Tunisian revolution
Encyclopedia
The Tunisian Revolution is an intensive campaign of civil resistance
Civil resistance
The term civil resistance, alongside the term nonviolent resistance, is used to describe political action that relies on the use of non-violent methods by civil groups to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and...

, including a series of street demonstrations taking place in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

. The events began in December 2010 and led to the ousting of longtime President
President of Tunisia
The President of Tunisia, formally known as the President of the Tunisian Republic is the head of state of Tunisia. Tunisia is a presidential republic in which the president is the head of the executive branch of government with the assistance of the Prime Minister of Tunisia, formally the head of...

 Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is a Tunisian political figure who was the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987, and he assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba, who was...

 in January 2011. Street demonstrations and other unrest have continued to the present day.

The demonstrations were precipitated by high unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

, food inflation, corruption
Corruption
Corruption usually refers to spiritual or moral impurity.Corruption may also refer to:* Corruption , an American crime film* Corruption , a British horror film...

, a lack of freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...

 and other political freedoms and poor living conditions. The protests constituted the most dramatic wave of social and political unrest in Tunisia in three decades and have resulted in scores of deaths and injuries, most of which were the result of action by police and security forces against demonstrators. The protests were sparked by the self-immolation
Self-immolation
Self-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest...

 of Mohamed Bouazizi
Mohamed Bouazizi
Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides...

 on 17 December and led to the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali 28 days later on 14 January 2011, when he officially resigned after fleeing to Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

, ending 23 years in power. Labour unions were said to be an integral part of the protests. The protests inspired similar actions throughout the Arab world
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...

; the Egyptian revolution
2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...

 began after the events in Tunisia and also led to the ousting of Egypt's longtime president Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....

 and a full-scale civil war
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...

 in Libya that led to the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...

 after 42 years of his rule; furthermore, uprisings in Bahrain
2011 Bahraini uprising
The 2011 Bahraini uprising, sometimes called the February 14 Revolution is a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of civil resistance, in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain...

, Syria
2011 Syrian uprising
The 2011 Syrian uprising is an ongoing internal conflict occurring in Syria. Protests started on 26 January 2011, and escalated into an uprising by 15 March 2011...

 and Yemen
2011 Yemeni uprising
The 2011 Yemen Uprising followed the initial stages of the Tunisian Revolution and occurred simultaneously with the Egyptian Revolution and other mass protests in the Middle East in early 2011. In its early phase, protests in Yemen were initially against unemployment, economic conditions and...

 and major protests have also taken place in Algeria, Jordan
2011 Jordanian protests
The 2011 Jordanian protests are a series of protests occurring in Jordan in 2011, which resulted in the firing of the cabinet ministers of the government.Food inflation and salaries were a cause for resentment in the country....

, Morocco
2011 Moroccan protests
The 2011 Moroccan protests are a series of demonstrations across Morocco and the Moroccan-controlled Western Saharan territory which began on 20 February 2011 and are influenced by other protests in the region.-Origin:...

, Israel's borders
2011 Israeli border demonstrations
The 2011 Israeli border demonstrations started on 15 May 2011, to commemorate what the Palestinians observe as Nakba Day. Various groups of people attempted to approach or breach Israel's borders from the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan. At least a dozen people were killed...

, Iraq
2011 Iraqi protests
The 2011 Iraqi protests came in the wake of the Tunisian revolution and Egyptian uprising. It has resulted in at least thirty-five deaths, including at least twenty-nine on the 25 February "Day of Rage"....

 and Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

 as well as elsewhere in the wider North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

 and Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

.

Following Ben Ali's departure, a state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...

 was declared. The Constitutional Court affirmed Fouad Mebazaa
Fouad Mebazaa
Fouad Mebazaa is a Tunisian politician who has been President of Tunisia since 15 January 2011. He was active in Neo Destour prior to Tunisian independence, served as Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Public Health, and Minister of Culture and Information, and has been President of the...

 as acting president under Article 57 of the Constitution. A caretaker coalition government was also created, including members of Ben Ali's party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally
Constitutional Democratic Rally
The Constitutional Democratic Rally , also referred to by its French acronym RCD, formerly called Neo Destour then Socialist Destourian Party, was the governing party in Tunisia. The party was suspended by the minister of interior on February 6th awaiting a decision on its dissolution by judicial...

 (RCD), in key ministries, while including other opposition
Opposition (politics)
In politics, the opposition comprises one or more political parties or other organized groups that are opposed to the government , party or group in political control of a city, region, state or country...

 figures in other ministries, with elections to take place within 60 days. However, five newly appointed non-RCD ministers resigned almost immediately, and daily street protests in Tunis and other towns around Tunisia continued, demanding that the new government have no RCD members and that the RCD itself be disbanded. On 27 January Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi
Mohamed Ghannouchi
Mohamed Ghannouchi was the Prime Minister of Tunisia and was self-proclaimed acting President of the country for a few hours starting 14 January 2011, under Article 56 of the Constitution of Tunisia...

 reshuffled the government, removing all former RCD members other than himself. On 6 February the new interior minister suspended all party activities of the RCD, citing security reasons. The party was dissolved, as protesters had demanded, on 9 March 2011.

Following further public protests, Ghannouchi himself resigned on 27 February, and Beji Caid el Sebsi
Beji Caid el Sebsi
Beji Caid el Sebsi is a Tunisian lawyer and politician. Since 27 February 2011, he has been the Prime Minister of Tunisia.-Personal life:Born in Sidi Bou Said in a family from the beylical agricultural makhzen, he is the direct great-grandson of Ismail Caid Essebsi, a mamluk of Tunisian corsairs...

 became Prime Minister; two other members of the Interim Government resigned on the following day. On 3 March 2011, the president announced the elections for the Constituent Assembly, which were held on 23 October 2011 with the Islamist Nahdah Party winning the plurality of seats.

Naming

In Tunisia and the wider Arab world, the protests and change in government are called the Sidi Bouzid Revolt, derived from Sidi Bouzid, the city where the initial protests began. In the Western media, these events have been dubbed the Jasmine Revolution after Tunisia's national flower and in keeping with the geopolitical nomenclature of "color revolutions". The name "Jasmine Revolution" originated from Tunisian journalist Zied El-Heni, but it was not widely adopted in Tunisia itself. The name adopted in Tunisia was the Dignity Revolution, which is a translation of the Arabic name for the revolution (). Within Tunisia, Ben Ali's rise to power in 1987 was also known as the Jasmine Revolution.

The Tunisian revolution has also been considered the first of a series of revolutions named the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...

.

Background

President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is a Tunisian political figure who was the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987, and he assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba, who was...

 had ruled Tunisia since 1987 with an iron fist. His government, which had been criticised in the media and amongst NGOs, was supported by the United States and France. As a result, the initial reactions to Ben Ali's abuses by the U.S. and France were muted, and most instances of socio-political protest in the country, when they occurred at all, rarely made major news headlines.

