The Somali Democratic Republic (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Dimuqraadiga Soomaaliya, Arabic: الجمهورية الديمقراطية الصومالية al-Jumhūrīyah ad-Dīmuqrāṭīyah aṣ-Ṣūmālīyah) was the name that the communist regime of former President of Somalia Major General Mohamed Siad Barre gave to Somalia during its reign, after having seized power in a bloodless 1969 coup d'état. The putsch came a few days after the assassination of Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, the nation's second President, by one of his own bodyguards. Barre's administration would rule Somalia for the following 21 years, until the outbreak of the civil war in 1991.
Read more about Somali Democratic Republic: History, President, Prime Ministers
Famous quotes containing the words democratic and/or republic:
“The democratic youth ... lives along day by day, gratifying the desire that occurs to him, at one time drinking and listening to the flute, at another downing water and reducing, now practising gymnastic, and again idling and neglecting everything; and sometimes spending his time as though he were occupied in philosophy.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“Jean Jacques Rousseau ... is nothing but a fool in my eyes when he takes it upon himself to criticise society; he did not understand it, and approached it with the heart of an upstart flunkey.... For all his preaching a Republic and the overthrow of monarchical titles, the upstart is mad with joy if a Duke alters the course of his after-dinner stroll to accompany one of his friends.”
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