Why a Nobel peace prize to Tunisian democracy group?

It looks like an encouragement to faltering Arab Spring

Tunisia since Arab Spring

2010 December - Protests break out over unemployment and political restrictions, and spread nationwide.

2011 January - President Ben Ali goes into exile amid continuing protests.

2011 February - Prime Minister Ghannouchi resigns, responding to demands by demonstrators calling for a clean break with the past.

2011 May - Curfew imposed amid fresh street protests.

2011 October - Parliamentary elections. Ennahda Islamist party wins, but falls short of an outright majority.

2011 December - Human rights activist Moncef Marzouki elected president by constituent assembly, Ennahda leader Hamadi Jebali sworn in as prime minister.

2012 August - Thousands protest in Tunis against moves by Islamist-led government to reduce women's rights. Draft constitution refers to women as "complementary to men", whereas 1956 constitution granted women full equality with men.

2013 February - Prime Minister Jebali resigns after Ennahda party rejects his proposals to form a government of technocrats after the killing of an opposition anti-Islamist leader.

2013 December - After months of wrangling, Ennahda and mainly secular opposition agree on appointment of Mehdi Jomaa as head of interim government.

2014 January - Parliament passes the country's first constitution since President Ben Ali was ousted in 2011. Prime minister-designate Mehdi Jomaa forms cabinet of independents and technocrats, to govern until new elections.

2014 March - President Marzouki lifts state of emergency imposed in 2011 during ouster of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

2015 June - Islamic State gunman kills 38 people, mainly tourists, on beach at resort of Sousse, in Tunisia's worst terror attack. Government announces closure of extremist mosques.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee announced the Peace Prize to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for its "decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in the country in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011." The group is dedicated to creating dialogue between disparate elements of Tunisian society. "The Quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 when the democratization process was in danger of collapsing as a result of political assassinations and widespread social unrest," the Nobel Committee said in a statement.

The course that events have taken in Tunisia since the fall of the authoritarian Ben Ali regime in January 2011 is unique and remarkable for several reasons. First, it shows that Islamist and secular political movements can work together to achieve significant results in the country's best interests. The example of Tunisia thus underscores the value of dialogue and a sense of national belonging in a region marked by conflict.

Secondly, the transition in Tunisia shows that civil society institutions and organizations can play a crucial role in a country’s democratisation, and that such a process, even under difficult circumstances, can lead to free elections and the peaceful transfer of power. The National Dialogue Quartet must be given much of the credit for this achievement and for ensuring that the benefits of the Jasmine Revolution have not been lost.

Tunisia faces significant political, economic and security challenges. The Norwegian Nobel Committee hopes that this year's prize will contribute towards safeguarding democracy in Tunisia and be an inspiration to all those who seek to promote peace and democracy in the Middle East, North Africa and the rest of the world. More than anything, the prize is intended as an encouragement to the Tunisian people, who despite major challenges have laid the groundwork for a national fraternity which the Committee hopes will serve as an example to be followed by other countries.

CNN opines that in a broader sense the prize appeared to be an effort by the Nobel Committee to bolster the Arab Spring – which, indeed, began in Tunisia in December 2010. The Arab Spring dawned with hope and idealism, and spread across parts of the Middle East and North Africa. But it has seen those ideals mired in bitter reality in many countries – most notably in Syria, where an uprising against the regime of Bashar al-Assad has morphed into a devastating civil war that has pushed waves of desperate people to attempt to migrate to Europe.

No one does secrecy like the Nobel Committee, and the Tunisian group did not figure in the popular speculation or in the favorites named by betting organizations, writes Don Melvin of CNN. Instead, Melvin observes, the betting had centered on Pope Francis, for his calls for economic fairness in the world, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for her courage in welcoming many among the tide of people fleeing to Europe – in large part because of chaos in the Middle East, the scene of such hope during the Arab Spring.

As the Nobel Committee noted on Friday in its statement, "The Arab Spring originated in Tunisia in 2010-2011, but quickly spread to a number of countries in North Africa and the Middle East. In many of these countries, the struggle for democracy and fundamental rights has come to a standstill or suffered setbacks." The Arab Spring began when a Tunisian street vendor named Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouaziz fatally set himself on fire on December 17, 2010, to protest against harassment by authorities.

In the anger that followed, President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, who had been in power for 23 years, stepped down the following January. Within a couple of years, leaders had been forced from power in Egypt, Yemen and Libya. Popular protests broke out in numerous other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria.

But tearing down the old order is always easier than building the new. By 2013, as the Nobel Committee noted in its announcement, "the democratization process was in danger of collapsing as a result of political assassinations and widespread social unrest." Melvin points out what the Nobel Committee has said of the Quartet: " (The Quartet) established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war."