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Early 70's maybe .... Egypt, Syria, Libya formed that Alliance .... Preso Nasser and Ghadaffi... Interesting .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_of_Arab_Republics
Seems to line up with your time frame of ‘71-‘77. Now who felt they were worthy of being called the “hero of the republic”?
Ghadaffi was behind a few terror attacks . Maybe given to the terrorists ?
This is very far from any area of my expertise, but would a fully vowelled inscription like it he one on the watch suggest that the phrase is from the Quran? I noticed you rendered it in the more usual unvowelled way.
Another thought I forgot to mention earlier. بطل can also translate to “champion” and a quick google search reveals بطل الجمهورية is a title given to some champion athletes (similar to “national champion”). So the context could be sports instead of politics.