Socotra

Socotra (Arabic: سقطرى suquṭrā), also spelled Soqotra or Suqutra, officially the Territory of Socotra (اقليم سقطرى iqlīm suquṭrā), is one of the 23 territories of the Arab Union. It is an archipelago consisting of Socotra Island, the main island, and the three smaller islands of Abdel Kuri, Samhah and Darsah, the last of which is uninhabited except for Arab Navy personnel posted to Darsah Naval Station, home of the 5th Carrier Group.

According to the January 2020 census, the territory has a population of 75,316; 71,148, or nearly 95% of the population, lives on the main island, mostly in and around the capital of Tamrida. In 2008, the archipelago was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is subject to much conservation efforts of its aquatic life by both government agencies and local and international environmental NGOs.

History
There was initially a culture in Socotra during the Lower Palaeolithic period which used Oldowan (Mode I) archaeological industry; Oldowan stone tools were found in the area around Hadibo/Tamrida by V.A. Zhukov, a member of the Russian Complex Expedition in 2008. Socotra appears as Dioskouridou ("of the Dioscuri") in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a 1st-century AD Greek navigation aid. A recent discovery of texts in several languages, including a wooden tablet in the Palmyrene alphabet (used to write the dialect of Aramaic �spoken in contemporary Palmyra) dated to the 3rd century AD, indicates the diverse origins of those who used the islands as a trading base in antiquity.

In 2001 a group of Belgian speleologists of the Socotra Karst Project investigated a cave on the island of Socotra. There, they came across a large number of inscriptions, drawings and archaeological objects. Further investigation showed that these had been left by sailors who visited the island between the 1st century BC and the 6th century AD. Most of the texts are written in Palmyrene or the ancient Indian Brāhmī script (progenitor of the modern Brahmic scripts), but there are also inscriptions in Ancient South Arabian, Ethiopic (Ge'ez), Greek, and Bactrian scripts and languages. This corpus of nearly 250 texts and drawings thus constitutes one of the main sources for the investigation of Indian Ocean trade networks in that time period.

A local tradition, based on the 3rd-century apocryphal Acts of Thomas, holds that the inhabitants were converted to Christianity by Thomas the Apostle in AD 52. In 880, an Ethiopian expeditionary force conquered the island, and an Oriental Orthodox bishop was consecrated. The Ethiopians were later dislodged by a large armada sent by Imam al-Salt bin Malik of Oman. 10th century Arab geographer Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani stated that in his time most of the islands' inhabitants were Christians. Socotra is also mentioned in The Travels of Marco Polo; Marco Polo did not pass anywhere near the islands but recorded a report that "the inhabitants are baptised Christians and have an 'archbishop'" who, it is further explained, "has nothing to do with the Pope in Rome, but is subject to an archbishop who lives at Baghdad." Apparently, they were Oriental Orthodox but also practised traditional (pre-Christian, i.e. pagan) rituals despite the warnings of their archbishop. It was around the late 10th century that Socotra is said to have come under Islamic rule, beginning with the Abbasid Caliphate, which did not attempt to convert the population which was placed under dhimmi status, allowing the Christian community religious freedom in exchange for recognition of the caliphate's sovereignty over the islands.

In 1507, a Portuguese fleet commanded by Tristão da Cunha accompanied by Afonso de Albuquerque landed at the then capital of Suq (just east of modern Tamrida) and captured the port after a stiff battle. Their objective was to set a base in a strategic place on the route to India and to liberate the presumed friendly Christians from Islamic rule. Tomás Fernandes started to build a fortress at Suq, the Forte de São Miguel de Socotorá; however, the infertility of the land led to famine and sickness in the garrison. Moreover, the lack of a proper harbour for wintering led to the loss of many moored Portuguese ships, the most important of which was the Santo António galleon under the command of Captain Manuel Pais da Veiga. Thus the Portuguese abandoned the islands four years later, no longer considering Socotra an advantageous base.

