Arab Spring

About Tunisia-

• Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is the northernmost country in Africa. 
• It is a part of the Maghreb region of North Africa, and is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east.
• Tunisia is situated on the Mediterranean coast of Northwest Africa, midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Nile Delta. 

• Though it is relatively small in size, Tunisia has great environmental diversity due to its north–south extent. Its east–west extent is limited. 
• Differences in Tunisia, like the rest of the Maghreb, are largely north–south environmental differences defined by sharply decreasing rainfall southward from any point. 
• The Dorsal, the eastern extension of the Atlas Mountains, runs across Tunisia in a northeasterly direction from the Algerian border in the west to the Cape Bon peninsula in the east. 
• North of the Dorsal is the Tell, a region characterized by low, rolling hills and plains, again an extension of mountains to the west in Algeria. 
• In the Khroumerie, the northwestern corner of the Tunisian Tell, elevations reach 1,050 metres (3,440 ft) and snow occurs in winter.
• The Sahel, a broadening coastal plain along Tunisia’s eastern Mediterranean coast, is among the world’s premier areas of olive cultivation. 
• Inland from the Sahel, between the Dorsal and a range of hills south of Gafsa, are the Steppes. Much of the southern region is semi-arid and desert.
• Tunisia is situated in the warm temperate zone between latitudes 37° and 30° N.
• In the north the climate is Mediterranean, characterized by mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers with no marked intervening seasons. 
• This changes southward to semiarid conditions on the steppes and to desert in the far south. 
• Saharan influences give rise to the sirocco, a seasonal hot, blasting wind from the south that can have a serious drying effect on vegetation.
• It contains the eastern end of the Atlas Mountains and the northern reaches of the Sahara desert, with much of its remaining territory being arable land. 
• Its coastline includes the African conjunction of the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Basin. 
• Tunisia is home to Africa’s northernmost point, Cape Angela; and its capital and largest city is Tunis, located on its northeastern coast, which lends the country its name.
• The city of Tunis is built on a hill slope down to the lake of Tunis. 
• The city is located at the crossroads of a narrow strip of land between Lake Tunis and Séjoumi.

• The population of Tunisia is essentially Arab Berber. 

• However, throughout the centuries Tunisia has received various waves of immigration that have included Phoenicians, sub-Saharan Africans, Jews, Romans, Vandals, and Arabs.
• Arabic is the official language, and most natives speak a dialect of Tunisian Arabic.
• In 2011, the Tunisian Revolution, triggered by the lack of freedom and democracy under the 24-year rule of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, overthrew his regime and catalysed the broader Arab Spring across the region.
• Free multiparty parliamentary elections were held shortly after; the country again voted for parliament on 26 October 2014,
• Tunisia remains a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic; and is the only North African country classified as “Free” by Freedom House.
• From 2014 to 2020, it was considered the only democratic state in the Arab World, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index  and was rated a hybrid regime in the 2021 Index.
• Tunisia is well integrated into the international community. It is a member of the United Nations, La Francophonie, the Arab League, the OIC, the African Union, the COMESA, the Non-Aligned Movement, the International Criminal Court, and the Group of 77, among others.