Benghazi
|
بنغازي Benghazi |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|||
| Coordinates | 32 ° 7 ′ N , 20 ° 4 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Libya | ||
| Benghazi | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | LY-BA | ||
| Residents | 631,555 (2011) | ||
 Satellite photo of Benghazi
|
|||
Benghazi (also in the spelling Benghasi or Benghazi , Arabic بنغازي Banghazi , DMG Banġāzī , Turkish Bingazi ) is a Libyan port city in the northeast of the country and is located on the Great Syrte . With 631,555 inhabitants (as of 2011), Benghazi isthe second largest city in Libyaafter Tripoli and the political and economic center of Cyrenaica . Large parts of the city have been destroyed and a large number of the residents are on the run or, according to the United Nations, are threatened with starvation.
history
antiquity
The city was founded in the 5th century BC. Founded by Greeks as a colony with the name Euhesperides . This name refers to the gardens of the Hesperides . According to the myth, it was one of Heracles ' jobs to get the golden apples from these gardens. In the 3rd century BC The city was re-founded under the name Berenike. In the 2nd century AD, social unrest broke out.
Under Arab and Turkish rule
After the Arab conquest from AD 643 and after the end of the Berber resistance in the second half of the 7th century, Benghazi sank into insignificance.
The Turks occupied Benghazi in 1578. From 1711 to 1835 the city was ruled by the Qaramanli family from Tripoli. After that it came under Ottoman rule until 1911 .
20th century
During the Italian colonial period (since 1911), Benghazi was the administrative center of Cyrenaica. In 1931 the Libyan freedom fighter Umar Muchtar was sentenced to death in Benghazi and hanged publicly in the concentration camp near the city of Soluk .
During the Second World War , the city was badly damaged by bombing and, like the entire Kyrenaica, changed hands five times: on February 6th, 1941, it was conquered by the 6th Australian Division and recaptured by Erwin Rommel on April 3rd . On December 24, 1941, they captured the British and on January 29, 1942, they retook the Germans . After the defeat of El Alamein crowding Allies , the Axis powers back and on 20 November 1942, the British finally captured the city ( see also African campaign ).
In the 1950s, the city housed a residence of the Libyan king , making it the official capital of the kingdom alongside Tripoli. The Kingdom of Libya ended when Gaddafi came to power in 1969 and with it Bengazi's status. The historic Benghazi Cathedral has fallen into disrepair.
In 1986 the city was the target of air strikes by the US Air Force ordered by the US government in retaliation for alleged support for terrorist activities by Libya ( Operation El Dorado Canyon ). In February 2006, as part of Islamic protests against the Mohammed cartoons , violent clashes broke out, during which the Italian consulate general was set on fire. Several people were killed in clashes with the police.
On August 31, 2008, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed an agreement in Benghazi, with which Italy undertook to invest 5 billion dollars as reparation in the former Italian colony of Libya over 20 years .
21st century
In February 2011 the city became a center of the uprising in Libya against the Gaddafi regime. Fierce fighting took place in and around Benghazi between February 17 and 20, during which the garrison stationed there under General Fattah Junis joined the uprising. On March 19, the siege of the city and the bombardment with heavy artillery by Gaddafi troops as part of the international military operation in Libya was stopped and the city was declared liberated by the insurgents on March 20.
On May 19, 2012 the elections for the Benghazi City Council took place. In the first election since 1964 the 41 members of the council were elected. The election winners from each of the electoral districts have also since represented the city in the national transitional council .
Attack on the US mission
On the evening of September 11, 2012, more than 100 heavily armed Ansar al-Sharia supporters attacked the US Consulate General ( ); US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens , who had come to Benghazi to examine plans for a new cultural center and modernization of a hospital, and an employee of the consulate died. The next morning, another attack on a nearby CIA building ( ) followed, killing two CIA security officers. The processing of the attack led to internally motivated allegations in the USA.
Second Libyan Civil War
After the overthrow of Gaddafi, the Islamist militia Ansar al-Sharia settled in Benghazi and made itself the main force in the Shura council of the Benghazi revolutionaries , which ruled the city. In the second Libyan civil war since 2014, rival militias under the command of Khalifa Haftar attacked Benghazi in what he described as "Operation Dignity". In July 2017 he announced that he had conquered Benghazi.
economy
The port city is eastern Libya's most important economic center. Industry and trade are primarily focused on processing agricultural products from the surrounding area and fishing , as well as on textiles and cement . Benghazi is a center of the oil business in northeast Libya; important employers are the Brega Oil Marketing Company and the Arabian Gulf Oil Company .
traffic
The city can be reached by land ( Cairo-Dakar Highway ), by sea via the Mediterranean Sea (Port of Benghazi) and by air via Benghazi Airport ( IATA : BEN, ICAO : HLLB).
A new construction of the Sirt – Benghazi railway line as part of a pan-Arab west-east axis is currently under construction. From 1911 to 1965 there were local narrow-gauge railways from Benghazi to the surrounding area.
education
The University of Benghazi (Garyounis University) was founded in 1955. The Libyan International Medical University is the first accredited private medical university and was founded in 2007.
sons and daughters of the town
- Corrado Viciani (1929-2014), Italian football player and coach
- Josef Romano (1940–1972), Israeli weightlifter, murdered during the Olympic Games in Munich
Climate table
| Benghazi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate diagram | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Benghazi
Source: wetterkontor.de
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
literature
- Mitchell Zuckoff with Annex Security Team: 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi. Hachette Book Group, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4555-8227-3 (About the Book) .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ghadhafi opponents and police engage in street battles - 35 dead. In: www.tagesanzeiger.ch , February 18, 2011.
- ↑ Opponents of the regime gain ground. In: Die Zeit , March 5, 2011.
- ↑ Libya Live Blog - March 20 ( Memento from January 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Ibrahim Majbari: Cradle of Libyan revolution votes for local council , AFP of March 19, 2012. Accessed on March 19, 2012. (English)
- ↑ George Grant: Bengha zi local election results announced— woman candidate wins most votes UPDATE , Libya Herald of May 21, 2012, accessed on May 27, 2012 (English).
- ^ Remarks by the President to the UN General Assembly . English. President Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2012. Online at whitehouse.gov.
- ↑ Associated Press: APNewsBreak: Different attackers in Benghazi? ( Memento of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) July 10, 2014
- ^ New allegations against Clinton for the Benghazi assassination attempt
- ^ A b Ulrich Schmid: Haftar celebrates the conquest of Benghazi. The warlord in eastern Libya proclaims a victory over the Islamists . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of July 7, 2017, p. 7.
- ↑ World and Its Peoples, North Africa in the Google book search
- ^ University of Benghazi ( Memento from October 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )