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Nobel Prize for Tunisia mediators ‘serious signal’ to Middle East — Russian lawmaker

The winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize [ ...] set "a different trend for development of the Tunisian state", lawmaker said
Wided Bouchamaoui, a member of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet EPA/STR
Wided Bouchamaoui, a member of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet
© EPA/STR

MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet can be regarded as a "serious signal" to the Middle East and North Africa hit by a wave of "colour revolutions", a senior Russian lawmaker said on Friday.

Vasily Likhachev, a member of Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, and Russia's former ambassador to the European Union, told journalists: "I believe this decision is a very serious signal to the Middle East and North Africa gripped by an outbreak of ‘colour revolutions’."

Likhachev explained that "‘colour revolutions’ result in changes in intrastate processes, complicate inter-ethnic relations, cause crises of government institutions, give rise to differences between authorities and society, and certainly create a number of religious and inter-religious problems".

The winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, on the contrary, set "a different trend for development of the Tunisian state", he said.

Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its "decisive contribution" to building democracy after the Jasmine Revolution in 2011, the Nobel Committee said.

The quartet is made up of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH), and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.

Formed in the summer of 2013, it helped support the democratisation process in Tunisia when the country "was on the brink of civil war", said the committee.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 8 million Swedish crowns ($972,000), will be presented in Oslo on December 10.