As part of the golden jubilee celebration of the October War victory, Pope Tawadros II joined President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, senior military commanders and State officials in a wreath-laying ceremony at the War memorial in Cairo on 3 October 2023.
Senior State officials, including Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Defence and Military Production Mohamed Zaki, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Osama Askar, and Minister of Interior Mahmoud Tawfik attended
The ceremony was attended by a number of family members of former presidents Anwar al-Sadat and Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
The wreaths were laid at the Memorial of the Armed Forces Martyrs in Nasr City in eastern Cairo, where President Sadat (President in 1971 – 1981) is buried, and that of President Nasser (President in 1954 – 1971) Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
The 6th of October marks Victory Day for Egypt. That was the date in 1973 when the Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal and landed in the Sinai Peninsula which had been occupied by the Israeli army since the June 1967 Six Day War, and which was accordingly a war zone held by the enemy, off-limits to Egyptians. The pain, indignity, and humiliation felt by Egyptians on account of that was indescribable. But the date 6 October 1973 came to change all that and restore Egypt’s national dignity.
Watani International
3 October 2023