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<br /> When <keyword id="16945" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Taliban">Taliban</keyword> attacked the <keyword id="275394" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Afghan-parliament">Afghan Parliament</keyword> on Monday to turn down lawmakers’ attempt to find a new <keyword id="194123" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="defense-minister">defense minister</keyword> for the country, the whole world looked on in horror. The way Talibanese planned and executed this attack, they send out a clear message to the <keyword id="236314" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Afghanistan-government">Afghanistan government</keyword> that they are against democracy. This attack took us back to December 13, 2001, when <keyword id="145182" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-Parliament">Indian Parliament</keyword> was attacked by a bunch of militants. But, if you think India and Afghanistan are the only countries to have faced such an attack, you should check out this list: <br />
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(Image: Reuters)  <br />

5 Parliament attacks across the globe that shook everyone

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Amr Nabil</span></p><p class="caption">Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, centre, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right, and his Yemeni counterpart Ali Abdullah Saleh, centre left, during a group picture with Arab and African leaders during the second Afro-Arab summit in Sirte, Libya, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>With the reported death on Monday of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iran-backed-houthis-say-theyve-killed-former-yemeni-president-saleh-2017-12">longtime Yemen leader Ali Abdullah Saleh</a>, people are revisiting a 2010 photo. </strong></li><li><strong>It shows how radically the Arab world has changed in less than a decade.</strong></li></ul><p><br />At the time of the photo, each man had been in power for decades and were viewed as autocratic strongmen. Now, just seven years later, following the Arab Spring and various military actions, all of them have been removed from office.</p><p>After the reported death on Monday of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iran-backed-houthis-say-theyve-killed-former-yemeni-president-saleh-2017-12">longtime Yemen leader Ali Abdullah Saleh</a>, many have revisited the 2010 photo to show how radically the Arab world has changed in less than a decade.</p><p>From left to right, the four men in the bottom row of the photo are: Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, then-president of Tunisia, Saleh, then-president of Yemen, Moammar Gadhafi, then-leader of Libya, and Hosni Mubarak, then-president of Egypt.</p><p>Here's, briefly, what happened to each:</p><ul><li><strong>Ben Ali</strong> had ruled Tunisia since 1987, until he was removed from power during the country's revolution in January 2011. He fled to Saudi Arabia and has been living in exile there since.</li><li><strong>Saleh</strong> became president of North Yemen in 1978, and became president of Yemen in 1990 following the country's merging with South Yemen. He was removed from office in 2011 and now appears to have been killed by the troops that once fought alongside him.</li><li><strong>Gadhafi</strong> seized power in a 1969 coup in Libya, ruling for more than 40 years. He was killed in a 2011 uprising that preceded the country's current civil war.</li><li><strong>Mubarak</strong> became Egypt's president in 1981 and ruled until 2011. He was put on trial and served six years in prison before being released earlier this year.</li></ul>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/marine-explains-how-intermittent-fasting-shape-abs-2017-6">A Marine explains how intermittent fasting helped him 'see his abs'</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

This photo from 2010 shows just how much the Arab world has changed

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi</span></p><p class="caption">Nidaa Tounes (Call of Tunisia) party supporters wave flags and shout slogans as they celebrate after their party's veteran politician Beji Caid Essebsi won the country's first free presidential election in Tunis December 22, 2014.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nobel-peace-prize-winner-2015-2015-10">just won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2015</a>.</p><p>The group's win was a surprise - the prize was expected to go to Pope Francis or German Chancellor Angela Merkel.</p><p>But the Nobel committee was impressed with the quartet's ability to bring the north African country together in 2013, during the aftermath of the Jasmine revolution that overthrew <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine_El_Abidine_Ben_Ali">Zine El Abidine Ben Ali</a> in 2011.</p><p>It's made up of the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers. They're credited with helping a smooth transition towards democracy.</p><p>The Nobel committee gave some background information on the quartet <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2015/press.html?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=twitter_tweet">in a press release</a> published Friday after the announcement:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>The Quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 when the democratization process was in danger of collapsing as a result of political assassinations and widespread social unrest. It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war. It was thus instrumental in enabling Tunisia, in the space of a few years, to establish a constitutional system of government guaranteeing fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, political conviction or religious belief.</span></p><p>Tunisia conducted peaceful elections in 2014, while some other countries which overturned autocratic leaders in the aftermath of the Arab Spring are still in political turmoil or outright civil war.</p><p><em>More to come...</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kesha-sued-her-producer-for-sexual-assault-and-she-says-its-destroying-her-career-2015-9">Kesha sued her producer for sexual assault, and she says it's destroying her career</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BqZWFxdzpBPIpAwbHIAMSVYXNOqtEkky" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Here's the background on the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, which just won the Nobel Peace Prize

