ISTANBUL (AA) – Eight years have passed since Egypt's January 25 popular uprising forced autocratic President Hosni Mubarak to step down after 30 years in power.</p> <p>Although the uprising enjoyed a degree of constitutional recognition in 2012 and 2014, the official perception of Egypt’s 2011 “revolution” has changed markedly in recent years. </p> <p>The country’s pro-regime mainstream media, meanwhile, continues to treat the subject with downright hostility.</p> <p>On the uprising’s first anniversary in 2012, during a transitional phase led by Egypt’s Supreme Military Council, Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi praised demonstrators’ demands for “bread, freedom and social justice”.</p> <p>In 2013, Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader, declared that the uprising had “achieved — and will continue to achieve — its goals”.</p> <p>He went on, however, to warn the public of covert attempts to "steal" the uprising and subvert its goals.</p> <p>On June 30, 2013, tens of thousands of people — egged on by the media — took part in anti-Morsi demonstrations, while Morsi’s followers hit the streets in support of the embattled president.</p> <p>Three days later, the army ousted and imprisoned Morsi in a coup led by then Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. The following year, al-Sisi was elected president.</p> <p>On the uprising’s third anniversary in 2014, interim President Adly Mansour declared that the “revolution” against Morsi — i.e., the mass demonstrations that preceded the coup — had “brought the January 25 Revolution back on track”.</p> <p>After assuming office in a questionable election, al-Sisi made a similar declaration one year later — on the uprising’s fourth anniversary — in which he said the protests that led to Morsi’s ouster had "corrected” the course of the January 25 uprising.</p> <p>One year later still, on the uprising’s fifth anniversary, al-Sisi declared: “The June 30 revolution [against Morsi] came to restore the will of the people."</p> <p>And on the uprising’s sixth anniversary, he said: "The January Revolution will remain a turning point in Egypt's history."
He added: “When the [January 25] Revolution strayed from its path and was coopted by narrow interests and non-national purposes, the people's revolution resumed in June 2013 to correct its course.”
<p>And on the uprising’s seventh anniversary, al-Sisi hailed “the glorious Egyptian people on the anniversary of the revolution and their noble demands for freedom and dignity”.</p> <p>Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Egyptian political analyst Mokhtar Ghobashi pointed out how official references to the January 25 uprising “reflect the agendas of whoever’s in power”.</p> <p>“At each stage, the uprising has been referred to differently,” he said. “Each stage has seen the use of different language to refer to the event.”</p> <p>“Meanwhile, the country’s pro-regime media continues to portray January 25 as a ‘mistake’ or ‘conspiracy’ and the reason behind all the country’s ills,” he added.</p> <p>“As for the general public, people now usually refer to the 2011 uprising in whispers, while its symbols are seldom seen anymore,” said Ghobashi.</p> <p>What’s more, unlike in his official speeches, al-Sisi has — in televised statements and interviews — frequently coupled his references to the 2011 uprising with what appear to be warnings.</p> <p>In January of last year, for example, al-Sisi said in a televised address that Egypt would “never return to how things were seven or eight years ago”.</p> <p>He went on to suggest that he might ask for a public "mandate" to confront what he described as “those who would tamper with Egypt’s security and stability”. </p> <p>Last October, al-Sisi described the 2011 uprising as “the incorrect remedy” for the country’s problems. </p> <p>Many leaders of the January 25 uprising, meanwhile, are (like Morsi) now in prison, including Ahmed Duma, Alaa Abdel-Fattah and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed al-Beltagy.</p> <p>In December of last year, after years of hopping between prisons and hospitals, an aging Mubarak made an appearance — as a witness — at the trial of Morsi, who faces a host of trumped-up criminal charges.</p> <p>During his testimony, Mubarak described the 2011 uprising that forced him to step down — after 30 years in power — as a "conspiracy".</p>
