Over 95 Algerian MPs Agreed To Grant Algerian Passports To Pieds-Noirs

A delegation of Pieds-Noirs included eight members visited Algeria, on the occasion of the Christian Catholic feast, which is known as “Le Toussaint”, as they went on Tuesday, to the Monastery of Tibhirine in Medea to remember the seven monks who were murdered by terrorist groups in 1996.

French Trip Planner, lawyer Jack Kavanagh told Echorouk in a phone interview, that the visit was organized to remember the Tibhirine monks, and evoke their work and sacrifice, and visit the French Christian cemeteries to remember the dead Christians in Algeria, and stand on the situation of these graves”.

“An association for the protection of the Christian cemeteries in Algeria was created, and it strongly opposes the objective of the French authorities and the French Consulate to regroup the Christian cemeteries in Algeria, and it will defend the choice to restore them and not to regroup them”.

“These graves should remain as they are in the same place, because they are ultimately an Algerian heritage and one of the pages of history, and they should remain in their places. We are with the idea of turning the page and not tearing it apart. As you say in Arabic, Past is dead”.

According to Jack Kavanagh, French lawyer who is born in Algiers Bouloughine, and who is also the Chair of the French Association for the Christian Cemeteries Protection in Algeria, the Pieds-Noirs are still demanding the Algerian passport, because there are families between the two parties and there are complex relationships between French and Algerians.

“There is a file that remains since years ago, at the level of the Algerian Justice Ministry, in order to obtain a passport for the Pieds-Noirs, in order to enable them to visit Algeria and their hometowns, and visit the graves of their ancestors, but the file did not notice new developments”.

“Algerian sources informed me that there is a proposal at the level of the Algerian Parliament, for granting the Algerian passport to Pieds-Noirs. Number of MPs who approved the proposed was between 85 to 95 MPs, but the rest did not agree to the proposal”.

“This is what I was told from high-level sources. I did not have time to make sure of the validity of this information, but this is what was told to me. I was informed that there are between 85 and 95 MPs who have agreed to a proposal to grant the Algerian passport to Pieds-Noirs”.