Riots in Tunisia were rare and noteworthy, especially since the country is generally considered to be wealthy and stable as compared to other countries in the region. Any form of protests in the country were previously successfully oppressed and kept silent by the former regime and protesters would be jailed for such actions, as were for example protests by hundreds of unemployed demonstrators in Redeyef
Redeyef
Redeyef is a town and commune in the Gafsa Governorate, Tunisia. As of 2004 it had a population of 26,143. City industry is mainly based on mining.-Infrastructure:...

 in 2008. Al Jazeera English also said that Tunisian activists are amongst the most outspoken in its part of the world with various messages of support being posted on Twitter for Bouazizi. An op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...

 article in the same network said of the action that it was "suicidal protests of despair by Tunisia's youth." It pointed out that the state-controlled National Solidarity Fund and the National Employment Fund had traditionally subsidised many goods and services in the country but had started to shift the "burden of providence from state to society" to be funded by the "bidonvilles," or shanty towns, around the richer towns and suburbs. It also cited the "marginalisation of the agrarian and arid central and southern areas [that] continue[s] unabated." The protests were also called an "uprising" because of "a lethal combination of poverty, unemployment and political repression: three characteristics of most Arab societies." Another cause for the uprising has been attributed to the inability of the Tunisian government from being able to censor information from reaching the Tunisian people, such as information from WikiLeaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...

 describing rampant corruption in the Tunisian government.

Sidi Bouzid and Mohamed Bouazizi

Twenty-six year old Mohamed Bouazizi
Mohamed Bouazizi
Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides...

 had been the sole income earner in his extended family of eight. He operated a purportedly unlicensed vegetable cart for seven years in Sidi Bouzid 190 miles (300 km) south of Tunis. On 17 December 2010 a policewoman confiscated his cart and produce. Bouazizi, who had such an event happen to him before, tried to pay the 10-dinar fine (a day's wages, equivalent to 7USD). In response the policewoman
insulted his deceased father. A humiliated Bouazizi then went to the provincial headquarters in an attempt to complain to local municipality officials. He was refused an audience. Without alerting his family, at 11:30 am and within an hour of the initial confrontation, Bouazizi returned to the headquarters, doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself on fire. Public outrage quickly grew over the incident, leading to protests. This immolation and the subsequent heavy-handed response by the police to peaceful marchers caused riots the next day in Sidi Bouzid that went largely unnoticed, although social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...

 sites such as Facebook and YouTube featured images of police dispersing youths who attacked shop windows and damaged cars. Bouazizi was subsequently transferred to a hospital near Tunis. In an attempt to quell the unrest President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is a Tunisian political figure who was the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987, and he assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba, who was...

 visited Bouazizi in hospital on 28 December 2010. Bouazizi died on 4 January 2011.

Protests

Though the bulk of protests followed Bouazizi's self-immolation and led to the departure of Ben Ali, protests also continued after his departure in demanding his party be removed from government. Some more minor protests followed the cabinet reshuffle.

Early protests

There were reports of police obstructing demonstrators and using tear gas on hundreds of young protesters in Sidi Bouzid in mid-December 2010. The protesters had gathered outside regional government headquarters to demonstrate against the treatment of Mohamed Bouazizi. Coverage of events was limited by Tunisian media. On , extra police were present on the streets of the city.

On 22 December, Lahseen Naji, a protester, responded to "hunger and joblessness" by electrocuting himself after climbing an electricity pylon
Electricity pylon
A transmission tower is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. They are used in high-voltage AC and DC systems, and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes...

. Ramzi Al-Abboudi also killed himself because of financial difficulties arising from a business debt by the country's micro-credit solidarity programme. On , Mohamed Ammari was fatally shot in the chest by police in Bouziane. Other protesters were also injured, including Chawki Belhoussine El Hadri, who died later on . Police claimed they shot the demonstrators in "self-defence." A "quasi-curfew" was then imposed on the city by police. Rapper El Général
El Général
Hamada Ben Amor , better known by his stage name El Général , is a Tunisian rap musician. His song Rais Lebled, released in December 2010, has been described as the "anthem of the Jasmine Revolution".- Work As A Political Artist :...

, whose songs had been adopted by protesters, was arrested on 24 December but released several days later after "an enormous public reaction".

Violence later increased as Tunisian authorities and residents of Sidi Bouzid Governorate encountered each other once again. The protests had reached the capital Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....

 on with about 1,000 citizens expressing solidarity with residents of Sidi Bouzid and calling for jobs. The rally, which was called by independent trade union activists, was stopped by security forces. The protests also spread to Sousse
Sousse
Sousse is a city in Tunisia. Located 140 km south of the capital Tunis, the city has 173,047 inhabitants . Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The name may be of Berber origin: similar names are found in Libya and in...

, Sfax
Sfax
Sfax is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD 849 on the ruins of Taparura and Thaenae, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate , and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has population of 340,000...

 and Meknassy
Meknassy
Meknassy , sometimes spelt Maknassy, is a town and commune in the Sidi Bou Zid Governorate, Tunisia. As of 2004 it had a population of 13,742...

. The following day the Tunisian Federation of Labour Unions held another rally in Gafsa
Gafsa
Gafsa is the capital of Gafsa Governorate of Tunisia. Its name was appropriated by archaeologists for the Mesolithic Capsian culture. With a population of 84,676, it is the 9th Tunisian city.-Overview:...

 which was also blocked by security forces. At the same time about 300 lawyers held a rally near the government's palace in Tunis. Protests continued again on the .

On 30 December, police peacefully broke up a protest in Monastir
Monastir, Tunisia
-Areas within Monastir:Monastir's north-eastern territories lead into a place called Route de la Falaise, through which you will reach its most notable suburb, Skanes, which is 6 miles from Monastir's town centre...

 while using force to disrupt further demonstrations in Sbikha
Sbikha
Sbikha is a town and commune in the Kairouan Governorate, Tunisia. As of 2004 it had a population of 6,776..-References:...

 and Chebba
Chebba
"Chebba" is a single from Khaled's album N'ssi N'ssi. Chebba means a girl or young woman.- 12" Single :#"Chebba" #"Chebba" #"Chebba" #"Chebba"...

. Momentum appeared to continue with the protests on and further demonstrations and public gatherings by lawyers in Tunis and other cities following a call by the Tunisian National Lawyers Order. Mokhtar Trifi, president of the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH), said that lawyers across Tunisia had been "savagely beaten." There were also unconfirmed reports of another man attempting to commit suicide in El Hamma
El Hamma
El Hamma is an oasis town located in the Gabès Governorate, 30 kilometers west of Gabès, Tunisia. Its population in 2004 was 34,835....

.

On 3 January 2011, protests in Thala over unemployment and a high cost of living turned violent. At a demonstration of 250 people, mostly students, in support of the protesters in Sidi Bouzid, police fired tear gas; one canister landed in a local mosque. In response, the protesters were reported to have set fire to tyres and attacked the office of Constitutional Democratic Rally
Constitutional Democratic Rally
The Constitutional Democratic Rally , also referred to by its French acronym RCD, formerly called Neo Destour then Socialist Destourian Party, was the governing party in Tunisia. The party was suspended by the minister of interior on February 6th awaiting a decision on its dissolution by judicial...

