He was the man who ruled Jordan for 47 years: Who is Hussein of Jordan?

When Hussein bin Talal was born in Amman, the calendar showed November 14, 1935...

Hüseyin, who had a childhood that was cherished by all members of the family, went to Victoria College in Alexandria, Egypt, which was still a kingdom at that time, after his primary education in Amman. After completing his education here, he moved to the United Kingdom and attended Harrow School for a while and then the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. During his days at Harrow School, he spent a lot of time with his cousin, Faisal bin Ghazi, who ascended to the throne of Iraq when he was only 4 years old. The friendship established by cousins of the same age would not last long due to the fate Faisal would face.

When Hussein returned to his country after receiving a good education at a young age, Jordan was now independent, his grandfather Abdullah was promoted from emir to king, and as a result of the war that started with the official declaration of the establishment of Israel on May 14, 1948, the west of Jerusalem was occupied by Israel. Abdullah, who did not trust Hüseyin's father, Talal, who was the crown prince, and his younger son, Naif, paid special attention to his grandson's development and almost never left him with him.

Hussein bin Talal (14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hussein was a 40th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad.

Young Hüseyin, who sometimes even attended meetings with foreign dignitaries, had the chance to observe high-level international negotiations while acting as a translator for his grandfather, who could not speak English. When King Abdullah was shot and killed during Friday prayers in the Qibla Mosque in Al-Aqsa Mosque on July 20, 1951, Hussein was again next to him.

Hussein was declared crown prince when his father Talal was enthroned as the new king of Jordan on September 6, 1951, approximately two months after his grandfather Abdullah was killed. During this period, he returned to England and continued his education at the Royal Military Academy. The abnormal behavior that King Talal had been exhibiting since then turned into symptoms of schizophrenia due to the assassination of Abdullah.

The Jordanian Parliament, which took action upon the report given by the doctors who were convinced that the King, who was kept under observation for a while, could no longer serve, declared that the country now had a new king on August 11, 1952. On the same day, Hüseyin, who was in Lausanne with his mother, learned the news that he was king through a telegram sent with the note "To His Majesty King Hüseyin". Former King Talal would be sent to Istanbul to continue his treatment and would stay in a clinic there until he died on July 7, 1972.

Hussein, who was a minor when he was declared king, took office under the regency of a three-person council consisting of the prime minister, the president of the senate, and the president of the House of Representatives. After this short period of regency, which lasted for several months, he became the real king on May 2, 1953, the same day as his cousin Faisal, who sat on the throne of Iraq and took full control of Jordan.

However, Hussein had a very difficult process ahead of him: the situation of the Palestinians who flocked to his country after 1948, the Pan-Arabism movements that rose with the abolition of the kingdom after the "Free Officers' Coup" in Egypt, the presence of Israel right next to him, the situation in Iraq, Syria, and Syria where the waters never calmed down. Many problems, such as the neighborly relations with Saudi Arabia, were waiting for solutions from this new king, who was not yet 18 years old.

Towards the mid-50s, waters began to warm up again in the Middle East. The fire of Arab nationalism fueled by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was also increasing the heat in Jordan, where the majority of the population consists of Palestinians. Nasser, who put his dream of nationalizing Suez into practice in the summer of 1956, pursued declaring the United Arab Republic with the support he received from the people of other Arab countries.

Hussein, who wanted to stay away from the escalating tension, was busy trying to reduce the rising tension within his country. He gave up the idea of joining the Baghdad Pact, which was established under the supervision of the USA, dismissed the Commander of the Arab Legion Sir John Bagot Glubb, and the British officers accompanying him, and allowed general elections to be held... However, none of these were enough to prevent the disasters that would occur in a short time.

Hussein and his cousin Faisal took action in the first days of 1958 to eliminate the problems that would be triggered by the United Arab Republic, which was planned to be established by the unification of Egypt and Syria, and in mid-February, Iraq, and Jordan, ruled by the Hashemites, came together under the umbrella of the Arab Federation. It was declared. However, the young kings, who aimed to reduce the dose of Pan-Arabist discourses echoing in the streets of their country with this move, did not get what they wanted.

