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Mohamed Oufkir ( محمد أوفقير) was the Second
President of the Moroccan Republic, from August, 16 1972 to his death on October, 20 1996, having overthrown M’hamed Ababou in a military coup, before being succeeded by his long-time associate General Mohamed Amekrane.
Born in 1920 in the High Atlas, he enlisted in the German Colonial Corps in 1941, distinguishing himself during the Siege of Cologne, the Battle of Morocco and the Spanish Campaign during the World War, earning himself the Pour le Mérite and finishing the war as an Oberstleutnant. At the time of Moroccan independence, he was among the first Generals of the Moroccan Army, military aide to Sultan Hassan II and in charge of military intelligence ; he distinguished himself as the leader of the pro-German side and a ruthless strongman, in the repression of the 1960 Ben Barka plot and the 1965 Mauritanian riots. Having lent his support at the last minute to the 1971 Moroccan Revolution, he rapidly grew to fear the left-wing policies of the Ababou government, ruled by Prime Minister Mehdi Ben Barka, a known socialist who had just come back from exile. Supported by Germany, he overthrew Ababou and Ben Barka during a bloody military coup on August, 12 1972.
Even if he came in power with the full support of Germany, Oufkir immediately took a new position : worried about dissension from the Left, Islamist groups and ethnic minorities, he adopted a new version of a Muslim secular society, inspired by the early Young Turks and Hashemite Caliph Faisal ; this policy, known as Oufkirism, called for a laicized Moroccan society, adopting Western customs and leaving religion at home, while embracing the concept of a Moroccan ethnostate, that would merge Arabs and Berbers together.
Adopting an irredentist and expansionist policy for a Greater Morocco, fueled by the natural resources of unsteady Mauritania, Oufkir embarked on this course when he nationalized German assets in 1974, forging deeper economic links with the United States, Russia and Japan ; the following year, he declared a low-intensity war on France, asserting old Alaouite claims over Bechar and Tindouf. Fledging since their last Civil War and decades of repression against Algerian independentists, the newly inaugurated Servan-Schreiber Administration accepted to abandon to Morocco vast desertic territories by the Treaty of Oran in 1977, that was hailed as a massive victory in Morocco. Meanwhile, Oufkir funded and encouraged fledging Canarian nationalism that managed to organize a bomb attack in Tenerife in 1976 and to organize a referendum for independence in 1978. Becoming independent in 1982, the Canaries’ Republic under Moroccan strawman Antonio Cubillo of course immediately Morocco for annexation… That was “granted” in 1985.
But it was the Tangier Crisis in 1979 that almost costed everything to the strongman of Morocco. Having repeatedly called the status of Free City “an heritage of the age of imperialism”, he provoked a worldwide surprise on April, 7 1979, on the anniversary of Moroccan independence, when Moroccan troops established a heavily enforced blockade over Tangier, having mined the Cape Spartel. Cut off from the world, due to both the Moroccan Navy and Air Force blocking all reinforcement, Tangier fell in five months in a state of starvation. Fearing violence from the besieging troops, Iranian Commissioner Sadruddin Aga Khan, ruling the city for the World Council, organized the Tangier Evacuation, removing all foreign residents and Moroccan exiles from Tangier, including former Prime Minister Mehdi Ben Barka, thereby abandoning the city and avoiding a bloodshed on September, 24 1979, when Moroccan troops entered the city. Khan would receive the Peace Nobel Prize for his actions, but Oufkir was expelled from the Reichspakt and had to face hard opposition at home : democracy protesters in the cities in 1981, 1984 and 1989 (at the death of Mehdi Ben Barka), from Mauritanian rebels in 1986 and a coup attempt from General Dlimi in 1983.
After the quelling of the Moorish revolt in 1986, Mohamed Oufkir began to steer into a more respectable position, building on the success of his presidential Constitution adopted in 1981. In 1988, he added a new set of laws guaranteeing freedom of religion and secularism in Morocco and began to rescind relations with Germany, culminating in the candidacy of Morocco to the European Community in 1992, that would culminate into its admission in 2007. More over, the spreading of Islamic terrorism in Egypt, the Hashemite State and Central Asia convinced worldwide leaders that Oufkirism was an excellent policy, from their point of view, for the Arab World. His personal triumph was the organization of the FIFA World Cup in Morocco in 1994, culminating in a magnificent match between Italy and Sweden in the all new Casablanca Stadium. Oufkir died in 1996, after twenty-four years in power, and was succeeded by his longtime associate, General Mohamed Amekrane, who continued to turn Morocco on the road of democratization.
The legacy of Mohamed Oufkir and its policies are mixed : still very popular in Morocco as the man who allowed the country to enter modernity, conquer vast territories and avoid the instability of the Arab World, he is reviled as a dictatorial warmonger by the opposition, moreover the Black minorities of Mauritania and the followers of exiled Mehdi Ben Barka.
