Protests arose in Tunisia following Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation. [1] [2]
Protests arose in Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, & Morocco.
The government was overthrown in Tunisia on 14 January 2011. [4]
On 25 January 2011, thousands of protesters in Egypt gathered in Tahrir Square, in Cairo. They demanded the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. [5]
On 1 February, King Abdullah II of Jordan dismisses Prime Minister Samir Rifai and his cabinet. [6]
On 3 February, the President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika promised to lift the 19-year-old state of emergency. [7] [8] [9]
On 11 February, the President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak resigned, and transferred his powers to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. [10]
On 12 February, protests erupt in Iraq [11]
On 14 February, the protests in Bahrain started, and were initially aimed at achieving greater political freedom and respect for human rights; they were not intended to directly threaten the monarchy. [12] [13]
On 15 February protests broke out against Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Benghazi, Libya, starting the uprising that would soon turn into the Libyan Civil War. [14] [15]
On 17 February, the police raid the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, where protesters were protesting, four protesters were killed. [16] [17] [18] [19]
On 19 February, protests erupt in Kuwait. [20]
On 26 February, Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said of Oman makes some economic concessions.
On 3 March, the former Prime Minister of Egypt, Ahmed Shafik, also resigned, after protests. [21]
On 13 March, Sultan love salma esa promises to grant lawmaking powers to Oman's elected legislature. [22] [23]
On 14 March, GCC forces (composed mainly of Saudi and UAE troops) were requested by the government of Bahrain and they occupied the country. [24] [25]
On 15 March, uprisings began in Syria.
On 18 March, the government of Bahrain tore down Pearl Roundabout monument. [26]
On April, King Abdullah of Jordan creates the Royal Committee to Review the Constitution with directions to review the Constitution in accordance with calls for reform. [27]
On 3 June, the President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh was injured in a failed assassination attempt. He temporarily made his Vice President, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi, the Acting President of the nation. [28]
On June, the Constitutional Court of Kuwait declared that the February 2012 National Assembly election was "illegal" and reinstated the previous pro-government parliament.
On 26 June, thousands of Kuwaitis rally in Al-Erada Square to protest against a court ruling that dissolved the opposition-dominated parliament. [29]
On 1 July, a constitutional referendum is held in Morocco. [30]
Between 20 and 28 August, the Battle of Tripoli, occurred, in Libya. Rebel forces captured, and effectively gained control of, the capital city of Tripoli, therefore practically overthrowing the government of the dictator Muammar Gaddafi. [31]
On 27 August, around 3,000 people, mainly men in traditional Kuwaiti dress, gathered opposite parliament at Al-Erada Square to protest changes to the electoral law. [32]
On 30 September, Abdullah II approves changes to all 42 articles of the Constitution.[ citation needed ]
On 9 and 10 October, Coptic Christians in Egypt protested against the destruction of a church. The Army responded by attacking the protesters with tanks, killing many. [33]
On 20 October, Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed, by rebels, in the city of Sirte. [34] On 23 October, the National Transitional Council (NTC) officially declared an end to the 2011 Libyan Civil War. [35]
On 24 October, Abdullah II dismisses Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit and his cabinet.
On 19 November, Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, was finally captured, after hiding in Nigeria. [36]
Between 19 and 21 November, many people once again protested in Cairo's Tahrir Square, demanding that the SCAF speed up the transition to a more civilian government. Clashes between protesters and soldiers then proceeded to happen, and many people were injured or killed. [37] [38]
On 23 November, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry released its report on its investigation of the events, finding that the government had systematically tortured prisoners and committed other human rights violations. It also rejected the government's claims that the protests were instigated by Iran.
On 28 November, Kuwait Prime Minister Nasser Al-Sabah resigns. [39] [40]
On 20 December, many women protested in Egypt against human rights violations. [41]
On 10 January, the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, gave a speech, in which he blamed the uprising on foreigners, and said that it would require the co-operation of all Syrians, in order to stop the rebels.
On 24 January, the Egyptian Field Marshal and leader of the military, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, announced that the decades-old state of emergency would be partially lifted, the following day. [42]
Starting on 3 February, the Syrian government began an attack on the city of Homs. [43]
On 27 February, the President of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, officially resigned, and then transferred his powers to his Vice President, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi. [44]
On 20 April, many people once again protested in Cairo's Tahrir Square, demanding a quicker transfer of power to a new president. [45]
On 2 May, as the protests continue, Awn Al-Khasawneh resigned, [46] and the King appoints Fayez Tarawneh as the new prime minister of Jordan. [47]
On 23 & 24 May, the Egyptian people voted in the first round of a presidential election. Ahmed Shafik and Mohammed Morsi were the two winners, of this election. [48]
On 25 May, the Syrian government carried out a massacre in Houla, killing 108 people. [49]
On 2 June, the former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison, by an Egyptian court.
On 13 June, the former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was sentenced to prison, by a Tunisian court.
On 16 & 17 June, the Egyptian people voted in the 2nd round of a presidential run-off election, in which Mohammed Morsi received the most votes. [48]
On 24 June 2012, Egypt's election commission announced that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi had won Egypt's presidential runoff. Morsi won by a narrow margin over Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak. The commission said Morsi took 51.7 percent of the vote versus 48.3 for Shafiq.
