A Nation & its Past.

As we said in a previous post, France has always had a really hard time dealing with the darker chapter of its past. It took some 50 years for a French president to apologize for France's role in the Holocaust during the Vichy government. But it seems that things might be changing.
While France [and all of Europe] just commemorated the end of WWII on May 8, Algeria was commemorating the 60th anniversary of the repression of pro-independence demonstrators under French colonial rule. But for the first time this year Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has publicly asked France to express formal regret.

"The paradox of the massacres of May 8, 1945, is that when the heroic Algerian combatants returned from the fronts in Europe, Africa and elsewhere where they defended France's honor and interests," Mr. Bouteflika said in the speech, "the French administration fired on peaceful demonstrators." The speech, given in the city of Sétif on Saturday, was published by Algeria's state media.

The good news is that now that it’s all out, France will probably oblige as it will have to match its official rhetoric with action for credibility reasons. And the indeed a Turkish newspaper was quick to underline the possible paradox:

The French Parliament undertook a decision in 2001 regarding the Armenians despite all of the Turkish reactions that had defended the deaths in 1915. However, France has not adopted the same attitude to Algeria.

Fair enough, but it might good to point out, however, that the killings French colonial Africa cannot be reasonably compared to the genocide of the Armenians which took place some 40 years before the Sétif Massacre. Yet what is certain is that official acknowledgement is absolutely necessary, and the mood has greatly changed in favor of public acknowledgement the last few years:
France officially acknowledged Vichy in 1995, and in 1999, the words 'War of Algeria' were officially recognized by the French Parliament [it was known as "the events of Algeria" before], and now the nation is ready to deal with its slavery past with an official “Journée des mémoires de la traite négrière” [A Day for Remembering Slave Trade] for the first time next year.
But this is definitely something to continue to probe... and we will.