22 Sep 2020; MEMO: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said that France must hand over the remains of Algerian resistance martyrs and recognise its colonial crimes, stressing that the remains that Algeria received earlier this year were only a first step.
Tebboune stated in an interview with Algerian media: “We do not want this first initiative to end,” noting that “some colonial crimes committed against Algeria and the Algerians must be recognised”.
“The French lobbies, which have been targeting us for a long time, must know that we will not give up an inch of our sovereignty.”
The Algerian leader also emphasised that the Algerian archives, kept in France, must be returned to Algeria.
According to the Director General of Algeria’s National Archives, Abdul Majid Sheikhi, the Algerian archive smuggled out of the country by France includes about 60 tonnes of documents. It not only covers the colonial era, when France occupied Algeria between 1830 and 1962, but also the archive of three centuries of Ottoman rule.
