Alwaght- The longest-reigning British monarch, the Queen Elizabeth II, died at age 96 on Thursday.
While some believed that the position of queen in England is ceremonial like other royal constitutional systems, the Queen played an important role in directing the domestic and foreign policies of this country and had the command in her hands. Contrary to her smiling face, the Queen has a bloody legacy lying behind the country's intervention in many countries.
Britain was once a colonial empire in which the "sun never set."
These colonial policies continued in the period after the World War II when British influence declined, all of which were carried out under the reign of the Queen. Although the British officials and the royal family always tried to portray Elizabeth II as a gentle and kind face in the world who cherishes human rights, the environment and animals, the political history of the country is full of violence and crimes in all parts of the world, some of which were committed during her reign.
In the 1960s and 1970s, which was the peak of the trend of independence of the colonies and many countries got out of the yoke of the several-decade British colonialism, the pro-independence struggle was not without violence, and the British, with the orders of the Queen, tried as much as possible to prevent this wave with violence. During the crackdown, thousands of people went victim in the colonies so that Britain could maintain its dominance over these countries.
Millions of people in Africa and Asia were tortured and harassed by the British for a long time, and their resources were stolen by London, but the Queen never apologized to the people of the colonies for these crimes or approved any compensation. It was for this reason that when the news of her death was declared, some social media users in the former colonies expressed their happiness and referred to her as the "queen of vice". The academic and author Uju Anya referred to Elizabeth II as the “chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire" in a tweet.
Starting the reign with coup in Iran
The first year of the Queen's rule coincided with the coup on August 19, 1953 in Iran, and with the cooperation of England and the US, the government of nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was removed from power. Although many consider this coup to be an American plan, it was originally architected by the British and carried out by the Americans. According to some documents, England, which intended to continue plundering Iran's oil, accomplished this coup by only spending $72,000 on some Iranian mobs, and with this action, a hateful image of Britain and its rulers was created in the subconscious of all Iranians. The Queen played a significant role in this plot. The destructive role of Britain against Iran during the Queen's reign was not limited to the coup, but London in 1971, when Britain intended to withdraw its forces from West Asia, separated Bahrain from Iran's territory with colonialist policies, and the Iranians will never forget this London action.
Intervention in West Asia
Another example of crimes committed under the Queen of England is in 1956 in Egypt and the Suez Canal crisis. When the late president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, stood up against British colonialist policies and nationalized the Suez Canal, Britain was enraged by the decision and, together with France, waged a war against Egypt, which was authorized directly by the Queen Elizabeth II. In this war, in which the French and British forces were not comparable to the Egyptians in terms of the number and equipment, the casualties were very high for Egypt, and Suez Canal was closed for several months due to the damage caused by the war. According to statistics, about 2,000 Egyptian soldiers also lost their lives in this war, and all this was because of the arrogance of London, which did could not tolerate independence of regional nations. British crimes in the Suez Canal crisis were so great that even the US government at the time supported the UN resolution for the immediate withdrawal of foreign forces from Egypt.
Yemen was one of the countries that was not immune to the British colonialism. When the Arab country, whose southern regions were occupied by the British for two centuries, revolted for independence, the British committed a wide range of crimes against it. The split of Yemen in south and north was part of a British plot to keep the crisis unfolding. Years after, when the Arab aggression coalition led by Saudi Arabia waged a war against Yemen, London backed Riyadh and provided the most fatal and modern arms along with Washington.
According to the statistics, England has sold about $20.8 billion of weapons and logistics and intelligence services to the Saudis during the 8 years of the Yemen war, and in a way, the Yemen war has fruitful for the British treasury, and part of these revenues go directly to the royal court. Over $100 billion of wealth of Britain under Elizabeth II is the legacy of a lot of blood that has been shed around the world to secure British interests.
The British crimes continued in another way after the period of independence of colonized states and some of them fell victim to the ambitions of the Queen-topped Britain. A clear example of British crimes in recent decades is Afghanistan war. Britain, which has been in line with the US in all world policies after WWII, sent its troops to Afghanistan during the invasion of 2001, and during the 20 years of occupation, thousands of Afghans were killed and the nation still still struggles with its consequences.
Syria crisis is another area of the British intervention in West Asia region. During a decade of conflict in the Arab country, London officials backed a push by a set of most-heinous terrorist organizations to topple Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president. The outcome of these interventions was the killing of over 500,000 people and the displacement of millions of others, and England was one of the influential actors in these human crimes. The Daily Maverick news website recently reported that London has spent at least $406 million to promote opposition forces and projects in terrorist-controlled areas in Syria, and this is apart from sending weapons to terrorists in the past decade.
Although Britain's colonialist crimes in West Asia are the deepest, other regions were not immune to the violence of the Queen's country. One of these regions is Malvinas or Falkland Islands, over which there is a dispute between Britain and Argentina. After Argentina seized the islands in an operation, British forces started a war against the country in this area in 1982. Britain, which was in a superior position compared to the Argentines in terms of military power, managed to recapture the islands, but this colonialist war led to the death of hundreds of people. Although all these actions were apparently done on the orders of prime minister, behind the scenes the main architect of British foreign policy was the Queen herself.
Silence to genocide of Australia and Canada indigenous peoples
The bloody legacy of the Queen has other faces. In the past decades, dozens of mass graves of natives of this country have been discovered in Canada, which is currently the largest British colony. They were killed by the governments of the time or by the church in the past centuries. Although the discovery of these graves has brought a wide wave of protests in the world, the Queen refused to apologize for the crimes committed in the areas under her rule and closed her eyes to them. Even England tried as much as it could to clear the Canadian governments of these crimes and attribute it to some "arbitrary people" in the past without the knowledge of the Canadian governments. Perhaps it was because of the Queen's silence that in 2021, on Canada's Independence Day, angry people toppled the statues of Elizabeth II.
In Australia, there is a similar record against the original people, being revealed after decades. According to the documents, the British brutality was so gruesome that as a result the population of aboriginal people decreased sharply. These crimes, part of which took place under the Queen's reign, did not trigger her apology. Even local authorities are told not to apologize, according to reports. An apology means admitting a crime and carries responsibility for the London leaders. The Queen who saw herself in a high position, considered it degrading to apologize for the killing of natives in Australia or Canada.
Without any doubt, the deceased queen who held the British throne for nearly 70 years had a decisive role in the country's foreign policy and held responsibility for blood of millions of people lost their lives because of the British colonialism. So, no matter how much the royal family and the British media seek to whitewash her for a good memory among public, there is no use, and during her several-decade rule, it became clear to all that she was the architect and leader of London policies and contrary to the common imagination, it was the prime minister, not the Queen, who was the figurehead and an implementer of her orders.