.

Some of the more general protests sought changes in the government's online censorship, where a lot of the media images have been broadcast. Tunisian authorities also allegedly carried out phishing
Phishing
Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...

 operations to take control of user passwords and check online criticism. Both state and non-state websites had been hacked.

Rising elites' support and continuing protests

On 6 January, 95% of Tunisia's 8,000 lawyers went on strike, according to the chairman of the national bar association
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...

. He said "The strike carries a clear message that we do not accept unjustified attacks on lawyers. We want to strongly protest against the beating of lawyers in the past few days." It was reported on the following day that teachers had also joined the strike.

In response to 11 January protests police used riot gear to disperse protesters ransacking buildings, burning tires, setting fire to a bus and burning two cars in the working class suburb of Ettadhamen-Mnihla
Ettadhamen-Mnihla
Ettadhamen-Mnihla, also known as At-Tadaman, is a town and commune in the Ariana Governorate, Tunisia. As of 2004 it had a total population of 118,487.-References:...

 in Tunis. The protesters were said to have chanted "We are not afraid, we are not afraid, we are afraid only of God." Military personnel were also deployed in many cities around the country.

On 12 January, a reporter from the Italian state-owned television broadcaster RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...

stated that he and his cameraman were beaten with batons by police during a riot in Tunis' central district and that the officers then confiscated their camera. A night time curfew was also ordered in Tunis after protests and clashes with police.

Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Sunni. pan-Islamic political organisation but keeps it open for all including shias,some of its beliefs are against sunni school of thought, whose goal is for all Muslim countries to unify as an Islamic state or caliphate ruled by Islamic law and with a caliph...

 also organised protests after Friday prayer on 14 January to call for re-establishing the Islamic caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...

. A day later, it also organised other protests that went to the 9 April Prison to free political prisoners.

Also on 14 January (the same day that Ben Ali fled), Lucas Dolega
Lucas Dolega
Lucas Dolega, whose birth name was Loucas von Zabiensky-Mebrouk and who was also called Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, was a French/German photojournalist who was reportedly killed by Tunisian police while he was photographing a protest in Tunis...

, a photojournalist working for European Pressphoto Agency
European Pressphoto Agency
European Pressphoto Agency B.V. is an international news photo agency.Images from all parts of the world covering news, politics, sports, business, finance as well as arts, culture and entertainment are provided by a global network of over 400 professional photographers and included in the epa news...

, was hit in the forehead by a tear gas canister allegedly fired by the police at short range; he died two days later.

On 25 January protesters continued to defy a curfew in Tunis as reverberations continued around the region.

Protests against the RCD and new government

Internal and external protests against the presence of RCD
Constitutional Democratic Rally
The Constitutional Democratic Rally , also referred to by its French acronym RCD, formerly called Neo Destour then Socialist Destourian Party, was the governing party in Tunisia. The party was suspended by the minister of interior on February 6th awaiting a decision on its dissolution by judicial...

 members in the new government occurred daily starting on 17 January, the day that the new cabinet was announced. Thousands of anti-RCD protesters rallied on 17 January in a protest with relatively little violence between security services and protestors. Pro-Ben Ali supporters held a rally later in the day. The Tunisian General Labour Union's ministers resigned after a day (18 January), citing the presence of RCD ministers in the government as the reason. Mustafa ben Jaafar also refused to take up his post. The interim president and prime minister then left the RCD in a bid to calm protests against the inclusion of RCD members in the government with the PM stating that all members of the national unity government had "clean hands."

On 18 January, street protests against RCD participation in the new government included hundreds of people demonstrating in Tunis, Sfax
Sfax
Sfax is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD 849 on the ruins of Taparura and Thaenae, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate , and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has population of 340,000...

, Gabes
Gabès
Gabès , also spelt Cabès, Cabes, Kabes, Gabbs and Gaps, the ancient Tacape, is the capital city of the Gabès Governorate, a province of Tunisia. It lies on the coast of the Gulf of Gabès. With a population of 116,323 it is the 6th largest Tunisian city.-History:Strabo refers to Tacape as an...

, Bizerta, Sousse
Sousse
Sousse is a city in Tunisia. Located 140 km south of the capital Tunis, the city has 173,047 inhabitants . Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The name may be of Berber origin: similar names are found in Libya and in...

 and Monastir
Monastir, Tunisia
-Areas within Monastir:Monastir's north-eastern territories lead into a place called Route de la Falaise, through which you will reach its most notable suburb, Skanes, which is 6 miles from Monastir's town centre...

. The protests continued on 19 January, with the demand that no "former allies" of Ben Ali should remain in the government, including hundreds of protestors marching in central Tunis and about 30 staging a sit-in near the Ministry of the Interior, ignoring a curfew. Protestors also called for the RCD to be disbanded. On 20 January, hundreds of people demonstrated outside of the RCD headquarters in Tunis with the same aims, and protests in other towns around Tunisia were reported. Thousands participated in 21 January protests outside the Interior Ministry.

Zouhair M'Dhaffer, a close confidant of Ben Ali who was seen as the main architect of the 2002 constitutional reform to lift term limits, resigned from the government on 20 January. All other RCD ministers resigned from the party on the same day. The central committee of the RCD also disbanded on that day.

Ghannouchi vowed on 21 January 2011 that he would resign after holding transparent and free elections within six months.

On 23 January, thousands of police began to join protests in Tunis over salaries and to assuage blame over political deaths attributed to them during Ben Ali's rule.

As the country's army chief Rachid Ammar
Rachid Ammar
Rachid Ammar is the Chief of Staff of the Tunisian Armed Forces. On January 13, 2011, Ammar refused to follow the orders of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, then president of Tunisia, to shoot protesters participating in the 2010–2011 Tunisian protests. He responded to the order, "Agree to deploy soldiers...

 announced on 24 January 2011 it was on the side of the protesters and would "defend the revolution", rumours emerged that the government would be replaced by a council of "wise men".

Cabinet reshuffle

On 27 January 2011 Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi announced that six former members of the RCD party had left the interim government. These included Defence Minister, Foreign Minister, Finance Minister and Interior Minister. Apart from the prime minister, the new government retained just two ministers from Ben Ali's old government—the industry and international cooperation ministers—but neither of these had been a member of his ruling RCD party. This move was seen as meeting one of the demands of the protestors in Tunisia, and was supported by the UGTT, which stated its support for the reorganised cabinet. New ministers included independent state attorney Farhat Rajhi
Farhat Rajhi
Farhat Rajhi is a Tunisian politician. He was interim minister of interior affairs between January 27 and March 28, 2011, in the government of Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi.- References :...

 as interior minister, retired career diplomat Ahmed Ounaies
Ahmed Ounaies
Ahmed Ounaies, also spelled Ahmed Ounaiss, is a Tunisian politician and diplomat who was Foreign Minister for two weeks in the transitional government established after the 2010–2011 Tunisian uprising...

 as foreign minister and Elyes Jouini (an economist living in France) as minister delegate to the prime minister in charge of administrative and economic reform.

