CAIRO: Two years ago, protesters and Central Security Forces violently clashed through a dark November night, in a battle that would rage on for days on end and leave approximately 50 dead, amid repeated statements from the Interior Ministry that no live ammunition was used against civilians.
Once hosting a university, cafes and bookstores, and teeming with the hustle and bustle of daily life in Cairo, Mohamed Mahmoud St is now a ghost town; its very significance seems to have evacuated it, along with the thriving populace that frequented this once noisy vessel flowing into the heart of the city.
Nowadays the loudest things in the street are the colorful murals of a revolution that once was, and “revolutionary martyrs” who met their fates on that very ground.
Mohamed S., a student in his final year of studying commerce at Cairo University, was there at Mohamed Mahmoud in 2011, and in the clashes on its anniversary 2012, and lost friends in both instances, including Mohamed Gaber Salah “Gika,” whom he knew personally.
But though the events of both years remain clear in his mind, along with the memories of his companions, Mohamed will have to do with commemorating them away from the actual street, as he will not be partaking in the Nov. 19 demonstrations.
“There’s nothing new about the reason why I’m not going this year; rather it’s a very old reason, because essentially, we started off wrong. And this wrong start accumulated with more mistakes, leading up to this point,” Mohamed told The Cairo Post.
“Right now, the army and the police are talking about commemorating Mohamed Mahmoud, and at the same time they’re afraid of the day,” continued Mohamed. “It reminds me of the saying of the killer who walks in his victim’s funeral.”
“The police and the army, and that’s who Mohamed Mahmoud stood against, they will definitely be going. On the other hand, after what happened to them, the Muslim Brotherhood is talking about the army and the victims of Mohamed Mahmoud; something which they know nothing about,” he said.
“Their statements at the very time of the incidents still exist, and they’re enough to remind us of their position at the time, both on Nov. 19 2011, and Nov. 19 2012,” Mohamed added.
“Both sides are selling their causes in blood.”
The Interior Ministry issued a statement on Sunday, saying that it would be commemorating the incidents along with the others there, and securing the area. The ministry sent its “condolences to all the martyrs of the revolution, whose untainted blood watered the tree of national struggle.”
N., a member of a political party with headquarters downtown, close to Mohamed Mahmoud, argues that Mohamed Mahmoud never was, in fact, what it seemingly aimed to be about.
While she did not partake directly in the clashes on that day, she continuously circled the areas surrounding Mohamed Mahmoud in an attempt to gather as much information on her fellow party members who had been seriously injured there, and get medical supplies to a field hospital there.
“The first year around, there were several conspiracy theories on who was actually responsible for Mohamed Mahmoud, and talk of the army being responsible in order to stop parliamentary elections from happening, and stop the Brotherhood from winning them,” she told The Cairo Post.
“Of course, these conspiracy theories all proved to be false, in time, but I began to feel that we, as democratic and revolutionary forces, were pawns in a game that never ran in our favor,” she continued.
“The second year round, I wasn’t in the country, but I still feel that it was manipulated. I personally know people who were intentionally trying to inflame the situation in order for losses to occur, which would translate into pressure on the Brotherhood.”
“Plus, there were other groups that were going to court the army into intervening into the situation. Of course there were also revolutionaries who went to demand retribution for the first Mohamed Mahmoud, there’s no doubt about that,” she said.
“But, at the same time, I felt that in general, the revolutionary forces were being used in calculations that had nothing to do with the causes that they were there for.”
In both instances of the clashes at Mohamed Mahmoud, the army did not clearly intervene. The motivation underneath both movements was seemingly a deep-rooted anger at the Interior Ministry; in 2011, the masses’ demand that SCAF step down from power initially drove the protesters en masse to Tahrir and Mohamed Mahmoud.
“Mohamed Mahmoud limited the struggle to the Interior Ministry. Yes, our battle was partially with the Interior, but it was also with the army. But the way in which Mohamed Mahmoud turned out both times was in favor of the army, at the expense of the Interior Ministry,” N. continued.
“Yes, we are against the Interior Ministry, but how are we benefitting from getting people killed, when in both cases the army came out politically on top, in the long run?”
“I don’t know how Mohamed Mahmoud can be exploited this year, but for example, it could be used by the Muslim Brotherhood to show up the army and the Interior Ministry. We know that both are [against us], but we don’t need to go to Mohamed Mahmoud and get killed to establish that at this point, and when they are held accountable for their actions, it won’t be in this way,” she concluded.
N.’s refusal to partake comes out of a conviction that has festered in the minds of many revolutionary youth; that the game is largely not, and never was, in the hands of the revolutionary forces.
Amr Aboutawila, an architect, said he will most likely be commemorating the victims of Mohamed Mahmoud in Abdeen, nearby, a day before the anniversary.
Amr was amongst the hundreds that recently announced their resignation from the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, after accusing the party of straying from its original course, and hoping to find an alternative solution to those (leftists) who were against the current ruling authorities policies.
Amr said he fears that the stand-in at Mohamed Mahmoud could quickly become a violent stand-off. Further, he expressed skepticism concerning the intentions of the people who are commemorating Mohamed Mahmoud in the street itself.
“I feel as though these commemorations are almost like a festival. People just need to go and stand there. Last year when people went to commemorate Mohamed Mahmoud, there was an absurd scene of people throwing stones against a wall; as though people had to simply repeat the events, irrespective of whether or not there were police forces,” Amr told The Cairo Post.
“This frightens me a little, because people aren’t going to raise the same demands and call for restructuring the Interior Ministry; it’s a ritual that must happen,” he said, adding that both last year and this year people seem to be intentionally attempting to recreate the events of Mohamed Mahmoud.
Some remain hopeful; Mohamed S. still believes another revolutionary wave is coming, and while Amr has resigned from his former party, he and his fellow ex-party members have announced their intent to form another movement.
“The struggle still remains, but what happened after June 30 changed the form of the conflict. The two parties that were against Mohamed Mahmoud and that killed people there are now exploiting the memory of it. The political struggle is entirely different,” Amr said.
The government recently announced a monument in the middle of Tahrir Square that was to be completed before Nov. 19, to commemorate the victims of Mohamed Mahmoud and the revolution. The monument itself speaks volumes; of a revolution that many are anxious to see over, but also of the attempts by dominant forces to outbid each other for the memory of a revolution.