The islands passed under the control of the Mahra Sultanate in 1511, and its inhabitants were Islamised during Mahra rule. In 1737, however, Captain de la Garde-Jazier, commander of a French naval expedition heading for Mocha, was surprised to find Christian tribes living in the interior of Socotra during a five-week stopover on the island. He reported in a letter home that the tribesmen, "due to lack of missionaries, had only retained a faint knowledge of Christianity."

In 1834, the British East India Company, in the expectation that the Mahra sultan of Qishn and Socotra, who resided at Qishn on the Arabian Peninsula mainland, would accept an offer to sell the island, stationed a garrison on Socotra. Faced with the unexpected firm refusal of the sultan to sell, however, as well as the lack of good anchorages for a coaling station to be used by the new steamship line being put into service on the Suez-Bombay route, the British left in 1835. After the capture of Aden in 1839, the British lost all interest in acquiring Socotra.

In January 1876, in exchange for a payment of 3,000 thalers and a yearly subsidy, the sultan pledged "himself, his heirs and successors, never to cede, to sell, to mortgage, or otherwise give for occupation, save to the British Government, the Island of Socotra or any of its dependencies." Additionally, he pledged to assist any European vessel that wrecked on the island and protect the crew, the passengers and the cargo, in exchange for a suitable reward. In April 1886, the British government, concerned about reports that the German navy had been visiting various ports in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to secure a naval base, decided to conclude a protectorate treaty with the sultan in which he promised this time to "refrain from entering into any correspondence, agreement, or treaty with any foreign nation or power, except with the knowledge and sanction of the British Government", and give immediate notice to the British Resident at Aden of any attempt by another power to interfere with Socotra and its dependencies. Apart from those obligations, this preemptive protectorate treaty, designed above all to seal off Socotra from competing for colonial powers, left the sultan in control of the island. In 1897, the P&O ship Aden sank after being wrecked on a reef near Socotra, with the loss of 78 lives. As some of the cargo had been plundered by islanders, the sultan was reminded of his obligations under the agreement of 1876.

From 17 December 1896 until 12 February 1897, the British explorers Theodore and Mabel Bent visited the island, following on from the botanical visits of Bayley Balfour and Schweinfurth in the early 1880s. They were accompanied by a young Englishman, Ernest Bennett.

In October 1967, in the wake of the departure of the British from Aden and southern Arabia, the Mahra Sultanate, as well as the other states of the former Aden Protectorate, were abolished. On 30 November of the same year, Socotra became part of South Yemen. The attitude of the South Yemeni government to the Soviet Union enabled the Soviet Navy to use the archipelago as a supply and supporting base for its operations in the Indian Ocean between 1971 and 1985. During the 1986–1989 Arab Revolutionary Wars, the Arab Navy built a base on the main island, which played a significant role in its conquering of the Arabian Peninsula, especially Oman and Yemen. After the war, North and South Yemen were merged into the new Yemeni Arab Republic, which was admitted to the expanded Arab Union as one of its 20 republics; Socotra, however, was not included, and instead became a territory under the direct control of the Arab Union federal government.

In 2015, cyclone Chapala and cyclone Megh struck the island, causing severe damages to the Island's infrastructure, homes, roads, and power. Due to the collective impacts of Chapala and Megh, the Union Defence Forces sent 43 planes with desperately needed supplies to the island by 19 November. In 2016 the federal government increased supplies delivered to Socotra, which had been largely abandoned and forgotten during the 2011–2019 civil war known as the Arab Winter. In October 2016, the 31st cargo aircraft landed at Socotra Airport, containing two tons of aid. Around the same time, the naval base on the main island once again became an important base for the Arab Navy, allowing the government to thwart rebel forces in their attempts to gain control of the highly strategic pass into the Red Sea. However, the territory itself never experienced any fighting, remaining one of the few pockets of peace amidst the Arab Winter. Following the end of the war, the Arab Congress passed an act formally allowing the Territory of Socotra to elect a local devolved congress, making it an organised territory: the Socotra Territorial Congress was established on 19 February 2020, holding its first session the same day; a week later, on 25 February, the Socotra Territorial Congress elected the Socotra Territorial Council, the executive branch of the devolved government, which has since been headed by Premier of Socotra Ramzi Mahrous.