Muhammad Sheikh Yusuf
22 January 2021•Update: 23 January 2021
ISTANBUL
Ayman Nour, prominent Egyptian dissident and head of the liberal Ghad El Thawra party, believes the Jan. 25, 2011 revolution in Egypt was neither victorious nor defeated indicating that there are efforts to unite the Egyptian opposition.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency ahead of the tenth anniversary of the popular revolution that toppled former Hosni Mubarak's regime, Nour said: “The revolution after a decade has not won but it has not been defeated yet,” adding that the revolution will enter a new phase.
Nour is confident that the second wave of revolution is looming.
"The first wave was on Jan. 25, 2011, and a decade after the revolution, I think there is a second wave of the revolution [because the first one] did not win as it only achieved some of its goals and did not achieve some of the others," he added.
According to him, the first revolution was “fragile” and “weak” because of the “conspiracy of the counter-revolution” which brought back remnants of the Mubarak regime.
"[After the first revolution] we witnessed a year of democracy,” Nour said, adding revenge acts by the previous regime saw “plots against democracy and the revolution”.
Nevertheless, Nour pointed that the counter-revolution did not succeed either. “It failed to achieve a breakthrough in people's lives and it was unable to manage the economic crisis,” noting that while people have lost faith in the counter-revolution, the people still believe in the revolution. “This is why I foresee a new wave of revolution in the second decade," he added.
New opportunities
Nour sees a number of indicators that make a new round of revolution in Egypt very possible noting international and regional dynamics such as the change in the American administration, the change in the mood of the West, and the recently resolved Gulf crisis.
"[The West] which used to support Sisi as the guardian of the war against terror realized that he was a terrorist and murder,” Nour said, referring to the murder of Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old doctoral student studying in Egypt who vanished in the country on Jan. 25, 2016.
His body was found nine days later with signs of torture on the young man's body uncannily similar to those caused by Egyptian police torture.
Recently, the Italian Foreign Ministry vowed to uncover the truth and resolve the case through international diplomatic channels.
With regard to the change in the US administration, Nour hopes that newly elected US President Joe Biden will not support Sisi’s tyranny.
"We ask all people not to interfere in complicating our cause and support our opponent and the opponent of democracy. I believe that Biden witnessed the danger of the coup against the ballot box, and he must realize that every threat that affects our rights and freedoms also affects them," Nour said.
Nour also highlighted Sisi’s failure to stop illegal immigration and the end of the Gulf feud on which Sisi survived.
Unity among opposition parties
Nour spoke of the ongoing efforts to unite the opposition expressing optimism that a meeting under one umbrella will convene either on Jan. 25 or Feb. 11. The first date is the day revolution against Mubarak started and the second is the day he was ousted.
He also hailed Turkey and the values of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for hosting members of the Egyptian opposition and for standing by Egyptians.
Nour also pointed to the need for an honest and trustworthy mediator to solve the Egyptian crisis and hinted at Turkey’s possibility to assume this role in the future.
“I believe that Turkey is always great and its roles are great, and it never gives up on the oppressed in all parts of the world,” he said.
*Ibrahim Mukhtar contributed to this report from Ankara
