The Arab Spring was a wave of anti-government protests, revolutions, and armed rebellions that rocked most of the Arab world in the early 2010s. Protests occurred in Tunisia in response to harsh regimes and inadequate living standards. As fresh protests erupt in reaction to success stories shared from those taking place in other nations around the world, social media has played a significant part in the quick spread of revolution around the world.
EFFECT OF ARAB SPRING
The ‘Tunisian Revolution’ quickly expanded to five other countries: Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain, and Syria, where regimes were ousted or massive uprisings or societal violence, such as riots, civil wars, mass-murdering, or insurgencies, took place.
Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Iran’s Khuzestan, Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, Sudan, and Kuwait were among the countries that held demonstrations. Djibouti, the Palestinian National Authority, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, and Morocco’s occupied Western Sahara also saw minor protests.
Authorities, pro-government militias, counter-demonstrators, and soldiers retaliated forcefully against several Arab Spring rallies by mid-2012, putting an end to the original wave of uprisings and protests. In response to the attacks, some protestors responded with violence.
Large-scale wars include the Syrian Civil War, the Iraqi insurgency, the Egyptian crisis, the Yemeni Crisis, and the Libyan civil war.
1. THE JASMINE REVOLUTION IN TUNISIA
In December 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old street seller protesting his treatment by local officials, set himself on fire. This ignited the first protests in central Tunisia. The “Jasmine Revolution,” a protest movement, swiftly expanded across the country.
Tunisia’s administration used violence against street protestors and made political and economic concessions in an attempt to put an end to the turmoil.
Protests swiftly overwhelmed the country’s security forces, prompting President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to resign and escape the country on January 14, 2011. Tunisians elected members of a council entrusted with creating a new constitution in a democratic election in October 2011.
A democratically elected president and prime minister assumed office in December 2011, and a new constitution was promulgated in January 2014. Tunisia became the first Arab Spring-affected country to achieve a peaceful transfer of power from one democratically elected government to another.
2. EGYPT’S JANUARY 25 REVOLUTION
Similar protests were immediately organised among young Egyptians over social media following Ben Ali’s ouster in Tunisia, drawing enormous crowds across Egypt on January 25. The Egyptian administration likewise tried to put an end to protests by offering concessions while forcefully suppressing demonstrators. After several days of protests, the military refused to obey President Mubarak.
Mubarak stepped down on February 11 after nearly 30 years in power, turning up control to a council of senior military officers, after losing the military’s support.
3. YEMEN
President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s support base was reduced in Yemen, where the first protests began in late January 2011, when a number of the country’s most influential tribal and military figures allied with pro-democracy protesters asked for his resignation.
After unsuccessful negotiations to remove Saleh from office, loyalists and opposition fighters battled in Sanaa.
Saleh signed an internationally mediated accord in November 2011 that planned for a gradual transfer of power to Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
Armed conflict and revolt later threatened Hadi’s leadership, culminating in a civil war in 2014.
4. BAHRAIN
Bahraini human rights activists and citizens of Bahrain’s marginalised Shia majority organised widespread protests calling for political and economic reforms in mid-February 2011. Protests were ruthlessly quashed by Bahraini security forces, who were assisted by a Gulf Cooperation Council security forces.
5. LIBYA
In mid-February 2011, protests against Muammar al-regime Qaddafi’s regime in Libya soon evolved into an armed revolution. An international coalition led by NATO initiated an airstrike campaign against Qaddafi’s forces in March when the rebel forces appeared to be on the approach of defeat. Qaddafi was thrown out of power after rebel forces gained control of Tripoli in August 2011.
In October 2011, Qaddafi was killed in Sirte when rebel forces took control of the city after escaping arrest for several weeks. A rebel-led Transitional National Council seized power and was recognised internationally, but it struggled to exert control over the country, leading to civil war in 2014.
6. SYRIA
Protests demanding the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad erupted in southern Syria in mid-March 2011 and swiftly swept across the country. The Assad regime replied by starting a harsh crackdown on protestors, bringing international condemnation and condemnation from human rights organisations.
The Syrian National Council, also known as the Syrian National Transitional Council or just the Syrian National Council, is a Syrian opposition organisation based in Istanbul, Turkey, that was created in August 2011 in response to opposition militias attacking government soldiers.
Russia and China rejected UN Security Council resolutions aimed at exerting pressure on the Assad regime in October 2011 and February 2012, respectively, vowing to oppose any step that would lead to foreign intervention in Syria or Assad’s removal from power. The arrival in December 2011 of an Arab League group of peace monitors had little effect on the level of violence. The escalation of violence, driven by finance and arms from a number of opposing countries interested in the outcome, has culminated in a horrific civil war and a massive refugee crisis that has displaced millions of people.
7. OTHER COUNTRIES
Many nations in the Middle East and North Africa felt the repercussions of the Arab Spring, with at least tiny pro-democracy demonstrations taking place in many of them. Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman’s governments made a variety of concessions, ranging from the firing of unpopular officials to constitutional amendments, in order to avoid the expansion of protest movements in their nations.
ARAB SPRING 2.0
In February 2019, protests in Algeria overthrew President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s government. Sudan’s military deposed President Omar al-Bashir’s government in April after months of demonstrations. Iraq and Lebanon both saw large-scale protests in 2019–20. Despite the fact that these protest movements were unrelated, many observers referred to this wave of protests as a second Arab Spring because of the size and similarity of their demands.
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