Ben Ali seizes power in the 1987 "medical coup"

On 7 November 1987 Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali deposed Tunisia's ageing founding president Habib Bourguiba in a bloodless palace coup, having him declared medically unfit to govern, and assumed the presidency. What began with promises of pluralism hardened into 23 years of police-state rule built on the RCD.

Referenced entities

Parties

Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD)

Politicians

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali head-of-state

Sources

Permalink: https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pulse/05fd32ed-368b-495e-979f-be3bbfcbbc9b

How to cite

Each record carries a retrieval date because the dataset is live — individual entries update as verification deepens. Use the per-record citation when referencing this specific profile; use the dataset citation below when referencing the project as a whole.

In-text: (Gara, 2026)

Per-record citation

APA 7Reference list · academic default

Gara, T. (2026). Ben Ali seizes power in the 1987 "medical coup" [Event record]. Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Retrieved July 27, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pulse/05fd32ed-368b-495e-979f-be3bbfcbbc9b

Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals

Gara, Tarek. 2026. "Ben Ali seizes power in the 1987 "medical coup"." Event record, Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Accessed July 27, 2026. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pulse/05fd32ed-368b-495e-979f-be3bbfcbbc9b.

BibTeXFor LaTeX / Zotero / reference managers

@misc{tayyar-event-05fd32ed-368b-495e-979f-be3bbfcbbc9b,
  title     = {{Ben Ali seizes power in the 1987 "medical coup"}},
  author    = {Gara, Tarek},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset},
  type      = {Event record},
  url       = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pulse/05fd32ed-368b-495e-979f-be3bbfcbbc9b},
  urldate   = {2026-07-27},
  note      = {Event date: 1987-11-07. First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.}
}

Dataset / working-paper citation

If you're citing Tayyar as a project rather than this individual record.

APA 7Preprint

Gara, T. (2026). Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset [Preprint]. Retrieved July 27, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper

BibTeXPreprint

@unpublished{tayyar-preprint,
  title  = {{Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset}},
  author = {Gara, Tarek},
  year   = {2026},
  type   = {Preprint},
  url    = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper},
  urldate = {2026-07-27},
  note   = {Living document, regenerated from the live dataset on page load.}
}

Event date: 1987-11-07. First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.