There is a will to hide devastating facts about the brutal French colonialism in Algeria
French historian Benjamin Stora said that the issue of relations between Algeria and Paris is caused by the failure to inform public opinion in France of the truth about what happened during the French colonial era in Algeria, which made wide circles of French supporters of the extreme right believe that the Algerian demand for an apology constitutes targeting the glory of France.
This belief can be seen in the reaction of some French people to the statements of historian and journalist Jean-Michel Abate, who said that the French occupation army committed hundreds of massacres in Algeria, such as the 'Oradour-sur-Glane' massacre, which was committed against French people by the army of Nazi Germany in World War II, according to a press interview with the French platform 'Politi'.
'The French, for example, do not know the colonial invasion that their country carried out in Algeria, and what happened with historian Jean-Michel Abate is a good example of this,' Stora said in the interview, which lasted about half an hour and was published on Sunday, April 27, on his Facebook account, and therefore strongly refuses to respond to repeated Algerian demands to recognize the horrendous crimes of the colonial past and then apologize.
To address this dilemma, Benjamin Stora said: 'Historical facts must be explained to the French as they are. For example, in 1830, the first year of the French occupation of Algeria, hundreds of Algerians were liquidated in the city of Blida, near the capital (Algiers). We are talking about 1830, not, for example, 1871. It is remarkable that the French are ignorant of such details.'
'There are questions about whether this was spontaneous or planned,' added the historian, who specializes in Algerian-French relations and is in charge of heading the memory committee on the French side, which was tasked with researching this file: 'There are questions about whether this was spontaneous or planned. It could be yes and it could be no. But there are suspicions that there are those who seek to hide these colonial crimes from the French people, for considerations related to the glories and greatness of France.'
According to the speaker, who maintains positions that have often annoyed the French far right, 'there is a will to put the French history in Algeria under secrecy, so that society is not confronted with the tragedies of his country's history,' an approach that the historian opposes, as it does not allow confronting historical facts as they are.
Benjamin Stora, who was born in Constantine, believes that the collective conscience in France believes that 'the loss of Algeria is not the same as that of Tunisia and Morocco, because Algeria was part of the French territory and was governed by a special law (under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior), in addition to being subjected to settler colonialism, unlike its neighbors Tunisia and Morocco, which were merely protectorates.'
'Algeria was annexed to France in 1848, only 18 years after the occupation, while provinces that are still part of France today, such as La Savoie, were annexed two years later (in 1860), and the French celebrated the anniversary of the occupation in 1830, not believing that Algeria would one day become a territory over which France had no authority.
Stora described the current state of bilateral relations as 'unprecedented' since 1962, as there are no ambassadors in the two countries, which is a dangerous shift, because there are previous milestones such as the nationalization of hydrocarbons in 1971, which caused great anger in Paris, but did not reach the exchange of withdrawing ambassadors.
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