Glorification Of Harkis In French Educational Curricula

French Prime Minister sent instructions to the French academies and educational institutions, to include the history and memory of Harkis during the Algerian liberation revolution, in the various French educational and academic initiatives and curricula.

Disclosure of these instructions came in response to a written question by the French senate to the French Defense Ministry, in charge of Veterans Affairs and Memory, dated on last February, 9, which copy is available to Echorouk, as a response to a written question by the member of French Senate, Brigitte Micouleau, which she sent on November 17, 2016, concerning the rehabilitation of the abandoned Harkis who were subjected to massacres during Algeria’s independence.

The response said that the French government made a commitment to define the history of Harkis, especially through educational and cultural steps and initiatives, as a kind of recognition and remembrance towards this group.

In this context, the Prime Minister sent instructions to the deans and academic inspectors to communicate and establish relationships with the regional services of the National Office of War Veterans and Victims, and to take steps and educational actions that are related to the memory of Harkis.

The same document explained that the staff of the Office of War Veterans and Victims, and the provinces and the integration structures, and the rest of actors in the cultural field as well, who were trained to consider the issues of memory and harkis, and gave the task of collecting oral testimonies for harkis in cooperation with the historical services of the Defense Ministry, to take advantage of live history, as over 60 certificates of harkis were collected, of which 35 were published on the website of the historic department of the French Defense Ministry.