Word: bourguiba
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Middle East's chronically unsuccessful suitor, Libyan Strongman Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, seems to need the services of a professional matchmaker. All his past efforts to join Libya with other Arab countries have failed. Now Libya's betrothal to Tunisia, which Gaddafi and Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba happily announced in mid-January, has apparently been broken...
Both countries at first enthusiastically welcomed the planned merger. It would have created one nation having a single constitution, flag, capital (Tunis), army and legislative, judicial and executive system, with Bourguiba as its President and Gaddafi as a Vice President. On the day of the announcement, Bourguiba hailed the development as "an event that will change the course of history." Tunis and Tripoli radios began identifying themselves as the radio of the "Arab Islamic Republic," as the new nation was to be known...
...economic advantages of unification, Tunisia and Libya are otherwise so incompatible that observers jokingly referred to them as "the odd couple." Tunisia has been influenced by the West since Roman times-most recently as a French protectorate (1883-1956) -and has a sophisticated and urbanized middle and upper class. Bourguiba, 70, was educated in French schools and has tried to modernize Tunisia by welcoming Western investors. As long ago as 1965, he called for recognition of Israel. He abrogated many strict Islamic laws, banning polygamy and urging his people to ignore the dawn-to-dusk fast during the Ramadan holy...
These differences obviously gave Bourguiba and his advisers second thoughts about unification. Only two days after proclamation of the "Arab Islamic Republic," Bourguiba fired the chief architect of the merger, Tunisia's Foreign Minister Mohamed Masmoudi...
...Then Bourguiba indefinitely postponed the referendum that was to ratify the unification. Finally, an official Tunisian communique stated that unity with Libya could come only by "stages" and after renewed negotiations-conditions that in effect consigned the project to limbo...