Algeria's Decision On Yennayer Disturbs Morocco

President Bouteflika’s decision to demarcate the Amazigh New Year’s Day “Yennayer” a paid vacation day, provoked Moroccan Amazigh who asked their government for applying a similar decision in Morocco, where many associations call for upgrading Amazigh identity, at a time when Rabat seems unwilling to take similar steps.

Activists for the Amazigh identity in Morocco called for a strike on Saturday, January 13, to pressurize the government to adopt the Algerian like move after the Moroccan authorities ignored their repeated demands for a national holiday in Yennayer.

Algeria passed a resolution to review the law on national holidays to allow the addition of “Yennayer”, and decided to create an academy for the development and promotion of the Amazigh language, in preparation for the generalization of its use, at the last meeting of the Council of Ministers that was held last month.

At the same time, Moroccan activists launched a web petition to collect one million signatures demanding to be followed by the Algerian step, in anticipation of raising it to the Moroccan authorities, which is still in its beginning and is expected to be met by the Amazigh community in Morocco.

These initiatives that pressurize the Moroccan system were realized after the Moroccan authorities expressed their rejection of this demand, and this position was embodied by the Public Service Minister, Mohamed Ben Abdelkader, who said in response to a parliamentary question concerning the Amazigh year: “We have enough, we have a constitution, and there is the establishment of the National Council for Moroccan Languages ​​and Culture, and the draft law on the integration of Amazigh in education and in public life, which can put forward this idea, which is linked to the traditional calendar rather than the year”.

Reaction of the Minister of Public Employment in the western neighbor caused a wave of anger among some of the defenders of Amazigh identity in the image of Rachid al-Hahi, author of the book “Amazigh and the Authority”, as he did not hesitate to describe the term as “frustrating, not suitable for the size of demand and waiting, after being recognized as a component of the Moroccan national identity, and after it became the official language of the state in the Constitution of 2011.

Although Algeria succeeded in extinguishing the fuse of the movement that erupted weeks ago in some states of the Amazigh region, following the rejection of the proposal of an article in the Finance Act 2018, that was submitted by the Labor Party MP, Nadia Shouitam, about the generalization of the Amazigh education in the country’s 48 provinces, due to the difficult situation of the country, which deprived some of the suspicious parties from exploiting the Amazigh file politically.

On the other hand, this decision puts Algeria’s western neighbor in trouble, as Morocco’s Mekhzen has not yet eliminated the crisis of “Rif Movement” and its repercussions, as it was allegedly expressed by Rabat, which says that it is the only country in the Maghreb to better deal with a sensitive issue such as the Amazigh issue.