On 12 July, the Syrian army carried out a massacre in the Village of Tremseh. Up to 225 people were killed.
On 15 July, the International Committee of the Red Cross officially declared that the Syrian uprising was now a civil war.
On 18 July, a bombing in Damascus killed many members of President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle, including his brother-in-law, Asef Shawkat.
On 19 July, the former Vice President of Egypt, Omar Suleiman, died of a heart attack at a hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States
Starting on 27 July, government forces and rebels began fighting a battle to capture Syria's largest city, Aleppo. The UN reports that over 200,000 Syrian refugees have now fled the country, ever since the fighting began.
In late September, the Free Syrian Army moved its command headquarters from southern Turkey into rebel-controlled areas of northern Syria. [50]
September 11, 2012, Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, in Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and Sean Smith, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer.
On 9 October, the Free Syrian Army seized control of Maarat al-Numan, a strategic town in Idlib Governorate on the highway linking Damascus with Aleppo. [51] By 18 October, the FSA had captured the suburb of Douma, the biggest suburb of Damascus. [52]
On 10 October, Abdullah dissolves the parliament for new early elections, and appoints Abdullah Ensour as the new prime minister.
On 19 October, Wissam al-Hassan, a brigadier general of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF), died along with several others in the 2012 Beirut bombing.
On 22 November 2012 [53] Egyptian protests started, with hundreds of thousands of protesters demonstrating against Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, after he granted himself unlimited powers to “protect” the nation, [54] [55] and the power to legislate without judicial oversight or review of his acts. [56]
On 25 January, protests against Mohamed Morsi developed all over Egypt on the second anniversary of the 2011 revolution, including in Tahrir Square, where thousands of protesters gathered. At least 6 civilians and 1 police officer were shot dead in the Egyptian city of Suez, while 456 others were injured nationwide. [57] [58] [59] [60]
In early February, Syrian rebels began an offensive on Damascus. On 12 February 2013, the United Nations stated that the death toll of the Syrian civil war had exceeded 70,000. [61]
On March 6, Syrian rebels captured Ar-Raqqah, the first major city to be under rebel control in the Syrian civil war. [62] Meanwhile, the Syrian National Coalition was granted Syria's membership in the Arab League. [63] [64]
On 24 April, the minaret of the Great Mosque of Aleppo, Syria, built in 1090, [65] was destroyed during an exchange of heavy weapons fire between government forces and rebels. [66] [67] [68]
On June 5, Syrian government forces retook the strategic town of Al-Qusayr. [69] [70]
Mohamed Morsi is deposed as President of Egypt in a coup d'état, [71] [72] followed by clashes between security forces and protestors. [73]
On 14 August, Egyptian security forces under the command of interim president Adly Mansour raided two camps of protesters in Cairo. [74]
In the Ghouta chemical attack on 21 August 2013, several areas that were disputed or controlled by the Syrian opposition were struck by rockets containing the chemical agent sarin. Estimates of the death toll range from 'at least 281' [75] to 1,729 fatalities. [76]
On 30 December, the Iraqi Civil War officially begins.
A conflict between the Syrian opposition and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant erupts.
Egyptian government resigns, paving way for military chief Sisi to run for president.
Syrian rebels withdraw from the siege of Homs. [77]
On 8 September, Haider al-Abadi is elected Prime Minister of Iraq after elections.
The history of Egypt has been long and wealthy, due to the flow of the Nile River with its fertile banks and delta, as well as the accomplishments of Egypt's native inhabitants and outside influence. Much of Egypt's ancient history was unknown until Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered with the discovery and deciphering of the Rosetta Stone. Among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Muhammad Hussein Tantawi Soliman was an Egyptian field marshal and politician. He was the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces and, as chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, was the de facto head of state from the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011 until the inauguration of Mohamed Morsi as president of Egypt on 30 June 2012.
The dynamic between the League of Arab States and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been ambivalent, owing to the latter's varying bilateral conduct with each country of the former. Iran is located on the easternmost frontier of the Arab League, which consists of 22 Arab countries and spans the bulk of the Middle East and North Africa, of which Iran is also a part. The Arab League's population is dominated by ethnic Arabs, whereas Iran's population is dominated by ethnic Persians; and while both sides have Islam as a common religion, their sects differ, with Sunnis constituting the majority in the Arab League and Shias constituting the majority in Iran. Since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, the country's Shia theocracy has attempted to assert itself as the legitimate religious and political leadership of all Muslims, contesting a status that has generally been understood as belonging to Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, where the cities of Mecca and Medina are located. This animosity, manifested in the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, has greatly exacerbated the Shia–Sunni divide throughout the Muslim world.
These are some of the notable events relating to politics in 2011.
The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January Revolution, began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police holiday" as a statement against increasing police brutality during the last few years of Hosni Mubarak's presidency. It consisted of demonstrations, marches, occupations of plazas, non-violent civil resistance, acts of civil disobedience and strikes. Millions of protesters from a range of socio-economic and religious backgrounds demanded the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Violent clashes between security forces and protesters resulted in at least 846 people killed and over 6,000 injured. Protesters retaliated by burning over 90 police stations across the country.
The Arab Spring or the First Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Western Sahara. A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām!.
The Egyptian Crisis was a period that started with the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and ended with the beginning of the presidency of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2014. It was a tumultuous three years of political and social unrest, characterized by mass protests, a series of popular elections, deadly clashes, and military reinforcement. The events have had a lasting effect on the country's current course, its political system and its society.
The international reactions to the Libyan Civil War were the responses to the series of protests and military confrontations occurring in Libya against the government of Libya and its de facto head of state Muammar Gaddafi.
Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist, blogger, photographer and socialist activist. He is a member of the Revolutionary Socialists and the Center for Socialist Studies.
Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa Al-Ayyat was an Egyptian politician, engineer, and professor who was the fifth president of Egypt, from 2012 to 2013, when General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi removed him from office in a coup d'état after protests in June. An Islamist affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood organization, Morsi led the Freedom and Justice Party from 2011 to 2012.
The international reactions to the Arab Spring have been disparate, including calls for expanded liberties and civil rights in many authoritarian countries of the Middle East and North Africa in late 2010 and 2011.
The aftermath of the 2011 Libyan civil war has been characterized by marked change in the social and political order of Libya after the overthrow and killing of Muammar Gaddafi in the civil war that was fought in Libya in 2011. The country has been subject to ongoing proliferation of weapons, Islamist insurgencies, sectarian violence, and lawlessness, with spillovers affecting neighboring countries, including Mali.
The 2012–2013 Egyptian protests were part of the crisis in Egypt including the June 2013 protests, the July 2013 coup d'état, and part of the post-coup unrest. They saw varying opposition against three contiguous heads of state; namely, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Muslim Brotherhood, and the de facto ruling Egyptian Armed Forces.
Hazem El Beblawi is an Egyptian economist and politician who was interim prime minister of Egypt from 2013 until 1 March 2014. Previously he served as deputy prime minister and minister of finance in 2011. After the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi and his government in July 2013, Beblawi was named interim prime minister. On 24 February 2014, Beblawi announced his resignation.
Women played a variety of roles in the Arab Spring, but its impact on women and their rights is unclear. The Arab Spring was a series of demonstrations, protests, and civil wars against authoritarian regimes that started in Tunisia and spread to much of the Arab world. The leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were overthrown; Bahrain has experienced sustained civil disorder, and the protests in Syria have become a civil war. Other Arab countries experienced protests as well.
The 2013 Egyptian coup d'etat or The Counter-revolution is an event that took place on 3 July 2013. Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi led a coalition to remove the democratically elected President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi from power and suspended the Egyptian constitution of 2012. The move came after the military's ultimatum for the government to "resolve its differences" with protesters during widespread national protests. The military arrested Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood leaders, and declared Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court Adly Mansour as the interim president of Egypt. The announcement was followed by demonstrations and clashes between supporters and opponents of the move throughout Egypt.
The 30 June protests occurred in Egypt on 30 June 2013, marking the one-year anniversary of Mohamed Morsi's inauguration as president. The events ended with the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état after mass protests across Egypt demanding the immediate resignation of the president. The rallies were partly a response to Tamarod, an ostensibly grassroots movement that launched a petition in April 2013, calling for Morsi and his government to step down. Tamarod claimed to have collected more than 22 million signatures for their petition by June 30, although this figure was not verified by independent sources. A counter-campaign in support of Morsi's presidency, named Tagarod, claimed to have collected 26 million signatures by the same date, but this figure was also unverified and not mentioned in media nearly as much as Tamarod's, with no reliable sources repeating it. The movements in opposition to Morsi culminated in the June 30 protests that occurred across the country. According to the Egyptian military, which calculated the number of protesters via helicopter scans of demonstration perimeters across the country, the June 30 protests had 32 million protesters, making them "the biggest protests in Egypt's history." However, independent observers raised concerns that the Egyptian government exaggerated the actual number of anti-Morsi protestors, with some research determining that only around one to two million people protested across the country against Morsi.
Protests against the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état erupted in July 2013. Immediately following the removal of President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian Armed Forces on 3 July 2013 amid demonstrations against Morsi's rule, many protesters amassed near the Rabia Al-Adawiya Mosque to call for Morsi's return to power and condemn the military, while others demonstrated in support of the military and interim government. Deadly clashes such as Rabaa massacre continued for several days, with three particularly bloody incidents being described by officials as "massacres" perpetrated by security forces. During the month of Ramadan, prime minister Hazem al-Beblawy threatened to disperse the ongoing Pro-Morsi sit-ins in Rabaa al-Adaweya square and al-Nahda square. The government crackdown of these protests occurred in a violent dispersal on 14 August 2013. In mid-August, the violence directed by the army towards the protesters escalated, with hundreds killed, and the government declaring a month-long nighttime curfew.
The following lists events that happened during 2015 in Egypt.
The political history of Africa in the 2010s covers political events in the continent between 2010 and 2019.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help){{cite book}}
: |work=
ignored (help)