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Migrants try to stay afloat after falling off their rubber dinghy during a rescue operation by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship in the central Mediterranean in international waters some 15 nautical miles off the coast of Zawiya in Libya, April 14, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>At least 100 migrants were killed or are missing after a ship packed with migrants sank off Tunisia on Sunday, making it the deadliest migrant disaster in 2018.</strong></li><li><strong>Security officials said the boat was packed with about 180 migrants, including 80 from other countries in Africa.</strong></li><li><strong>At least 1,178 migrants have died worldwide this year through May 28, with at least 660 of the deaths occuring in the Mediterranean.</strong></li></ul><p>At least 100 migrants were killed or are missing after a ship packed with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/at-least-44-migrants-drowned-off-the-coasts-of-tunisia-and-turkey-2018-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">migrants sank off<span> Tunisia on</span> Sunday</a>, making it the deadliest migrant disaster in 2018, according to <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/05/africa/tunisia-migrant-deaths-intl/index.html?sr=twCNN060518tunisia-migrant-deaths-intl0402PMStory&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_term=link&amp;utm_source=twCNNi&amp;utm_content=2018-06-05T15%3A08%3A03" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a> and the <a href="https://www.iom.int/news/iom-very-concerned-after-tragic-sinking-migrant-boat-tunisian-coast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United Nations Migration Agency</a><span>.</span></p><p>"Among the 60 victims transferred to the forensic department at Habib Bourguiba hospital in Sfax, 48 are<span> Tunisia</span>ns ... 12 are non-<span>Tunisia</span>n, the identifications are in progress," Lorena Lando, chief of mission of the IOM in<span> Tunisia </span>said in a statement late on Monday.</p><p>Human traffickers increasingly use<span> Tunisia </span>as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe as Libya's coastguard, aided by armed groups, has tightened controls.</p><p><span>Tunisia</span>n authorities, which on Sunday said they had recovered 48 bodies, provided no new figures but said the coast guard was still searching for dozens of missing migrants.</p><p>The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said 52 people were confirmed dead with 60 missing and voiced concern about incidents along the central Mediterranean route.</p><p>"That's why UNHCR is advocating for safe routes for refugees to travel so that these unnecessary deaths don't take place. People should be able to find protection and travel in a legal, safe way," UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told a briefing.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Relatives of Tunisian migrants, who drowned when their boat sank, react as they leave a hospital morgue after identifying the bodies of their family members, in Sfax, Tunisia June 4, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Countries must offer refugees "legal pathways" including resettlement, family reunification and student visas, he said. UNHCR estimates that about 17,000 refugees in North Africa are in need of resettlement.</p><p>The IOM said 68 people had been rescued after the vessel sank - 60<span> Tunisia</span>ns, two Moroccans, one Libyan, one Malian, one Cameroonian national and three Ivorians. </p><p>Security officials said the boat was packed with about 180 migrants, including 80 from other countries in Africa.</p><p>Survivors said the captain had abandoned the boat after it started sinking to escape arrest by the coastguard.</p><p>Unemployed<span> Tunisia</span>ns and other Africans have often tried to cross in makeshift boats from <span>Tunisia </span>to Sicily in southern Italy. The North African country's economy is in crisis since the toppling of autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 threw<span> Tunisia </span>into turmoil with unemployment and inflation soaring.</p><p>On Tuesday, new Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte promised a crackdown on immigration.</p><p>At least 1,178 migrants have died worldwide this year through May 28, with at least 660 of the deaths occuring in the Mediterranean,<span> </span><a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/missingmigrants-iom-int-region-mediterranean-pdf_5.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a><span> to </span>IOM.</p><p>At least<span> </span><a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/missingmigrants-iom-int-region-mediterranean-pdf_5.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">385 have died</a><span> </span>between the coasts of Italy and Tunisia through May 28 in 2018, and 1,910<span> Tunisia</span>n migrants have reached Italy between Jan. 1 and April 30, including 39 women and 307 minors, 293 of whom were unaccompanied. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-narcos-sicario-get-wrong-about-drug-cartels-mexico-2018-5">Here's what 'Narcos' and 'Sicario' get right and wrong about drug cartels</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

