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The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or Libya (Arabic: ليبيا) is a country in North Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, located between Egypt on the east, Sudan on the southeast, Chad and Niger on the south and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. Its capital city is Tripoli.
(Note that in ancient Greece, Libya is used in a broader
meaning, encompassing all of North Africa west of Egypt. Indeed, sometimes
the name refers to the entire continent of Africa. The three traditional parts of the
country are Tripolitania, Fezzan
and the Cyrenaica.) In Greek mythology, Dido came from Libya.
History
Main article: History of Libya
Tripoli and Cyrenaica were
Roman colonies; and were conquered by Arab Muslims in the 7th
century. By the 19th century it was an increasingly independent
Ottoman province; and came under the control of Italy in 1911.
After the Second World War Libya was granted independence, as a
condition of the Allied peace treaty with Italy. Since 1969 Libya has been ruled by Colonel
Moammar al-Qadhafi, who came to power in a coup and deposed the Libyan monarchy.
Qadhafi rejected both Soviet Communism and Western capitalism and claimed that he was
charting an independent course, portraying himself as a champion of "oppressed peoples" and Third World nations seeking to assert their independence on the international stage.
U.S.-Libyan relations almost deteriorated when in December 2, 1979, Libyan mobs sacked the United States embassy in Tripoli. Qadhafi referred to the incident it as a "spontaneous demonstration" and denied any involvement. In May 1980, the United States withdrew all United States diplomats but did not break off diplomatic ties
with Libya.
In 1980, the Libyan government paid Jimmy Carter's brother, Billy Carter, $220,000 to persuade better
diplomatic relations between the two nations.
On May 6, 1981, a more than year after Ronald Reagan became president of the United States, the United States government
blamed the Libyan government for sponsoring international terrorism. All Libyan diplomats were expelled from the United States
and the United States officially broke diplomatic relations between the two nations. The Libyan embassy was also shut down.
The Reagan administration saw Libya as an unacceptable player on the international stage because of its backing of Palestinian terrorist groups, its support for revolutionary Iran in its 1980-1988 war against
Saddam Hussein's Iraq (see
Iran-Iraq War), and its assistance for "liberation movements" in
different parts of the world, many which were conducted by separatist
terrorists such as: the Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO).
In March 1982 the U.S. declared a ban on the
import of Libyan oil and the export to Libya of U.S. industrial technology items, most of
which where used for oil; Europe did not follow suit.
The U.S. attacked Libyan patrol boats from January to March 1986 during clashes over over access to the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya claimed as territorial waters but was not recognized internationally.
Qadhafi had long referred to it as the "line of death". Later, on April 14, 1986, Reagan ordered major
bombing raids against so-called "terrorist sites" Tripoli and Benghazi that killed approximately 60 people following U.S. accusations of Libyan
involvement in a bomb explosion at the German LaBelle nightclub frequented by U.S.
servicemen on April 5, which had killed 3. Among the victims of the April 14 bombing
raid was the adopted daughter of Qadhafi.
The United Nations imposed sanctions against Libya in 1992 following the Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie disaster. The sanctions were lifted on
September 12, 2003, after Libya
agreed to accept responsibility and make payment of US $2.7 billion to the families of those who died in the bombing. In the same
vein, on February 26, 2004, the United
States lifted their 23-year travel ban to Libya, although many other restrictions currently remain in place, such as economic
sanctions and the ban on flights by U.S. airlines to Libya.
Politics
Main article: Politics of Libya
The Libyan system of government is quite unusual. Qadhafi claims that Libya is a "pure socialist state", and as such the formal institutions of government are purposely quite vague. Qadhafi
himself is not even technically the "President" or "Prime Minister" of the country, and instead describes himself as a sort of
"guide" or a "leader" to help the Libyan people in socialism. To most people around the world, he is simply referred to as
"Colonel Qadhafi". Libya has no constitution, and the laws of the land come
from Islamic law, and Qadhafi's "Green Book" of political philosophy. The
government is called a "jamahiriya," a modification of the Arabic word "jumhuriya" (republic) that translates loosely as
"people's state."
In practice, however, Libya is essentially a dictatorship, with Qadhafi
ruling by decree, assisted by a small clique of military and political
officials. Libya has been accused of widespread human rights abuses, and
state sponsored terrorism.
On December 19, 2003, Libya admitted
having had a weapons of mass destruction
(WMD) program and simultaneously announced its intention to end it and dismantle all existing WMD to be verified by unconditional
inspections. Libya also agreed to limit its long range missiles to 300 km. Some of the WMD included mustard gas, which was hidden in a turkey farm. The
announcement came after clandestine diplomatic negotiations with the United
Kingdom and United States since March 2003. On March 7, 2004, the White House confirmed that the last of Libya's nuclear weapons-related equipment had been sent to the United States.
Municipalities
Main article: Municipalities of Libya
Geography
Main article: Geography of Libya
Economy
Main article: Economy of Libya
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Libya
Culture
Main article: Culture of Libya
Miscellaneous topics
- Communications in Libya
- Transportation in Libya
- Military of Libya
- Foreign relations of Libya
- Libya's wars against other Arab states are discussed in the entry Middle East conflict
In Greek mythology, Libya was a daughter of Memphis and Epaphus. Poseidon loved her. The country,
Libya, described above, was named after her.
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