Erdogan trying to sow seeds of tension between Algeria and France

Sara Wahid

Turkey tries to sow the seeds of tension between Algeria and France, using a visit Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid to the North African state in January this year.

Addressing members of the ruling Justice and Development Party on January 30, Erdogan said that Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had told him during his meeting with him in Algiers that France had killed 5 million Algerians during its occupation of Algeria.

He added that he had asked the Algerian president to send him documents of French massacres in Algeria.

“We have to publish these documents to make the Algerian president remember that his country had killed 5 million Algerians,” Erdogan said.

These remarks had almost caused a diplomatic crisis between Algeria and France. The branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Algeria had just made the problem worse by its support of the Turkish president.

Nevertheless, then-Algerian prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia countered this campaign by saying that his country would force France to offer an official apology like China did with Japan and South Korea.

Belying the claims

Erdogan’s claims made Algerians angry. In February, the Algerian Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which it expressed shock at the remarks of the Turkish president.

The remarks made by President Tebboune during his meeting with President Erdogan were taken out of context, the Algerian Foreign Ministry said.

It added that remarks made by Erdogan do not serve efforts made by both Algiers and Paris for solving problems between them.

Defense

The Muslim Brotherhood always defends Erdogan. Head of the Movement of Society and Peace, the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Algeria, Abderrazak Makri, said Algerians should not be ashamed of defending the Justice and Development Party as a model.

“We do not hide our friendship with this party,” Makri said.

He referred to the presence of ideological links between his movement and the Turkish ruling party.