At least 100 drowned off Tunisian coast in deadliest migrant disaster this year

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Stringer/Files</span></p><p class="caption">File photo of Tunisian soldiers standing guard at the border crossing at Ras Jdir Ben Guerdane, in this picture taken December 5, 2014.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Islamist fighters attacked army and police barracks in the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdan near the Libyan border on Monday killing at least 30 people, including civilians, residents and the Interior Ministry said.</p><p>Authorities sealed off the nearby beach resort town of Djerba, a popular destination for foreign and local tourists, and closed two border crossings with Libya, the TAP state news agency said.</p><p>It was not immediately clear if the attackers crossed the border, but Monday's assault was the type of militant operation Tunisia's government had feared as it prepares for potential spill over from Libya, where Islamic State militants have expanded their presence.</p><p>In response to the attack, Tunisian authorities imposed a curfew from 7 pm to 5 am local time in Ben Guerdan the interior ministry said.</p><p>Local television broadcast images of soldiers and police crouched in doorways and on rooftops as gunshots echoed in the center of the town. Bodies of dead militants lay in the streets near the army barracks, local residents said.</p><p>"I saw a lot of militants at dawn, they were running with their Kalashnikovs," Hussein, a resident, told Reuters by telephone. "They said they were Islamic State and they came to target the army and the police."</p><p>Soldiers killed 21 militants and arrested six after they attacked military and police posts, the Interior Ministry said. Hospital sources said at least seven civilians were killed along with a soldier and a customs agent.</p><h2>Growing concerns over Islamist militancy</h2><p>While Tunisia has been held up as a model of democratic transition since its 2011 uprising against ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, the North African country is also caught up in a struggle with Islamist militancy.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A Tunisian soldier holds his position during an exercise along the frontier with Libya in Sabkeht Alyun, Tunisia February 6, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div>More than 3,000 Tunisians have left to fight with Islamic State and other groups in Syria and Iraq. Tunisian security officials say increasingly they are returning to join the militant group in Libya over the border.</p><p>Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi five years ago, Libya has slipped into chaos, with two rival governments and armed factions struggling for control. Islamic State has grown in the turmoil, taking over Sirte city and drawing foreign recruits.</p><p>Tunisian forces have been alert for possible infiltration since last month when a US air strike targeted mostly Tunisian Islamic State militants at a camp near the border in Libya's Sabratha. The strike reportedly killed Tunisian Noureddine Chouchane, blamed for two attacks on tourists in Tunisia last year in which dozens were killed, including 30 British holidaymakers.</p><p>Western military advisers are also starting to train Tunisian border forces to help better protect the frontier with electronic surveillance and drones and authorities have built a trench and barrier to help stop militants crossing.</p><p>Britain announced last week it would <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-uk-to-send-troops-to-tunisia-to-help-stop-is-crossing-libyan-border-2016-3" target="_blank">send troops to Tunisia</a> to help prevent Islamic State fighters from moving into the country from Libya. <br /><br />Western officials have voiced concerns over how quickly ISIS is developing in Libya and are trying to contain the spread. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/report-french-special-forces-are-waging-a-secret-war-against-isis-in-libya-2016-2" target="_blank">France has been carrying out secret operations</a> against ISIS in Libya for months with the help of the US and the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword>.</p><p>Islamist militants trained in Libyan jihadist camps carried out several attacks on Tunisia last year, including gun assaults on the Tunis Bardo museum and a Sousse beach hotel targeting foreign tourists.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mythbusters-co-hosts-no-more-2016-3">Adam Savage reveals why he and 'MythBusters' cohost Jamie Hyneman won't be working together anymore</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="8yMjBqMTE64Z8GLc4yQx9nPkambvO6n4" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

An attack that killed 30 people at the Tunisia-Libya border is the latest sign of a growing problem in the region

