President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Tuesday that the inauguration of the New Administrative Capital (NAC) and the relocation of the government’s headquarters to the mega-city “hopefully this year” will be “a declaration of a new republic.”

As he addressed the Martyr Day symposium in Cairo, Sisi said the state was forced to delay its inauguration of the NAC and other new cities for a year due to the pandemic.

He said the inauguration of the NAC and the transference of government offices to carry out their duties from there will be “a birth of a new state”.

Addressing the 33rd armed forces’ symposium marking Martyr day, Sisi said the sacrifices made by Egyptian martyrs and the injured due to terrorist attacks rule out any justifications to destroy the state.

El-Sisi said that the people’s call for change in 2013 and the state’s request for a mandate to fight terrorism came at a great cost for the Egyptian people, particularly policemen and army personnel.

“When you requested a change of the reality that [you lived in], we said: give us the authority to fight terrorism. People were not aware that the procedure made in 2013 would be very costly to the people of Egypt,” the president said.

“The army is [part of the] Egyptian people. The policemen are [part of the] Egyptian people, and everyone who sacrifices for [the nation’s] sake is part of its people.”

Separately, during the symposium, El-Sisi said “these [sacrifices] were a great cost for a great matter and for a state that has 100 million [people] to live in security, peace and stability.”

“The message that I can learn as an Egyptian human from the biography of the martyrs and the injured, as well, is that this cost, which was the blood and souls [of the martyrs], [was necessary] for this state to become [what it is today], [let] no one ever imagine that there might be a reason that allows them to [forsake] the state,” he added.

The symposium, held this morning at Al-Manara International Conference Centre in Cairo, came under the title ‘Without them, we would not be here’.

Several officials attended the symposium, including the prime minister, the interior minister, the defence minister, the parliament and senate speakers, as well as actors and public figures.

The president honoured a number of families of the police and army victims, as well as some of the personnel that were injured in terrorist attacks.

He was also keen to extend thanks to the medical staff for the sacrifices they have made during the pandemic.

“I cannot ignore the big and growing role of our sons working in the medical field with all dedication and sincerity to fight the coronavirus pandemic.”

He added that the role they are playing would remain “immortal in the memory of our people.”

Martyr Day, celebrated annually on 9 March, marks the death of former Chief of Staff Abdel-Moneim Riad on that date in 1969.

Riad was killed alongside several of his aides in an Israeli mortar attack during the War of Attrition.

He had participated in several wars, including the 1948 Palestine War and the tripartite aggression against Egypt in 1956.