“Silent War” Between Paris, Istanbul On Algeria Demonstrations

Maghreb Intelligence news website, which is close to the French intelligence services, said there is a fierce backstage war between Paris and Istanbul, and France is concerned about destabilizing Algeria and adheres to the road map that was presented by Bouteflika for a peaceful transition without harming the security situation.

The website that is concerned with intelligence reports focused on what is going on in the Maghreb region, and on another aspect of the popular movement that rejects Bouteflika’s continued rule, referring to the “fierce war between Paris and Istanbul about Algeria’s popular demonstrations”

It explained that there is a camp that is led by Qatar and Turkey to block the road to what it considered the privileges of France in Algeria; “This camp is led by the alliance between Istanbul and Doha, where Turkey and Qatar are heavily betting on a scenario that forces Bouteflika to leave power to allow new players to serve their agenda. Turkish interests play an important role in encouraging the Islamic movement in the country either the MSP party or other religious parties in the field of business or religious associations to occupy the Algerian street, organize and control it politically”.

The report quoted a French intelligence report as saying: “The most prominent report of the French intelligence services on the role of the Turkish lobby, revealed that the management of many Facebook pages and virtual groups are from Turkey, and the goal is to continue public anger to maintain mobilization in the streets, and Turkish channels doubled reports on Algeria in its programs in Arabic and focused in all their news on the situation in Algeria with the message that the change must be made now and all leaders close to Bouteflika must go”.

Under the headline “How was Bouteflika’s wing caught in the trap?”, the French magazine Le Point published an article on the evolution of the popular movement in Algeria against the new presidential term of President Bouteflika.

The article says that Bouteflika’s relatives had to throw the towel with the rush of events. In recent days, the president’s group has been panicked by the ongoing demonstrations, and the pro-Bouteflika parties have become silent in the face of the development of the situation, and during the return of President Bouteflika to Algeria a woman from Geneva, An Algerian citizen who resides in Switzerland filed a complaint to the court on suspicion of kidnapping an unconscious and ailing person, where she demanded to place President Bouteflika under care, a complaint that the magazine “Le Point” said has made the president’s surroundings feel humiliated.

In a “strange” stand of the Saudi “Al Arabiya” TV Channel, it said, “Who is the head of the Brotherhood in Algeria, that was expelled by the demonstrators”, showing that Riyadh’s rivalry to the Muslim Brotherhood has made it address the Algerian demonstrations from this angle.

“The Algerian demonstrators on Friday faced the Algerian brothers who tried to ride on their popular movement, refusing to extend the Algerian president’s bid for a 5th term, and they expelled their leader Abdullah Jaballah, head of the Brotherhood party, the Front of Justice and Development, from the demonstrations”, Al Arabiya added.

“This Islamic leader is one of the most aspiring to win the presidency, as he ran for the presidency twice in 1999 and in 2004, but he suffered a severe defeat and suffered great disappointment, due to the popular rejection of any role of the Islamists”.

The Saudi media spoke about the mechanisms of the popular movement, as the Arabic version of the Independent said, “Algeria protests: Concessions by president fail to stop demonstrations as cracks appear in regime”.

” Mr Bouteflika’s newly appointed prime minister, Noureddine Bedoui, welcomed the opposition to join with the government to shape political change. But the protest movement is mostly leaderless, though Algeria has well-organised opposition political parties”.

Algerian opposition parties have kept their demands high on the fate of the Algerian president, hours after the fourth million-man demonstrations, that began in the country since February,22, in exchange for “amendment” in the presidential plan by a possible announcement of the date of the presidential election, then moving to realise the “Constituent Assembly” project.

Egyptian government media, specifically Al-Ahram, published an opinion piece that was written by the head of the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, Makram Mohammed Ahmed, underlined; “The anger continues in the Algerian street!”, and concluded; “It is clear from the whole positions that the majority of the people consider Bouteflika’s decisions as circumventing the people’s right to an inevitable change. The majority of the opposition rejects Bouteflika’s decisions and considers them an illegal extension of his fourth term. The Algerian army will remain in the position of the observer for the political street until a security breach occurs leading to its intervention, but the demonstrations on the Algerian street will not calm down”.