Word: strongman
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...Ottoman Empire in 1918.) In 1990 he led the North to victory in a war against South Yemen, the territory that was once the British colony of Aden, and has ruled the unified nation ever since. He's done so using the classic techniques of a Middle Eastern strongman - clamping down on the press, concentrating military and economic power in the hands of friends and family and winning elections by suspiciously high margins. Though Saleh's main source of legitimacy is the semblance of unity he has brought to what is one of the world's most fragmented countries...