The National Dialogue Quartet, democracy group in Tunisia, wins Nobel Peace Prize

Kaci Kullmann Five, the new head of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee, announces the winner of 2015 Nobel peace prize during a press conference in Oslo, Norway, Friday Oct. 9, 2015. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday that the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet. (Heiko Junge/NTB scanpix via AP) NORWAY OUT (The Associated Press)

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FILE - In this Wednesday, March 18, 2015 file photo, a victim is evacuated by rescue workers outside the Bardo museum in Tunis, Tunisia. A Tunisian democracy group won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday Oct. 9, 2015 for its contributions to the first and most successful Arab Spring movement. The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet "for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy" in the North African country following its 2011 revolution. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File) (The Associated Press)

A Tunisian democracy group won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its contributions to the first and most successful Arab Spring movement.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet "for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy" in the North African country following its 2011 revolution.

"It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war," the committee said in its citation.

The prize is a huge victory for small Tunisia, whose young and still shaky democracy suffered two extremist attacks this year that killed 60 people and devastated the tourism industry.

The National Dialogue Quartet is made up of four key organizations in Tunisian civil society: the Tunisian General Labour Union; the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts; the Tunisian Human Rights League; and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.

"The Nobel Peace Prize for 2015 is awarded to this Quartet, not to the four individual organizations as such," the committee said.

There were 273 candidates nominated for the 2015 peace prize, five fewer than in 2014.

The award capped a week of Nobel Prize announcements, with the winners of the medicine, physics, chemistry and literature awards presented earlier in Stockholm.

The economics award — not an original Nobel Prize but created in 1968 — will be announced on Monday.

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