent Petroleum Group, and Canadian Occidental were among the firms actively searching for oil in the years that followed.
[81]
The Soviet involvement in the discovery, estimated to have cost over half a billion dollars and add to South Yemen's already staggering debt, raised concerns about potential political and economic influence in the region.
[81]
Additionally, the oil find added a layer of complexity to the already intricate relationship between South and North Yemen, both of which desired unification and saw the resource, estimated to hold the potential for substantial economic benefits, as a potential driver of economic prosperity.
[84]
Furthermore, South Yemen grappled with internal political struggles and social unrest at the time of the discovery. The violent leadership struggle within the ruling communist party, culminating in the January 1986 "blood bath" in Aden, further destabilized the nation. This volatile political landscape cast a shadow over the potential benefits of the newfound oil wealth and raised questions about how the resources would be managed and distributed fairly within the nation.
[85]
Airlines
[
edit
]
The following airlines had operated from the PDRY:
[86]
- Aden Airways
[87]
(1949?1967). Ceased operations on 30 June 1967 at the time of British withdrawal from the
Federation
and the
Protectorate of South Arabia
.
- Alyemda
? Democratic Yemen Airlines (1961?1996). Joined
Yemenia
, the airline of the former
YAR
- The Brothers Airline Service Corporation was formed by Sayid Zein A. Baharoon who used the “Brothers” nomenclature in his merchant enterprises. Known as BASCO, this fledgling airline lasted only a short time.
[88]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
While, according to the Constitution of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, Islam was "the state religion",
[1]
the government restricted the practice of Islamic traditions like
Ramadan
and other
Muslim holidays
,
[2]
leading some authors to believe that it was an
atheist state
[3]
- ^
Was eligible for a ccTLD, but not allocated
- ^
Arabic
:
????? ???????
, romanized:
al-Yaman al-Jan?b?
- ^
Arabic
:
??????? ????? ??????????? ???????
,
Jumh?riyat al-Yaman ad-D?muqr???yah ash-Sha'b?yah
- ^
(????? ??????????,
al-Yaman ad-D?muqr???yy
)
- ^
also as:
Yemen (Aden)
(????? (???),
al-Yaman ('Adin)
)
References
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12°48′N
45°02′E
/
12.800°N 45.033°E
/
12.800; 45.033