ALGIERS, Algeria (AFP)—Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia on Jan. 7 urged Turkey to stop trying to make political capital out of France’s killing of thousands of Algerians during the colonial period.
He made the call as Turkey continued to assail Paris ahead of a French Senate vote on a bill that would make it a crime for anyone to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide.
Turkey has accused France of hypocrisy for its own hand in killings committed in its former colony, Algeria, in 1945 and during the North African nation’s struggle for independence between 1954-62.
“An estimated 15 percent of the Algerian population was massacred by the French from 1945 onwards,” the Turkish prime minister said. “This is a genocide.”
Ouyahia said every country has the right to defend its interests, but “nobody has the right to make the blood of Algerians their business.”
French forces cracked down on a protest in the east Algerian city of Setif on May 8, 1945, to call for an end to French colonial rule, leaving 45,000 people dead, according to Algerian historians.
Western researchers put the death toll at between 8,000 and 18,000.
Ouyahia noted that Turkey was a member of NATO during the war in Algeria and provided material support to France.
“We say to our [Turkish] friends: Stop making capital out of Algeria’s colonization,” Ouyahia said at a press conference.
The French Lower House approved the genocide bill on Dec. 22, and the Senate is expected to vote on it by the end of January.
If enacted, anyone denying that the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman-Turk forces amounted to genocide could face jail time.
Guest Contributor
The Algerian PM’s statement is a big slap on Turkey’s/Erdoghan’s shamelss and hypocritical face. Perhaps the time has come for the first Muslim country, Algeria, to show its disgust of genocide and Turkey’s denialist position by recognising the Armenian Genocide. Erdoghan and Turkey, might – JUST MIGHT! – then shut up on the “Algerian genocide”.
I increasingly want to throw up everytime this Erdoghan fellow opens his mouth with a new ‘genocide’ he has just discovered, everywhere in the world (where there are a few troublesome Turks) except in Turkey where not only Armenians but Greeks, Assyrians, Bulgarians and Serbs and now Kurds have been and are being subjected to pogroms, massacres and genocide throughtout Ottoman and Turkey’s dark-dark and oppressive history.
Does this mean that Algeria owes Erdogan yet another apology?
That was good ARa..:) you kno Erdogan will ask for it..lol He always cries like a baby..
Bagratuni: Fair enough.. Erdoghan may be a hypocrite. But YOU also stop piggybacking NONSENSE on Turkey, which does not have a pure history, but also which is not responsible for every crap you run into in recent history. Just two days ago Bulgaria apologised to her citizens of Turkish origin for injustice, maltraetment and forced assimilation policies in the 1980s. Hold your horses!
Right: how many Turks were exterminated by the Bulgarian Government, Jostein Clark ?
True: Turks were mistreated. Forced to take Bulgarian names.
Again, how many were murdered ?
Read this paragraph (from Hurriyet):
“Shortly before communism fell in 1989, the authorities opened the borders to those Bulgarian citizens of Turkish origin who wanted to emigrate to Turkey. Around 360,000 people left, 170,000 of whom later returned.”
What does that tell you about Bulgaria ?
BTW: about 10% of Bulgaria’s population is Moslem, mostly ethnic Turks.
The 5,000 year existence of Armenians in their ancestral homeland was extinguished by Turks. Not only there is no apology from Turks, but there is an active worldwide campaign of Denial of AG.
So stop spewing nonsense that compares what Turks faced in Bulgaria with what Turks did to Armenians.
And ask yourself where did those Turks in Bulgaria come from in the first place.
oh BIGGGGGGGGGG DEAL Jostein Clark.. just because Bulgaria apologized (and to this day i still wonder they woulddo that when it is TURKEY who needs to apologize to THEM for their barbaric killings)… it does not mean Turkey is the arch angel of all good.. please.. get in the program Jostein and start tapping into what we are discussing and demanding..
Well said Avery..
It’s ridiculous how politicians take what little they know of history and turn it into
“We can justify the Genocide we committed because you did it too”.
It’s like comparing an apple and a watermellon.
When one is unable to face it’s historical black pages, the tactic is always to attack on the character of the other and get personal.
When will they ever learn to grow up?
I assume never.. that is a sad sad reality of it..
Jostein, why persist with strawman arguments when you know full well that what the Bulgarian Government apologised for is in no way shape, or form, even comparable to what the Ottoman Turks did to the Armenians, or to what they have done subsequently to various other ethnic minorities in their own country. By trying to somehow make what happened to those people “less of a crime” than what it still is, by “absolving” Turkey of its responsibilities and glossing over the unpalatable truth of the matter you are not only making it clear just where you stand on the question of genocide (no matter where it occurs), you are also being duplicitous after the fact in the act itself. Instead of attacking the messenger all the time, deriding the character of those that are looking for justice and for the truth to be acknowledge, why don’t you have a very good look at yourself in the mirror. You’ll see that by your own thoughts you have done nothing but deluded yourself as to the fact of the matter. You have convinced yourself of the veracity of your own beliefs to the point that when the facts are presented to you, you can’t see them. Regardless of what you may believe in, it is the simple truth of the matter that the Ottoman Turkish government, along with its military and paramilitary committed genocide on the Armenian people in 1915-23. It’s there, in black and white photos, in official (but secret) government documents in the Turkish archives, admitted to by some of the perpetrators, read about in newspapers of the time from all over the world, talked about in various nation’s parliaments as well as the League of Nations official documents. Why try to deny it??!!!!. I can tell you the reasons why, and a lot of it has to do with money, apart from the shame of having to face up to what was done in the light of day. It’s like a child not admitting to what they did wrong because they don’t want to suffer the consequence of their own actions or to have to make reparations to those they did wrong to. In essence, the Turkish Government is acting like a child, which is nothing out of the ordinary considering all politicians, everywhere, act in exactly the same fashion when it comes to being honest and open about the way they conduct themselves. However, in this case it a tantrum that has been going on for more than 90 years. Don’t you think it’s about time they suck it up and stop loudly protesting about their supposed innocence and actually face the music and be adult about it. They might find it very cathartic and it’s roll on effects will also transform their own society. They might just have the courage and the honesty, then, to face their own internal problems and fix them before they rot away from the inside.
very well said Carl.
I’d like to make a point that a genocide is not necessarily the same as a massacre. think that Erdogan needs a lesson in understanding the difference in the meaning between the two. & I’m surprised that the media has not brought this to our attention.