<\/p>\n
Two years have elapsed since the outbreak of the June 30 Revolution. This revolution is the outcome of the Egyptians\u2019 solidarity and oneness of goal. As we mentioned earlier, the Armed Forces took the people\u2019s 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\u2019s anniversary and wish Egypt all glory and prosperity.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Memoires of the Revolution<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Russia<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Denmark<\/span><\/strong><\/span> America<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/span> General Bishop<\/span><\/strong><\/span> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two years have elapsed since the outbreak of the June 30 Revolution. This revolution is the outcome of the Egyptians\u2019 solidarity and oneness of goal. As we mentioned earlier, the Armed Forces took the people\u2019s side. In fact, the people made the decision and ignited the revolution, which is why the army supported them. So, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[240,14114,2462,682,642],"class_list":["post-29711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag---2","tag-14114","tag-2462","tag-682","tag-642"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29711"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39835,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29711\/revisions\/39835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAs one reminisces the revolution\u2019s preludes and incidents, that very Monday relives. It coincides with ex-president\u2019s taking over. At that time, millions of Egyptians who opposed him gathered, demanding premature presidential elections. On the other hand the president\u2019s supporters demonstrated to endorse him.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nOn July 1, the Armed Forces issued a communiqu\u00e9 to combat the danger facing Egypt. What a critical time it was! The communiqu\u00e9 read, \u201cYesterday, 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\u2026 It is inevitable that the people\u2019s stir be responded to by all parties that are deemed responsible for the country\u2019s critical conditions.\u201d The communiqu\u00e9 emphasized, \u201cThe 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.\u201d \u201cIf the demands of the people have not been met\u201d within \u201c48 hours\u201d then the generals would \u201cannounce a road map\u201d to be \u201cenforced under the military\u2019s supervision.\u201d <\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nAfter 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\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nThe 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.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nRussia witnessed the laborer\u2019s peaceful revolution which was led by an Orthodox priest called Georgiy Apollonovich Gapon (February 1870-April 1906). Georgiy led the laborers\u2019 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\u2019s name is associated with \u201cBloody Sunday\u201d when thousands of workers were killed on January 22, 1905 at St. Petersburg. At that time, unarmed workers marched towards the Tsar\u2019s palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicolas II. In return, the Tsar\u2019s guards shot them. Bloody Sunday led the Tsar\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nDenmark 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\u2019 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.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nAmerica 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\u2019s words, \u201clove 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\u2026\u201d 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, \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nAt 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.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nLikewise, 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.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nIn 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.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nHere it is worthy to quote Aboul-Qacem Echebbi:<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nShould peoples refuse to die<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nFate is sure to answer.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nDarkness should die away<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nAnd bonds are sure to shatter.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nWhat stories! Stories never end in Beautiful Egypt.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nHead of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n