This time last year, Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire, sparking a popular uprising in Tunisia that spread to countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The uprisings have come to be known throughout the world as the "Arab Spring" and have caused more change in one year than the region has seen in decades. For months, chants across the Middle East echoed, "The people want the downfall of the regime." Only a month after Tunisians ousted Tunisian President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, it took the Egyptian people only 18 days to overthrow Hosni Mubarak after being in power for 30 years. 

Shortly after the downfalls of Ben Ali and Mubarak, Libyans took up arms against Muammar Gaddafi. After ten months of violent battles that took the lives of thousands of civilians, Libyan revolutionaries claimed victory when Gaddafi was killed in his hometown of Sirte. 

Protestors in Yemen hope to turn a new page after months of bloody crackdowns as embattled ruler Ali Abudllah Saleh belatedly signed the Gulf-brokered deal that will transfer power in the country by early next year. 

Tensions are running high in post-war Iraq as sectarian divides pose a serious risk to the security and stability of the country. Iraq is made up of Sunnis, Shias, Turkmen, Kurds, Arabs, and Christians. One of the main points of contention has been over the control of Kirkuk Province, one of Iraq's most diverse areas that sits on as much as ten billion barrels of oil reserves. Kirkuk separates Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region in the north from the Arab-dominated south and center. While thousands of Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq after almost nine years in the country, Kirkuk officials say the US troop withdrawal "will further pave the way for extremist groups to operate in the area and fear violence will rise." 

According to al-Jazeera, Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is the latest attempt by the Iraqi government to resolve the dispute between Arbil and Baghdad over Kirkuk Province. The article calls for a referendum to determine whether or not the residents of Kirkuk wish to join the Kurdistan Region. However, the initial deadline for the article was set for 2007 and has yet to be implemented because of disagreements in government. As for the Turkmen, they want Kirkuk to be independent of both Baghdad and Arbil .

According to Gulf News, "one of the worst legacies of the American domination of Iraqi politics is institutionalisation of sectarian thinking." Now that the US troops are gone and since there  is no unified security force in Kirkuk, conflict over power between the Shiite Mahdi Army, the Kurds' Peshmerga and the Sunni Anbar tribes looms large. Accroding to Tony Karon of Time Magazine, “The Shi'ite-Sunni-Kurdish power-sharing arrangement the Americans imagined would be achieved by the constitution they created is looking increasingly fanciful."

Some political observers believe that the US military presence in Iraq prevented the volatile situation in Kirkuk from erupting. "In short, the US withdrawal has inflicted a heavy blow to Kirkuk," said Halo Najat Najat, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. In line with predictions of political turbulence and civil strife in Iraq in the year to come, one resident of Kirkuk said that after the withdrawal, "no place in Iraq will be stable." 

Photo Credit: STRINGER Iraq / Reuters. A woman waves Kurdish flags during a rally in the disputed Iraqi town ofKhanaqin, northeast of Baghdad.

Today marks the 24th anniversary of the outbreak of the First Palestinian Intifada, which was ignited on December 8, 1987 when four Palestinians were killed by IDF forces at the Erez crossing in Gaza. To commemorate the anniversary, a group of Palestinian youth sent out the following call:

We are also calling out to all the Palestinian bloggers in Palestine and in exile to dedicate their blogs on the 9th of December to honor the people of the First Intifada through writing stories from the Intifada or conducting interviews with the heroes, publishing videos or photos etc. We also call on Palestinian artists for a dedication in honor of the Intifada.

Ziad Hmaidan, activist, former political prisoner, legal researcher at the Al Haq human rights organization, and analyst for the Alternative Information Center said in an interview that the First Intifada was a unique example of a truly popular struggle "involving…people from every social and cultural strata and of every political background…as equal actors."

According to Sonja Karkar of the Electronic Intifada, "There was no doubt that this national movement gave every Palestinian a sense of empowerment, even though there were very few gains on the ground…The question that should weigh heavily on our consciences is — how many intifadas must be fought before justice for the Palestinians finally prevails?"

In an article titled, "Toward a true paradigm shift in Palestine," Ramzy Baroud examines how Palestinians today must continue their resistance that began over two decades ago. He states, "In the case of Palestine, a new beginning requires the total mobilization of all aspects of Palestinian society...The allegiance must not lie with any particular faction, but to Palestine itself, and the only unifying slogan should be 'Freedom.'"

The hashtag #Intifada1 has been created on Twitter to commemorate the anniversary as Palestinian bloggers and online activists unite under the same nationwide campaign of popular resistance. One blogger and activist tweeted, "24 Years after #intifada1, people still die for a free #Palestine, I salute The Martyrs of Occupation 2011"

Click here to see the First Intifada in pictures, here to see graffiti in Ramallah marking the anniversary, and here to see revolutionary posters from the Intifada.

Image credit: REUTERS/Jim Hollander. An Israeli soldier takes aim as a Palestinian woman hurls a rock at him from close range during a demonstration in the First Intifada. February 29,1988.