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Chris Helgren</span></p><p class="caption">An 18-carat gold Nobel Peace Prize medal, awarded in 1921 to Norway's Christian L. Lange, is seen in an exhibition at the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo December 9, 2009.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Tunisia's National Dialogue Quarter has won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2015.</p><p>The group was brought together in the north African country in 2013, in the aftermath of the Jasmine revolution that overthrew <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine_El_Abidine_Ben_Ali">Zine El Abidine Ben Ali</a> in 2011.</p><p>It's made up of the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers. They're credited with helping a smooth transition towards democracy. </p><p>Here's what <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2015/press.html?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=twitter_tweet">the prize committee</a> says:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2015 is to be awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011. The Quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 when the democratization process was in danger of collapsing as a result of political assassinations and widespread social unrest. It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war. It was thus instrumental in enabling Tunisia, in the space of a few years, to establish a constitutional system of government guaranteeing fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, political conviction or religious belief.</p><p><span>Pope Francis was the early bookies' favourite to pick up the prestigious prize, but odds shifted towards German Chancellor Angela Merkel after she was named as the favourite by a key prize predictor.</span></p><p><span>Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), publishes a closely watched shortlist of likely winner each year and 2015's list is topped by Merkel, citing her leadership in Europe on the refugee crisis. Ladbrokes offered odds of 2/1 that she would pick up the prize.</span></p><p>Tunisia conducted peaceful elections in 2014, while some other countries which overturned autocratic leaders in the aftermath of the Arab Spring are still in political turmoil or outright civil war. </p><p>The Nobel committee goes on:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>It shows that Islamist and secular political movements can work together to achieve significant results in the country's best interests. The example of Tunisia thus underscores the value of dialogue and a sense of national belonging in a region marked by conflict. Secondly, the transition in Tunisia shows that civil society institutions and organizations can play a crucial role in a country's democratization, and that such a process, even under difficult circumstances, can lead to free elections and the peaceful transfer of power. The National Dialogue Quartet must be given much of the credit for this achievement and for ensuring that the benefits of the Jasmine Revolution have not been lost.</span></p><p>Last year, in 2014, the prize went to Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-donald-trumps-youngest-daughter-tiffany-2015-8">Forget Ivanka - here's the Trump daughter nobody's talking about</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="E1cXN4djreB4iDr6m7ZyR3yB13JhnGpM" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet has won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize

Five years since the beginning of protests in Tunisia and the spread of mass movements that came to be known as the <keyword id="660972" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Arab-Spring">Arab Spring</keyword>, much has changed. It began as an amalgamation of demands for economic rights and democratic reforms in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, <keyword id="6354913" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Syria">Syria</keyword>, Libya and many others that were either being ruled by autocratic regimes or were facing the consequences of an imposed democratic regime by the US and allied forces.<br />
<br />
To understand the nature of changes that occurred in the Arab world during the last five years, here’s a closer look at some of the political events that took place.<br />
<br />
The Tunisian President, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, fled to Saudi Arabia following the Tunisian revolution protests in 2011. One of the only countries where people gained rights and continued demands for economic reforms, Tunisia remained largely peaceful until the recent terrorist attacks.<br />
<br /> Egypt attracted much of the worlds’ attention to <keyword id="544541" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tahrir-Square">Tahrir Square</keyword> which became a centre for the protests to oust President <keyword id="6361692" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hosni-Mubarak">Hosni Mubarak</keyword> who had been in power for 30 years.<br />
<br />
However, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood who succeeded him was also ousted by the army in 2013. General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was elected as president in 2014. But the onslaught of violence continues today with the increased conflict between the Muslim Brotherhood, the army and other insurgent groups.<br />
<br />
Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in Libya and killed in October 2011 after the National Transitional Council began taking control of the country. The situation in Libya is also more chaotic now as none of the political groups have control over the government and extremist forces are on the rise in some parts of Libya.<br />
<br />
Syria has faced devastation due to armed conflict at alarming rates. A few weeks after protests in Syria, a civil war broke out that has claimed lives of thousands while Syria has become a territory controlled by ISIS and facing military interventions by foreign powers including US, Russia, France and UK.<br />
<br />
Other countries where protests occurred and that underwent political changes include Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain, UAE, etc.<br />
<br />
While many regimes were overthrown and political reforms were discussed, the hope for progress that the Arab Spring had instilled around the world began to fade with increased violence and struggles to assume political power.<br />
<br />
Some believe that the Arab youth were misguided, while others hold the West’s interventions responsible for the state of chaos. Conservative forces have targeted Islam for being incompatible with ideas of democracy and continued to back autocratic regimes in the Arab world to ensure security.<br />
<br />
While democratic reform could have been initiated peacefully by governments, like in Tunisia, the divide between secular and Islamist groups began to emerge in countries like Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Libya. Democratic movements were being weakened by the political elite and the armed forces who wanted to stay in power,  and the lack of a stronger sustained movement for  political and economic alternatives led Islamist groups and the West to assume more power and organise themselves further to gain control over the state.   <br />
<br />
It is a fact that the region has witnessed only further repression and over 3 million people have lost their lives to the violence that has ensued thereafter. ISIL and its growing presence has emerged as a serious threat to international security and has added more fuel to the “war against terror” that obstructs a democratic and peaceful state from existing. The chaos and insecurity people are being faced with in countries like Syria is forcing them to take refuge to stay alive.<br />
<br />
The social media networks played a significant role in the spread of protests during the Arab Spring. While they have been seen as platforms that allow independent and democratic voices from the Arab World to speak up, many of the social networking sites have also been used by ISIL and other extremist organisations to spread their ideas. While terror attacks have been also bringing loss of life and destruction to Europe, heads of states are meeting to affirm their resolve to end terrorism and resort to armed and economic strategies to ensure their objectives are fulfilled.<br />
<br /> The rising numbers of <keyword id="6391453" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Refugees">refugees</keyword> from countries facing civil unrest and armed conflict have also posed serious questions on the laws and policies towards refugees and growing racism against them. The challenges are indeed global, and have always been, but we need to remind ourselves of what the Arab Spring expressed five years ago, that this was a movement for democratic changes by the people of the countries influenced by the Arab Spring, that began with the self immolation of a young street vendor in Tunisia against police corruption and injustice, and not for a more violent power struggle between the West, the political elite and Islamist forces.<br />
<br />
Arab countries need to embrace inclusive economic policies and create a healthier political environment to bring the kind of development that the Arab youth have been demanding. Finding an end to the violence that has engulfed the region today seems difficult and cannot really happen without ensuring stronger rights to the people.<br />
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Arab Spring: 5 years and counting...

