# Countries With Most Number of Top Leaders Assassinated Since the 20th Century?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-most-number-of-top-leaders-assassinated-since-the-20th-century/787699>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 30, 2017, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-most-number-of-top-leaders-assassinated-since-the-20th-century/787699 "2017-05-30T03:41:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-most-number-of-top-leaders-assassinated-since-the-20th-century/787699/21 "2017-05-31T19:40:42Z")

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> [@Evan\_Drake](#):
>
> Personally I wouldn’t count anyone from 1880 to 1910, including Mr. McKinley, since Anarchists were very busy with the Propaganda of the Deed then and slew irrationally.  
> Actually it just made them seriously unpopular; not just with Rulers.
> 
> However, _Garfield_ I would count, since he was fairly randomly killed by a fully signed-up loony

Yes but assassination is assassination, whether done by someone with political grievance or a looney bin. But Garfield was killed prior to 20th century, so he does not count while McKinley does.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-most-number-of-top-leaders-assassinated-since-the-20th-century/787699/22 "2017-05-31T22:52:51Z")

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[List of assassinations in Europe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinations_in_Europe)  
[List of assassinations in Asia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinations_in_Asia)  
[List of assassinations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinations)

Counting only people who were actually in office at the time of their deaths, and countries with three or more assassinations, I count …

Burundi: three prime ministers and one president.

Egypt: three prime ministers and one president.

Nigeria: one prime minister and two heads of state

Afghanistan: one emir (when the country was an emirate), one king (when it was a kingdom), two presidents (one a Soviet puppet), one prime minister (Soviet puppet)

Bangladesh: two presidents, one prime minister

Iran: three prime ministers and one president

Iraq: one king, two prime ministers

Japan: four prime ministers

Jordan: one king, two prime ministers (one of whom was killed in Egypt)

Lebanon: one head of state, one prime minister, one president

Yemen: one king of Yemen and two presidents of North Yemen (when the country was divided)

Portugal: A King (also a crown prince who survived his father by a few minutes but who was never crowned), one president, and one prime minister.

Spain: three prime ministers

Yugoslavia and its successor states are a bit of a mess, and I don’t know how to count them. A king of Serbia was assassinated in 1903, a king of Yugoslavia in 1934 in France and a prime minister of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003

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