Anti-Ghannouchi protests

, hundreds of people camped beside Mohamed Ghannouchi's office protested against Ghannouchi remaining in the interim government. A student coordinating food distribution at the protests, Saifeddine Missraoui, stated, "We are not leaving here until Ghannouchi leaves and we get a brand new government." Another protestor, Naim Garbousi from Casbah Media Relations, stated, "The new line-up is a theatre. The symbols of the old regime are left, like Ghannouchi. Why is he insisting on staying? We are 10 million people, there will surely be someone who can replace him."

On 2 February 2011, the former interior minister, Rafik Belhaj Kacem also, was arrested by his successor, Farhat Rajhi, concurrently with accusations of former allies of Ben Ali trying to destabilize the state.

All 24 regional governors were replaced on 3 February 2011.

Later protests and developments

On 4 February, Sidi Bouzid was again the scene of protests despite the arrests of two security forces personnel for deaths of two. Several hundred people turned up at the local police station as a result of medical staff at a local hospital saying they found signs of burning on the victims' bodies. On 5 February, protesters in El Kef
El Kef
El Kef , also known as Le Kef, is a city in north western Tunisia and the capital of the Kef Governorate.Situated in the northwest of the country, to the west of Tunis and some east of the border between Algeria and Tunisia, El Kef has a population of . The old town is built on the cliff face...

 called for the local police chief Khaled Ghazouani to be sacked for abusing his authority. Protesters threw stones and small firebombs as well as burned two cars, one of which was a police vehicle. Police first responded with tear gas and then fired on the protesters in which two people were killed immediately and two died in hospital, 15 others were also wounded. The region's prefect
Prefect
Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....

 Mohamed Najib Tlijali called for calm as the police chief was arrested.

The former ruling RCD's activities were suspended on 6 February 2011 to prevent a breakdown in state security, with an order for dissolution of the party pending.

Protests flared up again on 19 February and 20 February, with 40,000 protesters demanding a new interim government completely free of any people associated with the old regime. Protesters also demanded a parliamentary system of government instead of the current presidential one.

As a date was announced for an election
Tunisian general election, 2011
The next Tunisian general election was originally scheduled to be held in 2014, but it was brought forward by the Tunisian Revolution which caused the ousting of President Ben Ali on 14 January 2011...

 in mid-July 2011, more than 100,000 protesters continued to demand the removal of Ghannouchi as interim prime minister. After an even larger rally on 27 February 2011, Ghannouchi resigned, saying: "After having taken more than one week of thinking, I became convinced, and my family shared my conviction, and decided to resign. It is not fleeing my responsibilities; I have been shouldering my responsibilities since 14 January [when Mr Ben Ali fled]," and "I am not ready to be the person who takes decisions that would end up causing casualties. This resignation will serve Tunisia, and the revolution and the future of Tunisia." He was replaced by Beji Caid el Sebsi
Beji Caid el Sebsi
Beji Caid el Sebsi is a Tunisian lawyer and politician. Since 27 February 2011, he has been the Prime Minister of Tunisia.-Personal life:Born in Sidi Bou Said in a family from the beylical agricultural makhzen, he is the direct great-grandson of Ismail Caid Essebsi, a mamluk of Tunisian corsairs...

. The following day two more ministers resigned (industry minister Afif Chelbi
Afif Chelbi
Afif Chelbi is a Tunisian politician. He is the Minister of Industry and Technology.-Biography:Afif Chelbi was born on March 14, 1953 in Tunis. He graduated from the École centrale Paris in 1978. He worked for the Tunisian Ministry of Economy and for Tunisian Qatari Bank.Since 2001, he has been the...

 and international co-operation minister Mohamed Nouri Jouini
Mohamed Nouri Jouini
Mohamed Nouri Jouini is a Tunisian politician. He is the former Minister of Development and International Cooperation.-Biography:He lived in Oregon and returned to Tunisia when former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali came to power in 1987. He sits on the board of governors of the Arab Bank for...

) amid continuing protests for the entire interim government to resign, with the UGTT calling for an elected constituent assembly to write a new constitution. The Ennahda Movement was legalised on 1 March 2011. The resignations of the Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research Ahmed Brahim and the Minister of Local Development Ahmed Nejib Chebbi was officially announced by the Tunis Afrique Presse
Tunis Afrique Presse
Tunis Afrique Presse is a Tunisian press agency founded on January 1, 1961. It is a monopoly as the only source of information in Tunisia ....

 (TAP) agency. A private radio broadcaster Shems FM
Shems FM
Shems FM is the fourth-launched private radio station in Tunisia. It was launched on September 27, 2010 by 12 p.m. local time and it is owned by Cyrine Ben Ali Mabrouk, the daughter of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali -the current president of Tunisia- and the wife of prominent businessman Marouen Mabrouk...

 also reported that the Minister of Economic Reform Elyes Jouini had resigned as well.

On 3 March 2011, the president announced that elections to a Constituent Assembly would be held on 24 July 2011; this likely means that general elections
Tunisian general election, 2011
The next Tunisian general election was originally scheduled to be held in 2014, but it was brought forward by the Tunisian Revolution which caused the ousting of President Ben Ali on 14 January 2011...

 will be postponed to a later date. This fulfilled a central demand of protesters.

On 7 March 2011, the interim government announced that the secret police would be dissolved, which were one of the hallmarks of Ben Ali's rule. On 9 March 2011, the RCD was dissolved by court order.

Refugees

In mid-February, about 4,000 mostly Tunisian refugees landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa
Lampedusa
Lampedusa is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The comune of Lampedusa e Linosa is part of the Sicilian province of Agrigento which also includes the smaller islands of Linosa and Lampione. It is the southernmost part of Italy. Tunisia, which is about ...

, causing the authorities to declare a state of emergency that would allow for federal aid to the island. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...

 accused the EU of not doing enough to curb immigration and asked them to do more. He said that the "Tunisian system was 'collapsing'" and that he would "ask the Tunisian Foreign Ministry for permission for our authorities to intervene to stop the flow in Tunisia," suggesting Italian troops would be on Tunisian soil. He called the event a "biblical exodus." The comments started a row between the two countries with the Tunisian Foreign Ministry saying it was ready to work with Italy and others but that it "categorically rejects any interference in its internal affairs or any infringement of its sovereignty." In response, Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that both countries share a "common interest" to halt the immigration, while he also offered "logistical help in terms of police and equipment. Until now the system of patrolling the coasts of Northern Africa has worked and we want to re-establish the technique, which had reduced illegal immigration to zero until a month ago." Tunisia then said that it had troops patrolling southern fishing ports and that checkpoints had been erected in coastal towns. By 14 February, at least 2,000 refugees had been sent to Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 with the other 2,000 quarantine
Quarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....

d at a re-opened holding centre. On 2 March about 350 more people arrived on the island. In response Italy declared a humanitarian emergency.

