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People: Remembering the leader

31.12.69

On 25 January 1952, the British forces posted along the Suez Canal engaged in a major confrontation with the police in Ismailiya, resulting in the deaths of 40 Egyptian policemen.
       The next day, protesters in their thousands marched in the streets of Cairo, attacking foreign and pro-British Egyptian establishments resulting in the deaths of 76 people, including nine British subjects.
        In May 1952, Nasser received word that King Farouq was aware of the names of the Free Officers and intended to arrest them. He therefore immediately entrusted Zakariya Mohieddine with drawing up plans for the takeover of the Government by Army units loyal to the association.
       Coinciding with Nasser's return to Egypt was Husni al-Za'im's coup d'état in Syria. The success of the coup and the support from the Syrian people further encouraged Nasser's revolutionary pursuits.
       Soon after his return, he was summoned and interrogated by Prime Minister Ibrahim Abdel-Hadi, on suspicion that he was forming a secret group of dissenting officers, an allegation which Nasser convincingly denied.
        In 1950, the group adopted the name ‘Association of Free Officers’ and talked of freedom and the restoration of their country’s dignity.
       Abdel-Nasser organised the founding committee of the Free Officers which eventually comprised 14 men from different social and political backgrounds, with some being members of Young Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Communist Party, as well as the aristocracy.
        Nasser was unanimously elected chairman of the organisation.
The 1952 revolution was a big inspiration for the young Egyptians in the January 2011 revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.
        Photos of Gamal Abdel-Nasser were raised by the young Egyptians in Al-Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the revolution.
       Governmental corruption and defeat in the 1948 War were the main reasons why the Free Officers led by General Mohamed Naguib launched a revolution on July 23rd, 1952, seizing Army GHQ and laying siege to Abdin Palace in downtown Cairo and Ras el-Tin Palace in Alexandria. 
        They also seized control of all governmental buildings, radio stations and police stations in Cairo.
        Mohamed Naguib assumed leadership of the new revolutionary Government, becoming the first President of Egypt on June 18th 1953, the day on which the Egyptian and Sudanese monarchy was abolished, and the Republic of Egypt was declared.
         Nasser and the Free Officers expected to become the ‘guardians of the people's interests’ against the monarchy and the Pasha class, while leaving the day-to-day tasks of government to civilians.
         Thus, they asked Ali Maher, a former prime minister, to resume his previous position and form an all-civilian cabinet.  The Free Officers then renamed themselves the Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), with Naguib as chairman and Nasser as vice-chairman.
          In September 1952, the first Agrarian Reform Law was enacted, limiting land ownership to 200 feddans. For the first time, land was distributed to landless peasants. The Free Officers gradually engaged in politics during the following years. Source: Egyptian Gazette