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Mohamed Bouazizi and the Arab Spring Uğur Pektaş

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Mohamed Bouazizi and the Arab Spring Uğur Pektaş Mohamed Bouazizi And The Arab Spring Uğur Pektaş The popular protests that started with the self-immolation of a young vendor in Tunisia on December 17, 2010, and soon spread to many countries in North Africa and the Middle East were described as the Arab Spring. Due to the protests, dictators such as Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who somehow managed to stay in power for many years left the political scene unwillingly. The social, economic and political developments that led to the Arab Spring can be traced back to the colonial past of the countries where the revolutions took place. However, in this study, it will be dealt with the story of the straw that broke the camel’s back and how the spark of protest that caused the great fires emerged. It can be said that Mohamed Bouazizi, who sparked the fire of rebellion, influenced the people who participated in the protests so much that they could form an identity between him and their own situation. Ordinary people in many countries living under pressure from authoritarian regimes were experiencing the problems that led Mohamed to burn himself. That's why it's not so hard for them to empathize with Mohamed. The story of Mohamed is also important because it describes the situation of both Tunisia and other countries where the Arab Spring took place during that period. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who seized power in Tunisia with a coup in 1987, turned Tunisia virtually into a family farm. Corruption, unemployment and nepotism have become increasingly common throughout the country. The civil opposition, on the other hand, has been crushed and channels through which the public can express their complaints have been blocked. Ben Ali based his administration, which ignored and oppressed these people in Tunisia, mainly on the support of France outside. This is typical of one-man regimes in the Middle East that rely almost only on outside forces. Mohamed, who was trying to provide for his family in such an environment, applied for jobs in many places but could not find a job. Mohamed, who graduated from high school, was compelled to vend. But he wasn't allowed to do it. To be a peddler, he must get official permission. However, he has no money to give to get this permission. Since he was the only person in his family who could earn a living, he continued to be a peddler “without permission”. Mohamed has experienced the difficulties faced by a typical peddler. He woke up every day in the middle of the night to buy vegetables and fruits from the wholesale market with a three-wheeled barrow and tried to sell them from morning till evening on the same day. He paid for the fruits and vegetables he borrowed and tried to meet the needs of his family with the remaining money. This has become a routine that Mohamed has to perform every day in his life. Mohamed actually has a cheerful disposition. That's why his friends nicknamed him Basbous (joker). However, due to the stress of daily life and having to provide for his family alone, he has completely lost this power of humor in recent times. The day before he burned himself, on the evening of December 16, 2010, as he always does, he borrowed $200 in vegetables and fruits. The next morning, the police confiscated Mohamed's scales. Mohamed has been repeatedly mistreated and disturbed by local police officers, his family claims. According to his cousin Ali, bribery was very common among police and public employees in Tunisia. The police constantly harassed Mohamed. Because they knew that he was working without permission, they constantly asked him for bribes. Mohamed would either bribe them every day with some of the money he barely earned, or his scales or products would be confiscated. On the morning of December 17, 2010, Mohamed went to the provincial government building in Sidi Bouzid to complain to the governor about the police confiscating their scales. However, a policeman refused to let him and slapped him. This was the breaking point for Muhammad. Since the feeling of helplessness and humiliation had exhausted his hopes for the future, he burned himself outside the office of the despising policemen in the government building. We may not have learned the story of Mohamed and what happened there that day if Muhammad's cousin Ali hadn't been there. Ali's attempts were effective in spreading the protests across the country in Tunisia. Mohamed's cousin Ali was an active member of a party opposed to Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The day Mohamed burned himself, he rushed to the front of the government building to get the news of the incident and take a video of it. After a while, he realized that the person who burned himself was a relative. In the mainstream media in Tunisia, Mohamed's self-immolation was not mentioned at the beginning. During Ben Ali's rule, he kept the media under control in Tunisia. Freedom of expression and impartial reporting of the media was out of the question. That's why state- controlled channels have made reports that protesters were hired by other states to discredit Tunisia. Suicides in Tunisia have happened before Mohamed, but have been hidden from the public. The mainstream media has ignored this. However, Ali's videos have eliminated these attempts by the mainstream media. In the Arab Spring, the power of social media showed itself for the first time with this development. Perhaps the weakest point of these foreign-backed one- man regimes is the influence of social media on the oppressed people. As Mohamed was being taken to the hospital, his family and friends began shouting in protest in front of the government building; the crowd watching them later participated in the protest. Ali posted the moments of Mohamed's self-burning on his Facebook account along with images of the protest. The video soon spread rapidly and suddenly came to the fore in the international media. The protests spread throughout the country in a short time, and slogans "We want justice and business" were chanted. Mohamed died at the age of 26 in the hospital where he was taken on January 4, 2011. Ben Ali, who could not resist the protests, fled the country 10 days later on January 14, 2011. Mohamed's drama has been reciprocated in many people. Because a large mass of people in Tunisia was also having similar difficulties. In Islam, suicide is considered one of the major sins and it is believed that the person who committed suicide will go to Hell. But Tunisians described him as a martyr and therefore believed that he would go to heaven. It was not very difficult for the people of Tunisia and the people living in the countries where the Arab Spring protests took place to establish a link between the tragedy of Mohamed's self- immolation and their own situation. The protests took place in many countries, as well as Egypt on January 25, 2011; It spread to Libya on February 15, 2011, and to Syria on March 15, 2011. Although ten years have passed since the Arab Spring, it can be said that in the countries where the protests took place, nothing much has changed, or even worsen. The reaction of the public to the harsh conditions has not yet produced concrete results. Corruption, poverty and prohibitions still prevail in the Arab Spring geography. Although ten years have passed, the Arab Spring has not yet produced concrete results in North Africa and the Middle East. The demands of the people for "bread, freedom and honor" have yet to find a real response. .
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