The French Side Has Provided Nothing To Overcome The Current Crisis With Algeria

The French historian specializing in colonialism and memory issues, Benjamin Stora, attributed the continuation of repeated political and diplomatic crises between Algeria and France to the presence of an elite group of politicians in France who are unable to face the truth and recognize that Algeria is an independent and sovereign state, and therefore deliberately invent crises and stir up noise from time to time.

Benjamin Stora, who heads the joint commission to discuss the memory file from the French side, was asked about the reason for the remarkable presence of Algeria in the political discourse of the pre-election campaign for the French presidential elections, and he replied saying: “There are those in France who have not yet accepted that Algeria has become an independent and sovereign state since 1962.”

He explained in a video posted on his private Facebook account two days ago that Algeria is not like other countries that were subjected to French colonialism, saying: “France mobilized 1.5 million soldiers in its war against Algeria during the liberation revolution, and there were one million Europeans who were in Algeria and left after 1962, in addition to the Harkis and their descendants, added to that the Algerian immigrants, and these are figures and considerations that weigh heavily in the electoral scene in France.”

Stora continued in the video, which is also on the “Observ’Algérie TV” channel on the YouTube platform, saying: “Algeria is the largest country in Africa in terms of area, and it is also considered the largest exporter of gas in the dark continent, and the far right must come to its senses and recognize that Algeria is a sovereign state, this is a reality and there is no escape from it, and France is forced to deal with it from this standpoint.”

The researcher specializing in colonial history pointed to the problems he faced in France because of his positions on colonialism, particularly regarding French colonialism in Algeria during his career, and stopped at his suffering from the targeting of one of the right-wing presidents in France, who is the former president convicted in several corruption cases, Nicolas Sarkozy, and said “Sarkozy blacklisted me from 2006 to 2009 because of my positions,” stressing that geography imposes itself on history, as he said.

The advisor at the Élysée Palace for memory affairs commented on the status of current relations between Algeria and Paris, and stressed the need to fix them: “These relations have reached a frightening level of rupture in a unique precedent. Truths hurt but must be faced, and things must be clarified so that each party is placed before its responsibilities, and we identify the source of the defect to treat it.”

Despite his acknowledgment of the difficulty of the task, starting from the heavy burden of French colonialism of Algeria, which spanned 132 years of crimes and a war of extermination against a defenseless people, where he said “The legacy of 130 years cannot be treated by a decision or a speech or an action, because the matter is impossible. French colonialism of Algeria has no equal. However, there are human, cultural, and economic ties that mandate haste in addressing the problem.”

Unlike the French who consider Algerian immigrants a burden on France, Benjamin Stora believes that this phenomenon is one of the tragedies created by French colonialism, and it is considered a forced transfer of populations from their land, given that the situation created by the French occupation such as stripping them of their lands and giving them to a foreign people, and depriving them of their natural rights such as education and work, forced them to search for job opportunities to improve their situation, in addition to being French citizens by virtue of the colonial status, even if they were second-class and perhaps more than that.

Benjamin Stora provided a dissection of the current state of bilateral relations, holding the French responsible for what these relations have reached, and said: “What we experienced before the crisis exploded was a state of contradiction.. tangible progress on the level of memory. I was received in Algeria several times by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and the mixed commission for the memory file met several times and some archives were reached.

The Algerians advanced a lot on this level, but the other side was not responding to their aspirations.. and the situation ended as is known with the absence of the Algerian ambassador in Paris for more than two years.”

Stora concluded in the end by saying that the memory file is considered a large workshop that cannot be interrupted (continuous work) and work must be done step by step to achieve what is hoped for, considering that it is the right of the Algerians to stick to the expressed demands such as the apology and recognition of heinous French crimes, as well as those related to nuclear explosions and cleaning contaminated areas and the looted archives…