Two years have elapsed since the outbreak of the June 30 Revolution. This revolution is the outcome of the Egyptians’ solidarity and oneness of goal. As we mentioned earlier, the Armed Forces took the people’s side. In fact, the people made the decision and ignited the revolution, which is why the army supported them. So, this is to congratulate the Egyptians on their revolution’s anniversary and wish Egypt all glory and prosperity.
Memoires of the Revolution
As one reminisces the revolution’s preludes and incidents, that very Monday relives. It coincides with ex-president’s taking over. At that time, millions of Egyptians who opposed him gathered, demanding premature presidential elections. On the other hand the president’s supporters demonstrated to endorse him.
On July 1, the Armed Forces issued a communiqué to combat the danger facing Egypt. What a critical time it was! The communiqué read, “Yesterday, Egypt and the whole world witnessed demonstrations in which the great Egyptian people stepped to express its will and opinion in an unprecedented peaceful and civilized way… It is inevitable that the people’s stir be responded to by all parties that are deemed responsible for the country’s critical conditions.” The communiqué emphasized, “The Armed Forces sensed early on the dangers of the current situation and the demands the great people have at this time. Wasting more time will only bring more division and conflict, which we have warned about and continue to warn about.” “If the demands of the people have not been met” within “48 hours” then the generals would “announce a road map” to be “enforced under the military’s supervision.”
After the 48 hours had elapsed, the Armed Forces issued a statement, having already assembled with political, religious, and youth leaderships. It was given by the Minister of Defense, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, current president, declaring the end of Mohammed Morsi’s presidency and showing a roadmap which the attendees had agreed upon. He announced that executive authority would be vested in the Supreme Constitutional Court and Adly Mansur would be acting president until premature presidential elections had been conducted.
The June 30 Revolution was characterized by the utter peacefulness of the people, as they rose to present their demands. Thus, it is worthy to a give a brief account of some peaceful revolutions which the world had witnessed.
Russia
Russia witnessed the laborer’s peaceful revolution which was led by an Orthodox priest called Georgiy Apollonovich Gapon (February 1870-April 1906). Georgiy led the laborers’ movements prior and during the Russian Revolution. He was able to assemble more than one hundred and fifty thousand Russian workers in a peaceful procession to protest against the coercive Russian authority. Georgiy’s name is associated with “Bloody Sunday” when thousands of workers were killed on January 22, 1905 at St. Petersburg. At that time, unarmed workers marched towards the Tsar’s palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicolas II. In return, the Tsar’s guards shot them. Bloody Sunday led the Tsar’s regime to a dead end, for it was a progenitor of the Russian Revolution in 1905, after the people, especially the workers, had become quite angry.
Denmark
Denmark was victimized by Nazi occupation. Despite the fact that the government did not resist the Nazi in order to spare blood, the people rejected the occupation. They started resisting peacefully: by workers’ strikes, destroying railways, along with boosting patriotic spirit through chanting songs, refusing to speak in German, and boycotting commercial transactions with the Nazis. Thus, they imposed utter economic stagnation, which compelled the Nazis to terminate the embargo forced on the country. Likewise, the Danes refused relinquishing Jews to Nazis, and helped them flee to Sweden.
America
America witnessed horrible racial discrimination which was challenged by Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 1929-April 1968). This leader had African roots. He demanded the termination of discriminatory policies against the Afro-Americans of the South. He started the struggle with Rosa Parks who had refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. In effect, the driver summoned the police who arrested her. In his struggle, King refused all sorts of violence, depending on peaceful resistance, taking Gandhi for his role model. He also kept quoting Christ’s words, “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” Thus, he led a peaceful campaign that endured for about fifteen years, using demonstrations, civil mutiny, boycotts, and strikes. King was able to make the whites succumb to negotiations concerning the rights of the colored. He gave a beautiful speech in which a great number of people assembled: 250 thousand people, 60 thousand of whom were whites. He said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
At the end of the 1980s, about three hundred thousand citizens protested in the Estonian capital, demanding independence from the Soviet Union which had occupied the country. The people chanted the patriotic songs that had been banned by the Soviets. The revolution endured for four years in which the people resorted many times to sit-ins and civil mutiny. In 1991, protesters made human barriers to protect the radio and television headquarters from the Soviet tanks. They succeeded in stopping them. Estonia won independence without bloodshed.
Likewise, Latvia used the self-same way to achieve its independence whereby it launched a campaign for refraining from cooperation with Soviets. In 1989, protesters made a 600-kilometer-long human barrier between Talin and Riga, demanding independence. So was it.
In 1988, Lithuanians held peaceful demonstrations against the Soviet Union which used violence against the protesters, just like what happened on Bloody Sunday. Yet, eventually the people was able to win independence in 1991 by clinging to peacefulness.
Here it is worthy to quote Aboul-Qacem Echebbi:
Should peoples refuse to die
Fate is sure to answer.
Darkness should die away
And bonds are sure to shatter.
What stories! Stories never end in Beautiful Egypt.
General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
