Morsi, Menderes, and Allende: Remembered as Influential Leaders Despite the Failed Attempts to Discredit Them

In 2012 during his election campaign, the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, said: "I will not betray God in you, and when I say I am the servant of the people, and that the ruler is hired by the nation. I must look at history, and remember that the rulers who were just and fair earned the respect of their people, and marked the history."

Despite the death of President Morsi, after a coup organized by the army chief (at the time), Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Sisi’s regime continues to work to tarnish Mosri’s reputation. Morsi was abused in Sisi’s prisons for successive years, until he lost his life in 2019.

The attempts to discredit Morsi was done by writing a false history through directed dramas, the latest of which was The Choice 3 series, which depicts Morsi’s personality in an inappropriate manner, caring a lot of injustice and aggression, as reported by Egyptian activists and politicians.

Nevertheless, the smear campaigns against Morsi found a huge popular resonance from the masses, who expressed, through social media platforms, their sympathy with the late president, which indicated the failure of the regime, with its media and tyrannical authority, to impose a distorted narrative, and to convince the general public with it.

 

Great Sympathy

With the start of the Ramadan drama season in Egypt, on April 2, 2022, a great deal of controversy prevailed on the Egyptian communication sites, and in popular circles, with the broadcast of the first episode of the series The Choice 3, in which the Egyptian regime supervises every detail.

This part of the series deals with the scenes of the coup by Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, when he was Minister of Defense, against the late elected President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Dealing with the series was dominated by a state of irony about the physical differences between the hero, artist Yasser Jalal, who is distinguished by his great height, and Sisi, who is known for his short stature.

The late president received a large wave of support, and calls for mercy and forgiveness in the holy month, contrary to what the Sisi regime had hoped for.

Egyptian journalist Osama Gawish wrote, in a tweet: "They made The Choice 3 and thought that they had erased the impact of the late President Mohamed Morsi. However, it was an opportunity for everyone to remember him as the first elected civilian president."

Thus, Mohamed Morsi went on the footsteps of the historical leaders, who withstood military coups, and were subjected to abuse, but marked history, and they became symbols in their countries.

 

Turkiye’s Menderes

The tragedy of the late Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes is the closest model to the story of Mohamed Morsi in Egypt.

Menderes was the first victim of the internal conflict in Turkiye with the generals, when he tried to implement a package of reforms related to the economy and the identity of the state. The most prominent of which was reopening the schools of "imams and preachers", restoring the call to prayer in Arabic, after it was in Turkish, and restricting the army’s authority.

On the morning of May 27, 1960, the Turkish army moved to carry out the first military coup during the republican era. Menderes and the President of the Republic Celal Bayar were arrested along with a number of ministers, and they were sent to a prison on Yassıada Island.

On September 17, 1961, the Turkish Prime Minister was executed, by the putschist generals, and his body hung on the remote island.

However, the story did not end, as it took Turkiye 30 years for Menderes to be rehabilitated, and his remains were transferred in a solemn scene to Istanbul, on September 17, 1990.

One of the largest streets of Istanbul took his name, in addition to some squares, bus and train stations, and many other activities bearing the name Menderes, to become one of the symbols of the Turkish national and international struggle.

In recent years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has marked the anniversary of the execution of Menderes and his comrades.

On January 15, 2022, Erdogan inaugurated the Adnan Menderes Democracy Museum in the western state of Aydin, under the directives of the Turkish presidency. The museum houses Menderes' personal belongings, his car, photos and documents.

 

Chile’s Allende

The third model, whose story was similar to that of President Mohamed Morsi, is Salvador Allende, the anti-Western leader of Chile, who won the presidential elections in 1970, but was killed during a military coup carried out by the army, led by General Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973.

Allende had worked on a comprehensive economic rescue and reform plan in his country, which included raising employee wages by more than 40 percent, and nationalizing major productive sectors such as copper production and food industries.

On the educational level, he embarked on a major reform in all sectors of education, to establish a new generation capable of advancing the state, and against foreign interventions that were common in Chile at the time.

Disturbed by Allende's nationalization decisions, especially in the copper sector, the United States put economic pressure on Chile and incited regional cooperation organizations against it, as well as financed social strikes by truck drivers to paralyze local business.

After a large, orchestrated disturbance, the army chief Pinochet succeeded in his coup attempt, stormed the Republican Palace, and killed Allende, and it was believed that he was liquidated by order of the American intelligence, which was not far from what happened.

Allende lost his battle in power with a tragic end, but he became a symbol of the national struggle, and an inspiration to his people, who raised his pictures and gave his name to many squares and neighborhoods.

Even outside of Chile, Allende was honored on more than one level, and in the mid-1980s East Germany (then) issued a postage stamp bearing Allende's name and photo.

As for his enemy, the leader of the coup Pinochet, he was removed from his rule after massive demonstrations in the early nineties, and his page was completely closed after his arrest in Britain in October 1998, based on a Spanish indictment.

Chile's Supreme Court had already prepared to sue him, but efforts were made to delay that trial until his death in December 2006.

 

Trajectory Correction

In this context, the Egyptian political researcher, Mohamed Maher, said that "the media campaign directed against President Morsi, despite his death, expresses the fragility of the structure of this regime, because it is indeed still afraid of history and revolution."

He added to Al-Estiklal, "Just as Sisi is fighting the revolution in every country and working to distort it in the hearts of the people, he is also working to distort President Morsi, because Sisi knows the extent of his crime and knows very well how history will remember him. His attempts to distort the narratives are nothing but a kind of absurdity. History always corrects itself.”

Maher explained: "How many regimes owned propaganda, media and directed the masses unilaterally, and after a while their narrative and propaganda eventually collapsed, as what happened with the communist regimes in Eastern Europe, and as what happened in the Soviet Union."

He went on to say: "Even at the local level in Egypt, the media of Gamal Abdel Nasser was more powerful and dominant, and was distinguished by its absolute uniqueness. However, where he is now, the truth has prevailed over his narratives. What was written after his era, showed what was really happening in the dark basements inside the wheel of the state itself. I am not talking about prisons and detention centers, that is another matter.”

Maher stressed, "The regime knows very well that President Morsi has become a true icon of freedom and steadfastness against the military and the generals. Just like Adnan Menderes and Nelson Mandela, and no matter how much they work to destroy his symbolism, his impact will remain for future generations, especially since his end was tragic. This is what threatens his enemies, especially Sisi."