Black Friday in Egypt

I was planing to write on the political conflict and poverty in Egypt for a long time. Today, it became undelayable.

Lets go to back a little bit. Actually, Egypt is a very old state. The unification of the north and south was completed around 3200 BC! However, it has not a long history as a sovereign state. The country was invaded by Ottoman Turks in 1517. The Napoleon's invasion in 1798 interrupted this process. The Turks took the control back shortly but under an Ottoman General called Kavalali Mehmed Ali Paşa, it became a half dependent state of Ottoman Turks in 1805. Kavalali Mehmed Ali Paşa's regime has turned into a dynasty which passed from father to son, has been slowly colonized by Britain.

In 28 February 1922, Egypt has decleared full independence from Britain, followed by the decleration of Republic in 18 June 1953 as a result of 1952 Revolution. The architect of the 1952 revolution, Nasser became the president after the decleration of republic. However, the political instability in the region did not bring the country the peace. In 1967, the country, along with other Arab nations, has lost significant amount of its territory to Israel. Nasser died.

Nasser was succeeded by Enver Sedat. Together with Syria, Egypt has launched a surprise attack to Israel in 1973, called October War. Although militarily defeated, Egypt has regained the invaded territory as a result of the UN-pushed peace process. This brought high popularity to Sedat within Egypt and many protest from the Arabs who was defeated by Israel. The public hero Sedat Enver has been assassinated by a fundementalist in 1981. He was succeeded by Husnu Mubarek who was a war hero during 1973 War, served as the chief officer of Air forces.

Husnu Mubarek is the ruler of Egypt since then. His 30 years of presidency made him the longest serving ruler of his country since Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasa.