Building Statue Of Algerian Emir In France Rejected

The family of Emir Abdelkader, a resistance leader against French colonialism, rejected building a statue in his honor in France on Friday.

Abdelkader's grandson, Mohamed Boutaleb, told Anadolu Agency: "We reject the construction of a statue of the emir in France, where he was imprisoned and held hostage."

The comments came after French historian Benjamin Stora submitted a report Jan. 20 on the memory of colonization and Algerian war to President Emmanuel Macron, in which he recommended building a statue of Abdelkader.

Prince Abdelkader (1808-1883) was a politician, military man and one of the leaders of Algerian resistance to French colonialism in the 19th century.

"We have prepared an electronic petition to collect signatures to reject the proposal contained in the French report ... because it is in the interest of France, not Algeria," said Boutaleb said.

"The name of the Algerian emir is known internationally and his political and resistant standing does not need a statue in France, which occupied his country for 132 years," he said. "France claims that Emir Abdelkader came to it for the sake of tourism, but the truth is that he was subjected to imprisonment, hostage detention and assassination attempts with other prisoners in this country."

Boutaleb called on his country's authorities to intervene to stop what he called a "French maneuver" to falsify the history of one of the most prominent symbols of the Algerian resistance.

More than 1,600 people including historians, researches, journalists and politicians signed an online petition against building the statue.

Algerian authorities said 5 million people were killed during the French colonial era from 1830 to 1962. The period also witnessed campaigns of displacement and plundering of wealth, as well as the theft of thousands of documents and historical and archaeological pieces, including those dating to the Ottoman era (1515-1830).

Abdelkader is described as the founder of the Algerian state. He was a writer, poet, philosopher, politician and fighter against French colonial forces.

In 1847, he was imprisoned in France and remained in prison until 1852, then he settled in Istanbul, before Damascus until his death in 1883 at the age of 76.

In 1965, his body was transferred to Algeria and buried in the capital, Algiers.

​​​​​​​*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat -