Egyptians mark decade to Arab Spring

ANKARA (AA) - Egyptians on Monday marked the 10th anniversary of the Arab Spring protests which led to the end of Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule in the country.

The string of protests in 2011 against dictatorships across the Arab world spread like wildfire after a Tunisian street vendor self-immolated to protest the regime's human rights abuse.

On Jan. 25, 2011, Egyptians staged protests against unemployment and corruption as the security forces responded with disproportionate violence, killing hundreds of people.

The ensuing demonstrations ended Mubarak’s era on Feb. 11, 2011.

"Egyptians revolted for their freedom and dignity when the doors for change were blocked for them. They faced many challenges and obstacles, were deceived a lot, made a lot of mistakes, and sacrificed a lot, but in all of that they learned and changed a lot," Egyptian opposition figure and former Vice-President Mohamed El-Baradei tweeted.

He stressed "the march of people towards freedom is always long, and although it is possible to disrupt it, it is impossible to wipe it out."

He pinned his comment from February 2018 in which he criticized the regime of President Abdelfattah al-Sisi.

"Repression is not and will not be the solution. As I always say: Homelands are built by freedom, not by oppression; by knowledge, not by ignorance; by transparency, not by fraud; by partnership not by exclusion; by hope, not by fear; and by institutions not by individuals."

Mohamed Mahsoob, who was minister of legal affairs during the era of late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, said: "I do not see a future without ending fear and arrests, moving away from promoting hate, acknowledging a deteriorating reality, and accepting people's freedom of expression, criticism, experimentation, choice, and the rotation of power."

The former official's sister has been languishing in prison for some two years over what he calls "false charges."

Also, Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian political activist and one of the youth icons during the revolution, said: "Whoever is addicted to nostalgia, lives in delusion... and he who believes in an idea lives to fix himself even if he was defeated."

Ghonim in his replies to followers focused on moving on after the "failure" of revolution while rejecting "chaos" and calling for change via dialogue with the incumbent president.

Khaled Ali, a lawyer and politician, said the revolution was "the sincerest attempt of the girls and young men of this country in the 21st century for the sake of livelihood, freedom, human dignity and social justice."