The Arab Spring

Viggo, Eddie, Thor, Noah and Milo

The Tunisian
revolution


On the 14th of January, 2011,
president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali
ended his 24 year old long iron fist
regime, a mere month after the
fruit seller Bouazizi lit himself on
fire. That act of defiance served as a
spark for a series of demonstrations
sweeping the country, and
ultimately made The Arab Spring
possible.

The Sidi Bouzid Revolt
Protests against police brutality
started the very day of Bouazizis self-
immolation. Ironically, the police
reacted with even more brutality,
throwing canisters of tear gas into
crowds in an attempt to break up the
demonstrators. The demonstrations
didnt stop, though. Instead, the
information about these gatherings
was quickly spread around the
internet, especially via the use of
online social websites like Youtube
and Facebook, which made it easier to
organize the demonstrations.
On January 20th, the Tunisian
minister of development travelled to
Sidi Bouzid, the city where it all
began, in an attempt to calm the
protestors with the announcement of a
$10 million employment programme.
It was too late for band-aid solutions
like that, and the riots continued
unaffected. During the following
weeks, the demonstrations happened
on an almost daily basis, with the
amounts of injured and the death toll
increasing rapidly and spreading
throughout the country. More and
more employed citizens were
protesting in sympathy with the
jobless, and on January 6th, 95
percent of Tunisias lawyers went on
a strike, condemning the unjustified
assaults and beatings the police
committed.
Night time curfews were established
in an attempt to suppress the people,
but those too were without any effect.
On January 14th, President Ben Ali
dissolved his government and fled
along with his family to neighbouring
Saudi Arabia. In only 28 days, the
Tunisian people managed to
overthrow 24 years of one of the most
brutal regimes in the Arab world.

A rotten core
What looked like one of the more
wealthy, stable and equally-righted
countries in the Middle East, from the
outside, was in fact just a shell to
cover up the extremely repressive
core. Since Ben Ali came to power in
1987, he had quelled any signs of
opposition hand in hand with the
government. Members of opposing
groups were all jailed and exiled in
the 1990s, so resistance was futile.
After years of human degradation and
loss of rights, the Tunisians wouldnt
settle for anything less than a change
of government, and it was this
perseverance that inspired the
inhabitants throughout the Middle
East to join what would become the
Arab Spring.

The ignition of The Arab
Spring


The Arab spring has very fittingly
been described as a seemingly
impossible event before it happened,
but an unpreventable event after it
happened. The question, however, is
how most political commentators
would agree that the event was
unavoidable, when no one had seen it
coming? One explanation could be
that the signs were there, but that
most politicians and journalists just
didnt see the signs or didnt pay them
enough notice. Therefore the Arab
regimes were perceived throughout
the world as being stable. The world
had developed a blind spot in regards
to the powers that were unleashed
after Bouazizis suicide fire.

The story of a fruit seller
Muhammed Bouazizi took care of
himself and his family by selling fruit
and vegetables from a wheelbarrow in
the Tunesian town Side Bouzid. To
keep his licence to sell fruit on the
street, and thereby provide food for
his family, he had been paying bribe
to the police for many years. Finally
on the 17th of December 2010,
Bouazizi had had enough. He had
been unable to pay the policemen,
because he had just brought a fresh
load of fruit and had no money left.
The policemen had flipped over his
wheelbarrow, stolen his weight,
beaten him up and spit on him. He
immediately travelled to the nearest
embassy where he demanded to have
his weight returned and to be given an
apology from the ambassador.
However he was given neither. After
days of being overlooked, he soaked
himself in oil and lit himself on fire.
These actions are believed by many,
to be the start of the Arab Spring.



Mubaraks terror regime

On January 25th 2011, Egyptians,
who were strongly inspired by the
Tunisian population, gathered on the
national holiday Police Day, calling
for an end to corruption, injustice,
poor economic conditions, and the 30-
year-old regime of President Hosni
Mubarak. Demonstrations on the
streets quickly grew into a national
revolutionary movement that within
18 days had removed Mubarak and
his National Democratic Party (NDP)
from the leading position of Egypt. In
the beginning of the uprising, mass
demonstrations in Cairo, Alexandria
and other cities were met with
counter-violence from police and
supporters of the ruling National
Democratic Party. But the Egyptians
broke through and fought back on the
streets. On January 27, the
government shut down the Internet
and mobile service providers
complied to suspend services.
Still the uprising continued, and the
army made the decision not to act
against the protesters. Demonstrations
started all over the country and after
18 days, Mubarak was forced to
resign, after 30 years in power. He
was convicted of being associated
with the death of 846 people killed
during the uprising, but after an
appeal all charges were dropped.
After the end of Mubaraks regime the
Military took over the leadership of
Egypt and stayed in power until 2012
where Mohammed Morsi of the
Muslim Brotherhood, was elected as
president. But his rule was not for
long. The people's view and support
of Morsi changed when he issued a
decree granting himself the powers
similar to that of a dictator. Many
believed that he was quickly growing
to be just as powerful as Mubarak,
therefore Morsi was deposed by the
military in June 2013, after millions
of protesters took to the streets, and
he was replaced by a temporary
government.

The overthrowing of Morsi was not
seen as a military one, or at least not
by the Americans and other western
countries, because if it had been
military they would be required to
take action and enter Egypt with
military forces. Therefore it was seen
as a democratic deposing deposition.
After the deposing, security forces
then launched a crackdown on the
Muslim Brotherhood, killing almost
1,000 people at two pro-Morsi sit-ins
in Cairo.

The changes to the constitution that
were made under Morsi were evoked
and In December 2013, a constituent
assembly finished drafting a new
constitution to replace the 2012
charter.


Mohamed Morsi was the fifth
president of Egypt, from 30 June 2012
to 3 July 2013, when he was removed
by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He was the
first democratically elected head of
state in Egyptian history.




Reactions to the events

The Arab Spring takes place mainly
in the Middle Eastern and North
African region - but since it is such an
influential event, it spreads to not only
countries directly affected by the
revolutions, but to the whole world -
and it is obvious that the western
civilisation has had its part in the
story.
President of the United States, Barack
Obama, has played a big role in the
Arab Spring from the beginning and
still does. Throughout the chaos and
battles all across the region, he has
praised demonstrators and promoted
reform, even comparing it to pivotal
events in American history such as
the Boston Tea Party and the Civil
Rights Movement.
However, Obama has been criticized
for his handling of the events. The
United States has for the most part
remained passive in the region and
refrained from taking military action -
however, it did support NATO in
sending forces to Libya, which
ultimately led to the end of the Libyan
revolution and death of leader
Muammar Gaddafi.

Prime Minister of England, David
Cameron, has offered financial
assistance to the new, free nations of
Egypt and Tunisia after the
revolutions, saying: I want a very
simple and clear message to come out
of this summit, and that is that the
most powerful nations on earth have
come together and are saying to those
in the Middle East and North Africa
who want greater democracy, greater
freedom, greater civil rights; we are
on your side."


History during Gaddafi

Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary
and politician and commonly known
for his ruling of Libya which went on
for 42 years. Gaddafi came to power
in 1969 with great ambitions to
change the world by liberating the
Arab countries from the west,
especially from Britain and America.

Before Gaddafi came to power, the
country was led by his childhood
hero, president Gamal Abdel Nasser,
who promised to bring the country
into a pact with the rest of the Arab
world, transforming it into a union,
strong enough to stand up against the
dominating western countries.



When Gamal Nasser died, Gaddafi
had the opportunity to keep his
visions and ideas alive which he did
by uniting Libya with other countries
such as Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria.
Of course it was a complicated task,
to offer the Arab countries fellowship,
when they all were offered the same
thing from more powerful countries,
like Russia and America. This meant
that they slipped away one by one and
Libya was on its own again.

After trying and failing to create
companionship with Ireland on the
basis of his beliefs that Ireland was
fighting the British imperialism by
sending money and military supplies,
he decided that there was only one
solution left. Which was to create his
own global revolutionary theory. The
idea was based on the third alternative
to capitalism and communism and
was therefore called The Third
International Theory.
Gaddafi was convinced that the
democracy in America was a form of
dictatorship, and would therefore not
suffice.
The Third International Theory, was
basically controllable by one man,
Gaddafi. He made all the decisions
about everything and played all the
different committees and congresses
against themselves to maintain his
leadership.

Of course this form of leadership had
to come to an end. So to fast forward
to the end, Gaddafi was not exactly
beloved in his country which meant
he had to hide in a tunnel until he was
found and later killed on October the
20th 2011 by his own men in a
shootout.
























Sources:
http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/has-obama-properly-handled-the-arab-
spring/us-faces-challenges-in-arab-world-but-obama-is-on-right-track
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/tunisia/2011/01/201114142223827361.
html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Revolution
http://www.iar-gwu.org/node/257
Kilde:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-12482291
Schultz og Rosenmeier, Det arabiske forr, s. 9-11 og 14-18
Arab Spring: A research study guide - Cornell University Library
The arab spring: Made in Tunisia, broken in Egypt - The Guardian

http://media.smh.com.au/news/world-news/cairo-protesters-defiant-despite-deaths-4664441.html