While Paris has decided to facilitate access to the archives of the Algerian war in France, Algerian historians are demanding access to the archives for this period in Algeria. They have just sent an open letter on Thursday, March 25, to the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, condemning the bureaucratic obstacles to their research.
As long as these Algerian archives are not open, the historian Fouad Soufi believes that we will not be able to disperse the gray areas of the War of Independence, on the Algerian side.
“Those who do not want to open the archives have not understood that when a former actor writes his memoirs, he gives us his view on such and such an event that would still deserve to be able to read the archives for ALN. [Armée de libération nationale], for example”.
“Behave like the French army – I mean, considering the preparation of documents – there has always been a copy in the archives, a copy in the archives … and of course there are always gray areas. The struggle, the problems that existed between wilaya , this story about the border army and the battles that took place in Wilaya IV between the border army and what remained at the time of Wilaya IV … Some minimize and others, on the contrary, estimate that it was … Alas, there were a thousand deaths. says no. But there, as long as we do not have ALN’s archives, we will not be able to work seriously ”.
While Paris has decided to facilitate access to the archives of the Algerian war in France, Algerian historians are demanding access to the archives for this period in Algeria. They have just sent an open letter to the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, on Thursday, condemning the bureaucratic obstacles to their research. Historian Fouad Soufi endorses their initiative.
It is easy to criticize France, but perhaps we should also clarify things here. These archives were open until about ten years ago, but gradually closed. Whether it is in Algiers or elsewhere, in any major city in the country. (…) There were French, Swiss and Japanese researchers who had access to documents, but not Algerian researchers. This is not the first time they have reacted, but once again they turn to the President of the Republic. A position that I hope will not leave the top of the state indifferent.
Fouad Soufi, historian
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