On the occasion of National Emigration Day, which marks the 65th anniversary of the October 17, 1961 massacre this year, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, sent a message to the national community. In it, he recalled the sacrifices made by Algerians living in France.
“On October 17, we commemorate the day when crowds of Algerian men and women poured into the French capital, Paris, to denounce the colonial authorities’ imposition of a racist decision prohibiting their movement and restricting their freedoms—a gesture that expressed the hatred of the French police under the direction of the criminal Maurice Papon toward an insurgent and fighting Algeria,” recalled the President.
He added, “Algerians at that time were an extension and a support to the glorious liberation revolution; they did not submit to an unfair or arbitrary measure that the French police imagined could isolate the revolution from its reach within its own country. They exercised their right to take to the streets of Paris in peaceful demonstrations, affirming their unity and their devotion to the homeland… and to the armed struggle that was reaching its peak at that time in late 1961, as the first signs of victory and liberation drew near.”
The Head of State further affirmed that “our community anchored patriotism during this difficult period of modern Algerian history by confronting hateful colonial police repression, facing open gunfire, and losing dozens of demonstrators savagely drowned in the River Seine—a community belonging to a genuine, noble, free people… and to a civilization and history deeply rooted in the precious Algerian land.”
On the occasion of National Emigration Day, continued the President, “we recall with respect the sacrifices of the leaders of the national struggle in exile, and the patriotism of a generation of workers who, despite their harsh conditions at that time, demonstrated their attachment to the revolution with a spirit of defiance against all forms of oppression, and with the determination to fully engage in the bitter struggle that Algeria was waging, paying a heavy toll in the blood of martyrs to regain independence and national sovereignty.”
Tebboune also expressed his pride “in the spirit of loyalty and national commitment that continues to flow through the conscience of every Algerian man and woman in our diaspora across the entire world,” and greeted “all members of the diaspora wherever they may be, reaffirming the State’s complete commitment to oversee their protection, look after their interests, and surround the movements and travel of our fellow citizens and their families with serenity and ease, in order to guarantee their permanent connection to their country… and their attachment to the land of dignity and pride,” concluded the President.