Macron called the Ottomans in Algeria tantamount to colonization.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ALGIR — Association of Muslim Scholars Aljazair rejects French President Emmanuel .’s claim Macron recently, who called the presence Ottoman in Algeria is the same as colonization.
“The Ottomans who came to Algeria did not come as colonial occupiers, but (they came) at the invitation of Algeria to help them defeat the aggression of the Spanish Crusaders,” said Association Chairman, Abdul-Razzaq Qassoum, quoted in Anadolu Agency, Tuesday (12/10).
Tensions have risen between France and Algeria after Macron’s remarks about the North African country’s colonial past emerged. In an attempt to assuage his claims, Macron cited pre-colonial French rule in Algeria, referring to the Ottoman presence in the country between 1514 and 1830.
According to Qassoum, the Ottomans, unlike the French, did not kill Algerians, destroy their lands or plunder their wealth. Algerians had a lot of wealth under the Ottomans. He also said the Ottomans did not impose their language on Algerians or against their beliefs.
“They (Ottomans) did not go against our beliefs, not even our Madhhab (school of Islamic law),” he continued. On the other hand, Qassoum said French colonial forces brought tragedy to Algeria and misery to its people.
Macron’s statement in late September that the state of Algeria did not exist before French colonial rule and other colonizations preceded his own has sparked a storm of condemnation in Algeria.
Algeria’s president, Abdelmedjid Tebboune, condemned Macron’s remarks as an unacceptable insult to the martyrs. He also summoned his country’s Ambassador to France Antar Daoud for consultations, as well as closing the airspace to French military aircraft used in its anti-terror operations in the Sahel.
In a televised interview, Tebboune narrated the official account of the French massacre of nearly 4,000 worshipers during the colonial era of 1830-1962.
Worshipers were killed when they staged a sit-in inside the Ottoman Mosque called Ketchaoua, in an attempt to stop it from being turned into a church.
Algeria is the latest and bloodiest example of French colonial history on the African continent. About 1.5 million Algerians were killed, while millions more were displaced, in the eight-year struggle for independence that began in 1954.
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France has also carried out a cultural genocide against Algeria since 1830, destroying Algeria’s 300-year-old Ottoman history and its own local identity. France also transformed many of the country’s cultural and religious monuments.
Paris has never formally apologized to Algeria as a state for its colonial policies.
Source:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/algerian-muslim-scholars-refute-macron-s-claims-on-ottomans/2389123
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