After 18 days of protests in Egypt, started from 25 January 2011 until 11 February 2011, finally Hosni Mubarak has resigned from his post, handing over power to the armed forces.Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, announced in a televised address that the president was "waiving" his office, and had handed over authority to the Supreme Council of the armed forces.
Suleiman's short statement was received with a roar of approval and by celebratory chanting and flag-waving from a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Cairo's Tahrir Square, as well by pro-democracy campaigners who attended protests across the country on Friday.
The crowd inTahrir were seen crying, cheering and embracing one another while chanted “We have brought down the regime”. The Egyptians felt so happy with the decision made and the day was greatest day of their life.
In Alexandria, Egypt's second city, our correspondent described an "explosion of emotion". He said that hundreds of thousands were celebrating in the streets.
Pro-democracy activists in the Egyptian capital and elsewhere had earlier marched on presidential palaces, state television buildings and other government installations on Friday, the 18th consecutive day of protests.
The extraordinary scenes in Cairo tonight - with the streets, avenues, and bridges jammed with hooting cars xcited flag-waving people - are a sign of the relief and pride which the crowds now feel.This was a victory for them in a country where people have habitually been obliged to do what their political masters told them.Now they have the prospect of voting for their own leader in the coming presidential election.
In Egypt's 5,000 years as a unitary state, these people have never been able to choose their government before.Will the army let it happen? It is hard to think now that they could prevent it. The people who have taken control of their cities and their country once know how to do it again. It wand eould be foolhardy for the army to try to stop them.
What has happened here in Egypt can happen anywhere. In Libya, in Iran, in Algeria, in Syria. It does not take leaders and it does not take a well-organized conspiracy.It simply takes courage
of the kind the demonstrators have shown in Egypt.
The leaders of autocracies in the Middle East and way beyond should not sleep easy after this.
*The article was edited by blog owner that has being taken from those sources :
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