<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ed. note: Remember the Arab Spring? Once seen as a progressive leap forward, the wave of protests that began in 2010 have fallen flat in many countries. A rare bright spot has been newly democratic Tunisia, the place where it all began. Even there, however, pessimism is rising. Harvard graduate student <a href="http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/people/ethan-mefford">Ethan Mefford</a>, after a recent stay in the country, offers some reasons to be worried -and hopeful - below.</span></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/people/ethan-mefford">Ethan Mefford</a></span></p><p class="caption">The total lack of tourists at Tunisia's Hammamet beach is disconcerting, even during off-season.</p></div><p></p></div></div>January 14 marked the five-year anniversary of Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali's flight to Saudi Arabia, and the country is in a retrospective mood. In "the lone bright spot of the Arab Spring," a phrase that western media has made the country's unofficial tag line, there is a general sense of apprehension. For such a young democracy, Tunisia is remarkably politics-weary.</p><p>Nidaa Tounes (Call for Tunisia), the secular party of President Béji Caïd Essebsi, formed a four-party governing coalition after winning a plurality of seats in the 2014 parliamentary election but itself is splintering from lack of direction and the disillusionment of many members with an autocratic structure built around Essebsi and his son, Hafedh. In the callow world of Tunisian politics, Essebsi's Nidaa relied as much on its opposition to the Islamist Ennahda party as on any positive vision, and Ennahda's participation in the coalition has denied Nidaa its raison d'être.</p><p>The sense of political disillusionment is spiked by an anemic economy, with security fears crippling the country's critical tourism industry, linked to as many as one in five jobs in the country. This combination is fueling a sense of nostalgia among Tunisians for the good old days under Ben Ali.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/people/ethan-mefford">Ethan Mefford</a></span></p><p class="caption">Young Tunisians sip tea and drink coffee in the old city of Tunis. A graffitied image of the Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz -&#xa0;a vocal supporter for freedom of expression - keeps watch.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The nostalgia has been building for several years. A late-2014 documentary, </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">7 Vies</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (Seven Lives, a double entendre that refers to the Arabic saying that cats have seven lives, rather than our familiar nine, as well as to a symbol of Ben Ali's reign, inaugurated by a bloodless coup on November 7, 1987), created by the young Tunisian director Amine Boufaïed and the French-Tunisian journalist Lilia Blaise, examines the resurgence of Ben Ali's popularity, interviewing a broad swath of Tunisians, of whom roughly half, modest and elite alike, look back fondly on the felled strongman.</span></p><p>The sentiment is most common among Tunisians over 40, while the youth who drove the revolution remain broadly anti-Ben Ali, relishing their freedom to post any and all ideas to social media, and their sense that they can bring about change by taking to the streets. Dismissive of traditional news sources as tendentious, corrupt, or both, young Tunisians turn to online sources of content to get what they consider to be an unfiltered look at the state of the country. Nawaat.org, a leader among such sites, offers content in Arabic, French, and English, indicating the cosmopolitan outlook of the cohort of young Tunisian activists who are its contributors. Such sources, while skeptical of Tunisia's tyro class of politicians, would rather see Ben Ali return to Tunisia to serve time in prison than further time in the presidency.</p><p>The lack of youth nostalgia for the deposed dictator is not an indication of faith in the current political establishment, nor of optimism for the future of the country: a recent Nawaat article raised the question of whether it was even worth voting. The glut of unemployed recent college graduates was a major cause of the revolution, and little has been done to release that pressure over the past five years. The youth unemployment rate is estimated to hover around 30%, or twice the national average.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/people/ethan-mefford">Ethan Mefford</a></span></p><p class="caption">Tunisians socialize by the Zaytuna Mosque in Tunis.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"They are all the same," Osama, a 20-year old business major said of the parties involved in the governing coalition, though the coalition headed by the secular Nidaa Tounes includes the Islamist Ennahda party. Osama plans to spend a year studying in Moscow "to let things settle down," but he does not anticipate improvement in the economic situation and believes that his future may lie in France. "Under Ben Ali, at least there was security," Osama added, though he acknowledged that things could never return to how they were.