Egypt 2001

Yearbook 2001

Egypt. After five years of negotiations, Egypt and the EU signed a free trade agreement on 25 June, which is supposed to run for five years from the date of ratification. In addition to lowered barriers to trade, the agreement also provides EU support for Egyptian agriculture, which is not covered by free trade, and support for the modernization of the Egyptian industry.

Several legal processes were noted during the year. In February, four people were sentenced to up to ten years in prison for the murder of some 20 Egyptian Christians (Copts) in connection with violence in al-Kusha village in 2000.

On June 9, the trial of the author and feminist Nawal El Saadawi, who had been accused of blaspheming Islam, was updated by saying in a newspaper interview that the Muslim pilgrimage, hajj, has pagan roots. She risked being punished by being forced to divorce her husband. The trial was not resumed for the rest of the year.

• Abbreviationfinder: lists typical abbreviations and country overview of Egypt, including bordering countries, geography, history, politics, and economics.

On November 14, 23 gay men were sentenced to prison for rape. One of them was sentenced to five years in prison, the other to three. Earlier, a juvenile court had sentenced a 15-year-old boy to three years in prison for the same crime. The men and boy were arrested in May at a nightclub on a boat on the Nile.

Following the September 9 terrorist attacks in Egypt, Egypt announced that it would cooperate with the United States in the investigation of the deed but did not contribute troops to the US war on terrorism. One of the suicides, Muhammad Atta, was an Egyptian citizen, as was the terrorist suspect Usama bin Laden’s closest husband Ayman az-Zawahri.

Egypt on December 13 devalued its currency, the pound, by 7.8% in an attempt to attract tourists to the country in the new world situation after the September terrorist attacks.

At least 14 schoolchildren drowned on October 24 when a school bus slipped down the Asfunk Canal in the Isna province of central Egypt.

Continued popular protests forced Mubarak’s prime minister to resign in early March. At the same time, the intelligence agency began destroying records that could reveal its espionage to the population. to be on the safe side, the security police ended up burning down their own building.

In March, a referendum on minor constitutional amendments was carried out. The amendments were authored by a commission consisting solely of old regime members. Part of the opposition therefore called for a vote of no, but as a sign of disillusionment, only 40% voted in the referendum, and 77% of them voted in favor of the constitutional amendments. The military dictatorship promised to hold parliamentary elections for September.

On April 1, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered at Tahrir Square under the slogan “Red Revolution”. They demanded that the military rule work faster to disband the old power structures. It was repeated a week later but under sharper passwords, openly criticizing the Supreme Military Council for failing to meet the demands of the revolution. A number of powerful figures were demanded removed, including the state prosecutor. There were people from the old regime who did not advance quickly enough in the investigation of the regime’s corruption. On April 16, Egyptian courts ordered Mubarak and his two sons arrested and questioned, as well as the current ruling party NDP dissolved. The state took over its values. Until 31 January 2011, the NDP was a member of the Socialist International.

In Decree-Law No 34, SCAF banned strikes in April and any “interruption of public and private sector work”.

On August 3, the trial of Hosni Mubarak, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, and 11 prominent police officers began the assassinations of the hundreds of protesters in January/February.

On September 9, several thousand protesters attacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Despite international commitments to protect the embassy, ​​Egyptian police kept a low profile and allowed protesters to storm the embassy. On the night of September 10, the United States organized an evacuation of the 85 Israelis on the embassy grounds and flew them to Tel Aviv. The reason was that on August 18, militant Palestinians managed to cross the Egypt-Israel border and kill eight Israelis. As revenge, Israel killed at least 3 Egyptian border soldiers. This led to a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. Egypt withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv, and Israel ended up “lamenting” the deaths of Egyptian border soldiers. There was no excuse and the regret was rejected by the Egyptian authorities.

Through 2011, the old security police sought to wreak havoc in the country by creating religious divisions. It was responsible for attacks on Coptic churches in Alexandria and on Aswan in southern Egypt. On October 9, over 100,000 Copts (as well as Muslims and other faiths) demonstrated in Cairo against the attacks on the Copts. The demonstration was attacked by military and security forces. Armored crew cars drove at high speed throughout the demonstration, killing 13. Another 24 protesters were killed by gunshots. Over 200 were injured. The massacre raised a storm of criticism – both nationally and internationally. The Muslim Brotherhood, which had kept low profile during the upheaval in February and subsequently, came out with sharper criticism of the military dictatorship. Brotherhood was already the strongest organized political force in the country,

The October massacre led to widespread demands that the parliamentary elections scheduled to begin in November should be postponed. The argument was that it could not be implemented when security was so poor. Through November, protesters tried in vain to re-occupy Tahrir Square, but were hindered by the military. Through November, 33 were killed and over 2,000 injured during attempts by democracy protesters to resume the seat.

Population 2001

According to Countryaah, the population of Egypt in 2001 was 75,523,458, ranking number 16 in the world. The population growth rate was 1.870% yearly, and the population density was 75.8688 people per km².