The International Organisation for Migration said that no new boats had been spotted. The EU's Catherine Ashton was on a visit to Tunisia to discuss the issue. German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...

 said that "not everyone who does not want to be in Tunisia can come to Europe. Rather, we need to talk to each other how we can strengthen the rule of law in Tunisia again and whether Europe can be of help."

Arrests

Reports indicate that several webloggers and the rapper Hamada Ben Aoun were arrested, but that the rapper and some of the bloggers were later released. Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...

 said the arrest of at least six bloggers and activists, who had either been arrested or had disappeared across Tunisia, was brought to their attention and that there were "probably" others. Tunisian Pirate Party
Tunisian Pirate Party
Tunisian Pirate Party is a small political party in Tunisia. It was formed in 2010, becoming one of the first outgrowths of the Pirate Party movement in continental Africa...

 activists Slah Eddine Kchouk, Slim Amamou
Slim Amamou
Slim Amamou is a Tunisian blogger and the former Secretary of State for Sport and Youth , deputy to the Minister for Youth and Sports. He resigned on the week of May 25, 2011 in protest of the transitional government's block of several websites...

 (later released, and eventually appointed Secretary of State for Sport and Youth by the incoming government) and Azyz Amamy had been reported to have had "disappeared" as no news was heard about them.

Hamma Hammami
Hamma Hammami
Hamma Hammami is a Tunisian communist, spokesman of the Tunisian Workers' Communist Party, and former editor of the party news organ El-Badil...

, the leader of the banned Tunisian Workers' Communist Party
Tunisian Workers' Communist Party
The Tunisian Workers' Communist Party , also known by its French acronym PCOT, is a Marxist-Leninist political party in Tunisia. Its general secretary is Hamma Hammami. It was outlawed until the Tunisian Revolution, when in a failed attempt to shore up the state framework it and another banned...

 and a prominent critic of Ben Ali, was arrested on 12 January, though he was released two days later.

Domestic political response

During a national television broadcast on , President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is a Tunisian political figure who was the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987, and he assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba, who was...

 criticised people for their protests calling the perpetrators "extremists and mercenaries" and warned of "firm" punishment. He also accused "certain foreign television channels of broadcasting false allegations without verification, based on dramatisation, fermentation and deformation by media hostile to Tunisia." His remarks were ignored and the protests continued.

On 29 December, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali shuffled his cabinet to remove his communications minister Oussama Romdhani
Oussama Romdhani
-Biography:Oussama Romdhani was born on December 15, 1956 in Metouia, Tunisia. He received a PhD in American Studies from Tunis University and was a Fullbright scholar at Georgetown University....

, while also announcing changes to the trade and handicrafts, religious affairs, communication and youth portfolios. The next day he also announced the dismissal of the governors of Sidi Bouzid, Jendouba
Jendouba Governorate
Jendouba Governorate is one of the twenty-four governorates of Tunisia. It is situated in northern Tunisia, bordering Algeria. It covers an area of 3,102 km² and has a population of 417,000...

 and Zaghouan
Zaghouan Governorate
Zaghouan Governorate is one of the twenty-four governorates of Tunisia. It is situated in north-eastern Tunisia. It covers an area of 2,768 km² and has a population of 161,000 . The capital is Zaghouan....

.

In January 2011, Ben Ali said 300,000 new jobs would be created, though he did not clarify what that meant. However, he also described the protests as "the work of masked gangs that attacked at night government buildings and even civilians inside their homes in a terrorist act that cannot be overlooked." Ahmed Najib Chebbi
Ahmed Najib Chebbi
Ahmed Najib Chebbi or simply Najib Chebbi is a Tunisian attorney and politician.Chebbi is a prominent figure of the Tunisian opposition movement; in 1983, he founded the Democratic Progressive Party, which gained legal recognition in 1988. He is currently the leader of the Democratic Progressive...

, the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party
Progressive Democratic Party (Tunisia)
The Progressive Democratic Party , also referred to by its acronym PDP, is a secular liberal political party in Tunisia. It was founded under the name of Progressive Socialist Rally in 1983, gained legal recognition in 1988 and was renamed Progressive Democratic Party in 2001. Under the rule of Ben...

, then said that despite official claims of police firing in self-defense "the demonstrations were non-violent and the youths were claiming their rights to jobs" and that "the funeral processions [for those killed on 9 January] turned into demonstrations, and the police fired [at] the youths who were at these .. processions." He then criticised Ben Ali's comments as the protesters were "claiming their civil rights, and there is no terrorist act...no religious slogans," while accusing Ben Ali of "looking for scapegoats." He further criticised the additional jobs offered as mere "promises."

On 10 January, the government announced the indefinite closure of all schools and universities in order to quell the unrest.
Days before departing office, Ben Ali announced that he would not change the present constitution
Constitution of Tunisia
The Constitution of Tunisia is the supreme law of the Tunisian Republic. The Constitution is the framework for the organization of the Tunisian government and for the relationship of the federal government with the governates, citizens, and all people within Tunisia...

, which was read as, in effect, promising to step down in 2014 due to his age. On 26 January, after Ben Ali left the country, international arrest warrants were issued for him, his wife and several other members of his family.

The Interior Ministry replaced 34 top-level security officials in a bid to bring change to the police, security services and spies that were a part of Ben Ali's security infrastructure. The interim head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...

 Fouad Mebazaa promised a national dialogue to address protester demands.

Foreign minister Ahmed Ounaies
Ahmed Ounaies
Ahmed Ounaies, also spelled Ahmed Ounaiss, is a Tunisian politician and diplomat who was Foreign Minister for two weeks in the transitional government established after the 2010–2011 Tunisian uprising...

 resigned on 13 February over controversial praise he gave to French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie
Michèle Alliot-Marie
Michèle Jeanne Honorine Alliot-Marie, born 10 September 1946 and nicknamed MAM, is a French politician of the Union for a Popular Movement . A member of all but one right-wing governments of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, she was the first woman in France to hold the portfolios of Defense , the...

, who was being criticised for her ties to Ben Ali. Mouldi Kefi
Mouldi Kefi
Mohamed Mouldi Kefi is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia and a retired diplomat. He is married and has four children....

 became the new foreign minister on 21 February.

President Ben Ali's ousting

The Tunisian military brought about the 14 Jan. ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali when they chased off his security forces. After Ben Ali was forced into exile, Army Commander Rashid Ammar pledged to "protect the revolution." On 14 January, Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is a Tunisian political figure who was the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987, and he assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba, who was...

 dissolved his government and declared a state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...

. Officials said the reason for the emergency declaration was to protect Tunisians and their property. People were also barred from gathering in groups of more than three, otherwise courting arrest or being shot if they tried to run away. Ben Ali also called for an election within six months to defuse demonstrations aimed at forcing him out. France24 also said the military took control of the airport and closed the country's airspace
Airspace
Airspace means the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere....

.

On the same day, Ben Ali fled the country for Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 under Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

n protection and landed in Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...

