Algerian-French Memory Commission Must Continue Joint Work

The strength of the Algerian proposal that insists on restituting the entire archive lies in relying on international laws, all of which remain in Algeria’s favour, as international law considers that the archive written in a given country is the archive of that country, the historian Dr Abdelaziz Filali said.

Abdelaziz Filali, head of the Ibn Badis Foundation, and one of the members of the Algerian-French Memory Commission said during a lecture on Saturday afternoon in Constantine (eastern Algeria); “We have tons of archives stored in France, after they classified them into war archives and the Interior Ministry,” adding that “even when oil was discovered, they created a ministry in their country, which they called the Sahara, and the Ministry of Algerian Affairs, and they distributed the Algerian archives between their ministries, including the archives of the Central Bank and the lands”.

Filali explained that Algeria’s insistence on presenting the memory file coincides with the global interest in the archive, as it became an international day in every country in the world, at the suggestion of the United Nations, after the archive became the pivotal key to knowing the historical truth, stressing that “Algeria is like every country in the world which celebrated on June 9, the International Archives Day, and it is determined to restore its archives that were lost from its land, and it sees the memory file as a sacred duty, to restore what was looted from the homeland”.

In larger detail, Abdelaziz Filali confirmed that the French members of the commission are convinced that Algeria’s request and its endeavour to retrieve its archive are logical and legitimate, and they are also confident that the archive will return, sooner or later.

“One of the contradictory paths is that the Algerian members’ commission edited, the chronology of colonial crimes in the 19th century, in more than 500 pages. In comparison, the French members did not edit more than two pages, even though the Algerian side relied on the “looted property” issue on French sources”, Dr.Filali confirmed.

The historian considered the period of Presidents Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Emmanuel Macron to be serious about the issue of memory, with a dynamism that brought it closer to reality and the desired solution.

According to Filali, Benjamin Stora admitted that President Tebboune has a political will regarding the memory file, as he has placed it among his important projects, and has implemented it in making May 8th a memory day, just as he designated the Algerian audiovisual field as a memory space.

In this context, Filali believed that what President Tebboune did by transferring the memory file to academics and historians, instead of politicians, is the right thing, as the Algerian-French joint commission came to open the door of real hope for recovering the archive.

Regarding the statements of former French presidents about the crimes of colonialism in our country, Filali explained that what they say is only for local consumption in Algeria, while when they return to Paris, they return to their old habits.

For history, French writers condemned the colonial period of their country in Algeria, as Filali mentioned in his scientific lecture many examples of writers who were angered by French books glorifying colonialism, including generals who brag about the ways they tortured Algerians.

Commenting on Echorouk’s question about the fate of the work of the Algerian-French Joint Commission for History and Memory, he said; “In the future, if the extreme right takes power in France, the matter will become ambiguous and will require waiting, but the work will inevitably continue, as the matter is important to the Algerians, and they must achieve their goals,” pointing to a renewed meeting scheduled for the current month of July.