Harkis Want To Be Included In The Algerian-French Memory Negotiations

Harkis’ organizations in France refuse to exclude what they call “their case in the negotiations with the Algerian side over memory files”, calling on the French authorities to pressurize Algeria to recognize it.

A statement by the Harkis’ organization, which was published by French media, calls on the historian Benjamin Stora, who was commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron, to negotiate with the Algerian side over the memory files, “away from ideology and falsification”.

The organization renewed its request to Macron “to take concrete steps and a special law for the reconsideration of the Harkis”.

Harkis’ groups in France responded to the statements of the Algerian advisor to the President of the Republic for Memory Affairs, Abdelmadjid Chikhi, who said that their departure in 1962 to France was their free choice.

According to Harkis, their departure to France was not an option, but rather to save their lives under the slogan “the bag or the coffin”, referring to the departure of nearly 200,000 Harkis who betrayed the liberation revolution with the French army after independence.

Previously, the advisor to the President of the Republic, in charge of the memory file, Abdelmadjid Chikhi, confirmed that the Harki’s file is excluded from the discussions that bring together the Algerian and French side in the memory file.

Abdelmadjid Chikhi, who was previously appointed by Tebboune as a negotiator on behalf of Algeria alongside the French Benjamin Satora, added in an interview published by the El-Djeich Magazine in its latest number, that there are files that are not subject to discussion, such as the Harki’s subjet.

“Harkis went to France of their own free will, so the French must consider their relationship with them and reconcile with their history”, he explained.

Tebboune’s advisor asserted in the same interview that “what happened during the colonial era cannot be forgotten, and no one can ask us to forget it or turn a blind eye to the massacres committed against the Algerians”.

“Algeria is waiting for what the French side will present in terms of the memory file. Some archive documents will remain secret despite the passage of laws and scientific standards for their publication, due to ethical considerations that harm the reputation of people and offend some individuals in their morals or their families, and because these documents may cause a storm in society”.

Despite Chikhi’s confirmation that there is a political will between the two countries to settle the memory file, Benjamin Stora, who was entrusted by President Macron with this file, previously indicated in statements to French media that there were difficulties that encountered him during the meetings with representatives of the French community, including the Harkis’ file, the Jews of Algeria and the Christian cemeteries.