</p><p>"In 2011, it was revealed that the emperor had no clothes," observed Youssef Seddik, an esteemed Tunisian philosopher and anthropologist in "7 Vies." Ben Ali's feared security apparatus, which reportedly comprised some 150,000 agents in a country of just under 11 million, was said to have infiltrated every neighborhood but was revealed to be a paper tiger in the face of overwhelming popular anger. When army chief General Rachid Ammar refused to commit his soldiers to crushing the popular uprising in mid-January 2011, Ben Ali had nowhere left to turn. For a man whose name was synonymous with the security apparatus, the revelation that his prize creation was ineffectual should have dealt a death blow to his prestige.</p><p>And it has, in a sense. The longing that many Tunisians express for the security and stability of the Ben Ali era is notional, nostalgia for a simpler bygone era rather than a true desire to see him reinstalled. Few Tunisians believe that Ben Ali, toppled by unarmed youth, could actually smother the well-armed Islamist insurgency that pesters the country's security forces in the mountainous and desert reaches of the south and east of the country and occasionally lands dramatic urban blows - the attacks on the Bardo Museum and the beach resort at Sousse and the bombing of the Presidential Guard bus last December in the heart of Tunis. "Ben Ali could not put the security problems back in the box," Osama concluded ruefully.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/people/ethan-mefford">Ethan Mefford</a></span></p><p class="caption">Graffiti proclaims: "The leaders and our country, we rule them."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>At the root of Tunisia's insecurity is the chaos in neighboring Libya. Tunisian extremists easily cross the border to gain training and combat experience in the militia and ISIS-infested melee. At 285 miles long, securing the border against the importation of arms and explosives is a Sisyphean task for Tunisia's overstretched security forces. The government has begun to erect a fence that will eventually stretch from the coast 100 miles inland, but smuggling across the border via official border crossings is an essential economic activity in southern Tunisia, and weapons have found their way into the steady stream of goods.</p><p>Troubles across the region stemming from the Arab Spring also weigh heavily on the collective conscience of Tunisia, the birthplace of the uprisings. There is a remarkable lack of triumphalism among Tunisians regarding the moment that this small country acted as the fulcrum for the entire Arab world.</p><p>"We feel sorry for what other countries have suffered," lamented Sihem, an architect in her thirties. Educated Tunisians are acutely aware that their country enjoyed significant advantages over its regional counterparts that made the compromises critical to its foray into democracy possible. The religiously homogeneous population (Tunisians are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim) is enriched by an active and broad-based civil society, and the army has a tradition of professionalism and political quiescence. The lack of one or more of these conditions has led to the failed revolutions and bloodshed that have marred Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/people/ethan-mefford">Ethan Mefford</a></span></p><p class="caption">The view is magnificent above a Berber village 45 miles south of Tunis.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>It is this striking degree of national self-awareness and maturity that fosters optimism for Tunisia's future. The mutterings of nostalgia for Ben Ali are fueled by immediate concerns over security and the economy, and while these issues will remain intractable in the near-term, there is a general recognition among Tunisians that the only path through the difficulties leads forward.</p><p>The democratic path is, however, beset by challenges from across the political spectrum. Short of the violent danger posed by Islamic extremists, secular Tunisians read into Ennahda's willingness to subordinate itself to Nidaa Tounes in the current governing coalition an underhanded plan to dominate the next elections at the expense of the discredited secular parties, ushering in an Islamist political hegemon that may sooner or later reject the constraints of democracy. Ennahda, for its part, has reason to perceive in the nostalgia for Ben Ali a willingness among secular Tunisians to forgo civil liberties in exchange for a crackdown on Islamists, extreme and moderate alike, of the kind that Ben Ali launched in response to Islamist agitations at the time of the Gulf War.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Countervailing these corrosive suspicions is an awareness among Tunisians of what is at stake. As they look around the region, they see spoiled hopes and scarring violence. It is this perspective that paved the way for the crucial compromise that defined the 2014 constitution: Sharia was not mentioned as a source of legislation for the country, while Article One declared Tunisia's religion to be Islam. It is also this perspective that can keep the country united and moving forward.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabias-makes-worlds-tallest-building-jeddah-tower-2015-12">Saudi Arabia is building the world's tallest building - nearly twice the height of One World Trade Center</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="hpMzk5eTqH8pMBYUZmkTsINysHQBeDL0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Tunisia is learning the hard way that democracy isn't easy