Soldiers in the Iraqi Army who were fans of Gamal Abdun Nasser pushed the button in the summer of 1958, and with the bloody coup on July 14, 1958, the kingdom in Iraq was overthrown, King Faisal and many high-ranking figures in the country were killed. Just a week after the coup, it was declared that the Arab Federation was dissolved.

After the next few relatively quiet years, in the second half of the 60s, the footsteps of war began to be heard, this time between Israel and Arab countries. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's dream of eliminating Israel and becoming the undisputed leader of all Arabs has dragged the region into a new conflict.

The fact that there were some people who admired him among the senior managers and generals of other Arab countries forced the kings or political leaders of the countries to follow in Egypt's footsteps. One of the most important examples of this was undoubtedly Jordan. The interest of some senior commanders in the army towards Gamal Abdel Nasser made Hussein uneasy, and young Hussein was forced to fight against Israel, thinking that a coup might be made against him.

The dogfight between Syrian and Israeli planes in April 1967 turned into a small-scale air war, accelerating the process. Realizing that no one could stop what was about to happen, Hussein went to Cairo on May 30 and signed a defense agreement with Gamal Abdel Nasser. Although he was somewhat relieved when Iraq and Syria announced that they would support them, he was greatly disappointed when the war developed contrary to expectations.

The Egyptian Air Force, which was raided by Israeli planes on the morning of June 5, 1967, was destroyed and Jordan, which was forced into war, could not show any presence. When the war, which went down in history as the "Six-Day War", ended, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, were occupied by Israel. Hussein was now "the king who lost Al-Aqsa".

After the Six-Day War, a new test awaited Hussein. Some of the Palestinian refugees who fled the war and took refuge in Jordan started a guerrilla war against Israel by receiving armed training under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). When Hussein, who thought that this situation posed a danger to his country, moved against the Palestinians, he became a target and gunshots began to echo in the streets of Jordan.

On September 6, 1970, three British planes hijacked by Palestinian groups were landed at Azrak Airport in Jordan and the region was declared "liberated". Disturbed by these activities of Palestinian groups, the King planned a military suppression operation in September 1970 to subdue them. Although Hussein and PLO Leader Arafat met on September 27 under the mediation of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the events did not calm down.

King Hussein, who asked for help from Pakistan, fought against the Palestinians for about two years, together with the forces under the command of Brigadier General Ziaulhakk, who came for support. When the events known as the "Black September Events" in Jordan's recent history subsided completely in July 1971, the PLO moved its headquarters from Amman to Beirut; At least 25 thousand Palestinians lost their lives in the operations launched by the order of King Hussein.

When Egypt and Syria started a new war against Israel in October 1973, Hussein was unaware of what was happening. The King, who was reported by the Israeli press to have secret meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in September, found himself in a difficult situation against other Arab countries, and a week after the Yom Kippur War started, he sent his soldiers to the region to support the Syrian troops in the Golan Heights. After this war, Hüseyin tried to follow more balanced policies and tried to keep his country's economy afloat. He tried to create financial resources by establishing good relations with Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and some Western states.

King Hussein, who was rewarded for the balanced policies he pursued with domestic dominance and a relatively peaceful environment, opened a new page regarding the West Bank by the end of the 80s. Nearly two years after the outbreak of the First Intifada in December 1987, Hussein renounced his claim to the West Bank and Jordan's claim to represent the Palestinians living in the region.

Small-scale protests, which started around the same time as the country's economy deteriorated, took on a political appearance after the West Bank decision and began to target him. The king found the solution by reopening the parliament, which was dissolved after the Six-Day War, and holding elections after 22 years.

Hussein did not take part in the anti-Iraq front in the Gulf War and attempted to mediate in favor of Saddam. Hussein, whose efforts were in vain after the Iraqi President declared that he annexed Kuwait despite all warnings and that there would be no turning back from there, was left in the middle. The King's international reputation was greatly damaged by the reaction of many countries.

