These days mark the anniversary of the outbreak of the Arabic revolutions that occurred on January and February of 2011 in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Syria. The series of revolutions was initiated in Tunisia by Mohammed Bouaziz, the man who set himself on fire in protest of the confiscation of his wares, harassment, and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by higher officials.
The Tunisian people decided not to let this offense pass without revenge. The overall result was that was the demise of several Arabic dictators.
After the Tunisian president, Ben Ali, escaped to Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian people couldn’t stand the humiliation and the corruption levied by the president Hosney Mubarak. Ten million people protested in the squares of freedom to achieve the demands of the revolution. The Egyptian revolution was the greatest, the strongest, and the most successful compared to others. Egypt contains many ideological groups; both religious and secular. The religious groups are divided into many different subgroups including the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists, Safis, and Coptic Christians. They’re all in Non-consensual states with each other and especially with the secularists groups. However; they put their differences away, and they gathered themselves in order to bring down Muabaraks corrupt regime. They never tired or became bored until they achieved their main goal together.
In Libya, the people tried to do a peaceful revolution similar to the revolution in Tunisia and Egypt. However, the people there couldn’t gather themselves; Libyans were torn in supporting the revolutionists or the preexisting government. This division imposed the rebels to choose the way of an armed revolution in order to bring down the regime of Al-Gaddafi and his backers. With the massive support from NATO’s airforce, the revolution triumphed in the end.
In Yemen, the people followed the initial stages of the Tunisian revolution which 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 corruption. Over the days, however, differences began floating to the surface between the Yemeni people, which led to demise of Ali Saleh and half of his regime.
The situation is Syria is far more complicated and gruesome. The Syrian people have the right to demonstrate for their demands. Unfortunately, the Syrian government is similar to other authoritarian regimes present Arabic countries. In Syria, the people suffered from unemployment, corruption, and humiliation. However, the biggest mistake they made was allowing their enemies to interfere with their affairs, which led to a conflict of interest between a variety of nations. This caused the revolution to turn into more of a civil war. Subsequently, the Syrian revolution hasn’t succeeded in anything yet, except destruction.
The Arabic people expect from the coming leaders to gurantee fundamental human rights. Also, the new leaders must purify the state institutions from corruption and unemployment. They must achieve the goals of the revolution as to avoid the fate of former leaders.