TUNIS
President Beji Caid Essebsi said Wednesday that Tunisia's security forces should be supported in their ongoing campaign against "terrorism."
Essebsi's statements came at a rally marking the passage of four years since a 2011 popular uprising that unseated longtime autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
"Those who attempt to justify or promote acts of terrorism should not be tolerated," Essebsi said.
Since mid-2011, the Tunisian army has been cracking down on militant groups holed up in the country's Chaambi region near the border with Algeria.
Recent confrontations between Tunisian troops and militants in these areas have left scores dead and injured.
"Winning the war on terrorism requires national unity," Essebsi asserted.
"The revolution is not restricted to a single political orientation, person or party," he added.
Tunisia's 2011 uprising, he said, "revealed an ambitious nation with a vision to establish a second republic."
He added: "The only threat to this republic is posed by those who seek to blackmail the Tunisian people."
During the rally, the families of dozens of protesters killed by security forces during the uprising heckled Essebsi for failing to honor slain protesters in his speech.
In response, Essebsi – who had honored a number of prominent rights activists at the rally – vowed to honor slain protesters.
Slain protesters' families also called on Essebsi to prosecute those responsible for killing their relatives during the "Arab Spring" uprising.
"We thought the presidency invited us to honor the families of the revolution's martyrs, but were surprised when [Essebsi] ignored us," Nagat Abdel-Hafiz, the mother of a slain protester, told The Anadolu Agency after the rally.
The Nidaa Tounes Party, which describes itself as "centrist," secured the most parliamentary seats by a single party, clinching 86 out of 217 seats in last October's parliamentary poll.
The Islamist Ennahda movement, meanwhile, won 69 seats.
Essebsi, 88, was sworn in last December as Tunisia's first democratically-elected president following the 2011 uprising.
Essebsi, who served as parliament speaker under Ben Ali, won 55.7 percent of vote in a December presidential runoff poll against former interim president Moncef Marzouki.