, Saudi Arabia, after France rejected a request for the plane to land on its territory. Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi
Mohamed Ghannouchi
Mohamed Ghannouchi was the Prime Minister of Tunisia and was self-proclaimed acting President of the country for a few hours starting 14 January 2011, under Article 56 of the Constitution of Tunisia...

 then briefly took over as acting president. Saudi Arabia cited "exceptional circumstances" for their heavily criticised decision to give him asylum saying it was also "in support of the security and stability of their country." The Saudi decision was "not out of sympathy" for Ben Ali (who had long fought against Islamists
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...

 in Tunisia). Saudi Arabia demanded Ben Ali remain "out of politics" as a condition for accepting him. On the morning of 15 January, Tunisian state TV announced that Ben Ali had officially resigned his position and Ghannouchi had handed power over to parliamentary speaker Fouad Mebazaa
Fouad Mebazaa
Fouad Mebazaa is a Tunisian politician who has been President of Tunisia since 15 January 2011. He was active in Neo Destour prior to Tunisian independence, served as Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Public Health, and Minister of Culture and Information, and has been President of the...

. This was done after the head of Tunisia's Constitutional Court, Fethi Abdennadher, declared that Ben Ali had left for good, Ghannouchi did not have right to power and Mebazaa would be given 60 days to organise new election. Mebazaa said it was in the country's best interest to form a National Unity government
National unity government
A national unity government, government of national unity, or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other national emergency.- Canada :During World War I the Conservative government of Sir...

. INTERPOL
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

 confirmed that its National Central Bureau (NCB) in Tunis has issued a global alert via INTERPOL's international network to seek the location and arrest of former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and six of his relatives.

A commission to reform the constitution and current law in general has been set up under Yadh Ben Achour
Yadh Ben Achour
Yadh Ben Achour is a Tunisian lawyer and an expert on public law and Islamic political theory. He is the son of the late Mohamed Fadhel Ben Achour, a prominent Tunisian theologian and union activist...

. There have also been calls by the opposition to delay the elections and hold them in six or seven months and with international supervision.

Immediate aftermath

Following Ben Ali's departure, violence and looting continued and the national army was reported to be extensively deployed in Tunisia. The identity of the perpetrators has not been determined. A high official of the Tunisian military, however, also stated that elements loyal to former President Ben Ali have deployed across the country. The capital's main train station was also torched.

A prison director in Mahdia
Mahdia
Mahdia is a provincial centre north of Sfax. It is important for the associated fish-processing industry, as well as weaving. It is the capital of Mahdia Governorate.- History :...

 freed about 1,000 inmates following a prison rebellion that left 5 people dead. Many other prisons also had jail breaks or raids from external groups to force prisoner releases, some suspected to be aided by prison guards. General pandemonium was said to have occurred in Tunisia as residents who were running out of necessary food supplies had armed themselves and barricaded their homes, even to the extent of having formed armed neighbourhood watches. Al Jazeera's correspondent said there were apparently three different armed groups: the police (250,000 people of the country's population were supposedly part of the police force), security forces from the Interior Ministry, and irregular militias supportive of Ben Ali who were vying for control.

Gun battles took place near the Presidential Palace between the Tunisian army and elements of security organs loyal to the former regime after Ali Seriati, head of presidential security, was arrested and accused of threatening state security by fomenting violence. The Tunisian army was reportedly struggling to assert control.

Gunfire continued in Tunis and Carthage as security services struggled to maintain law and order.

The most immediate result of the protests was seen in increased internet freedoms. While commentators were divided about the extent to which the internet contributed to the ousting of Ben Ali from power, Facebook remained accessible to roughly 20% of the population throughout the crisis whilst its passwords were hacked by a country-wide man-in-the-middle attack
Man-in-the-middle attack
In cryptography, the man-in-the-middle attack , bucket-brigade attack, or sometimes Janus attack, is a form of active eavesdropping in which the attacker makes independent connections with the victims and relays messages between them, making them believe that they are talking directly to each other...

, YouTube and DailyMotion
Dailymotion
Dailymotion is a video sharing service website, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement, Paris, France. According to Comscore, Dailymotion is the second largest video site in the world after YouTube....

 became available after Ben Ali's ouster, and the Tor anonymity network
Tor (anonymity network)
Tor is a system intended to enable online anonymity. Tor client software routes Internet traffic through a worldwide volunteer network of servers in order to conceal a user's location or usage from someone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis...

 reported a surge of traffic from Tunisia.

Post-Ben Ali governments

The unity government announced on 17 January included twelve members of the ruling RCD, the leaders of three opposition parties (Mustapha Ben Jafar
Mustapha Ben Jafar
Mustapha Ben Jafar is a Tunisian politician and doctor who has been President of the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia since November 2011...

 from the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties
Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties
The Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties , also referred to as Ettakatol or by its French acronym FDTL, is a social democratic political party in Tunisia. It was founded on 9 April 1994 and officially recognized on 25 October 2002. Its founder and Secretary-General is the radiologist Mustapha...

, Ahmed Ibrahim of the Ettajdid Movement and Ahmed Najib Chebbi
Ahmed Najib Chebbi
Ahmed Najib Chebbi or simply Najib Chebbi is a Tunisian attorney and politician.Chebbi is a prominent figure of the Tunisian opposition movement; in 1983, he founded the Democratic Progressive Party, which gained legal recognition in 1988. He is currently the leader of the Democratic Progressive...

 of the Progressive Democratic Party
Progressive Democratic Party (Tunisia)
The Progressive Democratic Party , also referred to by its acronym PDP, is a secular liberal political party in Tunisia. It was founded under the name of Progressive Socialist Rally in 1983, gained legal recognition in 1988 and was renamed Progressive Democratic Party in 2001. Under the rule of Ben...

), three representatives from the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) and representatives of civil society (including prominent blogger Slim Amamou
Slim Amamou
Slim Amamou is a Tunisian blogger and the former Secretary of State for Sport and Youth , deputy to the Minister for Youth and Sports. He resigned on the week of May 25, 2011 in protest of the transitional government's block of several websites...

). Just one day after the formation of the temporary government the three members of the UGTT as well as Mustapha Ben Jafaar, head of the FTDL opposition party quit saying that they had "no confidence" in a government that still featured members of the RCD party that ruled under Ben Ali.

The Times of Malta suggested that three notable movements not included in the national unity government were the banned Ennahda Movement, the communist Tunisian Workers' Communist Party
Tunisian Workers' Communist Party
The Tunisian Workers' Communist Party , also known by its French acronym PCOT, is a Marxist-Leninist political party in Tunisia. Its general secretary is Hamma Hammami. It was outlawed until the Tunisian Revolution, when in a failed attempt to shore up the state framework it and another banned...

 and the secular reformist Congress for the Republic
Congress for the Republic
The Congress for the Republic , also referred to as Al Mottamar or by its French acronym CPR, is a centre-left secular political party in Tunisia. It was created in 2001, but legalised only after the 2011 Tunisian revolution...

.

It was unclear whether the ban on these parties and the ban on Hizb ut-Tahrir would be lifted until 12 March 2011, when they were declared as banned again. The Ennahda Movement on the other hand, got a permit. On 20 January 2011, the new government announced in its first sitting that all banned parties would be legalised and that all political prisoners would be freed.

