The Young Tunisians (Arabic: حركة الشباب التونسى Ḥarakat ash-shabāb at-Tūnisi)(French: Jeunes Tunisiens) were a political party in Tunisia.
Contents
History and profile
The party was formed in 1907 by a group of young Tunisian intellectuals who thought that the people of Tunisia should have self-determination, rather than being a protectorate of France. The movement was inspired by the Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire and the Egyptian National Party led by Mustafa Kamil Pasha. They were French-educated and advocated for the rights of Tunisians and Frenchmen. In 1908 the party supported for having a constitution in Tunisia.
Although the party gained considerable support from educated and professional Tunisians, they were considered to be too close to the French by the majority of Tunisians. After violence broke out in Tunisia as a result of the Italian invasion of Tripolitania and French moves to make the Jellaz cemetery public property, the French administration clamped down on the group. Its leaders were sent into exile after the Tunis Tram Boycott and the group itself was forced underground.
They printed a newspaper called Le Tunisien.