FFS divulgates France’s suspicious practices in Kabylia

Algeria’s FFS party divulgated the explanations of the French Embassy in Algiers about its Ambassador’s remarks. The latter had said people in Kabylia receive special treatment compared to other Algerians in terms of visa granting.

Chief of the FFS’ parliamentary group Chafaa Bouaiche said the Ambassador made statements about the provinces of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia. They raised anger among official authorities and Algerians.

He added that he checked the veracity of the remarks through representatives of his party in Tizi Ouzou as they were present.

“Why does not France grant visas for the rest of Algerians? Does it have something to do with its strategy to separate Kabylia from Algeria? Those are just questions,” he said on his Facebook page.

Earlier on Wednesday, media reports quoted the French Ambassador to Algiers, saying 60 percent of granted visas in Algeria go for residents in Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia. A total of 50 percent of them are offered to students.

Later, the embassy said in a release that the Ambassador had never said French consulates grant visas on quota basis. 

The number of residents in Bejaia and Tizi Ouzou is estimated at around 2 million. That means they represent 6.2 percent of Algeria’s population.

Algeria’s foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra criticized the French Ambassador, saying his remarks are not useful for bilateral relations.

“Our mission as diplomats is to encourage unifying statements. In our job, we should not discriminate between people in the country where we work,” said Lamamra.

This comes as the Ambassador paid a visit to Kabilya while bilateral relations between Algeria and France experience unprecedented escalation. This raises those questions: why did the Ambassador choose to go to Kabilya in such circumstances? Why did he say that Paris prefers them in terms of visas? What did he expect from them?