I watched Egypt's bloody struggle for democracy that began in Tahrir Square 10 years ago today. Here's my diary of 18 days that shook the world.

<p>The siege of Tunisia's Bardo Museum is over. Terrorists in military uniform <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/world/africa/gunmen-attack-tunis-bardo-national-museum.html?smid=tw-share">took over the museum in downtown Tunis</a>, killing 9 people and taking hostages. Two terrorists and a security officer were killed in the mayhem, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/03/18/reports-shots-tunisia-parliament/24948295/">but the situation has reportedly been stabilized</a>. </p><p>The museum holds one of the world's greatest collections of Roman and Byzantine mosaics, a treasure trove that evokes Tunisia's centrality to the history of imperial Rome. It was after the Roman defeat of Carthage in 149 BC that Rome really became an empire, attempting to project power and erase all memory of their north African enemies by building roads, palaces, cities, <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/38">and even stadiums</a> that survive in Tunisia to this day.</p><p>Tunis is a harmony of Arab and French influences, a multilingual city with broad, Parisian-style avenues leading to a walled ancient center. The country's cosmopolitan legacy might help explain why its post-Arab Spring transition to democracy has gone relatively smoothly, weathering a potentially hazardous constitutional re-write and multiple changes in power since longstanding dictator Zine Abidine ben Ali fled the country among protests in early 2011.</p><p>Like Egypt, Tunisia elected an Islamist-controlled parliament in its first post-Arab Spring vote; unlike Egypt, that government left power through a subsequent election rather than at gunpoint.</p><p>But this might also explain why Tunisia's been one of the world's biggest exporters of jihadists to Iraq and Syria. Over 3,000 Tunisians have traveled to the battlefield <a href="http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2015/01/27/more-than-20000-foreign-fighters-have-joined-isis/">according to the Washington Post</a>, the most of any other country. This is especially incredible considering Tunisia only has a population of 11 million.</p><p>Conservative resentment of the country's democratic turn - along with economic stagnation and frustration at the lack of a clear post-Arab Spring dividend - might explain the Jihadist exodus. Tunisia also has a nagging domestic jihadism problem, with occasional <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2013/08/tunisia-algeria-terrorist-acts-border.html">battles between security forces and extremist fighters</a> in the country's Jebel Chambi region.</p><p>Today's attack at the Bardo is a sign that there are actors within the country who violently resent Tunisia's unique history, along with its special place within the post-Arab Spring Middle East. </p><p>Here are some photos I took at the Bardo museum during a reporting trip in April of 2012.  Tunis is still one of the world's great cities. And despite today's atrocity, no visit would be complete without a stop at the Bardo.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/going-clear-sundance-premiere-scientology-bombshells-2015-1">6 Crazy Things Revealed In HBO's Explosive New Scientology Documentary 'Going Clear'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o5dzJpczpndV8YG9M7cnoa3JXgQXBqja" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Terrorists in Tunisia attacked one of the world's greatest collections of Roman art

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>The Syrian civil war is <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/03/syria-enters-year-bloody-civil-conflict-150315063900644.html">an unstoppable cataclysm</a> that's killed nearly a quarter-million people and displaced around ten million more.</p><p>It's destroyed Syria's existence as a single national entity. It's deepened Iran's strategic takeover of the northern Levant and created the safe haven in the country's desert east that led to ISIS's rise. At various points the violence has spilled into Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, and Turkey.</p><p>It's the contemporary Middle East's defining event, and one of the deadliest wars of the 21st century.</p><p>But Syria and the surrounding region were a far different place on March 16, 2011, when Reuters' Beirut bureau <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/15/AR2011031504576.html">filed a brief report headlined</a> "Rare political protest held in Syria, witnesses say."</p><p>On January 14, 2011, popular protests had unseated Tunisian dictator Zine el Abdin ben Ali, who ruled the country since 1989. Less than a month later, on <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> February 11, Hosni Mubarak's three decades in power in Egypt came to a rapid and dramatic close after less than a month of popular protest.</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> On March 17, the UN Security Council <a href="http://www.un.org/press/en/2011/sc10200.doc.htm">voted to authorize military action</a> to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone in Libya, a decision that led to Muammar Gaddafi's ouster the following August.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The day of that Reuters report, it seemed like just about anything was possible in the Middle East - even in Syria, where the Assad regime maintained one of the region's strictest police states. But it's still jarring to go back and read that first report in light of what actually <em>did</em> end up happening: a war that's engulfed much of the region and somehow continues to get worse.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"About 40 people joined a protest in Syria on Tuesday, chanting political slogans, witnesses said, in the first challenge to the ruling Baath Party since civil unrest swept across the Arab world," <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/15/AR2011031504576.html">the report begins</a>, before ominously noting that "<span>Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father 11 years ago, has said there is no chance the political upheaval shaking the Arab Middle East will spread to Syria."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>The protestors worked their way through a marketplace in the Old City section of Damascus, and the article states that "</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">A YouTube video showed a few dozen people marching after noon prayer near the Umayyad Mosque, clapping and chanting, 'God, Syria, freedom - that's enough,'" a subversive take on a regime-promoted slogan.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">What happened next is a study in authoritarian survivalism, as Assad went about protecting himself from ben Ali and Mubarak's fate and tried his best to prove that their country simply couldn't exist without the regime remaining in power.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Protests quickly spread, with 10,000 people reportedly attending a protest in Daraa on March 19th. The regime began deploying snipers and plain-clothes security officers to break up the protests - which only encouraged more protest. <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/syria-timeline-96270.html">Over 3,500 activists had been killed by November</a>, and by the end of the year Syria was an incipient state of civil war.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The US and Assad ally Russia <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/03/2012327153111767387.html">supported a peace plan in March of 2012</a> that effectively called on the opposition to lay down its arms. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">With Assad refusing to consider stepping down and the <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> community doing little to affect his ouster, the country was soon split between regime and rebel-held spheres of control, without an obvious political solution that either side could accept. Iranian and Shi'ite militant backing for the Assad regime throughout 2012 ensured that the conflict would take on a regional and sectarian character, something that attracted both Shi'ite and Sunni foreign fighters to the battlefield.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Today, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-syrian-revolution-is-over--heres-what-comes-next-2015-3">the Assad regime survives</a> - but mostly within an urban and coastal enclave created at an almost unfathomable human cost. For now, ISIS and Iran appear to be the war's big winners.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">None of that was a certainty four years ago. The closing lines of Reuters' report on one of the first protests of the Syrian uprising are a reminder of how rapidly the situation spiraled out of control - and of the possible world-shaking crises lurking beneath even the most seemingly peripheral global events.</span></p><p>"'The date is [March] 15. . . . This is the first obvious uprising against the Syrian regime. . . . Alawite or Sunni, all kinds of Syrians, we want to bring down the regime,'" Reuters reported, describing a YouTube video of the March. <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"There was no reaction from the Syrian government." </span></p><p>Here's video of the protest:</p><p></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/going-clear-sundance-premiere-scientology-bombshells-2015-1">6 Crazy Things Revealed In HBO's Explosive New Scientology Documentary 'Going Clear'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o5dzJpczpndV8YG9M7cnoa3JXgQXBqja" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "Zine El Abidine Ben Ali" and got 11 results

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At least 100 drowned off Tunisian coast in deadliest migrant disaster this year

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An attack that killed 30 people at the Tunisia-Libya border is the latest sign of a growing problem in the region

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Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet has won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize

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Arab Spring: 5 years and counting...

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Tunisia is learning the hard way that democracy isn't easy

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I watched Egypt's bloody struggle for democracy that began in Tahrir Square 10 years ago today. Here's my diary of 18 days that shook the world.

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Terrorists in Tunisia attacked one of the world's greatest collections of Roman art

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This 4-year-old report shows how badly Syria spiraled out of control

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