French Archives Of The Revolution Threaten National Unity!

Djamel Yahiaoui, former director of the Center for Research on the History of the National Movement, said that France’s decision to open the archives for the police and gendarmerie during the liberation revolution before the legal deadlines is not an innocent step, and it is part of a Franco-French battle to win the war of memory that the fourth generation is witnessing in the French street.

On the sidelines of his lecture, Saturday, during the Historical Translation Forum held at the National Library in Algiers, Mr. Yahiaoui added that dealing with these documents should be done with caution and with a distance of doubt and not be left to the public, but left to specialists who are good at reading documents in their historical contexts and reference.

The lecturer asked: Why did France decide to open the archives for the gendarmerie and police, and not the archives of another institution? Then he answers that this archive contains records and reports of interrogation sessions, where a person can say anything under torture, adding, “Whoever proves that these documents were not subject to modification, especially as they inevitably pass through the special services of the intelligence”.

Djamel Yahiaoui considered that the French step, which was announced by Minister Roslyne Bachelot last week, is not a concession to Algeria, as much as it is a quest by French circles to win the battle of memory for the fourth generation, especially since the French youth who were raised on the fact that their country is the source of civilization discover today that its military symbols are most of them war criminals.

And the evidence – says the speaker – is the war declared by the French circles against everyone who admits that what its forces committed during the war of liberation fall into the category of heinous crimes, and that is why this state cannot present what condemns it to its opponents, as Djamel Yahiaoui confirms.

The spokesman stressed that dealing with these documents requires caution, experience and specialization, because translation and dealing with historical documents is not a game, and if there are not read in their proper context.

If the task is not assigned to specialists, it can lead to counterproductive results in our country, and become a threat to national unity.

So, Mr. Yahiaoui said that Algeria must prepare for the next stage by assigning this task to specialists and those knowledgeable in the field.

The latter warned against the disasters that translation might cause if it was not on the part of those familiar with the field and the historical contexts and backgrounds, and he gave in this regard the example of Imam Abdul Hamid bin Badis, who was presented in some translations as “Kalaiki”, and Messali Al-Hajj from the “Muslim Brotherhood”, 60 years after the Soummam Congress, as he put it.