June 2013 Egyptian protests

The 30 June protests occurred in Egypt on 30 June 2013, marking the one-year anniversary of Mohamed Morsi as president. The events ended with the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état after mass protests across Egypt demanding the immediate resignation of the president. The rallies were partly a response to Tamarod, an ostensibly grassroots movement that launched a petition in April 2013, calling for Morsi and his government to step down. Tamarod claimed to have collected more than 22 million signatures for their petition by June 30, although this figure was not verified by independent sources. A counter-campaign in support of Morsi's presidency, named Tagarod (meaning impartiality), claimed to have collected 26 million signatures by the same date, but this figure was also unverified and not mentioned in media nearly as much as Tamarod's, with no reliable sources repeating it. The movements in opposition to Morsi culminated in the June 30 protests that occurred across the country. According to the Egyptian military, which calculated the number of protesters via helicopter scans of demonstration perimeters across the country, the June 30 protests had 32 million protesters, making them "the biggest protests in Egypt's history." However, independent observers raised concerns that the Egyptian government exaggerated the actual number of anti-Morsi protestors, with some research determining that only around one to two million people protested across the country against Morsi.

Reasons for demanding Morsi's resignation included accusations of increasing authoritarianism and his pushing through an Islamist agenda disregarding the predominantly secular opposition or the rule of law. The uprising concluded seven months of protests that started when the Morsi government issued a highly controversial constitutional declaration that gave him temporary sweeping powers over the state's judicial system until the new constitution was passed. The June 30 protests resulted in the overthrow of Morsi by the Egyptian military three days later, with Adly Mansour replacing Morsi as president of Egypt on July 4.

Terminology

The events are also widely called the 30 June Revolution (Arabic:ثورة ٣٠ يونيو) or simply 30/6 Revolution by the Egyptian and Middle Eastern media. They are also referred to as the Second Egyptian Revolution by several international media outlets. The Tamarod movement's highly successful goal to mobilize the protests is also strongly associated with the naming of the uprising and some organizations like the ''Washington Institute for Near East Policy'' dubbed it the Tamarod Revolution.

Background

Amid growing anger towards the regime, President Hosni Mubarak, whose reign was marked by increasing corruption and authoritarianism, resigned on 11 February 2011 following 18 days of mass protests that marked the beginning of a new era of political instability in Egypt. The subsequent transitional period, which saw the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) taking power under Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi immediately after Mubarak's ouster, saw renewed deadly clashes and human rights abuses. A round of elections started to take place in the country starting with the 2011 referendum, in which a majority approved of reforms drafted by a military-formed committee. The election however proved to be highly controversial despite some positive reforms such as limiting the president's time in office to two four-year terms. Many opposition figures and activists were upset with the reforms as they were drafted in just ten days and were offered to the public for only three weeks before the referendum. Two of the country's largest political forces back then, the Muslim Brotherhood and remnants of the former National Democratic Party, have endorsed the reforms. This turnout proved highly beneficial for the Brotherhood in the following months as they achieved nearly all of their political ambitions including a majority win for the Islamist current in the 2011–12 parliamentary election, during which the Brotherhood was accused by many opposition figures of making deals with the military while protesters were being killed by security forces. Their efforts culminated with Mohamed Morsi by 51.7% in the 2012 presidential election.

Constituent Assembly of 2012

In April, a couple of months prior to Morsi's inauguration, the Administrative Court suspended a constituent assembly previously appointed in March without giving any clear reasons for this decision and which the Brotherhood claimed was politically motivated. In mid-June however, another 100-member assembly was officially selected a week after a deal was reached between the ruling military council and representatives of 22 parties. Tensions later resumed after a court ruled that the entire Islamist-dominated parliament was illegally elected and ordered the body to dissolve, which angered the Brotherhood and Mohamed Beltagy called it a "full-fledged coup". On 18 June, the SCAF issued a supplementary constitutional declaration that limits the to-be president's power over the military and gives it complete control over all army decisions. However, those controversial moves never changed the status of the constituent assembly as it was elected by the Shura Council not by parliament. Also, the same day the military delivered its statement, Hossam El-Gheriany was elected as chairman of the assembly. Military chief Mohamed Hussein Tantawi was forced to retire by Morsi on 12 August, a month and a half after the latter was elected and a week after a militant attack in Sinai that had the military preoccupied, leaving the constituent assembly's drafting process unchallenged.

