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The Massacre That Ended the Arab Spring

The story of the killing at Rabaa in Egypt is the story of a country that seemed intent on destroying itself.
Source: Amr Dalsh / Reuters

Four years ago today, the Arab Spring—or what was left of it—ended with a massacre. There were only two countries with largely peaceful democratic transitions. One of them was Tunisia; one of them was Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation and a bellwether for the region. On August 14, 2013, six weeks after a military coup against the Muslim Brotherhood-led government, over 800 people were killed near Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque

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