Following the US decision to cut economic aid to Jordan, similar statements came from the Gulf countries, and the domestic economic situation worsened further. However, Jordanians supported Hussein, thinking that all these events were an external intervention in their country. Jordanian streets witnessed crowded demonstrations against the USA.

The Madrid Conference held in 1991 and the Oslo Agreement reached between Palestine and Israel two years later created the appropriate ground for the "peace" that King Hussein had wanted to make for a long time. The King, who has held secret meetings with the Israeli side dozens of times since he took office, took action for a permanent solution after the moderate statements from then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

At the end of the negotiations with the involvement of US President Bill Clinton, King Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin came together at the White House on July 25, 1994, and signed the Washington Declaration, which determined the path to permanent peace. As a result of the negotiations that continued for four months, the peace agreement between Jordan and Israel was officially signed on October 26, 1994, and King Hussein, who managed to regain the management of the Masjid al-Aqsa with this agreement, signed Jordan, Egypt, and Israel. It went down in history as the second Arab country to recognize it. Rabin, who was on the other side of the agreement, died on November 4, 1995, as the target of bullets fired from a radical Jew's gun.

After a short period of calm, relations between the two countries became tense again on September 16, 1997, when Hamas' Political Bureau Chief Khaled Meshaal was attacked in Amman, the capital of Jordan, and Hussein bin Talal suffered one of the most important tests of his reign. The King quickly initiated diplomatic traffic for Meshaal, who was poisoned by two MOSSAD agents and asked Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to send the antidote, and he succeeded.

While Meshaal's treatment continued, Hussein ensured the release of 40 Palestinians held captive in Israeli prisons in exchange for two captured MOSSAD agents. Among the released prisoners was Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas.

The King, who was personally at the airport when the Palestinians were brought to Jordan, appeared in front of the cameras after all the tension, and with the words he said, managed to emerge victorious from the chaos initiated by the Netanyahu government and solidified his place in the eyes of his people.

Hüseyin, who had health problems in May 1998, learned that he had cancer after a check-up. The King, who received chemotherapy treatment in the USA for 6 months, returned to his country in January 1999. On January 24, he dismissed his brother Hasan bin Talal, who had been crown prince since 1965, and a day later appointed his son Abdullah to this position.

King Hussein, whose condition became increasingly worse after this critical change, died on February 7, 1999, and was buried in the royal cemetery in Raghadan Palace, where the graves of the previous kings Abdullah and Talal were also located.

Hüseyin, who walked on a tightrope during his 47-year rule and somehow managed to pull his country out of all the chaos in its geography, experienced ups and downs in his private life, as in his political career. He was married to Dina binti Abdulhamid, the mother of his first child, Princess Aliye, with whom he married at the age of 20, for only two years, and the couple divorced in June 1957.

Four years later, the King married the British Antoinette Avril Gardiner, and after the marriage, the princess converted to Islam and took the name Muna, and four more children were born, named Abdullah, Faisal, Ayşe, and Zeyn.

Hüseyin got married to Aliye Bahauddin Tokan on December 24, 1972, just three days after the end of this 11-year marriage. When the marriage, which lasted just over four years, ended with the Queen's death on February 9, 1977, unlike the previous ones, Prince Ali and Princess Haya also joined the family and the number of siblings in Raghadan increased to seven.

King Hussein made his last marriage on June 15, 1978, with Lisa Necib Halaby, the daughter of a Christian Arab father and a mother of Swedish origin. Born and raised in America, Lisa became a Muslim and took the name Nur after the Queen came to Jordan and was with the King until his death in February 1999.

Hüseyin, who had 11 children together with Hamza, Haşim, Iman, and Raye, who were born from this marriage, chose his eldest son as the name to whom he would transfer his kingdom. Abdullah, who was appointed crown prince by his father just a few days before his death, was crowned the new king on February 7, 1999.