Political actions
On 7 February 2011 Tunisia's Defense Ministry called up recently retired troops as the country still struggles to contain unrest. Soldiers, retired within the last five years, as well as those who recently carried out their mandatory military service, are being asked to report for duty. First steps were taken on a bill that would give the interim president, Fouad Mebazaa, emergency powers, allowing him to bypass the RCD-dominated parliament.

An agreement between the interim government and the UGTT on nomination of new governors was reached on 8 February 2011.

The bill to grant Fouad Mebazaa
Fouad Mebazaa
Fouad Mebazaa is a Tunisian politician who has been President of Tunisia since 15 January 2011. He was active in Neo Destour prior to Tunisian independence, served as Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Public Health, and Minister of Culture and Information, and has been President of the...

 emergency powers was passed on 9 February. He stated that all banned parties would be legalised within days. The bill also allows Mebazaa to ratify international human rights treaties without parliament; he has previously stated Tunisia would accede to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance is an international human rights instrument of the United Nations and intended to prevent forced disappearance defined in international law, crimes against humanity. The text was adopted by the United...

, the Rome Statute
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court . It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome on 17 July 1998 and it entered into force on 1 July 2002. As of 13 October 2011, 119 states are party to the statute...

 of the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...

, the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the First
First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is an international treaty establishing an individual complaint mechanism for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights . It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 16 December 1966, and entered...

 and Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty is a side agreement to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It was created on 15 December 1989, and entered into force on 11 July 1991. As of...

 (which would mean abolishing the death penalty).

Further protests caused numerous fatalities, and on 27 Feb Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi resigned.

On 9 March, a court in Tunis announced the dissolution of the former ruling party, the Rally for Constitutional Democracy (RCD), and the liquidation of its assets and funds, but the party said it would appeal the decision.

On 14 April 2011, it was announced that Ben Ali would face 18 charges, including voluntary manslaughter and drug-trafficking. His family and former ministers are also going to face 26 further charges.

Domestic

Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi's government asked Saudi Arabia to extradite Ben Ali saying that "following a new batch of charges against the ousted president regarding his involvement in several serious crimes aimed at perpetrating and inciting voluntary homicide and sowing discord between the citizens of the same country by pushing them to kill one another."

Reports emerged on 18 February 2011 that Ben Ali had had a stroke and was gravely ill. Plans for a general amnesty were also announced on that day.

Other
The national stock market is TUNINDEX
Bourse de Tunis
The Bourse des Valeurs Mobilières de Tunis or Bourse de Tunis is a stock exchange based in Tunis, Tunisia. It was founded in 1969, and currently lists around 50 stocks....

, fell on 12 January for a three consecutive day loss of 9.3%. Following the curfew in Tunis, the market index again fell 3.8% as cost to protect against a sovereign default in credit default swaps rose to its highest level in almost two years.

Following Ghanoucchi and two other Ben Ali-era ministers resigning the bourse was again suspended.

International and non-state

Many governments and supranational organisations expressed concerns over use of force against protesters. France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, the former colonial power of Tunisia, was one of just a few states that expressed strong support for the Ben Ali government prior to its ouster, though protests were held in solidarity with Tunisia in several French cities and the French Socialist Party voiced support for the popular revolution.

Media and punditry

The protests and resultant political crisis have generally been called the Jasmine Revolution only in the foreign media. Tunisian philosopher Youssef Seddik
Youssef Seddik (philosopher)
Youssef Seddik is a noted Tunisian philosopher and anthropologist specializing in Ancient Greece and the anthropology of the Qur'an.-Biography:...

 deemed the term inappropriate because the violence that accompanied the event was "perhaps as deep as Bastille Day
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet...

," and although the term was coined by the Tunisian journalist Zied El Hani, who first used it on his blog on 13 January and initially spread via social media such as Facebook (hence "Revolution Facebook" amongst the youth of Tunisia), it is not in widespread use in Tunisia itself.

The lack of coverage in the domestic state-controlled media was criticised. Writer/activist Jillian York
Jillian York
Jillian C. York is a journalist, travel writer and free expression activist. She is currently the Director of International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.-Career:...

 alleged that the mainstream media
Mainstream media
Mainstream media are those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter...

, particularly in the Western world, was providing less coverage and less sympathetic coverage to the Tunisia protests relative to Iranian protests and the Green movement and China's censorship. York alleged the "US government—which intervened heavily in Iran, approving circumvention technology for export and famously asking Twitter to halt updates during a critical time period—has not made any public overtures toward Tunisia at this time."

Despite criticism about the "sparse" level of coverage and "little interest" given to the demonstrations by the international media, the protests have been hailed by some commentators as "momentous events" in Tunisian history. Brian Whitaker
Brian Whitaker
Brian Whitaker has been a journalist for the British newspaper The Guardian since 1987 and its Middle East editor from 2000-2007. He is currently an editor on the paper's "Comment Is Free". He also writes articles for Guardian Unlimited, the internet edition of the paper...

, writing in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, suggested on 28 December 2010, that the protests would be enough to bring an end to Ben Ali's presidency and noted similarities with the protests
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

 that led to the end of Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

's reign in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 in 1989, although Steven Cook, writing for the Council of Foreign Relations, notes that a tipping point is only obvious after the fact, and points to the counter-example of the 2009-2010 Iranian election protests. Ben Ali's governing strategy was nevertheless regarded to be in serious trouble, and Elliot Abrams noted both that demonstrators were able for the first time at the end of 2010 to defy the security forces and that the regime had no obvious successors outside of Ben Ali's own family.

The French management of the crisis came under severe criticism with notable silence in the mainstream media in the run-up to the crisis in its former colony.

Repercussion analysis

Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

read the ousting of the president as the "glass ceiling of fear has been for ever shattered in Tunisia and that the police state that Ben Ali created in 1987 when he came to power in a coup seems to be disintegrating." Though it added that Ben Ali's resignation following his statement that he had been "duped by his entourage" may not entirely be sincere just yet. Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

criticised French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the European Union's "Silence over the Tragedy" when the unrest broke. The Christian Science Monitor suggested that mobile telecommunications played an influential role in the "revolution."

The revolt in Tunisia began speculation that the Tunisian "Jasmine Revolution" would lead to protests against the multiple other autocratic regimes across the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...

. This was most famously captured in the phrase asking whether "Tunisia is the Arab Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

?
. The allusion refers to the Polish Solidarity movement and Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

's role as the birthplace of the movement that ousted Communism in Eastern Europe. The phrase appeared in outlets such as the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, as well as editorials by well known columnists Rami Khouri
Rami George Khouri
Rami George Khouri born 22 October 1948, in New York City to an Arab Palestinian Christian family. His father, George Khouri, a Nazarene journalist in what was the British mandate of Palestine had traveled with his wife to New York in 1947 to cover the United Nations debates about the future of...

 and Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen is a British-born journalist and author. He is a columnist for The New York Times and International Herald Tribune. He has worked as a foreign correspondent in fifteen different countries.- Biography :...

.

