The nation of Egypt is being through the most dramatic period of its history at the moment. Legal and democratically elected President Morsi was put down as a result of a military coup, which took place on July 4.
From that moment on, the freedom-loving nation of Egypt has to resist the coupists on a daily basis to stand for their votes which brought Morsi to power on July 2012 with a result of 52%. The supporters of the former President are persistent in their refusal to cooperate with the new authorities in any manner and are planning to immobilize the whole country if the Army won’t set the caught-up President free and return the position of the Head of State to him. This statement was made by Mr. Essam el-Erian, the Deputy Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party. According to him, everybody who believes revolution and freedom were stolen from them went to protest, not just pro-islamic supporters.
“People go for protest to protect the Egyptians Law and Liberty downtrodden by the Army. Citizens expressed their will by electing both houses of the Parliament — but the Army dissolved Parliament. People voted for the Constitution — but the Army overturned the Constitution. People elected the President they trusted — but the Army put him down. For that reason people are not just protecting Morsi — they protest to protect their own lives, views and freedom”, — Mr. el-Erian said. He also noted that the Muslim Brotherhood will have no negotiations with the Army, as the negotiations will legitimize the coup and the new authorities.
The Muslim Brotherhood press-secretary Mr. Aref wrote in his Facebook status: “Our position is clear. We reject the coup and demand democracy and legality. This is not the Brotherhood’ private case, this is the matter of protecting the free choice of the whole nation of Egypt”
The coupists and their external patrons do their best to justify their unlawful and culpable actions against the will of the nation claiming that they do enact this will in very deed. General al-Sisi explains himself as if the armed forces don’t intrude in the politics, all they do is “protect the democracy”, without explaining how his statement comes together with the Bill putting Morsi down and almost restoring the provisions of the Public Emergency Law and liquidating the achievements of the January 25, 2011, Revolution.
“Some of the “crimes” listed in the Bill are indeed the peoples rights and freedoms, namely freedom to express the opinion against the ruling party, freedom of demonstrations and protests”, — the joint Declaration of 15 Egyptian Human Rights NGO says. However, neither putschists themselves nor their patrons never gave explanation on that.
Hypocrisy shown by Mr. Anthony Blair, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007, who defended the Egyptian army's decision to remove Egypt's first elected leader. Blair says events in Egypt are just "the latest example of the interplay, visible the world over, between democracy, protest and government efficacy".
Drop it, mr. ex-Prime Minister! You already made your mark in the History as a politician who drag the Great Britain into a bloody and disgraceful gamble when you invaded Iraq along with the USA in 2003 with all the victims and consequences it let to.
For some reason you, as well as other sirenical advocates of the putschists forgot the very basis of Western democracy for some reason. This basis states (which written in every Constitution and Bill of Rights) that the Nation elects the President (in countries where such position exists) for a defined term to implement the programme that candidate declared during his election campaign, and this is the programme people vote for. If he is successful in implementing this programme during his first term, he gets re-elected. If he fails — he loses the following elections and leaves his post.
This is an axioma of the Western Constitutional Law. The US Constitution (Article II Section I) declares that “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows”.
The President is the Commander-In-Chief and the Armed forces enact his will fully, and their task is defending the borders of the country from outer aggressors. Which Western country can you recall where the Army can stand against the legally elected President so openly? This is nonsense except for the plots of some fantastic novels, but these novels also end up with punishing the putschists who impinged upon the very basis of Democracy.
How come foreign leaders show such a blatant disrespect and misunderstanding for the outer and inner conditions the President of Egypt Muhammad Morsi had to deal with during a year? He had been courageous on the opportunity of cancelling the 60-year tradition of Armed Forces dictate in the country, with the Army being a state within a state. Had it been not a resolute step forward to achieve the common principles of Democracy, with a strictly defined role of the Armed Forces within a State of Democracy?
It is by intent that I don’t talk about the President Morsi’s definite miscalculations and mistakes, as he himself spoke of them openly. What we talk about here is that the high-ranking Army officers have violated the basic principles of Democracy and betrayed their President instead of supporting him as they’re supposed to. That the truth about what really happened in Egypt.
An outstanding politician of the contemporary Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave a kind of a model lesson on the main principles of Democracy. When speaking about Egypt, he said: “What do you need the ballot box for? The Ballot box results in the Government expressing the will of the nation, and this Government must rule the country, either successful or not. Is the Government is unsuccessful, the ballot box comes on stage again. If that happens, you can say that the Government failed”.
On July 18 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he still considers Muhammad Morsi as the President of Egypt, and that his opinion is first of all based on respect for the People of Egypt who care for what is going on in their country. “They started asking questions, such as where their voices have gone. The Egyptians didn’t bend their necks to those trying to dictate their will. They went out to the streets altogether and started their joint struggle” — stated the Turkish Prime Minister when taking word on the joint iftar organized by the Justice and Development Party in Istanbul.
At the same time the Constitutions of the democratical states have a special procedure for bringing the highest officials to trial called impeachment. This results, as a rule, in the President’s (or other official’s) early resignation; such decision can be made by Parliament where the constitutional majority ( either ⅔ or ¾) of votes is needed.
Impeachment procedures in different countries vary due to the differences of the national legislation. This is one of the control mechanisms in democratic countries, and this procedure is needed for preserving social and constitutional stability; it’s a tool for preventing Authoritarianism and national security protection.
For instance, two U.S. Presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted at the trials held by the Senate: Andrew Johnson in 1968 (after resigning Secretary of War Edwin Stanton unlawfully) and Bill Clinton in 1998-1999 (for perjury before a grand jury and obstruction of justice during a Monica Lewinski lawsuit against him). President Richard Nixon resigned from office after the House Judiciary Committee had already reported articles of impeachment to the floor in 1947 because of the Watergate scandal. The fact he resigned before the impeachment was approved by the Senate allowed his successor, Gerald Ford, to condone Nixon’s offence.
In other words, the impeachment procedure is solely legal-political and is done through Parliament procedures, not the military coup.
As a result the bloody coup enacted by Egyptian high-ranking Army officers against the legally elected President Morsi is not only treason, but also abuse of the common constitutional principles which say that the Nation is one and only sovereign expressing their will though act and deed during elections and referendum. No doubt that the Nation of Egypt will make the Army hold accountable for stomping out their will.
Dr.Vyacheslav Shved, leading researcher of the Institute for World Economy and International Relations of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Ukraine,
Director of the Dept. of Near East Affairs at Ukraine's National Institute for Strategic Studies,
Vice-President of the “Ukrainian Centre For Islamic Studies” NGO
