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RELATIONS BETWEEN FRANCE AND ALGERIA REMAIN STRAINED DUE TO THE ALGERIAN GENOCIDE
Mukremin TASCI (JTW)
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Nov 22 2006
Relations between France and Algeria remain strained due to the
Algerian Genocide committed by France during the colonial period.
French President Jacques Chirac has rebuffed Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika's demand that France apologize for its "long,
brutal and genocidal" rule. Bouteflika officially named the French
period as "cultural and political genocide of the Algerian identity".
During a visit to Algiers last week, French Interior Minister Nicolas
Sarkozy, the leading ruling party candidate in the 2007 presidential
vote, said he couldn't "ask children to apologize for the faults
of their fathers." Sarkozy and his party accuses Turkey for the
Ottoman past and Sarkozy strongly support a bill which makes crime
to reject the Armenian genocide crimes in Turkey. Algerians argue
that France should first face with its own crimes before judging the
other countries.
Algerian historians estimate that more than 1,5 million Algerians
were massacred by the French Army.
The Algerian war for independence began in 1954, and the French army
largely crushed the rebels by 1958. Civilian massacres and the use of
torture undercut support for the war in France, resulting in General
Charles de Gaulle's decision to quit Algeria.
Mukremin TASCI (JTW)
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Nov 22 2006
Relations between France and Algeria remain strained due to the
Algerian Genocide committed by France during the colonial period.
French President Jacques Chirac has rebuffed Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika's demand that France apologize for its "long,
brutal and genocidal" rule. Bouteflika officially named the French
period as "cultural and political genocide of the Algerian identity".
During a visit to Algiers last week, French Interior Minister Nicolas
Sarkozy, the leading ruling party candidate in the 2007 presidential
vote, said he couldn't "ask children to apologize for the faults
of their fathers." Sarkozy and his party accuses Turkey for the
Ottoman past and Sarkozy strongly support a bill which makes crime
to reject the Armenian genocide crimes in Turkey. Algerians argue
that France should first face with its own crimes before judging the
other countries.
Algerian historians estimate that more than 1,5 million Algerians
were massacred by the French Army.
The Algerian war for independence began in 1954, and the French army
largely crushed the rebels by 1958. Civilian massacres and the use of
torture undercut support for the war in France, resulting in General
Charles de Gaulle's decision to quit Algeria.