Tamarod campaign

Amid a climate of dissent and division, Tamarod (Arabic for "rebellion"), a grassroots movement, was founded in April 2013 by five young activists with ages ranging between 22 and 30 years old. They orchestrated a door-to-door, street-level campaign collecting signatures from Egyptians across the country calling for, among other demands, President Morsi's resignation, early presidential elections and the start of a renewed constituent process. Tamarod was supported by various opposition parties and autonomous social movements. The campaign, reminiscent of 1919's collection of petitions against British occupation, called for massive protests all over the country on 30 June 2013, which was the first anniversary of Morsi's inauguration, to create popular pressure on the government to see through their demands. The campaign's leading members Mahmoud Badr, Hassan Shahin, Mohamed Abdel Aziz, Mai Wahba and Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, initially unfamiliar to the public, started to continuously gain strong popularity among Egyptians reflected in the people's eagerness to publicly register their names, identification card numbers and signatures on the petition form. The movement was also intensifying its political activity, uniting all anti-Brotherhood parties and most political factions in its mission. Among the groups supporting it were the National Salvation Front, the Kefaya Movement and the April 6 Youth Movement. These also included members of the former National Democratic Party who, as stated by Mohamed ElBaradei, were allowed to participate as long as they weren't convicted of any crimes such as Morsi's 2012 rival candidate Ahmed Shafik who supported the protests. On 26 June, Tamarod launched the 30 June Front to administer the upcoming protests and to manage the transitional period following Morsi's ouster. This was in collaboration with a number of political movements and parties. Founders included Ahmed Douma, former member of the 6 April movement, as well as youth activists such as Esraa Abdel Fattah. According to the roadmap offered by the front, the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court will be the acting interim president and all executive powers would be handed over to a new prime minister. The demands also included the suspension of the 2012 constitution, the dissolution of the Shura Council and forming a committee of experts to draft a new constitution and put it to a referendum. At the press conference where the front was announced and in the presence of many prominent revolutionary and political figures, Mohamed Abdel Aziz, co-founder of the campaign, said:

We announce the 30 June Front as an initiative from Tamarod to represent Egyptians who refuse Muslim Brotherhood rule and to share with the great Egyptian people their political vision in order to avoid the mistakes of the past period and to continue on the path of January 25 Revolution"

However, the presidency and its supporters had a different reaction to Tamarod which was far from appeasing the population. A counter-campaign called "Tagarod" (Arabic for "impartiality") was started by Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya member Assem Abdel Maged, who called on Morsi's supporters to sign this petition to keep the "legitimately elected president in his post". Abdel Maged's campaign however, proved unsuccessful in terms of impact compared to Tamarod which was able to penetrate and mobilize the " Couch Party", the silent majority of Egyptians who usually avoid participating in political events but prominently joined anti-Morsi demonstrations this time. The movement's effectiveness in sparking the uprising directly inspired many other copycat campaigns throughout the Arab world such as Gaza, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen, as well as a new wave of protests in Bahrain.

Allegations of military involvement in Tamarod

Egypt's military had long showed discontent at Morsi's policies and viewed the political tensions between the government and its opponents as a threat to the nation's stability. This had come to light following a huge Islamist rally in support of the Syrian uprising sponsored by the Brotherhood in Cairo Stadium. What worried the army though, is that Morsi, while not explicitly calling himself for holy war, delivered a speech in which he called for a foreign intervention against Bashar al-Assad's government by establishing a no-fly zone over Syria. The military responded by issuing a statement where it argued that its only role is to guard Egypt's borders.

On 23 June, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued a statement warning all sides saying that the army will not allow the country to fall into a "dark tunnel of conflict". He also added:

Those who think that we (the military) are oblivious to the dangers that threaten the Egyptian state are mistaken. We will not remain silent while the country slips into a conflict that will be hard to control

After Morsi was ousted on 3 July, most of the country's energy crises, that were very common during Morsi's presidency, were surprisingly diminished following the Revolution. David D. Kirkpatrick, Cairo's bureau chief of ''The New York Times'', claimed there might have been a campaign orchestrated by members of the old Mubarak regime and top military generals that was meant to undermine Mohamed Morsi's one-year rule. Kirkpatrick also claimed that a smear media campaign against Morsi, that began immediately following Morsi's inauguration, helped feed popular discontent towards the authorities by adopting a contradictory stance through favoring the military while honoring Morsi's position as president of the republic.

Later in 2015, leaked tapes from the summer of 2013 that were later verified by J. P. French Associates emerged recording figures of the Egyptian military, including then-Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, suggesting Egyptian military involvement in the mass-protests preceding Morsi's ouster. In one of the leaked tapes the generals are heard discussing the withdrawal of a large sum of money for the army's use from the bank account of Tamarod, the independent grassroots group that was organizing protests against President Morsi. The tapes also suggest high-level collusion between the coup plotters and the Government of the United Arab Emirates as the money that is to be transferred from Tamarod's account into the army's account was provided by the UAE. The tapes were first released on the Turkish Islamist channel ''Mekameleen'', a fact that the Egyptian government says discredits the tapes as fakes. American officials later confirmed that the United Arab Emirates was indeed providing financial support for the protests against Morsi.

Issues

Economic crisis

Preparation and security precautions

During security measures in Upper Egypt, the Luxor security directorate announced that it had transferred all those jailed in the local police station to Qena prison as a mean of avoiding the 2011 scenario due to the risk of violence. Aswan saw heavy security presence and the police chief announced that he will personally head the operation room to receive complaints and information during the demonstrations and said that security personnel will protect their stations as well as state property, and added that the people will be protected, not the regime or any political party. Members of the FJP have gathered in front of their party headquarters to secure the complex. These procedures took place on 30 June, the day of protests.

According to information that came out after the removal of Morsi, officials claimed that Morsi stopped working at the presidential office as early as 26 June in anticipation to the protests and moved with his family to Koubbeh Palace, just a few blocks away from the main palace.

Fears of violence against Copts

Weeks prior to the protests, Coptic Christians, particularly in Upper Egypt, received threats from Morsi's Islamist supporters, pressuring them not to take part in the protests. Sheikh Essam Abdulamek, a member of parliament's Shura Council, said in an interview on television that Christians should not participate in the protests and warned them "do not sacrifice your children ince thegeneral Muslim opinion will not be silent about the ousting of the president." Letters were delivered to Christian families in Minya where they were threatened not to join the protests, otherwise their "businesses, cars, homes, schools, and churches" might "catch fire". The letters, signed by "People zealous of the nation", read:

If you are not worried about any of these, then worry about your children and your homes. This message is being delivered with tact. But when the moment of truth comes, there will be no tact.

There had been incitements against Copts by some of Morsi's staunchest allies. For instance, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya's leading hardline cleric Assem Abdel Maged directly threatened the country's Christian community by saying "if you go down into the streets on 30 June, you will bring black days onto yourselves." President Morsi himself invited Pope Tawadros II to a meeting at the country's presidential palace in what has been seen as an attempt to put pressure on him. The pope told Morsi to do what is necessary to bring the nation together and work for the peace of Egypt, not to stir up quarrels. "I am still hoping to see improvements in the economic and social life of the country," he said, while Morsi suggested that the church should advise Egypt's Christian community not to participate in the protests. Pro-Morsi cleric Safwat Hegazi addressed the country's Christians by saying: "You share this country with us, but there are red lines, and one red line is the legitimacy of Dr. Morsi. Whoever splashes water on that, we will spill his blood."

Early events

28 June

On Friday 28 June, protests against Morsi started to build throughout Egypt including in such cities as Cairo, Alexandria, Dakahlia, Gharbiya and Aswan as a "warm up" for the massive protests expected on 30 June that were planned by Tamarod. Pro-Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood supporters started counterdemonstrations at the Rabia Al-Adawiya Mosque in Nasr City.

29 June

Deadly clashes broke out this day in several Egyptian cities, most notably Alexandria, where armed confrontations between Morsi's supporters and his opponents, with both sides in the fighting armed with different kinds of firearms, left many injured and three dead, a 14-year-old boy, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who was shot dead and an American student, Andrew Pochter, was killed after being stabbed in the chest during an anti-Morsi rally. Protesters stormed the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood's ruling Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and set the building ablaze. In Port Said, a bomb detonated in the city's Martyrs Square where protesters had gathered to protest against Mohamed Morsi. The explosion, which '' AFP'' reported to have been a hand-grenade thrown by unidentified men, injured 14 demonstrators and killed a journalist. A police general in Sinai was gunned down by militants in an ambush when he was leaving his car, before they ran away.

In Cairo, the president's opponents started building up in anticipation for 30 June's uprising as thousands of anti-Morsi demonstrators took to Tahrir Square with the number of tents increasing to 150. At the presidential palace, protesters set up 18 tents and erected a stage at the entrance of Heliopolis Sporting Club

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases