Egyptians mark first anniversary of revolution in Istanbul

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The first anniversary of the revolution in Egypt was celebrated with a reception held at the Egyptian Consulate in Istanbul. 

Egyptian Consul-General Wafaa el-Hadidi, Egyptian diplomats and the Egyptian community living in Istanbul attended the ceremony. El-Hadidi said the Egyptian revolution was not finished yet. 

“The revolution still continues, and we hope it will come to a very good end in the near future,” el-Hadidi added. El-Hadidi also said they want to strengthen the ties between the Egyptian community living in Turkey and asked the Egyptians to register their names to the consulate “in order to be able to vote in the elections.”

Egyptian diplomat Nehad Gamal Eldin said no one had expected a revolution to take place when the first anti-regime demonstrations took place in Egypt. “But when millions of Egyptian youth took the streets, we felt this time it was going to be different, because they were very well determined to change something,” Eldin said. 

“When we saw millions of people on the streets, we couldn’t believe our eyes. At the end of that day they used violence against the protestors, but this violence only caused more people to go out to the streets. The protestors started to ask for more – they didn’t want Hosni Mubarak to stay in power anymore. My son was also among them,” Eldin said.