Tunisia is the country where the first of the revolutions dubbed the Arab Spring started in 2011. The date of the revolution is considered as Jan. 14, 2011, the day Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was running the country with an iron fist for 23 years, and his wife – who was his partner in dictatorship as well – left the country and took shelter in Saudi Arabia. We are in Tunisia, one day after the eighth anniversary of this event.
Tunisia is the first country where the revolution took place; it is, in a sense, the country that shortly exported its revolution to other Arab countries, but after some time, all the revolutions it exported have currently been put on hold with the coups organized and financed especially by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). For now, we only say “on hold,” because it is clear that this state contradicts the sociology, reality and future of communities. The longer the flow of revolution is stopped, the greater the impact that will destroy them. Because it is impossible to stave off history, sociology, the world’s realities, and communities’ demands any longer.
Despite having faced numerous attempts at counter-revolution, Tunisia continued on its path and realized a revolution by putting forth a model specific to itself. Every tool and means was used in the attempts to sink the revolution in Tunisia. Steps were taken to leave Tunisia economically in a dire strait and render it instable. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which gave their full support to Ben Ali, largely stopped their previous investments.
Thus, they created the image that the end of those who embarked on this democratic journey would eventually face assured disappointment. By proving to those who tried to act independently that they cannot go it alone, that they cannot stand on their own feet, they tried to teach them a lesson. A tyrant and contented gentlemanly behavior stands out in all ugliness in this expectation.
When this was no good, they played the terror card. In 2013, two opposition leaders were assassinated along in two unsolved murders. We know very well what such murders mean. Even though it was revealed that the murderers were terrorists along the Daesh line, it was used as an irrelevant element of pressure on the Nahda movement – and continues to be used as such. Yet, Nahda has no priority other than establishing a democracy and achieving stability in the country.
Whereas the sole target of this using of terror is democracy and stability. It is paving the way to lose what was gained after the revolution through a coup. Similar to Egypt and Syria, the instruments used by counter-putschists against Arab revolutions is the same strange composition: radical organizations like Daesh that claim they are Salafists, liberals, and leftists. Of course, they all serve a different function, but they are all different stripes of the same coup.
However, when the mass demonstrations that used this as an excuse were provoked by the hand of leftist unions to achieve the same result immediately after the coup in Egypt, with a great show of strength, Nahda gave the world a spectacular message in a quiet and calm manner by gathering a crowd multiple times bigger than those gathered by all left-wing organizations in the streets:
"We exported revolution to our neighbors [Egypt], and we have no intention of importing a coup from them."
After that day, nobody used the street demonstrations card against Nahda. Frankly, the political process that strengthened the revolution in Tunisia and developed democracy progressed largely thanks to the Nahda movement's wise leader Rached Ghannouchi's prudent, self-sacrificing and pro-dialogue attitude. At every stage the dialogue went into deadlock, if necessary, he made concessions - in his own name or in the name of the movement. This allowed to make a constitution on which all parties reached consensus, hold a referendum, two general elections and two presidential elections. Also in last April, Tunisia held its first local elections in history. It was only in the 2014 elections that Nahda fell a little behind Nida Tunis, an alliance party established with the joining of many parties, and came second; in all elections other than that, Nahda has been the party to take the elections.
Despite garnering close to 28 percent of the vote in the local elections, it won the right to administrate the municipalities of all metropolitan cities. While Tunisia, which is currently under a very serious local administrative attack, is experiencing the fine details of democracy with its Nahda, Nida Tunis and other parties, as a people, they are going through the pleasant experience of determining the country's fate. Toward the end of this year, the presidential and parliamentary elections are going to be held together. As Tunisians believe countries that are able to hold three parliament elections successfully one after the other are included among the democratic country class, they are placing greater emphasis on these elections.
While Tunisia commemorates the eighth anniversary of the revolution, the discussion was that left-wing unions would be holding a general strike against the government three days later with the excuse of demanding a pay hike for employees. The statements made by strike spokespersons also included the threat that if their demands are not met, they would widen the scope of the demonstrations. Everybody in Tunisia knows that the real aim is not the increase in employee wages, and that there is no claim in favor of employees. It is very clear that the aim is to collapse the government and an attempt at a new coup. Hence, when it was time for the strike, it was seen that the public did not show much interest in the strike. Even though the people saw that the government was not able to put up a very impressive performance in solving the economic problems post-revolution, they now know that they were the ones who brought the government, and they have the confidence that if they want, they can send them away through elections and bring the government they want to power.
The public have the will, and there is an adequate level of awareness with respect to who or what leftist unions serve. This awareness does not allow anybody to steal the revolution they won with a myriad of troubles through putschist conspiracies. At the end of the eight years, Tunisia has largely further strengthened its own revolution thanks to Ghannouchi's wise administration. Ghannouchi's political style has set an example that can be the subject of master's dissertations and studies - there are already many suche studies being made.
Tunisia has grave economic problems. But all of these problems can be overcome with the same prudent approaches and with a little time. It is a country that has great potential. These days there are efforts in relation to promoting this potential for foreign or local investments by providing economic facilitations. The packages prepared by the Development and Investment ministries offer very attractive opportunities for foreign investors. You heard it here first…
