Talk:Accusations of French genocide against Algerians/Old Version2
{{POV check}} More than 1,5 million Algerian Muslim Arabs were massacred under the French rule, according to the Algerian official figures while French officials estimated it at 350,000 [1] (See Algerian War of Independence)
France has never accepted its responsibilities in the tragedy. However Algerian State accuses Paris Government of commiting genocide against Algerian people and its identity. According to to Paris Government all these issues should be left to the historians and should not be an issue in politics.
Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for instance says that French colonization of his country Algeria was a form of genocide. In memoirs, some French officers have described torture of Algerians during the war, however France has never accepted its responsibility in tortures and massacres in Algeria. The Paris Government says that the past should be left to historians. French President Jacques Chirac, upon harsh reactions to the law encouraging the good sides of the French colonial history, made the statement, "Writing history is the job of the historians, not of the laws." Writing history is the job of the historians" According to Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, "speaking about the past or writing history is not the job of the parliament." [France in Favor of So-Called Genocide Resorts to Historians
British Scotsman says that more than 1,5 million Algerians were massacred under the French rule (Scotsman, 17 April 2006) The Algerian president Bouteflika said in a speech in Paris on 17 April 2006 "We no longer know whether we are Berbers (indigenous North Africans), Arabs, Europeans or French. France committed a genocide of Algerian identity during the colonial era. Colonisation brought the genocide of our identity, of our history, of our language, of our traditions."Algerian leader calls colonisation 'genocide', Scotsman"
Algeria first became a colony of France in 1830. After a war which ended in Algeria's independence in 1962, eight million Algerian residents were deprived of French nationality and hundreds of thousands of 'pieds noir' (French who settled in Algeria and were re-patriated at the end of the war) were forced home to a place which was not home.
Algeria called on France to apologise in 2005 for crimes committed during the colonial era. Bouteflika also urged Paris to admit its part in the massacres of 45,000 Algerians who took to the streets to demand independence as Europe celebrated victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. French authorities then responded by playing down the comments, urging "mutual respect".
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