Larbi Sadiki suggested that despite "conventional wisdom has it that 'terror' in the Arab world is monopolised by al-Qaeda in its various incarnations" there was also the practice of "regimes in countries like Tunisia and Algeria [that] have been arming and training security apparatuses to fight Osama bin Laden [they] were [also] caught unawares by the 'bin Laden within': the terror of marginalisation for the millions of educated youth who make up a large portion of the region's population. The winds of uncertainty blowing in the Arab west – the Maghreb – threaten to blow eastwards towards the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...

 as the marginalised issue the fatalistic scream of despair to be given freedom and bread or death." A similar op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...

 in Al Jazeera by Lamis Ardoni said that the protests had "brought down the walls of fear, erected by repression and marginalisation, thus restoring the Arab peoples' faith in their ability to demand social justice and end tyranny." He also said that the protests that succeeded in toppling the leadership should serve as a "warning to all leaders, whether supported by international or regional powers, that they are no longer immune to popular outcries of fury" even though Tunisia's ostensible change "could still be contained or confiscated by the country's ruling elite, which is desperately clinging to power." He called the protests the "Tunisian intifada" which had "placed the Arab world at a crossroads." He further added that if the change was ultimately successful in Tunisia it could "push the door wide open to freedom in Arab word. If it suffers a setback we shall witness unprecedented repression by rulers struggling to maintain their absolute grip on power. Either way, a system that combined a starkly unequal distribution of wealth with the denial of freedoms has collapsed."

Similarly, Mark LeVine
Mark LeVine
Mark LeVine is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. He is also a musician. He received his B.A. in comparative religion and biblical studies from Hunter College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University's Department of Middle Eastern Studies...

 noted that the events in Tunisia could spiral into the rest of the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...

 as the movement was "inspiring people...to take to the streets and warn their own sclerotic and autocratic leaders that they could soon face a similar fate." He then cited solidarity protests in Egypt where protesters chanted "Kefaya" and "We are next, we are next, Ben Ali tell Mubarak he is next;" and that Arab bloggers were supporting the movement in Tunisia as "the African revolution commencing...the global anti-capitalist revolution." He pointed to an article in al-Nahar that talked of an "inhuman globalisation" that had been imposed on the Arab world, however a "human" nationalism had not taken place. LeVine then accused the Obama administration in the United States of double standards when Clinton was in the region meeting with political and civil society leaders, however she responded to a question about the protests saying "We can't take sides," which was read as a failure to seize the "reigns of history" and "usher in a new era" to "defeat the forces of extremism" without the violent conflict in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area. Pointing out Clinton's remarks about regimes whose "foundations are sinking into the sand" and needed "reform", LeVine argued that US foreign policy in the Middle East and the Muslim world
Ummah
Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...

 was "equally in danger of sinking into the sands if the President and his senior officials are not willing to get ahead of history's suddenly accelerating curve." He added, "It is the US and Europe, as much as the leaders of the region, who in Clinton's words are in need of 'a real vision for that future.'" Finally he said there were two scenarios that could play out: "a greater democratic opening across the Arab world," or a similar situation to Algeria in the early 1990s when the democratic election was annulled and the Algeria went into a civil war
Algerian Civil War
The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives, in a population of about 25,010,000 in 1990 and 31,193,917 in 2000.More than 70 journalists were...

.

Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk is an English writer and journalist from Maidstone, Kent. As Middle East correspondent of The Independent, he has primarily been based in Beirut for more than 30 years. He has published a number of books and has reported on the United States's war in Afghanistan and the same country's...

 asked if this was "The end of the age of dictators in the Arab world?" and partly answered the question in saying that Arab leaders would be "shaking in their boots." He also pointed out that the "despot" Ben Ali sought refuge in the same place as the ousted Idi Amin
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada was a military leader and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles in 1946. Eventually he held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military...

 of Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

 and that "the French and the Germans and the Brits, dare we mention this, always praised the dictator for being a 'friend' of civilised Europe, keeping a firm hand on all those Islamists." He notably pointed at the "demographic explosion of youth" of the Maghreb, though he said that the change brought about in Tunisia may not last as: "For I fear this is going to be the same old story. Yes, we would like a democracy in Tunisia – but not too much democracy. Remember how we wanted Algeria to have a democracy back in the early Nineties? Then when it looked like the Islamists might win the second round of voting, we supported its military-backed government in suspending elections and crushing the Islamists and initiating a civil war in which 150,000 died. No, in the Arab world, we want law and order and stability." He added that "If it can happen in the holiday destination Tunisia, it can happen anywhere, can't it?"

Blake Hounshell wrote on Foreign Policy.com that the Tunisian precedent raised the prospect of a "new trend. There is something horrifying and, in a way, moving about these suicide attempts. It's a shocking, desperate tactic that instantly attracts attention, revulsion, but also sympathy."

Impact of the internet

The use of communication technologies, and the Internet in particular, has been widely credited as contributor to the mobilisation of protests. A blog associated with Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...

described the intricate efforts of the Tunisian authorities to control such online media as Twitter and Facebook. Other regional regimes were also on higher alert to contain spillover effects that may ensue.

On 11 March 2011, Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...

 gave its annual award for online media freedom to the Tunisian blogging group Nawaat.org. Founded in 2004, it played an important role rallying anti-government protesters by reporting on the protests which the national media ignored. changes are coming.

Regional instability

Bouazizi's actions have resonated across the region "There is great interest. The Egyptian people and the Egyptian public have been following the events in Tunisia with so much joy, since they can draw parallels between the Tunisian situation and their own."

An economic analyst also suggested instability could spread to Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

 and Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

. An analyst on Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

 added Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

 as well and cited Western concerns as their intelligence bureaus base large parts of their Arab networks in Tunisia. However, a financial analyst in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

 suggested that "the spillover effect of the political turbulence to the large countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council is non-existent as there are no similar driver."

After the beginning of the uprising in Tunisia, similar protests took place in almost all Arab countries from Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 to Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, as well as in other states, ranging from Gabon
Gabon
Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

 to Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

, Iran, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

, and China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. Following weeks of protests
2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...

, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....

 resigned on 11 February. Major protests against longtime Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

n leader Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...

 broke out on 17 February and quickly deteriorated into civil war
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...

, ultimately resulting in the downfall of the Gaddafi regime later in the year. In addition, Yemen, Bahrain, and Algeria saw major protests.

See also

  • Arab Spring
    Arab Spring
    The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...

  • History of Tunisia
    History of Tunisia
    The History of Tunisia is subdivided into the following articles:*Outlines of early Tunisia*History of Punic era Tunisia*History of Roman era Tunisia*History of early Islamic Tunisia*History of medieval Tunisia*History of Ottoman era Tunisia...

  • List of conflicts in Africa
  • List of modern conflicts in North Africa
  • Operation Tunisia
    Operation Tunisia
    Operation Tunisia was an operation by internet group Anonymous during the Tunisian revolution. The group supports freedom of information, regardless of circumstance and were taking steps to help the Tunisians achieve this.-Tactics:...

  • Mohammed Bouazizi

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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