France’s violent legacy in Algeria Metropole attacks

This year, Algeria marks 60 years of independence from France, though the violent crimes of the colonial past still trigger diplomatic rifts between the two states. The North African country regained its independence in 1962 following a gruelling eight-year-long war, concluded by the Evian Accords granting Algiers freedom after a 132-year occupation. The uncompleted reconciliation process between the two countries recently inflamed tensions when French President Emmanuel Macron's criticism of Algeria's school books shone a light on the harsh practices of French colonialism.

Although the abusive practices employed by the French colonial administration in Algeria for many years have not been widely discussed in modern French academia, back in 1960, the French intellectual society was at the roots of dissent against the French government's harsh stance on Algeria and its people.

The dissent reached the culmination point when the colonial police arrested a 22-year-old Algerian woman, Djamila Boupacha, who was raped and tortured in custody. Such shameful treatment and unjustified torture of a young Algerian woman instigated the opposition against colonial rule at home led by famous intellectuals such as Simone De Beauvoir, Jean-Paul-Sartre, and their followers. Overall, according to various sources and scholarly works carried out by the well-known British historian Alistair Horne around 5 million Algerians were killed during the French colonial rule between 1832-1962, though France claims the number did not exceed 1 million.

Metropolitan France washing its hands

Despite the open numbers of killed, detained, and tortured Algerians, the French government until recently has not been in a rush to acknowledge the scale of crimes and atrocities committed during colonial rule. Nevertheless, French politicians and state officials have moved to acknowledge the difficult past under tremendous international and internal pressure. As such, former President François Hollande belatedly acknowledged the massacre and paid “homage” to the dead, whereas his successor Emmanuel Macron openly admitted that “inexcusable crimes” had been committed by the republic on that date.

In fact, Macron's admittance could barely perceive sincere apologies to victims of the war crimes in Algeria, given the fact that his early statements were part of his presidential campaign in 2017. Moreover, despite Macron’s promises to declassify the state archives regarding the war crimes in Algeria, the process remains uncompleted as of today. Ironically, France's attempts at reconciliation with Algeria were further torpedoed by Macron himself in 2021 when he "complained" that the "official history of Algeria has been rewritten, not based on truths, but based on hatred against France."

Unsurprisingly, Macron's comments triggered an immediate reaction from the Algerian authorities and stirred public debates regarding the necessity of reconciliation with France. As a result, Algiers closed its airspace, barring French aircraft from entering the country on October 29, and recalled its ambassador from Paris.

The French president's remarks regarding the colonial rule in the North African country can be attributed to Algeria's attempts to decrease the French influence over the country and reach out to new partners and shift its foreign policy priorities, which seemingly renewed President Macron's fears. Another reason that explains Macron's administration's desperate attempts for reconciliation with Algeria in 2021 was the upcoming presidential elections in April 2022. Given that Algerians have historically constituted one of the country’s largest immigrant populations. As a result, a significant number of French citizens – and therefore the French electorate – have Algerian roots.

So, Macron's public speech and a visit to Algeria were not necessarily about coming to terms with France's complex past but at least motivated by present political concerns and damaged popularity at home in the light of global security cataclysms and economic recession.

The experience shows that the state-run imposed reconciliation process seeking quick results in bilateral relations is insufficient and unsustainable. The comprehensive reconciliation requires a more nuanced understanding of the complexity of the violent past. Hence, President Macron's decisions, statements, and overall policy regarding the crimes committed in Algeria continued to be a strategy of “political gestures," with no real action or desire to finalize the reconciliation process or demonstrate genuine empathy.

Incomplete reconciliation

Therefore, France's stance on Algeria and its violent colonial past and the bizarre rhetoric of leading ultra-nationalist politicians like Marie Le-pen and Eric Zemmour justifying the colonialism make it less complicated to understand President Macron's position on the Karabakh issue between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The French president seems less keen to build empathy between French and Algerian people and address concerns of thousands of Azerbaijani refugees (IDP) during the first Karabakh war but is more concerned with the “future” of the de-facto separatist regime within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan.

Although France could not emerge as a key mediator/negotiator in the Karabakh issue for nearly three decades, President Macron did a lot to intervene in the peace process in the post-Karabakh war in 2020 by holding vis-à-vis meetings with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev and the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. Nevertheless, France has had little to contribute to the complex issue between Baku and Yerevan, mainly due to anti-Azerbaijani rhetoric within the French political establishment mounted since 2020.

The Azerbaijani government has long been attempting to draw attention to the war crimes and atrocities perpetrated against ethnic Azerbaijanis in Karabakh, namely Khojaly massacre in 1992. According to official sources, around 600 civilians were killed in Khojaly in 1992, though the international community, including France, has mostly neglected the violent action in this town.

Therefore, criticism of the French president against the Azerbaijani “occupation” of the Karabakh region and use of force against the separatist regime in Karabakh is nothing but one-sided empathy. Instead, Azerbaijan would have been keen to see more official statements referring to historical facts and international law regarding the Karabakh issue and the unprecedented damage Azerbaijan faced during the three-decades-long conflict with neighbouring Armenia.